Chapter 17
“How do you remember all these recipes without recipe cards?” Fallon asked her mom Sunday afternoon as they worked in the kitchen, making some of her favorite baked goods from her childhood.
Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.
Lemon bars.
Pound cake.
Sera squeezed the cookie scoop over the sheet with a click and smiled as she put the scoop into the bowl again. “I don’t know, I guess some things just stick with you. Didn’t you say you made our family’s coffee cake recipe from memory?”
“Yeah, but that’s an easy recipe.” Fallon covered the tray of lemon bars with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. They’d been working since before dawn, neither able to sleep well after the attack from Colton. She still couldn’t believe that three males had caused so much trouble.
Sera hummed as she finished filling the cookie sheet with scoops of dough and set it inside the oven. “I used to make these same recipes with my mom. Especially pound cake, that was her favorite. She always baked from memory. I don’t ever remember her writing anything down.”
Sera’s mom had died when Fallon was young, so she didn’t have many memories of her. But what she did remember always made her smile: full cookie jars on the counter, warm hugs, and the air smelling heavily of cinnamon and sugar.
“Tris said I could take over the baking for her whenever I wanted,” Fallon said. “The guys love their sweets.”
Especially Avi, whose favorite dessert was lemon bars, which was why she’d asked her mom about the version she used to make.
“Most males do, I think,” Sera said. She set the timer and brushed off her hands. “We’ve been working for hours, but the time has gone by fast.”
“Yep, it sure has.” Sera smiled. “My feet hurt, but I really love being in the kitchen. I also like helping Avi around the farm, but the kitchen is my favorite place.”
“Me too.”
Fallon got to the business of cleaning up now that the last batch of cookie dough was in the oven. As she turned on the hot water, she glanced over to see her mom staring out the windows into the backyard, her lips pressed into a thin line.
She was about to ask if she was okay, because she’d noticed her fidgeting a bit throughout the time they’d been in the kitchen, but Avi walked in, all swagger and sexy male, and she forgot about everything but him.
“Hi, sweetheart,” he said with a low voice, pulling her against him with a smile.
“Hi. How’s it going out there?”
“Main chores are done. I’ve got a big bucket of the last peppers from the garden until the ones in the greenhouse are ready.”
“Maybe we could have stuffed peppers for dinner,” Sera suggested, turning from the window. “I haven’t had those in ages.”
“Sounds good to me,” Tris said as she walked into the kitchen with a stack of freshly washed kitchen towels and put them in the drawer. “I’ve got a hankering for cornbread too, so I think that would go well together.”
“I know just the recipe,” Sera said.
Fallon chuckled. “From memory, of course.”
“You know it. The secret is a super-hot cast-iron skillet with lard melted in it.”
“I’ll leave the cornbread to the master, then,” Tris said.
Fallon yawned.
“You must be exhausted, sweetheart. Not only did you not sleep well, but you’ve been on your feet for hours,” Avi said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Yeah. I’d probably be tired anyway with the pregnancy, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop working in the kitchen until everything was finished. Now it’s catching up to me, though.”
“Your energy will come back once you’re out of the first trimester,” Sera said.
“Want to go take a nap?” Avi asked, his voice slipping to a heated tone.
She grinned. And then yawned. “Maybe just early to bed.”
“You got it.”
“Hey, has anyone taken drinks out to the lions?” Tris asked, turning from the refrigerator with the ingredients for the stuffed peppers. “We told them they could come in and get food and drinks anytime, but they don’t seem to want to leave their patrols.”
“I think what happened to the wolves last night is making everyone jumpy,” Avi said.
“Let’s take some drinks out to them,” Fallon said. “Then I’d like to get off my feet for a while before dinner. Maybe sit out on the back porch.”
“You got it,” Avi said.
They gathered several bottled drinks from the refrigerator and walked outside. Fallon noticed her mom wasn’t with them, and she turned back and held the door open. “Mom? Are you coming?”
“I…yeah. Of course.”
Fallon frowned as she waited for her mom to join them. “Are you okay?”
“Sure. Why?”
They stepped onto the porch.
“I don’t know. You’re acting kind of twitchy,” Fallon said.
“Well, the herd was attacked last night.”
“Is that what’s bothering you? Avi, the wolves, and the stallions kept us all safe.”
Sera opened her mouth and then closed it with a click as Avi called the lions over.
Fallon and Sera had met them at dawn when they arrived. Amadeus and Javan were part of the safari park’s security team, and Amadeus was also the son of alpha Caesar.
That was when she’d noticed her mom acting strangely, but she’d figured it was because of the attack the night before. Now, as she watched her mom fidget as they brought the drinks out to the males who were near the front gate, Fallon wondered what the hell was going on.
“So we were just telling Crew,” Amadeus said as he twisted off the cap of a sweet tea bottle, “that we figured out how the herd got in last night and took the wolves by surprise without tripping any alarms.”
“What did you find?” Avi asked.
“While Crew and Ford were patrolling the grounds, we headed out into the woods to check the cameras with the tablets to make sure they were monitoring without blind spots. It turns out that at some point, several cameras were slightly adjusted to create overlaps of coverage. It was just enough to create a path right up to the farm,” Javan said.
