Chapter 23
Tonya.
Alan felt his body respond to her presence. He hadn’t even realized she’d made it to the hospital, but his skin prickled with awareness and his blood heated to a warm glow. She was behind him, probably coming into the ER from the nurses’ station, and he felt his breath ease.
He turned and spotted her immediately, scanning her for injuries.
No reason for her to have them, but he looked anyway.
He saw her familiar lush curves but also the rest of her body, the tight shoulders that meant fear and the slight jerkiness that signaled exhaustion.
His gaze went to her face, and their eyes locked.
He watched as tension flowed out of her.
He knew it when she scanned his body for injuries and when she reassured herself he was alive and well.
Then she moved with renewed smoothness past a group of orderlies to come straight to his side.
“You look weird in scrubs,” she said.
“Better than soaked in blood.”
“How are—”
“I’m fine. My shoulder aches, but it’ll heal quick. You?”
“Better now. Jesus, paperwork sucks. And I haven’t even started it. Been answering the same questions until I thought I was going to explode.”
They were talking in stupidities because neither of them knew exactly what to say.
So he dispensed with all that shit and wrapped her in his arms. She flowed into him like water into the sea.
He absorbed her strength, her relief, and everything he adored about her, then tried to give it back in the squeeze of his arms, the press of his lips, and the words he murmured into her ear.
“You were right,” he said.
He felt her still and then slowly pull back, her expression bordering on smug. “Of course I was. About what?”
Everything.
He was still trying to phrase it, crafting words that would determine his future. But in the pause between thought and voice, her phone rang. She grabbed it with a curse, holding it up between them as if she were tempted to throw it across the room.
“Your brother,” she said. “He’s on his way up here but can’t stop calling.”
Alan smiled and lifted the phone from her hand. She gave it easily and added a gesture that he should deal with his family. Alan thumbed it on.
“Hello, Carl,” he said without even waiting. “I’m fine. Tonya’s fine. Go back home.”
“Jesus, Alan!” The relief in his brother’s voice was almost comical. “You’re okay? There was a shooting. You—”
“I know. I was there.” He looked at Tonya, his words more for her than for his brother. “I didn’t even know there was a gun. All I saw was her.”
“Kid grabbed it from Elisabeth’s clothes when she shifted,” Tonya said.
Alan nodded while his brother started to rant. “You didn’t see it? Damn it, Alan, you’re not a cop. Why were you—”
“Guess what, Carl,” Alan interrupted. He waited a second for his brother to sputter to a halt.
“Yeah?”
“I’m fine. Tonya’s fine. And ding-dong the bitch is dead.”
Another long exhale. “So that’s over.”
“Yes. So go home. I’ll need you to help from there. Grease some bureaucratic wheels and shit.”
He could almost hear his brother’s brain churning, piecing together possibilities. It took a moment, but the man finally asked the question. “You coming home, too?”
“Not to your place,” Alan said, his gaze following Tonya as she looked around his shoulder to the curtained alcove behind him. To the two kids they’d rescued from Elisabeth’s clutches. “You and Julie don’t need a third wheel.”
“Damn it, it’s your home, too.”
“Shut up, Carl, and listen. I’m bringing a couple kids back with me. They need special medical attention. And a place to stay that isn’t shifter central.”
Tonya’s head jerked around at his words, her eyes widening as she, too, began to piece his plans together.
And then her face softened. The tightness around her eyes shifted into a smile that seemed to come from deep within her.
And at that moment, he wanted nothing else than to kiss her.
Because she was beautiful. Because she was already halfway to what he wanted.
So he thumbed off the phone and did it. He cupped her face and drew her to his mouth.
God, she tasted so perfect. Like coffee and sugar and her.
The way she opened for him was just what he needed.
The way her tongue dueled with his was so challenging that his hands tightened in possession.
And the way she purred so deep in her throat made his groin surge with hunger.
He had to talk to her. He had to ask her all the things that were bursting through his thoughts. But most of all, he just had to hold her.
“Alan—” she began as she pulled back.
“Don’t run away yet,” he said, rushing his words. “Not before I can talk to you. I need to find the right thing to say—”
She arched her brows. “I’ve just chased you all across the state. I chained you up to keep you from escaping. And I still have handcuffs. Just where do you think I’m going?”
“Nowhere,” he rasped. “Not yet.”
