As I pulled the old, sputtering truck up to the hardware store and parked in one of the diagonal spaces along the street, I knew I had better start thinking of how, exactly, I would tell Ben that we had a baby together.

I had spent most of the drive into downtown Fayoak torn between being excited and wishing he had never found me. I hadn't been in contact with him since before my sister helped me escape our old cultish pack a few towns over. The same town where I went to school with Ben and the last place I had seen him.

God, that was so long ago. Nearly a year. Where the hell had he been? Why show up after all this time?

Our last day together had been shortly after Ben’s final exam. I thought it had been pretty damn nice. All our feelings, built up during countless study sessions and late-night diner meals together, culminated in one amazing night. Yet, after that, he disappeared. I found out nearly a month later that he had left me a little parting gift in the form of my daughter, Ana.

How would I tell him the one time we got down and dirty ended with me knocked up? Especially after he vanished on me? Should I just spit it out? Was I supposed to be more tactful about it? I didn't have a single clue. It didn't help that tact wasn't exactly my forte.

Even if I figured out how to tell him in the next few minutes, I couldn't possibly predict how he would take it. Nothing I could say would change the fact that he didn't even know he had a one-month-old daughter. That would be a shock no matter how I put it.

I groaned and hit my forehead against the steering wheel. Anyone but me might be able to pull this off easily. Unfortunately, I was the one who had to do it. The best I had so far was: Hey, Ben, how's life? Great, great. Well, we have a kid together now, so . . . awkward, right?

I had a not-so-vague feeling that would not go over so well, but I wasn't sure how else to put it. Even trying to think about it made my stomach ball into an angry knot.

My phone vibrated in the seat next to me. I lifted my head from the steering wheel and looked down at it. Charlie. I picked up my phone and opened his message.

Easily, a solid twenty emojis followed his message, including, but not limited to, the steak emoji and several drooling faces. Grinning to myself, I knew I had made the right choice of teaching him how to use emojis. I hoped he texted everyone like that.

Glancing out my passenger side window, I saw Charlie's cheerful, freckled face grinning back at me from his truck. Parked right there beside me. When did he get here? The last time I saw him was twenty minutes ago, and he had been chowing down at the barbecue. He gave me a big, enthusiastic wave. I snorted a laugh and texted him back.

Charlie read my message with a widening grin, then motioned for me to roll down my window before he did the same. I stretched across the seat of Peter Greenhaven's old truck and cranked the ancient twirly knobby-thingy to open the window. How did people live like this? I didn't know why Peter, my boss and the grandfather of my sister's mate, was so fond of this thing.

Once I had the window most of the way down, I heard Charlie laugh. "Don't get too flattered, I packed a to-go plate."

"I should've known." I straightened back up and arched a brow. "What're you even doing here? Stalking me?"

"I'm not the stalker here. You ran off after Peter told you some other guy was stalkin' you. I got worried." His eyes grew serious even though his grin stayed in place. "Do I need to beat someone up? Just say the word, Sour Patch."

"What? Peter said he was asking around for me, you lunkhead. Not stalking."

The intoxicating scent of brisket and barbecue chicken suddenly wafted into the truck and made my stomach growl. He seriously packed a to-go plate. This was why we were friends—a shared love of meat, bad television, and poking fun at each other.

"Asking around. Stalking. Same thing." Charlie shrugged and stabbed a piece of brisket with a plastic fork before stuffing it into his mouth. He held his plate out the window, waving a second fork at me with his other hand.

"I don't think that's true," I said with a laugh as I shook my head, saying no to his offer. "But thanks for being my knight in shining armor."

Charlie shrugged and smiled, spearing another piece of meat with his fork and chomping it down.

Honestly, I was happy Charlie followed me. Although, the scent of grilled meat wafting into the truck was making me regret leaving the barbecue. Pesky adulthood distracting me from grilled meat. But, hey, at least I had Charlie to give me much-needed moral support as I dropped the baby-bomb. I knew I could at least trust him to keep me from running away.

Fayoak's resident ogre-in-disguise and I became fast friends during my first nine months here. There was a lot of sass and mischief lurking beneath his cheery exterior and I freaking loved it. We got along like peanut butter and chocolate—the perfect combination. We would make for a great buddy-cop film, in my opinion. The hot cougar shifter—that was me, of course—and the brutish, socially awkward, yet weirdly cheerful ogre.

"You gonna tell me what's going on?" Charlie rudely interrupted the montage of wildly improbable gunshots and hair-flipping going on in my head.

