Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Wolf’s Secret Twins Chapter 9

Slater

Late afternoon light speckled the new windows I'd installed with Gertie this morning. The team was outside for a quick break, gathering under the shadow of a large oak tree with water bottles, snacks, and the latest sports numbers. I wasn't much into sports. While I could have indulged with them, my brain was replaying my sexy encounter with Virginia from a few nights ago.

Her face, her touch, her scent-everything felt good. Everything felt like it had been preserved all these years for me. Tracing her curves felt like picking up an old video game I loved from my youth. She was just in my head like that, permanently embedded like a tattoo. Something strange had happened when we were done. She'd gone somewhere in her head. The old Virginia-before she had become Virginia-wouldn't have done such a thing. She was ever-present. But this version of her seemed preoccupied. Had the betrayal melted her brain? Made her feel guilty?

Confliction slashed my thoughts in half. One side of me burned with agitation about her grandfather's illegal activities, the same ones that had nearly destroyed my family. While my parents were currently brimming with success thanks to the Haydens, I couldn't help but wonder about Virginia's family. Where were they?

An entirely different side of me was sick of being resentful. Virginia was gorgeous, her kids were wonderful, and nothing could stop me from having what I wanted, not even a pair of alphas.

Regardless of how much I respected them.

I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. All this thinking was giving me a headache. Not to mention the humidity outside was penetrating the open doorways and making me feel woozy. Or maybe that was dehydration.

I plopped onto a stool and plucked a water bottle from the cooler I kept near me during work hours. Light shifted across the windows, the reflection from a passing car's windshield. Workers shouted their greeting at a Chevy idling past. That must have been one of the families living nearby.

The school was all anybody could talk about. With Wendell heading the project, things were steadily getting accomplished. We were using green materials, building up to code, and taking our time with plenty of breaks during the workday. Occasionally, Wendell would allow me to join him late at night when he couldn't sleep, and honestly, I couldn't sleep much these days anyway.

Hence why I was always on Virginia's porch.

Vibrations erupted in my pocket. I set my water bottle down and retrieved my phone, noticing I had a few missed calls from Virginia. I must have missed the vibrations while I was deep in thought. Some of the texts appeared frantic.

I hopped to my feet as I answered the call. "Is he bothering you? Where are you? Are you okay, Ginny darling?"

Laughter splintered my hearing. I cringed away from the phone and rubbed the spot beneath my ear. Christ, I really ought to get my hearing checked soon.

When I returned the phone to my ear, I caught Virginia mid-sentence saying, "...watch the kids?"

I wiped my forehead. "What?"

"I have to go into work early. My babysitter backed out because of the stupid gossip crap. Can you watch the kids tonight?"

"Yeah, sure. I don't mind at all."

I frowned. I'm not a babysitter. Why did I just accept that immediately?

As my heart thudded nervously, I swept the water bottle from the ground.

"Great," Virginia sighed with relief. "Can you come over now?"

I glanced around. "Yeah, I mean..."

"You mean?"

"Let me just tell the guys I have to head out."

She sucked air between her teeth. "You're at work right now, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but it's not-"

"Slater, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize-" She clicked her tongue. "F**k me, I'm so sorry."

I chuckled. "If you think we have time, I can always be of service to you."

"Slater!"

"You're the one who said-"

She made a bunch of incoherent noises and then laughed nervously. "You know what? Fine. You can joke all you want as long as you get here in the next five minutes." "I'll have to shift to make it there that fast."

"Well, I guess you better shift fast, wolf boy."

She hung up before I could retort. This Virginia was definitely different than the woman I had met way back when.

I think I liked this version better.

***

It was easy to bribe Gertie into covering for me again. Three frozen Philly cheesesteaks and five coupons for free drinks at Jester's later, I had me a good cover story that even my parents couldn't poke any holes in. If they knew anything about where I'd been spending time lately, they'd probably die. And then rise back up to kick my a*s from the other side.

I thought about what might happen from there as I got dressed in the privacy of the backyard. It was weird seeing it during the day. From my vantage point in the fenced-off area of the porch, I saw the circular area on the grass where an over-the-ground pool once sat. Or maybe it was a trampoline. Something big that the twins liked but no longer had.

