~~Jackson~~
We were indeed late getting breakfast that morning and early leaving my office that afternoon. I wanted to show Valerie the cabin I’d built after my first mate died to see if she would find it an acceptable place to live or if she would prefer the apartment. She loved them both equally, but the cabin was bigger and had more bedrooms. She didn’t mention wanting any other child than Azure, but I had built the home big enough to house a large family, even though at the time, I hadn’t thought I would ever find another mate.
As the months passed, she still didn’t mention children. She doted over Azure and helped at the orphanage three days a week, while a crew built a new bookstore, but didn’t mention wanting a child of her own. I feared that was because she worried about the fact that there was a tiny possibility that the baby wouldn’t be immune, but hoped she’d hadn’t brought them up because she felt it too so in our relationship to have the conversation. Since she didn’t talk about babies, each month when she was fertile, I found other things to do and other places to be. She didn’t say anything the first month or the second, but by the third, I could tell that she’d figured out that something was going on during the same few days a month, though she didn’t know what.
Were and shifter women were only fertile a few times a year for no other reason that we’ve been able to figure out than to keep the population down. Valerie was fertile every month, and the lack of intimacy during those days and the days when she was bleeding were putting a strain on our sex life, as we preferred to be together whenever and wherever possible.
At the three-month mark, I made my routine call to tell her that I was going to the capital city for a few days to visit Rose. An investigation was still underway with familiars on the west coast. We’d encountered a few more familiars who remembered a group approaching them ten years ago, but they didn’t have anything new to tell us. I planned to use assisting in that investigation as my excuse for leaving that month.
I knew when I saw Valerie’s face in the mirror that she knew why I had called. She looked pissed. Our conversation was short and to the point, and she all but snapped my head off when I told her I loved her. She didn’t say it back, which was a first, and cut the line quickly.
I’d dreaded bringing up the subject because I couldn’t bear to hear her tell me she didn’t want kids or my kids, and her anger meant that it was evident she didn’t know why I was staying away from her, just that I was, and she wasn’t happy about it. Knowing that I couldn’t put it off any longer or Valerie would think that I was cheating on her, I called Stephanie into my office and asked her if she would keep Azure for the weekend. I had a feeling that things were going to be ugly at our house for a few days.
She agreed, and I heard her call Valerie to get her permission to pick Azure up from school. Valerie’s anger was evident in that phone call as well. Stephanie glared at me when I walked out of my office to tell her that I was going home early.
“Good. Whatever you’ve done, it’s bad. Valerie is ‘rip your balls from your body with her bare hands’ mad,” Stephanie said.
“I know. That’s why I’m going home now.”
Valerie was in the kitchen when I arrived, putting all of the food she’d pulled out for her and Azure’s supper back into the cabinets. In actuality, she was throwing items around and mumbling to herself about asshole wolves, but the goal was putting the food away. She didn’t even turn to face me when I stepped into the kitchen.
I watched her for a long moment, before speaking. “Valerie…”
“Yeah?” she said through gritted teeth. She’d known I was there but had refused to acknowledge my presence.
“Can we talk?” I asked, leaning against the counter.
“If you’re going to leave, just go. I’ll have my stuff packed and out of here before you get back next weekend.”
“What?”
“Don’t play stupid. I’m the stupid one. I thought this damn mark meant that you were mine, that you wouldn’t want anyone else. I guess because I’m human things are different. I should have known. No one who looked like you would want people seeing you in public with someone like me.”
I stood up straight and opened my mouth to say something, but she threw up a hand to silence me and left the room. Completely floored by what she was saying, I followed her.
“You don’t have to watch my every move. I won’t take anything that I don’t have to have, and I’ll send you the money for what I do take as soon as I can.” As she said that last bit, I heard the tears in her voice.
“Valerie, stop. What are you talking about? Why do you want to leave me?”
“I don’t want to leave you. I love you, but loving you doesn’t mean I’ll put up with you cheating on me.”
“Cheating on you? Who told you I was cheating on you? You understand that our mating makes cheating impossible, right?”
“Stephanie said so, but since I’m not from this world, it’s obvious that we don’t have that kind of bond.”
“We do have that sort of bond. I’m not cheating on you. Would you stop and look at me?”
“If you aren’t cheating, then why do you keep spending days away from me, avoiding me, avoiding sleeping with me? My need for you is so intense that I have a hard enough time spending my days without you, let alone willingly leaving you for days on end, but you don’t appear to have that problem. You just go off whenever you please, and do whomever you please.”
I laughed, which caused her to scowl at me. I grabbed her hand and placed it on my erection. My action pulled us close together, and I smelled the instant she changed from being pissed to being aroused.
“I’m not doing anyone. I stay hard for you, always. Never doubt that,” I said in a low voice.
“Then why do you keep leaving me?” The tears were back in her eyes.
“I leave when you’re in heat. You’ve made no mention of wanting children. If I’d stayed any of those nights, you would have conceived. If we start having sex right this second with the things the way they are now, we won’t stop for days, and you will be pregnant when we finally leave that bedroom. I was stupid. I should have told you this, but I couldn’t bear hearing you say that you didn’t want to have my children, so I left.”
When she didn’t say anything after my announcement, I feared she would run. The fear didn’t dissipate even after she stepped away from me and began taking off her clothes.
“If it’s a girl, what do you want to name her?” she asked, turning and disappearing into the bedroom.
I barely let what she said sink in before I was rushing after her.
~~The End~~