Gray

Kiss her.

The desire to do just that rushed through him, leaping through his body, igniting his veins and driving him closer to her, his body leaning across the table. The distance between them suddenly seemed impossibly close as she drifted forward as well, until the pair had almost closed the gap between them entirely.

Kelly’s tongue flicked out, dampening her lips slightly. Was that in anticipation of kissing him? Or just a natural thing that he was reading too much into? Probably. It was too soon. It had to be too soon. There was no way she would want to kiss him already.

Except her eyes were locked on to his, flicking back and forth in the telltale sign as she looked into his soul, evaluating what she saw. Kelly never pulled back, and Gray pulled together the courage to push his head that extra ten percent, to make it clear he was going in for the kiss. Then she would have to react, either accepting the move, or pulling away from him.

Her head tilted slightly as he came closer, exposing her lips to him. This was it. He was going to do it. They were going to kiss. Kelly’s eyelids began to close. His followed suit as he leaned in all the way.

“Hey, hope you don’t mind if we sit here!” A plate bounced onto the table without waiting.

Gray looked up to see two of the Kronum shifters he’d rescued plop their own plates down and snatch up chairs, resuming their conversation about something he had absolutely no interest in. Turning his attention back to Kelly, he saw that she’d returned to her side of the table, attention studiously fixated on something in the distance that only she could see.

The moment had passed.

He silently cursed his luck, before leaning back as casually as he could. Things could be going worse though. Kelly was still sitting there, which was a victory all on its own, regardless of the fact that she’d clearly shown interest in kissing him. Gray was over the moon about that. He’d known since he first laid eyes upon her that she was something special. His bear had been adamant that she was his mate, but he hadn’t necessarily believed it.

Even if he had, that didn’t mean Kelly did. Heck, she’d been trying to avoid him ever since their first meeting! Now though, even if she was looking thoroughly embarrassed about the interrupted moment between them, she wasn’t fleeing. That meant…something. What, he wasn’t entirely sure, but it was better than nothing. All he had to do now was make it count. Which meant not allowing her to get up and leave.

Speak. He had to talk. To say something to her, to grab her attention.

“What are you doing for the rest of the day?” he blurted, the first question to come to his brain.

Kelly looked over at him. He could see her working through various responses to the question as clearly as if it were daytime. But the words that came out of her mouth shocked the both of them.

“I’m not sure. What am I doing?”

Holy shit. She was giving him the rest of the afternoon. Together.

“I have to work,” he replied.

“Right, of course,” Kelly said, blinking rapidly and nodding quickly. “I…yeah.”

Gray stood up and walked around the table, extending a hand. Kelly looked up in confusion, but then took it, allowing herself to stand.

“I was kidding,” he said, linking her arm through his.

“You were?”

“Yeah. It only seemed fair to pay you back for the bed-hog remark earlier,” he teased.

She looked up at him. “I thought you said you were a bad flirter.”

“This is flirting?”

Kelly laughed. “I have no idea whether you’re serious or not, mister. Now, where are you taking me?”

“Are you up for a walk? Not long, I promise. We’re staying on the property. There’s just something I’d like to show you.”

“Taking me somewhere secluded?” she fired back, though she was nodding in response to his question.

“Actually no, it’s quite open,” he told her, guiding her back beyond the house, following the stone pathway.

“Good. I’m not supposed to be anywhere with you without an escort,” she said haughtily.

“Oh no? Why’s that?” he teased, starting to feel more comfortable with her. “Is someone afraid of your inability to resist my masculine charms?”

Kelly considered the question. “Yes, but that’s only because they don’t realize you have none.”

Her punchline brought his soaring self-esteem crashing back to earth with a full-body laugh that felt incredibly good. “Oh, of course not. My apologies to whomever I confused. I didn’t mean to give anyone such crazy notions like that.”

“Apology accepted. But I believe I can convince them of the folly of their thoughts after having spent some time with you,” she stated.

Gray laughed some more. “Is that why I’ve been holding your hand for the past thirty seconds or so without issue?”

Kelly looked down between them. “We’re not holding hands,” she said, lifting her left hand to show him otherwise.

He reached up and snagged it, his fingers pushing between hers before Kelly could react. “Sorry. Check again,” he said, lowering the hand between them, daring her to pull hers back.

There was silence as they walked along a trail set into the forest behind Maximus Koche’s house. Trees towered above them, spaced out enough that sunlight filtered through to the ground easily enough, bathing them both in warm light as they walked. On either side bushes grew up, the last bits of color starting to fade as fall approached. Everything was still vibrant, but he knew it would start to change from green to the oranges and reds and browns of autumn soon enough.

“That was smooth,” Kelly said at last, her hand still enclosed within his.

“Thank you. Don’t presume anything from it, though. I’m never that good.”

The pair of them chuckled as he took them down the right-hand fork in the path. Birds sang overhead, and the trees became sparser, giving way to the sounds of running water. A moment later they reached the top of a slight hill. Before them a river had carved its way out of the land, winding back and forth through the countryside. It wasn’t overly wide, perhaps ten feet across, but it was clear, fresh water flowing smoothly over stones and rocks, burbling lively as it went by.

