When Rheia turned over in bed, it immediately registered that she was alone. She opened her eyes and rolled onto her back. Being with Colton had been the hottest experience of her life, but she couldn’t forget the look in his eyes when she’d told him that she wasn’t ready to be claimed. She wasn’t sure if she would ever be able to explain it in a way he would understand, that for that level of commitment she needed to be sure. She knew she was close to saying yes, but needed more time.
He was a shifter, he’d grown up with the knowledge that, one day, if he was lucky, he would find the one person meant just for him. Growing up human, she knew there was no guarantee for her, she had fully expected to marry another surgeon, have a late in life baby, divorce five years later and live out the rest of her life as a single parent.
Now, the rest of her life was looking like it would last much longer than she had anticipated. She ran her hand over the indention his body had left in the mattress. What was with him always getting up before she was awake? Feeling grumpy, she got out of bed and got ready for her day.
She was still kinda pissed when she went downstairs in search of Penny and Colton. She paused at the doorway of the dining room and glared at Colton, who was completely unaware that she was there. Keelan saw her first and stood, the rest of the men following suit. When Colton turned and saw her expression, his face dropped. She walked over and pulled his face down to hers. The taste of him was more potent than coffee. Sighing she stepped back and had to hide her smile at his dazed expression.
‘I don’t like waking up alone,’ she grumbled.
‘You may have to explain that to me again,’ he teased.
Ignoring him, she walked past his chair and sat down next to Penny. ‘Did you have fun with Jaxon and Noah last night?’
Penny nodded and reached for her backpack as Colton and the rest of the men sat down. She opened it up and Rheia saw that the inside of the bag was filled with candy and small individually wrapped cakes. She looked around the table. ‘Where did this come from?’
The men looked down with sheepish expressions. Rheia’s eyes narrowed and she turned back to Penny. ‘Penelope Carmichael, did you hustle these men playing poker to get snacks?’
Penny shrugged one small shoulder and turned back to her breakfast. Rheia was about to scold her when she noticed what the girl was eating. ‘Are those cinnamon rolls?’
Ryuu walked in carrying a cup. ‘I thought I heard you come down. Here’s your coffee and yes, those are homemade cinnamon rolls, fresh from the oven. It was one of the many recipes that I received as a housewarming gift from the Alpha Unit.’
Rheia reached for the plate and snagged two with her fork. ‘Looks like everyone can benefit from a present like that.’ She lifted the warm, sticky pastry and took a bite. She couldn’t help the moan that came from her if she tried. ‘Oh God!’ Her head fell back on her shoulders and she closed her eyes. To her right she heard a low rumble. When she turned to look at Colton, he was growling at Ryuu, who completely ignored him as he walked around the table refilling water glasses.
‘I thought you had a man crush on him too?’ she asked surprised at his reaction.
‘I do, but damn baby. I should be the only one who sees that expression,’ Colton said pouting.
Rheia looked down at Penny. ‘They never grow up. Remember that.’ Penny nodded.
Winking at Penny, Colton simply grabbed an entire pan of cinnamon rolls and put it on his plate. Penny’s eyes widened. ‘I’m a mighty wolf, I need my energy.’
‘You’re adorable.’
‘My puppy.’
‘You are cute,’ Rheia, Meryn and Beth said at the same time, then looked at each other, before smiling. The men around the table burst out laughing.
‘Cute wittle puppy,’ Aiden teased.
Meryn elbowed him. ‘I wouldn’t say anything; I prefer his wolf to your bear.’
Aiden’s mouth dropped. ‘I can’t believe you just said that.’
Meryn turned to him. ‘Have you seen a shaved bear, they are fugly! If that’s what you look like under your poofy fur, it’s gross,’ she shuddered.
‘What’s fugly?’ Aiden demanded.
‘Fucking. Ugly,’ Colton said, barely able to get the words out he was laughing so hard.
Aiden’s face was like a thundercloud. ‘I am not fugly!’
‘I didn’t say you were, I said a shaved bear was. When you’re all poofy, you’re my teddy bear,’ Meryn assured him.
‘I don’t think that’s better,’ Keelan muttered.
‘Shut up, Keelan.’ Aiden growled.
Meryn whacked him again. ‘Be nice to Keelan.’
Rheia turned to Penny. ‘I’ll let you keep half those snacks. You don’t need that much sugar anyway.’ Rheia sipped her coffee. ‘So besides poker, what else did you do yesterday?’