I pursed my lips together. "I've decided to join the circus where I can live my life as a trained cougar, jumping through hoops and—"

"Nope. You would bite the first idiot that tried to put you into a cage."

I thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Probably."

"Not probably, definitely. Now, how 'bout you tell me what's really going on? Who's this guy?"

"Ana's dad."

"Funny. Now, really—"

"Nope. I was being serious that time."

Charlie's expression went slack as he processed the news. He dropped his fork on his plate before he thrust a hand into his wild red hair and scratched his head.

"Yep, he's here." I let out a long sigh. "I tried calling. I emailed. And now he shows up, after I haven't sent jack in months. What gives, right?"

Charlie's normally cheerful expression darkened uncharacteristically. "Sounds like it's a good thing I came along."

"You realize it's, like, a little creepy that you followed me, right?" I teased him.

"Only a little? Darn." Charlie clicked his tongue. "I was aiming for very creepy."

"Sorry, but that would've required a phone call with nothing but heavy breathing."

"Shoot. I'll remember that for next time."

I snorted and slumped back into my seat. "I'm stalling, Bigfoot. I need to go in there and tell him about Ana. I mean, I sort of want to punch him in the face for his disappearing act, but I kinda disappeared too, didn't I?"

Charlie's expression softened. "You had good reasons, y'know. It's not like it was easy for you to give up school, your friends, your life. You had to run to keep yourself and Ana safe."

He was right. I ran from my seriously messed up pack—and I was being generous by calling them 'messed up.' They brutalized my best friend, Izzy, then set their sights on me. Judging by how Izzy looked when they were done with her, I might've not made it out of there alive.

I had already figured out I was a month pregnant when she came to warn me that I was next. Knowing myself, I would have fought but I couldn't be selfish when I knew I was carrying a little life inside me. That was when we left that compound of horrors behind us. All thanks to my sister and her fae boyfriend.

I heard Charlie's door open and shut. I looked over to see him offering me his usual grin.

"C'mon, Sour Patch," he said through my open window, "I'll go in there with you."

I sighed and nodded. "Alright. Time to rip off this Band-Aid."

Charlie hopped up onto the sidewalk and beckoned me out the truck with a little come-hither dance. I didn't know whether to laugh or roll my eyes. My cougar, however, was pacing with growing impatience inside me. I groaned. It just wanted me to get out and go see Ben. Chill, would you?

It felt like I was forever at war with my inner cat. My primal side was so pushy. I would go in there when I damn well pleased. Which, I decided as I took a deep breath, was right now.

I pushed open the truck's door and its hinges squeaked with the effort. I took a deep, steadying breath, cracked my neck, then hopped out and shut the door. It was time to do this. The urge to pull a Runaway Bride was growing out of control. I knew I would get cold feet if I waited any longer.

In fact, I would probably end up in the ice cream shop two doors down, drowning my sorrows in frozen deliciousness. But I was doing this. I was going to go tell Ben that he had a daughter. That we had a daughter. And I was going to resist socking him in the jaw for not contacting me all this time. Look at me, being so rational and mature. Motherhood must be doing me some good.

I peeked inside the big windows of the Mom-and-Pop hardware store known as The Trusty Trellis. My heartbeat picked up speed as I peered through the racks of thick work jackets and pants. No dice. I looked the other way and furrowed my brow when I didn't catch a single glimpse of Ben through the shelves of plastic pipe. Did he already leave?

It wasn't like it had taken me that long to get here. I'd driven into town right after Peter told me Ben was asking around town for me. I thought he told Ben to wait here for me. I knew Ben was a pretty patient guy, so he had to still be in there, somewhere.

"You gonna stand out here all day?" Charlie asked with an impatient sigh.

My eyes roamed around the cluttered store. "Hey, you're not the one who has to tell him you have a child together."

"And you called me creepy. Standing there, mouth-breathing on the glass . . ."

"Give me two seconds," I huffed.

"One . . ."

"Charlie. I swear to God, I will end you. I will make you regret ever—"

My breath hitched in my throat. There it was. Ben's bright smile. I only caught a glimpse of it through the shelves, but I would recognize that kajillion-dollar grin anywhere.

His smile shone through the smudged and streaky hardware store windows. God, that guy could smile the pants off any woman he wanted and melt even the iciest of hearts. I was living proof of both.