After getting my clothes and boots on, I went inside where the twins immediately tackled me. Anthony grabbed my left hand while Adhara stood up on the couch to meet my height. Both of them talked at the same time. Tinnitus rang through my ears, making it hard to focus until Virginia clapped her hands.

"Excuse me," she said authoritatively. "Is that any way to treat a guest?"

Something about the way she said the word guest ruffled my fur. There shouldn't have been a reason for it. I was just their babysitter for the night. These kids didn't mean much to me outside of what they meant to Virginia.

But something was off about that word. Something had struck me that wouldn't back down until I turned around to face it.

I just didn't know what that something was, or how to make it go away.

Adhara hopped down from the couch and walked around it to stand next to her brother. The twins held hands and gave me such apologetic expressions that whatever the something was hanging in the background became far less important than comforting them. I knelt to the ground on one knee. "Listen, I'll be here for most of the night until your mama gets back, so we should set some boundaries."

The twins nodded.

"We're playing video games all night."

Gasps and cheers exploded through the room over Virginia's huffs and sighs. I laughed while standing up and leaning against the couch.

"I'm mostly kidding," I offered Virginia. "But you have to get your chores done first, alright?"

"Alright!" the twins replied.

Without letting go of each other, they ran off, looking way too identical with their shoulder-length black hair and matching band shirts. Those vintage tees were undoubtedly Virginia's. Either that or it was something they had rummaged out of a bargain bin. I crossed my arms over my chest. "Handfuls. Like you."

Virginia gave me a sheepish smile while blushing. Dang, I didn't know I still had that kind of effect on her.

She shrugged. "They're willful."

"How long you working tonight?"

"Until the bar shuts down, I guess." She threw her hands in the air. "I'm always the one they call because I'm the most responsible, I guess."

"You guess, huh?" I teased. "You can't take shorter hours? I mean, Blake has offered you protection all these years. He can't pay for your stay here?"

Humor drained from her face along with a good bit of color. She spun around and went to the hall mirror where she fussed with her hair, her makeup, her outfit. She looked like a mom right now, but I was willing to bet she had a tiny tank top tucked in that satchel of hers that she was going to wear behind the bar.

Fury settled into my bones. And that shouldn't have been happening either. What was going on with me tonight? It wasn't like me to get angry about certain words or to get jealous of my ex-girlfriend working at a bar.

"It's just something to pass the time," she said, and suddenly I remembered the way she had said that after I'd walked her and the twins to school.

I came up behind her, locking eyes with her in the mirror, getting a better look at the smoky eyeshadow, the heavy mascara, the dark eyeliner. "Now that's something I don't remember."

"What?"

"You lying about stuff."

We shared a look of surprise, and given the circumstances, yeah, it was ridiculously confusing. Because there was no way for me to know she was lying about anything. And anyway, why would I care if she was lying? It wasn't like she belonged to me. Desire drove me to trace her shoulder. Yet.

"I'll be late," she whimpered as she drifted away. "Sorry, I don't mean to cut it short, I just have to-"

I smirked. "I get it. Don't sweat a thing, Mama Wolf. I'll hold down the fort."

"Don't let them stay up too late, okay? They get rowdy when they don't get the right amount of sleep."

"Yes, ma'am."

She went to the door, paused with her hand on the knob, and then glanced at me over her shoulder. "And Slater?" "Yes?"

"Thanks again."

She swept out of the room faster than a breeze cutting through a cave. The moment passed, and then the weird feeling returned, reminding me that I wasn't necessarily part of this world. I was one or two steps outside of the path she walked. I was just a physical reminder of where she'd come from-and where I'd come from too. We were just ghosts passing each other.

We were just ghosts who couldn't stop haunting each other.

The sound of feet thumping back to the living room planted me firmly into my current situation. Adhara held up a war game with elaborate artwork on the cover while Anthony started up the PlayStation 4. Within a few minutes, I was settled on the couch with the twins on either side of me, totally engrossed in the strategy of their fantasy game.

Adhara elbowed me without taking her eyes off the screen. "You're nice to Mama, Mr. Slater. Probably the only nice person we've met other than Mr. Elias."

