Romance: Wanted by the Alpha Lion (A BBW Paranormal Suspense Romance) (Heroes of Shifter Creek Book 2) (10 page)

              “And that means lots of prize money,” Freddie said. “And you know what that means.”

              “A hot tub for the bunk house?” Charlie guessed.

              “Two hot tubs,” Freddie said, jerking a thumb toward Sean. “One for me and one for him. That way we don’t have to share.”

              “We’re so glad we were able to come and watch Miracle Boy become a star,” Saba said. She help up her phone so everyone could see it. “Do you know your horse already has 2,000 friends on Facebook?” She flattened her hand over her chest. “I am an actual person, and I do not have 2,000 friends on Facebook.”

              “That’s okay, honey,” Freddie said. “The friends you do have like you a whole bunch.”

              Saba laughed. “You are a sweetheart. Maybe someday you will have a baby I can feed the cotton candies to.”

              “Hope springs eternal,” Freddie said with a laugh.

              “You should come out to the ranch and spend the night,” Ada suggested. “We will have a little fire, celebrate the victory, have a good time.”

              Saba shifted her weight. Baby Hamez was already falling asleep, with his little nose tucked up against her neck. “I don’t know,” she said.

              “I’ve got to work in the morning,” Matthew said. “We’ll have to take you up on it another time.”  He wrapped his arm around Saba and gave her a gentle squeeze. “Besides, you two need to be able to celebrate your victory without anyone walking in at an awkward moment.”

              “We have Dr. Daniels,” Ada said with a laugh. “They’re all awkward moments.”

              Saba laughed. “All I want is an opportunity to use the bathroom without an audience.” She shook her head. “Just one time!”

              Ada laughed. “I hear you.”  She embraced her sister in law, and gave her a tender kiss on the cheek. “Thank you for coming. Thank you for bringing Hamez.” She patted Saba’s tummy softly and tenderly. “Let us know how things are going on this front. If there’s anything you need, you let me know.” Ada smiled. “I’m sure I can rustle up a tractor trailer load of Saltines if need be.”

              Saba smiled and kissed Ada’s cheek. “You are too kind. Drive home safely. I will call you tomorrow.”

              Charlie crowed the whole way home. “Wasn’t Miracle Boy amazing? That poor little Sitts boy didn’t stand a chance. He thought he had the situation under control. He really did.” He looked over at Ada in the passenger seat and grinned. “Tell me, did you think he was going to last all eight seconds?”

              “I was starting to get a little worried,” Ada admitted. “Oliver really is a very good saddle bronc rider.”

              “He is,” Charlie agreed. “But very good’s just not good enough to cover our boy. Very good’s not going to get the job done. When he hopped up there, you could have driven a pickup truck underneath Miracle Boy’s hooves.”

              From his car seat, baby Michael made a noise.

              “It’s okay, honey,” Ada said. “Daddy’s just exaggerating.”

              “Only a little,” Charlie protested. “And when Miracle Boy got his feet under him for real, it was game over.”

              “He did fly right through the air, didn’t he?” Ada said, with a giggle. “I don’t know who was more surprised, him or the crowd.”

              “Oh, the crowd had absolutely given this to Sitts. No doubt,” Charlie said. “But they didn’t know what we know.”

              “They know now,” Ada said. “The next time out, we’re going to see just as many people cheering for Bad Ass 2 as there were cheering for Oliver.”

              Charlie looked at his wife out of the corner of his eye. “What did you just call our colt?”

              She blushed. “You heard me.”

              “I’m not sure I did, actually.” Charlie laughed. “All this time, you’ve been giving everyone hell for calling him that.”

              “Maybe he had to earn it,” Ada said. “It’s one thing to have a name because that’s what your Daddy hung on you.” She shook her head. “It’s another situation entirely when you get out there in the arena and throw down a performance like that.” She beamed. “His first outing ever.Debut performance.The most bad ass rider in the circuit right now. And who walks away with their head held high?”

              “Tell me, honey,” Charlie said. “Who?”

              “Bad Ass 2, that’s who.” Ada laughed. “I can’t believe Oliver Sitts sought you out to shake your hand.”

              “Well,” Charlie said, clearly pleased as punch. “It’s not every day he finds a horse that he can’t ride.”

              “And if Oliver Sitts can’t ride him, he can’t be ridden.” Ada sighed a happy sigh. “I can hear those stud fees going up, up, up as we speak.”

              “Spoken like a true rancher’s wife,” Charlie said with a grin.

              Ada reached over and took her husband’s free hand. “Who would have thought it turned out like this?”

              He smiled. “It’s been an adventure. When I first met you, I was about to lose the whole ranch because Grandpa Chuck couldn’t pay his taxes.” He looked back over his shoulder at the horse trailer they were towing back to the ranch. “And now the prize money this one won tonight is more than enough to cover that entire bill.”