Part of me wanted to run in there and kiss his face off but we had far too much to discuss. There was no time for kissing when adulting had to be done. Plus, there was the fact that, y'know, he had been MIA for far too long. I needed answers, STAT.

Summoning up whatever courage I could find, I marched up to the door with Charlie at my side. However, the moment I grabbed the wooden handle, I froze. I stared hard at the door, my mind blank and my heart racing. I still didn't know what I was going to say. Why was this so hard? Alysse Addison didn't freeze under pressure. Yet, there I was, solid as ice.

"I could really go for some ice cream right now," I murmured in Charlie's general direction as I started to turn around. "I'm thinking chocolate with peanut butter cups. Yeah. That's what I need."

Charlie placed a hand on my shoulder. He was being gentle, yet I was still rooted in place. Stupid ogre strength.

"C'mon, you said it yourself, you need to tell him," Charlie said, his voice soft. "This is the one thing you can't run from. Do it for Ana."

I cursed underneath my breath. As much as it annoyed me, he was smart to play the Ana card. I would stick my hand into the mouth of a shark for my kid.

"I wasn't going to chicken out completely," I lied as I turned back around. "I just wanted some ice cream."

"Uh-huh. Have you forgotten that I know you?" He gave me an amused grin. "You were gonna go stuff yourself silly then drag your sugar comatose self home. Once there, you'd do nothin' but watch made-for-tv movies you've already seen twenty times over."

I narrowed my eyes and growled low in my throat. My cat and I were, for once, unified in our annoyance. It wasn't that he was wrong. He was right and we both knew it. It was the fact that he was just getting a kick out of this now. Although, that was why we were such good friends, really. We both enjoyed making each other squirm. All in good fun, of course.

Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as much fun being on the receiving end. Especially when he was so very right about my cowardice. I gave him a low, playful growl and pulled the door open. I'll show him.

The strong smell of lumber and metal hit my nose, mingled with Charlie's distinctly other scent as he walked in and stopped two steps in front of me. His scent reminded me of Alex, my brother-in-law and plant fae extraordinaire, but only slightly. It was like comparing the smell of birthday cake and a birthday cake candle. Both sweet and vanilla-y, but very different. God, I could really go for cake right now.

Charlie's scent was more earthen and old. Not that he looked it. He had a few crow's feet from smiling so much, yet he still looked youthful in his jeans and Life's A Peach T-shirt. His messy red hair, sticking up and out in all directions, only made him look younger than the late twenties he really was.

"Payback's coming for you," I warned Charlie with a pursed smile. "Wipe that grin off your face, mister. This is serious business."

"Aw, heck, I'm only enjoying this a little."

Before I could say another word, I heard, "Aly?"

As that familiar, enticing voice washed over me, my knees threatened to buckle. I wasn't even sure how I was still standing. I lightly sniffed the air again. Through all the other scents grappling for my attention, I finally smelled him. Ben.

He always smelled so clean and soapy. My cougar purred inside me and clawed to get out—it wanted to look through my eyes and see Ben. I was surprised by just how much I wanted to see him, too. Normally my cat and I were playing tug-of-war with my emotions, but this . . . I had nearly forgotten how his very presence made me feel.

I looked around Charlie and saw a flash of Ben's dark hair, then his almond-shaped eyes met mine. They glinted with silver as his wolf looked out his eyes. In that moment, all my nerves melted away. The weight of what I had to tell him was still heavy on my shoulders, but I didn't care. Those eyes, familiar and warm, sparked radiating warmth inside me.

"Ben," I called out as I darted around Charlie.

He was waiting there, arms open wide and a grin on his face. God, I missed that smile. His dimples creased his cheeks in that cute, yet unbearably sexy way I adored. We hadn't seen each other for almost a year, yet there he was, arms open in welcome. I dived into his embrace and, before I knew it, he was pressing his lips to mine.

Even though my brain was screaming at me to pull away, I couldn't. The cougar inside me wanted him. Calm down, I tried to tell myself. It was pointless. I'd been drawn to Ben since the day I met him.

I could've sworn he had his own gravitational pull, keyed specifically to me. Memories of the unbelievably passionate night we spent together came flooding back. I wanted to be in his arms like that again, to feel his lips burn against mine. I needed more of him. I grabbed his shoulders to steady myself as I deepened our kiss.

"What in the darn heck? That is not what you came in here for," Charlie hissed through his teeth. A moment later, my world shifted and I let out a wheeze as my ogre friend hefted me over his shoulder.

