by Celeste Raye
“What do you think, Fred?”
Fred just kind of shrugged. “It sounds like a good idea.”
“Why don't you go back to your room and deal with what's going on in there? The rest of us will let you know if anything changes.”
He thanked him and left before anybody could say anything else. They were probably going to get on him later for it because he had gotten out of it. Now though, he had to go back to Isabo. He had no idea which one he was going to get. Sometimes she was happy to see him, and sometimes, she just wanted him to go away. Either way, they had to work it all out. It wasn’t just about his heart; it was about their baby as well.
While the rest of his clan was worried about their lives, his focus was on Isabo. He had to convince her of what he already knew to be true. Jake was right about that. When it was ‘the one,’ he would just know. And he did.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Isabo sat up when she saw that it was Fred coming in. He had brought more things for her, thoughtfully picked out. He was trying his best to accommodate her, and she hadn’t even thanked him yet.
She had decided that she wasn't going to fight with him anymore. They could at least be civil. They had to figure it out sometime, because of the baby. Isabo knew that, but it was still hard to resist the look she gave him. His smile irritated her sometimes.
He sat the armload down on the bedside table and asked her if she wanted anything else. Isabo didn’t answer for a moment, and she just looked at him, studying the hard body that still haunted her. Her body craved him, and Isabo knew that she was going to have to do something, say something.
Isabo, for the first time, did not have something mean to say. She thanked him, but she didn’t say anything else. After a time, he got ready for bed and started to get an extra blanket and pillow from the bed. Then he went to the floor. She wanted to say something, tell him to sleep with her because he was being silly, but the words never came out. She was left lying in the dark, wondering what she was supposed to say. What could she say to make all of the animosity that she’d started go away? Did she even want it to?
The next morning came, and he asked her if she wanted anything before he left. She knew where he was going. Isabo could feel the tension in the air.
“No, I think I'm okay.”
“Good, because it's probably best that you stay inside. We’ve got the ancients, and today, the trial is going to be over. They're probably going to punish us all, most likely what you wanted out of it, and then they're going to have to be taken care of.”
“Your family seems to do a lot of that, taking care of people.”
Isabo pressed her lips together because she wasn't even sure why she said it. The Rebel Bears had always been known as a gang that created havoc. People stayed away for a reason, and now that Jake was the leader, everybody thought that it would be different. But Isabo had seen the viciousness that he had. He was much like his father in that way.
“My family are going to do what needs to be done to keep themselves safe. Very few people get hurt during our self-defense when it’s done right. Sometimes, violence is necessary.”
“Jasper was unconscious. I don't think you can blame self-defense for that one.”
Fred’s face fell, and he looked down. No longer would he meet her gaze, and that bothered Isabo more than the current conversation did.
“I wasn't talking about Jasper. I have already told you how I felt about that.”
“You said that he deserved to die.”
Fred turned to her suddenly, and she could see that he was upset. Maybe she had gone too far. That wouldn’t be the first time.
“People like him, that get off on hurting others, do deserve to die. I'm sorry he was your cousin. I'm sorry I ever came in contact with him, but I wish that we would have been able to keep our promise to you. I never wanted to break a promise, but I am not upset that such a man is dead, and you shouldn’t be upset either.”
She just kind of nodded her head but didn't say anything else. Fred was not under the notion that she was just going to forget it all. He told her as much, and Isabo became even quieter. He asked her a couple more questions, but Fred wasn't getting an answer. She needed him to go. She would worry about him, but she would be able to breathe better as well.
“What is going to happen today with the ancients?”
He was just about to leave when she finally got it out. Isabo worried for him, even if he was hard to be around. She couldn’t cut off the feelings she had for him.
“I'm not really sure. Like you said before, not all things can be self-defense, but this time, it will be. We have no idea of the long-term consequences. It's not something that we want, but I’m not going to watch my three brothers get murdered, as well as their wives and children. I don't really care if it's right or wrong, honestly. It will not happen that way.”
The mention of the children and their wives got Isabo thinking. She hadn’t considered that when she’d agreed to testify against them. She’d thought she was getting justice for Jasper, but how was killing innocent people justice? Isabo had messed up.
He opened the door, and she called out to him before he left. “I'm glad that you feel that way about defense. I wouldn't want anything to happen to any of you. Our child needs a father.”
Fred turned back for a moment, and he had a grin on his face. Isabo had no idea what was going through his mind, and she didn't ask. It was easier just to wonder and wait to see what happened.
“I am glad to hear that, Isabo. I'm going to make sure that you and our baby stay safe. If you need anything, just call me. My number is in the phone on the table. I am number one on your speed-dial.”
She told him that she would be fine. “I could come with you.”
“No, you will stay here.”
“You make it like I’m not safe here. You’re telling me to lock doors and everything.”
