Bought

Rafe couldn't lose his temper. It was his mother on the phone. He loved her dearly, only not right at the moment. At the moment there were too many things he was trying to deal with. He put a hand to his forehead, cupping it, massaging at the tension building there.



He couldn't find Jim who had disappeared after the meeting broke up and never showed at the dinner table. Rafe was concerned, worried about what his senior was up to. Worried enough to excuse himself unforgivably early in a shocking show of social disgrace. He'd been about to start searching for Jim when this phone call had come in. He'd ducked into one of the better-insulated conference rooms and closed the door to take it. He wasn't happy with the subject matter at all.



"Now is not a good time, mother." He kept his voice low and even, while his heart sped up at the topic of conversation she launched into without preamble. The thought of Caleb here, adding fuel to the already unstable mix was not a pleasant one.



"Nonsense, Blue isn't getting any younger. He needs your help to find a good match, dear." Rafe felt his knees go weak. No. No, not now. "You know it isn't easy for him."



"Yes, I know. I'll help him, I'll do everything I can to help, but this is a bad time. Believe me, I won't have any opportunity to show him around Cascade, or find any eligible Sentinels for him to meet. I'll have to interview them, research them."



Rafe contemplated collapsing into a chair, but decided against it, he chose to pace instead.



"Time, schmime. It won't take any time at all. Just introduce him to a few of Jim's friends, eligible Sentinels without partners. Caleb will charm them just by being himself. He is such a nice boy." Rafe nearly groaned aloud. No way. No way in hell.



Brian noticed that his mother didn't say Blue was handsome. Because that would be a lie. He was both striking and terribly average at the same time.



Physically, Caleb was average. Average height. Average weight. Average looks. He had Rafe's brown hair, tan, and oddly grey eyes. A regular face, but for his eyes. Nothing too special. That wasn't the problem. It was something else. Something Blue projected that always turned heads, for good or very, very bad. Rafe couldn't put a name to it, but it was real. And it was the last thing he wanted here at the compound in the midst of all that was going on.



Rafe was positive Jim didn't want the boy here, either. The one time Jim had gone with Rafe to meet his entire extended family Jim had reacted poorly to the skinny teenager. And Caleb had been no better. He had gone quiet, his pale grey eyes locking with Jim's ice blue gaze. In unison they'd hissed, Jim's body seeming to expand in size, massive, every muscle flexing in preparation for a fight. Rafe's aunt, appalled, had pulled her son out of the big Sentinel's immediate reach, Brian's mother helping. Rafe had been terrified, paralyzed with horror. Blue had hissed at the heir of Cascade. Brian's senior of less than half a year.



Blue hadn't wanted to leave the room; he'd wanted to tussle. He watched Jim over his mother's shoulder, his eyes narrowed, looking like an adolescent mountain lion sighting on a rival for its territory. Stupid to challenge the much larger, far more dangerous Ellison. But it wasn't common sense that was ruling the moment. It was pure instinct. Aunt Ruth, no small woman, and her sister, Rafe's mother, had picked Blue up and carried him bodily away.



The confrontation made no sense. Caleb wasn't an alpha, probably never would be. Yet he'd had the balls to hiss at Jim Ellison. What should have happened was that Jim would have taken Caleb down and maybe out. It would have gone that way if Caleb had been of age. But he was too young, a child, a youth. Jim let the two women drag the boy out of the room. Then he let the rest of the family try to make the huge offense up to him, trying to soothe his offended dignity. Trying to keep him from setting Rafe aside for the unforgivable affront. Jim of course hadn't set him aside, but Rafe wasn't sure how real that possibility had been, or how close the call.



"I know that." Rafe said, searching frantically for an argument his mother would listen to. "And I will help him. But next month, not now. There is some important business Jim is taking care of. He won't have time to ask around." And Rafe had to find another place for Caleb to stay, far from Blair, far from Jim. Rafe stubbornly tried to relay the information in a way his mother would understand. You certainly couldn't say she wasn't determined. It was a characteristic of all the women of his family. They looked out for their sons and daughters. "And he isn't too old, he is what, eighteen, nineteen? He's still a kid, mom."