"Aly?" Ben questioned in disbelief. I would be confused too if I saw an unassuming short, freckle-faced redhead with no muscle tone breezily holding someone over his shoulder.

"I'm fine, I'm fine . . ." I slapped Charlie on the lower back and thrashed my legs. "Knock it off, Bigfoot. Put me down."

"You gonna stop doin' that thing?"

"What thing?"

"Avoiding what you know you gotta do."

"Yeah, yeah." I sighed and slumped over his shoulder, letting my arms hang in defeat.

He set me back down and as soon as my feet hit the ground, he gave me a disapproving look. I poked my tongue out at him and we shared a grin.

"Everything is alright here, yeah?" Ben asked in a slow, measured tone, like he wasn't quite sure. I knew Charlie and I were plenty confusing. One second I was slung over his shoulder and getting violent, the next we were grinning at each other. That was just our friendship in a nutshell though.

"We're good. Charlie here is just looking out for my best interests." I shot the freckled ogre a narrow-eyed look. "Maybe."

"What are you? Why are you so strong?" Ben asked before inhaling deeply near Charlie, his curiosity piqued. I couldn't blame him, Charlie had that effect on people.

I sighed. I would never get used to how not-subtle wolves were. They weren't shy about taking great big sniffs of people. Whenever Ben smelled something that caught his interest, I knew, because he'd sniff and snort like a pig looking for truffles.

Was I exaggerating? Maybe a little, but come on. They didn't even hesitate to walk right up to someone and start asking their business. Sure, I wasn't much better about being nosy, but at least I didn't openly sniff people.

Charlie's eyes gleamed with amusement. He rubbed his hands together. I knew he was getting ready to play his twenty-questions game. He got a real kick out of making people guess what he was. To say that ogres were rare was an understatement. I cocked an eyebrow. This wasn't the time for that. It was already going to take me twenty years to spill the beans.

"He's an ogre," I revealed.

Ben sputtered, "An ogre?"

"Aw, shoot, you spoiled it." Charlie pouted.

I shot him an eye roll. "Yeah, a big, whiny ogre."

"Well, now that you've taken all my fun away, I s'pose I should leave you two to talk about . . . things. I'll be outside if you need me." Charlie raised his eyebrows as if to say "good luck with your mess" before he ambled out of the hardware store. I had no doubt he would be waiting outside, though. He was always there whenever I needed him.

Ben laughed and rubbed at the back of his neck, more confused than amused. "This place is crazy, you know that? Such a perfect town, but so weird."

"Tell me about it. I wouldn't have moved here if it wasn't for—" I cut myself off, not wanting to get into that here. If I talked about my old pack, I would end up talking about Ana, too.

"For what?"

"You'd be, uhh, surprised." I stared down at the bare concrete floor for a second, rubbing at the back of my neck. "Ben, look, there's a lot we need to talk about."

"I don't doubt it. Should we grab a bite?" Ben cleared his throat, suddenly looking as nervous as I was. Hopefully I wasn't about to find out he had a baby, too. "We could find someplace more comfortable to talk? Catch up?"

"Actually, yeah, I know just the place. I'm really going to need some ice cream for this anyway."

"Damn, that bad?"

"You have no idea."

"Well, let's get to it." He smiled and grabbed my hand. An excited shiver ran down my spine as I curled my fingers around his. Cool it, kitty-cat, I chided myself. It didn't work. I seemed to savor the feeling more with each passing second. We still had so much to talk about. So much we both had to explain, yet I couldn't help but enjoy the warmth of his palm against mine.

* * *

I grudgingly shoved another bite of apple ice cream into my mouth. We hadn't even started our big conversation and things were already going downhill. Well, in reality, I was mostly just grumpy because this town was so painfully cheesy sometimes. Apple ice cream. Yeah, their orchards were awesome, but did everything have to be so obnoxiously thematic?

I was supposed to be distracting myself with chocolatey-peanut buttery goodness right now. Alas, there wasn't a peanut butter cup to be had, and there was no way I was having chocolate without peanut butter. A woman has to have standards.

I groaned internally at my own thoughts. I had been avoiding even thinking about talking about our daughter. First, I distracted myself by agonizing over my order, although that was mostly because the options here were terrible, but after we sat down . . . I delayed the inevitable like it was my job.

Spoonful after spoonful of ice cream went in, and no words came out. Whenever Ben caught my eyes and looked like he wanted to start talking, I looked away and shoved in another bite of ice cream, mostly because it was there and I needed the distraction.

