Palm Haven Shifters: Complete Five-Part Series Read online

“Okay!” Manuel said loudly enough to draw amused looks from other diner patrons.

  “You haven’t heard the rest of it,” José said with a smirk.

  Sonya shook her head, sliding a hand over José’s thigh. “You’ve sold him, quit while you’re ahead.”

  José chuckled and nodded. “Okay, I’m just going to pay the bill,” he said, walking to the register before Sonya could even try to argue with him.

  It didn’t take long for them to wind up back at The Den and José pulled up at the lake next to a little fishing shack they kept for anyone to use. He grabbed a couple of adult poles and a miniature bright blue one for Manuel.

  “Oh, I don’t need one of those,” Sonya said as he re-emerged from the shack.

  Manuel was already off, looking for the “right dirt” even though he had no idea what that meant. The kid definitely had enthusiasm to spare, but it was endearing.

  “Why not?” José asked with a little frown.

  She laughed. “I’m totally fine just watching. I’m not big on playing with worms and slimy fish and stuff.”

  José shrugged. “Well, okay party pooper.”

  “Am not!” She cried with a grin splitting her face.

  “Just for that, I’m gonna make you in charge of baiting the hooks,” he teased and she wrinkled her nose.

  “Eeeeewww.”

  “Hey! Is this the right dirt?” Manuel called from a few yards away.

  José tossed the spare pole back in the shack and hurried over to Manuel.

  “Hmm, this isn’t bad, but you want really dark wet soil. That’s what worms love. Like over here,” he said, pointing to a spot a few feet away.

  Manuel hurried over to that spot and dropped to his knees, his hands just hovering over the dirt as he turned to Sonya for permission.

  She smirked and nodded. “Knock yourself out, kid.”

  Manuel pawed at the dirt, digging a hole in no time once he tapped into his wolf instincts. He wouldn’t be able to shift until puberty hit, but he still had the instincts, the affinity for nature, for tracking and smelling. He’d just never had anyone to help him understand it.

  “Whoa!” he yelled, pulling a long squirming earthworm from his hole. “Look Mama! I did it!”

  “That’s great sweetie,” she said, still hovering a few feet away from them, looking a little squeamish as José offered Manuel a little bucket for his prize.

  “What’s the matter, Sonya, don’t like worms?” José teased, dangling one in front of her as Manuel found worm after worm in his little glory hole.

  “Nope, you can keep those to yourself,” she said with another wrinkle of her nose.

  Manuel dropped a handful of earthworms in the bucket, his hands black with rich soil.

  “Now, we have to put the worm on the hook,” José said, bringing Manuel’s little pole out and demonstrating the technique.

  “Be careful, baby, don’t stick yourself with the hook,” Sonya called.

  “I can do it,” he said with determined independence as he wriggled the slimy creature onto the hook.

  “Whoa, it’s still moving,” he noted with huge eyes.

  José laughed. “Yep, that’s what the fish see. A yummy juicy worm squirming underwater and then they bite it and they’re stuck on the hook!”

  “Cool!”

  After a quick casting lesson, Manuel was all set to catch his first fish.

  Sonya watched on with mirth sparkling in her eyes as José helped Manuel get a feel for the rod and reel.

  After only a few minutes, Manuel hopped forward with a wide-eyed “Whoa!”

  “There you go, now reel him in!” José said, abandoning his own rod to supervise. “Not too fast or he’ll get away! That’s it, nice and steady.”

  “It’s really strong!” Manuel exclaimed with a grunt, stepping backwards to plant his heels in firmer ground.

  “Need help?”

  “No, I got it,” the boy said, his face screwed up in intense concentration.

  José grinned like a fool and he didn’t care who saw. He was enjoying this more than he could remember enjoying anything… apart from Sonya, of course. The instant connection with Manuel’s mother was surprising enough in and of itself, but José had never expected his wolf to claim the little cub in a heartbeat.

