ChoosingHisChristmasMiracle (2 page)

That thought reminded him that he should probably contact his own family. If he did end up with a man, his sister, Brianna Truollo, would shit kittens. She’d just about lost it when her son, his nephew Jason, had come out four years ago.

Pushing the thoughts aside, Raul focused on his breathing and the rhythm of his feet. He loved running, and doing it in the mountains had increased his endurance greatly. The sting of cold, clear air in his lungs, the blood pumping through his veins, and the mind numbing repetition of movement all served to relax him.

He reached his home within fifteen minutes and pounded up the porch steps. The scent of cologne had him spinning away from where he reached for the doorknob. So lost in thought and the pleasure he took from running, Raul hadn’t even noticed the man standing on the porch peeking through the window.

“Who are you?” he snapped, the words coming out more harshly than intended due to frustration with his own preoccupation. Missing something like this could cost him, or any friends who happened to be with him, serious injury.

The man turned to face him. A blue-eyed gaze Raul had spent more nights than he cared to admit dreaming about met his. Wariness filled their depths, and something Raul hadn’t felt in a long time sliced through him.
Guilt.

“Sean,” he whispered.

The wolf shifter’s lips curved into a small, relief-filled smile. “You remember me.”

Raul nodded, his gaze sweeping down the man’s heavily bundled form. Wait! It wasn’t heavily bundled. Sean had something tucked inside his jacket. For just a second, a wave of apprehension filled Raul before he realized the man carried a baby.

His brows shot up and shock swamped his system. When Sean took a step toward him, Raul automatically backed up one, breaking him out of his stupor. “It’s too cold for a cub out here,” Raul said quickly, turning back toward his door. “Why don’t you come inside?”

Sean nodded, and Raul led the way into his home, praying he wasn’t making a big mistake.

Chapter Two

Grateful for the offer, Sean followed his mate—
Holy fuck, I’ve finally tracked down my mate!
—into the home. He’d wanted to chase the man down months ago as soon as Raul had left, but Sean had had responsibilities. The care of his niece, Lily, took precedence. The beating and poisoning he’d suffered certainly hadn’t helped either.

Boy, had his alpha been pissed when Sheriff Linson, a fellow pack member, had finally limped back to pack lands and told how Sean had stopped him from killing Raul. Considering his pack’s position on gays, Sean hadn’t been able to just blurt out that Raul was his mate. They’d possibly have tried to take his Lily, and Sean would never fail in his promise to Sarah to take care of her daughter.

Thoughts of his sister always saddened him, so Sean pushed them aside and focused on the man shutting the front door behind him. Although the human didn’t look happy to see him, it did please Sean that the man at least recognized him.

When Raul turned back to him and pulled off his coat, Sean nearly swallowed his tongue. The man’s scent was enough to drive him to distraction. Seeing the sweat-soaked, white, wife-beater t-shirt clinging to firm pecks and washboard abs made him want to fall to his knees and worship every inch of Raul’s body.

“You’re my mate,” Sean blurted out.

Well, damn, that wasn’t the way I planned to share that information.
He’d intended to ease into it so he didn’t scare the human off. To his surprise, Raul scoffed and shook his head. The man crossed his arms over his fabulous chest and stared at him through narrowed eyes for several seconds.

“I’m sorry,” Sean murmured. “I shouldn’t have told you like that. I should have wooed you, shown you how much you mean to me,” he added, grimacing.

“Cute kid.” Raul complimented Lily instead of commenting on Sean’s words. It worried Sean until he heard what Raul said next. “Why don’t you tell me where your wife is instead?” Raul asked, looking pointedly at Lily, his tone way too cool for Sean’s taste.

“Oh, n-no,” he stuttered. Why hadn’t he thought his mate would think such a thing if he showed up with an infant? “This is Lily. She’s my niece.”

Raul’s brows shot up. “Uh-huh.”

Instead of focusing on the disbelief in the human’s tone, Sean found himself caught up in the way a damp curl of his mate’s thick red hair fell over his brow. He found himself reaching out, wanting to touch, to brush the lock of hair out of Raul’s face.

For just a second, Raul closed his eyes and let him touch. Then, he jerked out of reach and snarled, “It’s been almost four months since I’ve seen you, Sean. If you think I’m your mate, why’d it take so long to come here? Do you have something against a male mate or something?”

