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Dalton

“ Until I Found You ” — Stephen Sanchez

After both Ryian and I moved back to the New Orleans area and ran into each other, I truly thought we were destined for a second chance. Kind of like in those books she used to read when we were in high school. It had been weeks before Christmas, and to me, it had seemed like a sign.

Especially after finding out she’d had my son—the same one I’d been having dreams and visions of for over a year. Though at the time, I hadn’t realized he was my son.

Though Ryian and I had wild chemistry, we were also both extremely stubborn. The last couple of months had been filled with some crazy sex and a lot of head-butting. She was insisting on taking things slow as far as our relationship went because of Anson.

My argument was that Anson knew I was his father, and I knew I wanted to be with her. Despite the years that had passed and the angry impulsiveness I’d initially experienced, my feelings for her were just as strong as they were before she disappeared.

That left me thinking that she was the one who actually wasn’t sure she wanted to be with me.

Valentine’s Day was coming up. Time to pull out all the stops.

I had been gathering all of her favorite things. What started out as a smallish basket had now become a laundry basket. It was full of so much stuff that I told myself I might need to up my gym workout to carry it.

“This is getting a little ridiculous,” Dallas muttered as he stood there watching me try to cram Ryian’s favorite gummy bears in with the rest of the shit. “Valentine’s Day is still two weeks away—and she’s not your girlfriend.”

With a scowl, I rearranged the items and didn’t make eye contact. “Fuck off.”

“Whatever, man. You do you,” he replied. “Is she bringing Anson by tonight?”

My brother had developed a fondness for my son. Yet it had nothing on the love I had for him. It was crazy that I’d only known of his existence for about two months. He was the coolest little kid I’d ever met. Then there was the fact that we were so much alike it was a little scary.

“No, she’s working until eleven tonight because someone is out sick. I’m running over to her mom’s to grab him now. I should’ve driven my truck to the shop so I could’ve gone straight to get him. But I wasn’t anticipating my client having a panic attack that set us back almost an hour. Wanna ride with?”

“Wish I could, but Dexter is coming over to watch the game.”

My brother was a huge hockey fan, and the Austin Amurs was his favorite team. Turned out, Dexter was a fan too. Then again, Dex was raised up in Minnesota playing hockey as a kid so that was no surprise. He’s actually friends with one of the players on the Amurs. I couldn’t remember which one, though.

During the time I’d lived in Montana, I’d become a little bit of a fan myself.

“No worries.” I tossed a towel over the top of the basket so Anson wasn’t tempted to dig into it when he got here. Valentine’s Day was Ryian’s favorite holiday—or it used to be anyway. I wanted it to be perfect. “Okay, I’m out then. We’ll be back in a bit. Want me to stop by and pick up some stuff for dinner?”

“Sounds good.” He opened the new fridge I’d bought and pulled out a beer. The house was still a work in progress, but it was coming along. I’d hoped that Ryian and Anson would be living there with me, but she’d dug in her pretty little heels. They were still living at her mom’s.

I grabbed my keys and went outside.

As I opened the door to my truck, I was momentarily blinded, and all my muscles seemed to freeze. The scene that unfolded before my eyes had my dick twitching in my jeans.

Skin on skin, her hands slid up my sides as her lips trailed kisses down my abdomen. I was vaguely aware of the trickle of sweat that ran down my temple and along my jaw, but locked in my vision, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.

As she inched lower, I grabbed the headboard. Then she lifted her head with a wicked grin, and I roared in disbelief. My visions weren’t always clear, and I couldn’t tell who she was, but I definitely knew that it wasn’t Ryian.

What the fuck?

As the me in the vision reached out to lovingly touch her face, I was snapped back to reality. My stomach churned at the thought of being with someone other than Ryian. The fact that it didn’t seem like I wanted to be there didn’t make it any better. No way was I letting that shit happen.

Shaken to my core, I climbed into the driver’s seat and backed out of the driveway. By the time I reached Ryian’s mom’s, I had calmed down. I parked in the hardware store parking lot and went in the back door.