‘Wait, she plays poker? Did you teach her?’ Colton asked, her his eyes sparkling.
‘Nope, that’s all Radek’s doing. The guys used to babysit on nights I had to work the graveyard shift. They taught her how to play; evidently she has a knack for it. Marco plans to take her to Vegas on her twenty-first birthday.’
Gavriel, Aiden, Keelan and Darian stared at Penny.
Gavriel shook his head. ‘She’s the perfect little card shark.’
Penny grinned and pointed to Aiden. Rheia looked up. ‘You did something with Aiden yesterday?’
Aiden frowned for a second then brightened. ‘I introduced her to my fish, his name is Jaws.’
‘What is he, a piranha?’
Meryn snorted. ‘No, he’s a clownfish like on Finding Nemo.’
‘Did you know that clownfish are hermaphrodites? That movie, if based on science, would be about Nemo’s father changing sexes to female, since the dominant female, Nemo’s mother, was killed. He then, in turn, would try to reproduce with the only other male, which would have been Nemo,’ Rheia explained munching away on her cinnamon roll. When she noticed how quiet it had gotten she looked up; everyone was staring at her. ‘What? That’s science.’
Aiden looked horrified and actually had a fine sheen to his eyes. He stood and started to walk out of the room.’
‘Aiden, where are you going?’ Meryn called after him.
He turned and held up a cell phone. ‘I’m ordering Jaws a girlfriend,’ he said, then walked away.
Ryuu clucked his tongue. ‘His day is not starting off well.’
Beside her Colton began to choke. He quickly swallowed the cinnamon roll he’d been chewing and laughter burst from him like water from a dam.
‘Oh Gods!’ he wheezed.
Across the table, Meryn was giggling. ‘He loves that little fish,’ she cackled.
‘Poor Aiden,’ Beth murmured, but Rheia could see the light of laughter in her eyes as well.
‘I wonder if I should apologize,’ Rheia mused.
Gavriel shook his head. ‘He’ll be fine. I think, maybe, Jaws was due a girlfriend anyway.’
Colton collapsed against the back of his chair looking exhausted. ‘Okay, I’m done for the day. It won’t get any better than this.’
‘Guess I’m not coming home for lunch then,’ Rheia teased.
Colton turned to look at her so quickly his neck popped. ‘What time?’
‘I have a couple of physicals to do today and probably some more work on the slides, but I should be able to get back here by noon again.’
Colton turned to Meryn and Beth giving them puppy dog eyes.
‘Of course we’ll watch Penny.’ Beth said smiling.
‘You better hope Aiden lets us have lunch today, you know how he gets when he’s in a bad mood,’ Darian reminded him.
Colton winced. ‘I’ll talk him around; the men need lunch after all.’
Rheia was about to respond when Aiden walked back in a serious look on his face.
Gavriel sat up straight in his chair. ‘What? What is it?’
‘Rheia, I just got off the phone with my father. The Carmichaels, Penny’s grandparents, they’re petitioning the council for custody,’ he said gently.
‘What!’ Rheia stood knocking over her chair. She scooped her daughter up, who immediately wrapped her arms and legs around her in a death grip. ‘No! She’s mine! I’m not giving her up!’ Colton was at her side before she could blink. He pulled them close, giving her something solid to lean against. Penny stretched out a small hand and gripped his shirt tightly.
When Rheia turned to Colton, she was shocked at the simmering rage she saw in his eyes.
Colton turned to his childhood friend. ‘They can’t break up my family,’ he growled.
Aiden held up his hands. ‘Colt, you know Father is doing everything he can to keep her here with us. But he said it will be difficult since neither you, nor Rheia have a blood tie to Penny, and they do,’ Aiden explained.
Rheia felt her world spinning out of control. When she felt hot tears on her neck, she knew she had to pull her shit together. Penny would always come before her own pain. She ran a hand over the girl’s hair. ‘Shh, Pumpkin Dumpling, everything will be just fine. I’m sure when they see what a wonderful family me, you and Colton are, they will reconsider. I think that they are so happy to have a granddaughter, they want you all to themselves. They must care about you a lot,’ she said soothingly.
Penny pulled her head away from her shoulder and looked at her. Rheia could see the fear in her eyes. Colton rubbed Penny’s back. ‘You’re needed here, baby girl, someone needs to teach me how to play poker.’ Penny smiled at him sadly and nodded.