“I just don’t know what is going on at the moment. You have to understand that I am nervous about leaving you here alone. Just promise me you’ll call if you need anything.”
She agreed and waited for him to say more, about what she could expect at least, but he didn’t say anything else. He just pulled her in for a heated kiss. It was the first time since everything had happened.
Isabo didn’t know what she would feel or think about it, but her whole body was on fire. She needed him, badly, and she clung to his neck. Her arms wrapped around him, and she didn’t want to let go. Isabo was more afraid of something happening to Fred than she’d thought.
When he pulled away, her breath was coming out in gasps, and he was leaving her. He didn’t look back; he couldn’t. Isabo was trying to hold back her emotions, the ones eating at her throat, making it feel like it was raw.
“Just come back, Fred. Come back to me and the baby. That’s all I ask.”
While she wanted him to stay with her, Isabo knew it was for the best. When there was a coven of witches around and a consortium of ancients, the best place for her to be was probably locked in the room where she was. She had snacks and movies, and anything she wanted. That was as good as it was going to get for her in the middle of such a mess.
What surprised Isabo the most was how worried she was for the safety of Fred. He was the only one that wasn't on trial out of the four brothers, but if something happened to Donovan, Charlie, and Jake, Isabo could see that it would most likely change him. Not for the better, either.
All she could hope was that something good came out of it all. She realized then that she just wanted Fred back with her. It was always Fred, though she could see it clear as day now. The idea of losing him prompted her true feelings to come out in full force.
The second evening that Isabo was there at the clubhouse, it was like hell had rained down from the skies. She heard a lot of loud crashing and banging in the darkness. Isabo knew what was going on. There was a trial, but it had never been that loud. There had been some yelling and some arguments, but this felt like the
whole building, and maybe even the ground underneath it, was shaking violently.
She looked outside the window. Sure enough, there was fire coming from the sky. It went all around the clubhouse, her view nothing but flames. Isabo started to worry that the building she was in was going to catch fire, but there was something that was protecting it. The clubhouse was not damaged, even though it was hit multiple times with fireballs. Everything else around it was not so lucky.
Several cars were burnt to a crisp, as well as people. Isabo hoped that the charred bodies were those of the ancients that she’d heard so much about. She realized then that she didn't want Fred or his family to be hurt. If she did, she wouldn’t feel such relief from their defeat of the ancients.
While Isabo knew that she didn't want the father of her child to be killed, it didn't mean that she wanted the situation as it was. All it brought out in her was confusion. Isabo wasn't sure what she was supposed to be doing or thinking.
When the fire eventually subsided and the clubhouse was left standing, she was able to breathe in relief. Isabo still didn’t have much of a clue what was going on, but she had to assume that the end of the fireballs meant whatever they had been pulled out of the heavens for was not taken care of.
Isabo said a short prayer for Fred to be okay and waited for him to come back. She didn’t like waiting, her body tense and her mind going a mile a minute.
“Just keep him safe. And let him come back to me.”
Even as Isabo said it to herself in the room, she didn't even know what it really meant. What would it look like for the two of them to be together? Was it even possible?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Fred moved slowly with his companion. Isabo seemed to do well as long as she didn't walk too much. She tried to push the bounds of her capabilities, but it would always land her feeling sick and in bed for days. He was trying to move slower for them both.
Somewhere around the third or fourth week of her staying with him, Fred had asked Isabo if she wanted to go back to the place he had taken her before. She had seemed to really like the hill, and even though it wasn't happening as fast as he had hoped, Fred was still seeking to win her heart.
Since then, they’d gone together almost every day. It was that coveted time alone that Fred thought they needed so much. Fred couldn't be sure, but he wanted to believe that it was helping their relationship and getting him closer to his goal of marrying her, as well as getting her back in his bed where she belonged, with him in it.
Fred was feeling differently that day as they sat atop the hill. There was something in the air, something in the way she looked at him. It was hard for him to deny his own feelings while looking at hers.
They’d been sitting there for about twenty minutes, not saying much to each other. Fred liked that they could just sit and be together without filling the silence with a bunch of talk that didn’t matter.
He had his sketch pad out, and he was drawing her while she paid attention to the sky. Her neck craned upwards so he had all he could stand of her long throat and lovely shoulders. Fred had long since gotten used to the burning inside of him when they were together. It was uncomfortable, but there was nothing else he would rather have.
“Do you think it's going to start snowing soon?”
He shrugged his shoulders. Fred wasn’t worried about the weather, but the woman. The damn woman that always filled his head. All the time.
“I don't really know. Does it matter?”
She shrugged. “I guess not. I think I am just worried that we won’t be able to come out here as much, that’s all.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Well, I'm getting bigger, and it's going to be harder to shift and get up here.”
“I will carry you up here every day if I have to. You know that, right? I would do anything for you, Isabo. Anything.”
