SoCal Cuties Box Set: An MMM, Shifter, Mpreg Romance

by Grey, Aspen

  All I could see were the days when I would teach him to walk, to shift back and forth, to run as a panther, how to control his impulses and be a responsible alpha—because that was what he was—an alpha.

  I’d do all kinds of things with him; teach him to run, throw a Frisbee, a ball, swing a bat, maybe even get him into the things I’d never learned before like piano or guitar.

  What will he be like? I thought.

  Would he be shy or boisterous? Outspoken or reserved? Would he be more nerdy or more jockish, and how much control did I have over that? Would he be interested in technology or more of an artist? Would he have an interest in cooking?

  Maybe he can take over your cooking empire for you!

  “Empire,” I whispered to myself with a chuckle. I had one successful taco stand. It was hardly an empire. Not yet at least.

  But most of all, what I felt when I looked down at Jeremy, was that my own father wasn’t here to see this.

  Arthur was sitting on the other side of the room and I turned to him. “Hey, can you take him for a few? I need to make a call.”

  “Sure, Sid,” he replied. I got up and crossed the room and handed him my baby boy. Even though I knew it was only going to be a few minutes, I still didn’t want to let him go. He stirred slightly in his sleep and let out a tiny little gurgle as he resituated himself in Arthur’s arms.

  “Ooooh, I love babies!” Julie said with an enormous smile on her face as she looked down at her grandson. She had come the day of the birth, given us our space for all of the excitement, but was now hanging around as much as she could to get as much time with Jeremy as possible.

  “I’ll be back in a few,” I told him as I left the room and took out my phone. I went out into the living room and looked out the windows at the view. It wasn’t quite an “ocean view,” as we weren’t high above the beach with no other buildings in our line of sight, but it was good enough for me.

  I hadn’t spoken to my father in a long time. I’d been sending him money, of course, hoping that one day he’d tell me he’d decided to come back and rejoin society, but I never held out too much hope. I couldn’t. Wondering every day if I’d be able to reunite with him, wondering if there was more I could do to change the way he thought about the world, it was all just too much for me to handle while trying to have my own life.

  But now, things had changed. I had my own successful business. I had a mate. I had a son—a son named after him. I had to reach out, didn’t I?

  I unlocked my phone and scrolled to his name in my contacts list. I almost pressed call, but felt that familiar sense of hesitation I always got when I thought about trying with my father.

  I wish I could understand more about why he was the way he was. I wish I knew more about my other father whom I’d never met. I wish he could come and see his grandson, the boy I’d named after him.

  Arthur’s father was gone and Ollie’s were in jail, and as far as I knew, he wasn’t interested in having them in his life any longer. It seemed silly for me not to at least try to repair the relationship with my father.

  Again, I raised the phone and began to dial, but again that little pit in my stomach stopped me.

  “Gah, what’s wrong with you?” I hissed at myself, angry at my own weakness.

  “It’s okay, Sid.” I turned around to see Julie standing behind me.

  “Julie!”

  “Sorry for sneaking up on you,” she said. “But Arthur told me about what’s going on with your father, and I thought I would offer some unsolicited advice.”

  “Please,” I smiled. “Go ahead. I’m all ears right now.”

  Julie was an extremely warm human being. She just oozed maternalness—if that was a word—and was incredibly easy to talk to, so I was thrilled to hear what she had to say.

  “You’re nervous about calling your father,” she said. “But you shouldn’t be. He’s your father and no matter what, he’s going to be happy to hear from you. Even if things aren’t the way they were between you two when you were young, that can change.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know you are just recently a father,” she replied. “But as a mother, I can tell you that we cherish our children and value every moment we have with them. No matter how afraid you are now about getting back in touch with your father, it’s nothing compared to the regret you’ll feel if you choose not to reach out to him.”

  “Julie,” I smiled. “Has anyone ever told you you’re very wise?”

  Julie grinned and came over to me and gave me a loving hung. “If you look up wise in the dictionary, there’s a picture of me!”

  She planted a mushy kiss on my cheek and turned back to the bedroom. “I’ll leave you alone.”

  “Thanks, Julie,” I told her.

  You’ve come a long way, I told myself. There was still much to do. I had to raise my son, love my mate, expand my business and keep the security of my family intact. But right now, I had a chance to mend things with my father, and I knew now that before I could move on and be completely whole as a person, I had to at least try to do that.

  With a deep breath, I raised my cell phone and pressed the dial button beside my father’s name.

  Epilogue

  Ollie

  Eight months later…

  “Look at him go!” I exclaimed as Jeremy shifted again, took his jet-black panther form, tumbled over and face-planted into one of the many cushions we’d laid out in anticipation of such a thing happening.

  “Ooooh, almost!” Arthur laughed.

  “He’s getting better,” Sid remarked proudly. Shifters were not only pregnant for shorter times than humans, but as children, they also developed much more quickly, and this meant that little baby Jeremy was already toddling around on two feet in human form, but still hadn’t quite managed moving about as a panther.