Rheia set her down. ‘Tell you what; we’re not going to worry about this. We won’t let this destroy all the fun we’re going to have today, right Penny?’ she said in an upbeat manner. Until a decision was made, Rheia knew the best thing for Penny was to keep things as normal as possible, which meant she had to return to work at the clinic, despite not wanting to let her daughter out of her sight.
Colton knelt down in front of Penny. ‘I’m going to be hanging out with your mom today, but when we get home, we’ll do something together,’ he promised.
Penny held up her pinky and Colton didn’t miss a beat. He hooked his pinky with hers and they shook on it.
Meryn and Beth walked around the table and Meryn wrapped an arm around Penny. ‘Come on EGIT, time to get to work. Jaxon and Noah are already waiting for us in Command Central. They woke up early and snagged two pans of cinnamon rolls for breakfast and decided to get a jump on the day. I bet they can give you some good ideas for stuff to do with your mom and dad later.’
Colton stood and they both looked at Meryn. Rheia had to ask. ‘What is EGIT?’
Beth sighed. ‘Evil. Genius. In. Training.’
Colton looked at Meryn. ‘Don’t infect my daughter with …’ he motioned to Meryn’s whole body.
Meryn grinned. ‘You just gestured to all of me.’
Colton laughed and they gave each other high fives. Behind Meryn, both Aiden and Ryuu groaned.
Rheia looked at Colton. ‘Why does that sound familiar?’
Ryuu grumbled under his breath. ‘It’s from How To Train Your Dragon. Meryn and Colton have been watching it non-stop for the past two weeks.’
Penny began to hop up and down. Rheia looked down. ‘Is that what you want to do later? Watch that movie?’
Penny nodded and continued to bounce up and down.
Ryuu’s sigh was long and heavy. ‘If it’s for the baby, I guess I’ll allow it.’
‘Allow it?’ Rhea asked.
Meryn laughed. ‘He banned it. He said, that the movie in no way depicted real dragons, therefore wasn’t worth the time it took to watch. I mean, what does Ryuu know about dragons? It’s not like they’re real or anything.’ Rheia noticed the sly look on Meryn’s face.
Ryuu on the other hand was looking more and more agitated. ‘I’ll prepare refreshments later for the movie,’ he said shortly and headed to the kitchen.
Meryn’s grin was decidedly evil. Rheia looked at the smaller woman. ‘Did I miss something?’
Meryn shook her head. ‘Nope, just my squire thinking he’s clever. Every once in a while I have to remind him I’m not stupid. Anyway! Come on petite commando, let’s go see what trouble we can get into today.’ Meryn took Penny’s hand and led her from the room. Beth leaned over and kissed Gavriel, picked up her cup, downed its contents and headed for the door.
Aiden smiled at Beth in commiseration as she walked by him. ‘Thank the Gods for you, Beth.’ She winked up at him and walked away.
Rheia put a hand to her stomach. It had taken everything in her to send Penny out and about for the day. What she really wanted to do was scoop her up and run back to Jefferson.
‘It’ll be okay Rheia. We’re not going to lose her,’ Colton said, pulling her in for a hug.
‘I want to take her home, away from here. It’s all my fault for looking for her family.’ She buried her face in his chest.
‘You are home, sweetheart,’ he reminded her softly. ‘And don’t blame yourself for this. If you hadn’t contacted them, they would have found out soon enough. Lycaonia isn’t that big. We would have had to face this eventually.’
Rheia looked up into his eyes and saw the hurt her casual comments had caused. ‘I’m sorry, Colton, I didn’t mean that I didn’t want to be with you, or that this wasn’t home. I’m just scared and my parent’s house in Jefferson has always been a safe haven to me.’
Colton kissed her forehead. ‘I know.’
Aiden cleared his throat. When she and Colton turned to him, she noticed that Gavriel, Darian and Keelan were standing with him at the door. ‘We’re going to start drills. Colton, why don’t you stay with Rheia today? Adam contacted me yesterday saying something about physicals, so I’m sending Keelan along for one and scheduled for Gamma to get theirs today as well, since they’re the ones assigned to guard the clinic.’
Rheia let out a deep breath. She was surprised how relieved she felt knowing that Colton would be with her today. But if she and Colton were at the clinic, what would happen if someone came for Penny? She looked past Aiden and bit her lower lip. ‘What if someone comes for Penny?’
