The Wolf’s Surprise Babies

by Jasmine Wylder

  Philip glanced up, looking to Lizzie for help. She squeezed his shoulder, giving him support even if she couldn’t give him answers. Philip smiled briefly in thanks before he focused on his daughter again. Bethany waited patiently, a stubborn determination in her eyes. He had to smile at that. His little girl was so much like him.

  “I made mistakes,” he said finally. “And I wish I hadn’t. The thing about people is, we make mistakes. Sometimes we do things we know we shouldn’t, or even things that we never wanted to do. I wish I had an answer for you, sweetheart. I really do. But the fact is… the only answer I have is that I made mistakes.”

  “But… is it because of me?”

  Philip’s eyes widened. How could she possibly think that? But through the hitch in her voice and the way her lip wobbled, he knew it was a genuine question. Every time he had told someone that everything he did, he did for Bethany, she flitted through his mind. She must have heard him say it at one point or another. Was she blaming herself, knowing that he always said that?

  “No,” he said firmly. “No, it’s not your fault at all. It’s nobody’s fault but mine. Okay? When someone makes mistakes, it’s their own fault. That doesn’t mean we can’t forgive them, but you can’t make anybody do anything else. And they can’t make you.” It wasn’t quite that clear-cut, but he didn’t want her thinking it was her fault he was in jail! He hugged her tightly. “You are my daughter, and I love you. I will always love you.”

  “I always love you, too, Daddy.” She buried her face into his chest. “I miss you.”

  The door opened and one of the guards stepped in. “Time’s up.”

  Philip sighed. He wasn’t certain if it was Lizzie’s connections or just that his reputation as one of the ‘good guys’ of the family had penetrated even the prison, but he was well-treated. The other prisoners, now that he was interacting with them more, liked him well enough. The guards weren’t buddy-buddy, but they weren’t cruel, either. The occasional one was even sympathetic. This was one such guard.

  “Just a few more minutes,” Philip pleaded. “Come on, please. I haven’t even been able to talk with my mate yet.”

  The guard hesitated, but the pleading looks from Lizzie and Bethany combined were apparently too much for him. He sighed. “Five minutes. But only five minutes.”

  “Thank you,” Philip said, knowing five minutes weren’t enough but that it was more than he should expect.

  The guard stepped outside, and Philip hugged Bethany tighter again. She wrapped her arms around his neck while Lizzie sat in the chair next to them. Their hands twined, a thousand feelings and sensations rushing through Philip. He wished he could tell her everything that was on his mind. He wished he could hold her and make love to her. He wished that he, Lizzie and Bethany could run along the side of the lake near the cabin, or go fishing, or just lay in the sunshine telling stories to one another. There were a lot of things he wished for.

  “The lawyers are hopeful that you’ll be out soon,” Lizzie blurted, tears starting to pool in her eyes. “We just have to stay positive.”

  Philip grasped her hand. Oh, how he wished he could slow time when he was with them, and speed it up when they were gone. But time was funny; the moments he wanted to last forever always seemed to go by far too quickly. He nodded, trying to smile back at her. Put on a brave face for his mate and daughter. He was going to get out of here quickly. He knew that. He just had to keep the faith.

  “Daddy.” Bethany looked up again. “When you’re out of jail, are we going to live with Lizzie? I don’t think I want to go back home.”

  “Of course,” Philip agreed. “We can live wherever you want, Pumpkin. Our house is too small, anyway, not for four of us.”

  Bethany giggled. “There are only three of us.”

  Philip’s brows rose as he turned to Lizzie. A pink flush came to her cheeks, and he realized that Bethany didn’t know. He wasn’t sure why he expected her to have been told already. Lizzie was the type of person who would want to make it more special than that, to have him involved in telling Bethany about the fact that she was going to be a big sister.

  And suddenly, all the melancholy of prison drifted away. Even though he was still in that horrid orange jumpsuit, even though he knew that it wasn’t going to last forever. It didn’t matter what the world threw at them. They loved each other, and with love, they could overcome everything. It was only through love that they were here, and with love, the future could only be bright.

