Chapter 12
Piper
Weeks went by without any more incidents. But instead of this bringing a sense of relief, it made the tension ratchet up almost unbearably.
We got through Alanna’s first tooth, and she was a happy girl again.
Day in and day out, we didn’t go anywhere or do anything outside of the Lodge.
The buzz of UTVs in the distance was constant as enforcers used them to search Bear Clan property.
Police patrolled and searched Moonhaven Cove, finding nothing.
It was as though Barrett and his men had disappeared.
Tonight, I was getting a little bit of a break.
Alanna was down for the night, being guarded by two of Riggs’ best enforcers.
But because the noise of the Clan Lodge was getting to me, I was hiding out in the games room.
I racked the billiard balls in the triangle, moving them along the blue felt to the starting position, then lifted the triangle and set it aside.
Taking a cue from the holder off the wall, I chalked it before taking my shot.
Balls snicked and crashed into one another, scattering everywhere, with a few going into various pockets.
Even before he spoke, I knew he was there. I’d felt him the moment he entered the room.
“Good break.”
Reluctantly, I turned to face him. Since that moment in the kitchen, I’d been trying to avoid him again, and I knew he understood why. His hands were in the pockets of his joggers, and his eyes were sharp and knowing, but there was a quiet, patient understanding in them too.
Every molecule in my body sang whenever he was near me. The more I got to know my mate, the more I found to admire and respect.
I kept trying to ignore it, but it was getting more difficult.
“There’s always a pub with a billiards table near the bases, and there are always one too many cocky jerks who need to learn humility,” I said with a shrug. “So I teach them.”
His eyes blazed with laughter and something deeper before he moved into the room and grabbed a second cue off the wall.
“Mind if I join you?” His voice was soft.
Maybe he’d lowered it because he’d noticed the noise of the Lodge was getting to me. He was attentive like that, and I’d seen it more than once.
But I didn’t think it was just that. He seemed to work to be soft-spoken around women.
It had baffled me at first, but I got it now. He was huge and intimidating, so he softened himself on purpose to make sure he didn’t come across as threatening to females.
For most shifters, females were heavily protected.
I wondered if something in his past had made him more careful around women, but I didn’t ask, because asking would only give me more about him to admire.
Normally, this growing admiration toward Riggs would be a good thing. He was my mate, after all. But I was doing my level best to keep a clear head and deal with the threat against me and Alanna, and he was distracting in all the best ways.
“Of course.”
He nodded, studying the table. “Looks like you’re solids.” His gaze met mine. “Do you want to call them?”
I shook my head. “Nah, let’s just play a relaxed game.” Since it was still my turn after the break, I lined up my shot and sank a solid in the far right corner, then another in the left.
His lips curved slightly. “I may not get to play at all,” he said with a chuckle.
He almost didn’t. But I missed my next shot, so he stepped in.
He cleared three stripes in quick succession, moving around the table with easy confidence. As he lined up his next shot and glanced at me over his shoulder, I understood his hesitation immediately.
“Don’t you dare throw the game,” I warned him. “Play to win, because if I get another shot, it’s game over.”
His lips twitched, his eyes warming as he took the shot. Before I knew what had happened, he’d sunk the 8 ball.
“Did I just get hustled?” I asked with a laugh.
“Wanna go again? Except this time with stakes?”
I wasn’t buying his innocent act, but I nodded anyway. “Rack ’em. What are the stakes?”
He stepped closer, close enough that I could feel the heat rolling off him. Shifters always ran hot, but the heat Riggs gave off was next level. He could probably stand nearly subzero temperatures, much like a dragon shifter or a frost elemental.
I held my ground.
The powerful aura surrounding him expanded, though I didn’t think he was aware of it. As his mate, I was immune, so it rolled through me without effect.
“If I win again, you watch a movie on the couch with me.”
I folded my arms. “On opposite sides of the couch?”
With a small smile, he slowly shook his head. His eyes blazed, and I swallowed.
“Cuddling?” I hissed the word like it was a curse, and he chuckled.
Then he stepped back, as though he could tell he was crowding me. I tried to hide my reaction to his nearness, but he noticed everything. And he was still picking up pieces of what I felt, so the attempt was mostly useless.
“But only if you agree,” he said quietly. “I have no wish to force you to do something you don’t want to do.”
I paused to think it over. He was good. Really good. He’d just smoked me, and it had taken very little effort on his part. There was a very real chance I’d have to pay up if I lost.
“And what do I get if I win?” I challenged.
“Whatever you want.” He said it with intensity, as if I really could ask anything of him and he would try to give it.
I fought to keep any reaction from showing, both physically and biologically. There were few secrets among shifters, and even fewer among mates.
I tried to think of something big, but the more I considered it, the more I realized I just wanted to soak in hot water and try to destress. I eyed my mate. “I heard you have a soaking tub…”
He laughed. “You want to use my tub? Done.”
I gestured to the table. “You break first. You won the last round.”
