“I can’t even comprehend.” Shock surrounded Melody, giving the world a rainbow haze. “I don’t want to lose my baby. Babies.”
“Our babies. And you won’t. Let’s get you home and into bed. You look a little green around the gills, Chula.”
Melody nodded weakly. For the first time, she wasn’t going to argue with Rafe about how she looked. She felt a little green around the gills.
Without speaking, Rafe drove them back up the mountain. To Little Yellow. Melody almost opened her mouth to question his decision. Just yesterday, Rafe was insistent they’d live in his house.
But then, she remembered Lacey’s words. Love and magic lived in Little Yellow. Whether from the ghosts of love found or just the tradition, it didn’t matter. Inherently, Rafe knew they needed all the love and magic they could muster.
Melody watched as Rafe steered, his hands calm and secure on the wheel. Their night together was so short and yet, had far-flung consequences. She closed her eyes, pulling up the memories of what his body felt like beneath her hands and body. The way Rafe’s muscles moved and contracted as she explored him with her hands, lips, and tongue.
She wanted to regret her blind hero worship and shifter obsession. It’s what brought her to the Lusty Leopard that long-ago Saturday night. It’s what brought her here, in the front seat of his SUV. Pregnant and afraid.
When they pulled into the parking lot, they were alone. Rafe parked and hustled around to her side. He picked Melody up and carried her into the cottage.
“I can still walk. Nothing has changed since this morning,” Melody pointed out. And yet, she let him carry her. Enjoyed the sensation of being protected and loved. Even if she knew that was an illusion.
“Couch or bed?” he asked.
“Bed, I guess.” Melody felt overwhelmingly tired. She didn’t know why there was all this animosity towards shifters and their babies. She made a mental note to do research after a short nap.
“Let me get you some juice. Or tea? Do you want tea?” Rafe asked. “No caffeine, though. Maybe just a glass of water.”
Melody blinked up at him. “Juice is fine,” she said after he put her in the bed.
“I’ll be right back.”
A sense of surreality surrounded her as she pulled out the envelope the nurse had given her. She gasped, looking at the pictures of their babies. She began crying, tracing the little white spots on the film.
“You’re crying. Why are you crying? Do we need to call Hadley?” Rafe asked when he got back in the room. He placed a mug of orange juice on the table. “You need the vitamin C and folic acid.”
Melody sniffed and patted the spot beside the bed. “It wasn’t really real before. And I’m sure it was the same for you. You didn’t even think you could have a baby. But look. I’ve got the picture proof you can. We can. We did this.”
“Pictures?
Rafe’s golden brown eyes filled with tears as he looked at the blurred, indistinct images. “What are those little white things?”
Melody peeked over his shoulder. “Our baby’s fingers. See? She wrote down some of the parts.”
“It’s two little persons.”
Melody nodded, her eyes never leaving his face. “Like a real life mini-me’s.”
“Oh my god. We’re having a baby.” He lifted his eyes to stare at her in a combination of wonder and fear.
Rafael
For once, jag was quiet. Maybe the fear of losing everything meaningful in his life sunk beneath the surface of Rafe’s skin and into the jaguars.
“What are those?” He pointed to several small white bits that looked like pieces of rice.
“That’s a femur. And these little rounded areas are the heads.”
It took some imagination, but eventually, Rafe was able to figure out the general shape of the babies. “Are they okay?”
Melody nodded. “The technician said they were a healthy size.” She patted her belly. “I guess that explains why I’m showing at three months.”
Rafe was gobsmacked. It felt like within forty-eight hours he went from carefree bachelor to a man with everything to lose.
“We need to have a meeting with the others.” Melody massaged her side.
Rafe’s attention sharpened, and he nodded. “Cree said he’ll call his mom in the morning. I have no reason to doubt the doctor, so I imagine I’ll have a call from my handler in the morning.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
Rafe shrugged. “Hard to tell. Haven’t heard from him in years. But maybe he has some answers to questions we didn’t know we had to ask.”