  “There are going to be four of us.” Philip grinned at Lizzie. “You see, you’re going to have a little brother or sister. Lizzie is pregnant.”

  Bethany’s eyes widened and then narrowed. “No, she’s not. She can’t be.”

  Both Lizzie and Philip had to laugh at that. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you’re not married yet!”

  Lizzie smirked, even though her face was steadily turning redder. Philip shook his head. They had less than five minutes left, not enough time to explain the facts of life to Bethany. She was a smart kid, but she was still very young. He trusted that Lizzie would be able to explain it all in an age-appropriate manner later on.

  “You don’t have to be married to be pregnant,” Lizzie said gently. “You and I can talk about it when we get home, okay? Just know that you are going to have a little brother or sister.”

  “Are they going to be as little as Melodi’s baby?”

  As Lizzie nodded, Philip was overwhelmed with a surge of love. More than anything, he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this woman. If being in jail meant he had to wait, he’d wait. The end would be worth it. He knew it. And he didn’t want to waste a single moment. The five minutes were up, and the guard came back in to see them off. As Bethany got off his knee, he slid to the floor and caught Lizzie’s hand.

  “I don’t care how long it takes,” he told her. “I want to be your husband as well as your mate. Will you marry me once I’m out of here?”

  Bethany frowned, as though she thought he was doing this wrong, but Lizzie gasped softly. Her eyes filled with tears as she squeezed his hand back. The guard froze where he was, looking a little hesitant and torn. He glanced over his shoulder, probably because he was worried about someone reprimanding him for giving them those five extra minutes, let alone this extra time now. Philip ignored him. His gaze was only on Lizzie.

  “You fool,” she whispered. “You wonderful, wonderful fool.”

  She threw her arms around him, dropping to her knees so she could be level with him. Her mouth pushed against his, the kiss reaching a fevered pitch in seconds. Bethany made a loud sound of disgust and protest, and the guard jumped forward, also protesting. Lizzie pulled back from Philip, gave the both of them an annoyed look, then grinned at him again.

  “I can’t wait to marry you,” she told him. “We can get married right away. I can make all the arrangements, so we can be wed tomorrow even!”

  Philip laughed at that. “Isn’t that rushing things? You won’t have time for the big white dress.”

  “Who needs a big white dress?” she shot back at once. “I have you. That’s all I need. We can have a more formal ceremony later.”

  Philip grinned as he kissed her again. He had made mistakes. He was paying for those mistakes, and, while they were all full of hope that he was going to get out of here soon, he knew, deep down, it didn’t really matter. Because he had Lizzie, and with her help, he was going to be able to turn his life around. With her, Bethany was going to get the life he always hoped she would. With her, everything seemed possible.

  It was funny, in a way, that after everything that had happened, now she was the one protecting him. But he knew love was enough.

  Love was the only way to overcome life’s troubles. And he had love—it was all he needed.

  Epilogue

  Being six months pregnant wasn’t a trip to the spa, but Lizzie was trying to stay optimistic. That was hard when she had swings of no energy and then too much energy
, not to mention the fact that her morning sickness had only eased a little. Still, with the medications that the doctor had given her, it was manageable. Today was a very good day, since she hadn’t had even the littlest bit of feeling sick. She felt so good that she decided she might as well take advantage of it and look over some business.

  Technically she was on an early and extended maternity leave, but Lizzie wasn’t one to sit around doing nothing. Since Bethany was at school, there wasn’t much to do, so she pulled out her laptop and started looking over the latest data from her dating agency. It was going well, finally; it was well-established and there were many couples coming out of it that had nothing to do with sex. She grinned proudly as she clicked off that to the news feeds focused on it. The tunes of said articles had changed a lot over the past year. Between Melodi and Varton’s successful marriage and then her own, there was credibility to the agency that was only helped by the testimonials of those who were part of it.

