Fire & Rescue Shifters Collection 1 Read online

  We shall see, whispered his eagle…and Griff shivered at the cold threat in its voice.

  Chapter 4

  Hayley

  To: [email protected]

  From: [email protected]

  Subject: Hereditary medical condition

  Reiner,

  I’ve just discovered that Danny has a rare condition which I think he must have got from you. I don’t want to say too much in an email, but let’s just say it’s a big shift in our lives. If you know what I’m talking about, then please get in touch.

  I promise, I don’t want money or anything. I just want information.

  Hayley paused with her fingers on the keyboard of her laptop, uncertain how to sign off. “Regards” seemed rather impersonal, considering that Reiner was the father of her child. On the other hand, “Best wishes” would be a flat-out lie. She couldn’t wish him well, not when Danny always stared wistfully at other kids playing with their dads in the park.

  With a sigh, she just typed “Hayley,” and hit Send. The message whooshed cheerfully off into the ether, leaving her staring at her empty inbox. She’d thought it best to create a throwaway account, just in case he had her regular email address blocked.

  He’ll probably just delete it as soon as he realizes who it’s from, anyway.

  When Danny had been a newborn, she’d bombarded every phone number and email address she had for Reiner with cute baby photos. She couldn’t understand how anyone—let alone his own father—could look at those big brown eyes and adorable chubby cheeks and remain stone-hearted. But Reiner had never responded, not even to demand that she stop bothering him.

  She still sent Reiner a photo and update every month, but it was more out of habit than any real hope that he would finally get in contact. Hayley had a sinking feeling that this time wouldn’t be any different.

  At least Danny has Griff to help him.

  Hayley bit her lip, glancing across the living room to where Danny was sprawled belly-down on the carpet, hypnotized by the TV. It was the first time all day he stopped chattering about “Mr. Griff,” asking if it was four o’clock yet and whether they could go to the playground and if they could be lions together for Halloween. He was clearly completely star-struck by the firefighter.

  Not that Hayley could blame him…

  I can’t let him get too attached. Griff seems nice, but he won’t be around forever. I have to make sure Danny understands that. Better a little disappointment now than heartbreak later.

  She knew that from experience.

  “Mommy?” Danny said thoughtfully, his bare feet kicking in the air. On the TV screen, Mike the Knight and his dragon friends were puzzling over how to clear a giant tree trunk that had fallen across a path. “How big do you think Mr. Griff’s lion is?”

  “I don’t know, honey.” She had a sudden mortifying image of Danny innocently asking Griff how big he was, and she hastily added, “It probably wouldn’t be polite to ask.”

  “I bet he’s real big,” Danny said in deep satisfaction. “I bet he could just knock that tree trunk away with his paw, bam! I bet he’s big enough to beat anything. Even Darth Vader. Mommy, do you think Mr. Griff could beat the Hulk?”

  Oh dear. “Baby, turn off the TV and come here a second, okay?”

  Danny made a what-have-I-done-now face, but dutifully climbed onto her lap. Hayley hugged him tight, still treasuring the feel of his human-shaped little body. “I know you like Mr. Griff a lot, and I’m sure he likes you too, but you need to remember that he’s a big, grown-up man. He won’t want you clinging to him and following him everywhere. He needs to spend time with his own grown-up friends.”

  Danny squirmed a little in her arms. “But I’m going to play with his dragon friends too. Mr. Griff said so.”

  “Yes, but…sometimes people make promises that it turns out they can’t keep. You mustn’t be disappointed if it doesn’t work out.”

  “Mr. Griff won’t break a promise to me,” Danny said matter-of-factly, with perfect confidence. “Never ever. He’s my alpha.”

  Where on earth had he learned that? Now that she thought back, she remembered Griff using the same word. She knew that wolf packs had alphas, but lions? “What do you mean, honey? What’s an alpha?”

  “Mr. Griff is,” Danny said, with the serene circular logic of a five-year-old. “When will he be here, Mommy?”

  All thoughts of mysterious alphas fled from Hayley’s mind as she glanced at the time. “Oh, fudge! In ten minutes!”

