Chapter 10
Ben set Chase’s old toolbox in the back of his truck, feeling confused. He wasn”t really sure what was going on with that tight place in his chest, or the snarling of his inner mountain lion whenever he thought about getting Delilah and the baby out of his peaceful house. It didn”t make any sense, and frankly, he hated it. He spent the drive to Maxon blaring The Descendents, trying to drown out his own thoughts.
He had already given himself a mark for today”s good deed. Somehow, he had thought it very important to give Delilah breakfast before her first day of work. In fact, he thought with wonder, putting a slash mark in his calendar hadn”t even been his first impulse. He had just woken up and known she would need to eat. It was only after she’d left that he realized he could mark off a good deed for the day.
Looked like he was about to do another one, although he knew this one had some selfish motivation behind it. The sooner he got those two out of his house, the sooner he could go back to life as usual. It was an easy life that didn”t require a lot of thought. Go to work, come home, watch TV, eat some dinner, drink a beer or two, and fall asleep. Then wake up the next day and do it all again. It worked for him.
He found Delilah”s house and pulled into the driveway. It wasn’t a pretty house, but the neighbors weren’t too close. In its favor, the back yard was bordered at the rear with forest.
He walked up to the door, toolbox in hand.
An irrational rage possessed him when he saw the broken lock. Some asshole had shoved in the door, intruding on Delilah”s privacy and safety. If he ever found that person, he’d fucking rip him limb from limb.
He paused at the doorway, sniffing. What was this? Canine, and a musky wildness. This hadn”t been an ordinary human intruder.
A fucking shifter had broken into her house.
He bent his head closer to the door, pulling in more of the scent, memorizing it. Wolf. It smelled kind of chalky and dusty. It didn”t belong to anybody he knew or had ever met, but it smelled familiar for some reason. He just couldn”t figure out how.
Even though Maxon didn’t technically fall into Corona territory, the pride monitored the area. There was a procedure for dealing with other shifters when there was trouble involved, and it involved calling the alpha.
”This is Marlana,” she said, answering immediately.
”Rogue shifter,” Ben said. “Broke into a house in Maxon.”
”Location?”
He rattled off Delilah”s address.
”Got it,” Marlana said.
Ben held his phone tightly. ”There”s one more thing,” he said.
”What is it?”
”It’s Delilah”s house he broke into.”
”Who’s Delilah?”
”She”s the mom. The baby’s mom.”
”What? Why?” Marlana asked.
”Damned if I know.”
Marlana was quiet for a moment. ”Obviously, we’re going to need to monitor the situation. I want to know why he broke into that house specifically. The youngest member of our pride lives there, and we have to protect her.”
”Got it,” Ben said.
”I”ll do some thinking on this, come up with a plan, and I”ll get back to you. See if you can find something with the scent on it so I don”t have to send a troop of shifters up to smell the place.”
”I”m on it,” Ben said.
Marlana hung up and Ben got to work fixing Delilah”s lock. He had to go into town to get some new hardware, but it didn”t take long. Once he was finished, he got to work on the second part of his task—finding something with the shifter’s scent on it.
He stepped into Delilah”s house, hating the feeling that he was invading her privacy. The fact was, he was also dreadfully curious to see how she lived. All those personal questions he had bottled up, maybe his curiosity would be satisfied after wandering around her personal space.
Although the rogue shifter’s stench rubbed his fur the wrong way, Ben”s inner mountain lion really liked being surrounded by Delilah”s sweet vanilla scent.
The living room and kitchen areas were only delineated by the end of the ragged carpet and the beginning of dingy linoleum. The place had been well and truly ransacked. Delilah had told him the police’s theory about drug addicts, but this ransacking looked a little too methodical for addicts.
He cleaned up some of the messes as he walked through. He would come back later and do a more thorough job, but right now he needed to find something with the shifter’s scent.
He found it when he came to the stuffing from an armchair. A piece of the creamy white fluff held the scent, as if the shifter had lifted it to his nose and smelled it himself.
Ben continued through, just in case he found something better. He peeked into one bedroom and saw a double-sized mattress on the floor. A fitted sheet was stretched over it, and although it looked crooked from having been lifted and then lowered again to the floor, it was tidy. This was Delilah”s room. He didn”t see too many clothes—she must”ve packed them to bring with her. He quickly stepped back out again, not feeling right being in her space.
The next room must’ve been McKenzie”s. He was surprised at the difference here. While the rest of the house was bare and undecorated, some careful thought had been put into McKenzie”s bedroom. It was messy, but only because somebody else had come in and wrecked it. He felt his fists clench. Who would wreck a baby’s room? Who would dare? She was just a tiny little innocent thing.
He straightened everything as best he could, replacing the little mattress back inside the crib. He touched the rich, dark-stained wood with his fingers. This was actually a really nice piece of furniture. He looked around. There were pictures on the walls, and cheerful, light yellow curtains over the window. There was even a bright rug on the floor. He mentally compared this room to Delilah”s bedroom next door.