Aiden’s face hardened. ‘Then they’ll just have to wait for you two to get back here. No one is taking her away, Rheia, not without you and Colton here,’ he promised.
‘Thank you, Aiden,’ she said gratefully.
Aiden blushed. ‘She just grows on you. She already has all the unit warriors wrapped around her tiny finger,’ he admitted gruffly.
‘She’s very special,’ Rheia said leaning into Colton.
Colton turned to Aiden. ‘You guys head out. I think I want some more cinnamon rolls.’
‘Call us if you need us,’ Aiden said and the men left.
Rheia turned to Colton. ‘You can’t possibly still be hungry.’
He shook his head. ‘I’m not, but you should eat some more.’
‘I don’t think I could eat right now, I’d probably throw it up.’
‘Just one more, you haven’t eaten much,’ he pointed to her half eaten cinnamon roll.
Rheia popped the half-eaten roll into her mouth and chugged her coffee. She wiped her mouth with a napkin and turned to Colton. ‘Okay, ready.’
Colton walked past her and placed three cinnamon rolls in a napkin.
‘Colton, I’m fine.’
‘It’s for my snack later, but since you’re my mate, if you get hungry I’ll share with you.’ His eyes were filled with sincerity.
Rheia accepted it for the act of affection it was. She knew that if Colton was willing to share his food, his feelings for her were real.
*****
Colton sat between Keelan and Sascha in the waiting area. Rheia was getting things set up in one of the examination rooms and said she would be calling the men back one at a time.
Colton leaned closer to Keelan. ‘What’s a physical anyway?’
Keelan’s face became thoughtful. ‘You know, I don’t know. I just thought she’d take some blood or something, but if that were the case we wouldn’t need an examination room.’ Keelan took out his phone and started tapping away at it.
Sascha leaned back and extended his legs out in front of him. ‘Maybe that’s just how she’s used to doing things.’
They heard a banging and movement coming from the room two hallways down. Rheia was straightening the room after the ferals trashed it.
‘Rheia, you okay?’ Colton called out.
‘Yeah! Just moving this cabinet; be done in a second,’ she yelled back.
Colton smiled and sat back. He knew his mate was on edge about Penny. He was determined to take her mind off her worries later. Even though she hadn’t allowed him to claim her, the previous night had shaken him. He’d never had such an intense orgasm in his life, he was practically salivating at the thought of making her his.
‘Umm … Colton.’ Keelan whispered, his face bright red.
‘Yeah?’
‘I don’t think this is right.’ Keelan’s voice squeaked.
Colton noticed that the area around Keelan’s mouth had become pale.
‘What is it, buddy?’ he asked.
Just then, Rheia stepped into the waiting area. ‘Okay Keelan, you’re first.’
Colton was shocked when Keelan actually whimpered and looked at him with stark fear in his eyes. Slowly the witch got to his feet and walked towards Rheia as if he were going to his death. When they disappeared around the corner, Colton started to feel uneasy.
He turned to Sascha. ‘Do you have your phone on you?’
‘Yeah, why?’
‘Look up what a physical is.’
Sascha shrugged and pulled out his phone. After a few moments, his cheeks were tinged pink.
Colton felt his mouth go dry. ‘What?’
Sascha turned and placed a steadying hand on Colton’s shoulder. ‘Remember Colton, your mate is a doctor, she probably does this sort of thing all the time.’
‘What sort of thing?’ he demanded.
Sascha opened his mouth to explain and then shut it. Wordlessly he just handed Colton his phone. Colton began to skim the article before he read something that made his canines surged through his gums. He threw Sascha’s phone at him. ‘I’ll kill him!’ he growled and stood.
Sascha grabbed his shoulder. ‘It isn’t personal Colton; she’s just doing her job.’
Colton walked down the hall towards the examination room practically dragging Sascha along behind him. They were almost to the door when they could hear the voices from inside the room.
‘I don’t think it’s going to go in,’ Keelan said. Colton could hear the worry in his voice.
‘Of course it will, that’s what it’s designed for.’
Colton and Sascha froze, then leaned in closer to the door. Colton held his breath as images of medical devices floated through his mind.
‘I think it’s too big. Do you have anything that will grease it up?’
Colton turned to Sascha, whose horrified expression matched his own. What was his mate doing to Keelan?