Melody bit her lip. “Can the government be that cruel?”
Rafe snorted. “Ask the men who participated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.”
“Wasn’t that like forever ago?”
“It ended in the early 70s. That doesn’t seem so forever ago to me.”
“Oh.” Melody was quiet as she considered her options. “They know right where we are, too.”
“I’ll call my lawyer. Maybe we can do a press conference.”
Melody snapped her fingers. “The blogger!”
“Who?”
“The blogger. Luna Flowers. That’s how I found out about the Lusty Leopard and Silver Fells. She has a blog called Shifter Sightings and takes pictures and reports on all kinds of gossip.”
Rafe frowned. “Does she have a lot of followers.”
“A few million.” Melody reached out for her phone. “I’ll send her a message. See if she’s interested in some exclusive shifter interviews.”
“In exchange for?”
Melody rolled her eyes. “The government can’t just get rid of us once our story starts trending.” She finished tapping out a message. “There. Things are in motion.”
They lay on the bed for a little while, looking at the pictures of the unborn children. Melody looked over her shoulder. “Do you need to run? I can feel your tension from here.”
Rafe shook his head. “No. What I want to do is hold you. Hold all of you. I can’t believe we’re having twins.” His hands waved to indicate her and their babies.
Melody nodded, sliding down and resting on the covers. “I hope they look like you,” she whispered as he settled behind her.
“Cranky and with a touch of grey?”
Melody smiled wanly. Deep down, meeting Rafe had changed her life. She’d slept with Rafe on a crazy impulse of beer-induced hormone rush. But in following her own stupid shifter obsession, she’d lost a part of her heart. She didn’t want to admit it, even now. She was not, not, not in love with Rafael Joaquín Chamorro.
But deep down, Melody knew she was lying to herself.
“No, silly. Strong. Powerful. Take charge.”
“They’re babies. No one comes out strong,” he gently teased.
“Not even you?”
“Nah. I was a regular kid, I guess.”
“How old were you when your parents brought you to the States?” Melody asked as she relaxed in his arms.
“I was six. My parents supported the Somoza regime. Nicaragua was in ruins after Somoza fell. My uncle was already living in the United States, so my father applied to bring the family over.”
Melody traced the tributaries of veins on the back of Rafe’s hands. “Do you miss it?”
“I was mostly stationed in Central and South America while I was in the service,” Rafe said. “The jungles in the Land of Volcanos and Lakes are beautiful, but this is home now.”
They were quiet for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts. “I never had a family, Chela. My father was a hard man. Fierce. Chauvinistic. My mother?” Rafe sighed. “She did her best before she died, but there was something missing in her. A softness. Perhaps surviving a bloody civil war does that.”
“You have a family, now.” Melody placed his hand over her bump. “The beans and I need you.”
Rafe buried his head in the fragrant cloud of her hair. “Mi cielo,” he whispered. My world.
Melody turned
in his arms so their lips could touch. Poignant emotions threatened to strangle Rafe. He didn’t want this slow, sensual slide of male against female. Hard against soft. He wanted it rough. Ready. Forgetful.
Like that first, endless night he had spent in Melody’s arms.
But as her pretty pink lips parted beneath his, Rafe was unprepared for the pull and haze of their emotional connection. He pulled back and tucked her into the heat of his body. Cherishing his chelita, his pretty little girl, and their babies.
And if he cried while Melody slept in his arms, no one else was the wiser.
Chapter Eight
Melody
The five women – Melody, Lacey, Hadley, Kimber, and Tamara – gathered around the camera on Melody’s laptop. They were in Rafe’s office at his house in Silver Fells. After a brief group chat, they decided it was the only place big enough for all five women.
Melody felt instantly in love with the warm wood bookshelves and comfortable furniture. Large windows lined one wall, giving it the appearance of being outside.
A particular trend where Rafe was concerned, Melody thought.
Luna Flowers stared back at them from her end of the world. “Let me get this straight. I can come to Silver Fells. Even stay at the Maxwell Mountain Resort.”
