“Oh, hello,” John greeted to someone behind Isabelle. “Are you new to The Enclave?”
Slowly, she looked behind her. Not that she needed to see who it was.
Ransom stood there; eyebrows snapped together. “I just moved in. Hello, Isabelle.”
She swallowed as her mouth went dry at the sound of his low, raspy voice. It didn’t help that he looked damned sexy in his usual attire of jeans and a T-shirt. The fabric of his shirt stretched across his broad chest enticingly, and covered the tattoos that she knew covered most of his upper torso. Quickly, she turned her head back to Jared and John, who looked at each other with strange expressions on their faces.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend, Isabelle?” Jared asked.
It took her another second to recover. “This is Ransom,” she grumbled. “Lucas’s guest from out of town. Ransom, this is John and Jared Patrick.”
“And this is Alessandro, Evan, and Kier,” Jared introduced, motioning to each of the pups. “We’re all volunteering as babysitters this morning.”
“Why don’t you join us, Mr. Ransom?” John said. “I have more coffee if you like.”
“It’s Ransom. Just Ransom, and I don’t—”
“Please, sit,” Jared urged and motioned to the empty spot on the blanket next to Isabelle.
Oh, please no. But her wolf had the opposite reaction, practically begging him to come nearer. When she felt the blanket tug and shift as he sat down beside her, her heart pounded in her chest like a drum. She tried not to look at Evan. Her wolf, on the other hand, yipped happily at Ransom’s presence.
“You’re a guest of the Alpha’s?” Jared’s eyes narrowed at him. “We must have met before at Fenrir, right? You seem familiar. Please do forgive me if I can’t quite remember.”
Her stomach dropped. Oh God, please don’t let Jared realize it!
“No, I don’t think so. I just came here two days ago.” He quickly told the two men about how Cross had recruited him to help with the fight and Lucas inviting him to stay. “Usually when I’m out in Kentucky, I wake up early and sit on my porch or walk around. I was missing nature, and I saw this little patch of green, and I thought I’d come out here and get some air.” He glanced disinterestedly at the children. “I guess you guys had the same idea too.”
“The pups have been cooped up inside because of this nasty mage business,” John said. “I thought it was a good idea to bring them out. Fresh air and sunshine are good for them.”
Ransom frowned. “Are they all yours?”
John chuckled and shook his head. “Oh, no.”
“Ours are all grown and flown the coop, I’m afraid,” Jared said, smiling warmly at John. “But John’s always been the mother hen type, so he watches the pups while their moms are at work.”
“Moms?”
Ransom’s question made Isabelle’s heart stop. Oh God.
“I think it’s pretty obvious who these kids belong to,” John said. “Look at those eyes.”
“Ah.”
Isabelle waited for the other shoe to drop, but seconds of uncomfortable silence ticked by, and he didn’t say anything else. She released a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
“So how do you know our Isabelle?” This time, John eyed Ransom with suspicion, his tone very much fatherly.
“Lucas brought him to Muccino’s last night,” she said quickly. “I was working the hostess station.”
“And so, you saw her out here and thought you’d come over and say hello,” John stated.
“Yeah,” Ransom answered. “Anything wrong with that?”
Jared and John looked at each other again—and Isabelle recognized that silent communication that often happened between spouses. Did they realize anything?
“Not at all,” John said. “Especially since you helped with the fight. Thank you for that.”
“John fought at the Battle of Norway,” Jared said. “He was very brave.”
John laughed. “I was scared shitless and injured so bad, I thought I wouldn’t make it. The Alpha, I mean the former Alpha—that’s Isabelle’s dad—saved my life.”
She sensed Ransom tense beside her, and she sensed a trickle of anger from him. What was going on?
His jaw clenched. “Battle of Norway?”
Jared looked taken aback. “You don’t know about the Battle of Norway?”
He shook his head.
“Ransom is a Lone Wolf,” Isabelle explained, then turned back to Ransom. “You were probably around Lucas and Adrianna’s age when that took place, so you wouldn’t have remembered unless you learned it from your father or mother or someone else told you about it.”
“About thirty years ago, when the mages first appeared, the final battle with them was fought in a small village in Norway,” Jared began. “They kidnapped Sebastian Creed, Meredith, as well as Zac Vrost, who was a pup back then. Anyway, that was when we defeated Stefan, the old master mage and his forces.”
Alessandro began to wiggle in Isabelle’s arms as he planted his feet on the ground and attempted to stand up. “Ma! Ma!” he babbled.
Jared chuckled. “Oh Alessandro, Aunty Isabelle isn’t your mama. She’s E—”
“Look at the time!” Isabelle scrambled to her feet so fast, she nearly knocked Alessandro over. Thankfully she caught him in time, though he seemed to enjoy it and giggled as she settled him down on the blanket. “Be a good boy, Alessandro.” She glanced over at the two other boys, her heart thrumming wildly in her chest. “Evan … Kier … be nice to John and Jared … I’ll see you both later.”
Her wolf protested, wanting to stay, to be near Ransom. However, she paid it no mind and scampered from the picnic blanket, then turned toward the direction of her building. Calm down, she told herself, though she picked up her pace. Her stomach tied up in knots. Almost there. When her building came into sight, her anxiety levels dropped.
“Isabelle! Isabelle!”
She pretended not to hear him and dashed straight through the door and into the building. Her finger jabbed at the elevator call button, and she thanked God profusely
