Chapter Three
Heath
Heath was in trouble. When he'd called Steven to tell him he'd be late that night, Steven had told him that his president was running out of patience with him. Running out of patience was motorcycle club for beginning plans to hurt you.
He couldn't come up with an excuse not to go to the shifter dinner that would pass Maggie's standards, and he sure as hell wasn't going to tell her that he was indebted to the wrong sort of people. The kind of people you didn't want to owe anything to because they would take it back. And if you didn't have it, like Heath, they would come up with other ways of making you pay.
He'd gotten himself into this stupid mess and now he would get himself out. But first, he would pretend everything was fine while surrounded by a pack of people who could turn into bears the size of a MINI Cooper.
At least they could cook. His plate was piled high with a salmon risotto, honey roasted carrots and two rolls with homemade butter.
"Do you like the bread?" Sawyer asked him, rocking his baby, Roger, in his lap as he fed him a bottle.
"It's better than Maggie's," Heath replied, promptly getting elbowed in the side by Maggie.
On the other side of her, Heath heard Gaia whisper something that sounded like, "Your buns are the best."
"I made them," Sawyer replied proudly to Heath.
Heath didn't know what to say back, so he shoved all of his second roll in his mouth to show Sawyer he hadn't been lying about how good they were.
"Wow," Sawyer said, moving the baby over his shoulder and patting his back. "You can fit a lot in your mouth."
Sitting beside Roscoe, two chairs down, Angus snorted.
Heath returned his attention back to his meal, scarfing it down at a rate that generally put him at first to finish. Here, surrounded by bear shifters, he wasn't even third. Then, he felt the warmth of a body standing behind him.
"Shall I take your plate?" Angus asked in a low voice.
Heath shrugged, not wanting anyone at that table to suspect what having Angus so close to him was doing to his body. "Sure."
"Take mine too," Gaia said, piling hers on top of Heath's. "Babe, are you finished?" she asked Maggie who was, for once, not among the majority. Her plate was still practically full.
After dinner, Marcy served the pies she'd spent the day making. She had an assortment of apple to blackberry, and every bite was as good as the one before it. When he was finished, Heath sat back and patted his belly. That only reminded him of the way Angus had found him earlier that afternoon, so he stopped immediately, jerking to a stick-straight posture.
"It looks really nice around here," Heath said to Sawyer. The other shifters began to leave the table, taking their own dishes to their homes to wash. The families with the most children began carting off the leftovers. "Even since your bonding ceremony, there's a lot of work that has been done."
"It's a work in progress," Sawyer replied. He had his baby in his lap, and Roscoe's arm draped over his shoulders. Roscoe wasn't even paying attention to what they were saying. He was talking to one of the other pack members, but it was like he still needed to be close to
Sawyer. To his mate.
"When will you guys make some roads? You could build a gas station, become official and all that."
"And have humans gawking at us at all times of the day and night?" Garth, Gaia's brother, sneered. "No, thank you."
The first time Heath had met Garth he had been tied up, near dead and covered in his own blood. That had endeared him to Heath, but that only lasted for so long. The few times he'd met the man since, he'd been sullen.
"Why keep yourselves a secret? I can only imagine the job opportunities you would have, being able to turn into a bear? That is pretty badass."
"You're right," Garth replied with mock enthusiasm. "I should go join the circus and dance in a tutu for tips."
"I didn't mean…" Heath dropped his gaze to the tabletop.
"No one thinks you did," Angus said softly, encouragingly, appearing at his side out of nowhere. "Garth is just an asshole. And it isn't the end of the world if humans find out what we are and what we can do. Most don't believe it even if they see it. It just isn't something we actively advertise."
"Why don't you help me lay Roger down?" Sawyer suggested.
Heath was all too willing for a task that would take him away from the table.
Roscoe remained engrossed in conversation, though he watched them until they entered Sawyer's home and shut the door.
"Bro, that is intense," Heath said, talking about Roscoe's attentive nature.
"It's just Garth, you get used to it."
"No, I mean…never mind." Why did he care about how obvious it was that Roscoe cared for his husband? And why did he feel almost jealous? Not of Roscoe, but of having someone looking at him like that.
"Sorry if it got a little weird there at the end," Sawyer whispered. He disappeared into his room and then reappeared seconds later with a baby monitor in his hand. He clipped it to his waist and then led Heath out to the back of their house, where Roscoe had built a porch and two chairs since Heath had been there last. "I promise each time you visit will be a little easier. That is, I mean, if you still want to visit," Sawyer mumbled.
"Dude, of course, you are cool. I didn't mind it earlier, really. I just have a lot going on right now."
"Like what?"
Great, now he had opened his big fat mouth. He didn't want Sawyer to worry either. "Just things. Silly local problems."
"Do you want me to ask Roscoe if he'll—"
"No, it isn't like that, not like Maggie's problem. It's, my own thing that I have to handle." Heath stood, shoving his hands in his pockets.
Sawyer studied him for a long moment. The guy may be younger than Heath, but he had wisdom, like a wizard. "What was it like when you were pregnant?" Heath asked before he really had a chance to think about what he was asking.
Sawyer smiled, as if thinking about it was enough to make him glow with happiness. "Weird at first," he admitted. "But like, real? I don't know. I didn't accept it at first."
"What about with Roscoe? When he told you about mates and all that stuff?"
The other man gave him a curious look before responding. "That was never weird. Throughout it all, I've been sure of one thing, and that is my place beside Roscoe. It's where I belong."
Heath sighed, leaning back against the porch column. "Must be nice to be so sure of something."
"Are you okay?" Sawyer stood up with his arms out awkwardly, like he wanted to comfort Heath but didn't know how. "You aren't in trouble, are you?"
The urge to tell Sawyer everything was strong. Why couldn't he tell his friend that he had borrowed money from the wrong people when it became clear he couldn't get a job in Noel, and had since spent that money helping his sister fix up the inn? Now, those same people wanted the money back. And he didn't have it. It made him feel stupid and weak. Like he was some buffoon who couldn't manage himself and his finances.
The truth was, he'd traveled to Noel with the last of the money he'd gotten when his grandparents passed away and was, as far as he knew, not welcome back home until he straightened up and started living like a responsible adult. His dad's exact words.
Living with his sister would have been paradise if he hadn't been so stupid when he first got to Noel.
Now, he was about to pay for it. He just didn't know with what.
Telling Sawyer all of that wouldn't help anything, but would it hurt?
"I…" Heath began, losing his nerve quickly. Sawyer looked up to him, maybe even like an older brother, and this could ruin his image of Heath. "When I first came to Noel, I…"
"What kind of trouble?" a deep voice barked. Angus.
Great.
While Heath was on the edge of wanting to tell Sawyer about his issues, he had no desire to tell Angus. The tough shifter would just laugh at him or call him a pansy for not being able to handle himself.
"Nothing. No trouble. I should find Maggie," Heath said, nodding goodbye to Sawyer who was shooting daggers at Angus.