Rane's Mate (12 page)

“I mean this in the nicest way—I’m surprised Faith ended up
with Kane and not Jamie.”

Rane smiled. He had wondered about that for a while himself.
He let go of Kirby and wandered over to get plates and utensils ready and to
set up the table.

“I don’t know if Faith told you how she became a part of our
family.”

“No, she hasn’t.”

“When Jamie was eight, he saved her from some bullies. She
then asked to see Jamie and Kane’s wolf. Kane had come to check on Jamie,
catching the last of the fight. They were shocked that a little girl knew they
were werewolves. She grabbed Kane’s hand and walked to our house.”

“Well, that just makes less sense. If Jamie saved her, why
didn’t she end up with him?”

Chuckling, Rane continued as he put a plate of food in front
of her. “How about you eat, and I’ll tell you the story?”

She nodded and groaned as she placed the first mouthful of
lasagna in her mouth.

“Even though there’s a three year age difference between
Jamie and Faith, they became best friends. I think for a while even Devlin was
close with them. Don’t get me wrong, she got along with my sisters too,
especially since there’s barely a year’s difference between them. But it was
always, has always been, Kane for Faith, although he’s fourteen years older
than her. Kane was twenty and was studying to be a doctor in the army. He would
come home from being away and that’s when you would notice the difference, she
would become his shadow, never leaving his side. It was kind of odd when you
think about it—a twenty-year-old with a five-year-old following him around—but
Kane didn’t seem to mind. He actually seemed happier when Faith was around.
When I think of it now, it should have been obvious to us. A normal twenty-year-old
man wouldn’t let a five-year-old hang off him.

“Kane never played with the other kids, but he always played
any game Faith wanted him to, even playing her prince and swooping down to save
her from Devlin, the dragon, or Jamie, the evil warlock. Jamie never seemed to
mind when she left him when Kane was home. And when Kane was around Faith also
seemed to progress more in controlling her visions.

“I once came in and watched them all together. Jamie was
playing in the pool with our sisters. Faith was sitting next to Kane eating ice
cream, slopping it everywhere. She was asking about bones in the body, and not
just the normal simple bones like the elbow, but the finer bones and what they
were called, what their connections were, and so forth. It wasn’t until I got
closer that I discovered it was what Kane was studying at the time. The next
day he left to go back to university, and a week later we found out that he had
gotten the highest grade in his class in that area that he’d been studying with
Faith. It went on like this until she turned…I think about thirteen or
fourteen, the teen years, that’s when Faith started to get shy, and she stopped
being his shadow.”

Kirby paused with a fork ready as she stopped and asked,
“How did she keep up with Kane’s studying? All those questions should have been
too hard for someone her age.”

Smiling, he continued. “We all would like to know how Faith
knows and does lots of things. If you were to see them that day it would have
been clear, it should have been clear to all of us. When Kane would leave she
would go back to Jamie. I think it actually helped, as it gave Jamie a break. I
love Faith, but she was a pretty full-on child. In the end, it comes down to
Jamie is her best friend, and Kane is her lover, mate, and all-around
confidant. The next time Jamie, Kane, and Faith are in a room alone and you can
watch them, do it. Then you will understand there has always been a
gravitational field around Kane and Faith. When they’re in the same room together,
they’re very rarely an arm’s length apart. That’s how it is with true mates.”

Kirby nodded, smiling as she asked, “Were you ever one of Faith’s
dragons?”

Rane’s smile grew bigger at her subtle way of getting to
know more about him. “Well, I would like to say that I was spared, although
when someone knows secrets they shouldn’t know and threatens to use them, you
kind of never have a choice. If I didn’t care about what she’d learnt, then the
waterworks usually did the trick and I caved. Most of the time I was away with
the military, or training. I knew from a young age that it was the route I
wanted to go. I joined straight out of school.” He paused and made sure he
looked into her eyes as he asked her a question that he’d been dying to know to
answer to. “What made you choose to work with children when you have an animal
affinity? Why didn’t you become a vet or something similar?”

