The Baby Shift- New York Read online

  The Baby Shift: New York

  Shifter Babies Of America 46

  Becca Fanning

  Copyright © 2019 by Becca Fanning

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  1. Lucius

  2. Cassandra

  3. Lucius

  4. Cassandra

  5. Lucius

  6. Cassandra

  7. Lucius

  8. Cassandra

  9. Lucius

  10. Cassandra

  Also by Becca Fanning

  Lucius

  The young woman across the table stared hard at Lucius, her hands cupped around the coffee cup that his assistant had brought into the study. He took in her long hair and wide green eyes, the soft pout of her lips. Some might’ve even called it a scowl—a pretty one at that.

  “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I must’ve misheard you, Mr. Greylord.”

  “Lucius is fine, Miss—” His eyes flashed to the resumé in front of him. “Cassandra.” He smiled politely, tried to offer up his best human-friendly face. Her brow remained furrowed. His composure slipped. Perhaps he’d misread the situation.

  “You said…You said you have absolutely no interest in raising your own nephew?” she asked. Ah, perhaps that’s where he made his misstep. He flexed his hands and rolled his neck. It tired him to deal with humans too much, even beautiful and intelligent ones.

  “Absolutely no interest sounds harsh,” he said. “It’s been an obligation that’s been thrust upon me, Miss Cassandra. I never wanted children. I still don’t, but my clan’s law is fiercely strict about these things. I can pay you handsomely out of my fanged teeth. As long as you look after Thomas and live with us, you’ll be quite happy with your job, I think.”

  Her pretty eyes didn’t seem to calm. She tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear. A movement that he found intensely mesmerizing. It caused a whiff of her scent to come his way. He inhaled her scent discreetly, noting the presence of fresh roses. Her shampoo, he thought. He liked it. It reminded him of running wild as a child in the forest. Before business, before leaving his clan, before Thomas…

  “If you don’t love this child,” she said in a tight voice that he sensed she was trying to contain. “Why go along?”

  “Clan law,” he said. “Didn’t I say that?”

  “Yes,” she said somberly and then hesitated for a moment. “I’ll take the job, but on one agreement.”

  “Yes?” He leaned forward—another passing scent of roses.

  “You must never act this way around Thomas, your nephew. Never tell him that you only took him because you had to.” Her hard eyes stared at him. He was surprised by the fire in them. “If you can agree to that, I’ll work for you.”

  “Agreed.” He pushed the contract on the table towards the young woman. Anything for a great employee. She had excellent references and had come recommended by a business associate. He craned his neck slyly to read her signature, which she neatly wrote almost as if printing it. Lemoine. It had a nice ring to it. She passed the paper back. When he looked at it, he noticed that she’d added a sentence about him agreeing to their personal verbal contract.

  Smart.

  “You’re not a secret business shark, are you?” he asked with a smile. She sat up straighter, lifting her chin high.

  “My mother is a lawyer. She taught me a thing or two.” He nodded civilly, slipping his pen into his suit pocket and making a note never to underestimate caretakers again.

  “Thomas is in his room. Well, it used to be an unused office in my house. My assistant ordered a few things for it, but maybe you can take my card and personalize it better.”

  “Okay,” she said and made a note in her small pocket-sized notebook. He hadn’t noticed her bringing it out from her bag. “What’s his nutrition like?”

  He blinked slowly, realizing that he hadn’t the slightest idea about baby nutrition. “Milk? Formula? Whatever the current taker has been feeding him. She’s only on a temporary basis, though.”

  She made a small face but put away her notebook. “I’ll save my questions for her then. When can I go to the home?”

  “As soon as you want,” he said with a shrug. “I can have my driver come pick you up if you want.”

  “Today?” she asked. “I’m staying with a friend. I’ve only got a few suitcases.” He thought back to his own departure from home. A duffel bag and a wad of human money earned from various summer jobs. He smiled.

  “Today,” he promised. “I’ll call my driver now.” Without a beat, he snuck his sleek phone out from his desk drawer and searched for his driver’s contact. It wasn’t hard. Richard’s phone number was in his list of favorites. He pressed call while she waited patiently, her hands folded neatly in her lap. From his stance, she looked like a doll, but there was a promise of danger beneath the prim cardigan and knee-length skirt. Danger, he thought, that might be fun to see one day.

  Richard answered and Lucius relayed his request before ending the call. “I’ll send your number to your phone. You can text him the address.” He glanced towards her. “Shall I call a taxi for you? I’ll pay for you to go back to your friend’s place.”

  “That would be wonderful,” she said with a small smile. He hoped he was winning back some of the brownie points he’d accidentally lost.

  “I’m not a perfect boss,” he told her as she stood to shake his hand. “I’m not a perfect man.”

  “Nobody is perfect,” she said coolly as they shook hands. He watched her leave his office and wondered who exactly had he hired to live with for the next few years. From his sprawling office on the third floor, he watched her from the windows. She slipped into the cab. A faint hint of roses lingered in his office for the rest of the day. He called for his assistant to spray some air freshener.

  That damn scent was far too distracting for his liking.

