“Gabe.”
Brad’s voice brought me back to the present. “Yeah?”
“What are these?” he asked.
I was on the sofa, a book in one hand with a plate of chocolate chip cookies resting on my belly. One glance told me what I needed to know. “They seem to be shirts.”
Brad’s head disappeared inside the bedroom, and when he came out again, he was holding up jeans and chinos. “Planning on doing the washing?” I craned my neck behind me and plucked a pair of socks from a small table. “These are dirty.”
He gave the clothes in his hand the sniff test. “No, they’re clean.” He got on the floor and grabbed a vest from under the sofa. He dangled it from one finger and turned up his nose.
Clearing his throat, he said, “Gabe, I love you, and as you’re heavily pregnant I don’t expect you to do any housework, but can you drop the dirty stuff in the hamper?” As he spoke, his mouth twitched and he picked up books scattered over the floor.
I tapped my lips. “You remind me of someone. But I can’t put my finger on it,” as he lugged the hamper into the laundry. When he didn’t come out, I sat up, “Babe? Forget the washing. Come and lie down with me?”
“Can’t. I’m mopping the floor.”
Grabbing my phone, I sent a message and then tossed it on the floor just as Brad wandered in, his hair tousled and sweat stains on his tee. A pinched expression on his face had me stretching out for the phone. “Probably shouldn’t leave that on the floor, right?”
“Mmmm. Something like that.” He grabbed a bottle of water and collapsed onto the sofa, putting my feet in his lap as I brushed crumbs off my chest. His eyes zoomed in on chocolate chips tumbling onto the carpet.
“You know what we need?” I told him.
“A robot housekeeper who runs after you picking up things, tidying, washing, and cleaning?”
“Hold that thought. We’ll come back to it. No, I was thinking we should go out and get some fresh air. A walk in the park, perhaps?”
His eyes lit up. “Now you mention it, there is a place I’ve been meaning to show you.”
“Perfect. I don’t need to dress up, do I?”
He smirked. “You’ll need the right shoes.” His eyes darted to the window. “And there’s no chance of rain?”
Where have I heard that before? Was I experiencing déjà vu?
“You don’t remember, do you?” Now his smirk was more of a sly grin, and I hated that he knew something I didn’t.
“Give me a hint.”
But the smile was wiped from his face as he mused, “I shouldn’t have said that. Sorry. I’m dredging up too many unpleasant memories.”
And then it hit me. The day at Willow Den. Barrett. But before that, when my ignorance and nerves had taken hold and I was wobbling about Brad and life. “It’s okay.” I rubbed my foot on his crotch. “We can’t hide from the past. Now what were you saying about shoes and the weather.”
“Behind Willow Den, in the hills, there’s a special place I wanted to show you.”
“But I can’t trudge up a hill.”
“You don’t have to. My car has four-wheel drive, and besides, it’s not steep. More of a gentle slope, but I don’t want you exerting yourself.”
What was so special about trees and hills, I wondered. “Won’t we be trespassing on someone’s property?”
“Our den owns the land where Willow Den stands along with hundreds of surrounding acres.”
Wow! “So you’re landowners? Okay. Help me up, please?”
The doorbell rang. “You’re not expecting a delivery, are you?” He checked his phone. “Soren would have called if it was something important.”
“It’s my present to you.”
He leaned over and kissed my brow and then the bump. “You and our baby are all I need.”
“Trust me. You’ll like this.”
“Hello.” Corey bounded into the room, leaving an open-mouthed Brad with his hand on the door. “I hear there’s an emergency.”
In the weeks after Barrett’s banishment, Brad and I had invited Corey to dinner at my friend’s favorite sushi restaurant. But they hadn’t met since, though my bestie and I caught up with regular phone conversations, texts, and weekly lunches.
“Oh my!” The horrified expression on Corey’s face made me realize I’ll called him just in time. “Your place is sending out an SOS.”
“What the…?” Brad asked, scratching his head and giving me a sideways glance.
“He may not be a robot—though when it comes to cleaning and organizing, that’s debatable—but he is very good at what he does.”
“That’s me,” Corey yelled, his head under the kitchen sink as he pulled out cleaning supplies.
I grabbed my coat and slipped on a pair of boots. “Do not touch the nursery. We haven’t decided on the paint color yet.” The spare room, which would be our little one’s, was piled with toys, clothes, and flatpack furniture still in their boxes and packets. “You’ll be the first to know and can help when the time comes.”
“Fine,” he huffed. “But if you two are headed out, you should scoot.”
“He prefers to work alone,” I whispered to Brad.
Corey flicked one hand in our direction as he stood in the bedroom door and groaned, “Did a bomb explode in here?”
“Nope,” Brad said over his shoulder. “Just a Gabe.”
The drive to the den headquarters was much more relaxing than on that first day. We took a narrow road on the other side of the parking lot and drove into the hills. Brad stopped in what literary heroes and heroines would have called a meadow. Not a field, an honest-to-goodness meadow
Long grass swished forward and back in the breeze while perfumed wildflowers dotted between the clumps of grass tickled my nostrils and also my memory. This is weird. It was familiar and yet not. Tall trees arranged on either side of a well-worn path jogged a recollection. And I halted, Brad behind me, his warm breath on my shoulder.
