~

 

‘What’s that?’

‘What?’

‘You don’t hear that?’

‘I hear the wind — rabbit…’ Bowie growled as he turned his head to the sound of the bunny and sniffed the air. His bear wouldn’t have minded playing chase, but he was out with Rayner, and he wasn’t about to leave her side.

‘Ahh, does the little bunny-wunny make big, bad Bowie-bear want to play chase me?’ Rayner chuckled as she turned on her paws and scented the air to try to pick up whatever it was that Bowie had missed. ‘That?’

‘Don’t hear nothing,’ Bowie lied, and she caught that edge in his voice and growled back at him.

Something was amiss. It wasn’t just the sound that she kept hearing off and on, it was everything, even Bowie’s attitude.

‘Oh, no — it had better not be…’ Rayner was too late. Dane’s bear was coming at her fast and furious. ‘That’s cheating!’

‘Serves you right for relying on someone else’s senses,’ Dane growled into her mind, and that thought pinged around inside her brain, but not as much as the thought of Dane not stopping.

That was one big-ass bit of beefcake that was coming at her, and she’d rather not have a damn collision with him.

‘Don’t you do it!’ Rayner bit out.

Her bear was already pushing off to get the hell out of his way, but it was too late. Dane’s bear hit her hard.

He had a lot of weight behind his shoulder, and it didn’t come as a surprise to her that he took her down to the ground and caused the two beasts to go rolling over together.

But Rayner had a damn surprise in store for her mate. She was going to make him pay for that, one way or the other.

Bowie turned on his paws and headed toward home. He was okay with Rayner asking him to go out with her bear this morning. He was spending way too much time around the cabin, working hard to fix it up, and he needed a break.

‘I’ll leave you to it,’ Bowie said into the mental link. He had already left them to their fun and games, picking up his pace, with the renewed urgency to be back home.

Now that he’d thought about it, not that it was ever far from his mind anymore, he knew that home was where he needed to be. It was just a crying shame that Mitzi was in his cabin.

He didn’t regret moving out and allowing Mitzi and her son, Joshua, to stay there. There was no way in hell that he would ever let the two of them stay in the run down cabin that he was now living in while he renovated it around him.

She was female for one thing, and the child deserved a decent roof over its head for another. But he wouldn’t have minded being able to close the door on his new cabin, leave the world and his troubles outside, and being able to take a whole, complete breath for the first time in what felt like forever.

Bowie knew that he was becoming attached and that was a dangerous thing. Not just for him, but for Mitzi and Joshua.

It had taken him a few days to admit to himself what he’d known from the moment that he’d scented her. Mitzi was his mate.

The sexy female with the damn fine curves was his mate and Joshua was his son by another father. It didn’t matter that Joshua wasn’t his flesh and blood — he was his son now.

But what the hell kind of father could he be? He was bat-shit crazy, everyone said so, and he couldn’t deny that fact to himself or anyone else even if he’d wanted to.

He didn’t want to.

Deep down Bowie knew another truth, that a bat-shit crazy bear shifter that couldn’t control his beast wasn’t father material. Hell, he wasn’t mate material.

Bowie had known that for a long time, and he’d been okay with that. He’d come to terms with the fact that he’d never have a mate, a family, and when Dane and Roland had found their mates — that was okay with him as well.

He’d been getting ready to leave. Mates had families, and he didn’t trust his bear around cubs.

Now there was a cub living in his cabin — his cub — and he tried to pull away so many times that it actually physically hurt him. But the fact was that he never got far.

Going out with Rayner’s bear today had been the brake that he’d needed. Hell, he’d been sneaking around and spying on Mitzi and Joshua like a damn fool, like he was some crazed stalker – maybe that was exactly what he was – she might think so if she’d ever caught him doing it, and that would be bad.

There was also a question that had been bouncing around in his brain for days; what the hell was he going to do when Tank came back to take Mitzi and Joshua away?

If his bear burst free and went bat-shit crazy then he hoped that Roland, Dane, and Tank could put him down for good. He’d even considered going to Giles, the vampire, and leaving the bloodsucker no choice but to kill him and put him out if his misery.

That seemed like the best option. He just wasn’t quite there yet.

 

~

~

~

 

“He’s so cute,” Maggie said as Joshua nestled within the crook of her arm, and she felt the tapping of her maternal instinct like a damn woodpecker hammering away in the back of her mind.

Broody wasn’t just a word it was a state of being ever since she’d first held the little bundle of cuteness. Not that she was going to say that to Roland anytime soon.

“You’ll have one of your own soon enough,” Mitzi chuckled.

Maggie was like a planet caught in the pull of Joshua’s sun, and no matter how she tried to keep away, every time that she saw him, she bubbled with excitement and exclaimed that she had to have a cuddle.

“I don’t know about that,” Maggie hadn’t really broached the subject of kids yet with her mate. There were still so many questions to ask, and she didn’t know where to start.

“Here’s the heads up — bear shifter men like families — cubs — you’ll make Roland’s year when you tell him you’re pregnant,” Mitzi said.

“Really?”

“Really.” Mitzi offered her a smile to assure her of that fact.

“How are cubs different from human babies — if you don’t mind me asking?”

“They’re harder to break,” Mitzi chuckled.

“When do they, you know, shift for the first time?” Maggie looked sheepish as she flicked a look at Mitzi from under her lashes, hoping that she hadn’t said the wrong thing and offended her.

“Puberty,” Mitzi offered back.

Mitzi got that the human had questions, and she got that Maggie probably didn’t want to brace those questions with Roland. She couldn’t blame her for that — why start a male off on daydreaming about family if she wasn’t ready yet?

The only problem with that line of thought was; Mitzi thought Maggie was definitely ready, and if she wasn’t then she would be soon.

“But what about a … you know, half human cub?” Maggie chewed the inside of her lip.

“Still harder to break than a human baby, and they would still change during puberty. Everything else is the same, trust me, it’ll be fine.” Mitzi assured her, and she got the feeling that Maggie needed quite a bit of reassurance.

“I guess then I’ll just need to wait until nature takes its course,” Maggie said with a small shrug, and she turned her attention back down to Joshua as the child slept in her arms.

“It already did,” Mitzi chuckled.

She chuckled even harder when Maggie’s head snapped up. Her eyes were as wide as saucers, and her lower jaw slowly slid downward. There was even a small squeak that got stuck in the back of her throat.