"Brian Rafe! I am surprised at you. So selfish you won't help your own family. Putting on airs. Blue is twenty years old. This is his best chance before he gets older. Right fresh out of college. He is young, he is eager, and he is still flexible enough to adapt to an alpha. You know how hard a time you have had adjusting to Jim. You were only twenty-three when you met ~him~. Do you want to put your cousin through that kind of stress?"



"Mom." Brian fought the urge to slam his head against the wall. "You know how Jim and Blue reacted to each other. I can't do this right now. Caleb could get hurt."



"No. You'll protect him, Brian. And Caleb has grown up. He won't do anything like that again." She was so naive. She wouldn't accept that Sentinels weren't just another kind of man. Sentinels were men with the spirit of animals. Driven by instincts. Not as civilized as everyone pretended. The more alpha the more to worry about.



Jim wasn't an average alpha Sentinel. Jim was stern and at times very traditional. He had taken good care of Rafe, but there had been difficulties. Which wasn't fair of his mom to bring up. "I will be there for Caleb. I will watch out for him. I will talk to Jim's family, his father about finding him a match." And Brian would do it, though it was hard to ask, and even harder to approach the stern, dignified man who was Jim's father and Cascade's ruler. Brian's knees turned to water at the thought of asking for such a favor as this. Interrupting the conference for it, no, not a good idea. "But not now. Please."



She sighed. "Well, it is too late to change the arrangements now. Ruth and I have decided. He's on his way. He'll be arriving soon. We never thought you'd try to refuse." Her tone was wounded. "And don't you dare send him back home."



Rafe tried again. "This week is not good, there is a law conference going on at the compound." He explained carefully. But the significance didn't escape her; predictably she saw it in a whole different light than he did. She let out an excited squeal.



"A Law conference! Oh! There must be dozens of Sentinels there. Some unbonded ones who aren't already spoken for. Oh, Brian it will be perfect!" She oozed enthusiasm, while he shuddered with the implications she declined to see or consider.



"No." Brian groaned. He hated it when she used that tone. It meant he was going to lose the argument. He already had lost, he was sunk. "Mom. You need to let me talk to Jim first. Ask him. There are too many things going on." He couldn't tell her about Blair being in Heat. He felt his face color. His mother carried Sentinel genes, but she wasn't a Sentinel, she wouldn't get the kind of drives involved and Brian wasn't going to try to explain. Not to his mother. She was the alpha in their family.



"Call Caleb. Tell him not to come. I'll call him next week and well arrange a time for him to visit." Brian begged, making a last ditch plea.



"Didn't you hear me? He is already on his way. You should listen better." She knew him too well. With his eyes closed he could see her, her smile, her satisfaction, her sense of a job well done. She loved him, he was her son, but she also thought he wasn't always as attentive as he should be to family matters. So, she took steps to keep him involved. This step, Brian thought, might backfire.



Rafe had heard what his mother said, loud and clear, but he'd hoped it was just a case of his mother pushing the issue by pretending it was too late not to do things her way. "Crap." He muttered, realizing from the lengthening, triumphant silence that it really was too late.



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Rafe hung up the phone. He stayed where he was for a frozen moment, staring off into space, wondering what he was going to do. If he could intercept his cousin, get him away, keep him from all contact with Jim until these meetings were concluded.



Jim was in a more volatile mood than usual, not tolerating the smallest affront without an aggressive response. Putting him next to Blue would be akin to throwing gasoline on a blazing fire. Rafe pushed off the table, heading for the conference room door.



He would get word to the Guardians, tell them to get Caleb away, to one of the other residential buildings on the compound and set him up until Rafe could find the time to get there alone and explain the situation and what they were going to do about it.



He grabbed the doorknob, twisted it violently, wrenching the door open, jaw clenched. Barreling out into the hall he looked up. And rammed into a solid wall, where there had never been one before. The impact jarred him, and he started to fall, only to be caught and supported by massive hands around his waist.