Closing my eyes, I saw it in my head. The dream! Except in my dream, the moon was out, and now it was mid-afternoon with the sun shining, chasing the shadows away. Gone was the darkness and the sinister presence at my heels.
I swung around to face my mate. “It was you, Brad. You were the one in my dream.”
He lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed it before placing his lips on my belly. “No, you, Gabe. There would never have been an us if not for you.” He dropped to his knee. “And I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”
“Up here, please,” I beckoned. No way, could I squat on the ground. “Not just me. It was us. You and me.”
He turned me around and I leaned against him, studying the colors, listening to the chirping and rustling while inhaling the scents that weren’t present in my dream. “The real thing is so much better.”
“I agree.” He nuzzled my throat and my belly rumbled. “Baby?” He queried a brow.
“Nope. All me. I’m starving.”
“Just as well I brought food, isn’t it.”
He retrieved a picnic basket from the car and we sat in the meadow filled with life, and now love that had banished the darkness.
Twenty-Eight
Brad
“Are you ready, Professor Hottie?” I stood in the doorway of my mate’s office, nervous as heck. Today was the big day—the first time we got to see our baby, and while I was sure everything was perfect, it still had me on pins and needles. This father thing was hard. The little one wasn’t even in my arms yet and I was already fretting for him or her multiple times a day.
“Yeah.” He waved me in and then pushed himself up. He was just over halfway through his pregnancy, his ultrasound a little later than normal due to a scheduling glitch, but his belly was already rounded. The doctor assured us it was due to Gabe’s shape and not that it was twins or triplets.
Not so secretly, I wouldn’t be sad if it was either of those. I wanted to fill our place with a den of little Gabes.
“You are
looking sexy, Professor.” I wrapped my arms around him, inhaling his scent and loving the feel of his belly pressed against me. “There is no need to worry about today. You even got out of drinking all the water thanks to the delay.” I didn’t understand why drinking a tall glass of water was an issue, but both the nurse who informed us and Gabe acted like it was the best news in the world and I took their word for it.
“Oh, silly bear, I’m not the one nervous as a cat over the appointment. Our baby is more than fine. It’s just I’m going to miss my students. He sagged into me.
My heart broke for him. Gabe was an amazing professor. His second semester there, his classes were the first to fill up, all of the students wanting in thanks to the love of his first students. His end-of-semester evaluations by the students were amazing. Even the poor kid who failed had nothing but good things to say about him, citing his own mistakes as the reason he wasn’t successful. And his observations mentioned using him as a model for other professors. Gabe had earned this—deserved it.
But money talked. I knew that too well in my career. If they couldn’t pay all their teachers, it was last in first out. I hated it for him.
“I’m so sorry, love.” I kissed the top of his head. “Maybe enrollment will soar.”
“But we have a baby coming.” His voice cracked. “Babies need things.”
I tilted his chin up with my finger. “Never worry about money. I have plenty. More than enough. And if you want to teach, there are other opportunities out there. We’ll figure this out.” He nodded and blinked back some tears. “You and me together—we are unstoppable.”
I slid my hand down his arm and intertwined our fingers.
“Let’s go see our baby.” I gave his hand a squeeze.
The doctor was only a short drive from the campus. Dr. Franklin won multiple awards for his work over the years and sat on the hospital board. That wasn’t why we picked him. He also sprouted fur on occasion, making him the perfect fit.
“I still think he’s going to find a dozen or two babies in me,” Gabe sassed as I helped him from the car. At least he was in better spirits. I’d been worried when he was silent on the ride over. But then again, so was I.
“It’s because there is no place for the baby to go but out.” I spoke the same words Dr. Franklin had on a few occasions. “But if you do—I will be sure to get an addition on the house to add all the extra bedrooms.”
We walked in and the nurse called us back almost right away and led us to the little room that held the ultrasound equipment. Unlike Dr. Franklin, she was a human and when she asked, “Are your fingers too swollen for your ring?” It took me a few seconds to understand the real question; Are you married?
Our bond was stronger than any marriage paper, but I didn’t miss the look that crossed Gabe’s eye when she asked.
“We’re not mar—”
“We’re engaged,” I cut him off. If this bit of humanity was something he wanted, I was dragging his butt to the courthouse next. I must have enough strings I could pull to make that happen.
“That is so exciting.” She clapped her hands twice. “Now, alpha dad, I’m going to ask you to step out for just a second while I get some labs done.” It seemed odd to me, but Gabe seemed to have half-expected it, so I did as she asked.
It would give me time to call in a huge-ass favor.
Alpha—can you manage to set up a wedding—a human-type wedding—in the next hour?
I hit send before I could second-guess myself, and he immediately started typing back.
You owe me, was all he said just as the door opened and she told me I could go back inside.
Gage was lying on the exam table, his shirt up and his pants open and a paper blanket sort of covering him.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Don’t ask.” He shook his head, his eyes closed. I later found out they swabbed places best left unswabbed. Being pregnant was not for the weak. Good thing I had the strongest omega I knew.
“Engaged?” He side-eyed me.
