Fawn Read online

  He turned his attention to Zoe and squatted so she could see the baby. She gently touched his tiny face. Davide smiled and she giggled. "Hello, little Prince."

  Rainey reached to hug Zoe. "I'm so happy to see you again. We've missed you, even Davide."

  Zoe turned rounded eyes on Rainey. "Do you really think so?"

  "Yes, I do."

  Zoe looked up at Fawn. Then her eyes clouded. "I don't want you to go."

  Wade had approached and now stood behind Zoe. Fawn introduced him to Roth and Rainey. He tipped his hat. "Pleased to meet ya'll. Would you like to come in for some coffee or tea?"

  Fawn glanced at Rainey, sending her a silent pleading with her eyes. Roth started to say something, but Rainey interrupted. "Thank you for your generosity, Mr. Spencer, but we should be on our way. It'll take a couple of days to return home and I've got a full day of experiments lined up at my lab the next day." It was a lame excuse, but Fawn was grateful to her friend for not prolonging the inevitable.

  Johnson said, "I'll get your suitcase and backpack on the porch," and hastened away from his post.

  Roth motioned to the other bodyguards and they nodded respectfully before reentering their Hummers. Johnson returned carrying the luggage and pressed the button on his fob to open the liftgate to the cargo area.

  The inevitable parting had arrived.

  Fawn struggled to hold back tears. She knelt beside Zoe and pulled her into a fierce hug. "I'll be back to visit often, honey," she promised. Zoe started crying and hugged Fawn's neck. "I love you, Fawn." Fawn held her a few seconds longer and then stood and turned toward Wade. She extended her hand. He looked at her hand, ignored it, reached behind her neck, and then closed the distance between them. Wrapping his other arm around her possessively, he dipped his head and kissed her with unrestrained passion. Fawn responded in like manner. Slowly, he pulled his lips from hers. She stared up into his moss green eyes and wanted to bury herself in his soul and never leave. A tiny smile creased his mouth before he stepped backward.

  Quickly, she entered the Escalade through the door Johnson was holding open and sat in the back seat. He closed the door and she stared out the window, seeing nothing. She heard Rainey murmur goodbye and then felt her enter the car. Turning to look at her friend, she watched Roth hand Rainey the baby so she could buckle him into his car seat while Johnson and Roth entered the front.

  Fawn closed her eyes when the vehicles started forward, but opened them when they made a u-turn in the wide space in front of the barn. She gasped when she saw Pierre, Schmitt, Tate, Bud, and Macho lined up, sadly waving goodbye. Huge tears pooled and overflowed onto her cheeks. Rainey reached across the baby's car seat and squeezed her hand. Fawn squeezed back.

  ***

  Wade watched the caravan of cars leave and the dust settle back on the private road to his ranch. He'd seen news reports about the famous Childress family and Fawn had warned him that they traveled well protected; even so, the arrival of Hummers and burly guards had been surreal.

  He removed his cowboy hat and ran a hand through his hair. His heart felt as dead as a corpse and he blinked rapidly. Bending down, he scooped Zoe into his arms and she wrapped her arms around his neck. Her tiny body shook with sobs.

  "It's okay, baby girl. It's okay."

  "No, it's not, Daddy. I don't care if Fawn isn't like us. She's got the prettiest colors I ever saw. And when you kissed her, your colors got pretty too."

  Wade walked to the porch and sat on the steps with Zoe in his lap. "Zoe, we talked about this. Fawn explained that she's a shapeling and she gets sent on missions; like you were her mission."

  "So, why can't you marry her and she can be my mommy and still go on missions?"

  "Honey, Fawn told us shapelings live a long time. If I married Fawn, she would see us grow old and die while she was still young. That would break all our hearts."

  "But Daddy, your heart is already broken 'cause she's gone. Wouldn't it be better to have a broken heart with her still here?"

  Wade gazed into his daughter's innocent eyes for a long time. Suddenly, he smiled. "Zoe, thank you for being so wise. I'm going to do my best to convince Fawn that you're right. But I've got to ride Misty Morning to catch up with the cars. You run over and stay with Pierre until I get back."

  "Okay, Daddy, hurry!"

  Wade took off running toward the barn with Sam barking at his heels. He'd intended to ride Misty bareback, but when he got there, Tate was holding the reins to his saddled horse. "Just in case you got smart," he said and grinned as he handed the reins to Wade. In one smooth movement, Wade hoisted himself into the saddle and urged Misty into a gallop across the field that would intersect the vehicles. Sam barked and ran behind him.

  Wade leaned low over Misty and whispered in her ear. "Give it all you've got girl, it's time to make dreams come true at Dream Catcher Ranch. At his words, Misty Morning fairly flew across the pasture with Wade along for the ride. In the distance he saw the trail of dust from the vehicles, and even though he would have thought it impossible, Misty increased her speed until she was running alongside the center car.

