Presenting an Opportunity

SPENCER

We had arrived at Levi’s school for the championship soccer match; everyone had shown up. Clade and all three of his women were there, holding pom-poms.

I had no idea how he managed three when I could only just handle my wife, but it was nice to see him finally living his dream of loving all his women.

Mom and Dad had also come. So had Joey and Juniper as well as Alpha and Luna.

Fitz and Cameron, who was pregnant again, had brought along their little beta son Glen.

He was a very gentle kid; he and Lexie will make great leaders—you could already tell.

Even Cleo, Blain, and their daughter Paija had come out to support him, but as we watched Leivon searching the crowd fervently, the one person he was looking for was not there at all.

Knox was sitting on my knee. “Levi,” he pointed, “look, Daddy, Levi sad.”

Watching your son’s face fall the way it did was disheartening; I was disappointed too.

Harper will never know, but I went there yesterday, claiming the school board had informed us of Kiya’s extended absence and I explained how illegal it was for them to not send their child to school.

They didn’t need to know that the rule was for under sixteen-year-olds—technically, I was not interfering either; I was merely presenting an opportunity for two mates to be in the same vicinity.

Completely innocent.

I caught Blain’s eye, and he mouthed the words, “we tried,” and shrugged apologetically. It had been three weeks they had been apart.

I couldn’t imagine three weeks without Harper—I’d die for sure. Damn, I thought my plan would work. The plan no one will ever know I was a part of because I refuse to be accused of interfering.

“Come on, Levi, you can do it!” All of us whipped our heads around and gaped, wide-eyed at Luna, who was on her feet screaming like a banshee.

She sat down with a massive smile on her face. “I’m so freaking excited! Woo!”

We all snickered at her. “Okay—calm down, crazy, it’s just a soccer game,” Alpha teased.

She could have burned him alive with the menacing glower she flashed him, which only resulted in us erupting into full-blown belly laughs.

Lennox decided he liked Luna, so Knox slid off my knee and saddled up next to her, giving her the car he had in his hand.

“Luna broom,” he ordered, his tiny delicate fingers making the car moving motion as the wind blew his dark blonde hair in his light brown eyes.

While Lexie had inherited my features, Lennox had inherited his mother’s. He and Leivon still looked extremely similar—yep, that’s because he was always my pup.

The game had started but Levi had no oomph whatsoever, he was lacking inspiration and their team was being slaughtered.

Yes, they had other good players but none as great as Leivon and watching them being murdered on the field was brutal.

He was dragging his feet, allowing the ball to go past him—his head simply wasn’t in the game.

This is the moment he had been talking about forever; this was one of his goals in life, but without her, he simply didn’t see the point in continuing.

How could they be so goddamn idiotic? She couldn’t function without him, he couldn’t function with her… This was his dream, and he was here, but he couldn’t enjoy it.

“Levi, get your head in the game!” Luna shouted. Shit, I have a feeling she hides a secret competitor under all of that sweetness.

Harper found her hilarious, but I just found her scary. Alpha, on the other hand, sat there with eyes the size of the moon watching his mate.

Clearly, he never knew this side of her existed either. They were trailing by two; we were almost at halftime when I got an idea.

I kissed my sweet cheeks on the forehead and raced down the bleachers as fast as I could.

I know I should not be involved, I also know how this mate bond works, but when you’re dealing with two emotional, hormonal teenagers, sometimes what you need is a little primal force—why didn’t I think of it before?

I looked around, making sure no one could see me, and disrobed, tucked my clothes in the pickup tray, and phased.

Normally we don’t shift in broad daylight like this, or in fact in such a public place, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and a naked man would cause more of a disturbance than a wolf.

I could have driven, but paw power was faster.

The sun was extremely unforgiving today, and with my pure black coat, it was attracting a lot of heat. Either that or I’m getting old?

Nah, just the sun, I’m not old at all. It made the sapphire blue shimmer in my fur more predominant, and I would have stayed a lot more hidden, but I needed the most direct and quickest route possible, which meant not as much cover.

I bet Dad is getting the phone calls right now about how there’s a wolf running through town.

My claws were digging up the earth in my haste to get to Kiya; she was being irrational and mulish.

To be fair, Levi had tried to get to her, to sort it out, but she couldn’t see past her own wound. It was time for her to fight for their bond.

That’s what relationships were, mates or not; this shit was fifty-fifty, even when you didn’t agree—you still had to compromise.

I was pelting down their street at supersonic speed, and as I rounded the corner, I kicked off the ground, launching over their borderline fence.

I craned my massive wolf’s neck, opened the airway, expanded my chest, and released a series of continuous and short rapid barks, alerting her to my beta wolf’s presence.

Just as I halted out the front of her home, the door flew open and out she crawled—you could see the intense wrestle between Kiya’s human side and her animal.

“No, you…are not…allowed…to do…this.” She spat at me as she fell into a heap before my magnificent beast.

She was struggling to breathe as her eyes shifted from pitch black to emerald green; her wolf was submitting, and it pleased my beta greatly. He was in charge, and her wolf knew it.

I growled, then gave a short sharp snap, warning her to obey my command, but she was strong—a fighter not just by choice but by blood. Nice try, little she-wolf.