              “You’d better make sure to declare these winnings properly,” Ada said. “I doubt the IRS is going to be quite this lenient the second time around.”

              “I don’t know,” Charlie said with a laugh. He squeezed his wife’s hand. “I apparently have a gift for sweet talking IRS agents.”

              “That’s probably not going to work twice, sweetheart.” Ada squeezed Charlie’s hand, just a bit tighter than he’d squeezed hers. “And I’m not sure trying it is entirely in your best interests.”

              Charlie laughed. “Don’t you worry, honey. I know I’ve got a good thing going here, and I’m not about to do anything to mess it up.”

              “It’s better than you know,” Ada said. She turned her head and looked primly through the truck’s side window.

              “What do you mean by that?” Charlie asked. “I know for sure life couldn’t get much better than it is.”

              “Well,” Ada said with a sly smile. “You notice how happy Saba is now that she and Matthew are expecting a little one of their own.”

              Charlie nodded. “That is good news. We can use some of this prize money to help them get set up for the little guy.” He smiled. “Maybe we’ll get one of those wild west cowboy themed cribs.”

              “Maybe we should get two cribs,” Ada said.

              “What?” Charlie pulled his head over and looked at his wife. “You’re…we’re…”

              She nodded.

              “But we already have a crib,” Charlie said. “By the time the new baby comes, Dr. Daniels will be old enough to go into a toddler bed. Won’t he?”

              Ada smiled. “One crib is good if you’re going to have one baby,” she said. “But if you’re fixing to have two babies, you’re going to need two cribs.”

              Charlie’s jaw fell open. He drove along for a few miles without saying a word.

              “Have I,” Ada teased, “at long last actually made my husband speechless?”

              Charlie pulled the truck over, turned in his seat, and gave Ada a long passionate kiss. “In the best possible way ever.” He grinned, his joy stretching from ear to ear. “Twins. Who would have thought that was ever possible.”

              “The miracles just keep on coming,” Ada said. She leaned forward and gave Charlie another kiss, sweet and proprietary. “I knew the minute I saw you that good things would happen if you and I wound up together. And I was right.”

              In the back seat, baby Michael let out a squeak. He wasn’t a fussy baby but he didn’t like it when the truck wasn’t moving.

              “All right, little man,” Charlie said with a laugh. He restarted the truck. “We’re headed for home. That’s where all the good stuff happens, anyway.”

              Ada reached over and took his hand.  “Times three,” she said.

              “Times four,” Charlie replied. “You’ve got to count yourself. First and always, you’re the best miracle in my life.”

              “And you’re mine, baby.” The former IRS agent squeezed the rancher’s hand. “You’re mine.”

***

THE END

INFORMATION

I have included a bonus collection just for you. Those stories are more traditional romance stories and are at the beginning of the book and therefore if you want to jump straight ahead to the main story of this book, click the link.

Click Here to jump to “Wanted by the Alpha Lion”

Chapter 1

“Izzy, you can’t imagine just how much I love you,” Doran said, his slight Irish accent tinged with emotion. “How much I’d love to lay you down and kiss every inch of your body.”

His lips drew close to hers, so close she could taste his breath and feel his stubble on her chin. She wanted to answer with something sensual and sexy, but her limbs froze under the pressure. She longed for his kiss deep in her bones - every inch of her wanted him.

“Are you not awake yet?” he whispered.

“What?” she replied, finding her voice.

“Isadora, you know you should be awake by now.”

“Wha…”

BANG! A book slammed right near her head, making Isadora Rosellini shoot up from her bed. Her father, a tall-for-an-Italian man with stocky shoulders, stood above her with a deep frown. She examined the room, wondering where Doran had gone.
He was never here at all, you idiot. And you wouldn’t want him here anyway.

“Do you remember that we have to pick your brother up from the airport?” her father asked.

“He’s not my brother,
Mario
” she answered, rubbing her eyes to wipe away the sleep.

“I’m your dad. Call me ‘Dad.’”

“Why do I even have to go? Can’t I just go back to sleep?”

“Your mother wants you to go.”

She fell back into her bed and held the pillow over her face, “Ugh, she’s not my mom.”

“Excuse me?”

She removed the pillow, “I’m feeling a bit under the weather. I think I can’t go.”

“I want you downstairs in ten minutes.” With that, he stomped out of the room and slammed the door.

Isadora sighed and stared at the glow in the dark stars still stuck to the ceiling as a reminder of her lost innocence. She once dreamed of fairy tales and SpongeBob, but now she dreamt naughty fantasies of her step-brother. She chuckled to herself, feeling overdramatic. Her orange cat, Tess, meowed at the end of the bed.

