Devin’s car pulled out, and Rafe followed him.
She forced her fingers to unclench. “Worry is what I do. I’m a mother.”
Rafe glanced at her, then back at the road. “How exactly did you come to be the mother of feline shifters?”
She considered telling Rafe the truth, but she didn’t want to upset him more. He was already protective of her. If he knew she’d spent time inside an experimental center, probably the same kind Jon referenced even if it had only been for a couple of hours, Rafe would flip out. She didn’t want to chance that while driving. One accident was enough. Her heart couldn’t take another.
Once they made it to her house and the boys were safe, she’d tell Rafe everything. He’d have questions, no doubt. Lots of them. He’d also need her comfort. After the story he’d shared, it be easy to imagine his sister locked away in a warehouse too.
“I found them behind a Dumpster.” At least that much was true. Sort of.
She had huddled there with Seth and Levi’s mother after they’d gotten out of their cells. It was then that Jazz had learned she was the only one leaving.
“They were babies?”
“Yes.” A couple of days old. If Jazz hadn’t run with them, they would’ve been taken away the following morning. For more experiments. They’d already disappeared once while she’d been there.
“So you took them?”
“Yes. I knew they weren’t quite…normal, so I kept them.”
“How did you know they were different? Multi-animal shifters don’t shift until after their first birthday or so.”
The day she’d walked into their bedroom and found a tiger cub in one crib and a lion in the other was one she’d never forget. Shell-shocked was putting it mildly. After a year of taking care of normal babies and all the joys and pains that went with it, she’d hadn’t known what to do. Their birth mother had never gone into specifics of what raising shifters would entail.
Jazz had sat down in the middle of the safari-decorated room and cried. When Levi, in his little lion form, started whimpering, she’d gone to him. It had taken patience, along with plenty of trial and error, but she’d ended up with two amazing kids, if she did say so herself.
“Your boys. What made you think they were different?” Rafe asked again, pulling her back to the present.
“Their eyes glowed.”
Rafe studied her for so long she feared they’d have a repeat of the accident from earlier in the morning, but he finally faced the road.
“They must’ve been only days old. It’s odd that their mother wasn’t around.”
“I don’t know what happened to her.” But she did. Seth and Levi’s mother had slipped back into the warehouse to save as many other prisoners as she could. After that, though? Jazz had no clue. No bodies were recovered from the fire that had leveled the industrial facility.
Rafe’s nostrils flared, and his hand tightened on the steering wheel. The tips of claws pushed from the ends of his fingers. No blood flowed. His skin curled on itself and the sharpened nails slipped free.
The sight of them sped her pulse. She scrambled as far from him as the confines of the car would allow. He glanced at her and cursed. He breathed roughly for a few moments, but finally, the claws retracted, and the tension in his limbs eased.
“I would never hurt you. Do not be afraid of me.”
“I can’t help it when you start to go all furry on me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you. That’s the last thing I want, but I can tell you’re keeping details from me. Don’t. No matter what they are, we need to face them.”
She dipped her head. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just that so much has happened today.”
“I know.” He caressed her thigh, a gentle show of comfort that made her feel like a jerk for thinking the worst of him.
Thankfully, they turned down the road leading to Mr. Wilkins’ house. Guilt and sadness choked her, and tears burned her eyes. Five years had passed, but she still bawled sometimes when she remembered that night. If she started crying, she might not stop. No way would she allow that. Her boys were close. For them, she tried her best to be strong. To be their everything—nurturer, disciplinarian, and protector.
She turned her attention to the shaded yard. Mr. Wilkins, a stout man in his sixties with gray hair, sharp eyes, and a gravelly voice from years of smoking, sat on the Adirondack chair on his front porch. A rifle rested on his lap, and Peggy Sue and Bobby Rae, his older Rottweilers, lay on each side of his chair. The other three big dogs were across the porch as far as they could get from Kade.
Kade slowly turned his head and locked his gaze with hers. Her breath caught. It was obvious Rafe and Kade were identical twins, but with shorter hair and a hard glint to his eyes, Kade reminded her of a predator. Had she seen him at the bar instead of Rafe, she would’ve slunk away and run as soon as she was out of sight.
The car stopped. Rafe got out. A moment later, he opened her door and held a hand out. She didn’t move. Kade still had his unblinking gaze locked to hers. Rafe leaned close and blocked him from view.
“Don’t be afraid of Kade. His bark is worse than his bite.”
Rafe grinned as if amused by his choice of words. She might’ve been too if her heart wasn’t beating so hard.
“If you say so.”
“I do. Come on.”
Rafe tucked her into his side the moment she got out of his SUV, but they didn’t walk toward the house. Rafe and Kade stared at each other for a long moment. She glanced between them. She was sure there was some significance to the display. No doubt it involved her, but she couldn’t guess what. Their faces
