Declaration of Courtship Chapter 6

HAVING SPENT THE remainder of the afternoon in 4B, Grace headed home at close to six p.m. All she wanted was to wash off the grime from crawling around in access corridors and narrow ducts she knew full well had been cleaned a mere two weeks ago.

Too bad spiders only needed a day to build a sticky mansion, complete with multiple rooms and storage facilities.

She shuddered at the reminder of the bugs she'd seen trapped in the webs.

Yes, she was changeling, hunted when her wolf needed it. But there was something very creepy about keeping your food hanging around.

Her comm panel chimed an incoming call just as she was stepping out of the shower cubicle. Recognizing the caller's ID code, she wrapped a towel around herself and answered with a smile, picking up another towel to rub at her hair as the visual feed went live.

"Hi, Mom." It was a choice she'd made as a child, to call Milena and James Mom and Dad. It gave them the beloved place they deserved in her life while differentiating them from her lost mama and papa.

"Hi, munchkin." Milena beamed, the natural deep honey of her skin caressed by a glow that said she'd spent several hours outside under bright sunshine. "How was your day?"

"Great." Unable to resist, Grace bragged a little about how her crew was ahead of schedule, then asked her mother about the rest of the family.

"I know you talk to Pia and Revel, too," Milena said after catching her up on a few things, "but I don't know how long I'll be able to keep the two of them, not to mention your father, from paying a visit to check up on you."

"They turn up, I'll kick them back out." She cherished her family, but they continued to see her as the half-mute seven-year-old they'd taken in after her parents were killed in the catastrophic events that had overtaken the main Sierra Nevada den roughly two decades ago.

So many children had become orphans, but none had been left without support, without family. Milena and James, and their teenage children, Pia and Revel, had become hers. Old enough not to mind the tiny intruder in their home, the teenagers had thrown their protection over Grace.

Hardly surprising, since both Pia and Rev were strong dominants who now held senior soldier status.

As a shocked child, she'd needed the comfort of their protective natures, needed the cage provided by falling asleep curled between her siblings, all of them in wolf form. It had made her feel safe when her world had splintered into so many pieces, she didn't know what to do, how to survive each painful hour.

But she hadn't been seven for a long time.

"I'll pass on the message," Milena said with a sigh, "but you know how stubborn they are." Then she laughed, hazel eyes shimmering. "Look who I'm talking to - you always were a stubborn thing. I remember trying to get you to release your blankie so I could wash it.

You didn't scream, didn't cry, didn't claw out at me or growl, but would you let go? No. I had to resort to sneaking it away one night weeks later when you finally fell asleep without it clutched in your little fist."

The story was a favorite one of her mother's and still made Grace laugh.

Now, she reached out and picked up the furry orange teddy bear Milena had made from the scraps of her blankie after it had finally fallen apart. He'd survived her childhood and these days sat cheerfully on her bookshelf, next to photos of her family. "I wash him, I swear."

"Cheeky girl." Blowing her a kiss, Milena said, "I better go. I promised your father I'd make his favorite quesadillas. I love you, baby."

"I love you, too, Mom."

As she ended the call, Grace thanked God that neither Pia nor Rev had been posted to this den - they'd have been appalled at the idea of their sister dating a lieutenant. Grace would have told the two of them to butt out, of course, but she much preferred to play with Cooper with no one looking over her shoulder.

"Tell me what bad-girl things you got up to as a juvenile. " Even as heat bloomed in her abdomen at the memory of that lazy, caressing voice asking her wicked, wicked things at dinner the previous night - while he fed her spoonfuls of decadent chocolate mousse - a message came in on her cell phone.

Storm-damaged tree found along main den route. Needs to be brought down. Rain check for dinner? Coop.

Disappointed, she went to say yes, paused. Has your team eaten?

No. Bethany's bringing it over in a half hour.

I'll do it.

It made a goofy smile break out over her face that Cooper had signed off with kisses. Dressing quickly, she found Bethany in the kitchen, putting together the meal. When she offered to take it, the older woman raised an eyebrow.

"Todd?"

Grace squirmed. "Er, no."

"Hmm. Who else is out there?" She continued to make the sandwiches. "Bill replaced Shamus and they're both mated, in any case. Which leaves my Cooper." Having finished her own set of sandwiches, Grace wrapped them up so they'd stay soft. "I'll get some of the brownies."