  Danny yelped with excitement, bouncing off her lap as she hastily stood. “Is that now?”

  “It might as well be now!” Hayley cursed herself for spending too long agonizing over the email to Reiner. She’d meant to have a shower, she’d meant to change-! “Honey, can you be a good boy and sit quietly watching TV while Mommy tries to make herself pretty?”

  “Silly Mommy.” Danny rolled his eyes at her as plopped down in front of the TV again. “You’re always pretty.”

  Hayley wasted precious seconds scooping him up for another hug—he squawked in protest, wriggling to keep the screen in sight—before dashing upstairs to her bedroom. She struggled out of the torn jeans and old, comfy sweatshirt she’d been wearing, flinging them carelessly across the bed. She’d worked hard all day to try to get the rest of the house cleaner than its usual state of child-induced chaos, but at least this was one room she didn’t have to worry about keeping tidy. It wasn’t like Griff was going to be seeing it.

  More’s the pity.

  Squashing the stray, ridiculous thought, she rifled through her clothes in the vain hope of finding something that was both respectable and attractive. Unfortunately, the only things she owned that weren’t stained and tired were her work clothes, and as an elementary school teacher she didn’t exactly dress to impress.

  I’m being silly, Hayley told herself firmly as she grabbed a pair of black leggings that weren’t too badly bobbled. It’s not a date. Griff isn’t going to care what I’m wearing. He’s coming to see Danny, not me.

  Nonetheless, she pulled on a low-cut floral tunic that she normally wore over a vest. She hesitated for a second, trying to decide whether it was too revealing, but it was too late to change her mind. She barely had enough time to drag a brush through her limp, mousy-brown hair and dab a bit of concealer on the dark circles under her eyes before—on the stroke of four o’clock—the doorbell rang.

  “Mommymommymommymommy!” Danny shrieked at the top of his lungs. So much for not getting too attached. His feet thundered toward the front door. “He’s here, Mr. Griff is here!”

  Hayley charged for the stairs. “Danny, don’t open the-!”

  Too late. She got to the landing just in time to see an overenthusiastic lion cub hit Griff squarely in the chest.

  “Whoa!” Griff hastily stepped inside, making sure his broad bulk shielded Danny from view of the road. He kicked the front door shut behind him. “Good thing I wasn’t the mailman. Oof! I hope you haven’t been pouncing on your ma like this.”

  “Danny!” Mortified, Hayley ran down the stairs. “Get down off Mr. Griff this second!”

  “Ah, it’s fine.” Still hugging Danny in one powerful arm, Griff handed her a stunning bouquet of soft pink roses, smiling. “Just glad I didn’t drop these.”

  Hayley stared at the bouquet in her hands, momentarily speechless. No one had ever given her flowers before. Not even Reiner. “What- why-?”

  It’s just a hostess present. British people are very strict on good manners, remember?

  “I mean, th-thank you!” Hayley stuttered, certain that her cheeks were as pink as the roses. How had he known that exact shade was her favorite color? Just co-incidence? “Please, come in. Um, come in more, that is. Danny, get down! And, and human!”

  Danny reluctantly dropped to the ground, but seemed a bit lost as to how to obey the latter command. He shuffled his paws, then mewed plaintively at Griff.

  The firefighter shook his head. “You got you
rself into that shape, you can get yourself out of it, laddie. Think about it.” He looked back at Hayley. “This the first time he’s shifted since yesterday?”

  Hayley nodded. “Thankfully. How often is he likely to do this?”

  “Let’s just say you may want to keep the lad in big old T-shirts and the like for a while,” Griff said ruefully, tilting his head to indicate the abandoned, shredded remnants of Danny’s best—and only—dress shirt and pants. As I recall, most of my sisters spent the best part of a year running around in the cheapest, baggiest shifts my da and ma could find.”

  “He’s going to shift every time he gets too excited?” Hayley gasped, her hand flying to her mouth as a horrible thought struck her. “Oh God, he’s got kindergarten tomorrow. And I’m a teacher, I can’t just phone in sick and keep him at home.”