Lily took that moment to blink open blue eyes—blue eyes so similar to his sister’s—and let out a loud wail. Sean shifted his hold on his niece, bouncing her gently on his hip. “Hey, little sweetie. Easy now. You’re just fine,” he crooned.

“Geez,” Raul muttered, catching Sean’s attention. “How does such a little cub make such a loud sound?”

He actually chuckled at the wide-eyed look Raul was giving Lily. “Awe, this is nothing,” he assured. “You should hear her when she’s hungry. This just means she’s wet.” Sean lifted a brow. “Do you have somewhere I can change her?”

It seemed to take Raul a moment to process the question, then the human took a step back, saying, “Uh, yeah. This way.”

Raul turned and led the way through the living room, past a dining room, and along a hall. The door on the left stood open, revealing a bathroom. Through an open door on the right was an office. The second door on the left was closed. This one Raul opened and stepped back, letting Sean enter first.

Turning his back to his mate, trusting Fate’s judgment of the man, Sean headed into a spare bedroom done in pale blues and greens. He lay Lily on the bed, then dropped the diaper bag from his shoulder to the mattress a couple feet from her. He rummaged through the contents, pulling out the needed items—diaper, wipes, powder.

Sean could feel Raul’s presence over his shoulder, so he began to talk. If he didn’t look at his sexy mate, Sean stood a much better chance of getting his words right than if he were distracted by more than just his intoxicating scent.

“My sister Sarah, her mate died while she was carrying their first child. She managed to live long enough to give birth to Lily, here,” he said softly, nodding toward the child he cleaned and changed. “After that, she passed.”

“I’m sorry,” Raul said, sounding sincere. He rested a hand on Sean’s shoulder and squeezed, trying to offer reassurance.

Sean paused in his work, relishing the contact. Glancing over his shoulder, he forced himself to continue. “That day in the woods…” He paused, uncertain how to say what needed to be said.

He didn’t need to. Raul seemed to guess. “You were punished for saving my life.”

Jerking a nod, Sean knew a hard smile twisted his lips. “I couldn’t tell them who you were to me,” he whispered.

“Embarrassed to be mated to a man?” Raul snapped, pulling away.

Damn, my mate really thinks the worst of me.
Considering how they’d met though, Sean couldn’t blame him. “No,” he immediately replied. He again paused and looked at Raul over his shoulder. “Never.”

“Then what?” Raul asked, clearly disbelieving.

Raul finished changing his niece before answering. He rested a hand gently on her back as she gurgled and kicked happily now that she was clean. “I knew my sister would give birth any day, and that I’d be the one raising Lily,” he said, meeting his mate’s gaze. It shocked him to see the hurt in the other man’s eyes before Raul hid it.

“I couldn’t run the risk that my bigoted alpha wouldn’t just kill me, or worse, go after you, Sarah, or try to take Lily from me.” Sean shook his head. “I didn’t like any of my options, but I did the best I could with the hand life dealt me.”

Just then, Lily froze under his palm. A second later, she let out a loud wail. Sean closed his eyes, hating her timing, but knowing he needed to feed her. As much as he wanted to concentrate on Raul, explain everything, and beg for understanding, Lily came first.

“Let me guess,” Raul murmured. “Lily is hungry.”

Sean grimaced, then nodded. He pulled the makings for a bottle from his bag, then picked Lily up. “Can I use your kitchen?” he asked quietly.

Raul nodded once. “Sure.”

“I’m really sorry,” Sean said as he once more followed Raul through his house. “I thought she’d nap for another hour. I thought I’d have enough time to talk to you.”

“This is actually good,” Raul replied, surprising Sean with his answer. Raul looked over his shoulder at him, raking him with a lustful look. “This way we actually get a chance to talk instead of getting carried away by the mate-pull.”

“You know about that?” Sean asked, knowing his shock sounded loud and clear in his words.

Raul snorted while hitting a light switch to illuminate the kitchen, then waving him inside. “Of course. My best friend is mated to a shifter. I met you when I came
with
shifters. Why the hell does my knowledge surprise you?”

Sean prepared the bottle for Lily, then took the liberty of settling into a chair at the breakfast nook before answering. He looked at Raul who lounged comfortably with one shoulder resting on the kitchen wall. Damn, the human really was a sexy specimen.