“Presumptuous?”
“Presumptuous, no. But it sure isn’t bended knee and poetry.” He forced a giggle. “But seriously. We are mates. That’s more than I ever dreamed of. She just caught me off guard with her humanness.”
“You are human too,” I reminded him. “My human.” I brushed a kiss over his cheek.
Dr. Franklin came in, and unlike with most practices, he did the ultrasound. It was nice to have him there, and doubly nice to know that if there was anything unusual due to the shifter nature of the pregnancy, he could circumvent the human response of test all things.
“Things look great. Everything is matching up to the dates we expected. Do you want to know the gender?”
We looked back and forth to each other.
“Maybe?” Gabe asked me.
“It’s a surprise whenever we find out,” I reminded him.
“Yes. We do.” The love of my life spoke with more assurance.
“I’m happy to announce that you have a perfectly healthy little girl in there.”
“Just one?” It was not the first time Gabe had asked.
“Just one. Now go take your mate out to a nice meal or something to celebrate.” He shut off the screen. “Be sure to make your next appointment on the way out.”
“We are having a baby girl.” I helped him sit up as my phone buzzed in my pocket.
“You can get that.” He pulled down his shirt. “I need to pee anyway...again.”
I helped him off the table and took out the phone.
It’s all set. Meet me at Willow Den at six. Great. I jumped the gun and now...I typed away and hit send.
Cancelled—I need poetry and a bended knee first. Soren was going to kill me. Somehow he managed to get everything arranged in a half an hour and I go and say never mind.
Sonnets it is. You quadruple owe me. I owed him for so much more than this—I owed him for everything. If he hadn’t pushed, I’d never have used the app and found my mate, the one growing my family in his belly.
I already do.
Twenty-Nine
Gabe
“Hey, babe.” I wrapped the robe around the bump and waddled more than walked from the bedroom to the couch, which wasn’t that far ‘cause while Brad’s place was much nicer than mine, it only had two bedrooms. Fine for us, or for two adults and a baby, but no place for guests or another child. “What are you doing?”
Brad wasn’t on the sofa watching TV. Surprisingly, he loved soap operas and telenovelas, and one of his favorites was Shifter World. He’d shout, “You fools. Not like that,” and “Oh my God, who writes this shit?”
After each episode, he vowed never to watch it again as it was so stupid. Turned out the company that created it was owned by a wolf pack, whose Alpha was a guy named Bentley. He frequented The Fang and Claw, or used to before he mated and became a father. His mate was also a human, and Brad did the wolf pack’s contracts.
In the past, Brad and Bentley had loathed one another. I was still learning about the shifter universe and the whys and wherefores, and each time I thought I had a handle on it, something would happen and I’d despair of ever understanding a world where I got to peer into from behind a curtain.
When Brad’s bear was raging, he and Bentley were often in one another’s faces—which I totally understood—but now that both were mated to humans, things had calmed down. They may not be besties, but at least they weren’t ready to rip the other’s head off.
But Bentley’s mate, Colin, wasn’t a wolf and never would be. And he was the Love and Hate developer. I wanted to kiss him and thank him for everything he’d done. I searched the internet for Colin’s contact details and found the number for the joint company he and the wolf pack had formed.
It was easy enough to phone up and introduce myself. Since then, Colin and I had been chatting and texting back and forth talking about babies and life with a shifter. He also let slip that one of the Shifter World writers was married
to a friend of his. A human who thought shifters were fictional. Try getting your head around that!
We hadn’t yet met in person, but I’d slotted it into the calendar for after our baby was born.
I wandered into the laundry—a room I hated—and discovered Brad, shirtless, on his back, fixing something. He was covered in sweat and his stomach was streaked with grease. He hadn’t shaved, and my cock twitched. God, this man of mine is hot.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Fixing the washing machine. It hasn’t worked in days.”
“Oh, is that what that is? A washing machine? Who knew?” There was a running joke between us regarding my lack of skills in all things involving cooking and the home.
“Ha. Ha. Ha! Just as well you’ve got me.”
My eyes darted to his crotch with the hard ridge under his jeans. “You’re right.” And I adore every part of you. All of a sudden I was so horny, and I leaned against the sink and rubbed my foot over his stomach.
He lifted his head, a tool in his hand. “Need something, love?”
“Mmmm. You.”
He sat up. “Would you like a back rub?”
“Maybe. But I need you naked in our bed. What do you say, Mr. Fixit?”
He raised a brow and there was a shadow of a smile on his lips. “Is this a role-play thing where I’m the repair guy? I seduce you, the wealthy bored omega with too much time and who’s swanning around the big old house, lonely and unloved?” He picked up a hammer. He narrowed his smoldering eyes. “I have tools and a tool belt.”
“Fuck that. I seduce you, hot repair man.” I ran my toes over his crotch, and he snarled and exposed his teeth.
“Oh, really?” He pressed the sole of my foot on his dick, and it swelled beneath my sole.
I fanned myself and gripped the sink in case I toppled over. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to come right here and now.”
Matched To His Bear: An M/M Mpreg Shifter Dating App Romance (The Dates of Our Lives Book 2) Page 12