She touched his cheek, her caress tender. “Not ever.”
He grabbed her fingers and pressed his lips to them. The words spilled out of him. Not the ones he intended. Not even ones he’d realized were coming out, but once spoken they locked inside his heart as absolute fact.
“I’m going to adopt them.”
She jolted, her gaze hopping to the kids.
The girl Lexi was sleeping now. The ER had managed to get her fever down so she was considered stable for the moment while they waited for test results.
It wouldn’t tell them squat because no one here knew about shifters, but he knew from his own experience that she was past the worst of it.
Once the fever came down, the body found a way to adapt to the new shifter abilities.
They just had to watch her and make sure she continued to regulate herself.
The boy Jordy was sitting by his sister’s bed, holding her hand.
He’d been pronounced healthy, but Alan knew that was an illusion.
The boy had killed Elisabeth. And though the bitch had certainly deserved it, that wasn’t going to stop the nightmares to come.
He needed someone to help him through the anger and the guilt.
And then both kids needed to figure out how to handle being an entirely new and unique type of shifter. Counting Alan, there were only three created shifters in the whole world. They probably ought to stick together.
Meanwhile Tonya pursed her lips in thought. “That’ll take some speedy legal maneuvering.”
“Good thing I’m a lawyer.”
She turned to look at him. “And it’ll take time. And patience.”
He nodded, feeling tongue-tied the moment he met her eyes. “I know. I didn’t think I could do it, but...” He shrugged. “When I was out by Rand Lake, there was a man who showed me how. Simple words and patience. Turns out it works with toddlers and shifters both.”
She chuckled, as she leaned into his arm. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
“I want to marry you.”
They both started, surprised by his words. He recovered first.
“You were right about everything. That I needed time. That I’ll find my balance.”
“And you have.”
Yes. No. Maybe. “It’s all happening so fast. I’m still screwed up. So are the kids.”
“So we’ll take our time. Just don’t run away again.”
He lifted his shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “I can’t abandon them. I know where they’re at, and it’s not a good place.”
She nodded, her gaze drifting to the kids. “Then all I need to do is stay close to them.”
“No,” he said as he pulled her tight. “Just stay close to me. Just…wait for me to be ready. I think I can get through this, but only if you’re with me.” She smiled, her face so soft that he couldn’t resist stroking her cheek. From letting his thumb explore the texture of her lips even as she spoke.
“You picked life instead of death.”
“I picked you,” he countered. “I picked the kids.” He took a breath, trying to explain everything that had happened in those few short minutes when he’d been fighting for his life. “Do you know what’s good about being a shifter?”
Her lips curved. “Tell me.”
“It’s the instincts. The minute I stopped fighting it, all those instincts made everything thing clear. It wasn’t just that I could fight better.”
“You already had martial arts training, Alan. That helps enormously. Shifter and man—they become one.”
“They are one,” he said, feeling the truth of it inside himself. “And my instincts chose saving the kids rather than killing Elisabeth.” Did she remember? “I left her to you, Tonya. I was going to let you arrest her.”
“I know. I saw.”
She had? Good. “But now I need to help them,” he said looking at the kids. “There’s a thousand little adjustments, and I’m the only one who can teach them. Plus, I’m pretty sure I can get group rates on therapy.”
Her chuckle warmed him inside and out.
“But it’ll only work if I stay in balance. If I have a smart woman by my side willing to do anything to keep my head on straight. Even chaining me up in a basement. And then risking everything by taking them off.”
Her expression flashed through guilt and regret. “I shouldn’t have—”
“Yes, you should have.” He took a deep breath. “You did everything perfect. You are perfect—”
She snorted at that.
“And even if you aren’t, I love every single flaw and mistake. I love that you’ve never lied to me. I love that you’re not afraid to do what’s necessary. And I love that your bear wants me even when I’m fucked up.”
“It’s not just my bear.”
“It’s you, Tonya. I love all of you, and I want to spend the rest of my life proving that to you.”
She smiled, the expression like the sun breaking through on a cloudy day. “Don’t prove it to me. Just stick around. Love me.”
He dropped his forehead to hers and said the words he wanted desperately to say in front of a minister. “I do.”
“I do, too.”
Their kiss was sweet this time. Gentle, tender, and it burned through his blood in a wildfire of passion. Civilized and wild, all at once.
He could do this. With her at his side, he could do anything.