9
Shauna sat and drank her coffee. Dakota was watching a cartoon and laughing at one of the characters as he floated through a big blue sky on a magic carpet. It was a sound that healed her in some ways. The innocence of that simple sound was like music. She let the moment sink into her bones. She was a mother enjoying the morning with her son. There were no monsters chasing them, no crazy nannies making trouble, no one trying to take her son away. There was just this moment and she was determined to enjoy it.
Mrs. McFadden had made trouble, talked to reporters as well as her employers. That trouble had spilled over onto the shifter community, but Ricky had assured her that things were being handled. Humans and shifters alike were coming out in support of her and of Dakota. Things had changed in the last few months, more than some had hoped things would change in a hundred years. Shifters were out and some of the humans weren’t very happy about it. There were groups that supported the shifters and their rights and those who wanted nothing more than to exterminate them. It was a frightening reality of humanity. So many feared anyone different from themselves, it was a fear born of ignorance and an unwillingness to have an open mind and it was deadly.
Since she had helped write the laws that now protected the shifters, she was as hated by the radicals as shifters were, maybe more so since she was considered a traitor to her very species.
“Mom?”
She shook her head to clear it. “Yes Honey.”
“How long do we have to stay here?” Dakota asked.
“I don’t know baby. Until we’re safe I guess or longer if we want to.” She answered truthfully. She didn’t believe in lying to her son, it wouldn’t work anyway, he would hear it. He was a shifter and it had been explained to her that there were no half measures where shifters were concerned. You either had an animal or you didn’t. The only kink in that theory was apparently the females. The little girls born to one shifter parent and one human parent exhibited pronounced features, but apparently didn’t harbor an animal in their middle. Very little was known about them, but the information was adding up now that so many had come forward to help fight the Sickness.
Shauna looked over to Dakota. He was still considering her words. She was so thankful he hadn’t come down with the sickness. Ricky had assured her that it would have struck by now if Dakota was at risk. It was one thing to be thankful for.
“Do you really think we will ever be safe? People hate us. That lady at the park called me a monster and the police wanted to put me in the pound.” Dakota said finally.
Shauna wanted to weep. At seven years old, he already understood what most of his kind wouldn’t believe. They would never be safe. There would always be those who sought to kill them for who they were. They would always be looked upon with mistrust because of the circumstances of their birth.
“I think that there is a way to achieve a measure of safety.” She answered. “We will adjust to it.”
He nodded. He understood. He was so smart and so much like his father. He understood and accepted what she was telling him. He accepted that he would never be free to live a life in the world again, never live without looking over his shoulder.
“You are safe here.” Ricky said from the doorway. “You can stay and be safe here. I want that.”
He’d been out running and only wore a pair of boxers he’d left on the porch. He let his wolf out every morning, said he had to. Shauna had watched him, fascinated by the way his wolf moved, the way he circled and protected his home. Maverick had done that. He had made sure they were always safe and when he’d understood that he could no longer protect them, he’d sent them away.
“For now.” She whispered.
Ricky tossed three limp rabbits in the sink and walked to her. He pinched her chin between his thumb and forefinger, lifting it so she would look into his eyes.
“For always. I will keep you safe. I swear it.” He vowed.
“Why?” She breathed.
He paused. “You’re family. I owe it to Mav.” his words were said lightly, but they held a weight to them.
“Is that the only reason?” She felt there was something he wasn’t saying, he had been quiet, hiding something, but he refused to share it with her. Maverick had been the same way the last few days they’d been together.
“Yeah.” He said, but he wouldn’t look at her.
Dakota gasped and looked to Ricky sharply, but Ricky shook his head. The exchange confused Shauna.
“What?” she questioned.
“You know the answer to that. You aren’t ready to face it yet, but you know it.”
Her heart pounded in her chest.
Dakota started to speak, but Ricky interrupted. “How about you come over here and help me with this rabbit? There are three of them today. I guess the wolf thinks I can’t provide for you guys on my own.”
Dakota bounded over to the sink and looked at the rabbits. “Your wolf caught those?”
Ricky nodded.
“Why did he do that?” Dakota’s brows drew together.
“Because he considers you his.” Ricky answered honestly.
“I’m not his. I’m a Blackstone.” Dakota frowned.
“That’s a fact, but your daddy was my family, so with him gone, you’re mine.” Ricky looked into Dakota’s eyes. “I’m not gonna try to replace him, not here.” He nudged Dakota’s chest with the back of his hand. “But I am gonna step into his shoes and teach you what you need to know.”
Dakota considered that for a few seconds as he looked down at the rabbits.
“Is mama yours too?” He asked quietly.
“Yeah. Your mama’s mine too. Need you to be ok with that part too.” Ricky said as he pulled the skin off one rabbit.
Dakota’s face screwed up in a defiant frown, but when he looked back at Shauna, she saw the sadness in his eyes.
