Wolves of Haven: Lone (16 page)

Her eyes were wide and mouth had
fallen open. “Am I still dreaming?” she whispered. “A dream within
a dream…that would be extremely awkward.”

Damian chuckled, shaking his head
before taking a drink of his coffee. “Manning requested that I
assist you with the case in Haven in order to properly reflect
Boston’s finest to the media when the case is closed.”

Absently she nodded, still in
shocked disbelief that he was truly there, sitting at the dining
room table having coffee and muffins with Seff, Louvel and Beowulf.
He looked like a waking wet dream in his gray Hugo Boss suit, white
dress shirt, purple and blue silk tie, and polished Italian shoes.
His hair was styled and looked like polished obsidian in the
overhead lights, skin smooth and face clean shaven, slight gray
circles rested under his eyes, but she knew that was from lack of
sleep and nothing more, but he was still the most beautiful thing
she had ever seen.

“Daughter, join us,” Beowulf said,
motioning towards the seat across from Damian.

Again, she absently nodded then
sat.

“Eat something, please,” Damian
said, pushing his plate towards her.

She took one of the muffins then
shoved it in her mouth, her eyes never leaving him.

He gave her a look. “Are you
okay?”

Akia started to nod then stopped
and shook her head.

His face dropped. “I know, we need
to talk, but it can wait. Your family has been very hospitable and
offered me a room in their lovely home. Is that okay?” he asked,
keeping up appearances, but it was near impossible to keep the
smile threatening to fill his face from doing so and from dragging
her across the table before capturing her mouth with his. “They
pointed out that there are limited accommodations in town, and that
they would most likely not be to my liking. And since you spend
nearly all of your time at the station, I would be as well… Will
you say something?” he demanded, irritated since she was apparently
dumbstruck; her fingers caressed over the pendant hanging around
her neck, her eyes moved over him many times as her teeth gnawed on
her bottom lip.

“Hey,” she finally offered getting
an eye roll and smile from Damian and chuckles from the other three
in the dining room.

Faelan joined them, rubbing his
fist against his eyes to rub the sleep from them, and stretching
with the other as he walked. “How in the hell did you sneak out of
bed?” he grumbled. “I swear you’re part ninja…” his words trailed
off, and he sniffed, his head snapping in Damian’s direction. “Holy
shit, he smells even better in person and helluva hotter than I
initially gave him credit for.”

Damian cocked an eyebrow then
smiled when Akia giggled.

“Please, oh please,” Faelan
pleaded, sliding into the seat next to his baby sister, “tell me he
has a bi-curious nature, or at the very least, an equally hot and
well hung brother.” He batted his thick, auburn lashes and pouted
his bottom lip out, trying to look adorable despite his bed
head.

“A few brothers,” Damian said,
“regrettably none of them will publically announce their sexual
orientation if it differs from what Father deems
acceptable.”

Akia’s head tilted to the side;
that was the first she had heard something so open about his
family, especially in the company of strangers.

“I am assuming you’re Fae,” he
continued, and Faelan nodded with a pout.

Connell, Rafe and a completely
naked Ulrik joined them in the dining room.

Akia’s eyes widened before she
groaned and buried her face in her hands.

“Told you I had hair on my balls,”
Ulrik taunted as he grabbed a muffin then flopped down in his
chair. “Like what you see?” he asked, looking to Damian then wagged
his brows at him.

“Someone kill me, please,” she
grumbled under her breath.

Connell sat down on the other side
of her then threw his arm over her shoulders. “Where would the fun
be in that?!” he beamed. “What’s worse than the naked child
strutting his limited attributes like a bald balled peacock in heat
was waking up to Rafe and Ginger Bear spooning. That was a
traumatic experience that no amount of medication can scrub from my
memory.”

Rafe rolled his eyes and flopped
down on the other side of the table. “It was unintentional
spooning, you know that. You’ve done it before.”

He smirked. “True, but my finger
wasn’t in his ass when we cuddled.”

“It was not!” Rafe shot back then
sniffed his fingers. “They were not!” he repeated causing his
brothers to roar with laughter.

Again, Akia groaned and reddened
with embarrassment.

Beowulf chuckled at her
expense.

“Will you please make them stop,”
she pleaded, embarrassed that her family was acting like children
in front of Damian of all people. It didn’t matter if he was her
boss or not, they should have some sort of self-control when it
comes to reverting to children in front of company. Damian’s
family, she knew, didn’t act like that, and it made the
embarrassment that much more severe. His family was high class and
regarded highly in society. Comparatively speaking to how her
family was acting at the moment, they were more like trailer trash
that lived in a nearly three-hundred year old manor.

Louvel clapped his hands, trying to
get the attention from the two that ended up wrestling on the floor
while the other two took bets on who would win; Rafe or Connell.
“My apologies, Niece, but they will not listen to me,” he said with
a chuckle.

She glared at him. “Yes, because
that was so terrifying,” she retorted and grabbed the pitcher of
water from the table then dumped it on them.

They yelped and scrambled away from
each other.

“Not nice,” Connell scolded,
pushing his wet hair back from his face.

“And making me look as if my family
is full of special needs children in front of my boss isn’t?!” Akia
shrieked, throwing the silver pitcher at him. “Ugh! Grow up,” she
snarled before storming out of the dining room.

They all looked at Damian, and he
simply shook his head. “By all means, don’t let my presence keep
you from beating on each other,” he said then stood. “Continue,” he
dismissively said, tossing some money on the table. “My money is on
the M.E., not the one with stinky fingers,” he said with a chuckle
then headed out of the room, following the path Akia had
taken.

