Rane’s Mate(32)

He couldn’t lose her. She was his angel, and he loved everything about her. He loved having her with him where she belonged and in his house, well now their house. It was nice to have someone he could talk to and who wasn’t scared of him.

Laughing as she snuggled into him, he rubbed his hands up and down her back. It was so good to have someone willing to stand up to him and say what they felt without being afraid of the consequences. No one stood up to him, bar his father and his oldest brother. He might not be the tallest in the pack but he was the biggest body wise, which seemed to terrify people more. He smiled as he thought of his little red yelling at him earlier on, chuckling as he remembered her stomping her foot, which was the cutest thing he had ever seen. She was so tiny at five-four, his cute little redhead.

As he slowly detangled himself she moaned out “no” and grabbed for him. Rane kissed her forehead and headed for the kitchen. He was going to make up for his deception. Maybe making his famous lasagna with mashed potatoes and veggies for dinner would cheer her up. Whilst she slept he also needed to check in with all of his brothers and do some paperwork.

Five minutes before Rane was going to wake Kirby for dinner she wandered in wearing one of his black shirts. She looked so sexy, her curly red ringlets falling everywhere, and her eyes still sleep dazed. He grinned, knowing she had nothing on underneath.

She ran her fingers through her hair and came to stand in front of him. “What’s that yummy smell? It smelt so good, it woke me up with my stomach growling and making demands.”

Reaching down, he kissed her forehead, murmuring against it, “It’s my famous lasagna, mashed potatoes, and veggies. It’ll be ready in about five minutes.”

She smiled at him, and his heart seemed to explode. She was his sunshine, his everything, especially when she smiled like that.

“Wow, you cook? All my brothers can do is heat canned food, or re heat food.”

Rane pulled her into his arms as he laughed. “Well, I have nine siblings, my mother made us learn to help out. I think the only one in our family who doesn’t know how to cook, clean, and iron is Jamie. But we have Faith to blame for that, because she did all his chores for him.” He looked down as Kirby’s face screwed up.

“I mean this in the nicest way—I’m surprised Faith ended up with Kane and not Jamie.”

Rane smiled. He had wondered about that for a while himself. He let go of Kirby and wandered over to get plates and utensils ready and to set up the table.

“I don’t know if Faith told you how she became a part of our family.”

“No, she hasn’t.”

“When Jamie was eight, he saved her from some bullies. She then asked to see Jamie and Kane’s wolf. Kane had come to check on Jamie, catching the last of the fight. They were shocked that a little girl knew they were werewolves. She grabbed Kane’s hand and walked to our house.”

“Well, that just makes less sense. If Jamie saved her, why didn’t she end up with him?”

Chuckling, Rane continued as he put a plate of food in front of her. “How about you eat, and I’ll tell you the story?”

She nodded and groaned as she placed the first mouthful of lasagna in her mouth.

“Even though there’s a three year age difference between Jamie and Faith, they became best friends. I think for a while even Devlin was close with them. Don’t get me wrong, she got along with my sisters too, especially since there’s barely a year’s difference between them. But it was always, has always been, Kane for Faith, although he’s fourteen years older than her. Kane was twenty and was studying to be a doctor in the army. He would come home from being away and that’s when you would notice the difference, she would become his shadow, never leaving his side. It was kind of odd when you think about it—a twenty-year-old with a five-year-old following him around—but Kane didn’t seem to mind. He actually seemed happier when Faith was around. When I think of it now, it should have been obvious to us. A normal twenty-year-old man wouldn’t let a five-year-old hang off him.

“Kane never played with the other kids, but he always played any game Faith wanted him to, even playing her prince and swooping down to save her from Devlin, the dragon, or Jamie, the evil warlock. Jamie never seemed to mind when she left him when Kane was home. And when Kane was around Faith also seemed to progress more in controlling her visions.

“I once came in and watched them all together. Jamie was playing in the pool with our sisters. Faith was sitting next to Kane eating ice cream, slopping it everywhere. She was asking about bones in the body, and not just the normal simple bones like the elbow, but the finer bones and what they were called, what their connections were, and so forth. It wasn’t until I got closer that I discovered it was what Kane was studying at the time. The next day he left to go back to university, and a week later we found out that he had gotten the highest grade in his class in that area that he’d been studying with Faith. It went on like this until she turned…I think about thirteen or fourteen, the teen years, that’s when Faith started to get shy, and she stopped being his shadow.”