The bell rang out, and Ralph looked up from where he was setting up an end-cap display. In greeting, he gave me a wide grin. “Dalton. You here for that little hellion you created?”

“Dad!” I heard shouted from around the corner, followed by the slap of shoes on the concrete floor, and I chuckled. The blond-haired boy in question barreled into me so hard I actually stumbled back half a step. After quickly recovering, I scooped him up.

“Have you been trouble for Gigi and Mr. Ralph?” I asked him with forced sternness. He was so damn cute I really had a hard time getting after him. It was something I was working on.

“No way! It was an assident.” His brow pinched in the center and his bottom lip protruded.

Ralph’s brows shot up.

“Do I even want to know?” I asked the older man.

“No, you don’t,” he muttered as he fought a chuckle.

Anson guiltily buried his face into my neck.

“Sorry the last appointment took longer than I anticipated,” I apologized. I’d thought it would be a super short day because I only had two clients with what were supposed to be small pieces they wanted done.

“Ahh, it’s all good, Dalton,” Ralph assured me.

“Hey, Dalton,” Mrs. Buchanan’s tired voice sounded from the end of the aisle. I looked up to see her resting a hand on her head.

“Amy, why don’t you go upstairs and put your feet up? I can handle the store.” Ralph’s deep voice rumbled from behind me. A fool could see that he had feelings for her, yet it seemed like they stubbornly refused to address it. Or maybe she didn’t know, and it only seemed obvious because I was a guy and he looked at Ryian’s mom the way I looked at Ryian.

“I think I might,” she murmured. The fact that she was agreeable to his offer told me how crappy she must be feeling. Though her doctors were optimistic that they caught her breast cancer early, I knew the radiation treatments were still taking a toll on her.

Once she was upstairs, I turned to Ralph. “How is she really doing?”

Ralph sighed. “She’s sticking to her diet and following the oncologist’s instructions to the T, but she’s stubborn and isn’t accepting a lot of help.”

“I gathered as much from things Ryian has said.”

“I’m glad you were able to come and get Anson. He’s a good boy, but rambunctious, and that’s a lot on her. Though you’d never get her to admit that,” Ralph quietly explained.

“Do you need me to stick around to help out with the store?”

“Nah. Corky will be here in less than an hour. With it being a Tuesday, we likely won’t be very busy. You go spend time with that boy of yours.” With a polite but dismissive nod, he went back to work.

“Well, looks like it’s you and me, little buddy,” I told Anson as we left the store. We passed a guy in business attire as we exited the building, and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. When I glanced over my shoulder, he was staring at me.

Boldly, I held his gaze. I was pretty sure I didn’t know him. What the fuck was his deal?

“Daddy, why he have black shadows wiff him?” Anson asked with a shiver that shook his entire small body.

“Uh, I’m not sure, buddy.” Unsure what to say to that, it was the best I could do. I got him buckled up in the toddler seat I’d bought him for my truck. I figured he and I could swing by to get some groceries for dinner.

Chambers was on the way, so we turned into the parking lot. Talk about déjà vu. Pulling into that lot was like being tossed back in time, despite the fact that the truck I now drove wasn’t that old beater I used to have. I hadn’t been in there since I left. I’d felt bad about not giving them more notice.

After releasing Anson from his seat, we went inside. All of the cashiers seemed new.

We grabbed a cart, and Anson insisted on helping me push instead of riding in it. Slowly but surely, we got what we needed to make pasta, then made our way to the checkout.

“Dalton?” I heard someone say and turned to look. A blonde woman was approaching, and she gave me a brilliant smile as she stopped in front of my son and me.

“Do I know you?” I curiously asked.

“What? I can’t believe you don’t recognize me!” She giggled as she reached out and gave me a playful swat on my upper arm. “We worked together here for over a year. You were my knight in shining armor when my car wouldn’t start.”

When I continued to stare at her without responding to her attempt at familiarity, she seemed to get the hint. An awkwardness settled over us that was broken by Anson shaking my jeans and saying, “I’m hungwee.”