“Ten minutes isn’t enough time to do anything, Tessy,” she said softly to the cat. “It doesn’t matter anyway. It’s only Doran.”

She rose from her bed, still trying to wake herself up (and forget the passion of her dream.) Her legs bent down so her hands could grab a favorite pair of jeans from the floor. She smoothly glided to her open dresser to pull out a black v-neck t-shirt and a blue sweater. She quickly slapped on some makeup and gave herself a long look as the cat swirled around her legs.

As a child, she used to travel with her mother, Gaea, to work. Gaea worked as a medical transcriptionist for a neurologist firm, and the employees would say, “There goes little Gaea following close behind.” As Isadora grew, she saw more of her mother in her looks. She shared the hazel eyes and the dark, long hair, but her mother had a certain grace, an elegance, Isadora never thought she’d see again.

“Isadora! We have to go!” Mario’s voice boomed through the house.

“I’m so excited,” she said under her breath. “This is going to be so fun.”

Gaea died from, ironically enough, brain cancer the day after Isadora turned eleven. She thought her father would never remarry, that they’d live together in shared grief for the rest of their lives. But after four years, things changed. Mario met a new woman, an Irish-American divorcee named Angela, and all bets were off. It would’ve been fine if she didn’t bring her bratty son, Doran with her. He made the worse mess of all.

Doran had been living with his father in Ireland until he got into some trouble - his father sent him home to Angela for “better raising.” Though Mario never had a son or a troublemaking child, he took the boy in with open arms. Isadora’s arms were not as abiding - the only family member she wanted was her mother, and that would never happen again. Truthfully, she thought she’d never stop mourning – she’d only better adapt to being alone.

When Doran went off to join the Navy, Isadora relished the day. Although he’d grown to be a handsome young man with a perfectly chiseled face and eyes so blue she could swim in them, his attitude made her skin crawl. He had this smirk that made her want to smack him (even if it also made butterflies burst in her stomach and scrape nervous circles on her insides), and he always knew the cruelest thing to say at any given time. He was one of those kids that smoked behind the school with other degenerates. He had no future.

Isadora hated him.

She grabbed her headphones on the way out the door. She did not want to hear her father and her step-mother sing all of Doran’s praises on the way to the airport. Since he’d joined the Navy SEALS, he could do no wrong. She wanted to remind them about the time he tied a firecracker to their dog on July 4th (thankfully the dog lived through the embarrassment, but the hair on his tail looked burnt black for the rest of his life), or when he stole a Harley Davidson only to drive it into the local lake. The parental figures never wanted to be reminded of these stories, however; they only wanted to praise his few good deeds.

Thankfully, the earphones made the drive to the airport not only quiet, but also quite peaceful. She lulled herself into a pleasant sleep to make the hour and a half trip more palatable. She dreamt again of Doran being so close to her, she could feel the heat radiate off his body. This time, he leaned forward and kissed her, sending an electric current surge through her body. His hands, smoother than she expected, walked up her legs and under her skirt. Before he could finish his exploration, the car stopped and shook Isadora awake. She frowned, a blush still burning on her cheeks.

“I hope you don’t expect to listen to those earphones while Doran’s here,” her father hissed.

              “Well, I was going to go jogging with them, but usually just listening to earphones doesn’t do anything worthwhile,” she shrugged.

              Angela chuckled while Mario frowned. Isadora thought her joke was quite clever. She laughed at it in her mind. They walked out together like a picture-perfect family toward the airport. Personally, Isadora hated airports. They felt sterile and oppressive, like how she imagined the world of
1984
to look - travelers always looked expressionless, bored, and unhappy while waiting for their respective planes.

              One could argue, she thought, that the emotion came out when travelers returned home, but that wasn’t always true. Sometimes the travelers still looked like the walking dead. And that, really, she couldn’t ignore (perhaps for fear of an impending zombie invasion stemming from her youth. Perhaps she could blame her father for showing her
Dawn of the Dead
too early and ruining her life.)

              She sighed, deducing her irritability came from being woken up both rudely and too early.  “Hey Dad, can I get a coffee?”

“We are waiting for your brother,” Mario snapped. “Can’t you wait?”

“One, he’s not my brother,” Isadora snapped back. “Two, if you want me to be nice, I need coffee now.”

“Let the girl get her coffee,” Angela swatted her husband’s shoulder and pulled out her wallet. “In fact, get us all one too. Doran likes plain black coffee. You know what your dad and I like.”  Isadora looked at her blankly with the money in her hand. “I’d like a caramel macchiato, and your father will have a hazelnut latte.”

“Great, I’ll get right on that. I’ll be back.”

