Chapter Four – Knox

Kids. They were like a salve to his torn and tattered soul.

“Knox?” Jasper’s high voice drifted across from the monkey bars, where he hung upside down, studying Knox.

“Yes, Jasper.” Knox smiled a little to himself. The boy had bombarded him with questions since he and Dani had collected Jasper and his sister, Juliet, from school.

“Are you called Knox because you knock things over?” Jasper changed position and swung around to hang by his thin arms. He looked so tiny, so fragile, yet had proved himself to be tough and strong as he ran, jumped, and tumbled with his friends in the playground.

“No.” He glanced at Dani who was listening with her own smile fixed on her face while she pushed Richard on the swing. Richard was the eldest of the two children she and Jamie had created since they married. But all the children were treated the same; biological or adopted, it made no difference to this family.

“Are you called Knox because you knock on doors instead of ringing the doorbell?” Jasper asked.

Juliet sighed audibly as she walked across to join Jasper on the monkey bars. “Lots of people knock on doors.”

“Even when there’s a doorbell?” Jasper asked his sister as he landed nimbly on his feet beside her.

“Yes, I suppose. Knox might be his real name.” Juliet turned her innocent green eyes on him. She was the sweetest girl, patient with her younger siblings, but with the steely strength of a protective mama bear. She might be a child herself, but the death of her own parents had left her very protective of her siblings, and Jasper in particular.

“Is it your real name?” Jasper asked. The two children walked toward Knox, but as they approached, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled, and a shiver passed through him. This was an almost familiar sensation—as if someone out there watched him. If he were back in a war zone, in enemy territory, this sensation would have sent him diving for cover. But this was not a war zone and he had no enemies here.

“Is it?” Juliet stood before him, demanding his attention.

“Is it what?” He looked around, trying to figure out if he should pick Jasper up in one arm and Juliet in the other and run for cover. Yet as he swept the playground with his skilled eyes, he realized they was no real danger, except to his heart. She was here. His mate. The woman he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with. She was here—with two children, and a man.

Fuck. He had no idea she had a family. When they met last night she’d told him the wine and chocolate cake were a treat for her alone. Hannah had given him no clue that she had anyone waiting at home for her.

His eyes narrowed. The man was older than her. They were standing some distance apart; Knox’s knowledge of body language told him there was a remoteness to their relationship. Two islands separated by a deep gulf.

Had they argued? Knox hoped so. He hoped that they had argued so badly that their marriage would break down, leaving him to pick up the pieces… He stopped this thought in full flow. No, he didn’t. If she had a husband and kids, he wished her all the luck in the world. He wanted her to be happy, he wanted her to live a normal life.

His instincts yesterday had been right. Let her go. Let her lead a normal life that didn’t include a messed-up poor excuse for a human being such as him.

“Knox!” Jasper tugged on the fabric of his pants.

“Yes.” He frowned down at Jasper, and then remembered the question.

“Did your mom and dad name you Knox?” Jasper asked, his arms folded across his chest as he looked up seriously at Knox.

“My dad called me a number of names, but Knox was not one of them.” Knox had no good memories of either his mom or dad.

Juliet frowned. “What do you mean your dad called you a number of names? How many names do you have? I have a middle name. So does Jasper. But only one.”

“Are you tormenting Knox?” Dani asked, coming to join them and giving Knox a chance to gaze freely at Hannah once more. She was dressed in a smart skirt suit, her hair pulled back from her face to reveal the most kissable neck he had ever seen. Damn, that guy she was with was one lucky son-of-a-bitch. His fists clenched as tension filled his body; he wanted to fight for the right to have her as his mate.

“Look, there’s Jack and Harry.” Juliet pointed to the two boys with Hannah. “Can we ask them to play?”

Dani turned to look where she pointed. “I think they’re visiting with their dad. Maybe we should let them be.”

“Visiting? He doesn’t live with them?” Knox asked quickly, his breath quickening as hope seared his heart.

“No, he and Leona, Jack and Harry’s mom, split up last year. He is only allowed to see them under supervision.”

“Supervision? So Hannah isn’t their mom.” Relief rushed through Knox.

“Hannah is a social worker.” Dani shot Knox a sideways glance. “How do you know Hannah?”

