Chapter 17 - Alex
During the rest of the hike, I couldn’t concentrate. It was like Harper’s scent clung to me, and I had to use all of my focus and energy not to take her properly, like I wanted to.
Harper went quiet after our moment in the forest. She stuck by Adalyn’s side, and the triplets flocked to them like ducklings. I was impressed with how well my team was with the triplets. Hell, I even surprised myself with how I was with them. I had been raised kindly and gently, and now I wanted to bring those parenting examples to my own children.
I wanted them to know a mom and dad who had fun together, who laughed and joked, who told stories, and went on adventures. I always wanted them to be surrounded by those who loved them, and they would grow to love as well. Part of me knew Harper was right: this was just a vacation, and I needed to be on my guard. I didn’t know the future, but I wanted to give myself a chance to be the father they needed.
It let Harper relax a little, have some time for herself, and not handle all the responsibilities.
Sweeney and Joseph led the way once again as we descended into the last part of the hike. Joseph liked looking at the colors on the map, while Sweeney tried to teach him the map keys. Marie had taken an interest in Hector’s tech even though it was clear to see she didn’t understand it. Hector was amusing, clearly not understanding what a child’s mind could not yet comprehend.
“You can spot the frequency and the shifts in the air as the demons appear and vanish,” he was saying to a perplexed Marie, who just blinked at him. But Hector was lost in his screens, as usual, and I loved him for it. “So—okay, basically, the red circles indicate a demon.”
“The bad shark?”
“Um…”
“Yes,” Fray cut in helpfully. “The bad shark.”
“Right, well, they represent those and the doors they open from He—from where they come from. And we can detect them by using this technology.”
Hector smiled at her encouragingly. Marie blinked. “I think I’ll go walk with Hallie.”
I snorted, patting Hector on the back. “You did good, man.”
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I get too excited about all of that. She’s a kid, but she seemed interested. I guess I wanted something to try to bond with her over. I want to be involved as a cool uncle.”
“And she is interested,” I said. “She just doesn’t understand it yet. Give it a decade, and she’ll be asking for tips on how to get into, I don’t know, Yale or something.”
Hector laughed. “Well, their entry levels are incredibly high, so she should prepare herself young. It's what happened with me.”
I pulled up. “I didn’t know you actually went to Yale,” I said.
“Oh, I didn’t. It was my backup. I graduated top of my class at Harvard.”
Frazer laughed as Hector wandered ahead, unaware of our awe-struck expressions.
***
When we returned to town, the team broke off to head towards the villa, while Harper’s friend, Adalyn, headed in the opposite direction. I learned that she and Greta were related, grandmother and granddaughter, and that they owned a store in town that sold their wards and charms.
I thought about asking Harper what their deal was but kept quiet for now.
The five of us made our way back to the cottage.
“Can I take you all out for dinner tomorrow night?” I asked. “It's been a long day, and I figure the triplets might want some rest after their hike, but I want to be involved in their lives, Harper. I mean it. I’ll take you all out in the nicest place they have here. Come on, Hector hasn’t sensed any demon energy since we got rid of them all from here, and you deserve a little F&F as well as me, don’t you think?”
“Isn’t it R&R?”
“Not my version.”
Harper raised a brow. “Guys, the first one to the bathroom wins some cake!”
The triplets tore off up the stairs to the bathroom.
I leaned in close to Harper, pulling her flush against me. My mouth against her ear, I murmured, “A little fun and fucking, which is exactly what I’ll do afterward if you let me sleep in your bed tomorrow.”
“Oh, really? Why do you think I’d want that?”
“Because I think you miss my cock, but the last thing you want to do is admit it,” I murmured filthily in her ear. And I got the exact reaction I wanted. Harper drew away, her cheeks flushed, her thighs pressing together. Then she stalked off, following the triplets upstairs.
“Book a table at Michael’s for five,” she ordered. “It's Italian.”
“I love Italian,” I said. “It’s a family-friendly date.”