Lacey nodded.
“You will give me unlimited access to the shifters.”
“Maybe not Creole,” Tamara said. “He doesn’t generally like people poking around in his life.”
Luna nodded and jotted something on a notebook in front of her. Melody tilted her head. Did Luna seem almost…relieved? She obviously didn’t want to interview the mountain lion shifter.
“Okay. Are there any single shifters I can interview? My fans love pictures and gossip.” Luna was all business.
“There are Murray and Jason. They’re bear shifters.”
“Ooh, I’ve heard about Jason Fox. He’s the ginormous bear shifter, right?”
Melody nodded. “He’s almost seven feet tall. He doesn’t date much.” She turned to Tamara. “Does he?”
Tamara shook her head. “No, he’s one of the guys who seem to prefer staying shifted. I think, being that tall? It’s just more comfortable when he’s a bear. He stands out less.”
“Okay. And why are you giving me this kind of access?” Luna asked.
The blonde woman’s eyes darted nervously around the room and Melody wondered if Luna was hiding something from them. She looked to her friends for strength. Hadley put her arm around Melody’s shoulders. “You can do it.”
Melody nodded. “We found out that maybe the government experiments didn’t make the shifters as sterile as the government said it would.”
Luna’s grey eyes lit with horrified interest. “Do tell.”
“That’s it. We’re not sure. Rafael spoke with his handler. The handler had never heard of this.”
“Quinn talked to his, too,” Lacey piped up. “Same story. But we need to know the truth.”
Luna nodded slowly and jotted notes. Again, Melody’s instincts told her the other woman was hiding something. “My readers will want to know everything. They’re a voracious bunch who love the sacrifice these men have made.”
“We all do,” Hadley said. “And they’ve all sacrificed.”
“You need to draw this out, Luna. You have a huge following, but we need more. Even to get picked up by the news wires. We need to make as many people aware as possible.”
Luna nodded. “Ladies, this is going to be the biggest scoop of my career. I am not blowing this load without a lot of proof and corroborating evidence.” She winked. “Now, dish!”
Melody went on to explain about the pregnancy, the sonogram, and the doctor’s suggestion of abortion. “So, we think there was probably a lot more woman ‘guided’ into abortions than we know.”
Luna tapped the side of her cheek with a pen. “That’s huge.”
“That’s over our pay grade,” Lacey said. “If you expose them on that front that’s on you. We want Mel to take front and center. If the people know about her, we’re hoping the government can’t just. You know.”
“Take her quietly away and make the world think she’s a tin-hat wearing crazy person,” Luna guessed.
“I think I’ve got enough here to do some teasers and click bait. I’ll fudge the details of my visit. No sense letting anyone know what we’re up to.”
“Good idea,” Tamara said.
“And I know right where you’re staying,” Lacey announced.
“No!”
“Lacey, you can’t keep putting people in Little Yellow,” Hadley said.
“Why not? It’s worked for everyone. I’m telling you, that cabin has magic.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed. “Little Yellow?”
“I decorated one of the cabins at the resort in all yellow,” Lacey explained.
“And we all stayed in it at one time or another,” Kimber added.
“Oooh, sexy times in the cabin,” Luna said with a light, trilling laugh.
“You got it.” Tamara blushed with her words.
Luna’s eyes lit with mischief. “So, which one of you is there now?”
Four sets of index fingers pointed straight at Melody.
Luna tilted her head back, ash-blonde hair swinging with her mirth. “The pregnant one! That’s fantastic. I can’t wait to stay in Little Yellow.”
After shoring up details, they disconnected the call.
Melody stared at the now-blank screen while her friends bustled around the room and cleared up the dishes. “Are we doing the right thing?”
“I don’t see how we have any choice,” Tamara said. As Cree’s mate, she was the quietest of the women and rarely voiced her opinion. “This is a big precedent, and we are all just pawns to the military.”
