Page 9 of Daddy Wolf’s Secret Baby (Fated To The Wolf #10)

8

Josiah

Z ac called a meeting early the next morning. He stood in front of the usual crew. “We’ve had another vampire attack. It happened sometime last night. This time it was a clanless deer shifter. Everyone knew Eleanor and loved her. She was a very kind and gentle woman.

“The sheriff reported that she had been completely drained of blood. She had multiple bite marks on her neck,” Zac said. “That is a clear indication that it is a nest of vampires responsible for these attacks.”

“Great. That will make them harder to catch and kill,” Conner said.

“I’ll have some of my people scouring the forest and abandoned areas in search of any sign of them,” Lucious said.

“We’re beefing up patrols as well,” Matthias said. “Between our three groups, we should be able to find them sooner rather than later.”

Josiah rubbed his chin. “Do you think that the vamps knew she was a shifter and targeted her because of that because it would be extra sport or if it was a matter of convenience?”

“It was probably a matter of convenience, although they might have considered it a bonus to have caught a shifter. She was found in her human form in a park where people generally like to walk, even at night.”

Matthias groaned. “When are people going to learn not to walk around in the park or on the mountain alone, especially after dark? Angel’s Creek is generally safe from ordinary crime, especially compared to other places, but it can and does happen.”

Everyone knew what he meant by ordinary crime. Once in a while rogue shifters, an evil witch, or a group of humans with nasty, hidden agendas found their way to town. Muggings, theft, and those kinds of crimes didn’t happen as often.

After everyone left, Zac looked at Josiah. “Let’s go talk to Laverne and see what they know.”

Josiah nodded. Laverne was the head of the local vampire nest that had a deal with the local blood bank. She and her family were very nice people and were very well-liked, whether people knew they were vamps or not.

She opened the door as soon as they pulled into her driveway. “I’ve been expecting you.”

Zac hugged her. “How are you doing?”

“I was doing a lot better before this rogue nest of idiots invaded our territory.” She looked at Josiah and smiled. “I heard that some congratulations are in order.”

“Yes, thanks. Word gets around.”

“I make sure to keep my ear to the ground about everything. I have lived for the last seven hundred eighty-three years by paying attention to what’s going on around me.”

Josiah laughed. “True enough. You look damn good for your age.”

“Thanks, but I’m sure you didn’t come here to talk about my physical beauty and matching sunny personality.”

Zac’s smile faded. “No, ma’am. It seems we have a problem going on in our community.”

“Sit down and I’ll make you some coffee.”

She looked at the shock on Josiah’s face and laughed. “We need blood to survive, but we can eat what mortals do. I happen to like the taste of mortal’s food, including coffee. I promise that my coffee is one hundred percent Columbian roast from beans and has no people parts, including blood in it.”

“I’ll take a cup,” Zac said.

Josiah nodded in agreement.

She motioned to the chairs at the kitchen table and set out three cups of black coffee.

“I know about this rogue nest from some of the children.”

Josiah knew that the folks she referred to as children were several hundred years old as well.

“It is led by a man named Christoph, who is infamous among other vampires. He goes out of his way to fulfill every stereotype about vampires he can think of. He and his group are predatory and evil. None of them care who they feed on. They will attack a child if it’s convenient and completely drain it of blood. Unfortunately, they also seem to get off on torturing their prey before they feed by scaring the person half to death.”

Zac sighed. “The stress hormones, cortisol, and adrenaline probably make the blood taste different.”

“That is true. Anyway, Christoph is like an evil magnet. He seems to draw every rogue vampire to him and his pack grows all the time and they do a lot of destruction. They have no problem killing us. The other issue is that the fear they cause makes people cast all vampires into the same light, making us targets.”

“I think that is the way for just about everybody. One or two people in a group gets negative publicity and everyone in the group pays the price, whether it’s police officers, teachers, doctors, or people from different cultures,” Josiah said.

“Yep. The adage that ‘all it takes is one bruised apple to spoil the entire barrel’ is true.”

“Thank you for the coffee. We need to be going,” Zac said. “Please keep your eyes and ears open and if you get any clue as to where they might be hiding, call me. You know how to get ahold of me.”

“I sure do. Be careful when you go hunting these guys. They are some very bad people.”

“You take care, too.”

“This is going to be a challenge,” Zac said once they were back in his truck. “I just hope we can find them before anyone else is hurt. I’ll let everyone else know.”