Ben raised an eyebrow at my scowling face. "You that mad at me for taking so long to get back to you? Are we going to clear the air or . . .?"

"No, it's the ice cream. I mean, why don't they have—" I rubbed at my forehead with a grimace. I was trying so hard to avoid talking about the important things. "Look, when it comes to clearing the air . . . I'm sure we both had our reasons for disappearing."

"Yeah. What made you take off? I went a little crazy when I couldn't find you. I've been thinking about you for months."

He reached across the table and brushed his fingers over my cheek. He smiled, his teeth lightly biting at his bottom lip. As if that wasn't enough, he had to go and K.O. me with those damned dimples creasing his cheeks.

Not only was he spectacularly handsome, but those dimples of his reminded me of all the late nights we spent studying together. I always wondered if he practiced that look in a mirror. The smile. The lip-bite. It was all too perfect. I fought to suppress a groan. This wasn't a great time for me to be mooning over him.

I scratched at the back of my neck and cleared my throat. "I, um . . . wasn't really expecting you to show up."

"Your email said you were in Fayoak, so here I am."

"Well, yeah, but that was months ago. Why did you ignore all my calls and emails until now? That was pretty messed up." I felt all the old anger from months ago start to simmer inside me. I'd tried to reach out to him and he never once replied. It was like all our months of friendship ended after we had sex.

I bit at the inside of my cheek and dropped my eyes down to my bowl of ice cream. With each word we said, the fantasy was stripped away and reality was rearing its ugly head. I didn't want to be one of those hostile couples who screamed at each other when they dropped the kid off for visitation. I hoped we could work something out for Ana's sake.

"Hey, whoa, I wasn't ignoring you."

"Uh-huh."

"Remember our last night together?" he asked, sounding upset.

I raised an eyebrow. That was a cute way of describing a night of animalistic romping in the sheets. We went out to celebrate after the last exam of Ben's college career before he went back to his hometown. One thing led to another and we ended up spending the night together.

"I most definitely do."

"I know this sounds ridiculous, but my phone must've slipped out of my pocket when I kissed you goodbye as you got into that taxi. I swear I heard a crunch as the taxi drove away and I never found my phone."

I narrowed my eyes, still suspicious. "That sucks. But why didn't you get a new phone?"

Ben looked away, embarrassed. "I did. But I sort've lost everything that was on my phone."

"What about my emails then?"

I struggled to keep the anger from my tone. I knew he was telling the truth. Ben was an honest guy. Plus, he did come all the way to Fayoak. My anger wasn't at him. Not really. It was more the fact that I had this huge truth bomb waiting in the wings and I was still struggling to figure out how to set it off.

"My parents surprised me with a graduation gift. They threw me on the plane to visit family in Korea as soon as I got home."

"And your relatives don't have internet? I'm pretty sure Korea is the leader in internet connectivity, Ben."

Ben snapped his head back like I had slapped him, and I winced mentally. Even I knew I was gunning for him a little too hard. Too hard. I snorted. I was going at him like a prosecutor with a personal vendetta. And hadn't I just thought how honest he was? What was wrong with me?

"Actually, they don't," he countered calmly. "They live in the middle of nowhere. I didn't get your message until last week when I got home. I replied, but my email bounced back. I figured you had checked out completely. Gone for good. Disappeared without a trace. I was worried about you, Aly. Can you please tell me what happened?"

"I told you in my last email that I was here, though." I deliberately ignored his question.

"Yeah, but I didn't get that until later. I headed back to school to see if I could run into you; instead, I ran into that girl from our study group, Sheila. She mentioned you had emailed her from some weird new email address."

I pushed my spoon around in the bowl, trying to keep myself from reaching across the table and shaking the entire story out of him. "And that helped you out how?"

"I found all of your emails from that 'say-peach-one-more-time' address in my spam folder."

"Are you kidding me?" I leaned back in my chair and let my eyes fall shut as all my anger melted away. I hadn't even thought of that.

"No, I wish I was. If I hadn't run into Sheila, I wouldn't have looked in my spam folder. I wouldn't have found you or known you were okay." He paused long enough to let me see the worry in his eyes before he continued, "Why did you ditch your school address?"

"For the same reason why I came here."

"And why is that?"

Whatever good humor I had left instantly poofed out of existence. It was time. I had to tell him about his daughter. Our daughter. Dread coiled in my stomach. This could go so horribly wrong.

"Well, Ben," I said in a slow, measured tone, "there's someone you need to meet."