REGENCY: Loved by the Duke (Historical Billionaire Military Romance) (19th Century Victorian Short Stories) (29 page)

Epilogue

12 Months Later

“Listen, Rafe. I gotta go.”

“C’mon Kaeden, me and Luca are gonna hit up Banner’s new bar. You know, Roxanne is working there now.”

“Yeah, I’m not really not interested, good to see my two little brothers are finally getting along though.”

“Getting along? Hah! We are going to see who can get that pretty little bear into bed first. Winner takes all. Literally.” Kaeden could practically hear Rafe’s characteristically sardonic grin through the phone. Kaeden just shook his head. He was convinced his brothers would never grow up.

“Good luck with that…You know she has five older brothers, right? And they’re big guys. Really big.” Kaeden chuckled evilly, “and they don’t like randy boys sniffing around their little sister.”

“Hey, who are you calling ‘boy’?” Rafe’s overly indignant reply made Kaeden smile as he opened the front door and walked into the sunny yellow living room. It was cut off as he heard a piercing shriek coming from the bedroom. Heedlessly dropping his phone and the bag of groceries he had returned with, he ran down the hallway, his heart pounding like mad in his chest.

Another high pitched scream met him just as he pushed open the bedroom door and froze. His golden eyes widened at the sight of Amelia, her long brown hair caught up in a messy bun the way she often wore it, half of it coming loose as she mercilessly tickled the four month old baby, the source of all the noise that had just about given him a heart attack.

He made a sound deep in his throat, making Amelia turn guiltily.

“He was asking for it.” A sweet smile tugged the corner of her rosy mouth up, happiness shining from the depths of her dove grey eyes. “I mean it. He really was.”

She looked down at their child, just as he lifted his arms toward Kaeden and opened his mouth.

“Tgghhhiiii” He demanded. Kaeden swept forward, catching up his son, so small in his arms. He looked down into his own golden amber eyes, already half covered with drooping lids as he emitted one giant yawn and then they were hidden completely as he drifted to sleep. He stood, drinking in his features, still so amazed that this child was a reality. The sound of a soft breath catching had him looking up.

Amelia stood, never taking her eyes off of them as she walked closer.

“Hey.” She whispered, her voice sounding so soft after the raucous laughter of their child. “The little guy’s asleep.” She glanced up at him, her eyes jokingly accusatory. “How do you always do that?”

Kaeden just shrugged, careful not to disturb the slumbering baby still clutched in his arms.

“Why don’t you go lay him down in his crib?” Her still quiet voice took on a husky quality. She grinned up at him playfully as he turned quickly to do just that, but was stopped short at her next whispered words. “I think it’s about time we started working on baby number two, don’t you?” Waves of joy and contentment washed through him as he turned back to look at this amazing woman that fate had dropped in his lap, and his chest tightened at the combination of love and desire he saw glowing in her expression. He knew she had spent her life dreaming of having a houseful of children, and he could think of nothing sweeter.

A thought stopped him as he looked around the small room, and then back at Amelia.

“We’re gonna need a bigger house.”

THE END

Chapter 1

Jay looked into the sad, deep blue eyes of the gorgeous woman staring blankly back at him from the photograph. Her dark blond hair fell in soft waves to brush her shoulders, and she was wearing some kind of summery dress that had little lavender paisleys scattered like stars across the front. In the picture, she was standing next to a smiling man with his arm around her, but her posture screamed at him that something was off.

As a werebear he could tap into the natural instincts of his animal half to allow him greater insights into the things he didn’t always pick up with his human senses. It was a skill that was immensely helpful when he had launched his private investigation firm just over a year ago.

With his military background, and his supernatural abilities, it was a natural transition to the private sector after he’d finished his last tour of duty. Even though he was a born fighter, the violence of war had finally started to wear on him, and he had decided that a change would be good. Too many nights waking up in a cold sweat with images of falling bodies and the sound of bombs ringing in his ears.

His dark eyes were drawn back to hers.
Adeline
. Her husband, Blake Newcomb, had hired him to find his missing wife. He was the smiling man from the photo. He had come into the office begging Jay to help find her, saying the police weren’t doing anything. The man had been earnest, Jay would give him that.

There was still something off, his bear instincts told him. He just had to figure out what. First thing first, he had to find the girl. He scanned the chart that was paper-clipped under the picture.

