Seduced by Danger by Stephanie Julian Read Free Book Online

was starving.
    He looked around, noticing the complete absence of light around the windows. Must be night. At this time of the year, that had to mean it was after nine p.m.
    Now sitting on the edge of the bed, he listened to the sounds of the house, hearing a faint rumble of adult voices. Not close. Probably downstairs.
    Out of bed, he found his clothes folded on the chest against the side wall. Now dressed, he headed out to find the voices.
    And froze in the hall when he felt the presence of his son close by. Concentrating, he let his connection to Aron draw him to the room two doors down the hall.
    His chest tightened with anxiety and a deep-seated longing to see his son.
    The door was cracked open so it only took a small push for it to swing wide enough to let him in.
    And his heart nearly beat out of his chest when the boy stirred in the bed and looked straight at him.
    Michael froze, dreading the moment Aron would scream in fright at the strange man standing in his dark room. Instead, Aron sat up, his sturdy little body covered only in a t-shirt and diaper.
    A nightlight on the wall next to the door gave enough light for Michael to see him clearly. Would Aron recognize him? Or had he been gone too long?
    Great Gods, please don’t let him scream.
    Aron stared at him for several seconds, reaching up to rub his eyes and yawn.
    Then he held out his arms. “Daddy. Pick me up.”
    Michael thought his heart might have stopped once again but he moved to the bed, reached out and lifted the boy against his chest.
    Blessed Goddess, he must have grown almost a foot and gained fifteen pounds.
    Aron wrapped his arms around his neck and his legs around his lower chest and hugged him tight.
    His eyes filling with tears, Michael held Aron , careful not to squeeze him too tight but unable to speak for fear he’d lose control and cry.
    Aron remembered him, knew who he was and accepted him. Fierce joy lit through him and he held Aron and rocked him, just as he had when he was a baby.
    “ Wanna drink, Daddy. Get me a drink.”
    Michael pulled back to look at Aron . The boy didn’t look sleepy at all. In fact, he had a little smile on his face, as if he knew he was going to get whatever he wanted.
    And he would.
    “Okay, luri ,” the Etruscan endearment “brightness of the stars” rolled off his tongue without thought, “we’ll get you something to drink.”
    With a smile, Aron laid his head back down on Michael’s shoulder.
    They didn’t speak again as Michael took him down the stairs. When they reached the first floor, Michael stopped. The voices were louder and coming from the back of the house. He identified at least five different people, including Cara.
    Standing at the bottom of the stairs, Michael listened. The voices weren’t coming from the sitting room to the left of the stairs, nor were they coming from the room at the end of the short hallway leading from the front door. He figured everyone was gathered in the kitchen at the back of the house.
    Since he refused to be a coward, he forced himself to walk back there and face whatever awaited him.
    He wasn’t prepared to see ten people crammed into Sal’s kitchen. Of those, he knew Cara, Sal, Lacey and her mate Teo .
    The other six… Well, if he had to hazard a guess, he’d say the three men were related to Teo . They all had the same dark hair and the same assessing gaze.
    The three women… Mates, of course.
    “Well, don’t just stand there, son.” Sal jumped off his chair next to Cara at the head of the table. “Come on in and sit down. We were hoping you’d wake soon.”
    While everyone looked at him, Michael tightened his arms around Aron . He had the completely unreasonable fear that Aron would see all of these other people and want to go to one of them.
    Or that Cara would somehow reject him and—
    Vaffanculo , he was an idiot. Since when did he need to be accepted by anyone other than those he chose to be accepted by?
    But this was Cara’s family. And