  He shifted back to human form and giggled as he rolled onto his back and almost slid off the cushion before Sid snatched him up and cradled him in his arms.

  “Dada,” he gurgled.

  “That’s right!” Sid exclaimed. “Dada!”

  Jeremy giggled again and shifted in his father’s arms. He squirmed to be let down and Sid placed him on the floor again, his hands ready if there was another fall. This time, Jeremy’s eyes were intent, and as he put his first foot forward, he slid his tongue out of his mouth in cartoonesque concentration.

  “Oooh, he’s serious now,” Jeremy, his namesake, said as he came into the living room with a rum and Coke in his hand. “I think he’s gonna get it this time.”

  “Let’s hope so!” I replied happily.

  Jeremy was fantastic. Sid had called him the day after I’d given birth—or maybe the same day, I couldn’t remember as I was completely out of it in my post-birth state—and they’d reconnected. After a week or so, and hearing the news that he was now a grandfather, Jeremy had finally left his place in New Hampshire and made the trip out here to San Diego.

  I’d been nervous for him, and Arthur had been skeptical. He’d arrived and we’d let Sid go on his own to pick him up at the airport. They’d gone out and talked and come back to the house really late, so late that his namesake grandson had already been put down for the night. They’d stayed up talking into the morning and I’d finally been able to introduce him to my new little bundle of joy.

  “Named after you,” I’d told him. He was a strong man, a graying version of his son, but I saw a hint of wetness in his eyes when he’d held my son. It was then that I knew he and Sid would be able to make things right.

  Sid had never known his other father, and had always resented Jeremy for never telling him the whole story, but it turned out he’d only been trying to protect Sid from the truth—that the man who he’d mated with had abandoned them both when he found out Jeremy was pregnant. He’d never even wanted a family and refused to be involved or even be around. After Sid had found that out, he’d warmed up to Jeremy immediately.

  The two had spent a good week or so doing thi
ngs with each other and getting to know each other again. They’d gone hiking in Mission George and come back with pictures of lizards sunbathing on the rocks. They went to the Maritime Museum and saw the old masted navy ships, one of them a replica that had been used in the film Master and Commander with Russell Crowe. They’d gone down to Pacific Beach to watch the surfers and rode scooters down the boardwalk, but most importantly of all, had spent time with little Jeremy.

  “You can do it!” I said to my little boy as he put his paw forward. This time his leg was strong, and he put another foot forward, and then another and another until he let out a little squeal of delight.

  “You’re doing it!” Sid exclaimed.

  “I told you!” his father replied.

  But little Jeremy got ahead of himself, tried his best to break into a run, and tumbled forward into the base of the couch. He instantly started to cry.

  “Oooh, that’s going to wake up Andrew,” I winced, automatically getting to my feet and heading for the nursery. Sure enough, seconds later, I heard Andrew’s cries. It was his afternoon nap and nothing upset him more than being woken up before it was over.

  I stepped into the dimly lit room we’d transformed into the nursery and stepped over to the beautiful crib Jedrik had built for us out of some kind of wood that glowed beautifully warm beneath the soft nightlight in the corner.

  “Ohhh, don’t cry, baby,” I told Andrew as Arthur came into the room behind me.

  “Want me to take him?” he asked. It was a question, but what he was really saying was “let me take him.” It was his baby boy after all.

  “That would be nice,” I said, playing along. I stepped aside and my mate plucked his son out of the crib and lifted him high into the air, hoisting him above his head. It always made me nervous when he did that, but nine times out of time it surprised little Andrew so much that he instantly stopped crying. This time was the one out of ten when it didn’t work.

  “Good try,” I smirked as I leaned my head against his back. He shushed his son and cradled him and began to rock him. I inhaled Arthur’s manly scent and the hint of Andrew’s that would one day drive the omegas wild, and despite his little cries, felt peaceful and at home.

  “I think he’s hungry,” Arthur said.

  “Let me see,” I told him, taking the little crying boy from him. Arthur was right. He instantly latched on and began to feed. My pregnant belly made a nice little shelf to sit him on while he fed, and I was feeling more maternal (paternal?) than ever.

  “There you go,” Arthur said as he stroked Andrew’s head. “He’s gonna be a big boy.”

  “He sure is,” I smiled. “And so will he.”

  I nodded down to my belly, causing Arthur to look down as well. He knelt before me, lifted the fabric of my loose t-shirt and kissed me just below the belly button. Both of my fated-mates knew exactly what to do to drive me crazy and make me feel like the most important omega in the world. I may not have been that to everyone, but I was to them, and that was all that mattered.

  “Yay!” I heard Jeremy exclaim from the other room—big Jeremy, of course—which probably meant that his grandson had managed to make more progress getting his panther legs under him. As Andrew was now content with his nursing, Arthur and I headed back into the living room to join the rest of the family.