“I guess she can decide that on her own. I guess she can pick another man to replace my daddy, but I never will.”
Shauna felt her heart break in her chest and Ricky’s eyes blazed with anger, but he kept working on the Rabbits.
“You take a good sniff of that. That odor is your mama’s pain and it’s all yours kid.” Ricky said calmly as he washed the rabbits.
Dakota’s eyes filled with tears as he stood there and looked up at Shauna.
“I’m sorry mama.” He whispered.
Shauna had no words. She just nodded and forced herself to drink another sip of coffee.
“Respect your mama. That is rule number one in this house. Respect and protect her.” Ricky said in that same calm tone. “That’s our job.”
“What’s mama’s job?” Dakota asked and Shauna watched his anger bleed away.
“Her job is to love us and that’s one hard job, because, as you just demonstrated, we are boneheads.” Dakota laughed and stepped up on a low stool that stood beside the sink.
“Can you teach me to do that?” Dakota looked up at Ricky with more hero worship than a teen at a comic book convention. His big blue eyes were round with wonder and Ricky won a little piece of Shauna’s heart when he looked down at her son as if he was a man and answered him seriously.
“I think we can manage it, if your mama is alright with it.”
He did that. He was a big, strong man who had a wolf in his middle. He knew that she was struggling with the fact that her legal rights to her son were pretty much shot, but he made sure she knew that he respected her authority over her son.
It mattered.
“I think you should learn as much as you can. If we are ever low on groceries, you can pitch in.” She said with a wink.
“So, does that mean I can go tomorrow? You’ll let me go with Ricky tomorrow on his hunt?” Dakota pressed.
Shauna looked up at Ricky and he winked.
“I think that would be just fine.” She agreed and that sent Dakota into a fit of whoops and squeals. He was happy. Even with everything that had happened, her son was happy.
“I’m gonna go tell Sam! I’ll be right back.” His brows were raised in question and Shauna laughed and nodded back. He raced out the back door and down the little path that connected Ricky’s cabin with Dice and Mallory’s newly rebuilt one. Hyenas had burned Dice’s cabin and tried to take Sam. It was a miracle that the boy was still alive.
Was that the life she had now?
“How is Sam doing Ricky?” She asked. Dice’s little boy had the Sickness. He was being treated, but there wasn’t enough medicine. If the brothers didn’t find the donor, the boy would die.
“Holding his own. He has a few more weeks of injections. We have time.”
Shauna wasn’t a shifter, but she could hear the uncertainty in Ricky’s voice. He didn’t believe they would ever find the donor and it was breaking him apart. She reached up and patted his chest.
“What about River?” She asked quietly.
“He’s worse. Lucian is trying a few things, but he won’t tell us shit.”
“I don’t know what to do anymore.”
“You have to find her.” She whispered. “Let Lucian figure out how to help River, but you have to find that girl for Sam.”
“Dice and Line are following another lead, but damn it Shauna, they all fizzle out. This girl is dead and the fucking hyenas are playing with us.”
Shauna shivered. The thought of the hyenas made her blood run cold. They had been the reason she’d lost her husband.
“You smell pissed off.” Ricky said with a lifted brow.
“Just thinking.” Shauna stepped away when Mallory, Dice’s mate, waved from her porch letting Shauna know that Dakota was safe.
“Want to tell me?” Ricky asked as he started heating oil to cook the rabbits.
“That is disgusting you know?” Shauna pointed out.
“Not as disgusting as eating them raw. Me and the kid wouldn’t mind that either, this is all for you sweetheart. See the trouble I go to for you?”
“Gee thanks.” She rolled her eyes.
“Don’t thank me yet, they aren’t cooked and they may taste like shit.”
Shauna laughed and shook her head. “I think I’ll leave you to it. I need a shower.”
A low rumble vibrated from Ricky’s chest stopping Shauna. She turned and looked back at Ricky, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Go ahead. I’ll stay right here and make breakfast.” He looked up at her then and she saw fire in his eyes. “I won’t always make that promise, but for today,” he shrugged.
“Understood.” She whispered.
Maverick had talked about Ricky, loved him, but he’d also been warry of him. Ricky had a past that Mav wasn’t comfortable with and that scared Shauna enough to keep him at arm’s length. That fear was being burned away pretty fast by the heat that was growing between them.
She blew out a breath. Who was she fooling? That fear had evaporated the moment he’d touched her the night before.
“I’m in deep shit here.” she whispered and heard him chuckle.
“Talking to yourself is a sure sign that you’re losing your mind sweetheart, better watch that shit.”
She lifted her middle finger in the direction of the kitchen, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hear that. Shifter hearing wasn’t always convenient.
She heard Dakota’s voice and stepped out of the shower, determined to ignore Ricky and the pull he had on her.
That determination lasted about two minutes.
She was completely in over her head.