  She hummed pleasantly to herself as she kept skimming through things, happy that, at last, she was seeing real progress in this agency. Now the only thing to do was keep it up…

  Oh.

  Oh no.

  “Oh hell no!” She slapped both her hands against the sides of the table, glaring balefully at the information that had just come up. Everything was going so well! What had that come up for?

  From behind her on the bed, Philip stirred. He yawned, turning over to sling his arm over her lap. “What’s the matter this time?”

  “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  He shrugged as he rubbed his eyes with his free hand. “No problem, it’s time I was getting up anyway. Can’t nap the whole day away.”

  Their lawyers had been right. It hadn’t taken much to get him out of jail. None of the charges had stuck, partly due to the fact that it was a private investigator who had found all the evidence against him, and not the cops themselves. What really clinched the deal was Kavan. Lizzie would be forever grateful to him; he had walked into the courtroom one day, all dramatic and swaggering, and announced that he had committed all the crimes that Philip was accused of. After that, Philip was released in short order. Kavan was looking at several years in jail, now. When Philip had asked him why he’d done it, Kavan just told him it seemed like the best idea at the time.

  Lizzie and Philip had made the decision to visit him as often as they were permitted. He was moved to a prison across the country, but that didn’t matter. They’d fly out every month for that one-hour visit, as long as Kavan wanted to keep seeing them.

  Since then, they had married in a quick ceremony before the justice of the court, not wanting to wait, and planned for a larger celebration in a year or two with the big white dress, the live band, and the hundreds of guests.

  Nobody had been more shocked at her actions than Melodi, but after a period of grumbling, she had agreed to be matron of honor and threw herself into the distant preparations with gusto. Everybody had been excited to learn about Lizzie’s pregnancy, and her parents had welcomed Philip and Bethany into the family with open arms. Everything was going well.

  Except for this. Lizzie checked the information again and let out a string of curses that not even a sailor would dare utter. Philip laughed and pressed a finger to her lips, silencing her.

  “You know, they say babies in utero can still hear what’s going on around them. Do you want our little boys to have that sort of language be their first words?”

  Lizzie caressed her overly large belly. She had been surprised when she learned she was pregnant with twins, but then had been quickly ecstatic; all but Bethany. She pouted that it wasn’t going to be even anymore, until Lizzie pointed out that when they spent time with Melodi, Varton and their little girl, the boy-girl ratio would be even.

  “Sorry, babies,” she crooned as she stroked her belly.

  In response, there was what could only be described as a ripple under her hand. Then there were a series of kicks, as the babies shifted their positions. They hadn’t decided on names yet, but Lizzie reassured herself that she had plenty of time for that yet.

  “So.” Philip propped himself up and rested his chin on her shoulder, peering at the computer. “What’s got you all worked up today?”

  Lizzie hesitated. Philip was working, since he insisted on bringing in some money, doing night shifts at various stores, and then doing schoolwork in the daytime. He wasn’t sure just what he wanted to do, but he was enjoying the experience of being able to learn things and develop his future prospects. The downside was that he was away from home a lot. Today was one of his rare days off, and now she was filling it with more business.

  “Tell me,” Philip urged.

  “It’s the agency,” she admitted with a sigh. “I’m looking over a few things and… well, look at this.” She turned the laptop so he could see it better. “They’ve paired up Rune Reid with Dane Hemmerick. That’s a disaster waiting to happen! I mean, Dane is all about fantasy and sex. I told you about how he oiled himself up after fixing my toilet?”

  Philip grinned at that. “Yeah, you did. Actually, I think that might be a fantasy for us to roleplay sometime. I can just see it. You call in a plumber, but don’t have the cash to pay me…”

  A swirl of heat went through her. It didn’t take much to get her going these days, even though most of the time she was either too tired or too sick to act on it. She leaned into Philip’s broad chest, staring at her screen. Part of her wanted to toss it aside, forget about the impending disaster, and just enjoy the day she had with her mate. Bethany was going over to a friend’s house directly after school, so they had more time than usual, too…

  As she looked at the match again, though, she had to shake her head. “It’s all going wrong,” she moaned. “After all the work I put into this agency. After getting the vampires in there, of all people, and having overwhelmingly positive feedback from that… Now it’s all going to fall apart.”

