~

 

“W-hat?” It was all that Maggie could push out. Her throat suddenly felt tight, she was as dry as a board, and her heart felt as if it was beating on her ribcage in a desperate bid to escape her chest.

“Surprise!” Mitzi lifted her hands and wiggled her fingers as Maggie’s eyes seemed to roam around in the sockets for a long moment.

“Are you sure? How do you know? Is this like a definite thing? Could you be wrong?” The questions spilled from Maggie’s lips as her brain kicked back into gear after the initial shock.

“I can scent the change in hormones in you — I’m surprised Roland hasn’t picked up on it yet, but he will soon,” Mitzi said, chuckling again when Maggie’s racing heart missed a beat.

“I smell funny?” Maggie said. She angled her head down toward her armpit and sniffed.

“You smell different,” Mitzi assured her.

“I’m going to be a mother!” Maggie couldn’t help but giggle like a schoolgirl at the thought, maybe the insane shock of it.

“You’re what?” Roland had stopped in his tracks at the edge of the clearing as if he’d met an invisible wall.

Maggie snapped her head around toward her mate. The big shifter was standing there with wide eyes, a curious look on his face — sort of the same look that he got when Bowie blindsided him with a fist — and his mouth was moving just without much sound.

“I think you might want to give me Joshua now,” Mitzi said, but she didn’t wait to be handed her son, she reached down and scooped him from Maggie’s arms.

“Why?” Maggie asked, almost absently, because she couldn’t take her eyes from her mate.

“You’ll find out,” Mitzi chuckled.

Maggie went to ask a question, but Roland set off toward her and that question died on her lips. The big bear shifter was stalking toward her like a man that was about to tear someone a new ass.

Mitzi heard another small squeak get stuck in the back of Maggie’s throat, and she chuckled again. Roland was coming fast and furious in their direction and Mitzi played it safe and took a long step to the side.

“Okay, I know you’re mad…” Maggie rushed out, but before she could say another word, before Roland could answer her — he reached out, snatched her up in a big bear hug, and squeezed her just a little too hard. “Need to breathe…”

“Sorry — sorry!” Roland said, kicking himself for not remembering that she was human, and loosening his grip around her body. “A cub?”

Maggie couldn’t believe the look on his face. You would have thought that all of his Christmases had come at once.

He was grinning from ear to ear and the deep rumble that played in his chest, and then caught in his throat, sounded so different from anything that she’d ever heard him make before.

“So I’m told,” Maggie said.

Her heart was racing inside of her. She thought Roland had been as mad as hell, but she never could have guessed his overreaction from the look on his face only a few moments earlier.

Roland buried his face between her shoulder and her neck, and nuzzled in as he took her scent at source. He kicked himself for missing that before, his mate, pregnant, his world was complete.

 

~

~

~

 

Bowie’s bear stood on the edge of the clearing and eyed the happy scene before him. It had begun — Roland was going to have a cub.

Two cubs didn’t bode well for his crazy ass bear. He needed to act soon — leave — or die. It was the only way to protect the people that he loved more than life itself.

Bowie’s bear made a sorrowful sound within him, but Bowie didn’t let it out. He didn’t want to intrude on the happy occasion. It wasn’t his place to do that.

Bowie looked at Mitzi, standing there so damn happy with Joshua in her arms and felt a longing to be normal. They were his family — it hurt – and yet, he took comfort in knowing that his brothers were there to take care of them when he was gone.

The only thing that he needed to do now was to have a conversation with Dane. He needed to tell the man that Mitzi was his mate, and that knowledge would ensure that his clan would always be there for her and his son.

Then he could do what he should have done the moment that he’d scented her. Time was running out.

His bear was becoming attached, too damn attached, and he knew that he needed to get it over with sooner rather than later before he screwed everyone else’s life up the same way that he’d done with his own.

 

~

~

~

 

 Rayner pulled on her sweatpants and eyed Dane’s hard body as he pulled on his shirt. She liked looking at him naked, the strength in his muscles turned her on every damn time that she saw them.

She moved fast; hooking her foot around the back of his ankle, she battered her shoulder against his chest, tripping him backwards, and he went down to the ground like a ton of bricks. A heartbeat later and she’d straddled his hips.

“Damn, Rayner,” Dane growled.

“Someone take one to his pride?” She babied him, even pushing out her bottom lip as she slapped the palms of her hands against the grass on either side of his head.

“You caught me by surprise, I almost grabbed you and brought you down with me,” he grumbled.

“Poor baby got a shock?” she teased, wiggling her eyebrows and loving the sound of the growl that rumbled in his chest.

A heartbeat later and she was on her back with her mate pressed down the length of her from above, boy was that one hell of a view.

“You wanna play, sweetheart?” He offered her a wickedly sexy grin, and her body responded in a heartbeat.

“Hell, yeah!”

Dane dipped his head to take her lips, but the sound of her mobile phone squawking like a giant eagle caused him to hesitate. His distraction was her opportunity, and she used everything that she had to toss his body away from her.

Dane hit face down in the grass with a grunt of annoyance. Rayner chuckled as she jumped to her feet and stalked over to where her phone was lying on the ground.

“Don’t mind me,” Dane bit out, rolling onto his back and groaning at the ache in his pants. It hadn’t just been his damn nose that had hit the ground.

“Oh, poor baby,” she teased with a wide, wicked grin that stretched from ear to ear. Then she swiped her thumb across the screen and placed the phone near her ear. “Better be damn good, Bute!” She snapped.

“Colt,” Bute sounded positively gleeful.

Rayner covered the mouthpiece with her hand and frowned at her mate. “Colt?” She mouthed, and when Dane rolled his eyes in his head, she knew she had a mean one.

“Does it clear our debt?” Rayner demanded.

“You betcha, with bells on,” Bute chuckled.

“No,” Dane mouthed back, and he looked serious – like alpha mode serious.

“Done,” Rayner said, and Dane growled in annoyance as he dropped the back of his head against the grass, and rubbed a tired hand over his face. “Send me the file.”

“I’ll send you what I have,” Bute said.

“No, Bute – the damn file, all of it, or I’ll come down there and make you eat the damn thing,” Rayner snapped.

“Geez, Rayner, you’re turning into a right grouch,” Bute said, and she opened her mouth to tell him exactly what she thought, but he’d already hung up. Smart guy.

“I said no,” Dane growled. He pushed up to his feet and towered over her.

“I heard,” she flashed him a wicked smile.

“Yeah, that doesn’t cut it this time, Rayner…” he growled.

“But, sweetheart, don’t you like working together, being close…?” She jumped up into his arms, knowing he’d catch her, and he did. He even pressed his hard cock against her sex. Both of them growled with need.

“I’m not happy…” he growled.

“I’m happy,” she wiggled against him.

Dane grumbled another growl.

“Damn it, Rayner. Sex is sex, making love is just that, but you need to listen when I say no,” he growled.

“I do,” she assured him, mischief in her eyes. “And then I make an informed decision…”

“Damn it, woman,” Dane growled, putting her down on her feet and stepping back away from her.

Dane ran his hands through his hair and tried to shake off his fear, his anger, but there was a black cloud hanging right over his head, and the voice of doom was screaming in his ear.

“What is it?” Rayner demanded. Dane could be pissed when she didn’t listen, but she’d never seen this side of him before.

“Colt is a fucking animal,” Dane warned her.

“Aren’t we all…” she offered the offhand remark, but it died on her lips when Dane shot a dark glare at her. “Go on?”

“Bowie – he almost took Bowie’s damn head off about ten years ago.” Dane growled.