It wasn’t hard to find Akia; she
was sitting in the garden, spinning a flower between her fingers
while she looked out over the sprawling estate to the thick forest
beyond the protective stone and rod iron fencing.

Damian took his time joining her.
She looked beautiful sitting there in just a pair of panties and
one of his dress shirts, her hair slightly disheveled and sticking
up from a restless night’s sleep, knees pulled up under her as if
she were a child, and only the gray circles under her eyes
blemished the picture perfect image of her. To him she was perfect,
had some major explaining to do, but was perfect nonetheless. His
brothers all had, what their father considered, acceptable trophy
wives. They didn’t work, were educated but knew that their place
was at home raising their children; they were commercially
beautiful with personalities that were fake and grated on his
nerves. Damian wanted no part of that type of trophy wife mentality
especially since it didn’t work out well for his father and any of
his wives.

Being the youngest child, Damian
had bought his time when it came to prolonging the evitable, but
then he accidentally fell into bed with Akia and his world changed.
He had purposely made sure that his family didn’t know about their
relationship, and didn’t know about her at all, but the anonymity
couldn’t last forever.

“I’m so sorry,” Akia mumbled,
plucking each petal off of the flower in her hand.

Damian chuckled and joined her,
kicking his legs out in front of him. “For what?”

She rolled her eyes and made a
mocking face. “My family, what do you think?”

“I think they’re hilarious, and now
so much about you makes sense,” he said and she looked at him with
wide eyes. “I like your family,” he continued, his attention across
the rolling estate towards the thick trees beyond the fencing.
“There is something about them, even the naked kid with blue hair
and balls of bald steel,” he said, trying to keep from laughing,
but couldn’t help it. “They are different than my family and I like
that.”

Akia continued to look at him in
disbelief. “You never talk about your family, not like that. What’s
going on?”

He smiled and looked over at her
from the corner of his eye, and she whimpered when their eyes met.
“I don’t talk about my family because they aren’t worthy of
accolades that don’t pertain to law enforcement since that’s the
only redeeming quality any of them apparently have. Now, if I had a
family like yours, I would have been much more open about them
because I think they’re hilarious. Now so much of your personality
makes sense.”

She sighed, shaking her head. “So
I’m infantile like the two that are most likely still trying to
give each other atomic wedgies, that’s just great.”

Damian chuckled. “That, that right
there is solely because of your family. You have a great sense of
humor, and usually I’m the only one that gets to see it, but being
at your home, even if just for a few minutes so far, you let that
guard down around others, and I clearly get to see you. But,” he
said, turning serious, “I’ll admit that I’m conflicted on that. If
you were more open and like this back in Boston, you would have
grown tired of me by now and moved on.”

Akia pushed him over, shaking her
head with a smile. “You’re ridiculous. I’m surprised you haven’t
moved on by now.”

He smiled and sat up. “But you were
just starting to warm up to me. Why would I bail now?” he teased.
“Grab a quick shower, take your pills, we’ll grab breakfast on the
way to the station, and you can make introductions. We’ll call it
an early night and talk more.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “That sounds
ominous.”

“It should,” he said in a deep
tone, one that was heavily laced with sarcasm. “Go, you stink like
sweaty brothers,” he teased.

Akia chuckled. “I suppose I do. I
don’t think I’ve slept with all of them in one bed before…it’s not
nearly as exciting as it sounds,” she assured him when he shook his
head.

They headed back towards the manor,
each struggling to keep their hands to themselves, but it was a
losing battle.

“When I was younger,” she said,
trying to distract herself from his scent and the warmth radiating
from the man walking next to her, “I used to sneak into one of
their rooms at night and curl up into a ball and sleep at the end
of their bed. I’d wake up covered and with a pillow, but they never
mentioned it and always acted as if they didn’t know what I was
talking about when I apologized for sneaking into their rooms
uninvited. They really are great brothers, and I care for them very
much.”

Damian nodded. “I know you do. You
shouldn’t stay away from them anymore,” he said, surprising her.
“They are a very important part of your life, and they should be
allowed to be part of your current life. I know that you had a
falling out with them. I’m completely at a loss as to what happened
though since they are not what I was expecting in the least and
love you very much…it isn’t my place to say, but after all these
years, I’m going to voice my opinion on it; you need them as much
as they need you. It’s time to heal the wounds, okay?”

Akia shook her head, throwing the
back door open. “Some wounds can’t be healed, and that’s all I’m
going to say on the topic. I’ll meet you in fifteen,” she said then
hurried up the back stairwell.

Softly he growled under his breath.
“Stubborn as always,” he grumbled, taking his time to follow, but
stopped halfway up the stairs then turned around. Since he was
being forced to show his hand, he was going to force her to show
hers as well.

When he ducked into the dining
room, those gathered turned to regard him.

“I’m sleeping with your daughter,”
Damian said pointblank, speaking to Beowulf. “I have been since
before she was transferred to my precinct. Yes, I’m her direct
superior, but we’ve kept our professional and private lives
separated. We live together, I love her, and even if the stubborn
woman doesn’t say it in return, I know she feels it as well. There
is much that I have been keeping from her, and now I know that she
has been keeping even more from me, but that is of very little
consequence because I love her. I don’t want her to continue to
keep herself segregated from her family. I don’t know why she has
been, but she needs to figure some shit out and get over it or past
it.”