  Philip laughed a deep-throated chuckle. “Darling, if you can get me out of jail after less than a year for crimes I did commit, you can figure this out. It’s just one pairing. Who knows, they might end up being good for each other.”

  “No. Rune is all about her tarot cards and the universe’s vibrations. I think she believes all that jazz. It’s not going to work out, even if Dane wasn’t a sex maniac and Rune’s head wasn’t in the clouds. She’s going to end up being so hurt…”

  “She’s the one who’s always dropping by to give you advice, right?”

  “Yes.”

  Philip hummed. “And you think she’s a con?”

  “That doesn’t matter. Look at Dane’s records.” She pointed at the screen, indicating all the women that Dane had matched with and had first dates with. Some, one day right after the other. That isn’t the kind of behavior I want in this agency! I want people to be serious about finding their mates. Rune is like that. But here we have Dane and Rune matched! It’s a disaster waiting to happen!”

  “If it is, then Rune should be able to see it through the vibrations of the universe and run far away in the other direction,” Philip chuckled.

  Lizzie cast him a black glare.

  His laughter only grew as he pulled her into his arms, taking the laptop from her and shutting it. “You worry too much about that sort of thing. It’s a dating agency. That means there is going to be a lot of dating going on. Not everybody who joins up wants to find their forever mate, true, but sometimes the trick to finding your forever mate is not looking for them. I mean, look at us.”

  Lizzie huffed. She would have liked to have stayed upset a little bit at him, just for making light of the situation, but she found herself relaxing into his embrace instead. It was true. When she thought about how she wanted to eject him from the agency all those months ago, she could have laughed herself. He had seemed like such a dangerous, wicked bad boy. And maybe he was dangerous and wicked, but not in the ways she had thought.

  “If I can find my mate and settle down,” h
e continued, crooning in her ear, “then I think even the likes of Dane Hemmerick can. But you don’t have to worry about Rune, you know. It’s not your responsibility to make sure every person in the agency is getting exactly what you think they should be getting.”

  “But Rune’s been so sweet about everything. She’s always giving me free readings. And a lot of them have turned out to be eerily accurate. I mean, she did say that I was going to have a child from an unexpected source, and Bethany showed up right away, and now…” She gestured at her stomach. “It’s a pretty big coincidence, isn’t it?”

  “And if she can really read the signs of the universe, then that means she’ll be able to know what Dane wants. Who knows, maybe that’s what she wants, too.”

  Lizzie wanted to argue the point, but only because she felt her side losing steam. Philip was right. It was a big agency, she couldn’t track down every member and make sure they were up to her standards. Dane hadn’t received any complaints against him, and if that was what he wanted… well, that was his choice. The agency was building a much more stable reputation and there were at least a dozen marriages coming up from people who had met each other through the agency.

  Who knew, maybe Dane and Rune were the perfect couple for each other.

  She had one grumble left in her. “There are hundreds of male shifters looking for their mates, though. Dane shouldn’t monopolize the good ones.”

  “He’s popular. Why does he keep your interest more than the others?” Philip slid the laptop onto the nightstand, then rolled over her. With one hand, he pinned her wrists over her head while holding himself up with the other. He growled, a playful light in his eyes. “Should I be wildly jealous? Should I suspect that my mate has eyes for another man? Do I need to call on my old mafia contacts and have him taken out?”

  Her stomach tightened as her breasts tingled and heat moved through her at a steadier pace. The issue with Dane Hemmerick seemed very, very far away right now. She wrapped her legs around her husband and mate, loving the closeness of their bodies. The distraction of the agency seeped from her mind as she grinned up at him.