by Jules Tyler
“What about the bags?” Jasmine asked as Stella lead her towards the door to the restaurant.
Stella waved her off. “With that cover on the bed of the truck? Not even bears could get to them.”
Jasmine giggled at the pun. “Alright, if you say so.”
Walking into the restaurant, Jasmine’s eyes scanned the group, seeing that everyone was already sitting next to the mates. Jasmine felt a pang in her heart. Because her bear wanted to be with its mate. It wanted to go to him and embrace the way the other couples were doing. As Jasmine was guided to her seat, her eyes found Tyson and locked with his. A smile crept across his lips and Jasmine couldn’t help but mirror the gesture. Once she was near the table, he pulled out a chair for her and she sat down.
He leaned his head over next to hers and whispered in her ear. “It’s good to see you with a smile on your face, beautiful. I hope to see it more often.”
The subtle growl in Tyson’s voice sent shivers down her spine. “Maybe you should give me a reason to keep it.”
Jasmine’s eyes went wide as she clapped her hands over her mouth. She did not just say that! Holy hell, what the fuck was happening here? How could she insist on being friends one minute and the next be saying flirtatious shit like that? Talk about mixed signals.
As Tyson sat down to her right, she saw the smoldering look in his eyes, much like embers in a fire. Jasmine was beginning to think that those coals only needed a little more oxygen before they caused the fire to blaze out of control inside of her.
Trying to focus on the task at hand, Jasmine turned her attention to the spread on the table. There were breaded pork chops, sautéed green beans that looked to have garlic cooked with them, mashed potatoes, rolls and jam, and a bowl filled with honey glazed carrots. Damn, this was a feast fit for kings.
“Who did the cooking?” Liz dished up her plate as she asked the question
“Landon did,” Brady said, reaching across the table to pick up the basket of rolls for Stella.
“Wait, come again? Landon can cook?” Liz’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head.
Landon shrugged, “Mama Harriet taught me—she didn’t want me going hungry. Said a full panther was a tired panther, and a tired panther was a happy panther.”
Liz dropped a dollop of potatoes onto her plate before passing it to Jasmine. “Well, color me impressed,”
“Thanks,” Landon replied as he busied himself with dishing up food onto Kaylene’s plate.
Jasmine went through the motions of putting everything together on her plate but she continued to absorb everything around her. Each couple had their own dynamic. Landon was protective and insisted on doting on his mate. Jesse and Liz sat together enjoying their food in silence but continually exchanging sappy glances with each other. And Stella was sassing Brady about having to eat some of the carrots.
“There’s more than one way to be happy in a pairing,” Mama Ally’s voice said softly from the other side of Tyson.
“I’m sorry, what?” she asked, leaning forward so she could see Mama Ally.
“You were watching everyone with a look of curiosity. I felt I should point out the obvious. While everyone at this table has their differences, they had one thing in common when they found each other.”
She furrowed her brow in confusion, trying to figure out where Mama Ally was going with this. “What was that?”
“They were all just broken halves of the same whole,” Mama stated before popping one of the carrots into her mouth and grinning knowingly at her.
Concern welled up inside her as her eyes shot to Tyson’s. “What did you tell her?” Jasmine mouthed to him.
Tyson shook his head and mouthed back, “Nothing.”
“Your secret is safe with me, sweetheart. It’s okay.” Mama Ally winked at them and then went about eating her dinner as though nothing happened just a moment before.
“So, sister, do we know what’s cooking in there yet? Am I getting a niece or a nephew?” Jesse asked as he swallowed a bite of food down.
Jasmine looked nervously to Kaylene, who nodded encouragingly. “Well, I, uh… I’m having twins.”
“You’re what?” Jesse asked, excitement flooding his eyes as he shoved out of his seat and knelt down at Jasmine’s side, the room filling with excited whispers
“I’m having twins,” Jasmine repeated, tears filling her eyes as realization washed over her for the second time in twenty-four hours. She was having twins.
Jesse placed his hands on either side of her stomach and placed his forehead on the front of it. “Hey there, kiddos, it’s your Uncle Jesse.”