She hummed at me before disappearing upstairs. I grinned and flopped onto the sofa.
***
Michael’s was a small but more upscale restaurant than the rest of the island boasted. Most places were diners and cafés, but Michael’s looked as if it was trying to imitate a fancier location. It worked—technically. It was the best on a small island, with people flocking through the doors.
We were seated in a low-lit booth, Harper and I each taking the ends, the triplets spaced out between us. Joseph and Hallie were doodling on a coloring sheet that the restaurant had provided. Marie had started unwrapping one of the crayons and examining the wrapper.
“What’s that about?” I asked Harper, nodding at Marie.
“Your friend,” she answered, laughing. “She’s been fascinated with… Everything, ever since the hike. She said Hector showed her ‘cool stuff,’ and now she’s asked me if she can look at every screen she sees. She’s become quite inquisitive.”
“Just like her mom,” I said. “C’mon, you didn’t stop asking questions that summer.”
“Really? You want to play that card? I mean, I was twenty-one, what person at that age doesn’t want to know, like, everything?”
I smirked. “Okay, hit me, then, what was I like?”
“Let’s see,” she teased. “Alex Garson at age twenty-four. Cocky, conceited, arrogant, smarmy .”
“Smarmy?” I laughed. “Oh, Harper, you love complimenting me, don’t you?” I flashed her a smile that said everything about my intentions with her that night. Her face showed it all: the war she went into every time I propositioned her. That delicious war between desire and despise.
“That’s not a compliment, and if you think it is then you simply prove my point,” she countered.
I was stopped from responding by a waiter arriving to our table.
“Welcome to Michael’s,” he said. “My name is Damen, and I’ll be your waiter for the night. What can I get everyone?”
While Harper seemed to finalize the triplets’ orders, I sized Damen up, noticing when his gaze lingered a little too long on Harper’s chest. She wasn’t wearing anything revealing, but there was enough to see. I wanted to show him she was mine . I wanted to show any asshole who dared to look at her or try his luck that Harper Thollin was my mate.
I was still staring daggers at him when Harper’s foot connected with my ankle under the table.
I sat up straighter. “I’ll have the meat feast pizza,” I said. “Thanks, Damen.”
I made sure to give him a tighter smile. He nodded and walked away quickly.
“Really?” Harper asked, sighing. But there was a smile on her face, as if part of her liked it.
“What?” I shrugged.
“You don’t get to claim me after one restaurant date.”
“So this is a date?” I asked.
“It’s a family outing, but don’t mistake this for anything permanent, Alex,” she warned. “You’re still… I still need to trust you again.”
“How do I help that?” I asked.
Harper hummed. “We’ll see, won’t we?”
I met her grin with one of my own. We had always played our games, Harper and I. The music around us in the restaurant was smooth jazz, which Harper swayed to a little. Marie scrambled over in the booth to sit next to her, holding out the wrapper.
“I found it,” she said. She jabbed a finger at the tiny writing on the wrapper, and Harper leaned in.
“You sure did, sweetheart. Why don’t you go and show your—” She paused, met my eyes, and I wondered when she would tell them. I refused to keep being in their lives without them knowing I was their father, but Harper was holding back in case I abandoned them again. Then I would simply fade into the background, and they’d know me as the man they met a few times, a nobody.
The thought of that completely broke me. No. No, I couldn’t let that happen.
Marie looked at me, offering the crayon wrapper. She showed me one of the ingredients, and although I didn’t understand its relevance, I gave her a thumbs up.
“Are you going to tell them?” I asked quietly.
“Soon,” she said. “I never ever wanted to keep you a secret from them, Alex. I just don’t want to overwhelm them by pointing to you and saying who you are.”
“And their shifter DNA?”
She shrugged. “I had everything planned for when they shifted for the first time.”
“Harper, you can’t let them go through that unprepared for what will happen,” I argued. “Yes, it's fearful, and I was terrified when my father told me, but they need to be prepared.”