  A lot had changed since my single days by myself in the tiny apartment above the White Swallow. I had two mates, two children and a father-in-law all living with me now. We were like a real genuine pack! Arthur had started taking fewer security jobs, mostly only working for Wendy, whom he’d developed a friendship with, which gave Sid time to grind at work and focus on expanding his business. It hadn’t happened yet, but he had decided to definitely go forward with opening a brick and mortar restaurant somewhere in San Diego, and I had no doubt that he would succeed.

  I looked down at little Jeremy as he hopped on all fours, transformed back into human form and fell back onto the pillow, a giggling mess before Sid lifted him into his arms, and honestly believed things could never get any better. But of course that wasn’t true.

  I had another baby on the way, and probably more after that. Sid’s business was going to grow and we were going to watch our children get older and develop and change and eventually have lives of their own. Part of me wanted life to start rushing by, as though it was on fast forward, so I could see how everything would change, but the rest of me understood that I was beyond happy right now and that every day from here on out was going to be a blessing.

  Your life is perfect, Ollie. There’s no reason to rush anything.

  Scent of the Author

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  Epilogue

  Yay! Here it is! All five books from my MMM series, SoCal Cuties. Thanks you so much for taking the time to enjoy (hopefully!) my work, and if you haven’t checked out my other Mpreg series, well—why haven’t you!? :)

  Hope you enjoyed SoCal Cuties, don’t forget to friend me on FB or sign up for my mailing list to stay updated on my new releases!

  <3 Aspen Grey

  Scent of the Author

  Stalk the author for more information on freebies, promos, cover reveals and new releases!

  Join my mailing list for information on freebies and new releases!!!

  Aspen Grey on Facebook

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  Also by Aspen Grey

  Scarlet Mountain Pack Series

  Texas Heat Series

  Foxes of Scarlet Peak Series

  SoCal Cuties Series

  Off Limits Omega

  Off Limits Omega (Sample)

  Foreword

  Just a quick teaser of my latest book in a brand new series. If you like it, check it out on Amazon!

  Chapter One

  Blue

  “Don’t look like that,” my father said as the truck bumped and groaned over yet another pothole or frost heave, causing my head to slam into the ceiling. It had happened so many times I’d stopped keeping count, but one thing was for sure; my head was sore. “You’ll like it here. It’ll be a nice change from the city.”

  I looked out the window at the gray sky and the voluminous clouds in the distance, puffed up and swollen like wet purple wool. It would only be an hour or so before they were dumping rain over us.

  “Yeah, a nice change from year-round sunshine,” I said sarcastically. My dad just frowned, knowing better than to get into an argument with me.

  We were moving from Los Angeles to a town called Sleepy Hills, Colorado, after my parents’ divorce. I hadn’t seen it coming, and maybe that was why it hurt so much. If only I’d had a little bit of a warning, maybe then I could have prepared myself and not fallen into the black pit of anger and despair that I’d been in for the last month. But then again, maybe not. A divorce was a divorce, and learning that your parents weren’t going to be together for the rest of their lives was a tough thing to come to terms with.

  I didn’t know the real reason, of course, but I had a suspicion that my father, Terrence, had been cheated on by my other father, Louis. I’d heard him try to apologize for something several times, and saw the look of complete betrayal in Terrence’s eyes. He’d become a changed man, no longer cracking jokes and loving life like he used to, and just keeping his head down, forcing smiles and repeating old jokes I’d heard a thousand times. Even though I was terrified of moving and was personally devastated by the divorce, seeing him like that broke my heart.

  The truck bounced again and my dad slowed as he looked down at his phone. We hadn’t been to the house yet, and the GPS had been spotty out here in the middle of nowhere.

  “Are we close?” I asked hopefully.

  “It looks like it’s saying it was back there,” he motioned behind us. “But that can�
�t be right.”

  “Let me see,” I asked him, taking the phone from him. But he was right; the little red dot signaling our destination was behind the little car icon showing our position.

  “Ah! There it is!”

  I looked up as dad hit the gas, pointing to a small house barely visible behind a thick line of trees on the property line. As we passed them and I got a better view of the place, my heart sank.

  Don’t be a downer, Blue, I told myself as dad pulled into the dirt driveway that was spotted with puddles. It’s not bad, it’s just…different.

  Different didn’t even begin to describe it, though. Our place in Los Angeles had been a wonderful apartment in Santa Monica, two blocks from the ocean, with an incredible view and a private entrance. We didn’t have a yard really, but the beach was a five-minute walk so who really cared?

  Our new home was a simple cape with faded paint and a set of front steps being held up by a stack of red bricks that looked as though they’d come from the chimney which had fallen into disrepair. It also needed a coat of paint—badly.

  I thought I’d been hiding my thoughts and keeping them from creeping into my expression, but I guess I was wrong.

  “Come on, Blue. It’s not that bad,” my father said as he pulled up and parked. I could hear in his voice just how much he was trying for me. He didn’t want to be here either, but he was doing his best to keep it together on my behalf.