Page 1 of Shifter Mates for the Single Mom

ONE

MADELYNE

“I want a sword,” Aidan said suddenly as we picked up the Legos from his latest building session. He’d made a respectable castle wall this time, gray and purple, with banners I’d drawn for him on some of my sketch paper.

“You want a sword?” I kept my voice warmly amused as I took another glance out the window at our walled garden. Nothing out there but leaves blowing in the breeze… and occasionally one of the security guys I’d hired, walking around in their dark camo and muttering to each other on their earpieces.

“Yeah. I want you to make me a sword. I’m old enough.” Aidan lifted his chin and pouted at me firmly, his pink cheeks and floppy blond hair making the expression less than intimidating.

“Aidan, you might be old enough for a wooden practice sword,” I started. But he folded his arms, stomping his foot, the fistful of Legos in his hand forgotten.

“No, I want a metal one like you make in the forge!”

He’s just as stubborn as Ben used to be. I rolled my eyes. “Aidan, we’ve had this talk. Most of the swords I make are bigger than you. You need to grow up enough to be able to handle them. They’re not toys.”

“Can I have a big knife then?”

I looked down at my seven-year-old and folded my arms. “Aidan. What do you want a knife for?”

Of course, he’d always thought the work I did at my forge–mostly weapons for collectors and SCA members–was cool. But he’d never asked for a weapon of his own before, and I could tell there was something more to it than wanting something neat and pointy to hang on his wall.

“I want to hurt the bad guys,” he said, and my heart clenched. “I want to make them go away so we don’t have to hide and live with guards.”

The bad guys. Matthias, my former lover, my stalker, and his crazy family. He had charmed his way into my life, into the lives of my friends at the Art Center in town… charmed his way into my bed, too. There had been a time when I’d thought he was my second chance after we’d lost Ben. I’d thought seriously of marrying him.

But then I’d found him out. The whole con game he had been running. Part of it had been playing the role of a romance scammer in person instead of over the Net. I had already been ten thousand dollars poorer and down a few friends by the time I’d discovered he had been playing us all. I’d warned them, dumped him, blocked him, and even gotten a protection order.

Matthias had not been amused. And as he’d informed me the first time he’d “run into me” at one of my art shows over in Taos, women didn’t get to dump him. He decided when the relationship was over. Not me. And he didn’t give a shit about any protection orders.

So now my home had armed guards, and I didn’t go out much. I had blocked an endless array of phone numbers, social media accounts, and email addresses to avoid his harassment and that of his crazy mother. I’d done my best to insulate Aidan from all of it, but… he’d noticed.

Of course, he had. He was smart like Ben, too.

I wiped my eyes and told him, “Don’t you worry about Matthias and his mom, honey. That’s the guards’ job. Now, let’s get this cleaned up, and I’ll go make us popcorn for movie time.”

“And lemonade?” he perked up.

“And lemonade. Now come on, scoot.”

I’d never missed Ben more keenly than I did now, with Aidan sprouting up so fast, wanting to be a hero. And us in trouble, though I prayed Aidan didn’t ever figure out just how much trouble we were in. If the team outside did their job, Matthias would either end up hospitalized and arrested, or plain dead on the spot.

After everything he’d done to us, I didn’t care anymore if he caught a bullet. His mother would wail and cry and probably sue us or something; she was as much of a greedy, dramatic crook as he was. After raising and endlessly defending that grade-A piece of crap, she deserved the loss just as much as Matthias deserved the bullet.

I don’t want to think about this anymore. “Hey, sweetie, what movie do you want to watch?”

“I want the one with the hot tubs and the dragon!” He was as bad with titles and names as I was.

“Uh… Spirited Away? Okay!”

Fifteen minutes later, we were all set with two iced glasses of lemonade, one giant bowl of popcorn, and the movie on our new entertainment system. One of the best things that had come of the mess with Matthias was the sound system, which I’d upgraded after he’d stolen the originals.

I can’t believe I let that guy and his mom around my kid. What was I thinking? But that was easy–I hadn’t been. Matthias had made me feel like a woman again, instead of just a soldier’s widow. I had been starved for that feeling; he had known it, and oh boy, had he taken advantage.

Only now did I realize just how little I actually knew about Matthias and his weird little family. They could have been into a lot of things, way beyond theft, fraud, or blackmail. They could also have connections with even more unsavory people. The prospect scared me even more than Matthias’ obsessive rage. But that was why I now had a security team patrolling the grounds.

Thank God I can afford them thanks to all the money Ben left us. With them around, I really don’t have to worry about––

I heard a sound beyond the dialog and music of the movie: a low, startled cry, quickly cut off. I stiffened, eyes going immediately to the glass patio door. What was that?

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