ROMANCE: SPORTS ROMANCE: Bad Boys of Sports: A Complete Collection (Alpha Male, Football, Hockey Secret Baby Romance) (Contemporary Sports Romance) (26 page)

CHAPTER 4

Present Day

“Sweetheart, please calm down,” Julie begged. “You’re going to make yourself sick.”

Sadie had waited to pick up her son and put him to bed before she called Julie to come over. It wasn’t until she arrived that Sadie finally allowed herself to break down and weep for the lost love between her and Tobias.

“You don’t understand, Julie. He doesn’t remember me. At all. Hell, he barely remembers Sarah! Every part of me wants to wrap myself around his body; but his head – his memories, they’re all gone. What if he never remembers how much we loved each other? What if I can never tell him about Davie?”

Julie shrugged her shoulders and suddenly butted into the middle of Sadie’s breakdown. “And what if you did, huh? What if you took Davie over the ranch tomorrow and say look, I’m sorry that you’re head is all wonky. It sounds like it sucks a lot. But here’s the deal, you have a son, and he’s amazing, and he’s been waiting his whole life to meet you.”

Sadie’s mouth dropped. “I can’t do that! Then he’ll think I’m trying to trap him!”

“He could,” Julie admitted, nodding her head. “That’s true; he very well could. Or, he could see the obvious resemblance between himself and Davie and realize that you two once upon a time had an amazing love. It could be your second chance, Sadie. Don’t be too much of a coward to take it. God, I remember, hell everyone remembers how in love you two were. Now he’s back, and you think the best thing to do is just leave him alone? Nuh-uh, sister. You get your ass over to that ranch first thing tomorrow morning and show Tobias what he’s been missing!”

Sadie opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again. Julie had a point and a really good one too. Slowly she nodded her head, agreeing to her friend’s plan.

“Okay,” she murmured. “First thing tomorrow morning Davie and I will drive over and talk to him.”

The next morning Sadie was out of bed and dressed before her alarm went off. She had been too nervous to sleep the night before and had lain in bed more or less for the pretense of it. Once her alarm finally went off, she went in Davie’s part of the room and gently woke him up.

“Rise and shine baby boy,” she whispered, kissing him on his forehead. “We’re going to see someone special today.”

Through his half awake, half asleep state Davie smiled and melted his mother’s heart. He was a truly wonderful boy, pure of heart to the last drop. He deserved a father, and it was time for Sadie to show him one. After making sure his car seat was secure, Sadie pulled out of their small driveway and headed towards Tobias’s ranch. Today she was determined to make headway.

To her surprise, though, the ranch looked empty as they approached. None of the lights were on in the guesthouse or the main house, and no one was about doing their chores. It looked odd to Sadie, and a dark feeling encroached upon her as she pulled up to the empty parking spots.

“Sweetie, you’re gonna stay here for a sec, okay?” Sadie said, looking back to check on Davie. “Mommy will be back in just a second.”

Davie nodded his head dutifully, and Sadie stepped out of the car. The cool morning fog wrapped around her ankles as she looked around, wondering where everyone could have gone.

“Hello?” She called, taking a step towards the yard. “Sarah? Tobias? Anybody?”

No one answered, and she took another tentative step around the house. A chill of danger ran down her spine as she spotted the large glowing eyes in the fog and Sadie bit back a scream. There, standing not three feet away from her was the largest wolf she’d ever seen. It’s golden eyes sat startlingly against his brown and white fur. He was easily the size of a Great Dane, or even bigger, with a body as round as a horse’s. The animal was large, and its teeth were bared.

“Easy,” Sadie soothed, taking a step back towards her car. “Easy buddy.” The wolf bared his teeth and took a step forward in her direction, following her. Sadie’s heart was pounding in her ears as she looked down at the massive creature, and she prayed that she made it to her car.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she promised, taking another step backward. She was nearly to her car now. All she had to do was get in it. But the wolf was steadily approaching, and she didn’t want it getting in the car to Davie. If it did, he would be as good as dead. Moving as quickly as she could, Sadie picked up a rock and beamed the wolf in the snout with it, distracting it long enough so that she could get into her car and lock the door.

The wolf’s large body hit the side of her car in fury as she started it up, and she threw the car in reverse. Behind her, she could hear Davie crying in fear, and she promised him that everything was okay. Throwing the car into neutral, she sped down the road and away from the ranch.

She didn’t stop until she was back at their house. As soon as she put the car into park, she got Davie out of the car seat as fast as she could. He clung to her, crying as she all but ran with him to their house.