  “Ah now, don’t fret.” Griff put one hand on her shoulder, his golden eyes warm and understanding. His strong fingers squeezed lightly, reassuringly, before letting go again. “That’s one of the reasons I’m here. I can make sure he doesn’t go lion in public.” He hesitated, his expression turning more serious. “I need to ask your permission, though. I should really have done so earlier, up in the tree, but things were…a mite hectic.”

  She could still feel the brief touch of Griff’s hand, a heat that raced through her blood. It ignited a long-forgotten fire deep in her belly, so distracting that she very nearly lost track of what he was saying. “Um…what?”

  The man must think I’m an absolute idiot. Pull it together, Hayley!

  Griff absently flexed his hand, and Hayley had the sudden mad thought that maybe the brief contact had made his skin tingle too. “I’m an alpha lion, ye ken.” His accent had thickened, the Scottish brogue becoming more pronounced. He cleared his throat. “That means I can influence Danny’s lion. With your permission.”

  “Oh.” She scrabbled to try to appear like a competent, functioning adult and not a hormone-addled woman who hadn’t had sex for five years. “So…an alpha’s like an authority figure? You can set a rule he has to follow?”

  Danny put his ears back. He hissed.

  “Only with your permission too, lad,” Griff told him. His tone turned deadly serious, with an odd undertone of compelling power that made chills run down Hayley’s spine. “A true alpha never forces anyone. You remember that, always.”

  Danny seemed a little overcome by Griff’s sudden intensity. He hunkered down a little, his body language reminding Hayley of a worried dog, and whined.

  “Baby, this is real important,” Hayley said, crouching down so she could look Danny straight in the eyes. “If someone saw you turn into a lion, they might get scared and want to lock you up in a zoo. You wouldn’t like that, would you?”

  Danny’s eyes widened. He cuddled up against her, pressing his broad fuzzy head against her side as if trying to hide.

  “I’d never let anyone take you away,” Hayley said hastily, worried that she’d scared him too much. “But it would be best if no one finds out what you are. Like…like you’re a superhero, okay? And you have to protect your secret identity.”

  He peeped out from under her arm, and Griff chuckled as if at something Danny had just said. “Aye, just like Spiderman. Danny, all I want to do is to make sure your lion has to check with you before taking over. You’ll still be able to shift when you want. I’ll just make sure you don’t shift when you don’t want. That sound okay to you and your lion?”

  Danny’s ears flicked back and forth a few times, as if he was considering it. Then he padded trustingly over to Griff and bumped his forehead against the firefighter’s legs.

  Griff’s golden eyes went very soft as he looked down at the cub. “Aye,” he said, a catch in his voice. “And I’ll try to be worthy of that.” A little stiffly, he knelt. “Now, we’re going to do some practicing today to improve your control, and I’m going to get my lion to give yours a little nudge sometimes to help. But first, I want to see if you can shift back all by yourself. You remember how we did it yesterday?”

  “I made more cookies,” Hayley volunteered. Unable to sleep, she’d spent hours last night baking after Danny was in bed. “Just in case.”

  “That was good thinking,” Griff said, and she felt ridiculously pleased at having won his approval. “But let’s see if he can do it without one actually in front of him first. Danny? Just focus on the memory of the cookie.”

  The lion cub’s nose wrinkled up in concentration…and a moment later, a stark naked Danny leaped into Griff’s arms again. “I did it Mr. Griff! I did it all by myself!”

  “Danny!” Hayley could have died of embarrassment. She seized Danny round the waist, whirling around to try to hide him from sight. “Get your clothes back on right this second!”

  Behind her, Griff burst out laughing. “Ah, don’t fash yourself, Hayley. We shifters are pretty relaxed when it comes to nudity.”

  Nonetheless, he politely looked away as Hayley wrestled the protesting Danny back into underwear. “But Mommy, I don’t wanna get dressed! I wanna be lions with Mr. Griff!”

  “He does have a point,” Griff said to Hayley, apologetically. “Some types of shifter can include their clothes in their transformations, but lions can’t. And I do need to work on his shifting with him. If you want, I could wear a blindfold?”

