AJ woke up eight hours later in her own house in her own bed and on a completely different planet. It was dark in her bedroom and Anton must have pulled the covers over her before he left. She figured it was somewhere around two in the morning.
Holy hell.
Goddess.
The word rolled through her head and she shivered. You are my fucking god. What the hell was that? Who even said that shit? Her pussy heated at the memory of him in-between her legs. Of his body, gold and wet from the shower.
She could barely believe any of this was happening. Confused, thrilled, giddy, overwhelmed, AJ turned her head into her pillow and let out an excited little shriek.
One that turned into a very real scream when a man sat up next to her in bed.
“Anton!” AJ screamed, her hand clamped over her heart.
“What is - where - Christos!” Anton cursed, the sheets pooling at his hips as he shoved her behind him.
She couldn’t help the hysterical giggle that bubbled up out of her. His hair was flat on one side and his eyes were all blurry and sleepy. It was the first time in her entire life that she’d ever seen him look cute.
“What do you scream for?” he demanded, still looking a little crazy-eyed.
“Sorry, I didn’t realize you were still here.”
“I will not leave you,” he said bluntly, lifting her hand to his cheek. Then his brow furrowed. “So you scream when you are alone?”
She blushed and ducked her head. “Not usually. I was just, I don’t know. A little excited.”
His confused look gave way to a knowing grin as he brought her hand from his cheek to his shoulder and laid back with her in his arms.
“I see,” he growled, tracing patterns over her back with his fingers. “You were having memories.”
“Yes,” she smiled into his chest. “And something I remembered was that I had a very good time. But we sort of left you high and dry.”
“No,” Anton murmured, his lips moving over her hair. “I had very good time. Top two moments of my life.”
AJ smiled again, certain she could guess what the other top moment was. “Why don’t we see if we can make it a top three list,” she whispered to him before she started to slither under the covers.
She didn’t see Anton slam his eyes closed. She didn’t hear the small prayer he whispered. But she certainly felt his fingers tangle in her hair as he stopped her about an inch from her target.
“I have better idea,” he said, meeting her under the covers. “We will see if I can make you scream into pillow again.”
She couldn’t really come up with an argument to that one.
***
Two weeks later, AJ was finally starting to get used to her new reality. It was almost embarrassing how quickly she’d let Anton back into her life. But after wanting him for ten years, she had very few defenses where he was concerned. And, honestly, he was giving her very few reasons to be defensive.
He went out and got a job on the same construction crew as her father, but not before going with her to tell him about the baby. And she had to say, telling someone you were pregnant with Anton Malashovik’s baby while you had Anton Malashovik holding your hand, well. That was a feeling unlike any other she’d ever had in her life.
She’d spent so much time feeling as if she weren’t good enough for him. Didn’t interest him. And it didn’t take long for him to refute every single claim she had in that regard. He was crazy for her. And just like he said, now that she was pregnant, all he could do was give in to it.
As much as all of it had her a little off kilter, she was also feeling well taken care of in every sense of the word. Her feet were regularly massaged. Every meal of the day provided for her. Her clothes washed and folded. Her front walk was shoveled when it snowed two days before Christmas. And she was coming just about every second she was alone with Anton. And they had a lot of alone time.
She was also starting to see a pattern.
The shower he took in front of her was the last time she’d seen his cock. And she felt a little spoiled for complaining, but come on. She was starting to feel the debt pile up on her shoulders. She knew he was into her, that much was clear. But she wanted to show him how she felt. And he obstinately kept the keys to that car locked away in his pants.
No matter what she did. It was time to call in the big guns.
Dora and Ivy sipped margaritas while AJ and Glory looked jealously on, eating guac and wishing they could just get a little drunk.
“Well, we know his little friend works, because of the whole, you know, knocked up thing,” Dora mused as she put her feet up on the coffee table. “So that’s not the reason he won’t give it up.”
“And you’ve seen it, right? His little friend?” Ivy asked.
AJ nodded, her cheeks going pink. “Yeah, there’s nothing weird about it. It’s even,” she blushed even further, “kind of handsome.”
The other three girls all burst out laughing. “Wow. You’ve got it bad.” Dora saluted her with a chip straight into the guac.
