by Ally Summers
“More,” she begged. “Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.”
I chuckled, kissing her fiercely. It didn’t matter about the warehouse right now. Or how Ava had put herself in danger. It didn’t matter that our lives were about to be flipped upside down. All that mattered was that I loved her, she was going to marry me, and she was begging me to make her my mate for the rest of the night.
Fifteen
Ava
I wasn’t sure how my sister was going to take the news that I was getting married. I wanted to settle into the idea myself before I told her. I waited for her to pick up the phone.
“Ava, holy shit. I was just thinking about you. I’m sorry I haven’t called in the last few days. I slept all weekend and well… I have some news.”
“It’s okay. Really. What’s the news?”
“No, you go first. What’s going on with you?” she asked. I couldn’t remember the last time Hannah sounded so cheerful.
“Are you sitting down?” I asked.
“Now I think I’m scared. Do I need to get a drink?”
I laughed. “I don’t know. You might.”
“Okay, the suspense is killing me. You have to tell me.”
I took a big breath. “I’m getting married.”
“What!” she shrieked. “Who? How? When? I didn’t even know you were dating. Or had met anyone. How is this possible?”
I sat at the kitchen counter and told my baby sister the story of how Nolan and I met. I left out a few details about the super shifter he killed in my yard and the death threat Allied sent, but overall the story stayed intact. Enough, anyway to give her an idea of how one shifter fell for a human and how she fell in love with him too.
“I knew it,” she whispered. “I knew you were going to end up with one of those hottie shifters up there.”
I giggled. “It wasn’t the way you thought, but I did. You were right.”
“Sometimes little sisters know best.”
“Sometimes they do.” I smiled. “You said you have news. What is it?”
“I was going to tell you the ticket prices have gone down. I wanted to book your flight.”
“Oh, Hannah.”
“It’s okay. Obviously, you aren’t going to want to leave your new fiancée right now.”
“It’s not that.” I didn’t want her to know the dangers in Hunter’s Lake.
“We’ll do it another time. When things calm down for you.”
I sighed. It wasn’t how I wanted the conversation to end. “I might have an idea. What would you think about meeting Nolan?”
“Of course I want to meet him. I could fly there. Do all the maid of honor things. It would be perfect.”
“No. No.”
The silence told me I had hurt her feelings.
“Hannah, I was thinking Nolan and I could fly to London as part of our honeymoon.”
“But what about the wedding?”
“It’s part of the shifter ceremony. We’re going to keep it simple. Just us and a witness. I don’t think either of us want to make a big deal about a wedding.”
“Oh,” she whispered. “I won’t get to see you in a wedding dress.”
“Please don’t be upset. Without Mom and Dad, I don’t think I have the heart for it. And Nolan’s family is huge. Clans and all. If we invite one, we have to invite a hundred. We want it to be the two of us.”
“I get it. I really do. It sounds beautiful, Ava. I’m so happy for you.”
“Thanks.”
I knew we both needed a second to stop sniffing. I didn’t want my voice to crack again on the phone.
“When we plan the honeymoon, you’ll be the first to know,” I promised. “We’ll come see your flat. Meet your glamourous European friends. I can see your fancy new job.”
Hannah laughed. “I’m not sure that it’s fancy.”
“You know what I mean. I want to see where you work. I do want to see your life in London.”
“Call me soon. With details.”
“I will.”
“Oh. And send me a picture of my brother-in-law,” she teased. “I need to see this bear shifter who swept my sister off her feet.
“If he’ll let me take his picture.” Just then Nolan walked into the kitchen. I smiled at him.
“Bye, sis.”
I hung up the phone and looked at the man who had stolen my heart.
“Did you tell her about the wedding?” he asked, circling his arms around my waist.
“I did. I think she’s excited. She’s sad she isn’t going to be in the wedding, but when I told her our reasons for keeping it small she understood.”
“That’s good. And what did she say when you told her about the baby?”
My eyes widened. “Umm.”
Nolan laughed. “You didn’t tell her that part?”
I let him spin me on the barstool to face him. “No. Not exactly.”
“When are you going to tell her she’s an aunt?” he prodded.
“Maybe after we’re married.”
“Hannah is your family. That’s your call.” He dipped to kiss me. “But I want you to have support. You need her for this.”
“When it’s safe for her to come here, I’ll fly her out. It’s not safe yet. You know that as much as I do.”
“Then why don’t I send you to London now? You need your sister.”
I bit my lip. “Actually, I do have a plan for London, and it doesn’t involve you and me being an ocean apart.”
Nolan chuckled. “What’s that?”
“Can we honeymoon there? Maybe do Paris and Rome too? I want you to meet Hannah. And maybe by then I can tell her about the baby.” I wasn’t far along. Only four weeks, according to the set of pregnancy tests I took.
“Wedding in Hunter’s Lake. Paris and London honeymoon?”
I nodded. “What do you think?”
“I think it sounds great.” He kissed me and I felt the world spin back into place.
Nolan’s phone rang.
“It’s the station. I need to get it.”
I nodded. “Go ahead. I’m going to take a shower.”
I left the kitchen so he could take the call.
Sixteen
Nolan
I waited until I heard the shower water running before I let Griffin speak.
“Go ahead, man.” I was sure she couldn’t hear once she was in the shower.
“Fuck. I don’t know how to tell you this,” he groaned. “It’s not good news.”
“What is it?” I reached in the fridge for a beer. God, I hoped there weren’t any casualties.
“We’ve been planning that raid of the warehouse for almost two weeks. We had it mapped out. Every angle was accounted for. Every contingency was in place.”
“I know it was. What happened?” I had helped plan the strategy for the best way to attack Allied at the warehouse. I kept my word to Ava and didn’t go in for the attack.
“It was empty.”