"Grace."

She froze, bit her lip. "It's new.

We're not ready for the pack to know." Bethany didn't stop her again when she moved to grab the brownies. Since the site was at least a half hour away on foot, Grace headed to the garage, Bethany walking down with her. They saw Vitoria on the way, the other woman having had to return to the den in order to teach a novice class. "You have more hot drinks for everyone?" the senior soldier asked from the other side of the corridor. "It's chilly out tonight." Grace's nod received a thumbs-up before Vitoria turned to continue on her way.

"He always was a law unto himself," Bethany mused as Grace got into the driver's seat of a sturdy four-wheel drive, "so all I'm going to say is  - submissive or not, you make sure you don't just sit and take his care. You give back."

Grace's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "If you think only dominants know how to love, you don't know your packmates very well." Bethany's response was startling.

Laughing, she leaned in to kiss Grace on the cheek with open affection. "Just checking you've got spine - you'll need it with Coop. That boy likes to get his own way. Good luck."

AFTER helping to demolish the food Grace had brought, Cooper nixed her offer to stay and help with the tree, receiving unexpected support for his decision from Todd.

"Can't risk those hands," the engineer said. "You're a surgeon with the systems."

"Anyway," Bill added, shoving a hand through his blond mop, "this shouldn't take long. Now that we have it down, all we have to do is cut this baby up enough that we can clear the road.

Rest of the cleanup can be done tomorrow by a novice team."

Grace folded her arms, expression mutinous. "Fine. But I'll wait and drive you all back to the den."

Todd burst out laughing, followed by Bill. When Grace scowled, Cooper tipped up her chin and kissed it off in a quick, light caress that wouldn't startle or scare her wolf. "You're with three dominants." He grinned, his lips brushing hers as he spoke. "All of us have a well-known and occasionally mocked tendency for wanting to control the vehicles we're in. What do you think your chances are of retaining the wheel?"

"Okay, I'll give you that one." An amused smile, but her eyes skated toward Todd and Bill, who weren't even pretending not to watch them, shit-eating grins on their faces.

Cupping her hip in a protective caress, Cooper pointed a finger at the two men. "Sworn to secrecy."

"Aw, come on, Coop!" was the joint refrain, but he glared them into agreement...and later that night, got another shy, sexy kiss from Grace for his trouble, her wolf rubbing up against her skin with an affection his own returned.

But even though he fell into bed bone tired, the exquisite taste of Grace in his mouth, he dreamed of horror. "No! No! "

THE next day was a crazy one. One of the major air conduits just up and died without warning, pulling Grace's entire team out of bed at six a.m. Paul, their air-systems expert, had them working nonstop until after five, when he decreed the job complete. Tired but pleased, they slapped one another on the back, then went their separate ways.

It was only after she'd showered that Grace realized Cooper hadn't said anything about seeing her tonight when he'd dropped by to check on the progress of the repair. Of course, it had hardly been a private moment - and Cooper was doing his best to give her time to get used to their relationship in private before it inevitably went public.

It wouldn't be too much longer, she knew that, especially after the kiss at the tree site. Predatory changeling males, regardless of their place in the hierarchy, were all openly possessive.

The fact that Cooper had fought his instincts on the point this long...well, it simply made her melt for him even more.

"I like your kisses, bad girl." Toes curling, she went to check her messages, only to discover one from her brother but nothing from Cooper. And she knew for a fact he was in the den, so he hadn't been pulled away.

Frowning, she sat down on her bed and thought things through. Given that Cooper had made it crystal clear he intended to have her...keep her, added to the reality that dominant males went after the women they wanted no holds barred, the fact that he'd expended no effort whatsoever to pin her down for tonight could only mean one thing - he was treating her as his, as if their spending time together was a given.

It was a very subtle form of dominance play,and no matter how much woman and wolf both adored Cooper, Grace had no intention of being led on a leash.

Declaration of Courtship Chapter 7

COOPER'S blood went ice-cold when no one seemed to know where Grace had gone. He pulled out his cell phone to call her, knowing she'd see it as a controlling move on his part, but he needed to know she was okay, was safe.

The rain was only a drizzle for the moment, but that didn't mean the roads weren't dangerous.

"Hey, Coop." Shamus ran over before he could input the call. "Emma's abandoned me for dinner out with Grace and Vivienne. You want to grab a pizza?"