Chapter 1 #2
And damn him, but he did look that good.
Better than Felix had expected, actually.
The last time he’d seen the were, he was getting carted away on a stretcher.
But bouncing back better than ever was just classic Liam now, wasn’t it?
Had the looks and luck of the gods, always getting off easy with zero repercussions.
Felix’s rotten mood darkened. “Yeah. Doesn’t Jenny usually pick up your kids? ”
Liam nodded and scratched his stubbled jaw. A group of soccer moms sighed and one looked faint. “This custody thing—”
“Nope, don’t care,” Felix said, nipping that in the bud.
He stepped away as he spotted two of his sister’s urchins pushing through the school’s big double doors, though you wouldn’t know they were related at first glance.
Sway had definitely taken after Felicia in the looks department, but the rest of her kids favored their dads—whoever the hell they might be.
“Uncle Felix!” Sway whooped at the top of her lungs, shoving through the crowd at breakneck speed. Her messy red pigtails streamed out behind her as she threatened to take out everyone she passed with her glittery, oversized backpack.
Felix’s eyelids fluttered, sure she was about to end up with a cast on her other wrist. Child had zero sense of self-preservation or any situational awareness.
Axle followed at a much slower pace, the scowl on his face rivaling Felix’s earlier as the nine-year-old carefully picked around each patch of ice, imaginary or otherwise.
Sway plowed into Felix, and his breath went out in a whoosh. “Can we go to the playground?” she asked, clamped to one of his legs. She tilted her head back, peering up around the bulk of his parka, only the ridiculous poof on her beanie and her bright, hazel eyes visible. “Pleeease?”
“What? No, it’s like four degrees,” he said, shaking her off to walk back the way he’d just come—and very pointedly away from Liam, whether he noticed or not. By all the simpering, it sounded like the that gaggle of moms had already pounced on him. Whatever. It was the principle of the thing.
“So?” Sway asked like freezing her ass to the slide wasn’t a very real concern.
“So, you’ll get frostbite, and I have things to do.”
“Like what?” she asked, running around him in circles.
God, had he ever had that much energy? Even at six, he was pretty sure the answer was no. “Super mysterious adult-y things.” Okay, so he had a date with his couch, leftover Chinese take-out, and Snider’s Creek reruns, but mysterious adult-y things definitely sounded better.
Sway stopped at the corner to clasp her hands together and bounce up and down. “Can we come with you? We’ll be super good, Axle promises.”
“No, I don’t, and you won’t,” her brother muttered, catching up to them. He was a swarthy little dude, but hadn’t escaped the Simms’s family curse of freckles. “Besides, you already promised to help Gran make cookies.”
Sway rolled her eyes, and Felix caught her collar right as she went to step into oncoming traffic. “If Uncle Felix is picking us up, then she’s not making cookies, stupid. Something happened.”
They both looked at him with the same question on their faces.
Goddamn it, Felicia. Your kids shouldn’t be wondering if you’re dead.
“Nothing happened. Gran and Gramps just had to take the screamer in for her rabies shots, and it ran long or something. As far as I know, you’re still making cookies. ”
“Oh.” Sway’s brow creased, then smoothed. “Well, that’s okay then. As long as they’re not gingerbread. I hate those. Kitty Weaton told me they have mole asses in them.”
Axle sneered. “God, you’re so dumb. It’s molasses, and those are the best,” he said, abruptly animated. “They’re like voodoo cookies, and you can bite off the heads of your enemies.”
“You have many of those?” Felix asked, hauling Sway along with him as he crossed the street.
“Not for long.” Axle grinned, his canines a titch too long and his freckled nose scrunched up in glee. He ran across the parking lot to Felix’s car with an evil laugh.
Guaranteed, that kid’s sperm donor was some shade of demonic.
Felix rubbed a temple and made a mental note to tell his mother it was time for “the talk.” No matter how shitty—or predisposed for evil—Axle’s parents might be, the kid couldn’t just go around hexing people.
“He cries at night,” Sway abruptly piped up at Felix’s side.
He looked down at her too sincere face. “Who? Axle?”
She nodded. “Don’t tell him I told.”
“Look,” Felix sighed, “you guys know your mom will be back soon, right?”
