Secrets of the pride, p.17
Secrets of the Pride, page 17
“It’s been a hell of an evening,” she said to no one in particular as she strode out to check on her people.
De wasn’t sure how it had happened, but he ended up with Charity shaking like a paint mixer, crying on his shoulder. He was pretty sure they’d never spoken before, but he guessed it had more to do with the fact that Freight Train was a grumpy asshole who struck fear into the faint of heart, so De was the only person available for shoulder weeping.
He patted her hair, which was orange-ish and rough, probably from the hair dye damaging it, since he could see her dark roots. This new poverty was apparently hard on her hair. “Meow,” he whispered to himself, amusing himself on about five different levels by pointing out his own cattiness and his previously unplumbed depths of thinking like a hairdresser.
“What?” Charity muttered into his shoulder.
God, he hoped there was no snot on his shirt.
Train hung up his phone, having just assured his mate that everyone was fine except maybe Lipstick Lyssa.
“Miller’s got a bullet in his ass,” Macey said as she strode up the hall, pulling her hair tie out and finger combing her sleeked-out hair which had been perfectly straightened at the meeting a couple hours before, but had suffered since then. She yanked it all back into a messy ponytail and came to a stop in front of their little group. “Y’all good?”
De nodded. “Couple butterfly bandages on my arm are like a vacation after the last week, you know?”
Macey nodded. “Ribs fine? Your boo and his baby fine?”
De laughed out loud, both at the relief of having a boo and of his cousin calling Robbie his boo. “My boo and his baby are in excellent health, if a bit shaky. They’ll be getting some therapy using the pride insurance.” The insurance was dithering on paying a share of De’s bills and weren’t convinced he’d been acting as a protector of the pride when he was shot, or if he’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“You convinced him to stay?” Macey put a warm hand on his uninjured arm, both alpha and cousin and empathetic human giving comfort.
De stopped smiling, the worry that his mate might leave heavy on him. “I think so. We haven’t talked about it yet.” The way Robbie had kissed him, he couldn’t possibly leave now.
Could he?
Charity slid away from him and looked up at his face, red eyes full of sympathy. Oh great, he was getting pitied by Charity, who was way more down on her luck than him. He forced a smile and said, “Y’all will have to excuse me.” He pulled Macey into a one-armed hug so when he pulled away, she was stuck with the weepy white girl. He patted Tremaine on the back and left him to find out what was going on with the pack of cops and agents and ambulance personnel, while he headed for the stairwell and down. Out in the lot, he tipped his head back to sniff the air and pinpointed Robbie’s super-nerd hybrid parked directly under a light, two FBI agents leaning against their SUV two spaces over.
Robbie saw DeAnthony striding toward them, his powerful body full of purpose and grace. His heart beat faster, like it had every other time he’d seen De. He couldn’t help smiling as De got closer, though De’s expression stayed serious and fierce. Nor could he help climbing out of his car and rushing into De’s arms, not squeezing too tightly, in deference to his recent injuries. De smelled a bit like someone else, which pissed him off just enough to nip at his neck. De jumped and laughed. “Easy, sweetheart. Charity cried on me, but I handed her off to Macey.”
Robbie looked up into the beloved face, his heart full of joy and relief. “Everything’s OK up there?”
De sighed. “Yeah. Lyssa’s in custody. Macey got scratched up getting the gun away, but they said it’s superficial. Miller’s got a bullet in his beautiful butt.”
Robbie startled. “His wife warned him to watch his back. Oh! At first he told me she said to watch his butt! My brother almost shot me in mine, too.”
De smoothed his hands down Robbie’s back and cupped his ass, pulling their hips tightly together. He said, “I wasn’t looking at Miller’s butt,” and squeezed.
Robbie’s desire spiked, but Dahlia yowled from the car and they both turned and looked at the fierce, half-dressed lion cub fighting her way out of the car seat.
Robbie went to help her, but De held on to him. “Wait.”