“I don’t understand, though. Quinn and I haven’t used any kind of birth control, and we’ve been together a year.” Lacey’s face fell, and Melody wanted to reach out and hug her.
Hadley shrugged. “That’s not exclusive to shifters, Lace. People get pregnant when they get pregnant. The fact is we know two people who have gotten pregnant – Lori James and now Mel. That’s enough to say it’s not only possible but likely to happen to any of us.”
“Do you think telling the fanbase of Shifter Sightings will work?” Melody asked.
Tamara shrugged. “The handlers didn’t put Creole down when they found out about him. So, I think you have a better than even chance. Especially once Shifter Sightings shares it with the world.”
“And they see the shifters are human, too. Isn’t that what they say to do in a hostage crisis? Force your enemy to see you as human.” Hadley’s voice was tight with fear.
They were all afraid. Their futures were on the line, balanced on a precipice where they could either go forward and thrive or slip over the edge.
“Do you want any of us to stay?” Lacey asked as she closed the laptop and got ready to leave.
Melody shook her head. “Thanks for cleaning up guys. After you all head out, I think I’m going to take a bath. Rafe practically has a swimming pool in his bathroom.”
“Don’t let the water get too hot,” Hadley warned. “Bubbles are fine and so are bath oils but be careful of slipping on the tub, okay?”
Melody promised she would be careful.
“Okay. We’re out. Keep your phone near in case you need us,” Lacey suggested.
“I’ll be careful. A bath and a little nap so I have the energy to go baby shopping later with Rafe.”
“Ooh, baby shopping,” Tamara teased.
“Get good stuff. If what you found out is right, you could have another. Or any of us could all be pregnant before too long.”
“I hope so. If it’s what you all want,” Lacey said.
Rafael
Rafe tapped his fingers against his desk. Hours had passed since his meeting with his handler, SA Davis Warren. Davis swore he hadn’t been aware of any of the information Rafe told him.
&nb
sp; “If this is true, it could blow the entire program to shit,” Davis said.
“We’ll take it one day at a time. But Melody and I aren’t going to change our minds. We are getting married and having these babies.”
A glow of caveman style pride invaded Rafe’s demeanor. Not only was his woman pregnant, but he’d gotten her pregnant twice in one night.
“I’ll hold onto this information for a minute,” Davis said. “I want to put some feelers out. Figure out what’s going on. But I don’t put it past them lying to us. Do you?”
Rafe looked out the window and sighed. “No. I don’t.”
The two men shook with the promise that they’d work together. If change had to happen, let them be the first.
But in the meantime, Rafe was edgy. Tense. Jag wanted to go for a run, but Rafe fought with him. Maybe the cat wanted a run, but the man wanted his mate.
Rafe startled with the unfamiliar word. Tested it for a minute and then nodded. Melody was definitely his mate. Making up his mind, he reached for his phone and dialed Melody’s number.
“Hello?”
Rafe felt a surge of satisfaction at the content tone of her voice. “Chelita.” He closed his eyes. Her voice was like a balm to his battered soul after the day he’d had.
“What does that mean?” Melody asked him, stopping him in his tracks. “Shell-ita?”
“It’s an endearment.”
“Thanks for stating the obvious, Sherlock. But what does it mean?”
“Nican Spanish is a little more idiomatic than what you’re taught in school,” Rafe hedged, not sure his bonita chela would appreciate his chosen pet name for her.
“That bad, huh?
Rafe chuckled. “No, not at all. It has different meanings depending on context, is all. I use chela pretty white girl.”
Melody was quiet on the line. “So, Shell-ita is pretty baby?”
Rafe hummed in agreement and lowered his voice half an octave. “Did my Chelita have a good day?”
Melody sighed. “Pretty good. We talked to Luna Flowers, the blogger. She agreed to come down from Maine and interview us. Tell our side. How about your day?”
“I’m just taking a minute for lunch. Do you want to go out for dinner before we go shopping?”
“Hmm, I might be getting an appetite,” Melody teased. Rafe could hear the smile in her voice.
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