  Cassandra

  Cassandra didn’t consider herself someone that tried too hard. She came from a family of boring married parents with one younger sister. They always had two dogs in their house near the swamp. She enjoyed going fishing with her grandparents and grilling food for summer parties. When she decided that she wanted to move, her family was sad…but understanding.

  After all, she was now a young woman. Her college years had been spent chopping and dying her natural ash-blonde hair into wild bobs and pixies while wearing fishnet stockings and protesting unfair working conditions on campus. After graduating from college, she worked part-time at a bank and nannying for a nearby family. Three years after, she saved up enough money to decide on either graduate school or moving to start a new life. The latter was more entrancing. She had an ex-roommate, Beth, who was living in Albany, who offered up her couch in her one-bedroom apartment while Cassandra looked for work.

  Three days, Cassandra had been in Albany. Now, she had a job. A career, really, if she played her cards right. She usually did.

  But, again, she didn’t try too hard. She worked hard, but she wasn’t a people pleaser. She had her own code of honor. Maybe that’s why Lucius Greylord rubbed her the wrong way during their meeting. She sat in the cab he’d called for her, wondering if she made the right decision to take the job.

  “Red brick place?” the cabbie asked.

  “Yes, that’s it,” she said and thanked him. Although her fare was prepaid, she gave him a few crisp singles. Everything was so new in her life right now. She watched the cab drive off
and walked up the steps, using the key that her friend loaned her to let herself in. Tabs, her friend’s cat, meowed a loud greeting.

  “I’ve got a job, Tabs,” she said with a smile. There was nobody else at home. In fact, she might miss Beth, who usually came back late from her shift at her restaurant job. She texted Beth as she packed all of her belongings. It wasn’t hard to do since she was living out of her bags.

  In the hall, she caught her own reflection. A bit tired, excited, pink cheeks. She smiled and straightened her blouse beneath her sweater. When she was fully packed, she messaged the number that Lucius had given her. The driver said he could be over in two hours. Tabs stared at her from the couch, looking at the stack of bags in the living room.

  Her nerves were wild with excitement. She couldn’t stay on the couch and watch TV. She slipped out of the apartment and went down to the café for a sandwich. As she sipped on her cola, she wondered what kind of house Lucius lived in, what kind of baby Thomas would be. She’d always loved children. How could Lucius not? She couldn’t comprehend that. Her phone buzzed. It was Beth.

  Beth: OMG! You already got a job? What the heck? Ok, if you’re gone by the time, I come back, text me your day off. We’ll grab dinner. I know some great places.

  In an hour, an older man was walking up the stairs with a mega-watt smile, a driver’s cap on his head. “Greetings, Cassandra!” His cheery voice soothed her anxiety. “My name’s Richard.” She smiled as he grabbed the bags she’d brought down. She’d left a thank you note on Beth’s counter and a new toy for Tabs. He set the bags in the trunk and opened the back door to the town car for her. Her eyebrows rose, and he caught her expression, laughing as he slid into the driver’s seat.

  “Greylord is quite comfortable in the finance department,” he said with a ring of amusement. “Not many Shifters venture out into the human world, but he’s made his mark in his business.”

  “What does he do?” She hadn’t thought to ask him that during the interview.

  “Security,” he said and laughed. “Great industry for a werewolf, I think.”

  He was a wolf-Shifter then, she considered with a nervous twitter of her heart. She balled her hands into fists on her lap. He didn’t seem intimidating or particularly wolflike. His eyes, naturally, were that golden shade that Shifters had.

  “Is he nice?” she asked in a quiet voice.

  “Certainly,” Richard replied. “But, Greylord’s very focused on his business. I think the baby’s arrival surprised him. I don’t understand it myself.”

  “Thomas?”

  “Yes, the wee baby Thomas! He’s a strong, beautiful boy.”

  “You’ve met him?” she asked with a bit of excitement. “Lucius didn’t tell me anything about him. He seems…apathetic about the whole thing.”

  “Well, I don’t think he was particularly close to his clan after leaving. I think he loved his brother but didn’t realize that his brother just had a child. The parents dying were quite a shock to him. I suspect it’s grief more than indifference.”

  A wave of guilt washed over her, and she bit her lip. She hadn’t considered that it might be grief peeking out from Lucius’ finely tailored cuffs. “You’re right. That could be true.”

  “He’ll get better,” Richard promised. “I’ve been working for him for eight years. He’s a gentleman, Shifter or not.”

  She smiled and hoped he was right. As long as she could focus on her job of taking care of Thomas, she could be happy here. When they pulled up to an immense black gate, she inadvertently let out a gasp, which caused Richard to chuckle again.

  It wasn’t a house.

  It was a mansion. Her heart felt light with the promise of a new life.

  Her new home.

  Lucius

  It was three days before Lucius joined the family for breakfast for the first time. He was often missing breakfast, too enthralled with his readings of various international newspapers. Business in the morning. He’d nearly forgotten about his new hire until Cassandra lifted her pretty head up to say good morning.