Josiah shifted and combed the mountain for several hours, looking for any potential hiding spot for the vamps. He didn’t see any sign of them and was extremely frustrated when he walked down the mountain and shifted.

The irritation disappeared when he pulled up to Jace’s school just as the bell rang. He ran out of the doors with a couple of friends, laughing and talking. Jace saw Josiah’s pick-up and ran toward it, waving to his friends.

Even though he had spent several hours roaming around the mountain, he couldn’t say no when Jace asked if they could shift and go to the mountain.

They talked, telepathically, nonstop while they loped over the mountain for about an hour and a half. Actually, Jace talked nonstop and Josiah listened. Jace told Josiah about what was going on in school, about his friends here, and his friends in St. Theresa. He listened, happy to spend the time with his son and that Jace was so inclined to tell him everything about his life.

Zahra was putting a large chicken potpie in the oven when they got back to her place.

Jace grinned. “This is my favorite. The top of it is the biscuits that are just like the ones from Red Lobster.”

They played Uno while the pot pie baked for forty-five minutes. Zahra won.

After the first couple of bites, Josiah smiled. “I have to admit, Jace was right. This is delicious. I think it’s my new favorite food.”

“Do you like food with a wee bit of spice?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then wait until you have my hot tamale casserole with cornbread bottom and top and a mixture of hamburger, spices, and poblano peppers in the middle with cheese.”

“You make a lot of casseroles?”

“It’s the easiest way to do things. I can make a casserole or two on the weekend and freeze them so I don’t have to cook during the week.”

“That’s a good plan.”

They played a couple games of dominoes after dinner. Josiah felt a sense of contentment settle in his soul. He was getting to know Jace and Zahra, and in his heart, he knew that they were family, even if he and Zahra weren’t together.

The thought made him pause for a moment. There were no rules that said they couldn’t be together. They were the parents of a very amazing young man, and Josiah had feelings for Zahra. She had been in his heart since she left, even though he never wanted to admit it.

Jace insisted that Josiah read to him before bed. Jace tried to con him into more chapters, but Josiah knew that Zahra had set rules, and he had to enforce them.

After saying goodnight, Zahra asked him to sit down on the couch and she sat in the chair across from him.

“I need to talk to you about something.”

His heart sank. Those words never portended anything good.

“Remember when you asked me if there was a man who would be following me from St. Theresa?”

Josiah nodded, his heart starting to ache.

“Well, there is, but not like you think.”

She explained who Elias was and what he wanted. Zahra included the fact that Elias had said that he would let her keep Jace if she agreed to go through the mating ceremony with him, instead of killing him.

Heartbreak was replaced by hot, white, fury. “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

“I just found out that he, or at least his goons, had followed me last night. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to. I figured that after I left, he would find someone else to harass. He’s a strong, good-looking, powerful man and there are dozens of women who would love to be his Luna. I never thought that he would hunt me down.”

“You presented him with a challenge. Men like that can’t resist a challenge. On top of that, he doesn’t like to be told no. He’s not going to let that go,” Josiah said. “You need to either move in with me or your parents so we can help keep you safe.”

Zahra looked at him, shocked. “That’s not going to happen. This is my house and no one is going to scare me out of it. Sebastian put in a brand-new security system designed to keep us safe.”

“You can’t stay here alone. It’s your job to protect Jace.”

Her face grew hard and she narrowed her eyes. “I’ve been taking care of him just fine for the past eleven years. You don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t do.”

“You don’t have to do it alone anymore. I’m here, too. It’s my job to protect my family, and even if we aren’t married, that includes you since you are the mother of my child.”

“No one is going to have that kind of control over me or Jace. Elias doesn’t get to make us move out of this house. He doesn’t get to force me to make changes in our lives. He will not take away our freedom, and we’ll not run and hide.”

“Be reasonable. It would just be for a short while.”

“I am being reasonable. There’s no telling how long we would have to stay with someone else. No.”

“You’re stubborn.”

“Thank you,” she said. “It’s one of my more endearing qualities.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” he muttered.

She moved to the couch and took his hands. “I promise that if I thought there was true danger to Jace, I would move back in with Mom and Dad. Right now, though, he hasn’t done anything but send me flowers. They weren’t even poison flowers.”

He nodded but didn’t like it.

Zahra looked into his eyes intently. He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, lowered his head, and pressed his lips to hers.