Head spinning he looked up into Captain Rathe's dilated eyes. The huge Guardian Sentinel looked down at him from an impressive height, hands spreading wide up Rafe's back, practically massaging him. Rafe cringed. He'd always avoided all contact with the man. Not too proud to run from him. Now he was up close and personal, pressed against the hard muscular body.



It was his worst nightmare.



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Jim relaxed, his cheek resting on top of Blair's curls. The Guide was warm, a little sweaty, limp and pliant in his arms. Blair had whimpered out his third orgasm in an hour, and now he was well and truly spent. In front of him, one child had been awake, now all three were. Three sets of eyes stared into Jim's. Wide. Innocent. Entranced.



Jim stared back.



They hardly blinked, those childish eyes, and Jim felt the brush of their immature but powerful minds against his own. Infants, yes, but still Guides, still seeking out a Sentinel's touch, company. He reached out, across the slumbering body that was against his own. Blair stirred, murmuring an exhausted slurred string of sounds, then settled when Jim stilled.



More carefully Jim reached out once more, his hand settling on top of the nearest child's head. So amazingly soft. Jim's thumb brushed over the child's cheek as brown eyes met his. Peace flowed up his arm. The child's joy of being touched. Jim stroked his hand down the curved back.



The baby gurgled, kicking happily. Jim smiled. The sound was good to his ear. The touch was right. The little sound, a cooing, pleasant. Echoed by both of the children he wasn't yet touching. He turned his attention to them, sitting up carefully behind Blair, making sure not to wake him.



"Shhh." The Sentinel murmured. And picked up the furthest child, drawing it into his lap. Then the second. And the third. Warm, wriggling, happy babies. Jim smiled, looking each over, noting tiny hands, pursing lips, blinking, intent gazes.



He bent his head, putting his mouth on one tiny fist, feeling the fingers open and grip his lower lip. The taste of the new skin flooded his mouth. Milky, sweet, salty.



There was only one sense he wasn't using. He dialed up smell. Powder. Baby smell. Blair. And the wrongness slammed into him. Like a mallet to the face, catching him off guard. He drew back as if from a striking snake. Coughed, sneezed, causing all three infants to blink up at him owlishly.



He set them back on the bed, dialing his sense of smell back to zero. He waited until his head cleared. Then fractionally he dialed up again. Until he picked up the stench. Until he figured out it was coming from two places, not one. Both places in this room.



One location was practically in his lap. Blair.



The other was across the room. He got up and moved to the dresser. It took him less than thirty seconds to find the source. Thirty more to believe what he'd found. Then he picked Blair up in his arms, carrying him out into the hall past the nearest Guardian.



"Notify my Companion to go to the nursery." Jim said to the big man, who watched him impassively before nodding once. Then Jim moved past him and continued on towards his own rooms.



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The angry shouting snapped Rathe's head up. Rafe was distracted by it as well, ceasing his attempt to wiggle out of the big male's hold. He'd recognize that bellow anywhere. It was his Senior. It was Jim. Enraged as he almost never was. Swearing. Yelling. At Blair?

Rathe dropped him an instant before Rafe would have started to fight his way free. Rafe ran, Rathe passing him in two long, effortless strides and heading down the wide entrance hall. Rafe struggled to keep up. He heard the panicked response of Blair's voice. Far more distantly he heard the babies crying.



Rafe's steps faltered. Blair cried out. The babies screamed louder. He stopped. Turned. And raced in a new direction. Towards the nursery.



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"What the hell?" William asked aloud. Every Sentinel around the table could hear the commotion. Only William dared stand. Christopher hurried to stand with him. No one met anyone else's eyes.



The phone blared. Or sounded as if it did. Every Sentinel had his hearing dialed all the way up to maximum. They all winced in unison, slapping hands up over their ravaged ears.



"Ellison." William snarled into the receiver. He listened. Then with exaggerated care he reseated the handset. He bit his lip, inhaling in and out for a count of twenty. Then he reached down and ripped the phone out of the wall, throwing it across the room.