Kirby gave a shaky laugh. “Don’t get me wrong, I love
children, and my job, but people already found me odd, when for no reason at
all animals would follow me around. I thought that to be on the safe side, I
would stay away from any field to do with animals. My brothers may be
arseholes, but they stuck up for me against all of the bullies. And as far as I
know they never dated any of the girls that were nasty to me or picked on me.”

Taking in everything she had said, he thought of all that
had happened. He had noticed that Kirby’s confidence had started to get better,
even in such a short time, and he was willing to do anything to make her as
happy as possible.

“Now that you’ve moved away from that town and you have new
friends and a new life, if given the option, would you change your profession?”
He looked into her beautiful brown eyes, waiting for her answer.

Her eyebrows furrowed. She pursed her lips and spoke slowly
as if she was thinking over every word she was saying. “Truthfully, I don’t
know. I do love my job, for now. I don’t know what I would do if I did
something with animals. I know I couldn’t be a vet, because I’m not good with
death or blood, guts, or anything like that.” She put up her hand before he
could butt in. “I know the other night there was blood and other yucky stuff,
but that was different then, having to operate or work on animals that you love
is not something I could do. Working for an animal rescue or the RSPCA would
really make the animal affinity show, as I would feel so bad for the animals, I
would probably donate most of my pay and end up with a whole heap of animals at
my house.” She laughed. “I suppose I could be a horse whisperer, or work on a
kill free farm.”

He laughed too. “Well, that really settled that question.”

She laughed along with him.

“So!” He tried for casual. “Do you want to go to your
apartment and get your clothes and other things? You need to make sure you have
everything you need for work tomorrow.”

She only had a mouthful or two left, as her fork fell to the
plate and she glared at him, shaking her head. “That was a cruel, mean trick
you pulled earl—”

He put his hands up in the universal sign of surrender.
“Please give us a chance, it’s all I want. I promise you can leave if I do
something wrong. I need you. Help me get the house ready for your parents. It’ll
be easier for us to get to know each other better if you live here.” Her mouth
shut, so he pressed on. “I really do need help choosing furniture. Ava got the
stuff I have now, but she didn’t want to get the rest, because she thought it
would be best if I left it for my mate to choose.” He reached over and grabbed
her hand. Bringing it up to his mouth, he kissed it. “The biggest benefit will
be, if you stay I’ll get to wake up to you every morning.”

Kirby sighed. “Fine. I’ll call my parents from my apartment and
tell them that I’m moving in tomorrow, give them the address and phone number, and
have a talk to them.” She raised her eyebrow as she added, “What did you say to
them anyway?”

He knew he needed to tread lightly. “I told them that I’ve
been seeing you for a while and have fallen head over heels for you.” She groaned
as he continued on. “I told them that I would love to meet them, as I have an
important question to ask them. I invited them over this weekend, and they
agreed to come.”

She doubled over laughing. After a good five minutes, she
straightened and said, “No, really, what did you say? Because I know it didn’t
go like that. It took me three years to convince them I was grown up enough to
move away. They call me every day, sometimes more. I turned on my mobile before
I came down here and it said I have twelve missed calls from them. So what did
you really say, Rane?”

Grabbing her around the waist, he pulled her to him and
moved them to the lounge, sitting her on his lap and curling his arms around
her. If he held her and kissed her, maybe she would be less angry. “Let me just
start off by saying that your mother sounds really nice.”

Kirby raised her eyebrow.

“Well, she did.” In a softer voice he added, “At the start.”

She laughed at him and snuggled in.

“I introduced myself and said that I had heard a lot about
them, and that you were apprehensive about telling them about me as I’m quite a
bit older and you weren’t sure how they would react, especially with everything
happening so fast. I told them I had asked you to move in and you had said yes.
This is where it started to get…dicey. When your father got on the phone…let’s
just say that he is very creative.”