“What the hell? That’s not possible.”
I had been part of the surveillance team. We had seen trucks and equipment move from that location through yesterday. It couldn’t be empty.
“I didn’t think so either. But it was a ghost town. It was like they knew we were coming.”
“Had they been moving the entire time?” I asked.
“Who the hell knows, man?” I could hear the frustration in his voice.
“Shit. I’m sorry. Where does that lead the investigation?”
“At a dead end,” he replied. “I think we all need a few days to put some space between us and the case. We need to regroup with clearer heads. Distance with a fresh perspective is how we’re going to solve this.”
“I think you’re right.”
I slammed the fridge shut.
“I’m going to take some time off,” I announced.
“That’s not a bad idea.”
“I’ll talk to the captain, but I have enough time saved up. I’ll let you know when I’m
back.”
“Sounds good, man. Take care of yourself, and Ava.”
“I will.” I wanted to tell him everything going on with us, but it wasn’t the right time. Griffin might be the only one right now with all his attention on the missing hikers.
The case had worked everyone to exhaustion. Rawlings was looking for the stone. I was ready to take Allied out, and the others were each working leads on the hikers. Something had to turn up. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t going to be at the warehouse.
I hung my head. I was so certain that was the key to cutting off Allied at the knees.
“Call me if you have any updates.”
“Will do.”
I hung up with Griffin and strolled to the bedroom. It wasn’t how I wanted things to play out today, but it was how things were. I had to make the most of it. I had to take care of my mate and the cub we had on the way. They were the most important parts of my life now.
“Are you out there?” Ava called through the door.
“Yes. Do you need something?”
“I forgot to bring the towels in from the dryer. Could you hand me one?”
I chuckled. “I’ll get it for you. Hold on.”
I jogged to the laundry room and rifled through the clean laundry for a towel. I shook it off and took it back to the bathroom.
“I’m coming in.” I opened the door.
Ava leaned against the tile wall, beckoning me to join her. “I was waiting for you for a long time. What does a mate have to do to have some morning shower sex?” she teased.
I laughed, pulling the steam-covered glass door open. I circled my arm around her wet body.
“You know it’s funny. I thought I was the one who had a surprise for you.”
“Oh?” She hitched her leg to my waist.
“But you keep being unexpected.”
She grinned. “I think that’s a good thing the way you said it.”
“It is.” My mouth covered hers with a fiery kiss. I could wait until after the shower sex to tell her our new plan.
Epilogue
Ava
We wanted the ceremony to be intimate. Just the two of us. Make that three. I palmed my belly. It was still flat, even though I knew with a baby cub inside I wouldn’t be able to hide my pregnancy for long.
It was perfect. Sweet. Private. Romantic. I wore a white sundress with a long sheer wrap to cover my shoulders, and Nolan wore his dress blues from the precinct. The ceremony was at sunset and we followed it by dinner at the nicest restaurant in Hunter’s Lake. It was everything I wanted.
I clutched Nolan’s hand as the jet hit some turbulence.
“It’s okay,” he mumbled. He had fallen asleep somewhere over New York. There were still four hours left in our flight. I didn’t know he’d sleep like a bear on the plane.
I watched my sexy shifter sleep.
The place between my neck and shoulder was still sore from where he had finally taken me during our Claiming last night, but it was undeniably the most intense experience of my life.
I was his. Forever. And he was mine. We were married, with a cub on the way, and headed for a quick honeymoon through Europe.
When Nolan told me he had a week of saved time off we could use for the honeymoon, and add in two weekends to make it last longer, I knew we had to go now. It was the perfect time. There was a lull in all the cases and no recent activity. If we waited for all the problems in Hunter’s Lake and Thunder Pike to be solved, we’d never lead a normal life.
We were both devastated that the raid on the warehouse was a complete bust. I had held on to hope that maybe it was why I had worked at Allied in the first place. It was my way to finally trap them in all the evil they had committed. When I heard the warehouse was empty I had felt like such an idiot. Who was I to think I could take down such a powerful organization?
But that’s when my mate convinced me I had given the case plenty of ammunition to take a harder look at Allied. He promised me it wasn’t in vain. I did have a purpose. I might have saved future hikers from certain death. I had to hold on to that hope.
I reached for the magazine in the seat pocket in front of me. It was a European travel magazine. I flipped through the glossy photos and tried to picture Nolan and me in some of the places they showcased. I giggled.
“What’s so funny?” he mumbled.
He had warned me that the Claiming would take a lot out of him. I just didn’t expect him to want to hibernate.
“I’m just happy about our trip. Go back to sleep.”
He tried to stretch his legs, but even in a first class seat he took up a lot of room. The airline had upgraded our seats as a courtesy to Nolan for being a first responder. Well, that and he told them it was our honeymoon. I was happy with the cushy seats and the extra flight attendant attention.
“I’m awake.” He leaned over, brushing his lips across my neck. “Did I tell you how gorgeous you look today as my wife?”
I blushed. “You might have mentioned it ten times, but you can keep saying it.”
He kissed behind my ear, his hand cupping my jaw.
“Mmm,” I moaned as his lips roamed my neck. “We’re on a plane with other passengers,” I reminded him.
“And we’re on our honeymoon.” He nipped at my ear.
“Continue then.” I reclined the seat while he adored me with kisses.
“All the way across the Atlantic,” he teased.
We were starting a new life together. There was a baby cub on the way. I had so much to learn as Nolan’s mate, but I knew like everything else we faced, we would get through it together. He would love me. Protect me. And we would do everything in our power to make sure this baby was safe in Hunter’s Lake. Because nothing mattered more to us in the entire world.
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Don’t Miss the Undercover Shifter Series
Rawlings Book One
Nolan Book Two
Griffin Book Three