“Well, I’m doing my best, Alex! If you wanted to be the one to teach them then—”
“Yes, I know,” I growled. “Then I should have stayed. But then you should have told me when you got symptoms.”
Harper smiled tightly. “Then I guess we both now know the gift of retrospect.”
“I guess so.”
My foot shifted to her bare ankle under the table. Her heel caught the edge of my foot, leaning her weight into it, adding pressure that sent a shiver down my spine. It was a threat of her own—her way of telling me that she remembered I had often enjoyed our sexual play on the dangerous side. There was something about the constant movement of sex that canceled the stillness of my job sometimes—it awoke something in me.
She pulled away.
I felt a tug on my shirt. I looked over to find Hallie clutching my sleeve.
“Is it a good beast? The one from your story?”
I thought for a moment. “Yes.”
“How do you know?” Her childish voice sounded so much more grown-up when she asked questions. She reminded me of Harper so much.
“Well…”
“Because the princess got sad,” she said. “So the beast was bad.”
“No, the beast was pretty good,” I corrected softly. “But the man made some pretty bad choices.”
I looked to Harper. She raised a brow.
“I’ve been telling them a story,” I said. “About a princess who was kept away, and a man who turned into a beast, but he loved her.”
“Yeah!” Hallie said, scrambling over to her mom. “And the man had to leave her, so she got sad!”
“Oh, did she now?” Harper asked me.
“She did,” Hallie answered instead.
“Well, how did the man feel when he left?” Harper questioned.
“Oh, I want to know, too!” Marie said, suddenly interested again.
My answer was delayed by our food arriving: my pizza, Harper’s carbonara, and mini spaghetti bolognese for the kids. They all dug into their food, eyes on me, waiting for the next part of the story.
“When he left,” I said, “The man—”
“The prince,” Joseph said proudly. “He is a prince!”
“Yes, the prince,” I corrected. “Well, when he left, he was… Also sad. He thought he had made the right decision, but it turned out that he had never been able to return to the princess. Not for many years. But in that time, there were more princesses and princes born.”
“Is that good?” Marie asked.
“Yes,” I told them. “Because when the prince finally did make it back to his princess, he was overjoyed at the sight of them. They were his own, and he greatly missed his family.”
Hallie gasped. “Did they turn into beasts, too? That would be good if they did!”
“They would do,” I told her. “One day.”
Harper watched me, a small smile on her face, as the triplets all leaned in, enraptured by my story. She twirled pasta around her fork and ate. I cut off a part of my pizza and offered it to each triplet. Whenever we shifted together, my father always provided me with food, even as I grew up. We would hunt together, and until my children learned how to shift too, this was the best I could do for them.
“I have a question to ask you all,” Harper said, getting the triplets’ attention. They all turned to her, munching on their pizza pieces. “If I was the princess from the story… How would you feel?”
“Good! Alex said the princess was pretty,” Hallie said, and I laughed.
“She is,” I answered.
“But wasn’t she sad?” Joseph asked, pouting.
“She was,” Harper said. “But sometimes there is a bit less sadness. Sometimes, she has a lot more happiness, especially when the prince returned. And especially when she has her little prince and princesses.”
Marie frowned, as if trying to make sense of it all.
“What if I was the princess?” Harper asked again. Then she inhaled deeply. “And Alex was the prince?”
Hallie giggled. “He can’t be the prince! The prince turns into a beast!”
I laughed. “Well, I can turn into the big, bad wolf.”
All three eyes turned to me, a mixture of awe and impressed.
“Really?” Joseph said. “You mean it?” He gasped. “You were the wolf in the trees! I saw you!”
I smiled as if guilty. “That was me, but back to the story… If I was the prince, how would that make you feel?”
“But if we are the prince and princesses,” Hallie mumbled. “That would make you…”
“Your dad,” Harper finished quietly.
The triplets all blinked first at her, then at me, and then back again.