  Wade ripped off his cowboy hat and waved it, trying to get Roth's attention. There was no need. The vehicles were already beginning to slow. When they stopped, Wade jumped off Misty.

  The bodyguards sandwiching the Escalade exited their vehicles with weapons drawn. Wade raised his hands above his shoulders in a submissive gesture as Roth and Johnson both stepped outside the Escalade, and Roth gave a hand signal to the guards. They holstered their weapons. The back window of the vehicle slid down and Wade saw Rainey peering out of it, with Fawn leaning forward to see past Rainey.

  "I want to speak with Fawn." Wade's words sounded like a command although he still held his hands up in submission.

  Roth looked him up and down. "Why?"

  Wade measured Roth's intimidating presence and suddenly realized he must also be a shapeling. He looked at Rainey. Was she one, too? Or had Roth married a human. He remembered Zoe's words to the baby, "Hello, little Prince." He blinked at his blindness. He had been so consumed with Fawn's leaving that he hadn't seen what was in front of his face. This was the child Gabriel had wanted to know about; the Prince Zoe and Fawn already knew about. Exactly who was this Prince?

  Roth repeated his question, "Why do you want to see Fawn."

  "That's something I'll discuss only with her."

  Roth measured him and then grinned. "I'm glad you came around." He turned and said to his wife, "Wade wants to speak with Fawn."

  Rainey grinned and turned toward Fawn, saying something Wade couldn't hear. Roth motioned toward Johnson and the intimidating man walked around the car to open Fawn's door, but she didn't immediately step out. When she did, Wade released the breath he'd been holding and reached to remove his Stetson. Fawn rounded the vehicle but stopped at the back bumper, staring at him. Ignoring all the watching eyes, he slowly walked to stand in front of her. "Zoe's very smart," he said.

  Fawn looked confused, "Yes, I know that."

  "Do you love me Fawn?"

  Her eyes widened and she looked like a deer caught in headlights.

  "It's a yes or no question, honey, and I don't mean like a friend. Do you love me like a woman loves a man she wants to spend her days with?"

  Fawn's lower lip quivered.

  "I thought so, but I wanted to make sure because I'm asking you to become my wife. I love you and I want to spend all my days with you. But before you answer, consider something Zoe said."

  Fawn's lower lip continued its quiver and Wade wanted nothing more than to kiss her heartache away. Instead, he said, "Our wise Zoe said, 'But Daddy, your heart is already broken 'cause she's gone. Wouldn't it be better to have a broken heart with her still here'?" Wade reached a hand toward Fawn's mouth, but didn't touch her. "Wouldn't it be better to share our broken hearts and make them whole? No one knows the future. We have the gift of today. Let's share whatever days we have as a family, Sweetheart."

&nb
sp; Fawn's luminous gaze held his and then she stepped closer and pressed her lips against his outstretched hand. "Yes, Soiuer."

  ***

  Zoe sat on the front porch with Pierre. She was so nervous she couldn't keep still. Would her daddy bring Fawn back? Would Fawn marry her daddy and become her mommy? She heard Pierre say something in French and looked in the direction he pointed.

  He repeated his words. "Mon Dieu."

  Zoe squealed, "She's on the horse with him!" and grabbed Pierre's hands. Together they started jumping up and down. And then they joined the ranch hands in running from the barn to the house. By the time Wade and Fawn arrived on Misty Morning, everyone had congregated on the drive. Wade and Fawn arrived to cheers and applause. Wade dismounted and reached to lift Fawn down. She slid the length of his body and gazed lovingly up at him. More cheers erupted. He brushed a kiss across her lips and then bent to lift Zoe into his arms. Fawn reached to hug both of them and shifted Zoe into her own arms. Zoe hugged her neck tightly and whispered in her ear, "Now that I know you're going to stay, I have something special to tell you."

  "What's that, honey?"

  "I can't let anyone else hear."

  Fawn stepped away from the group. "Okay, now you can tell me."

  "When Gabriel was making me listen to the voices I heard the pretty one."

  "Yes?"

  "She told me something special."

  Fawn held her breath. "What did she say?"

  "She said I'm the Great Prince's Princess."

  DAVIDE: PRINCE (EXCERPT)

  SHAPELING TRILOGY #3

  1: PARTY'S OVER

  Zoe unfolded the invitation for the hundredth time.

  You are invited to the twenty-fifth birthday celebration for Davide Roth Beowolf.

  She closed the elaborate card and tossed it on the ornate coffee table in the tiny sitting area of her hotel room. She leaned back and rested her head against the cushions of the overstuffed couch, and then lifted her skinny legs onto the table. Using her foot to shove aside a picture book of places to put on one's "bucket list," she closed her eyes, and in her mind traveled back almost twenty-five years to the day she'd first seen Davide. A bittersweet smile lifted the corners of her mouth. She had been seven years old and traveled with Fawn, her nanny—later to become her beloved stepmother—to visit Roth and Rainey Beowolf and their new baby. As she'd approached his cradle, the aura surrounding him had taken her breath away; it only radiated shades of gold, and in that moment, she'd known he was very special.