Sway frowned. “Yeah. Why else would he be crying?”
Liam ignored the mom squad that’d descended upon him, plastering a grin on his face and nodding whenever there was a pause in the conversation.
Shit, had he just agreed to dinner? It was hard to focus over his inner wolf’s keening, but he probably had, given the way the rest of them were glaring at Miranda Clarke.
Whatever. Wasn’t happening. He glanced past them, his heart in his throat as Felix walked away.
Liam bit back a curse. He’d fucked up again.
He’d known Felix was still pissed at him, but that’d been so long ago…
Liam chewed his lip. He just—God, Felix was so damned adorable in that massive parka with his checkered loafers and wild curls.
Liam knew he should’ve kept his distance, but he just wanted to drop to his knees and beg for forgiveness.
To explain. He’d been such a fucking asshole. So stupid.
He puffed out his cheeks, kicking himself for not listening to Kelsey.
His twin sister was right, he needed to give Felix space, but all her advice went out the window the second Liam had seen the warlock.
Damn it, he needed to play it cool. Felix would run screaming if he had any idea of what shit show was playing between Liam’s ears.
He smiled at Miranda, no fucking clue what she was talking about.
Some Yule party? Didn’t matter. He was pretty sure all of them would be running if they knew how medicated he needed to be just to stand there.
Christ, maybe he should spill his guts.
No. He needed to keep his shit together, especially with this damned divorce.
Felix would come around. Liam had to believe that, but he couldn’t rush it, no matter how badly his wolf wanted him to.
He had to think, take his time, and be consistent.
Show up and prove he could be there without strings attached.
No squirreling, no obsessing, and stay medicated.
Jesus, that sounded like the same laundry list the marriage counselor had thrown at him before it all went to—
“What are you doing here?”
Shit.
Liam closed his eyes for a breath before he turned, the mom squad scattering.
Jenny stood just behind him, glaring. His soon-to-be-ex-wife looked haggard, far too thin and pale, with dark circles rimming her eyes.
His weren’t much better, but he’d found a brand of under-eye patches and some concealer that worked miracles.
Unfortunately, he didn’t think she’d appreciate the recommendation.
He forced himself to smile at her. Amicable. Be amicable. “Hey, Jenny, I just—”
“We talked about this, Liam,” she hissed, glancing askance at the surrounding crowd. “You have the paperwork. There’s no reason for you to be here.”
He nodded, rocking back on his heels. “Right. Yeah. I know.”
She shook her head hard enough to send her platinum locks swaying beneath her knitted cap and pulled her scarf tighter around her throat. “Then why did you come? Pete wants to take out a restraining order on you, and shit like this makes me think it might be a good idea. If it’s about the money…”
It wasn’t, but— “That doesn’t exactly help the situation,” Liam muttered, one eye on the listening crowd, slower than usual to hurry away, despite the cold.
A pair of slim tow-headed kids came out of the school and stopped when they saw him.
That had to be the twins. Derek and Cassi.
They’d still been in diapers when he’d left, and Jenny’d been pregnant with Mike, the youngest. God, they looked just like her, aside from their eyes.
Those were a luminescent green, instead of a shifter’s brown.
Liam searched their features for any resemblance to him.
It was stupid. He knew there wouldn’t be, though he couldn’t say he saw anything of Pete in them, either.
Whatever, it didn’t matter who their father was. It wasn’t Liam.
You are not the father…
A fist clenched around his heart. How it was worse seeing it in black and white than it had been hearing her spit it at him still didn’t make any sense, but there it was.
“I told you, the money’s gone,” she said, hurrying over and herding them toward a crappy minivan. “All of it.”
Money. It’d never been about the fucking money. Not for him at least. What he’d sent home he could’ve swallowed losing, but the loans she and Pete had taken out in Liam’s name, how in the fuck was he ever going to pay them back?
And if he pressed charges against her, what was going to happen to those kids?
Goddamn it. Liam’s jaw tensed as the minivan door hitched as it slid to the side, and the twins climbed in.
He got a brief glimpse of another little blond boy in a booster seat.
She slammed the door shut twice before it latched, then glared at Liam one last time, rounding to the driver’s side and joining them.
He stood there, watching them drive away, not one of them looking back.
Neither had Felix.