That’s when she realized I wasn’t alone. “Ohhh… Who is this little guy?” She crouched down to Anson’s level. “Hi! I’m Annette. Who are you?”

“I don’t like her, Daddy.” Anson scowled and leaned further into my legs.

“Oh!” She appeared shocked but quickly covered it up with a tinkling laugh. She stood up, reached into her purse, and pulled out a small notebook. She scribbled something in it, then ripped the sheet off and handed it to me. “Call me, and we can get together to talk about the good ol’ days here at Chambers.”

“Um, yeah, sure,” I muttered, having zero intent to ever call her. I shoved the paper in my pocket and got in the first available line. Anson and I quickly paid for our items and then left the store.

When I got home, Anson hopped up on the couch next to Dallas and started watching the hockey game. “That’s Uncle Dallas’s little hockey boy. We should see if we can find you somewhere to take some lessons.”

“I wanna pway hockey!” Anson excitedly announced as he jumped up and down on his knees.

“Anson, no jumping on the couch,” I corrected before I rolled my eyes at my brother. “This is New Orleans, D. I don’t think we have a lot of options for hockey here.”

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Dexter chimed in.

I shook my head and started dinner. Hockey in New Orleans… they were both nuts.

While the pasta was baking in the oven, I took the trash out. As I was returning inside, a chill skated over my skin. I paused and glanced around. Darkness was already settling in, and the neighborhood seemed unnaturally quiet. Yet, it was as if the night itself breathed around me.

Cautiously, I walked the perimeter of the house. Nothing seemed amiss, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched. The front door opened, and Dallas stepped out.

“Oven timer is going off. Want me to pull it out?”

I glanced his way, and he tilted his head with a narrowed gaze before he scanned the area. He sniffed the air, and a low rumble sounded as ripples of power seemed to emanate from his direction.

So it wasn’t just me.

He stepped back into the deep shadows of the porch, where he all but disappeared. Then there was a faint rustle, and a massive dog-like creature leaped over the short white fence around the small front yard.

His golden eyes met mine, and he slunk off into the night.

I quickly returned inside. Dexter’s attention shot to me. As Anson’s attention was locked on the game he likely didn’t understand but was nonetheless enraptured with, I motioned for him to follow me to the kitchen.

“Where’s Crypt?” he softly asked while I pulled dinner from the oven.

“Something is… odd outside. I noticed it when I took out the trash. He’s on the prowl because he picked up on it when he came out to tell me the timer was going off.”

“Do I need to contact Killswitch or Boom?” he asked.

“Not yet. It might be nothing.”

He nodded.

The back door opened, and Dallas came in, buttoning up his shirt. “I never saw anything, but I could smell it.”

“Smell it?” I asked. Finding out my brother was a Rougarou had been like something out of a movie. It was still mind-blowing that the thing of Louisiana legends was not only real but related to me. Though the fact that I had visions should’ve made it less surprising, it had taken some getting used to.

“Yeah. I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t human. Could’ve been something in the area or passing through, but if that was the case, why did it go out of its way to disguise whatever it was?” Dallas questioned. His frown deepened.

“You think it was here for us or for Dalton?” Dexter asked.

“I’m not sure,” Dallas admitted.

Dexter pulled out his phone, and I watched as his thumbs flew over the screen. “I let Boom and Killswitch in on the situation. Just in case. Killswitch said for us all to keep our heads on a swivel.”

“I’m going to message Ryian and tell her to call me when she’s on her way. I’m going to get her to stay the night here. I don’t like the idea of her and Anson driving home late when something is out there that’s obviously up to no good,” I muttered before sending the message to Ryian. I didn’t tell her what was going on because she was having a hard enough time accepting the “gift” that Anson had inherited from me. I didn’t want to add to it and have her think I was nuts or have her freak out and not want Anson to be around me.

Then I sent a message to Ralph asking him to check on Amy so that would be one less worry Ryian would have.

Hopefully, whatever Dallas and I had picked up on tonight was nothing.

But I wasn’t taking chances with Ryian or my son—not when I’d just gotten them back.