  Zoe opened her eyes and sat up. She reached for the picture book and flipped it open. It landed on the massive sandstone mountain of Uluru in Australia. To distract her mind, she read the caption.

  Uluru is located in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. It is the world's largest monolith and a sacred site to Aborigines because of its importance in dreamtime legends. If you are adventurous, a visit to Uluru in The Red Center of the Australian Outback is the journey of a lifetime!

  She closed the book, picked up the invitation again, and then crushed it in her palm. Her simple act brought tears to her eyes. Destroying the invitation felt like she was destroying her own heart—yet again.

  She'd loved Davide from the first moment she'd seen him. As a child, that love had been as one child loves another. Later, when he'd reached his late teens, she'd loved him as a young woman loves the man of her dreams. Of course, she'd never revealed her feelings, waiting for him to grow into manhood. Naively, she had believed he would come to love her in the same manner. All because of the "pretty" voice.

  Zoe contemplated the voices she always heard when she was near Anasazi ruins. Fawn had discovered that the voices were coming from sipapus located in the circular ceremonial sites of all Anasazi kivas. For Puebloan peoples, sipapus were symbolic of the place where the chaotic third world entered the current fourth world. When she was home, they originated from the cliff dwellings in Hidden Canyon on her father's ranch. Somehow, Zoe's heightened perception had tapped into that metaphysical realm. As she'd grown older, she had learned to ignore the chaotic voices just as her mother had.

  She felt the sting of tears; she hadn't thought about her birth parent in a long time. Remembering her gentle mother now brought the familiar heartache. Kristal had died in a senseless car accident caused by a drunk driver that Zoe and her father had survived.

  Two years after the accident, Fawn had entered their lives on a mission from her council to assist Zoe and her father in understanding Zoe's unusual abilities. At first, her father hadn't believed the fantastical revelation that his daughter could see auras and hear otherworldly voices. Later, after Zoe had been kidnapped and Fawn had revealed herself as another species of creation—not human—he had incredulously accepted the impossible, and finally understood the last few minutes of his first wife's life. She had also had the ability to see auras. Unfortunately, her ability had only allowed her to see murky grays and blacks associated with evil. However, with her dying breath, her sadness had been replaced by wonder. Her last words to her husband had been, "I can see the beautiful colors. They've come for me."

  Zoe swiped at her tears and traced a finger over Davide's crumpled name on the invitation. Then she walked to the bathroom and dropped it in the toilet. She hadn't attended last year celebration and she wasn't going to attend this one, either. The decision to cease contact with Davide had been made during his twenty-third birthday party. It wasn't until then that she'd realized the futility of her love for him. At that party, she had been thirty years old and still believed the words of the "pretty" voice from the sipapu.

  You are the Great Love of the Great Prince. You are his Princess.

  She flipped the toilet handle and watched the invitation swirl, fighting the crushing desire to quickly reach and retrieve it.

  NOVELS AND NOVELLAS

  BY VERNA CLAY

  WESTERN ROMANCE

  Contemporary

  Romance on the Ranch Series

  Dream Kisses

  Honey Kisses

  Baby Kisses

  Candy Kisses

  Christmas Kisses

  Rock Star Kisses

  Forever Kisses

  Forgotten Kisses

  Angel Kisses

  The Last Kiss (2017)

  Oasis Series

  Stranded in Oasis

  Branded in Oasis

  Crashed in Oasis

  Historic

  Unconventional Series

  *Abby: Mail Order Bride

  Broken Angel

  Ryder's Salvation

  Joy's Return

  *Gold Medal Winner Readers' Favorite International Book Contest

  Finding Home Series

  Cry of the West: Hallie

  Rescue on the Rio: Lilah

  Missouri Challenge: Daisy

  Red Rocks Trilogy: Past, Present, Future

  Healing Woman of the Red Rocks (Past)

  Song of the Red Rocks (Present)

  Spirit Tree of the Red Rocks (Future)

  FANTASY ROMANCE

  Shapeling Trilogy

  Roth: Protector

  Fawn: Master

  Davide: Prince

  Finding SOMEWHERE Series

  SOMEWHERE by the Sea

  SOMEWHERE to spend Christmas (2016)

  SOMEWHERE for a Hero the Hide (2017)

  Jazmine

  YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

  (Verna Clay writing as Colleen Clay)

  Fragile Hearts

  AUDIO BOOKS

  Abby: Mail Order Bride

  Broken Angel

  Cry of the West: Hallie

  Dream Kisses

  LARGE PRINT BOOKS

  SOMEWHERE by the Sea (2016)

  SOMEWHERE to Spend Christmas (2016)

  SOMEWHERE for a Hero to Hide (2017)