“Are you sure? I can go second.”
I frowned. “Just break.”
He chuckled as he set the balls in the triangle, slid it into place, then lifted it and set it aside. “As my mate wishes.”
He broke, and I knew instantly I was in trouble. He ended up with solids and moved straight into his shots. After four in a row, I started sweating. After six, I bit back a growl of frustration. When the seventh dropped, I knew it was over.
The 8 ball was perfectly lined up. A toddler could have made the shot. He called the pocket, his expression intent and focused, but not gloating, and sank it cleanly.
“I didn’t even get to play!”
His ice-blue eyes warmed as he turned toward me. Gently, he took my cue and hung both of them on the wall, then gathered the balls from the pockets and racked them for the next players.
Turning back, his hands slipped into his pockets again as he leaned against the table. “How about you take a bath first, then you can pick out the movie.”
“You’re letting me use your bathtub anyway? I didn’t win, though.” As much as I wanted to protest, I really wanted the bath, and I’d take it if he was offering.
“Come on. I’ll show you where the towels are.”
“I’m not cuddling with you,” I warned him.
His chuckle made my stomach flip.
His bathtub had a fireplace.
There was also a sound system piping in soft music. I knew this because he’d set up my phone to connect to it, and just for kicks and giggles, I tried it out. Right now, instrumental covers drifted through the room, and I was trying not to fall asleep.
The jets worked the stress and worry out of muscles that had been tight for months, and for the first time in a very long time, I felt completely relaxed.
And then the tears came.
I am not a crier. I’ve always been much better at doing than stewing. But every once in a while, a woman needs to cry. I wasn’t ashamed of it. It just felt foreign to me, one more foreign thing in a long line of things.
My chuckle was watery as I remembered how awful I was at caring for Alanna when I first got custody of her.
I had no idea how to change a diaper, what formula to buy, or how to feed or hold a baby.
All of it had been brand new and sudden.
My sister and I were close enough in age that I’d never really taken care of a baby before, or even spent much time around kids.
As a result, I was terrible at it. Alanna was kind enough to be patient with me.
In fact, I would swear she was secretly laughing, or that my sister was watching from heaven, laughing right along with her.
I could almost see her throwing Watch Piper parties up there, complete with popcorn and snacks, heckling me one minute and cheering me on the next.
My smile slowly faded.
I really missed her.
I used a cup and fresh water to rinse my hair, since Riggs had added oil to the bath and I didn’t want it leaving my hair filmy. Then I leaned my head back and tried to think of nothing for a while.
After my bath, I grabbed a snack, and we settled in on the couch to watch a movie. Suspiciously, everyone else was absent. I didn’t know who he’d had to bribe to make that happen, but I suspected it was all of them.
Or… maybe something else was going on. I wasn’t sure. Normally, I would’ve just asked, but this thing between Riggs and me was delicate. It felt like we were walking a high wire, and I was trying not to fall off, or push him off either, for… reasons.
“You okay way over there?” Riggs asked.
I shrugged.
“I believe you’re breaking the terms of our agreement,” he teased.
In response, I dragged more pillows into the space between us, stacking them like a barrier, and he laughed. I felt like I was five all over again, trying to stay away from the male species because they had cooties. Except the problem wasn’t cooties. It was appeal, and my mate had it in spades.
I did my best to look unaffected, but Riggs, being the very smart man he was, wasn’t buying it.
Halfway through the movie, I noticed the pile of pillows between us had thinned to a suspicious degree. We were down to only a few. I shot him a glare, but he just smiled and kept his attention on the movie.
The next time I glanced over, they were gone.
“Where are the pillows?”
“I’m not sure what you mean, Piper.”
I glared at him again. His eyes brightened, and he grinned before turning back to the action movie we’d picked out. I’d made sure it didn’t even hint at romance.
After that, I tried to keep one eye on the space between us and one on the screen, but he didn’t make any more moves, and eventually the movie pulled me back in, especially once the chase sequence started.
About three-quarters of the way through, I went still as I realized Riggs was sitting right next to me.
The space between us was gone. He wasn’t touching me, but he was close enough that I could feel the heat of his body again, and the faint scent of whatever he wore—cologne, maybe, though it smelled more natural, like cinnamon and chocolate—was distracting.
I scowled at him, but he only smiled innocently back and said nothing.
The thing was, if this were happening to someone else, I would be laughing. He was being sneaky and funny, and deep down, I appreciated it. But I was also trying very hard to stay away from my mate, and he was making that nearly impossible. Was he doing it on purpose? Obviously.
My heart and hormones vacillated between just kiss him already and absolutely not, keep your hands and arms tucked inside the vehicle.
Frustrated, I folded my arms over my chest and kept watching the movie. He wasn’t doing anything but sitting next to me. If he touched me, I’d hard block him.
But it had been a long day… week… month… year. The relaxation from the bath crept back in, and before I could rally, I fell asleep.