  “Morning,” he replied. She was next to a high chair that had been pulled close to the long dining hall table. A small bowl of baby food sat on the table. She was feeding Thomas, who was more than happy to accept her offerings. The housekeeper, Annie, beamed as she came in through the swinging kitchen door with a tray of coffee.

  “Hot and fresh, just like you like it,” she announced as she set it in front of Lucius. He smiled and thanked her. Next to the coffee set a plate of dry toast with eight links of sausage. Cassandra glanced at the plate with a half-smile.

  “Meat eater, I take it?” she asked. Annie giggled into her kitchen towel.

  “He’d have a raw steak for breakfast if it wasn’t for the doctor’s orders,” the older woman said and then flitted off again. Thomas babbled something happily, and Cassandra laughed, spooning another mouthful of food into his mouth.

  “Thomas,” she said as he sipped his coffee. “He’s an interesting baby. Usually, they don’t start wanting solids until after six months. But, he’s a bit early.”

  “Shifters are big eaters,” he told her with a half-smile. Glancing at Thomas, he noticed the baby’s ears were pointed a bit, as Lucius’ brother’s had been. He pushed the thought away and took a gulp of the piping hot coffee. “Handsome fellow.” It was the only thing he felt he could add. She nodded. A plate of half-eaten oatmeal and fruit sat next to her. As Thomas ate, she quickly scarfed down her food.

  This was one of the reasons he’d hired her, Lucius considered. The idea of having to attend to another living being made him tired. No matter how cute the baby was. He unfolded one of the newspapers, an English paper that focused on Chinese business, which he’d brought down from his study. She glanced at it.

  “Do you do business in Asia?”

  He glanced at her. “Thinking of it. Are you familiar with Asia at all?”

  She smiled, a demure sort of thing that seemed as if she was trying to hide her face and show it all at once. “I studied Chinese in college. It’s a very difficult language, but I still like to practice sometimes.”

  “Impressive,” he muttered. Honestly. “Perhaps you could teach Thomas a few things or two.”

  “I count in English and Chinese around him,” she said as she stroked Thomas’ hair. His small tuft of hair gave him the appearance of a salary man shrunk down to infant size in Lucius’ perspective, but the warmth in Cassandra’s gaze said otherwise. “Babies pick up on a lot. Do you know when you’ll start education for him?”

  Lucius shrugged as he scanned the stock market section. “Whenever you think is fine.”

  She chuckled, but it was dark. “I’ll do some research.” At that moment, Annie came in with a basket and placed it in front of Cassandra.

  “Here you go, dear. That’s for your outing today.”

  “Outing?” Lucius echoed and glanced over his newspaper page.

  “Thomas and I are going to have a picnic by the lake on the estate,” Cassandra explained, emphasizing estate. Perhaps she thought he’d forgotten he had a lake on the estate. The young woman turned to Annie. “You’re more than welcome to join us on your lunch break if you like. The flowers are gorgeous right now.”

  “Maybe I will!” Annie said with a delightful swing of her arm. Lucius stared at the scene unfolding in front of him. Cassandra cleaned up her mess and left the plates at the end for Annie to collect. She carried Thomas off into the hallway. His eyes were closing, heavy after his meal.

  When Annie came back into the room, Lucius glanced at her with his chin in his hand. “Annie, is there something different about the house lately?”

  “What do you mean?” his housekeeper asked as she collected the plates. She tucked a curly strand of hair back into her bun with a free hand.

  “I don’t know,” he said and leaned back. “Everything seems different.” A sneaky smile spread on her face.

  “Ah, it’s because of Miss Cassandra, you know? Ther
e’s new energy. Youth is a beautiful thing. It brings about change everywhere.” She winked and left, saying nothing more as she retreated to the kitchen with the dirty dishes.

  “Change,” he muttered to himself and tapped the newspaper on the table. He left his dirty dishes on the table and went back up to his study. It was a work from home day. No sense in going to the office. He fired up his laptop and went to his desk, next to a sprawling window that overlooked the backyard gardens of his manor. From this vantage point, he could easily see the lake at the far end of the land’s edge. Cassandra was right. The pink flowers were blooming beautifully.

  His thoughts wandered to numbers and accounts for the day. He furiously typed as he worked, taking calls occasionally. By the time Annie came in with his lunch on a tray, he was famished. She dropped off two roast beef sandwiches with a small salad (a constant encouragement for him to eat greens), sparkling water, and juice.

  “We’re off to our picnic,” she told him as she was leaving. “Call our phones if you need us!” He nodded and hesitated at his desk. His hungry hands found the first sandwich, and he bit into it, breezing through his email as he did. From over the top of his laptop, he could see the retreating figures of Cassandra, Annie, and a bundle in Cassandra’s arm. He set down his sandwich and watched them without realizing that he was.

  They laid out a red-and-white checkered blanket. He could see their basket and Annie unpacking it, while Cassandra strategically set Thomas up in his seat in the shady area of their picnic. The corner of his lips unconsciously rose. Perhaps youth did bring about nice things. He couldn’t recall Annie ever having her lunch outside in the sunshine. Good for her.

  He made quick work of his own lunch, already working on his next report.