Amadeus nodded. “They just had to get the first one adjusted without being seen and they were able to work their way forward, using the newly created blind spots and the overlapped coverage to make a path. It’s pretty damn ingenious.”
“Great,” Avi said, blowing out a breath and putting his hands on his hips. “How do we even stop that kind of thing from happening again?”
“We suggested Crew order cages for the cameras. They don’t obscure the lenses but prevent them from being tampered with,” Amadeus said. “Because of what happened here, I let Jupiter know that it’s something we should think about, and he’s going to order them for our security cameras.”
“At least you guys have a huge wall surrounding the park,” Fallon said. “We have so much open space and split-rail fencing.” She paused, then continued, “But I don’t want it to feel like a prison, either. The beauty of the farm is its openness.”
Avi nodded at her. “It’s tough finding a balance.”
An engine revved suddenly down the road and they all turned to look.
A truck screeched to a halt in front of the gate, dirt and debris flying as the brakes locked.
“What fresh hell is this?” Javan asked.
“Shit,” Fallon said. “It’s Otto.”
* * *
Avi used his walkie to alert Crew and the others that Otto was at the front gate. Fallon grabbed her mom’s arm and pulled her close as Avi stepped in front of them. Javan and Amadeus took up protective stances with Avi, low growls from their lions making the hair on Fallon’s arms stand up.
Otto and two males got out of the truck.
She’d never seen the males with him so she assumed they were part of his prowl.
Fallon had only ever seen Otto on security footage from the park.
He was lean but had a lethal air about him, a true predator behind the dark eyes and tanned skin.
A cursory once-over showed scars on his arms and neck, and she was certain they came from fighting.
He wasn’t alpha of his prowl because he was nice. It was because he was dangerous.
The three males stood on the other side of the gate.
“We’ve come for Fallon. She’s my arranged mate, and I mean to claim her through any means necessary.”
Crew, Ford, and Grey joined them as Otto finished speaking. Crew stepped up. “I’m the alpha, and you’re not only trespassing, but you’re threatening one of my people. Fallon and Avi are mated, and that means she’s not yours and she’s absolutely not going anywhere with you. Leave. Now.”
Crew was a stallion. Otto was a jaguar.
They were both alphas, both powerful.
But Crew was noble, and Otto thought nothing of chasing after her across state lines, and lying and threatening people. They might have the same title, but they were not the same.
“Cute,” Otto said, making a face. “She was promised to me by her alpha and stolen away by her mother, and I’ve come to collect.”
“I’m not your mate, and I wasn’t Dario’s to barter,” Fallon said, seething.
Her jaguar was furious, and her skin prickled as she glared at him. Her fangs tingled in her gums and her skin flushed. She rubbed at her neck with a trembling growl, tempted to just shift into her jaguar and tear him to pieces for being such a smug prick.
Otto’s gaze narrowed as he stared at her neck. That’s when she realized she was rubbing underneath her collar and most likely exposing her pregnancy flush. “You’re pregnant,” Otto said.
Avi took a step forward and Crew threw his arm out to stop him from moving. “Yes, but it doesn’t matter,” Crew said. “She’s part of my people and under my protection. You’re outnumbered. Leave while you can.”
Otto growled. “Then I’ll just take Sera, instead.
” His dark gaze shifted to Fallon’s mom.
“You’re mine by law, by prowl rights. I took over Dario’s prowl and that makes me your alpha.
You defected, Sera, but you’re still part of my prowl and that gives me the ultimate authority over you.
I might not take some bitch jaguar carrying another male’s baby as my mate, but I’ll take you.
” He took a step forward, his eyes flashing to amber for a moment.
“I’ll enjoy making you pay for the trouble you’ve caused me. ”
Sera stalked forward, her jaguar rumbling in her chest, ignoring Avi’s attempt to try to keep her back.
“I’m not yours, you pretentious jackass,” Sera said loudly. “Dario died because he was an idiot, and he arranged to mate Fallon to you because he was too scared to be killed. You’re not my alpha. I don’t recognize your authority.”
Otto’s smile was cruel and cold. Fallon shivered.
He wasn’t just a dangerous male, he was downright deadly.
“You’re not free, Sera. You’re just prey.”
Fallon leaned into Avi, her hands gripping his shirt as fear surged through her.
“You have no power here,” Avi said. “Leave on your own or be buried in our woods. That’s not a threat, it’s a promise.”
“You heard my male,” Crew said, folding his arms. “If I see you in my territory again, I’ll consider it an act of war.”
Otto didn’t flinch or look the least bit scared.
Amadeus and Javan both growled so loudly and with such menace that it made Fallon want to run for cover.
For just a moment, Otto’s smirk faltered. He recovered quickly and cast a cold smile at Sera. “You’ll never be safe.”
The jaguars turned, climbed into the truck, and left. They didn’t hurry, they moved like they had all the time in the world, and it was infuriating.
“Fuck,” Amadeus snarled. “How the hell did they track us? We weren’t followed, damn it.”
“We must have been,” Javan said. “But I just don’t know how. We took every precaution.”
Amadeus shook his head. “I’m sorry, guys, but it seems like in an effort to help out with the other herd trying to take over, we inadvertently brought another form of danger right to your doorstep.”