Five feet seven inches, blue eyes, blond hair, Jay flipped back to the photograph, and a knockout figure with lush curves in all the right the places. He curbed his wayward thoughts, bringing them back to her description.  Probably going by her maiden name of Hensley.
Adeline Hensley.
It has a nice ring to it, he thought. Mentally saying her name, committing it to memory.

He knew he would have no problem remembering this woman. Despite himself, his gaze was drawn back to the photo. Her hourglass figure filled out the dress she was wearing in all the right ways, unable to deny the instant attraction he felt at not just her body, which was his version of perfection, but also the expression on her face. Intelligent, kind-hearted.

When he reached her eyes again, he felt the kick of his instincts. The same instincts that had saved him more times than he could count on the battlefield. He re-read the numbers he had scrawled hastily on the bottom, probably illegible to anyone else, but he didn’t really need to.

The address he had been given had lead him to the seedy motel in a bad part of the city that he was now parked out front of. He had sat there, he checked the clock glowing red in the dash, for almost 2 hours. Just waiting. Luckily, patience was a virtue that came naturally to him.

He had watched older men with scantily clad girls on their arms easily half their age. Rough looking men eyeing everyone and everything with shifty, sideways glances as they disappeared inside, presumably to push whatever illegal substance they happened to pedal.

It all made the back of his neck prickle in unease, helpless to do anything but watch as he continued to sit there, hoping to catch sight of the woman he had been hired to find.

It had been surprisingly easy to track her down, either she wasn’t very good at hiding or she just hadn’t cared that much, but he was betting on the former. There was an innocent naiveté that came across loud and clear in the photo of her.

Jay sighed as he looked down at his empty coffee cup. He was wasting time just sitting there, he knew that. He had to make a decision soon. Either go in, try and find whatever room she was staying in, and potentially spook her into running again, or leave and come back tomorrow.

But she might just as easily be gone by the next day. He growled in aggravation. It could go either way, and he just wouldn’t know the answer until he rolled the dice. Pocketing his keys and his brown leather wallet, he casually opened the SUV door, got out, and threw it shut behind him.

He would just take a look around the building, case any exits, then walk up to the front desk and hope he got lucky. Slowly, he moved to the sidewalk, surreptitiously keeping an eye on the people he passed. She really couldn’t have picked a better neighborhood to hide in? He just shook his head.

Anyone trying to mess with him would be in for a rough surprise. He had specialized in hand-to-hand combat.  Not to mention his size alone was enough to intimidate most people. At six and half feet of pure, lean muscle his physique closely mirrored that of his animal half.

As Jay neared the alleyway running behind the dilapidated motel, he paused, his instincts going on high alert. His unusually sharp ears had picked up something, he just couldn’t make sense of it. There it was again. A soft, almost imperceptible shriek, full of terror and completely feminine.
What the hell?

Jay turned in that direction, and the sudden sound of a scuffle followed by a metal trash can being knocked over had him rushing around the corner to investigate.

Chapter 2

What he saw turned his blood to ice. A group of disreputable looking men were slowly advancing on a lone woman. He couldn’t see her clearly in the dim shadows of the dirty alley, but he instantly recognized the severity of the dire situation. This girl was in serious trouble.

His reaction was instantaneous. Years of training on top of his animal instinct had his body reacting almost before his thoughts had time to register. Something about the woman, now pressed up against the jagged brick, caught his attention and tried to distract him, but his iron will kept his focus on the five men still walking toward her tauntingly.

No one had seen him yet, his movement’s fluid as he advanced in the shadows, making sure he kept to the deepest parts. It wasn't fully night out yet, so there were still patches of dusty like flickering down the alley. He moved slowly, silently, and as he neared the last of the men, his muscles tensed in preparation.

He quickly read them. The one directly in front of him now seemed the weakest, he would go down first. The three men just to his right were obvious lackeys, but they each held a makeshift weapon. A piece of two by four, a short length of pipe that could be deadly for either himself or the woman.

The real problem was going to be the front man, the gang leader. He was the one the others followed, and he carried a wicked looking knife that glinted dully in the dim light. He tried to ignore the woman’s soft, terrified pleading as the men advanced on her even further but it hit him, causing his chest to tighten painfully as every animal instinct in him bellowed at him to save her, protect her. At all cost.

He shook off the intense reaction, knowing if he lost focus it could end really badly for both of them. Just as the lead thug opened he mouth, he struck. Still moving silently, he reached for the smallest man directly in front of him, placing hands on either side of his head, and with a quiet snap was lowering him bonelessly to the pavement.