“Baby, I have to put you down to get the keys out my purse okay?” She told Davie. “Then we’re going to go inside and watch Elmo, okay?”

Dave sniffed but nodded his head, and didn’t cry when she put him down on his feet. Trembling, Sadie fished around her purse for her keys, not understanding why she couldn’t find them. Suddenly she froze and realized that they reason why was because they were still in the ignition in the car.

“You stay right here baby,” Sadie ordered. Davie whimpered but nodded his head. The fog from the morning still hadn’t lifted, and even the walk from the porch to the car was troubling. Still, Sadie made it and grabbed the keys.

When she was almost back to the porch, she felt the familiar hairs on the back of her neck begin to tingle.  Stopping, she slowly looked out over her front yard through the fog. There, through the white mist, she saw him the wolf.

She knew him by his eyes, those golden orbs of light that floated in and out of darkness. For a moment they both stayed there, their eyes locked on one another in a staring contest.

Finally, the wolf seemed to have had enough. As quickly as it had appeared it vanished, and Sadie made it to her porch to unlock the door.

~

Sadie punched the gas to her beat up old car as she headed once again towards town. She needed to find Tobias, and have an actual conversation with him, not just sit longingly across the table sobbing. Julie, being the good friend she was, agreed to sit with Davie while Sadie went into town and hunted for Tobias.

Not knowing where to start, she decided to park her car outside the diner and make her way through each store at a time until she found him. She tried the feed store first, then the butcher, and then the general store, and came up empty. Then, as she decided to take a break and have a coke, she saw him, walking towards a group of out of town bikers. He still had the same walk he had all those years ago, even if everything else about him changed.

“Tobias!” She called, forgetting her drink. Sadie ran towards him as he disappeared around the corner, trying to catch him. She could have sworn that he had turned his head to look at her before he made the turn. As she rounded the corner, she came to an abrupt halt. Fear flooded through her entire body as she found herself completely surrounded by five large wolves, just like the one she had seen earlier in the morning.

I don’t understand,
she thought to herself as she looked for a way out.
Where did all the men go? Where did Tobias go?

A growl from behind her made her jump, and as she dove out of the way, the four wolves attacked the one that had come up behind her. In terror, she watched as the familiar brown wolf fought the others one by one. Unable to move, Sadie watched as the lone black wolf defended her, fighting, and gnashing his teeth at any that came close to her.

For a moment, it looked as if he was about to win, but at the last moment two wolves who had retreated had come back, tore a large gash in the brown wolf’s side before they tucked their tails between their legs and ran away. As soon as they were gone, Sadie found her legs again and flew into action. The wolf that had protected her had fallen to his side, whimpering.

“Easy there boy, easy,” she whispered, no longer afraid of him. She looked down at the gash on his stomach and winced. It looked deep. Using her teeth, she tore at the hem of her dress until the fabric gave way and tore all the way along the end. She needed to get him to a vet, but first, she needed to be able to stop the bleeding.

Just as she was about to wrap the fabric around the wolf’s wound, she saw his body beginning to move, then change. Sadie stilled, not sure what was happening. Then, as if fate was answering her, the wolf shifted into a human – a familiar one.

“Tobias,” she whispered, bandaging up his side. “Oh my god, Tobias. Come on; we have to get you to a hospital.”

CHAPTER 5

Tobias blinked his eyes rapidly as he came to, sensitive to the bright lights of the hospital. A hand, soft and small, grabbed his and gave it a gentle squeeze. Looking over, he saw the woman from the other night. Sadie. A twinge of familiarity shot through him as he looked at her, and for a moment he wasn’t in his hospital bed. Instead, he was in the woods on his ranch, lying on a blanket with her, and she was smiling. They both were.

“Sadie,” he whispered, wincing as he felt the pain on his side.

“Don’t worry,” Sadie whispered, putting a cool hand on his forehead. “I didn’t tell them about your shifting.”

“How do you know me, Sadie? How do I know you?” Tobias asked. Every part of him screamed to trust her, to hold her. Something about her felt like home, and he wanted to know why.

Sadie’s eyes darted to the door, then quickly got up to close it. When she came back, she told him everything. How they met in high school; how they had dated since they were sixteen. How his parents, sadly, died in a car accident when he was eighteen and left the ranch to him.

“The night before you disappeared,” Sadie whispered, stroking the back of his hand lovingly with her thumb. “You told me you were going to ask me to marry you once the fall harvest came in.”  She closed her eyes, grieving the beautiful memory that had haunted her these past four years.  “What the hell happened to you, Tobias? Why did you leave?”