“You remember the ways you get a man to touch you, right?” Glory asked. “You two were the ones who taught me, remember?” She nodded at AJ and Dora.
“Wait, what?” Ivy asked, sitting up straight.
“Yes,” Glory nodded solemnly. “For a long time Emin wouldn’t sleep with me because he knew I was a virgin. So I had to get advice on how to get him to crack.”
“Which was…” Ivy prompted.
“Kiss him, pretty much anywhere. Get naked. Tell him exactly what you want to do to him and what you want him to do to you,” Glory answered promptly. “Works like a charm.” She chomped a chip.
“Well, I’ve done all that. Except for the telling him part,” AJ mumbled the last part.
“What! But that was your advice in the first place!” Dora exclaimed.
“I know. I just get a little tongue-tied when he’s, you know, growly.”
“Tell me about it,” Ivy murmured, sipping deeply from her margarita. “Why don’t you start a little smaller then? What’s your lingerie situation?”
“Well,” AJ considered. “Could be a little better.”
“Great!” Dora snatched AJ’s laptop off the coffee table. “Let’s rectify that pronto.”
But one overnight lingerie delivery and three nights later, they were all back in AJ’s living room.
“So he just tore the whole thing off you, went down on you, and still didn’t fuck you?” Ivy exclaimed.
“Well, he did tie my hands to the headboard with it.” AJ was the color of bubble gum. “But yeah. No p in v.”
“Okay,” Glory sprawled out on the floor, her hair in a fan all around her. “We need to think outside the box here. Have you ever considered sexting?”
“You sext?” Dora asked in complete surprise.
“Of course!” Glory nodded sagely. “You know how much I love texting. Plus, I find emojis to be very versatile. I think it really speaks to the artist in Emin.”
“Wow. Okay. Sexting.” AJ considered it. Anton hated his phone. But maybe this would make him like it a little more. “Does that include nudey pics?”
“Yes,” Glory answered. “Of course!”
But four nights after that, they were all gathered again.
“So, what, he wasn’t into the sexting?” Dora sipped her margarita and let her eyes fall blissfully closed. She’d had a delightful little freak sesh with Danil before girls’ night and she was feeling particularly relaxed.
“No,” AJ groaned. “He was really, really into it. He came over three hours earlier than he’d been planning to and then he made me come twelve times.”
Dora sat straight up and pointed a finger at AJ. “Fact or exaggeration?” she demanded.
“Stone cold fact.”
“Wow.”
“But he still didn’t let the tiger out of the cage?” Ivy mused. “No offense, Glory.”
“Nope, he still didn’t give it up. I mean, it was pretty much the only part of his body that he didn’t use to make me come.”
“I hate to break it to you,” Ivy said, refilling her margarita. “But you’re gonna have to take your own advice and use your words.”
“You mean dirty talk?”
“Well, sure. Because that’s really fun. But I really mean that you have to ask him what the hell is going on. At this point, it’s clear that he’s purposefully resisting for some reason. So find out what it is!”
***
Anton was adjusting to his new life, where he was half the time in heaven, and half the time in hell.
Heaven was walking with AJ through the woods every evening after her classes. She was so comfortable with him as a shifter that she would often bring a book to read while he sniffed around and gamboled through the forest.
Heaven was Netflix. Something that he’d never heard of, but was really starting to like. It involved a blanket and AJ’s warm body pressed against his for hours. It involved her falling asleep in his arms over and over.
Heaven was sleeping next to her. He hadn’t slept alone since the first time he’d been in her bed and he was positive he wouldn’t be able to now. Her steady breaths, soothing scent, her warmth, all of it was indispensable to his nights.
Heaven was picking her up from class. Driving with her in her truck. Trudging with her through the snow on Christmas morning. He’d shown up for his family’s Christmas celebration with a date. It boggled his mind. He’d gone from being completely alone for an entire decade, to AJ on his arm pretty much everywhere he went.
Heaven.
Hell, unfortunately, was equally present. And it had set up shop in his pants. His cock was in a constant state of angry, frustrated, perma-boner chafe. He was pretty sure they were not on speaking terms.
It wasn’t a trial to please AJ. God only knew that he would do that for the rest of his life if he could. That half of the equation was good. But it was the withholding from himself part that was starting to get stale.
