Page 17 of Wolf's Son
He jerks the door open, a crying Kale in his arms, eyes assessing me. “What’s wrong?”
“The power, it was out in my house. I was going to go check the fuse box, but . . .”
Wolf pulls me into the house, hands Kale to me, reaches into the drawer in the table by the door, pulls out a gun, and steps past me. “Stay here with him. I’ll be right back,” he says and closes the door behind him.
I blink at the door for a moment before it dawns on me. I’m holding his baby, and he’s crying.
Tilting my head down, I cradle the little guy and start patting his back gently. “It’s okay, little guy.”
I didn’t have a lot of experience with children, especially babies, but in my spare time in high school, I’d taken a class on first aid and CPR. I also took a course in early childhood development. It means I at least understood how to do it, just nothing else about it.
I try to do my best to calm the baby, and soon the little guy stops fussing and stares up at me. Immediately, I can see Wolf in him. He has his dad’s eyes. They’re intense and beautiful.
I step farther into the house, carrying the littleguy to the recliner, sitting with him, rocking him. The whole time, he just stares up at me while I do the same with him. I was still staring at him when Wolf stepped back into the house. I glance over my back to look at him in question.
He doesn’t answer my silent question, though, and his eyes go to his son as a beautiful older woman steps in past him. Behind her, another older man steps in, along with a man who had to be about Wolf’s age.
“Let me take a look at the little one,” the woman says, coming around and taking him from my arms.
The minute she takes him, I immediately feel the loss of the little guy.
I get to my feet and step toward Wolf as he moves farther inside.
“If everything at my place is okay, I’ll just head back home and leave you to take care of your son,” I tell him.
“You’re not going anywhere right now,” Wolf grumbles, glancing down at me briefly before looking back to where his son was being checked over by the woman.
I don’t bother saying anything else. I figure once his son is taken care of, he’ll be able to tell me what he means by me not going anywhere.
CHAPTER 8
WOLF
“Kale’s gonna be okay, Wolf. From the sounds and looks of him, he’s got cold,” Kendra, Mace’s mom, says, straightening from where she’s examining him on my couch. She lifts him against her chest. “It’s not uncommon. Did he show any signs of a cold before his fever spiked?”
“No, I’ve been keeping him inside. The only ones who’ve been close to him were those you already knew would be around him.”
Kendra nods, handing Kale to me. “Bride had the sniffles a couple of days ago, she might have unintentionally brought a cold over. You need to keep a close eye on him and make sure that his symptoms do notworsen. Give him meds for the fever.” She explains to me how and when to give pain relief meds to Kale, along with a few other things, including hooking up a humidifier in his room. “I’ll call and check on him tomorrow,” she says, heading for the door with her husband.
Mace, who’d shown up with them, doesn’t follow behind. His eyes have been going between Jacqueline and me since he walked in the door.
I had to struggle to keep from looking at Jacqueline while focusing on my son. I needed to make sure he was good before dealing with her.
When she’d come back over here, I hadn’t expected it. Least of all for her to tell me that the lights were out at her place. A part of me wanted to put it down as her way of making an excuse to come back over. But I went to her place, and I knew it wasn’t an excuse. Someone had been in her house. They cut the power instead of just tripping it. Jacqueline was smart enough to have gotten out when she did.
Hell, she’d been lucky not to have been attacked before getting away.
When I went to her place, I hadn’t seen anyone, but that doesn’t mean someone hadn’t been there. I need to get back over there and figure out whatexactly is going on. I found that her power had been cut, and no one was in the house, but that’s all I’d been able to do before Kendra and her husband got to my house.
“Need me for anything, brother?” Mace asks.
Looking at him, I shake my head. “No, I’ve got it.”
I wasn’t going to do anything tonight. It was late. I need to take care of Kale. I’ll deal with Jacqueline’s place tomorrow. Tonight, her ass could just stay here.
“You sure?” he asks, glancing in Jacqueline’s direction.
“Yeah.” I nod and jerk my chin to the door. “I’ll fill you in tomorrow.”
