AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hawke convinced Stephanie to allow him to see her home. He talked her into a few more dates over the next few days, and the more he saw her the more he liked the tiny mocha beauty. He had been watching over her for a while
now, ever since the night he pulled her from the car wreck. He saw it happen. Some sense had drawn him to her, and the moment he laid eyes on her, he was lost to do anything other than make sure she was safe.
Hawke hoped Stephanie wasn’t a substitute for Sienna, Toron’s mate. They were both chocolate beauties, small of stature compared to him, and firecrackers when it came to fighting for what they believed in. While Stephanie might put on a big show, he saw vulnerability in her as well. She needed his protection, and he didn’t think it was because of her sight. He told himself to keep it casual. Falling for Sienna should have taught him a lesson, but Stephanie called to him. Even when he slept in his bed at night, he felt her, longed to be with her.
The pull was the reason he found himself yet again in his hawk form outside her window, listening to her breathe while she slept. I’ve become a damn stalker. It was different when Toron asked me to watch over Sienna, but no one asked me to watch Stephanie. If she knew…
He would not reveal what he was. That would only scare her and the last thing he wanted to do. As yet, Stephanie hadn’t introduced him to her daughter, but he had seen the little girl a few times. She looked like her mother, petite with a narrow face and big pretty brown eyes. Unlike Stephanie’s smooth cocoa skin, Meechi’s complexion was much fairer, as if from mixed blood. The knowledge gave Hawke a bit of hope. Stephanie might be open to an interracial relationship.
Feeling a nip in the air, Hawke stretched his wings and craned his neck with a squawk. An answering sound came from several streets away, but he recognized the call from a regular bird and not a shifter. On the street below, a shadow shifted positions, not natural. Hawke peered into the darkness. Human, he determined, and was just about to dismiss the man when he stopped in front of Stephanie’s building. Something in the way he hitched his shoulders and peered down at the sheet of paper in his hand put Hawke on alert. Hawke spread his wings and left the branch to fly over the man. He dipped his head and blinked a few times. The writing on the page came into view with no problem, and Stephanie’s name had been etched at the top.
The human entered the building. Hawke prepared to land and shift to his human form, but the man returned moments later. He strolled around the exterior of the building, his head swinging side to side as if to determine whether anyone watched.
I see you, and if you think you will hurt her, you are wrong.
The man came to the spot where Hawke already knew her balcony lay. He’d watched her come out onto it time and again and followed her movements beyond the sliding glass whenever she left the blinds open. Tonight she had left the door open to let in a light breeze. Hawke landed on the rail and looked down at the human. The man started at seeing Hawke.
Please come up here, so I can take out my frustrations on you.
The man hesitated. Hawke knew he appeared bigger than the average hawk, and he liked it that way. Having the reasoning ability of a human, he could take down any one of them or even a bigger animal shifter. His talons and curved beak would make short work of any enemy.
The human stepped back a pace and scratched his head. He took out a cell phone, and Hawke hoped he would use it so he could listen in, but the man tucked it away and turned back the way he came. When Hawke was sure the man had vacated the area, he spread his wings to take off.
“Oh wow, a hawk. How cool.”
Hawke froze at hearing Meechi’s voice. What was she doing out of bed, and why wasn’t she afraid of him? He twisted his head left and peered at her. She inched closer, holding her arm out. Bad move.
“Come here, boy. You want to sit on my arm? Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you.”
No! I would hurt you, damn it. Go to bed, Meechi. Of course he said none of that out loud, and he had no intention of sitting on her arm. A screech startled them both, and Stephanie darted out onto the balcony and jerked Meechi to her.
“What is that shape, Meechi? It’s so big. Get your butt in the house, and what are you doing up?” She shoved her daughter behind her. “Shoo, shoo!”
“It’s a hawk, Mommie. Isn’t it beautiful?”
“No, it’s not beautiful. They’re predators. It could have hurt you. Who the heck has a pet hawk around here? Shoo, damn it!”
If Hawke could have sighed, he would have. She’d said he wasn’t beautiful, and the disgust in her tone told him revealing his animal side any time in the future would be a bad idea. He took to the air and returned to the trees far enough that the humans couldn’t see him. Tonight, he would continue his watch, but tomorrow, he had investigating to do.
* * * *
“Meechi Ward is her daughter’s name,” Hawke’s friend told him on the phone, and he frowned. Stephanie had told him she and Meechi’s father were married, so why not take on the man’s name?
“What else can you tell me about her?”
His friend worked in law enforcement and had access to databases that were off limits to Hawke. Where his friend couldn’t get to, being bound by the confines of his job, Hawke could. Over the years, they scratched each other’s backs. While he and Jim were close, he didn’t trust him with the knowledge that he was a shifter.
“She’s a little heiress,” Jack told him.
Hawke’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“Her father left her a pretty big stash. She’ll come into it when she’s twenty-one, but right now she gets a monthly allowance. If her mother wanted to dip into it, they could live in the lap of luxury. Looks like she barely takes any. The fact that he left it all to Meechi has been stuck in his family’s craw since the father died.”
Hawke spun the pin in his hand and tapped it on the desktop. “You get all that from your database?”
Jim laughed. “No, five years ago when the old man hadn’t even turned cold in the grave yet, the mother, Melanie Ward, sued Stephanie. She was backed by his two brothers and a sister. Stephanie won the case hands down because the will was iron-clad. Must have been a good guy to make sure his daughter was looked after.”
“Or he knew his family were all greedy assholes.”