Robbie tilted his head to be sure Dahlia would be OK for a few more seconds, then gave his attention to De.
“You’re staying here, right?” DeAnthony’s expression was hopeful.
Robbie blinked at him. “Do you want me to? I’m partially responsible for you getting shot.”
De shook his head. “No, I believe you when you say you only told your brother general information. You didn’t know he and Bradley and the other guy were out there with rifles.”
Relief rushed through Robbie. “I didn’t. And the other guy’s from my parents’ pride in Wyoming, but he’s new, which is why I didn’t know him. Also, I thought they were right that Macey’s administration was corrupt. I thought they were going to be a lot more subtle and they'd drop it when I started telling them the truth.” At De’s frown, he hastened to add, “I kept telling him there was no proof you all were dangerous.”
“So you’re staying? With me?”
Robbie was used to the cheerful, funny, competent De and this insecure one took him aback. At the same time he was glad De would show him vulnerability. He ran his hands gently over those hurt ribs and up to his mate’s neck. His mate? “Yes. I’ll only leave if I’m going with you.”
De bent down and kissed him hard. Robbie opened his mouth and they were standing in the middle of a public parking lot, FBI agents ten feet away, making out like teenagers.
His baby girl yowled again and the shivery scrape of claws on window made Robbie pull back. He wrenched his gaze away from De’s hot brown eyes and sighed before tugging De with him to open the car door and lift out his darling girl.
They stood in the parking lot, all hugging each other and after a couple of minutes of relief, Robbie realized that Dahlia was clinging as tightly to De as she was to Robbie.
De cleared his throat. “So how do you feel about a potential step-dad for your kid, Robbie?”
Dahlia narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Robbie hoped De didn’t get offended, because she probably didn’t know what a step-dad was or else had heard only bad things about lion stepfathers.
Robbie, though, smiled sweetly, tears prickling in his eyes. “I think it would be wonderful.”
Chapter seventeen
“Dahlia, no!”
She ignored him thoroughly and kept going up the trunk of one of the huge Ponderosa pine trees to the side of the road.
“God-” De checked his language. “Goshdarnit, Dahlia,” he sighed.
He had two bolts in the heavy wooden Welcome to Freiburg sign he’d repainted a couple nights before and if he let go now, it would bend the metal poles. He should’ve waited to hang the sign until he had help, but Dahlia was getting into absolutely everything in the Alpha House just when a couple of foster kids were moving in. Robbie had been shopping and Charity had been helping them pick their rooms and settle in, so De’d proposed the two of them come out and get some fresh air.
He glanced up at her while he hurriedly put in a bolt on the left side just to hold it together. She settled on a branch about 20 feet up and looked down at him and gave her squeaky roar of challenge. The air at that altitude was probably plenty fresh.
De was cussing foully in his head as he twisted the fourth bolt in and reached around behind to put on the nuts just to finger tightness. He stepped back and checked the sign to be sure it wasn’t going to fall in the next five minutes.
He pulled off his work gloves and turned to the tree. Dahlia saw him turn and started up again.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Come on, Dahlia!” He sounded whiny, but this kid was running circles around him every damn day.
Of course, now that he thought about it, bringing a four-year-old to the side of a semi-rural state highway was a dumb idea and Robbie was going to flay him alive when they got home. He focused and pushed his claws out and started up the tree after her.
It was a huge fucking tree which got sparser as they went higher. The vanilla-ish scent of the bark enveloped him and he remembered climbing all the trees, the taller the better, as a kid, his mom with her arms crossed, yelling and wheedling at him to get down, sending his big sister Mellie up after him. But he always wanted to reach the very top, where the tree bent under his weight and he could see for miles and dream about flying.
The pure joy of using his claws and being up high and free rushed back to him.
He hadn’t exaggerated in his tiny child mind how big these trees were, because if Dahlia fell from where she was, she would definitely die. He would, too, but he was pretty sure he could catch himself. Adult male lions were not known as tree-climbers, so the possibility of injury was still high, of course. He just hoped he could catch Dahlia as she went past.