Isabo smiled. “I guess I wonder why you still feel that way about me after all this time. You haven’t even tried to find another woman to fill your bed.”
“I told you before; I believe we're supposed to be together. Don't you feel the same way?”
Isabo wouldn’t meet his gaze. He was still under the impression that they really were supposed to be together. Eventually, she would realize it too, and then they would move on to the next stage. He wasn't sure what it was, but he was sure he knew that he wanted it. Anything had to be better than the place he was in now, not knowing which way to go with her.
“You may not see things my way right now, Isabo, but I have a feeling one day soon, you will.”
“You think so?”
“What are you really asking me?”
“I guess I'm asking you how long you're going to make this a thing. Are you going to keep me here forever?”
“Are you still here against your will?” Fred could barely breathe as he asked the question. They’d grown to have a rapport with each other, what he’d been working on, but was it all for nothing?
He liked to believe that she was there because she wanted to be, but just a few words from her and his illusion came crashing down. Just because she wasn't fighting with him constantly did not mean that she wanted to be there. How could he have been so stupid to think so?
“I don't know what this is. I know that you have helped me a lot and I wonder how it's going to play out after I have the baby. I wonder what it is going to be like between you and me.”
Fred wasn’t sure what to say to that. He had wondered the same thing. This was a conversation they needed to have, but he wanted to have it after they’d fallen in love and she wasn’t thinking about leaving anymore. Obviously, they weren’t quite there yet.
“You know what I want to happen.”
Isabo asked him again what it was that he wanted. She seemed unsure, but he wasn’t. He’d known since he’d met her. Once he heard that she was carrying his child, nothing else had mattered.
“Tell me, Fred, what do you really want to happen?”
“I want you to marry me, have my baby, and warm my bed for the rest of our lives.”
She scoffed. “Your bed, huh? Like this?”
Fred’s eyes flared when she laid down on the grass and waved her hands around the small plants. She opened up her dress and stared back at him. His hand was shaking. The pen in it was no longer held straight enough to leave a proper mark.
Her bra and panties were on, and her thickened middle was very easy to see. She was acting like she wasn’t desirable, but she was devastatingly so for him. Her breasts had gotten bigger, her curves a bit more pronounced. It was all more than he had been able to see since she arrived, and it made his body change in the very obvious way that it was supposed to.
“God, yes. I would take you right now gladly if you would let me.”
Isabo just shook her head. “You’re ridiculous; you know, that right?”
He shrugged because he didn’t care. She took her body away from his view, pulling the dress together, and he could still see it as clear as day in his mind.
“Why am I ridiculous for wanting you? You’re beautiful, Isabo, and you have always been that way to me. I can’t see you any other way.”
“Yes, when I look like this, yes. I don’t know what you are seeing, but I am as big as a house.”
He chuckled and said that she looked beautiful, and he meant it. “Like I said before, Isabo, any time, but you shouldn’t tease me like that. It’s hard to say no to you once my body gets all revved up.”
Her eyes were a little wider, and Fred stood up. Her eyes were on the knot in his pants, and he didn’t know what to say. Fred knew what he wanted to do, but she wasn’t ready for it just yet. He could see it on her face, and the last thing he wanted to do was push it. Not after they'd gotten so far.
The problem was that the desire that he had for her had not gone away. It only intensified. Night after night, they slept next to each other. Her on the bed and him on the floor. It was space between them, but it wasn't enough. Because of that
, he was still desperately trying to fix his expectations.
Now, he just wanted to run, and after a moment, he told her that he would be right back. If he didn't get away from her right then and there, he wasn't going to be able to hold back. That was how badly he needed her.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m just going to take a little run. You are okay to stay here for a moment, aren't you?
She nodded her head and agreed, though Isabo could tell that something was holding him back.
“Are you sure you're all right, Fred?”
Her eyes were again on the front of him, and he was throbbing in his pants, just from the extra attention.
“No, if I am completely honest, I’m not all right. You started talking about the two of us together and showing me how beautiful you are. That did not help matters, Isabo. You should know what you do to me by now. I have never been able to hide it.”
She waved him off and told him that he was being silly.
“I was trying to prove a point.”
“Well, you made it. I want you just as badly now as I did then. I'm sure you can see the proof of that.”
Her face got red, and she turned away. “I wasn't trying to bother you earlier. I really thought you’d see things my way, see what was really in front of you.”
“Exactly what are you trying to do?”
“I thought that you would see how hideous I am and would stop saying that you want this. Then we can stop talking about it.”
“Like I told you before. Just as much now as then.”
She shook her head, and Fred left the spot. Nothing good was going to come of him having to stay. His body was on fire, and he had to run. He shifted and started out at a fast pace. It was almost like he was trying to outrun her and all of the feelings that came with it. Isabo was messing with his head now.
Chapter Twenty-Five