Chapter 13
What in the world just happened? Jamie felt as if his world had just turned on its axis.
“Finally,” his wolf growled, “some action.”
“Not now. Behave yourself. Act normal.” Jamie hushed the impatient beast.
The passenger door opened and Aiden stood there, his eyes soft. Jamie suddenly realized he hadn’t moved since Aiden kissed him.
“Are you coming?” Aiden asked, a smile tugging at his lips.
Jamie climbed out of the truck. He felt fuzzy.
“Are you alright?” Aiden asked. He gently took Jamie’s hand with his own and led him down the driveway toward the Jensens’ front door.
Jamie nodded. “Surprised,” he croaked. He coughed and cleared his throat.
Aiden bit his lower lip. “Bad surprise or good surprise?” He stopped halfway down the driveway and turned to Jamie, still holding his hand.
Jamie nodded several times. “Very good, just surprised, though. That’s all.”
“OK, good,” Aiden said, his shoulders relaxing. “I don’t want to ruin—”
Jamie squeezed his hand. “No, no, never. You’d never ruin anything. We’re good. We’re very good.” Jamie knew he was babbling but couldn’t seem to stop himself. He held up the hand that Aiden was holding. “You’re OK with this?” He nodded to the front door of the Jensen home. “I am, but are you sure you’re OK with them knowing we’re together? I mean are we mates?”
Aiden shrugged. “I think we are. I just have to let go of everything that’s holding me back. I want to be better for you. I want to be with you.”
Jamie frowned. “What should we say to them? Again, we don’t have to say anything, but they are a nosy bunch. They might ask.”
The corner of Aiden’s mouth tipped up in a small grin. “It’s OK. They’re our friends and I’m tired of hiding. I think if they ask, we can tell them we’re getting closer every day and that we feel we could be mates.” He then tenderly tugged Jamie’s hand, and they continued to the house.
“That sounds perfect,” Jamie said.
Suddenly Jamie sensed they were being watched and stopped, Aiden following suit.
“What’s wrong?” Aiden asked.
Jamie peered around the trees bordering the Jensens’ yard. He sensed at least three wolves. He opened his senses more fully and scented Kevin, one of the Grey Lake police officers among them. Dang it! He was so distracted. He should have sensed them as soon as he stepped out of the truck. “There’re a few wolf shifters watching the house.”
Aiden scanned higher in the trees, his eyes briefly flashing orange before returning to their usual deep blue. “I think there’re a couple of flight shifters, too. They seem to be friendly, at least to us.” He turned back to Jamie. “C’mon, let’s get inside and find out what’s going on.”
They strode up the front steps. Aiden had just lifted his hand to press the doorbell, but the door opened before he could.
Petite May stood in the doorway, her icy-blonde hair pulled up in a messy bun. The thin, yet athletic woman was holding Lucy the chihuahua in her arms. Jamie noticed the second she spotted the two men’s clasped hands. Her pale eyebrows lifted the slightest bit, and she gave Jamie a grin. She then took a step back, giving them room to enter. “Hey guys, we’ve been waiting on you. Come on in.”
Aiden stepped through first, tension evident in his stiffened gait. He tugged Jamie behind him as if protecting him, but that didn’t make any sense. He was the one who could shift into his beast. Aiden still couldn’t yet. Jamie pet the dog on the head as he stepped past May.
“Maybe he knows he’s getting closer to shifting,” Jamie’s wolf muttered silently.
Once they were inside, May closed the door behind them. Aiden released his hold on Jamie.
“We’ve taken over the kitchen. C’mon,” May said, striding past them both.
Jamie followed May and Aiden into the expansive kitchen. Annie, Ted, Heath, Mac, Deacon, and Iris were there along with May. Mac’s other dog Linus was lying on a dog bed next to a heating vent. Everyone was spread out around the light-colored granite countertop island in the center of the room, but their focus was on Ted and the bundle of baby he held in his arms. The sleeping child was wrapped in a pale yellow blanket. Ted had her tucked up close enough to plant kisses on the top of her head. May gently placed Lucy down on the floor and leaned back against the island.
Wow. Jamie had never seen the gruff former alpha wolf look so content. He supposed a newborn baby could do that to even a savage dominant shifter like Ted. Jamie felt a tinge of sadness at seeing the light sprinkling of reddish fuzz on the tiny phoenix shifter’s head; it reminded him of Tessa.
He found himself walking up close to where Ted was sitting to get a better look at the baby. “What did you guys name her?”
“Amber Therese Jensen,” Mac said. “We talked it over with Tessa before… well, you know. She liked it.”
Jamie nodded at Mac. “Amber, huh, nice.”
“Kind of like Ember, but not so obvious,” Mac said, shrugging.
Aiden shuffled up closer and stood next to Jamie. He stared at the baby briefly, then turned to Heath. “Did something happen? We noticed all the shifters outside keeping watch.”
Heath shook his head. “No, not yet. Thought it’d be prudent to add a little security, though.” He climbed off the stool he’d been sitting on and walked to stand next to his father. He rubbed a hand over his new daughter’s fuzz-covered little head.
“Does your pack know?” Aiden asked, nodding at the baby.
“They know that we adopted a child from a flight shifter family, but that’s it so far,” Heath said.
“I’m surprised there aren’t pack members here already,” Jamie noted.
“Well, I asked them to give the new parents some time,” Deacon said. With all the craziness going on in town, people seemed to understand.”
“How’re you two doing?” Heath peered between Jamie and Aiden.
“Fine,” Aiden said. “Why’d you ask us over? I was planning on meeting Piper. I wanted to discuss some things with her.”
“Yeah, well, she got hung up at work. She should be over soon,” May said, ignoring Aiden’s primary question.
“Where’s that grizzly of yours?” Jamie asked.
“He’s at work,” May said. “Finn and Jasper’re at work, too. I’m not sure where Leah is. Maybe trying to track down that brother of hers to slap some sense into him. We’ll fill them all in later anyway.”
“Fill him in later about what? What’s happening?” Aiden asked. Jamie could tell he was struggling to keep his voice even.
“It’s just that we needed to speak with you before we decided what to tell the pack,” Heath said. He voiced this to both Aiden and Jamie.
“And the bears,” May added.
“And the flight shifters,” Mac finished.
“Tell them about what?” Jamie asked.
“Can you shift yet?” Ted asked, not taking his eyes from the slumbering Amber. The question was posed in a very low voice so as not to wake the baby, but his tone was serious.
Before Aiden could answer, Annie spoke, “People have been asking about Tessa for weeks now. The elderly shifters in town know how old Tessa was. They’ve heard the tales of phoenixes being reborn from Tessa herself. When we show up with our new flight shifter granddaughter right after Tessa disappears, there’ll be questions,” Annie said.
“We want to be truthful, but we don’t want people to panic,” Heath said.
“Knowing the town’s protector is gone, at least for now, some people are going to be scared,” Deacon said. “We’re just trying to figure out if we need to keep the truth hidden for longer or just let them know there’ll be a new protector.”
“So…” May said gesturing for Aiden to finish. She was leaning against the countertop with an expectant look.
Jamie grimaced at Aiden.