He had hope that it wouldn’t have to happen forever. She’d recently started showing him a freaky side of herself. Kinky lingerie, sexting while he was out at the bar with his brothers. That had really been something. He’d looked down at his phone to see a picture of his girl kneeling, naked on the bed, biting her lip, one hand tracing over her collarbone, the other between her…
Anyways. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t freak out if he asked if he could start, you know, painting on her. Actually, he thought she’d be pretty into it. The problem was how to get her to understand that she could never touch him there. Or really anywhere. Pretty much anytime her hands were on him, he could feel the beast waking up inside him and it scared the shit out of him.
The weeks rolled by and he could feel her getting antsy. It scared him, because it was all he could offer her. And he wanted so badly for her to be happy with him.
Because he was happy with her.
And he wanted so badly for their baby to have a happy life. Anton tried to picture their child but couldn’t. He just kept seeing the baby pictures of AJ that were up all around her house. He hoped that whoever their kid was, they’d have midnight blue eyes and dirty blond hair.
They’d gone to a doctor’s appointment together, to make sure everything was in good shape with the pregnancy. And Anton hadn’t been able to quell the nervous, excited energy that had his leg hopping up and down in the waiting room.
“You’re good with kids,” she’d said to him, laying a hand on his knee to still it. “You don’t have anything to worry about.”
“What kids?” Anton had asked.
“Linc.”
“Ah,” he’d waved his hand through the air. “Linc is not kid. He is… Linc.”
“Right,” she’d taken his hand. “And our kid won’t just be a kid. He or she will be ‘blank’.” She traced her hand through the air.
He’d stared back at her, confused. “What is ‘blank’?”
“You know, fill in the blank. Whatever our kid’s name is going to be.”
“Ah.” More comfortable now, he’d settled back in the office chair. “If it is boy, ‘Vlad’. And if it is girl, ‘Sveta’.”
“I’m sorry. You want to name our child ‘sweater’?” She’d looked at him like he was insane.
“No, not sweater. Sveta.”
“Yeah, Anton, you’re saying them exactly the same.”
“It is accent.”
“Yeah, well, whatever it is, I’m not naming my kid ‘sweater’.”
Now, he chuffed through the forest. Chuckling to himself as only a bear could. He didn’t care what they named their kid. All he wanted was to be with them. The baby and AJ.
It was this thought, more than anything, that had him loping through the forest even faster than normal. He’d shifted into his bear form a few hours ago. Normally, he wouldn’t mind staying shifted for longer, much longer. But tonight, he wanted to get back to AJ.
Her morning sickness had faded. And though she wasn’t showing yet, there were lots of changes in her body that Anton was relishing. Each little change, the weight of her breasts, the skin tightening at her hips, her sensitive nipples, these were all things that he’d done to her. That was his seed inside her body, breeding her. And it made him proud. Prouder than he’d ever been in his life.
***
“You know the girl is pregnant, right?” Lana asked one evening as they read over the latest update from the Belarusian branch of Navuka.
“What?” Sergei lifted his head like a shot, narrowing his eyes at Lana. She was still half naked from the sex they’d just had and now she sat with her legs tucked primly underneath her, reading over news from the old country.
“The one who you think is the answer to all your problems with Anton. You know she’s pregnant?”
“How do you know?” he demanded, deeply annoyed at the way this information was unfolding. She so loved to know something that he didn’t. She liked to think she was smarter than he was.
“She no longer drinks when they go to the bar,” she nodded her head at the surveillance camera they’d planted in the Malashoviks’ favorite bar. “He brought her a bottle of vitamins the other day,” she nodded at the camera they had on AJ’s porch. “And her breasts have grown.”
Sergei scoffed. “Hardly proof.”
Lana shrugged, unconcerned with convincing him. “Wait a few months and see. I just thought you should know, considering she’s the most important part of your plan.”
Sergei leaned back in his chair, lit a cigarette and considered. “If she is pregnant, that would certainly sweeten the pot. And increase the likelihood of it working.”
“He certainly has an attachment to her,” Lana sniffed and turned a sheet of paper over to read the other side. “It’ll make her hard to get to.”
“I’m not worried about some human woman,” Sergei said, taking a heavy drag on his cigarette. “When the time comes, she’ll come crawling to me. And she’ll bring her unborn beast with her.”