Luckily, he was gaining on her and when she paused to rest, he hoisted himself up a few branches and got a hand on her, retracting his claws to not hurt her. She froze in place.
“Listen,” he said, “we are very high up and can see very far from exactly where we are right now. We are not going any higher. Your dad’s already going to be upset. And the next time you want to climb this high, we are putting a climbing harness on you and working with a rope, OK?”
She crouched under his hand, clinging to her narrow branch, panting from exertion.
“Now take a deep breath, hold on tight, and look around for a bit, all right? We’ll rest and then we’ll go down.”
He heard the familiar whine of a Prius engine in the distance and knew they were in big trouble.
The foster kids were in their new rooms, resting and unpacking and Macey had five hundred tasks to complete for the pride – emails and texts and soothing ruffled feathers about the ride share program and checking the accounts and contacting asphalt companies for bids on pothole repair – and no desire to do any of them.
She was checking the fridge and adding to the grocery list when she heard Robbie’s Prius return with De’s crappy car right behind. The car doors slammed louder than usual, so she went out in the hall to watch them come in, ready to head off an argument that might upset the kids upstairs who’d had too much shouting in their lives recently.
The front door opened with the beep from the keypad and her other new roommates walked in, postures stiff. All except Dahlia, t-shirt and shorts askew, hair wild, who ran to her and started climbing up Macey’s legs.
Macey picked her up and settled her on her hip.
“Uncle De and I climbed a big tree!” she announced.
Robbie’s tight-lipped expression behind her spoke volumes about her daddy’s opinion of big trees.
“Which tree –” Macey pulled away slightly and took the child’s hand. “What do you have on your hands? You’re sticking to me and you smell like vanilla sap. Must have been a Ponderosa pine.”
“I got it on my belly, too!” the girl announced proudly and lifted her shirt that was half-stuck to her skin.
Macey growled and fake-snapped at the girl’s belly, making Dahlia giggle and hide her stomach again.
De sighed and came forward, showing his palms which were equally as smeared with sap and dirt. “You know, I thought she was safe on the other side of the ditch from the road, but the moment I turned my back…”
He plucked the girl from her and headed for the kitchen. “We have rubbing alcohol in the med kit, right?”
Robbie had his phone out, scowling at the screen. “There’s alcohol-based hand sanitizer back there, too. No nail polish remover, though I see that works as well.”
Macey wondered if Charity ever used nail polish. Her nails were always bare, but often had paint around them, so she probably had turpentine, right? If she were here, she’d know what to do.
She shook her head to clear the thought.
Robbie thought she was shaking her head at him. He glanced down the hall where his mate had taken his daughter, then he said, “I trust him, I really do, but he doesn’t understand that he can’t stop paying attention when he’s in charge of her. He can’t do a project unless she’s in a safe place.”
Macey sighed. The two men had moved in just two weeks before, sharing one of the big bedrooms with an ensuite bathroom and a smaller, communicating room for Dahlia. Neither of them were used to sharing their space with a partner and Robbie was so closely intertwined with Dahlia that he was having trouble letting go of his over-protectiveness. The upshot was that De and Robbie were bickering and putting her in the middle and it was pissing her off. De was pretty good at conflict resolution unless he was the one doing the conflict. She needed peace in her house.
She glanced down the hall, too, where De’s low murmur and Dahlia’s higher laugh were echoing in the kitchen, and pulled Robbie into the library and closed the door.
Robbie looked frightened, and though his instinct to be afraid of her annoyed her, he was also recovering from mistreatment. She let go of his arm and sat on the overly hard couch a pride mate had donated and patted the seat next to her. Robbie perched on the edge of the seat and took a deep breath.
She said, “Everyone says the parents who know everything are the ones who don’t have kids yet.”
Robbie smiled at her sort-of-a-joke.