  It made sense. Sonya was spectacular and there was no way a child of hers wouldn’t be, but still… José had never really considered being a father, step or otherwise. At that moment, it sounded like a glorious prospect.

  Manuel tugged until the glimmering scales of a large mouthed bass broke the surface of the water. It flopped and wriggled, trying to escape back into the lake for its life.

  “Don’t let it get away!” José said and Manuel dove for the fish, tackling it like a linebacker.

  Behind him, José heard Sonya’s barely stifled snickers and he began to concoct a little bit of payback for her avoiding all the messy parts.

  He pulled his bowie knife from his pocket and dispatched of the fish quickly and humanely.

  “There, now you know what we do?” He asked Manuel who looked to be having the time of his life.

  “What?” The kid practically bounced with excitement.

  “We howl.”

  “We do?”

  José nodded. “Yep, after every successful hunt, you howl and the whole pack howls back to congratulate you.”

  Manuel’s eyes grew until José was sure they’d pop clean out of his skull. “The whole pack?”

  “Yep,” José grinned. “Wanna try?”

  Manuel nodded energetically.

  “Okay, so you know that feeling when you’re really happy about something and you feel like you’re just gonna blow up?”

  Manuel nodded.

  “So, you tilt your head up to the sky, grab onto that feeling and just push it all out like a rocket. You ready?”

  Manuel scrunched up his mouth. “You’re gonna do it with me?”

  “Of course.”

  “Okay,” he said, furrowing his brows deep in thought for a moment. “Okay, I grabbed it.”

  José had to chuckle, he tilted his head back and peeked out of the side of his vision to make sure Manuel did the same before they both let out a gleeful high “Arrrrrooooooooo!”

  Once their howl finished, Manuel opened his mouth again, but José held up a finger. “Shh, hear that?”

  At first, it was just one answering whoop of excitement. Then another. And another. Some human, some clearly wolf, the howls rose up in the air until they surrounded them in a nest of happy praise.

  Manuel turned to his mother and ran up to her, his face split into a grin. “Mama! Mama! Did you hear? They all howled! The whole pack!”

  She smiled and ruffled his hair. “I heard, baby. You’re a real bonafide member of the pack, huh?”

  He grinned from ear to ear and José called him back over. “Hey, come here, I wanna show you something else.”

  “The last, and in my opinion coolest, part of all of this.”

  “What?” Manuel asked, clearly disbelieving anything could be cooler than howling with the pack.

  “Yanking out the guts!” José said before leaning in to whisper. “And grossing out your mom with them.”

  This inspired a new gleeful sparkle in Manuel’s eyes as he giggled to himself.

  José looked over his shoulder to see Sonya looking on with a dreamy expression and he nearly lost his breath. He wanted this. All of this. This woman, this child, this family.

  She got a little suspicious and took a step toward them. “Hey, what are you two whispering about over there?”

  Manuel giggled out an unconvincing “Nothing!” while José explained how to pull the guts out of the fish. They reached in the fish’s big mouth together and José helped him get a firm grip and yaaaaank.

  Sonya was right behind him when Manuel turned around dangling the slimy bloody innards of the fish from his filthy little hands.

  “Ack!” She screamed, paling and stumbling bac
kwards.

  Manuel took great delight in his mother’s discomfort and chased her around laughing maniacally.

  After a minute or so of this, José chimed in. “Alright, give your mom a break. She can’t help that she always wants things clean.”

  Sonya gave him a fierce glare and put her hands on her hips with such attitude he’d never seen from her before. It was feisty, fiery. He loved it.

  “Oh yeah?” She taunted with a laugh in her tone. “You wanna get messy? I’ll show you messy!”

  She wriggled her fingers and José felt the muddy ground beneath him shift and slide out from under him like a rug, sending him tumbling into wet earth.

  “Hey! No fair!” José cried, laughter making it difficult to breathe at this point.

  “You turned my sweet little boy against me!” Sonya answered.

  “Okay, okay, time out. Come over here and help me up,” José growled with a grin, struggling to gain purchase in the slick mud.

