Alpha's Rescue (Shifter Ops 5)

I pull the bag of frozen blueberries off my head. “Can I eat these?”

“Yes. But that’s not a meal.” He takes the bag and heads to the kitchen. After some rummaging in the cupboards and his icebox, he returns with a bowl of blueberries in what looks like ice cream. “It’s milk. My mom used to make this for us. Frozen blueberries in milk. The cold freezes the milk, turns it purple.”

“It's delicious.” I chip away at the icy milk.

“Go slowly. Don’t get brain freeze.” He sits near me, and once again, his weight on the couch makes me lean into him.

“My mom used to give me ice cream when I was sick,” I say between bites. “After she met Roger, they were really busy, but the nanny did the same thing. At least, she did before I went off to boarding school.”

“How old were you when your mom met Roger?”

“I was eight. Bentley was ten. Mom and Roger were really in love, and I was happy for them. She is a stage actress, and he cast her in a few movies. They met on set. She’s really beautiful… I mean, she was beautiful.”

“I'm sorry for your loss.”

“It's okay. My parents weren’t super present in my life. I’ve been grieving the loss of them since I was young, honestly. Besides, they died doing what they love. Flying to Cabo.”

Teddy’s brows slam down. “Was that a joke?”

“Um, yeah. Kinda.” I set the bowl aside and lick my cold lips. “Are my lips blue?”

“Purple.” Teddy’s gaze locks onto them, and he leans forward, close to me. “You have a bit of…” His voice is low and gravelly. His tongue flicks out against my lower lip, and I suck in my breath. “Ice there,” he explains.

I lean forward to press my mouth against his, desperate for the kiss I thought was coming.

He groans and catches the back of my head to hold me in place. When he kisses me back, I feel it everywhere–tingles that spin and dance across my skin. A pulsing between my legs. A shiver across my collarbones.

But my head also throbs, and I grow dizzy. I let out an involuntary whimper, and Teddy pulls back. “Sorry.” He coughs. “You’re hurt. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

For one terrible moment, I think he’s going to get up and leave, but instead he puts the bowl on the coffee table and turns me, so my legs are draped over his. I guess we’re done making out now. That’s disappointing but for the best. The pounding in my head eases with every rise and fall of his chest.

When he starts talking, his voice is so low and soothing, I find myself sinking deeper into his hold. “When I was seven, my Ma adopted my brother and me.”

I hold very still, waiting for him to say more.

“Our biological mom had us young. She wasn’t expecting kids. Didn’t quite know what to do with us. We were raised in a van, always traveling around, camping. She taught us how to live wild. Then one year, she decided we were old enough to be able to look after ourselves, so she dumped us here on Bad Bear Mountain and took off.”

I press my lips together to keep my mouth from hanging open. My parents liked to travel too, but they hired a nanny to watch Bentley and me when they were jet setting. Who abandons their kids in the middle of the woods when they’re barely out of kindergarten?

“She used to be in a commune with Ma on this mountain,” Teddy continues. “So she thought we’d be all right. But the commune had dissolved. Only Ma was still here. She found us sleeping in a ragged tent. Coaxed us into her cabin with chocolate chip cookies and built us bunk beds.”

“That’s…” I don't know what to say. It’s awful how he and his brother were abandoned. And incredible what their Ma did. “I’m glad she found you.”

“Yeah, me too. Around the same time, she took in my other brother, Matthias when both his parents died. The thing is, she'd always wanted kids, but she wasn’t in a relationship. After that, she adopted triplets. She took us all in.”

I blink back the heat behind my eyes. My estimation of Teddy’s Ma goes from Wonder Woman to Goddess.

“Matthias was the good brother. He’s always had his head on straight. Darius and I were half wild. Always fighting. I think we took our rage out on each other.”

“I can imagine. Teddy, that’s…” I still don’t know what to say. “I can’t believe you went through all that.”

“Yeah. Don’t talk about it much. Or at all.”

“I get that.”

He absently squeezes my knee, and I put my hand over his big, rough one. We sit for a while like that, holding hands like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Like I didn’t just meet this guy today under the strangest of circumstances.