Rio's Fire (16 page)

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Fire’s hair out of the way, he knew the man was watching him. Rio seemed addicted to watching Fire suck his cock. Fire was just as turned on knowing Rio was watching him. He made sure he gave one hell of a show.

Fire loved Rio with all his heart and thanked whoever was listening that fate had intervened in his screwed-up life and had given him such a loving and caring mate.

He would be forever grateful for his black panther and his chance at molding the kids he was teaching. He wasn’t so sure about the molding part, though. In Fire’s opinion, it was the kids who were teaching him.

He pushed those thoughts aside, concentrating on making his mate shout his fucking name.

As he sucked Rio’s cock, slurping and licking the hard flesh like it was the gods’ nectar, Rio’s fingers began to trace Fire’s lips as he bucked his hips, driving his cock further down Fire’s throat. “I’m close, darlin’. Bring it home.”

Fire created a deep suction around Rio’s erection and used his tongue for added pleasure. He used everything he knew to give the man a great orgasm.

“Fire!”

Fire doubled his efforts as Rio came down his throat. He mentally pumped his arm at hearing the man shout his name.

“Damn it,” Rio said as he jackknifed and grabbed Fire’s prick, stroking it like a mastered lover. Fire arched his back and cried out as his seed shot from his cock.

His mate cupped Fire’s face and pulled him in for a blazing, passionate kiss that made Fire moan into the man’s mouth. Rio had a knack for kissing him like his mouth was fucking Fire’s. It was amazing!

When Rio pulled back, Fire felt dazed and so damn happy with his life that all he could do was give his mate a goofy smile.

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Rio’s thumbs caressed Fire’s cheeks as his mate gave him a wicked grin. “And for our next adventure…”

* * * *

Maverick walked from his office, slipping the five hundred bucks back into his pocket. It hadn’t actually been Fire’s money. The stupid-ass bookie didn’t forget to place Fire’s bet. He’d had to use the money to pay off some of his own debts. But to see the look on Fire’s face and have the knowledge dawn on the man that Maverick knew about his slipup was what Maverick had been after. The little show had gotten the fey to agree to get help.

That was all that Maverick had ever wanted for Fire. He may have been hard on the fey, but Maverick hated to see anyone go through something that was ruining his or her life. It just wasn’t in him to stand back and watch a person destroy themselves.

As far as Fire, Maverick knew what the hell he was doing. Putting Fire in the role of an art teacher was pure genius on his part. Who couldn’t fall in love with little kids? But, Fire was Rio’s headache now—although he was going to make sure the fey attended his meetings and stayed on a gambling-free path.

As Maverick strode down the hallway from his office he heard shouting upstairs. What in the hell was going on? If Cecil was torturing Nero again, Maverick was going to paddle his mate’s ass.

Cecil loved hiding Nero’s gloves just so he could watch the little human lose his ever-loving mind. He loved his mate dearly, but Cecil was a few crayons short of a full box.

Climbing the stairs to the second floor, Maverick froze on the spot when he saw a few people standing outside of Melonee’s bedroom door.

His heart began to pound hard in his chest and his palms became sweaty when Maverick realized what all the shouting was about.

Melonee was in labor.

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Dr. Sheehan brushed past Maverick as he hurried toward Melonee’s bedroom. Maverick had been anxiously awaiting the birth of his grandchild, but now that the time was upon them, he felt scared out of his mind.

What if something went wrong? What if there were

complications? Maverick closed his eyes and exhaled a long breath, talking himself down from the franticness he could feel building up inside of him.

His body was coiled so tight that it was almost as if he were the one giving birth, not his daughter. He pressed his hand into the wall, taking deep and cleansing breaths.

“Don’t you dare pass out,” Cecil said as he came down the hallway and grabbed Maverick’s arm. “You know she wants you in the room with her.”

Maverick began to backpedal, pushing Cecil’s arm off of him. He had agreed at the time Melonee had asked him, but hearing her scream and threatening to cut her mates’ balls off…he was good.

There was no need for him to be in there.

She already had Ruttford and Adam at her side. What did she need him for?

Dr. Sheehan stuck his head out the bedroom door. “Are you deaf?

Even the people in town can hear her shouting for you to get in here.

Move it,” Nicholas snapped the command before he disappeared back into the room.

On unsteady legs, Maverick slowly walked to his doom. He had never attended a birth before. Not even when Gabby—one of their resident vampires—or Heaven—one of their resident grey wolves—

had given birth.

Cecil pressed his hands into Maverick’s back as he propelled Maverick forward. He stopped short just over the threshold and then knew indisputably that he was about to faint.

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“Get your ass in here,” Melonee growled in a demonic tone. “You agreed to be in here for the birth of your first grandchild. Pass out on me and I’ll turn you into a eunuch.”

Normally, Maverick would kill anybody issuing him that threat.

But the way his daughter looked right now…she scared the
shit
out of him. He was waiting for her head to do a three-sixty spin as she spit pea soup at him.

He quickly moved to the side of the room when he realized that standing at the end of the bed made his knees buckle. Never again in life did he want that view in front of him. He was cool right where he was at.

“Oh my God, isn’t this so exciting!” Johnny shouted as he bounced from foot to foot. “Another baby is joining us in the Den!

How cool is that!”

Maverick always knew that Johnny was excitable, but he just wasn’t feeling the small guy on this one.