“Mommy…” Marie said and then looked to me. “Daddy?”
I nodded, my chest close to bursting, and my heart so full. God, I loved them already.
“Well, I will have to think about it,” Hallie answered. I didn’t even know if she needed to, but she said it in such a way that made me think her mom had said something similar before, and she was reciting.
I laughed. “You can all take your time.” I met Harper’s gaze. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She looked like she wanted to protest, but I made sure she didn’t. Instead, I grabbed a piece of garlic bread, brought it over to Hallie’s plate, and showed her how to pile her spaghetti up on the bread and eat all the flavors at once.
It soon got all three of them doing that, and even Harper did it with her carbonara.
I thought of the man who had lain awake in the desert the last six months, wondering what was next for him in life. I was starting to see that my life wasn’t in the desert or a mountain range. I loved my job, but… What if my place could be right here, with these children and my mate?
***
Harper had arranged for Greta to mind the triplets after the restaurant outing, saying we needed some time alone in the cottage.
She wants to speak to you when we pick the triplets up tomorrow , Harper had told me, grinning. Honorary Mom grilling.
After we dropped the triplets off, we headed back to her cottage. Hector had sent me a link so I could track the demon energy around the cottage. Everywhere was safe for now. Of that, I was thankful.
At her door, I kissed Harper, catching her off-guard. She let herself fall against the door. I swore I felt her smile into the kiss. She threw her arms over my shoulders, pressing closer.
“It sort of was like our first date,” I murmured.
Harper let out a laugh. “Oh, no, it is absolutely nothing like our first date,” she said. “For one, you drove your bike like an idiot, and I went along with it because I was also an idiot.”
“I’d had one beer!” I protested.
“And on that date, you fucked me on your bike before we even drove home.”
“I still could,” I said. “There’s bound to be a vehicle rental somewhere around here.”
Harper grinned. I didn’t know when she had glared less and smiled at me more, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
“And the night’s still young,” I reminded her. “Remember my promise. The offer remains on the table.”
Harper swallowed. “I know.”
I smirked at her as she let us both into the cottage. We hovered in the living room and when Harper started to head upstairs, I followed. She turned around.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m coming upstairs with you,” I told her.
She shook her head. “No, you’re still sleeping on the couch.”
“Like hell I am,” I insisted. “What, am I in the dog house, Harper Thollin?”
She rolled her eyes, pushing on my chest, nudging me back to the bottom stair. “No, but you are sleeping on the couch.”
“Seriously? You’re actually serious?”
“Yes!” she answered. “Now, go.”
Still, when she turned around, I followed her upstairs. And when I stepped up behind her in her doorway, my fingers lingering on the edge of her dress sleeves, she didn’t stop me, or shoo me away. I pushed the sleeve off her dress, kissing her shoulder.
“I don’t forget my promises,” I told her quietly. Her sharp intake of breath was just about audible, encouraging me to give her more. I pushed the other sleeve down, kissing that shoulder with my other hand. I followed the line of freckles across the nape of her neck, my hands falling to the zip of her dress that ran down to her lower back. Without tugging the zip yet, I simply trailed my touches over it, letting her know my plans, letting her linger in anticipation.
“I always liked taking my time with you,” I said. “Sometimes I couldn’t wait to get my hands on you, but other times… God, how could I not take my time with you?”
Finally, I pulled down the dress's zip, exposing her pale back, finding more freckles peppering her skin. They splayed over her shoulders, down her spine, disappearing around her sides. I kissed the top of her spine as I slipped my fingers into her dress from the back, closing my hands around her wide hips. I danced my touch lightly up her navel, the plush of her stomach, before reaching up to tug the dress from her frame altogether.
It fell willingly, and Harper leaned back into me, her eyes closing.
“Admit it,” I told her. “You’ve missed this.”
She hummed, smiling. “What makes you think so?”