‘Okay, it’s going in, just don’t force it,’ Keelan said, sounding relieved.
‘I’ve done this before; I know what I’m doing.’
‘Okay, I think something’s wrong, it feels off.’
‘Seems okay to me.’
‘Ow! Dammit!’ Keelan’s sharp exclamation had Colton and Sascha jumping back.
‘There, it’s all the way in,’ Rheia said.
‘That hurt,’ Keelan said, sounding dejected.
‘It wasn’t that bad.’
‘I have to admit, it looks a lot better. It will probably work a lot better too.’
‘I hope so; I plan to get a lot of use out of it.’
Colton stared at the door as her words registered. He stepped back and kicked the door in. ‘Like fucking hell you will!’ He snarled at Keelan, taking satisfaction in the way the blood drained from his face.
When he stepped into the room and looked around, he realized he had made a terrible mistake. Keelan was fully dressed, sucking on his finger and his mate were standing next to a cabinet, testing the top drawer by pulling it in and out. She hadn’t been performing an exam, she had been fixing the drawer.
Fuck!
Keelan took one look at him and Colton could see the dawning realization as to what his conversation with Rheia must have sounded like. Without a word he raised the window and jumped out. Since they were on the ground floor Keelan didn’t have very far to drop. Colton could see him running around to the front of the building and away from him as fast as he could.
Rheia turned to him shock and disbelief on her face. ‘What the ever loving fuck was that?’
Colton stepped back to stand next to Sascha; they looked at each other, then turned to look at Rheia.
‘Nothing,’ They said together.
‘You can’t be here if you do stuff like this, Colton. I need to be able to do my job. Go back to the waiting room and eat your cinnamon rolls,’ she ordered. She then looked at Sascha. ‘You’re next.’
Sascha turned to Colton with a huge shit-eating grin. ‘Sure Doc, you can fix me up, too.’
Without even blinking Colton punched him in the nose.
‘Colton! Don’t break them! I have to fix them!’ she admonished with her hands on her hips.
Colton shrugged and glared at Sascha who was holding his bleeding nose, tilting his head back.
Sascha held up his other hand in surrender. ‘I deserved that one, Doc,’ he admitted, sounding nasally.
‘Men! You!’ She pointed to Colton. ‘Waiting room. Now. You need to be far enough away so that you can’t hear what’s being discussed. Haven’t you ever heard of HIPAA?’
‘Now that’s being mean, baby, I know Sascha’s a big boy, but he’s a tiger, not a hippo,’ Colton said grinning.
‘Out!’ she yelled, pointing to the door.
Colton went to turn and leaned in close to the Gamma Unit leader. ‘You touch her, I’ll kill you.’
‘I won’t be touching her pup, she’ll be touching me,’ Sascha teased.
Colton growled and walked out of the examination room. The bastard flipped him off and slammed the door in his face.
Grumbling he stalked back to the front and threw himself into a chair. Without saying anything to the men staring at him he picked up his snack from Rheia’s bag and started munching on his cinnamon rolls.
‘Um, Colton…’ Colton looked up to see Keelan standing near the front entrance. He waved him over and when he sat down, offered him one of his cinnamon rolls.
‘Sorry I growled at you.’
‘No worries, it must have sounded terrible from your side,’ Keelan admitted.
‘It did.’
They sat in silence eating their rolls.
Colton kept turning his head and staring down the hallway. He knew Rheia would never betray him, but the idea of her touching other males made his skin crawl. Savagely he bit into his last roll. The more he thought about Sascha’s satisfied smirk they more pissed he became. Again, he knew Sascha would never even think about making a pass at Rheia, but he was in there with his mate, had her undivided attention and was being touched by her.
‘Colton, you’re growling again,’ Keelan whispered.
Colton looked over to Keelan and an idea began to form. He looked up and saw that most of the Gamma Unit were patiently waiting for their leader to come out, so that they could resume their patrol around the clinic.
‘Hey, Keelan.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Have any good revenge ideas?’ Colton asked, his eyes flicking to Quinn, then down the hall to where Sascha was.
Keelan’s eyes grew bright and he nodded, his own eyes turning to look at Quinn.
Colton knew that Quinn and Sascha were the ones responsible for turning the young witch purple right after Beth moved in. It looked like it was time Gamma was reminded why they were called the Alpha Unit.