“But I do know a bit about cubs, especially dominant cubs, and your daughter is exploring and learning and needs to be wild and free.”
Robbie opened his mouth in protest, but was still too nervous to contradict her.
“And I need you to stand up to me, because Dahlia is sure as hell going to stand up to you and to me and to the entire world as she gets older and if you don’t practice, she’s going to end up rolling right over you. I’d also like to point out that De is much younger than me and I watched him grow up, so I can tell you about a young dominant being wild and free. Did he tell you about the time he was five and used a sheet as a parachute and climbed to the roof of a three story building and jumped off?”
Robbie turned white and clenched his fists on his lap.
“And the time when he was a teenager that he went rock climbing with his friends at the quarry on the other side on Middleton?”
Robbie shook his head.
“And he survived each time. The parachute snagged on something on the roof, and luckily he’d tied it securely under his arms, so he was left dangling and they hauled him back up. And the rock climbing was fine, though one of the kids broke both legs and they all got in huge trouble. But what happened was that De’s mom and the other parents got together and found one of those rock climbing gyms with ropes and stuff and they did that for a while.”
Robbie steeled himself and said, “She’s only four.”
Macey shook her head. “So still a whole year until Dahlia tries to make her own parachute, right?”
That joke fell as flat as a kid with a sheet for a parachute.
“So do you get my point?” she asked Robbie.
His eyes widened, so she supposed he didn’t.
“My point is that De knows crazy physical exploration, knows what kind of stunts a kid can pull, and he can be Fun Uncle De who takes her rock climbing or, when she’s an adult, to jump out of planes.”
Robbie frowned, outrage finally pushing past his hesitation to be angry in a room with her. His family had screwed him up, but there was hope. “But he turned his back long enough for her to get her clothes off and get fifty feet off the ground!”
“Yes, he absolutely needs to be more careful about roads and trees and little cubs, I agree. Let me know if you want me to have a talk with him, because especially with foster kids, he’s going to have to be extra careful not to let them get into danger.”
She wondered if Angel had made any headway on background checks and state foster certification. More administrative tasks. Hooray.
“But my point is that Dahlia’s probably not going to be as careful as you – both because you’re a grown-ass adult and because you’re careful by nature. You’re perfect the way you are, don’t get me wrong, but she is not your carbon copy. My point is she needs the exploration and crazy stunts and so on to grow into the dominant, powerful lioness she’s going to be someday. And if you yell at De when she gets away from him or he rescues her, she’s going to think she’s doing it wrong.”
Robbie shivered in remembered fear, then leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. Perfect the way you are? The only other person who’d ever thought Robbie was perfect was De and here they were arguing all the time and Robbie getting mad about a small adventure. “No, you’re right. I was terrified when I got to the rise in the road just before the edge of town and saw the tiny dots up in the tree. And when I stopped, they were so far up there and yet coming down, so they’d been even higher.”
Macey leaned toward him. “Yes, and she’s going to get herself into this sort of trouble again, when you’re least expecting it. If you freak out and try to contain her, you will stifle her.”
“Oh…” Robbie rubbed his eyes. “I know you’re right. And I know De loves her.”
“De will do everything in his power to protect her. And he’s also the one who will go up the tree after her and take her zip-lining and go on roller coasters and whatever other adrenaline-rush things that you might or might not want to do, but which she will crave.”
There was silence while they both thought about it.
Robbie felt a little brave so he smiled. “Who took you up trees and on roller coasters, Alpha Macey?”
Hers was a sad smile. “I was more like De, trying it out for myself, saving up my money for trips to Six Flags, jumping off things and sometimes breaking bones. I basically raised myself, though my mother would screech if I said that to her. She wasn’t ready for me.”
Robbie frowned, wondering about her upbringing and opened his mouth to give her sympathy she wouldn’t accept. Luckily, there was a knock on the door and De came in, carrying the hand sanitizer bottle and Dahlia, who looked like she was about to fall asleep.