“For one,” I said, sliding my hands down to her stomach. “You haven’t pulled away.” Keeping one hand there, I moved the other up to her chest, relishing in the gasp she gave when I held one breast, the heaviness of his resting in my palm. I thumbed her pretty, pink nipple. “And two, I can smell you, Harper.”
A soft moan slipped from her. She always loved the fact that she couldn’t hide from me. Often, it had made our sexual games more enticing—she had tried to resist giving into me while I had teased mercilessly about how I could scent her. Her thighs pressed together, but I snuck a hand between them, letting her push her hips against the friction my hand would give her.
I ground my hips against her ass, letting her feel the full length of my cock.
“Let me fuck you, Harper,” I drawled. “Give into me.”
She moaned, her back arching, as she pushed against my hand. I fondled her breast while I dug my teeth into her freckled shoulder. Her fire-red hair spilled down her other breast, and I ached to have those strands bunched in my hands, watching her lose herself to pleasure.
“Be my good girl,” I whispered.
“Ask for it,” she moaned softly. “Ask for me.”
I grinned against the back of her neck. “I don’t ask for anything, Harper.” I slid my hand down to her ass, smacking her cheek lightly. She gasped. God, I hadn’t ached this hard in a long time. Now, she was so close, and her heat was warm against my hand through the skimpy underwear that barely covered anything.
I gripped her hair, wrapping it around my fingers. “Bend over the bed, Harper,” I purred. “Spread your legs for me.”
I nudged her forward, and she went, bracing herself as she bent over the edge of her bed. Her panties, a blush-colored pink, completely transparent over her ass, and a thing of lace down the front, were displayed all for my viewing. Harper looked at me over her shoulder and smiled coyly, swaying her hips. Her thick thighs were inviting, beckoning me closer as I stripped off my shirt, and completely unbuttoned my pants, yanking them off.
I gripped her wrists, pulling them behind her. She cried out at the pressure.
“How bad do you want it, Harper?” I asked her, running the head of my cock down the length of her heat through her panties.
“Badly,” she whispered.
“Not good enough,” I teased, pulling away.
“No!” she cried. “Stay. Don’t—don’t deny me it.”
“Beg,” I told her, smirking. I let go of her wrists. I had lost this woman for four years due to a choice I’d had to make to keep her safe. Nothing would keep me from her now—nothing would stop me from enjoying our pleasure.
She turned to me, falling onto her back. Her hair spread out around her like a damn fire, and her legs parted, bearing the red curls that matched her hair. I swallowed, helpless to my own desire. This woman had bore my children—even if I hadn’t known, she had fought through that. I should have been there with her, helping bring my babies into the world. But she was my mate, and I would damn well claim her soon. I would claim her and I would have my perfect triplets and my mate. Nothing would stand in my way.
My cock hardened, and I braced myself over her.
“As much as I want to fucking ruin you while you’re on all fours,” I said, “I need to watch that delicious look in your eyes, amoricita .” I held her face with one hand, pulling it close to mine. Her lips parted, and I licked into her mouth, smiling. “The look that says you absolutely despise me, but you despise yourself more for wanting me.”
“Fuck you,” Harper spat.
I grinned. “Tell me no , Harper, and I’ll walk away. It's as simple as that.”
But when silence filled the room, I cocked my head. “See what I mean? Your war with yourself is intoxicating, baby.”
“I’m not your b—”
“Ah, ah,” I tutted. “Don’t forget.” I tapped her heat, delighting in the wet spot on her panties. I rubbed her through it, moaning at how she clenched through the fabric. “You’re so desperate for it, aren’t you? I wanted to take longer, but… I’m a weak man. I know where I’m wanted.” I eyed her, tugging her panties down her thighs. “I’m going to fuck you, Harper. Until your legs give out, until you’re sated, and you know you belong to me.”
I smacked her folds, and she reacted beautifully, how she always had done. Her hips jerked, her back arching, and an intoxicating gasp fell from her lips.
“This pussy belongs to me,” I told her. “We have all night, querida . Nothing will keep me from claiming you.”