Kirby was laughing so hard she was holding her stomach. “Oh,
I can just imagine what he said. My dad makes my brothers look like pussycats.”

Rane frowned and hugged her closer. “I kind of thought I
might get a little sympathy?”

She stopped laughing. “You went behind my back, so you don’t
get any sympathy.”

“Well, after some discussing of how long we had known each
other and that we had meet through your friend, your mother got on the other
line and said her bags were packed and she would be here by tonight.” He
mumbled the next bit against her head. “I told them that your brothers were
here and not to worry.”

“Oh my frigging God!” Kirby laughed. “You had to play the
brother card.”

He grunted. “I invited them to stay this weekend, to see how
happy you are. They still wanted to come, but I convinced them to wait until
the weekend as we both work all week, and I told them that you are even helping
out at the military base. What got them to agree in the end was that your two
brothers will be here this weekend as well as my own parents.”

She laughed again. “I’m the only girl, and there are seven
years between Hayden and I, and eight between Logan and I. They tried for
another child for years after Hayden was born, and they had given up when I
came along. So I was Mummy and Daddy’s little angel surprise. My mother was
extra excited because I was a girl and I would get her gift.” She giggled as
she continued, “I always forget that she has an animal affinity the same as me.
Mum’s gift doesn’t seem to be as strong as mine, but she is going to know what
you are.” Kirby frowned. “Do you think she’ll know what you are, or be like me
and think she’s crazy?”

Rane kissed her forehead. He had forgotten himself that her
mother or someone in her family had to have the supernatural ability for her to
have one. “I don’t know, my little red. I guess we’ll find out on Saturday.”

* * * *

It felt weird to be back in her tiny two bedroom apartment, and
Rane made it feel so much smaller. His massive form looked like it barely fit
in her room. Her roommate was at work, thank God.

“Does everything in your room need to come when we pack up?”

Turning to Rane, she shook her head. “No. Don’t forget that
you said I could leave your house if you stuff up. If I move everything and we
pay the lease out, where will I go if you do?”

“You can always stay with Kane and Faith. You can never come
back here though, because it’s too dangerous, I won’t let you risk it. Can you
imagine what would happen if they found you?”

She gasped and took a step back.

Rane swore and came to her. “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
to scare you. I just don’t want anything to happen to you. I need you.”

He pulled her up so he could kiss her. His kiss started out
sweet, but as his hands moved down he cupped her arse. They were interrupted by
the phone as it rang and rang until she couldn’t ignore it any longer.

Letting go of Rane, she told him to chuck all of her clothes
into the boxes and she would sort them out later. Kirby answered the phone,
knowing it would be her parents. “Hi, Mum.”

“What’s this about you meeting a man and not telling us, me?
Of all things.” She groaned, as her mother continued. “Tell me you’re not
moving in with him? Your brothers said nothing. Really, all I got was ‘yes, Mum,
she is seeing someone. Yes, it is serious. I don’t know why she didn’t tell you,
Mum.’ So what do you have to say for yourself, young lady?”

Kirby sighed. She had never lied to her mother…well, the odd
little blaming things she did on her brothers didn’t count, so really, she
never had lied, and she wasn’t about to start now. She knew if she said even
one thing that didn’t sound right they would be down here ASAP, so instead she
said, “Mum, I really can’t explain everything over the phone. Please be
patient, I’ll tell you everything on Saturday.”

Kirby rattled off Rane’s address and phone number to make
sure they were the same ones her mother had. She told her mum that she would
speak to her tomorrow and assured her that everything was fine. An hour and a
half later her mother hung up, very reluctantly.

Kirby turned to find Rane with eight boxes packed and
stacked. “I haven’t packed anything breakable, because I know how you women are
about that.”

Raising her eyebrow at the last comment, she added, “You
women, really.”

He put his hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry. My sister Ava
can help you with the rest. I spoke to her while you were on the phone.”

“Yeah sure, Ava seems really nice.”

Rane looked miserable. He looked like an animal locked in a
cage.