“Over here,” he guided her, pointing to a rock outcropping.

Kelly followed him, and they sat down, removing their shoes before letting their feet dangle over the edge and down into the water. It was warm and refreshing at this time of year, tempting enough to want to jump in if the situation arose. Gray considered suggesting it, but discarded the idea quickly. Kelly wouldn’t have a suit, and he wasn’t about to suggest they go in their underwear or less. He was bad with flirting, but he wasn’t that bad.

“This is a nice spot,” she remarked, splashing his leg with her foot. “So very relaxing.”

“It really is. I come out here as often as I can, truth be told. Just sit here and feel the water go by, taking all my concerns and worries with it, pulling them away from me.”

Kelly’s head bobbed up and down. “If only it were so easy.”

He shot her a look. “Is there a lot that’s bothering you?” he asked. “I thought things were going smoothly with the move to Cloud Lake.”

“Well enough,” she agreed. “But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have things weighing us down.” She gave him a wistful smile. “We were duped. Lied to by a company we thought was trying to help us out. Instead, once many of us were already pregnant, we find out that we were actually accomplices to the corporation’s attempt to wipe you out. I don’t think we’d be human if that didn’t affect us at all,” she said with a snort.

Gray wasn’t sure how to respond. He knew all about the situation. About how the Institute had created a program to try and mass breed half-blood shifters into existence. Humans with some of the attributes of his kind, but without the ability to shift into a huge beast. They’d recruited hundreds of women with the promise of support for their children and the knowledge that they were helping to preserve the shifter race.

They’d lied.

When Maximus Koche and his brothers had taken the Institute down, nearly three hundred women had been recovered from various facilities, all in different stages of pregnancy. Unwilling to simply toss them back on the streets, the shifters of Cadia had banded together and opened their treasure stores to pool their resources. A fund had been set up for the women, to provide them with shelter, food, supplies, and medical aid for their pregnancies.

Others had come together to build huge communities on the southern edge of Cloud Lake, where the women would be housed, all with their own individual units. Something that would have taken humans months to accomplish had been done in mere weeks, due to the remarkable efforts of the Cadian shifters. There had been a few problems with rehoming nearly three hundred pregnant women, but nothing that Gray had thought was anything major.

“That’s fair,” he said. “Is there anything else? How are you adapting to living in Cloud Lake?”

Kelly sat still for a full minute, then shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s kind of lonely, honestly.”

“Lonely? You’re surrounded by hundreds of other women.”

Kelly grimaced. “All of whom are pregnant like me. It can be great to share war stories as we go through it, to find out what others are doing for certain parts of it. But sometimes it would be nice to hang out with women who aren’t pregnant, so we can talk about something else for once.”

“Ah.” He didn’t know what else to say.

“That’s why I enjoy coming out here so much,” she continued, indicating the house behind them. “Hanging out with the Koches and their mates. It’s such a different atmosphere. I wish I could live out here like Erika,” she said, her voice tinged with a bit of jealousy.

“Maybe one day you can,” he said neutrally.

“Maybe,” she agreed, her eyes staring out into the water as it sparkled under the midday sun. “It’s not that I dislike Cloud Lake. It’s nice; I love the slow pace to everything. It’s probably better for me and for the baby.”

He watched her gently rub one hand over her swollen stomach.

“How far along are you?”

“Twenty-seven weeks,” she said. “Couple of months to go.”

His eyes were still on her stomach.

“Would you like to touch it?”

Gray looked up to find her brown eyes staring at him, the gold flecks within her irises dancing with gentle laughter.

“Um, okay,” he said, tentatively reaching out a hand.

Kelly snared it and pressed his palm to her bump, forcing him to rub it back and forth in gentle circular motions.

“Fascinating,” he murmured.

“More so when it’s active and you can feel it kicking or whatever,” she said. “That’s an interesting experience.”

He smiled. “I can bet it is.”

“That doesn’t throw you off at all?”

“Does what throw me off?”

“That I’m pregnant,” she said. “That I’m carrying someone else’s child within me.”

Gray almost immediately shook his head, then decided better of it. This was a serious question she was asking him, and it deserved a serious thought from him. Did the fact that she was carrying a child not of his blood bother him? Would it matter if he did pursue her? Could he look after the child as if it were his own, without prejudice or a predisposition to dislike it?

Of course I can. I may not be the child’s biological father, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be its dad. The father figure, even.

“No,” he said slowly. “It does not throw me off. Children are a precious resource amongst shifters, and they should all be cherished, regardless of who sired them.”

Kelly considered his answer for a long second, and then nodded. “I see.”

Gray had no idea what that meant, but she didn’t get up to leave or ask him to take her back, so his answer couldn’t have been that terrible. Had he missed something? Or taken it too seriously perhaps? Was he just supposed to have said no instead? He yelled at himself internally. Of course that’s what she’d expected him to say. A quick, simple “nope, not at all.” Light and airy. Instead he’d gone for the deep, thoughtful, serious answer. Something she wasn’t looking for yet.

He stared out into the river and wondered if there was a way he could salvage things, or if he’d already screwed up any chance he might have had with Kelly.