  “No, no!” Griff didn’t set off any of Hayley’s finely-honed protective mama bear instincts. “I don’t think you’re a pervert or anything like that. I mean, you’ve already done more in one day to help than-”

  Hayley cut herself off. She never, ever disparaged Reiner in front of Danny. Even though Danny had never met him, he was still his father. “Anyway. If you’re fine with the, um, lack of clothes thing, then so am I.”

  If Griff was going to teach Danny about shifting, would he have to…? Hayley blushed furiously, unable to suppress a tantalizing mental image of the firefighter stripping off.

  Griff cast her a rather amused look, a sly gleam in his golden eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep my clothes on.”

  Hayley wanted to sink through the floor. Was she that easy to read?

  “But Mr. Griff!” Danny tugged on Griff’s hand, looking worried. “If you keep your clothes on, you’ll rip them up and then your mommy will be mad.”

  An oddly wistful half-smile tugged at Griff’s mouth. “Quite the reverse, actually.” He raked his hand through his blond hair as if he was debating something with himself, then sighed. “Might as well get this out of the way. Hayley, do you mind if we all go out into the garden?”

  “Um, okay.” Hayley’s heartbeat sped up a little, with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension. It was one thing having Danny turn into a cute little cub, but Griff would be a full-size male lion…

  She led the way through the house and out the back. One of the reasons Hayley had picked this house in the first place was because it was right at the end of the street, with a secure backyard that wasn’t overlooked by any of the neighbors. One thing she still hadn’t gotten used to about England compared to California was how small everything was. Brits might have mastered the art of pretending they couldn’t see straight into each other’s properties, but Hayley preferred actual privacy.

  Not that she’d ever imagined she’d be using it for this.

  Griff cast a swift, appraising look around at the high fences, nodding in approval. “This is good. We’re safe to practice here. But…Danny, I’m afraid I can’t show you my lion.”

  Danny’s bottom lip stuck out. “Why not?”

  “Danny,” Hayley said warningly, though she too couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. “It’s not polite to pry. I’m sure Mr. Griff has his reasons.”

  “I do.” Griff sat down on the grass, his left leg stretched out awkwardly. “And the reason is that I can’t.” He tapped the center of his chest. “My lion’s stuck in here, Danny. He can’t get out, not the way that yours can.”

  “But I thought you were a shifter,” Hayley blurted out.

>   Griff’s eyes flashed a brilliant, animal yellow. “I am a shifter,” he said, and the hairs on the back of Hayley’s neck rose at the deep, primal growl in his voice. “I am more of a shifter than most. I am descended from generations of shifters, on both sides of my family. I have inner beasts, I can touch minds with the beasts of others, I have a m—” He paused fractionally, as if thinking better of whatever he’d been about to say. “I have all the instincts of a shifter. In every way that matters, I am a shifter.”

  “I know you’re a shifter,” Danny said, sounding more puzzled than alarmed by Griff’s sudden outburst. “Who says you aren’t? They’re mean. And stupid.”

  The barely-leashed savagery vanished from Griff’s eyes. “Ah, you’re a kind wee soul,” he said gruffly. “Kinder than most.” He glanced up at Hayley, looking a little ashamed of himself. “Sorry. Sore spot. I’m sure you can imagine what other shifters think of one of their own who can’t actually shift.”

  Her heart went out to him—even if it was still beating hard at the shock of the sudden reveal of the raw, feral strength hidden behind Griff’s amiable exterior. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. That must be…very hard.”

  “But why can’t you shift?” Danny demanded, with a little kid’s unabashed rudeness. “You’ve got a lion, just like me. I know you have.”

  Griff beckoned to him. “Come here, lad. Let’s see if I can show you.” He cupped the back of Danny’s neck, drawing him close until their faces were only inches apart.

  Danny stared deep into Griff’s eyes for a long moment. Then he jerked back, his own widening. “That’s not a lion.”

  “No, it isn’t.” Griff released him, letting out a long breath. “That’s my eagle. My father’s a lion shifter. But my mother’s an eagle shifter. That’s why they named me Griffin—that’s a pretend beastie that’s half-lion, half-eagle, ye ken.” His mouth quirked wryly. “My ma and da don’t have a lot in common, but they do share the same terrible sense of humor.”