  Her laughter faded into a happy sigh and she nodded. “Okay, truce.” She took a few steps over to him and extended an arm.

  “Time in!” José said, pulling her down on top of him, making sure to wrap her tight in his muddy arms.

  “Hey!” She squirmed against him.

  “You couldn’t be the only one going home clean. People would think you didn’t have any fun at all!”

  “Hey, what do I do with these?” Manuel asked, still dangling the guts at arm’s length.

  José laughed and stole a quick kiss from Sonya, unable to contain himself at that moment. He was falling for this family, falling for the whole idea of a family.

  Normally thoughts like that would bother him, but he couldn’t even find it in himself to be bothered now. It felt right. Destined. Perfect.

  “We’ll get rid of that,” he said, scrabbling to his feet before holding his hand out to Sonya. “Then we’ll catch a few more and eat them!”

  “And then we’ll all take six baths,” Sonya snarked.

  “Only if you join me,” José laughed and gave her a meaningful look, delighting in the flush it brought to her cheeks. Yep, this was perfect.

  Chapter 13

  SONYA

  Sonya went into work the next day with a permanent grin plastered on her face.

  “Oooh,” Emily said as she walked through the door, “someone’s glowing. What happened?”

  Sonya couldn’t suppress the wave of giggles that broke through her; she was just plain giddy about how well everything was going. It was one thing for a man to be interested in her and make her feel this way, but seeing him with her son, bonding and teaching him.

  Well, it made her insides melt just thinking about it.

  She shrugged. “I had a really really good day yesterday.”

  “Tell me!” Emily cried, clapping her hands together.

  Sonya shook her head, laughing. “Maybe another time. You’re avoiding work and I don’t want to jinx it.”

  Emily pouted for only the briefest moment. “Well, shit. If I knew you were going to call me out on my procrastination, maybe I wouldn’t have hired you,” she teased.

  “You would’ve hired me even faster,” Sonya sniped back, sticking her tongue out at Emily’s retreating figure.

  “Touché!”

  By the end of the day, Sonya had the headquarters for Whimsical Witchcraft Designs fit not only for clients, but for the big magazine spread Emily was on pins and needles about. If everything went well with this shoot, Emily might need an assistant and who better than the woman already familiar enough with her to call her out on her procrastination?

  “I’ll see you tomorrow!” Sonya said cheerfully as she waved to her boss, hunched over her desk with scraps of inspiration all around her.

  “You’re the best. Have a good night, sweetie.”

  She got in her car and checked her phone for the first time all day. There was a text from José:

  Dinner tonight? The three of us?

  She was pretty sure her face was going to break from all the smiling she’d done lately and she typed off a quick response before heading back to The Den to pick up her son.

  When she arrived at the daycare, the cheerful pig-tail girl — Dara, she’d learned — waved brightly.

  “Hey! What’s up? Did Manny forget something?”

  Sonya stopped dead in her tracks and frowned. “What do you mean? I’m here to pick him up.”

  Dara’s smile never faded. “Oh, well, his Uncle already picked him up. I thought he told you.”

  Terror gripped Sonya’s gut in an instant wringing out a thousand possibilities that she didn’t want to think about.

  “H-his Uncle?”

  Dara looked like she was losing her patience just a hair, like this was the easiest thing to understand and Sonya just wasn’t getting it. “Yeah! Juan?”

  “Oh, right. Thanks,” Sonya said, feeling the panic loosen its hold on her heart as she walked back to the car. They were safe here. She had to remember that. José wouldn’t let anything happen to either of them.

  She called him.

  “Hey! All ready for our big night?” He asked, his smile clear enough to be heard through the phone.

  “Did… Did you send Juan to pick up Manuel?”

  José was silent for a moment and Sonya had to check that their phones were still connected. Finally he spoke.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Fresh dread blossomed within her, turning her blood to ice and her lungs to lead. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath.

  “Okay,” she said, her voice trembling.

  “Hey,” José’s voice softened, “I’m sure he’s fine.”