"Well, that can't be true," I commented. "What about your schoolteacher?"

Anthony sighed heavily. "She's nice, but it's not nice being in that room. Archie is the only one who stands up for us."

"Are the kids mean to you?"

Both twins replied, "Yeah."

My blood boiled in my veins. How could anybody let their kids bully the likes of these two gaming kiddos? They weren't bad kids, they didn't cause a fuss other than the usual child stuff, and they seemed to be truly devoted to their mother. While I knew there were always two sides to a story, I just couldn't see why the other side in this case would be so mean.

The controller cracked under my grip. One of the buttons fell off. Adhara paused the game while Anthony stared at the crushed handle.

"Wow," they both said in awe.

I chuckled nervously while standing up quickly. "Wow, I, uh-sorry, kids. I didn't mean to, uh-you got an extra one?"

Anthony frowned. "No, that was the only other one we had."

I smiled apologetically. "Well, I'll go get you a new one since this is my fault."

"Do you want to use mine?" Anthony offered. "I can watch."

"No, you two keep on playing," I urged while unplugging the controller I had just smashed. "I'm going to see if I can salvage this thing."

"Can you just sit with us then?" Adhara asked.

I looked between the two of them, their expressions matching in every way. A sorrowful energy had taken residence in the living room, and I wasn't sure when or how that had happened. But what I could tell was that they really didn't want me to leave the room. And I didn't want to leave the room either.

After a second of reflection, I nodded. "Right. I can handle this later. It's not that important."

"Can you help me with my character's level up?" Adhara requested as she resumed the game. "I'm just trying to get her to match Anthony's levels."

When I returned to my seat, I smiled. "Of course. Let's see what you got."

***

After dinner, the kids went back to the couch to snuggle up for a movie. They insisted I should sit between them, and then they insisted that I listen to them break down each character, pointing out the plots in the story and what they would have done to make it better.

These kids were too smart for their own good. And not in a bad way. It just made it feel like I wasn't babysitting at all, like I was actually spending time with family instead. Maybe that was why the word Virginia had used earlier rubbed me so wrong. Because this hardly felt like a guest situation, especially when the twins ended up falling asleep right on me.

I must have dozed for a few minutes, maybe an hour. The lock clicked in the door and then the door jammed from the bolt. I eased out from under the twins and sleepily padded over to the door when I slid the bolt out of place. When I opened the door, Virginia looked dead tired. Her mascara was caked in the creases of her eyes and her face drooped.

Like I had assumed earlier, she was wearing a tiny tank top that enhanced her tits so much I could have dived into her cleavage and gotten lost. Hunger consumed me. But even in my sleepy state, I was able to reason with myself.

However much I beat myself for logic winning, I knew better. I stepped aside and let Virginia into the foyer where she stepped softly on bare feet while holding her stilettos by their straps. She stared at the living room-and I didn't blame her because it looked like a college dorm had exploded in here.

Snacks littered the coffee table. Popcorn decorated the carpet on one side with cups of juice lined on the other. There were a bunch of cards that had fallen from their tower and plenty of movies stacked next to that. Dishes were piled in the sink in the kitchen. Though she couldn't see that, I knew she could feel it. Those were just the vibes she gave me.

She should have been mad. And maybe she was mad for a second. But the gentle gaze she gave me after she spotted her kids sleeping soundly was something that just enhanced those weird somethings from earlier.

I shut the door and bolted it. "You alright, Ginny darling?"

"Tired."

"That means you're thinking up a storm."

She glared at me. "It means I'm tired, Slater."

"From all that thinking."

"We're not dating," she said through gritted teeth. "We're not involved other than what we do in the dark while no one is around." She marched quietly around the couch and scooped Adhara up. "You're done for the night, Slater. Thanks. Now get out."

I didn't like how she passed me off. I didn't appreciate how she snapped at me, or how she was keeping her thoughts from me. Lying wasn't in her nature. Neither was that attitude. Though brattiness had always been her thing, this was beyond brattiness. This was getting into territorial territory-about her time, about her kids, about her.

Something about that just made me plain mad.