Not yet.

Not until he knew that mother and child were fine.

“Okay, Melonee,” Dr. Sheehan said when he moved back from the foot of the bed. “I need you to push.”

Maverick crossed his arms over his chest, tucking his hands under his armpits, his heart hammering. When Melonee began to push, Maverick found himself pushing as well. What the hell was wrong with him? His stomach was cramping and he was sweating profusely.

Cecil snagged Maverick’s arm and slung him back to where he was standing. “Oh, no you don’t. Melonee will never forgive you if you bail.”

Maverick began to chew on his thumbnail, something he had never done before as he watched his daughter bear down. Adam looked pale as hell as Ruttford pressed a damp sponge over Melonee’s face.

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Dr. Sheehan leaned back in and Maverick had to swallow hard, knowing exactly what the human was looking at. He wanted to see as well, but knew that even one small peek would drop him to the floor.

“Stop pushing,” Dr. Sheehan instructed. “The cord is wrapped around the baby’s head.”

Maverick ran his hand through his long hair as his heart clenched in his chest. Everyone grew quiet, all watching. This was the most stressed Maverick ever felt in his life. His breath was frozen in his lungs, his mind betraying him as it entertained all sorts of terrible scenarios.

“All right, hon. You can push,” Dr. Sheehan announced.

Ruttford and Adam began to murmur encouragements as Melonee let out a long and agonizing grunt. Maverick wanted to pull his daughter into his arms and tell her that she was doing a damn good job, but he was rooted to the spot, mesmerized and terrified at the same time.

Melanie glanced over at him, her long hair matted to her face. He could see the vulnerability in her precious eyes, and it tore at his heart that even though she had one mate on each side of her, Melonee was looking to him as her anchor.

“
I love you
,” Maverick mouthed to her.

“
I love you, too, Dad
,” she mouthed back before she turned her head back around, screaming and bearing down. Maverick took a few steps forward when he heard a shrill scream sound in the room. Tears began to moisten his cheeks as his throat grew tight. He smiled widely at the welcoming sound.

“You have a son!” Dr. Sheehan announced proudly as he laid the newborn babe on Melonee’s belly.

A grandson.

Maverick had a grandson.

He didn’t give a shit if Melonee was his adopted daughter. He didn’t care that she wasn’t technically his blood. Families weren’t always tied together by familial genes. They were formed by people
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who loved and cared about each other. Tangee—Melonee’s brother by adoption—was standing on the other side of the room, grinning from ear to ear as his mate hugged him tightly. Olivia—Melonee’s adoptive mother, who had come here a few days ago in anticipation of Melonee giving birth—stood there with her walker, tears of joy running down her pretty face.

Melonee looked exhausted as Ruttford and Adam clasped hands and cut the cord together. Dr. Sheehan wiped as much goop from the baby as he could and then swaddled him. The fathers held the precious babe first, but eventually he was handed off to others.

When Maverick glanced over at the new mom, he saw that she was sound asleep.

“What’s his name?” Tangee asked as he kissed his nephew on the forehead and then walked over to Maverick, handing the child off to him.

Maverick’s hands shook as he pulled his grandson into his arms for the very first time. He gazed down into dark-blue eyes and instantly fell in love. He knew that his grandson would want for nothing and would be well protected. He was a mixture of fey and human. Even though he wasn’t one hundred percent fey, his sweet-smelling blood would call to vampires.

Maverick would eviscerate anyone foolish enough to come near the boy.

He ran a knuckle tenderly down the baby’s cheek, chuckling when his grandson tried to eat his finger. The damn tears in his eyes were still flowing, even though he was trying his best to swallow them back. “I think he’s hungry.”

Ruttford carefully took the child from Maverick’s arms. He didn’t want to give him up, but knew the babe had to not only feed, but bond with his parents.

“His name is Xavier Maverick Brac,” Adam said as his eyes cut over to him. “She named him after her two great fathers.”

“Xavier?” Johnny asked, looking confused.

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“Xavier was her birth father,” Ruttford explained. “He was the man who sacrificed his life as he tried to stop Avantiana from being kidnapped.”

Maverick sometimes forgot that Melonee was given the name Avantiana at birth. It had been so long ago and they had referred to her by her current name for so many years that to hear her birth name always pulled him back into the past.

Maverick quickly turned his head away when Ruttford placed Xavier at Melonee’s side, allowing the newborn to suckle at his mother’s breast. “All right, everyone. You can visit with my grandson later.”

The new family needed to be alone together. Maverick would have plenty of time to play with—and spoil—his grandson later.

“
Our
grandson,” Cecil reminded him.

Maverick grinned as he pulled Cecil close to his side. He glanced over at Olivia and winked. She smiled sweetly at him, the both of them knowing that Xavier had a few grandparents that were going to spoil him rotten. “I stand corrected.” He turned back toward the room.

“Everyone out.”

Maverick glanced back at the small family with overwhelming pride, seeing Ruttford and Adam getting to know their son as he closed the door behind him.

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lynn Hagen loves writing about the somewhat flawed, but lovable. She also loves a hero who can see past all the rough edges to find the shining diamond of a beautiful heart.

You can find her on any given day curled up with her laptop and a cup of hot java, letting the next set of characters tell their story.

For all titles by Lynn Hagen, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/lynn-hagen

Siren Publishing, Inc.

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