  “Yeah,” she answered. Manuel would be safe with Juan. She didn’t know why Juan would pick him up without telling her, thought. None of it made sense.

  “Come to the clubhouse, he’s probably here playing a trick on you,” José said, trying to reassure her, but Sonya heard the worry in his own voice.

  The thought made her smile for a moment; Manuel would think this was all very funny without realizing the panic she’d be in.

  The drive to the clubhouse took only moments, but every second Sonya didn’t know where he son was felt like an eternity.

  She bustled in through the front doors, past the cheerful greetings she got from a few familiar faces, down the hallway to Juan’s room.

  “Where is he?!” She heard José roar before she broke into a run to find him with his hand around Juan’s throat.

  Without thinking, she launched herself at José, freeing a sputtering and bewildered Juan from his crushing grip.

  “Stop. What are you doing?”

  Juan rubbed his neck ruefully, eyeing José with distrust.

  “What’s going on?” Juan asked.

  José positively vibrated with angry energy and even Sonya had to be a little afraid of him though none of his anger was directed at her. She looked around the room with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

  Manuel wasn’t here, either.

  “Juan, you didn’t pick Manuel up at daycare?” She asked, still standing guard between the two men.

  Juan shook his head. “I haven’t left this building, ask anyone.”

  Sonya heard her own breath come in short shallow gasps and she felt lightheaded, overwhelmed and pissed.

  Someone had her baby. And she had a good idea of who that someone was.

  “He’s missing,” José told Juan. “And the daycare says you picked him up.”

  Juan’s face drained of all color. “Shit. What can I do?”

  José shook his head. “Just stay here.” He took Sonya’s hand and squeezed it. “Let’s go back and see if Dara remembers anything else. We’ll find him, I promise.”

  She swallowed and nodded, trying her damnedest to shove down the bile rising within her.

  As José drove them back to the daycare, Sonya ran through all of the horrible scenarios she hadn’t let herself conjure until that moment. That moment when she realiz
ed he was really missing.

  She followed José in a daze. A buzzing in her ears made it difficult to focus on anything. Visions of Manuel’s happy face, his peaceful form sleeping, his tight warm hugs…

  Tears sprang to her eyes and she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to ward off the sinking feeling of despair.

  “Are you sure this is the man that picked him up?” José asked, showing Dara a picture on his phone.

  Dara frowned and nodded. “Well, yeah… but…”

  “But what?”

  “I don’t know. He was kind of scary. Like, when he asked to pick up Manuel… I didn’t want to give him over without calling his mother… but he was really insistent. It’s kind of fuzzy.”

  José growled. “I am your Alpha, damn it. This is my fucking territory.”

  Sonya placed a hand on his arm. “It’s not her fault. The compulsion to obey…”

  José sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “Yeah. I know.”

  Some Alphas were so strong that they could compel other wolves to do their bidding, even if they wouldn’t normally. Sonya had heard horror stories of Diego’s compulsion before.

  I’d rather die than do what he asked of me… and then I did it anyway.

  She shuddered at the memory. Manuel had to be okay. He just had to be.

  “Diego has him,” she said without question.

  José nodded in complete agreement, “But I don’t understand how he tricked my whole pack. How he disguised himself to look like Juan…”

  They walked back to the car until they were out of earshot of Dara and Sonya said. “Magic.”

  “Esther,” José added. Then, after seeing Sonya’s confused reaction, he elaborated. “The witch that threatened to trade you for his cooperation. She has to be behind this.”

  An overwhelming surge of power coursed through her at the mention of another witch. Another threat. Another pair of hands involved in her son’s abduction.

  Someone was going to pay.

  “Do you have a way to contact her?” Sonya asked, already getting back into the car, unable to stand still while her whole world was falling apart around her.

  José nodded. “She gave me a… calling card, but it just reeks of dark magic. I didn’t want to use it. I don’t really want anything to do with her.”

  She nodded. “But if she’s involved in this, we don’t have a choice.”