Isadora walked swiftly to the first coffee shop she saw. As she approached, it seemed like a swarm of tired people crossed to the coffee shop as well, leaving her in an entirely too long line for her irritation level. She gave heavy sighs as she waited behind a professional looking middle-aged man.

“Do you have a problem?” the man asked after Isadora sighed for the third time.

“My brother is returning from the military overseas, so I’m just a little impatient,” she responded. “Trying to get him and my family some coffee before he gets here.”

The man gave a surprised and apologetic face, “Please, go ahead of me. And thank your brother for his service.”

She nodded, giving him a grateful smile. Using the same story, she somehow managed to reach the front of the line. Part of her felt bad about being so manipulative, but another part of her
needed the coffee
.

“Hi, I’d like mediums of a caramel macchiato, a hazelnut latte, and a dirty chai with two shots,” she gave a pleasant smile to the cashier.

“Anything else?” the cashier, his nametag reading “Aaron,” asked.

“Yeah, could I also get a small black coffee?” She leaned in, bringing the cashier in so she could whisper. “Could you also put some grounds in there? It’s really weird, but my brother loves it.”

“Um sure. We can do that.”

“Thanks. He’s been a little loopy after going overseas for the military.”

“This is for a service member? You know what, I’d love to give this to you for no charge.”

“Thanks so much.”

Isadora received her coffees and felt absolutely fantastic about the whole thing. She’d return to her dad and step-mom, play a cruel trick on her hated step-brother, and still get her coffee. All sounded right to plan.
But what will Dad do if he figures out you messed with Doran’s drink?

She frowned. Maybe the plan wasn’t so great after all.

She approached her father and step-mother, noticing that Doran stood with them. He looked older and even handsomer than he had before (she guessed it was because he grew more stubble than he had when they were teenagers.) His hair looked darker and redder than she remembered; further, he wore a smile she never remembered from him. He looked absolutely elated to be speaking to his mother when he used to always have a brooding look.

              She breathed in and out, drank from her dirty chai, and approached completely. Doran looked up just as she walked up. His elated smile wavered for a split second as he unconsciously looked her up and down. In that split moment, he looked confused and awed at the same time.

              “Ah, there you are, Isadora,” Mario grinned amiably (
very unlike him
) and wrapped his arm around here. “I thought maybe you’d run off.”

              “I thought about it,” she gave a fake smile herself, then handed each of them their coffees. “Welcome back, Doran.”

              “Thank you, Izzy,” he responded, taking the cup from her. “I appreciate you getting me coffee.”

              “You’re very welcome, brother.” She knew she laid the pleasantries on thick. He took a sip of his coffee and swallowed hard. “How is it?”

              “Fine,” he responded. “Well, should we get out of here, huh? I’m starving for some of Mom’s home cooking.”

              The parents talked enthusiastically with the returned son, seemingly more than ecstatic to see him. She strayed behind as they all walked together while chatting and laughing. She drank her chai curmudgeonly, taking pleasure every time Doran took a labored drink.

They all piled into the car, the two "siblings" sitting next to each other in the back. Mario turned on the baseball game he's been missing and listened intently to the announcers. Though he played off well that he cared about others in public, when it came to baseball, he always had his priorities straight: baseball over everything.

“I love this coffee,” Doran whispered to his stepsister.

“So happy, brother,” she responded.

“I really like the extra kick of grounds in it too.”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“There were quite a lot of coffee grounds in my coffee. As if someone requested it.”

“That’s messed up. Maybe you should go back.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Angela asked, looking back at them with a twinkle in her eye.

“I was just talking about how good my coffee is,” Doran grinned at his mother. “Izzy asked if she could try it, but I didn’t know if I wanted to give any of it up.”

“Oh, Doran. I didn’t teach you to be selfish.”

“I grew up a lot with Dad, and he did.”

“Share with your sister.”

“I’m not his…” Isadora started as Doran held the coffee in her face.

“Is the coffee really good?” Mario asked. “I might want to try it.”

“No, no,” Isadora and Doran said together.

“I mean, it might not be your style, Dad,” she waved her hand. “You like the sweet hazelnut stuff.”

“I have been thinking I should try black coffee though because it’s better for you,” her father continued. “Can I try it, Doran?”

Isadora took the coffee and chugged the rest of it, getting a mouthful of grounds in the process. She tried to hold back her gags as Doran explained “Izzy
selfishly
drank it all.” Angela lectured them for being too much like real siblings and bickering like “cats and dogs.” Isadora wanted to say that cats and dogs don’t really fight - cats mostly ignore dogs, who sometimes chase them. But she held her tongue. Mostly, she had to hold in the vomit bubbling up from her stomach.

She immediately regretted her decision to play a practical joke on her not-brother.