The woman still hadn’t noticed him, but he wasted no time advancing on the three next men. The second went down as quickly as the first, and he moved with supernatural speed to cut the others off before they could surround him. He could see it in their eyes that they didn’t realize the extent of the danger they were in, confident they could take down one, lone man. But what they didn’t know was that he wasn’t just a man.

He used his supernatural strength to land a blow that had the third man falling with a wet squish as his body hit a dirty puddle. Uncertainty started to fill the last man’s eyes, and he cast a questioning look at his leader, who was just now turning away from his prey to take in what was happening behind him.

The guy’s beady eyes looked black in the darkness of the shadows as his eyes widened on Jay and the devastation he had wrought in his crew. Five had become two in a matter of seconds.  The head honcho froze for a minute before a drug-induced rage and confidence had attacking when he really should have been running for his life.

Jay steeled himself, smelling the drugs on his skin as he neared. He knew this guy wasn't going to give up, unwilling or unable to process the reality around him. Jay assessed the situation. The woman, still huddled with her face covered, cowered against the wall safely out of his path. The two men, one holding a piece of pipe like a bludgeon, the leader still wielding that deadly blade as they both advanced on him, one in front and one in back.

He made the tactical decision to go after the weaker looking one, the man holding the pipe, trying to take him down before the other could reach him. Two against one were more than fair odds for him, but it would make it harder to protect the now silent female.

He turned to look at her, noticing how silent she had gone, and found the biggest, deepest blue eyes staring back at him, opened as wide as they could go. The impact of her gaze hit him like a semi-truck. He knew this woman. This gorgeous, terrified creature. The hair was different, dyed some store bought shade of dark brown, but the features, the mouth, the curve of the cheek, and those
eyes.

It was her. Adeline. Of all the women, it had to be her staring at him like a startled bird about to take flight. He let out an
ummgph
as his momentary distraction cost him a sharp sting across his left shoulder as the pipe made contact. He shifted forward, his body moving like water despite his size, so the blow just glanced off his back, but he shook his head trying to dispel the image of big azure eyes boring into him. He had to focus.

He turned quickly, avoiding the slashing blade glinting evilly now at his back, and leapt toward the guy holding the pipe like a baseball bat. They had him at a disadvantage now.
Shit
. He cursed at himself, at his mental lapse as he couldn’t help but steal another quick glance at her.

Jay might be able to hold them off in his human form, but not bring them down and protect her at the same time, and his animal half was refusing to let him do anything but. He could practically hear the beast growling impatiently inside him. Bears could shift at will, and usually he felt in perfect harmony with his other half.

For the first time in his life, he could feel control slipping away as his instincts clamored like mad, screaming that he had to protect this woman, keep her safe. Never had Jay had a reaction this strong, and while mentally he tried to hold onto the image of his normal, human shape the pull to shift was overwhelming.

He felt the moment that he lost the battle. Bone re-knit and skin disappeared under fur almost instantly, the change happening seamlessly as he was mid-air, leaping towards the would be attacker.

He moved with a deadly grace despite the giant size of his bear form. The man holding the pipe fell within seconds, fear filling his face just before a sharp swipe from Jay’s massive claw had left him lying unconscious next to the others.

With a fierce growl, he turned on the leader of the gang, watching his face turn ghost white before releasing a high pitched shriek and dashing towards the other end of the alley, the strong smell of urine making Jay wrinkle his nose and wish that his animal sense wasn’t
quite
so sharp.

With a shake of his massive brown head, he seemed to elongate and then almost deflate back to his normal size. The fur disappeared and his regularly tan skin appeared. Within seconds Jay was back to his human self, his stomach dropping as he turned to the woman expecting the same ‘shriek in terror and run away’ treatment.

What he definitely wasn’t expecting was the way she ran at him, threw her arms around him, and whispered
thank you
over and over huskily into his chest. Jay stood frozen for a moment, absorbing the shockwaves of her embrace as they swept over his adrenaline charged body.

Finally, and way too soon, she took a step back, re-adjusting her button down shirt that was now covered in filth and her new dark brown hair. Her eyes had drained of the fear that had swamped them, and he now looked down into clear blue oceans reflecting gratitude, embarrassment, shock, and he thought, a spark of desire. Maybe he was just projecting.

“Come on,” his voice was a gruff rumble echoing in the now silent alley, “let’s get you cleaned up.”