Page 9 of Hunting Isla

Archer pitched his voice low. “We have to leave here as soon as you’re packed. We’re safer on the move for now. We’ve got a little cabin in Nebraska, which is outside any Pride lands, so we can lay low there for a while. We should be able to discuss your”—his voice dropped real low—“suggestion there.”

I struggled to remember my suggestion as the deep gravel of his voice wrapped around me, making me think of many other suggestive things I’d like to do. I had no real answer, so I just nodded.

“Are we moving again, Lala?” Bohdie’s voice cut through the fog of lust, and I looked over at my son. Because that’s what he was. Mine. I would kill Bob and anyone else who tried to hurt him.

“Yeah, kiddo, but that’s okay. You’ll like where we’re going. There’s lots of trees and nature.”

“And you can run around in your lion form,” Wyatt added, making Bohdie’s eyes go wide.

“Really?” He barely whispered it. I’d made him promise not to do it in public, and then I’d gotten so sick, we couldn’t leave the house. My heart broke at the look of hope on his face. I’d been denying him something he needed, and the guilt hit me like a brick wall.

I wasn’t equipped to raise a shifter. What had Kara been thinking?

I stood and collected the empty dishes, putting them in the dishwater. Axel stood behind me, his hands resting on my shoulders. “You’ve done a good job with him. Never doubt it. Go pack what you need, and we’ll take care of this.”

I couldn’t help but lean back into his hands, letting him run them up and down my arms, soothing me.

“We’re here now, Isla. You aren’t alone. I won’t let you go again,” he whispered in my ear, and I let out a huge, wracking sigh that threatened to turn into a sob.

I nodded, my eyes on the floor. I stepped away from him, but he hooked a finger under my chin, lifting my eyes to his. Then he leaned forward and kissed me lightly on the lips. It was such a brief touch, but the electricity that hummed between us was anything but average.

I blinked at him, stunned. He ran a hand through his short golden hair. “I’m sorry. That was probably badly timed. But I just needed…” He trailed off, clearing his throat. “You’ll have to pack light. We can come back for everything later.”

Leaning forward, I kissed him lightly again. Because I could. Because everything could be taken away tomorrow, and I wanted to kiss him. Then I turned and walked out of the room, beckoning Bohdie to follow.

Once we were in his bedroom, Bohdie pulled out his suitcase and began packing everything. It broke my heart that he was so good at packing up his life at five. But it wouldn’t be forever. Not anymore.

I began folding his clothes, putting them in one side of his suitcase as he placed his few toys in the other. “Why did you kiss that man?” he asked. I held back my grimace. Parental mistake number one for the day, and it wasn’t even nine yet.

I continued folding, letting my hair fall forward to hide my blushing cheeks. “Because I cared for him very much once upon a time, way back before you were born. We were close friends. And I think he likes me too.” I looked up, trying to judge Bohdie’s face.

He wasn’t like a normal kid; his thoughts weren’t written on his face. He could keep things inside, bottle things up. It made me feel like a bad parent when I didn’t know if he was sad, or angry, or if he wanted something desperately.

“Do you like them, Bohdie? Archie and Wyatt? Axel? Does it bother you that he kissed me?”

Bohdie thought about it, stuffing his toy dinosaur into the suitcase beside his Etch A Sketch and his fluffy lion. “I like them. Archie is funny, and Wyatt is nice. Axel is scary. But he makes me feel…” He paused, clearly struggling to find the word in his five-year-old vocabulary. “Right? Like my lion feels right.” He frowned at the mention of his lion. He hadn’t forgiven his other half for biting me, I don’t think.

It really hadn’t been his fault. I’d freaked out. One minute, I was cuddling a human boy, the next, I’d had my arms wrapped around a lion cub. My surprised scream had startled Bohdie, and he’d bitten me. Neither of us could have known how close to dying I would come. I breathed a sigh of relief that the guys had shown up when they had. I didn’t really believe in God, but someone must have heard my pleas.

My eyes filled with tears, and I choked back a sob. “That’s good, kiddo. That’s real good. How about you finish this, and I’ll go do my bags, okay?”

Bohdie just nodded and continued on, and I moved to my room so I could let the tears out where no one could see them.

CHAPTER 5

ARCHER

Isla hadn’t been kidding when she’d said she was an expert runner. She’d had her and the kid packed up before lunch, the house basically back to a clean slate. From the outside, it didn’t look like it had ever been inhabited, and there was no trace of the woman or her child who used to live there.

I looked in the rearview mirror at her, the secret crush of my teenage years. God, I’d loved her. She’d been a perfect blend of innocence and mischief, and as soon as she’d stepped into our lives, she’d completed us. All of us. Even Axel had had a massive hard-on for Isla, though he refused to admit it at the time. But you only had to see him in the aftermath of her disappearance to know it was more than a casual friendship. She was his mate—of that, I was certain.

The kid, Bohdie, slept in his booster seat, his head tipped forward in what had to be an uncomfortable angle. Isla sat next to him, holding his hand as he slept. I looked over at Axel and busted him casting a glance at Isla too. I couldn’t blame him; she looked like an angel with her head resting against the window, the sun picking up the new golden threads in her hair.

My eyes shot back to the kid. Sleeping, he looked so much like Kara. I’d loved Kara too, and had been devastated by her death, but not in the same way as I’d been completely wrecked by Isla vanishing.

Bohdie was a problem—an adorable, slightly feisty problem. But he was our problem now, and I would fight tooth and nail to keep them both. Cubs had never been in my future, by choice. You had to be part of a Pride to breed, and I had no urge to participate in the psychotic version of the Hunger Games necessary to get standing in a Pride, just to get laid and have some cubs. I was happy with humans and bachelorhood.

Except with Isla. With Isla, I’d always yearned for more. What kind of grown-ass man uses the word yearn?