Creatures with the ability to leave their human bodies—if not their humanity—behind, and run as wolves. They might hunt and kill without remorse, yet they were just as comfortable sharing a linen-covered table set with the finest crystal and silver, conversing quietly over coffee in an elegant dining room.
It looked as if everyone had made it to brunch this morning. Considering the amount of alcohol consumed at the wedding reception the night before, Baylor’d had his doubts. He nodded to Anton Cheval, the obvious occupant for the space at the head of the table, shook Ulrich Mason’s hand at the other end, and pulled out the vacant chair between his two sisters, across from Stefan Aragat, who sat beside his lovely mate, Alexandria.
She looked about ready to pop. Bay wasn’t sure, but her baby had to be due any time…like maybe now? He gave each of his sisters a quick kiss. Then, for some obscure and probably foolish reason, he leaned across the table and kissed Xandi’s cheek.
He sensed more than heard the low snarl coming from her mate. Bay sat, and at the same time flashed a quick grin when Xandi rolled her eyes at Stefan’s purely wolven response.
“How’re you feeling this morning, Xandi? You’ve got to be getting close.” Spreading his napkin over his lap, Bay nodded to the waiter who poured his coffee.
Xandi laughed. “Definitely close. I feel like a beached whale about to burst.” She glared at Stefan. “And it’s all your fault!”
Stefan raised both hands in surrender. “Not completely,” he said. “You did have the choice.”
Xandi merely snorted and laughed, but Bay noticed the white lines around her mouth and the strain in her eyes. It was true—all Chanku females had a choice to breed or not. Pregnancy required the conscious release of an egg for fertilization. As miserable as she looked right now, Bay wondered if Xandi regretted choosing motherhood.
Stefan certainly seemed excited about the impending birth. What would it be like, knowing the woman who loved you carried your child? Bay sighed. It was doubtful he’d ever find out. There were so few of them, so very few Chanku of either sex.
Bay’s odds of meeting the perfect mate seemed insurmountable. He sat back and listened as the others teased Stefan and Xandi about her impending delivery, but as he sipped his coffee, Bay felt once more that sense of being apart from the whole. Even with a newly rediscovered sister on either side of him, he remained the one lone wolf among the group.
Bay glanced up and caught Stefan watching him, smiling broadly. “Take a look at this,” Stefan said. “I may have found you a woman.” He handed a folded newspaper across the table, a cheap tabloid from the looks of it. The headline screamed across the front, WOLF GIRL TERRIFIES RURAL NY NEIGHBORHOOD!
Below was a grainy photo, obviously retouched, of a snarling wolf with just enough human features, including long, blond hair, to look truly hideous. Anger shot through Bay. Did everyone find it humorous that he among them was alone and hating it? It took him a minute to find his voice. He tossed the paper back on the table and snarled, “Not funny, Aragat.”
Still smiling, Stefan shook his head. “You don’t get it, do you? I’m not kidding and this is not a joke. Xandi, tell Bay how you found me.”
Xandi reached across the table and covered Bay’s clenched fist with her soft hand. “It wasn’t that long ago, Bay, that Stefan looked almost exactly like the woman in that photo.” She flashed her mate a wry grin. “Other than the hair. He was already going gray.”
“Watch it, woman.” Stefan smiled at Xandi, obviously urging her to continue.
“He’d been stuck like that, part wolf, part human, in midshift, for over five years. That picture’s probably not real, but there’s often a kernel of truth to tabloid stories. We found Keisha through an article in that same publication. It was just as lurid, but there was enough truth to send us searching for her. Point being, don’t discount the possibility of this woman being real, and very much in need of help.”
Bay felt as if someone had tilted his reality. He looked carefully at Stefan and tried to imagine the horror of being caught between shifts. “What happened?”
Stefan shook his head. “It’s a long story and too intense for a ‘breakfast after the wedding’ conversation, but the point is, it can happen. There just might be a young woman in upstate New York, living the same horror I lived. And you, my friend, might be able to find her and save her.”
Bay picked the paper up and looked at the article with a new sense of purpose. It named a small town in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. He read the entire piece and then glanced at his packmates, Jake and Shannon. Shannon smiled, Jake gave him a thumbs up.
Suddenly breakfast with the group didn’t seem nearly as important. Nor did the day ahead loom so bleakly. Bay stood up, chugged the last of his tepid coffee and grabbed his helmet and gloves. Already his mind spun with plans and possibilities. “It’s been wonderful to see all of you, to meet you,” he said, nodding to the members of the Montana pack. “It’s been especially wonderful to see you two rats.” He leaned down and gave both Lisa and Tala another kiss on the cheek. “But it looks like I’m going to take a little trip east. I’ll be in touch.”
Xandi felt a catch in her breath, remembering Stefan, remembering the night she’d found and learned to love the man hidden within the body of a wolf. She watched as Bay tucked Stefan’s tabloid into a side pocket on his leather suit, saluted all of them at the table and strolled out of the restaurant with the black helmet under one arm.
Damn, but the man was hot. She glanced at Stefan and smiled. Her mate was thinking exactly the same thing as he watched the tall, dark-haired Chanku leave the restaurant. He wasn’t even trying to hide his thoughts.
Another twinge crossed Xandi’s middle. She realized this had nothing whatsoever to do with Baylor Quinn or her mate.
Oblivious as only a man could be, Stefan leaned back in his chair, slipped an arm around Keisha on one side and Xandi on the other. “Well, folks. My work here is done,” he said, grinning broadly.
“No, Stefan. It’s not.” Xandi gasped as another contraction stole her breath away. She rubbed her palm along one side of her taut belly. “I think it’s just beginning.”
Ulrich Mason waited outside the delivery room with Anton Cheval. Stefan and the women had gone into the birthing room with Xandi, while Jake, Tinker, Mik, and AJ, cowardly males all, went off in search of lunch. Anton’s gaze hardly left the closed door, but he’d declined Stefan and Alexandria’s invitation to join them for their child’s birth.
He sat beside Ulrich instead, holding his own newborn daughter while Keisha and the other women used their Chanku skills to ease Xandi’s pain.
Ulrich brushed his fingertip over the baby’s satiny cheek. “It’s frightening, isn’t it, the responsibility you feel holding one that tiny? I remember when Camille delivered Tianna. The doctor handed that tiny bundle to me and all I could do was stare and worry about her future.”
Anton sighed, but it was a contented sound. “I know. I can already feel the changes fatherhood has made in my perceptions, the sense I have of myself and those around me. It’s good, though, my friend. All good. These little ones won’t grow up wondering why they’re different, wondering what drives them to be so unlike their friends. They’ll know their heritage, their potential.”
Ulrich nodded, lost in memories and old regrets. He’d not been so open with Tia. His daughter hadn’t known a thing about the Chanku, beyond the fairy tales her mother had told her as a youngster. Thank goodness all had turned out so well.
“I have a favor to ask of you, but I’ll not be unhappy should you refuse.”
“A favor? Of me?” Ulrich sat back in his chair and looked closely at Anton, the acknowledged leader of the Chanku. He was a shapeshifter as well as a powerful wizard adept at many arcane skills, and it was difficult imagining Anton needing anything from anyone.
He