Delilah was giving everything to this baby.
It made sense now, how malnourished Delilah looked. How the rest of her house was so plain and undecorated. She didn’t have enough money to make everything look nice, so she’d focused on McKenzie’s room.
It wasn”t fair. Delilah deserved better.
He stuffed the batting from the chair cushion into his jeans pocket and quickly walked out of the house. He hated this feeling—what was he feeling? He felt responsible. He felt responsible and achy and he didn’t like any of it.
After packing up Chase’s tools and locking Delilah’s house, Ben got in his truck, breathing hard.
That shifter had broken into her house. Delilah had said nothing was missing because she didn’t have anything. Until Ben knew what the shifter was after and why, Delilah was going to have to stay at his place.
He stopped, his fingers locked on the steering wheel. If they were going to stay a while longer, shouldn’t that baby have her real bed? That so-called travel crib looked like a piece of shit.
Sighing, Ben went back into the house with the toolbox. He carefully disassembled the crib and carried it out to the truck, muttering to himself the whole way. Why was he doing this? What was compelling this behavior?
Good deeds, that was right. He was trying to be good.
Just as he started the truck to leave, his phone rang. Doug’s name flashed on the screen. Two calls in three days. It had to be some sort of record for them since Doug had left.
“What is it?” Ben asked.
“Oh, just calling to say hello.” Doug’s voice sounded smug.
”Seriously, don”t be a dick. Why are you calling?”
Doug laughed. ”Had a word with Rafe. Heard you got yourself a ready-made family.”
”The fuck?” Ben said.
”A little baby and everything,” Doug said, snickering. ”Does it come with a MILF?”
”You”re sick,” Ben said.
”Maybe.” Doug was quiet for a second. ”Seriously though, it must suck.”
”The baby kept crying last night,” Ben said. He felt a little disloyal to McKenzie as he complained, but it was the truth.
”Well, get them out of your fur as soon as possible.”
”Yeah,” Ben said. ”Working on it. Anyway, I gotta go. I have some stuff to give Marlana. She says hi, by the way.”
Doug grumbled about Marlana, and they ended the call.
As he drove to Marlana”s house, Ben wrestled with the idea of getting Delilah and McKenzie out of his fur. He liked the thought of being free and alone again. At least, he thought he did.
* * *
The pasta had just finished boilingwhen Delilah drove up. He watched through the kitchen window as she wrestled McKenzie”s carrier out of the car, along with a diaper bag. She also pulled out a couple of bulging garbage bags and set them next to the old car.
Ben drained the pasta, then rushed outside to help her.
”Thanks,” she said smiling at him brightly.
He hefted the garbage bags and they went to the house. ”Your first day went all right?”
”Definitely.” She sniffed the air as they walked inside. ”Did you cook again?”
He shrugged. ”Well, we need to eat.”
She shook her head as if she was unacquainted with this concept.
”You need to take better care of yourself,” he said. Hating the words as they left his mouth, he added, ”I”m not gonna be around to do it for you forever, you know.”
She gave a slight intake of breath, then nodded. ”Yeah, you”re right. Were you able to fix the lock?”
”Yeah, but it”s still not safe there. I don”t think you should go back yet.”
”Well if the lock is fixed, I should probably go back to my own house,” Delilah said, setting the diaper bag by the door.
”Look, trust me, you shouldn”t go back yet. I have dinner ready, see?” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. ”Also, I brought McKenzie”s crib and set it up in your room.”
”You what?”
”I told you, it isn”t safe. That crib is a lot better than the deathtrap you call a travel crib.”
Delilah muttered something about Ben being presumptuous. If he hadn”t had shifter hearing, he probably wouldn”t have understood. However, she pulled McKenzie out of her carrier and sat down to eat.
Delilah’s brown eyes sparkled as she told him about her day. She really seemed to like the rug rats she’d met, and her new boss, Janine.
Her long-sleeved top gave him the occasional, tantalizing glimpses of the ink on her arms, and the stud in her nose kept catching the light from above the table and drawing his attention back to her face. Luckily, she seemed oblivious to his attention as she chattered to him and McKenzie.
Ben watched her eat and listened to her talk, only putting in a word or two of his own when he absolutely had to. Really, he wanted to let her voice wash over him. She had a musical voice, with a happy lilt to it, so at odds with the accusatory voices in his head. He could listen to her all damn day, and night, too.
But Doug had been right—the sooner he got her out of his fur, the better.
After dinner, Delilah started what she called McKenzie”s ”nighttime routine,” and Ben told her he was going to run. He even pulled on a pair of jogging shorts and some tennis shoes to make it look more convincing, but he had no intention of wearing clothes as he ran. He would be wearing fur.
And as he shucked his shorts and shoes, far, far behind the house, then shifted into his lion, he thought he didn”t know what the hell he’d gotten himself into.