Rachel
She had just finished pulling on some clothes when the door rattled under a firm fist.
Her heart leapt in her chest as hope blossomed inside of her. Could that be Hector? She’d been asleep that morning when he’d left, and she’d woken to an empty bed beside her, much to her dismay. Although he’d made it very clear that he had to leave before sunrise, she still didn’t like it. Him sneaking out in the middle of the night sucked. She wished he could stay. Especially after the night they’d shared, and the bond that had formed between them.
After making love for the second time, they’d lain on her bed for hours, talking about small things, telling embarrassing stories of prior loves and stupid things they’d done. None of it was particularly earth-shattering information, but between their intimacy and the conversation, she felt like she’d gained a more thorough connection with him. She’d gained a friend, a companion, as well as a lover. It was something that most people couldn’t say for their own relationships.
But it was ridiculous to think that he could be at her door now. Hector had never said anything outright to her, but she could tell that he was nervous about going back. About what he was going to find once he got there. She doubted that it would be a warm reception, and a part of her wondered if he was likely to end up in even more trouble for sneaking out to see her. That seemed like the sort of thing that he would do, but she hoped desperately that he had gotten home unseen.
They hadn’t talked about when he would see her next, though both of them had expressed the desire to do so. She knew it could be a while, a long while in fact, before he was able to sneak out to see her or, or perhaps once his punishment had been eased. So Rachel had decided that until then she would throw herself back into her groups that she loved so much. She was attending another one that evening, in fact, and she couldn’t wait.
Reaching the door, she peered through the peephole.
Hissing in surprise, she pulled back, her heart racing. The view was of someone’s broad chest. She couldn’t see the face; they were too tall. Only shifters were that tall. Could it really be that he was here to see her? Almost as soon as she thought that, another darker, more sinister idea flowed through her mind.
What if it was someone coming to speak to her because of what had happened the night before? Could they be after her, to get her statement, to interrogate her for information on his whereabouts? Hector had said he was heading straight back to the embassy, so that he could help with the repair work in the morning. But what if he hadn’t? What if he’d decided to leave entirely? That could explain why a shifter would be at her door. It was six thirty, almost on the dot. There was no way that it could be Hector. Sneaking out at this hour would have been impossible!
The door shook again as the shifter on the other side knocked.
Closing her eyes, she took in a long, slow breath, and then opened the door.
“Hi,” Hector said.
She shut the door, the air expelling from her lungs in one violent burst. It wasn’t possible. He couldn’t be here.
“Hello?” he said from the other side.
It was Hector’s voice. It looked like Hector. But it couldn’t be.
“Who are you?” she asked through the door.
“It’s Hector,” he replied, sounding puzzled. “Are you not Rachel? Are you her evil twin?” There was a tinge of humor to his voice.
“Not funny,” she replied. “Hector is under house arrest or some bullshit. You can’t be him. He’s not allowed out.” She carefully didn’t mention the fact that he’d been there the night before. “Maybe you’re his evil twin.”
“Nope, it’s me. Back again. I’m sorry I had to leave early this morning, but things are going better at the embassy now. I’ve got some freedom to move around.” There was a pause. “Can I come in? I’m feeling really silly talking to a door instead of you. Especially after last night.”
Rachel opened the door. “What did you say to me after we finished the first time?”
He recoiled in surprise at the suddenness of it all. Then his eyes narrowed and he took on a thoughtful look for a few moments before replying, “I said that it had been intense. But why all the secret code and questions? It’s me, Rachel. Made with genuine, one hundred percent real Hector. No preservatives or additives.”
“I see. Come in,” she said, stepping back from the doorway and letting him inside.
Stepping in, he stayed on the front mat while closing the door behind him, making no effort to remove his shoes. “Am I welcome?” he asked at last.
“I’m not sure. Are you? How are you here?”
Hector shook his head in frustration. “I talked to Andrew. I’m no longer confined to quarters. I just have to sneak out, sort of. Letting as few people as possible see me.” He shrugged. “There are few shifters at the embassy to begin with. It’s not hard to leave without anyone noticing. So, here I am again. Where else would I go once I was free anyway?”
Rachel couldn’t quite keep the smile off her face. “I’m sorry, I guess I’m just nervous. It seemed way too good to be true for you to actually be here. So I feared a trap.”
He frowned. “Did we watch a thriller last night or something? When did you get so paranoid?”
“I…don’t recall which movie we put on last night,” she said with a laugh. “Someone wouldn’t let me watch it.”
Hector grinned, relaxing and finally removing his boots. “I don’t recall getting much in the way of a protest from anyone.”
“Indeed,” she said with a false snobbish sniff of the air. “I decline to comment.”
He chuckled. “Maybe we can finish watching the movie tonight then?”
“Perhaps later. So does this mean that you got your job back?”
Hector sobered. “No, not quite. I’m still relieved of duty, but I’m working full-time on the repairs and a few renovations that Andrew wants done that the fire has given us the impetus to do. So I’ll be working on those full-time during the days, but the nights are now my own again.”
“That’s nice,” she said. “So you thought you’d come and spend the evening with me?”
He smiled and nodded.
“Well, you can,” she said slowly. “But I have other plans for an hour and a half. If you want to see me, you’ll have to come along.”
Hector looked slightly pensive. “Would you prefer I just leave and come back? I can do that, you know. I don’t want to intrude on you and your gang.”
“My gang?” she asked dangerously.