He finally shrugged. “I apologize. I guess I never really thought about it.”

Grunting, Raul strode toward the second chair, the one across from Sean. His mate had just grabbed the back of the chair, probably intending to pull it out and sit down, when the sound of a door slamming open echoed through the house.

Raul growled, glaring toward the front.

Sean’s jaw dropped open when his mate pulled a gun from under the table and pointed it toward the doorway. He rose, holding a mewling Lily close, trying to decide the best course of action—to shift or not?

A human dressed in blue jeans and a black turtleneck appeared in the doorway, his own gun at the ready. A lean, gray wolf stood at his side, a low warning growl rumbling through his throat. Sean was about to tuck Lily under the table and shift to wolf—fuck ruining the clothes he wore, when Raul lowered the gun and cursed.

“Son of a bitch, Jared. What the fuck are you two doing?”

Okay, evidently, his mate knew these guys. From the way the human swept a cold hazel-eyed gaze around the room, Sean didn’t know if that was a good thing. The human, Jared, focused on him, giving him an assessing look.

“You didn’t come back, Raul. We were worried, especially when Carson scented a strange wolf near your home,” Jared responded quietly, his gaze never straying from Sean. “Who is this?”

At least, both humans lowered their guns. Raul returned his own weapon back to wherever he hid it under the table. The other man, Jared, slipped the gun behind his back and came up empty handed.

“Shit,” Raul muttered. He glanced toward Sean, then returned focus to Jared. “This is Sean Garcia.”

“Interesting timing,” Jared responded mildly.

The words confused Sean, but Raul seemed to understand, for he grimaced. “Yeah, funny, huh?” He turned toward him and waved toward the strangers. “This is Jared Templeton and Carson Angeni. Carson is our head pack enforcer. Jared is his mate.” Raul brushed a hand through his red hair and muttered, “Guys, Sean is
my
mate.”

Sean knew his expression appeared just as shocked as he felt. Raul had just verbally claimed him. He fought the urge to grin and, instead, did a mental fist-pump. If Raul was at least willing to voice the fact that they were mates, it meant the human was going to give their bond a chance. Sean could work with that.

A now-human Carson spoke, drawing Sean’s attention. “I wasn’t notified that a wolf from another pack was entering the territory.”

Sean grimaced. Double damn. “I wasn’t certain Raul would be receptive, or even remember me,” he admitted. “I wanted to make certain he was…well…” He shook his head, trying to get his thoughts in order.

Raul planted his hands on his hips and frowned at him. “Damn it, man. How could you pull that shit? Especially, after everything that happened with your alpha and Kyle?” he snapped, green eyes flashing.

Too busy taking in his mate’s sexy fierce expression and flushed cheeks, Sean didn’t really pay attention to his words. He wanted to know how far down that red would creep in the heat of passion. Not that Sean really knew what he’d do to Raul if he got him in his bed. Sure, he understood the basics—Insert tab A into slot B. Still, the mechanics of man-on-man sex eluded him. Maybe he should have done some research, but just the idea of watching porn felt like he was cheating or something.

“Sean!”

The frustrated snap of his name caused Sean to blink and focus on his glaring mate.
Shit! What’d I miss?
He glanced at the other two men, surprise rocking through him at Jared’s amused smirk and Carson’s bland expression as he shook his head.

“What?” he muttered, trying desperately to catch up.

“Sorry, pal,” Jared said. “You’ll have to fuck him later. We gotta take a little pit stop at the alpha’s first.”

He felt the blood drain from his face. “Oh,” he whispered, tightening his hold on Lily.
How could I be so stupid?

Sean, however, knew what had happened. He’d been so consumed with discovering if his mate remembered him that all proper protocol had flown from his head. Now he’d done the exact same thing that had caused so many problems for the Stone Ridge wolf that had intruded into his old pack’s territory. Would this alpha, Declan if he remembered correctly, demand restitution? And if so, what?

Raul shoved a hand through his hair. “So much for my shower,” he muttered. He pointed at Lily and said, “Want me to hold her while you get into your coat? Where’d we leave that blanket she’d been wrapped in?”

It warmed Sean that his mate seemed to worry about Lily. Pulling his courage together, Sean carefully handed Lily to Raul, then pulled on his coat. To his surprise, Lily didn’t even fuss. She just stared up at Raul with her big blue eyes as the human stared down at her.