“No!” Kiya panted, “he doesn’t…want me.”

I’d had enough. I planted my paws and dug my claws into the dirt, shifting my weight to my front and howled.

The vibration released wave after wave of rippling sound. It penetrated her body, forcing her to shift into her wolf form with a colossal amount of defiant whimpering.

Again, I tilted my head and let out a series of short, sharp, and rapid bark commands in a medium pitch—she knew exactly where to go and what to do, and my beta wolf's demand was definite.

Kiya bolted.

I leaped towards their clothesline and yanked a pair of jeans, a top, and what looked like undies in her size—hers were now shredded in pieces where I’d forced her to shift.

I gathered the clothes in my mouth, sprinting in the same direction.

I made a mental note not to ever mention the fact that I carried my son’s sixteen-year-old mate’s panties in my mouth, as that thought alone was just fucking weird.

It didn’t take long to catch up to her, but I was pleased to see her wolf was just as keen for her mate as I was to see them reunited.

We arrived back at my truck, I swear faster than it took to get to Cleo and Blain’s, and tossed her the clothes, slightly covered in drool but better than nothing.

We dressed quickly, we had already wasted enough time.

I heard her groan. “Oh my God, please don’t tell anyone you had my undies in your mouth, no one needs to know that.”

I paled. “Gladly! Now, this is the championship, he’s been working towards this for two years, yet talking about it for far longer, you know how important this is to him. He can’t concentrate—without you, he doesn’t care about anything… Do you hear me? Not without you.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You really want to humiliate me, don’t you? I will go, just to prove to you all that it doesn’t matter, I mean nothing to him.”

~You fucking irritating bloody shit.~

“Fine, let’s see who’s wrong and who’s right,” I challenged.

I collected her upper arm and dragged her from behind the bleachers and out onto the field, noticing immediately that Levi was sitting on the bench with the most broken look upon his face.

What the fuck is he doing on the bench? Damn these teenagers.

I couldn’t help it, he was losing faith. “Cowboy, get in the game!”

My bellowing gained his attention immediately but he didn’t notice me at all, he was solely focused on one thing—Kiya.

His legs started moving before he could process and as he drew closer, he burst into a sprint, straight across the field.

Kiya shifted uncomfortably and tried to pull herself from my grip but I was not letting go.

“Where the hell have you been?” He growled.

I released my hand as her head snapped left and right, seeking a quick escape. Levi slowed his pace and Kiya was shaking uncontrollably.

“I-I d-d…um…I-I…” She couldn’t form words.

He picked her up and smashed his lips against hers.

For a moment her entire body was ramrod straight, but as he passionately moved his mouth over hers, she woke up, wrapping her legs around his waist.

This is where I turned around. I had already seen too much, I didn’t need to watch my son and his mate make out.

I glanced up and noticed every single pair of eyes on those bleachers were no longer on the soccer game but on Levi and Kiya. Our family had risen to their feet, watching the action unfolding with intense scrutiny.

“You don’t get to disappear on me like that again, Kiya Arlington, do you hear me?” I was listening in. I didn’t want to but it was inevitable.

“I couldn’t watch you be with someone else, you only see me as a friend.” She was crying, I could hear it in the strain of her voice and the sniffle in her nose.

“I am in love with you, ~Ku’uipo~, I always thought you would never want to be any more than friends with me.”

“Y-you’re in love w-with m-me?”

“Yes, it took me a bit to realize exactly what this feeling was but yes, ~Ku’uipo~, I am so goddam in love with you and I can’t live without you.”

I heard their teeth clash, I presumed they were kissing again, the reaction of ‘awes’ from the leering crowd of onlookers confirmed it.

“Leivon…what the hell are you doing on the bench?” She questioned.

“Without you, there’s no point.”

“Well, I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere until you get back in there and win this goddam championship,” Kiya growled. I really like her, I always have.

I turned around to agree with her, only they were sucking face and once again I found myself staring at an entire stand of people. I blushed and rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly.

“Thanks, Dad,” I heard Levi say. I just mumbled and gave him a thumbs up, not wanting to turn around—I’d already seen too much.

We climbed the bleachers’ staircase and settled down with the rest of our family, Harper slid onto my lap with her arms around my shoulders.

“Now, if I remember correctly, I believe the words were: ‘we can’t interfere, you know this’ came from your mouth.”

I feigned innocence. “I didn’t interfere, I simply presented them with the opportunity to be in the same vicinity as their mate.”

“Oh really? Because, Deputy Marcelo, it looks a lot like interference to me.”

She knew I would never admit it.

“Are you accusing me, an upstanding gentleman, a member of law enforcement and the best dad in the world—who has a T-shirt to prove I am indeed the best dad in the world, of lying, Mrs. Marcelo?”

She grinned at me. “I think that’s your superpower.”

“What? Being the best dad in the world?”

“No, healing everyone’s broken hearts.” Harper pressed her lips against mine, sliding her tongue between my teeth and stroking gently. I moaned into her passionate kiss.

Holding her face between my hands and soaking in her exquisite beauty, I relished in the love of my life’s giant smile.

“One down, sweet cheeks, two more to go. Now, all we have to do is get Lexie through being alpha.”

^The End^