“We met last night,” Knox said as innocently as possible, but Dani was a schoolteacher, with a nose for sniffing out the truth.

“And?” Dani urged.

“And nothing.” Color crept across his cheeks.

“And nothing, my foot,” Dani said indignantly. “Is she your mate? Not that it’s any of my business, of course…”

“She is. At least I think she is.” He stuttered as he added, “This is so new. It’s like being punched in the gut.”

“By the look of jealousy on your face—before you knew those weren’t Hannah’s kids and he wasn’t her husband—you have been bitten by the mating bug.”

“What’s a mating bug?” Juliet asked.

“You know, when shifters find their mate,” Dani explained. “Knox has just been infected.”

Juliet rolled her eyes. “That is never happening to me. I’m going to be a soldier like Aunty Caroline.”

“And Daddy. Both Daddies,” Jasper corrected.

“They aren’t girls,” Juliet informed him. “I want to be a girl soldier like Aunty Caroline.”

“She married a movie star,” Jasper informed his sister. “Does that mean she got infected by the mating bug too?”

“Here come Jack and Harry. I guess you can play with them. Ask first.” Dani leaned in toward Knox, lowered her voice, and whispered in a sing-song voice, “And here comes Hannah.”

Knox shook his head, but could not help smiling at Dani. “What age is your class?”

Dani straightened up. “Six-year-olds. Is it that obvious?”

“Uh-huh.” Knox nodded, he liked Jamie’s wife a lot. She had a sense of fun that he’d never found in an adult before. Watching her with the children, seeing the same sense of wonder in her face as theirs, made things clearer. This was what he had gone to war for, to give others the freedom to live happy, safe lives.

“Hi, Hannah.” Dani waved as Hannah watched Jack and Harry go off to play. Their dad trailed along, as if he would rather be anywhere else.

“Hi there, Dani.” Hannah’s eyes swept from the schoolteacher to the soldier. “Hello again.”

“Hi.” Knox’s throat contracted and the easiness with which he’d spoken to Dani quickly disappeared, much to Dani’s amusement.

“Knox told me he met you yesterday,” Dani prompted.

“I gave him directions. I had no idea he was coming to your house.” Hannah stood next to Dani, her eyes trained on Jack and Harry.

“Knox didn’t tell you he’s an old army buddy of Jamie’s?” Dani’s amusement increased as she raised her eyebrows at Knox.

“He mentioned the army. I didn’t know it was your house, though.”

“Jamie and Knox go way back.” Dani was doing all the work, while Knox stood like a dumbass, unable to function with Hannah in such close proximity. It was as if she’d short-circuited his brain.

“So you’re the strong, silent type?” Hannah asked, glancing at Knox, her adorable dimples appearing as she teased him.

“Not always.” He forced the words out.

“Just with strangers?” Hannah asked.

“Yes…No.” He shook his head, wincing at his own confusion.

“I have to go and push Richard on the swing.” With the baby on one hip, and holding Richard’s hand, Dani scampered away. If she’d meant to be subtle, she’d failed.

Hannah took a step closer and Knox inhaled her scent, his eyes dilating as he breathed in.

“I don’t know where Dani gets the energy from. Four kids are a handful, but she manages to balance them and her job.” Hannah spoke with open admiration.

“Would you want fewer kids?” Knox asked, earning himself a reproving stare. “Sorry, too personal.”

“A little sudden, that’s all.” Hannah watched the children playing; a frown crossed her face as Clive answered his cell phone. “I don’t have a set number in mind. I honestly think it depends on the relationship. Dani manages because she and Jamie are a team.”

“Mates.” Did Hannah know about shifters? His life might be a lot easier if she did.

“Mates.” She took her eyes off Jack and Harry for a moment to cast an appraising eye over Knox, and he hoped she liked what she saw. “It makes life a hell of a lot easier, I expect.”

“Hannah…”

“Damn it, he’s going to run out on them.” She broke away from him before Knox had a chance to tell her they were mates. He wanted to tell her she was the one for him, and if they had four—or four hundred—kids, he would be there every step of the way.

Yet even as the words rattled around his head on the way to his mouth, he was caught up in the surrealness of the situation. Here he was, at a children’s playground, thinking about his future while his friends lay cold and dead, buried six feet under the earth.

He didn’t deserve Hannah, and she did not deserve a man like him.