“Spoken like a true gangster,” he teased. “You and your groups of women. It’s kind like gangs.” Hector paused thoughtfully. “Or maybe it’s more like a cult, where they worship you because you organize them all.”
Rachel stared at him with a mixture of horror and hilarity, unsure of the reaction she was going to have in the end. “I don’t know what to say to you right now.”
He grinned from ear to ear, obviously pleased with himself. “Then don’t say anything at all.”
He stepped forward and took her into his arms, lowering his head to kiss her. Rachel inhaled sharply at the brush of his stubble against her face but was silenced as his lips sealed against hers. The heat of his kiss made its way into her very core, warming her near instantly.
They broke apart a few seconds later.
“It’s definitely you,” she said breathlessly, holding onto one of his arms for support, even though he had them both wrapped around her still.
“I told you it was,” he replied, kissing her on the forehead, heat searing through his skin to the point that Rachel wondered if he’d just branded her forehead from his lips.
Images of the night before, of the two of them interlocked on the couch and then the bedroom, flowed through her, awakening her desire once more. The draw to just follow him to the bedroom grew and grew until it became unbearable, and she felt her hand slip lower on his chest, heading toward his belt and the bulge she could see forming below.
“No,” she said at the last moment, shaking her head and pulling back. “Not now. Stop.”
Hector shook his head and a deep rumbling growl, like that of summer thunder as it came rolling in over the plains, filled the room as he got himself under control. His right arm still held her, wrapped around her back, but he stepped away, so they were more standing next to each other instead of facing. She saw his lungs rising and falling as he took in huge lungfuls of air to try and calm himself.
“Sorry,” he said through a clenched jaw. “Didn’t mean to.”
A moment later his body language changed and he relaxed, tension flowing out of first him, then her as the moment passed them by and they could resume normal activities.
“That’s some powerful stuff,” she said quietly.
He nodded. “Not all mine though, which is what makes it hard to resist. I can stop myself, but when you react like that, it…it makes it harder, if you’ll excuse the pun.”
The two of them laughed. Then Hector brought his left hand up and laid it on her stomach. “How are you doing?” he asked, his intent clear.
“We’re good,” she said. “Really good. Growing like a weed, and starting to get nice and active too.”
Hector nodded. “I felt him once last night while you were asleep.”
“You were awake?”
He looked away sheepishly. “I…um, was listening to its heartbeat,” he admitted at last under her gaze.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. I’ve never been quite so close to someone pregnant before. It’s all new to me.”
Rachel smiled, reaching out to take his hand and keep it on her stomach even as he tried to pull away. “Have you thought about being a dad before?”
The question came out so suddenly, so unexpectedly that it caught both of them by surprise. Rachel cursed herself for letting it slip out like that. She’d been wondering it herself, almost since she’d met Hector, and definitely since their first date. It wasn’t something that had truly come up however, but she’d known it would. After all, in two months or so she was going to give birth. If he intended to be a part of her life for the long-term, which was apparently the only way he saw things with her, then being a bear dad was just what he was going to have to do.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t scared shitless of his answer to the question. What if he wasn’t interested? Did he expect her to get rid of the child? She didn’t know, though she suspected not. Still, it was a big question, and an even bigger answer. What would he choose?
There was a long pause while Hector looked at her. His face grew serious, the laughter and cheer fading the longer his brown eyes stared at her. She admired his defined jaw and the beginnings of laughter lines in his face. Hector was always laughing, which was something she loved about him. But he wasn’t laughing now, and that worried her.
“I hadn’t thought about it too much until I met you,” he admitted. “I just sort of always knew I wanted to have some cubs one day, but the right woman had never come along, so it was never a discussion I had in earnest with them, or myself.” He paused, working his brain some more. “But I have thought about it. Several times in fact, since that first day you appeared at the embassy out of the blue.”
“You’ve thought about being the father to my child since then?” she asked, surprised.
“Yes,” he said simply. “I don’t choose who my animal decides is my mate. That is something designed by fate.”
Rachel rocked backward at his words. “You…think that I’m your mate?”
Hector’s eyebrows narrowed. “Yes, of course.”
“I see.”
He seemed to curse angrily. “I’m sorry, Rachel. I didn’t mean to spring it on you like this. I was waiting for the right moment to bring that up. I know humans have a much harder time accepting that truth than another shifter. You’re used to extremely long courtships and such. I shouldn’t have been so blunt.”
Rachel just looked at him, at a loss for words. Hector had known all along that they were mates? That he was destined to be with her, or nobody at all? That seemed, well, far-fetched didn’t really cover it. Insane, maybe? Crazy? Impossible? There was just no way for him to be that sure.
“Have you thought of any names yet?” he asked, his hand still on her swollen stomach.
She blinked several times, bringing herself back to the present, tearing her mind out of the near endless loop of thoughts it had been having about the two of them being mates, destined to be together by fate.
“Um, not yet,” she said. “I don’t know the gender, so I have to come up with both. Nothing so far has seemed suitable.”
He smiled and nodded in understanding. “Got it.”
“Any suggestions?” she asked lightheartedly, glad for the change in subject.
“Anything but Hector,” he joked.
They both laughed.
“So, Hector, did you want to stick around and come to one of my groups tonight?”
He bit his upper lip. “And be surrounded by a dozen pregnant women?”
Rachel let her jaw drop open. “What? No, not at all. You’ve got it all wrong!”
He frowned. “I do?”
“Of course,” she said, patting him gently on the shoulder. “There’s only ten pregnant women.”
The look on his face was priceless.