Chapter One
Heath
Heath studied his reflection in the mirror. It amazed him how much one little change could affect everything. He turned to the side and gawked at his huge belly. His shirt stretched to its limit over the bulge at his stomach. Anxiety built as he studied his usually fit form in such a state. His arms were still muscular—a fact he would take solace in—and his face was still narrow with a strong—single—chin. But that belly.
It was like a visual representation of the way he felt after All You Can Eat Rib night at the local pub.
He placed his hands under the bulge and jumped, watching his stomach bounce with his body and wondering how the thing didn't just fall right off…or out.
"Mazel tov."
Heath spun around, ripping the pillows out from under his shirt and throwing them on the floor.
"Dude! Knock!" he exclaimed, while actively dying from embarrassment. Of course, this guy would be the one to catch him doing something weird.
"How can I knock when the door is wide open?" Angus asked, lazily leaning against the frame.
Heath had just met Angus at his friend's bonding ceremony, and he'd rubbed Heath the wrong way from the very beginning. That was a few weeks ago, but nothing had changed regarding their relationship. Angus was still too attentive. He always looked at Heath just long enough to make him squirm and wish the bear shifter would look in a different direction. Except, then when he did, Heath just wanted him to look back.
It was all very confusing and super annoying. "I was just…" Heath looked around the room, searching for a plausible answer.
Angus stepped into his space, even though he hadn't been given permission. That was another thing Angus did that annoyed Heath. He walked around the world like he owned it. Not just the world either, but the people in it as well.
Angus picked up one of the pillows that Heath had thrown on the floor. He studied it, and Heath studied his hands, cursing the moment that had come earlier when Heath had thought, I wonder what it would look like to be pregnant like Sawyer.
Angus' knuckles were scratched and scarred, but Heath wasn't entirely sure how much of that was due to Angus' shifter nature. Heath didn't know a lot about shifters yet. Only that they could mate with humans and, if they were mates, could impregnate human males.
Heath imagined they could impregnate human women as well, but that wasn't nearly as impressive.
"Were you imagining?" Angus asked, the pillow still in his hand. "Fantasizing?"
"No!" Heath snatched the pillow back and turned his back on Angus, stomping back to his bed so he could put it away.
Angus didn't even have the decency to look ashamed. He just reached down and picked up the second pillow, tossing it in Heath's direction. "Two? What were you carrying? Twins?"
"Don't make fun of me," Heath gritted through his teeth. "Ah, dewdrop, I'm not making fun of you. You're curious. Male impregnation is a shifter thing, sometimes I forget."
"Exactly! It isn't something that happens to human males. When I saw Sawyer with his stomach all…." Heath put his hands out in front of him, miming how big and round Sawyer had gotten and then plopping down on the mattress. "It was quite a shock!"
Angus nodded, taking a seat on the bed next to Heath. "I bet. Did it dredge up any feelings?"
Heath cocked his head to the side as he looked at the other man. "Dude, no. There were no feelings."
"You weren't curious?" Angus asked.
Heath worried at a loose thread on his flannel sleeve. "Maybe, yeah, curious a little."
"Envious?" Angus asked softly, and Heath became one hundred percent aware of how close the other man was to his side.
Despite hardly knowing him, Angus had somehow popped up in Heath's life almost every day since they first met. Most times, he popped up too close and in such a manner that Heath knew should make him uncomfortable. Except, oddly, it didn't.He just thought it should and responded accordingly. "No, not envious," Heath replied. "I'm a man. I don't want to be pregnant."
Angus' dark eyes felt like they were boring into Heath's soul.
Alarm bells rang in his mind, warning him to back up, that he was too close.
Too close to what though? He'd never had these types of reactions before. Instinctual warnings of his inner-self telling him to do something about this or else. Or else what?
"Why? Do you want to be pregnant?" Heath asked, trying to imagine Angus' body with a baby bump. It could not be done. He was too broad. His chest and tummy were too hairy.
"I can't be," Angus replied casually. "I'm an alpha. In the shifter world, that means I am the one who spreads my seed."
Heath made a scrunched-up face. "When you say it like that, it sounds really impersonal, like you're some salmon, spitting your seed out all along the stream."
Angus laughed and reached over, tugging the string on Heath's sleeve and snapping it off. "It isn't like that at all. But I do enjoy swimming in the river, if you know what I mean."
Heath thought he could be a little obvious at times. Well if that was true, then Angus' innuendos were a flashing neon sign. "I know what you mean," he grumbled, his stomach tightening like he was hungry, except he just had breakfast with his sister Maggie.
"Does that upset you?"
Honestly? Imagining Angus swimming in the river did annoy him, but Heath didn't want to look at why. He had his suspicions. That alone made his skin feel tight over his body, but he wasn't going to tell Angus any of that. Angus was a rough and tumble bear shifter with a body Heath would kill for. He was tall, broad, and still managed to look charming, especially when his wavy dark brown hair fell into his eyes. He'd lived a rough life, a man's life and he wouldn't understand what Heath had gone through or what he was currently going through right now, sitting so close to the other man.
"Should I come back later?" Gaia's throaty voice had the power to split them apart. Technically, only Heath jumped, like a cat thrown in a bathtub. He was off the bed, away from Angus and on the other side of the room before Gaia could finish her whole question.
Maggie, Heath's older sister, joined Gaia in the doorway. She hadn't seen Heath and Angus sitting so near together, but she frowned all the same.
"So, we'll see you tonight?" she asked, kissing Gaia's cheek.
Gaia didn't take her eyes off Angus. Her narrowed gaze didn't sit well with Heath. Did she have some problem with Angus being friends with a human? That was ridiculous. She was currently dating Heath's sister— something no one had asked his permission for.
Heath had come up to Noel to take care of Maggie and help protect her inn from bigoted, homophobic locals. But, from the beginning, he'd found his presence unnecessary since his sister had already befriended the toughest guy in town. Who also happened to be a bear shifter and pack master to the shifter pack that had recently moved into the woods outside of Noel.
Heath shook his head. If he started down that rabbit hole, who knew where he would end up? Except, he did know. He would end up wondering about his friend Sawyer and thinking back to the first time he saw his male friend with a pregnant belly.
"What's tonight?" Heath asked. If Angus and Gaia were set on having a silent conversation, then he would just talk over them.
"Just a pack dinner. I thought you'd like to see Sawyer, and Roscoe mentioned that his mate was getting restless," Maggie replied, comfortable with their new vocabulary.
Mate.
To Heath, that word held a different meaning than the one the shifters gave to it. To them, it was synonymous with true love, fated lovers and the one person you were meant to be with and start a family with. To Heath, it was sweaty and involved much thrusting and moaning.
"Have a thought you'd like to share with the class?" Angus asked, as if he could peer inside of Heath's brain and see the dirty things that were there.
"No," Heath snapped, his cheeks going red. "I can't make it tonight."
"Why?" both Angus and Maggie asked him at the same time.
"I have plans," Heath replied. "Cancel them," Angus said.
At the same time, Maggie entered his room and immediately began tidying up. "Sawyer was really looking forward to seeing you. Sawyer loves it there," she made a point of saying for the benefit of the two other shifters in the room. "But he wanted some guy time, some friend time. There is no one else there his age and you guys really hit it off—"
"Fine! Fine! I'll cancel my plans. You sound like my freaking mother setting up a play date!" Heath exclaimed before stomping past everyone and into the hallway. "I'm going for a jog," he yelled over his shoulder. It wasn't until he got downstairs that he realized he was still barefoot.