Tobias could see the truth and the vulnerability in Sadie’s eyes. He knew that if he could trust anyone in this place, it would be this woman. She was starting to come back to him, a little more each day now that he was back home. The memories they had shared together – it had been a real, true love.

“I don’t know how or why I ended up in Mexico, but I did. And when I was there, I was no longer me.  I was a wolf.  A shifter. The pack, the one you saw me fight earlier, welcomed me as if I had been chosen to join them.  For a time, I went with it, just accepting that it was what it was and that I was part human, part wolf. But then one night I started dreaming about the ranch.  The land, the horses, mama, and dad.  I saw a bunch of other faces too, including yours, but I didn’t know who they were.

“The months passed by, and the dreams kept coming, only every morning I figured something new out, like what Sarah’s name was, or that I lived in the south in America.  Little details started to become clearer, and I wanted to know why.

“I realized that the life that the pack lived wasn’t the one I wanted, so I left one night while they were on a pack hunt.  We took after a deer, and I just veered off and didn’t look back.  A couple of days ago the found me at The Horseshoe.  I told them about my decision to leave the pack and they weren’t too happy about that.”

“Do you think they’ll come back?” Sadie asked.

Tobias cocked an eyebrow in surprise. 
A rather sexy habit of his
, Sadie thought.

“That’s the only question you have?” He asked. “Of all the things I just told you, that’s what you want to know?”

Sadie shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve already been shown all the proof that the I need, so why question it?”

Tobias laid his head back in the pillows, seeing a little more why he had loved her above all others in his past. She was beautiful, smart, and peaceful. There was a glow about her that just made everything still and at peace.

“You’re a pretty amazing woman, you know that?” he asked, a small smile spreading across his lips.

“Well, glad to see that you’re finally remembering that, wolf boy,” she teased.

They laughed for a moment, but eventually sobered up again as Sadie’s mind wandered back to Tobias’s story. There were a lot of holes, and places where she admittedly didn’t follow. Still, she was sure he was telling the truth.

“Did you – had you ever shifted into a wolf before this all happened? Do you know if you were born this way or…?”

He took a minute to think about it, trying to pull any and all memories back to him. Unfortunately, nothing popped up, and he was forced to shrug his shoulders once again.

“It’s very possible baby doll. I don’t remember much still, like why I even left the ranch in the first place.”

Before Sadie could say anything else she heard the door open and they both turned to see a nurse and a doctor walk in. “Well, well, glad to see that you’re awake, Tobias. How are you feeling?”

“Like something took a chunk out of my side,” Tobias admitted, feeling the soreness in his abdomen.

The doctor laughed and jovially nodded his head as if it was perfectly normal to be attacked by a wild animal. Tobias immediately didn’t like him, and he didn’t like him being around Sadie either. He was too cheerful.

“Sadie says that you were attacked by a dog, son. Is that true?” the doctor asked, writing something on his clipboard.

Without looking over at Sadie, Tobias nodded his head in affirmation.

“That’s right.”

“Do you think it had rabies? If so we’ll need to test you to make sure that the virus hasn’t infected you.” 

“No,” Tobias answered, a little too quickly. “No the dog didn’t have rabies, he was just hungry. You know how dogs get when their owners turn them loose on the highway. They get hungry, make their way into small towns like ours, and unfortunately, usually end up attacking someone trying to help them. I put him down, and I’m sure that I’m fine. If you just give me something for the pain, doc, I’ll get out of your hair.”

The doctor looked uncertain as his gaze darted from Sadie to Tobias.

“Is she going to be your caregiver?” he asked.

“Yes. I am,” Sadie said quickly, nodding her head.

“Well, as your doctor I can’t give you my permission to walk out of here without some testing, but I can’t stop you either.” The doctor looked down at the rugged man in the bed, wondering if he did steroids to get his body to be so big. Putting the chart back on his bed, the doctor walked around and unhooked the IVs from his arm.

“Good luck, kid,” the doctor said, walking out of the room. As soon as he was out of the room Sadie looked over at Tobias, confused.

“What the hell was that about?” She asked.

“We don’t do well in hospitals,” he explained. “Our blood is different from humans. When we’re caught, we’ve been known to disappear.”

“So the government knows you exist?” Sadie asked, surprised.

Tobias grabbed his shirt off of the chair and began to button it up. “Yes and no.  As far as I know, they have yet to prove that a human can shift, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t torture us to try and get to the truth. Anyway, let’s get out of here.”

Sadie walked with him out of the hospital and led him towards her car. “I’ll take you home if you want, but first, there’s someone I want you to meet. That is if you’re up for it.”