Page 71 of Frank's Felon
“Ah.”
Frankie started squeezing Frank’s cheeks.
“Is this a new game?” he asked.
“Yup.”
“Do I get to know the rules?”
“Nope.”
“I think you’ve been taking lessons from Delilah.”
Delilah chuckled.
“I asked Delilah to blood-bond me,” Frank said.
Frankie’s eyes grew wide as she looked at Delilah, excited.
“Now who’s playing games, Frank?” Delilah asked, glaring at him.
“No game, Del. Just filling Frankie in on what she missed while she was sleeping the other day.”
“Can I come to the ceremony?” Frankie asked. “I’ll hold the flowers for you, Del.”
“Where did you get the idea that there’d be flowers?”
“Books. Every princess has flowers at her wedding.”
“Ah, that explains it. I’m not a princess. Blood-bonding ceremonies don’t have flowers.”
“You mean I can’t be a flower girl?”
“Sure, you can,” Frank said, grinning. “But first Delilah has to agree to blood-bond me.”
God, the image of him standing there, with a grin a mile long on his face while holding a little girl that adored him had to be the sexiest thing she had ever seen. She wanted that with him. A family, the chance to faun over and read to a little girl or boy. A shifter who would always watch over her and their kids. And Frank would. He’d sacrifice everything for her, but she couldn’t let him. He was tied to this pack in ways she never was to her own. This was what a pack should be, what she had always wished her own had been. Functional, happy, loving.
“I’m not blood-bonding you, Frank,” she said, in no uncertain terms.
“Yet.” Frank ran his fingers down her arm. “For such a smart shifter, you really have trouble with that concept.”
Delilah rolled her eyes. Let him say whatever he wanted. He had started this conversation to keep Frankie’s spirits up, and it was working. Frank knew where she stood on the issue.
He was talking and laughing with Frankie as they walked, and deep inside, Delilah’s wolf whined. It’s the first she had heard from her wolf since she had injured her by holding that partial shift too long.
Her wolf liked Frank, wanted the blood-bond. As did Delilah. Every time she looked at Frank, she felt that pull toward him. It didn’t matter what they were doing together. Walking, carrying firewood into the house, or picking up shredded clothing in the woods. Just being with Frank made her heart soar, but she couldn’t blood-bond him. One way or another, she wasn’t staying with his pack. She had to leave him behind. This pack was his life.
Frank suddenly handed Frankie to Delilah. “Cave. That way, one hundred feet down the hill. Go!”
A white wolf, a male given the size, was running toward them at full speed.
Delilah grabbed Frankie and ran. The cave was just where he had said it was. She tossed a rock in, to stir up any animals that could be inside. When nothing came running out, she carried Frankie in, motioned for her to stay quiet, and then crouched in front of her. She wasn’t even sure she could at this point, but she stood ready to defend the child. Where there was one white wolf, there was always another. It’s something she had learned the hard way weeks ago.
* * *
FRANK
As soon as Delilah took Frankie, Frank shifted. The wind had been at their backs for some time, carrying their scent onto his pack’s property. Frank hadn’t thought too much of it. They were headed home. At most, there should have been a two-shifter patrol nearby. Enid and Iggy per the schedule. Unless something else had happened. Another attack? Another kidnapping? Damn white wolves.