Both babies started kicking excitedly in her stomach at the sound of Jesse’s voice. This should’ve surprised her, but it didn’t. She spent most of her pregnancy singing along to the Blacktop Beasts’ album, and her stomach always ignited with butterflies when she did. Taking Jesse’s hands and moving them towards the little kicks, she watched with pride as her brother’s face reflected both happiness and excitement again.
“I think they like you,” Jasmine whispered.
“I know your circumstances aren’t exactly ideal, Jazzy, but this is going to be a good thing. Two good things. I’m sorry for freaking out on you last night. These babies are going to be so loved, especially by their Uncle Jesse and Auntie Liz,” Jesse said reverently as he held her gaze with his own.
“Thank you, Jesse,” she said, trying to keep the emotion from her voice and failing.
He stood back up and walked back to his seat to finish his meal. “So is it a boy and a girl? Both girls? Both boys? I bet it’s both boys.”
“I don’t know yet. I was just so overwhelmed last night with everything that was happening and finding out I was having twins. I asked Kaylene not to tell me the genders until I wrapped my head around what was happening.”
“Ya know, we could do one of those gender things. My sisters all did one for their firsts. I can ask them if they have some ideas,” Tyson suggested from where he was sitting.
“Oh! I could make a cake to match the genders!” Liz squealed gleefully. “Strawberry cake for a girl, and I could do a blue velvet for a boy.”
“Oh God, what I would give for some cake right now.” Stella ran her hands over her stomach.
“What if I’m not ready to know the genders?” Jasmine asked, trying to decide if she was on that level yet.
“Well, I already printed off the sonograms from last night. I could show Liz, Tyson, and Mama Ally, and we could get to work on a gender reveal for you. We can plan it for a couple weeks from now. You’ve still got a good six weeks left in your pregnancy, which would give you plenty of time to still let people know the genders so they can get you things for the babies if they want to,” Kaylene chimed in.
Jasmine considered what everyone was saying. A gender reveal could work. But she didn’t want to inconvenience everyone. They were all already so busy. It would be nice to find out in a unique way though, and it would alleviate some of the pressure of knowing for a little bit longer. Hell, it may even make it more exciting.
Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “Yeah, let’s do it.”.
Chapter 11
Tyson smiled to himself. He’d never admit out loud that he spent part of his day on the internet looking up baby announcement stuff on social media. That’s when he came across a couple with confetti cannons. He stopped and clicked on the video and pressed play. He watched as they shot off the cannons in unison then hugged and laughed in front of their family as pink confetti and glitter fell around in the grass. When he read the caption, it mentioned the video was a gender reveal. Not knowing what that was, he took to the Google and started searching for more information and started finding Pinterest boards, whatever those were, filled with post after post of gender reveal ideas. This was exactly what he needed, something thoughtful he could do for Jasmine. But the challenge was how did he do it without looking like a schmuck, and without making her think he had ulterior motives? Then when the subjec
t came up at dinner, Tyson decided to go for it. Now he had the help he needed, and he looked like he was trying to present an option to help her. That definitely had to be some brownie points in his favor, right?
The rest of the meal was filled with the girls chattering on about the reveal, and all the things that they had seen on social media since gender reveals became a trend. Most of it was girly shit, but there were some decent ideas in there too. Tyson was just glad he was finally going to know the genders of the babies so he could start sneakily getting things off of the internet to have delivered for them.
Casting a side glance over at Jasmine, he took note that his mate was slowly falling asleep where she sat.
Leaning over to her, he whispered in her ear, “Let’s get you home, shall we?”
Jasmine yawned. “Home. Home sounds nice. Yes please.”
“Alright y’all, I’m gonna get our girl back to my place so she can crash,” Tyson announced, pulling out Jasmine’s chair and helping her up as he did so.
Liz got up to hug her goodnight. “Jasmine, I’ll take your things to our cabin tonight, alright?”
“Thank you, Liz. It was nice spending the day with all of you. Thank you for letting me tag along,” Jasmine said politely as Tyson guided her towards the door.
“Bitch please, we were glad to have you. Now go get some rest. Your pregnant ass needs it,” Stella teased.
“I like them.” Jasmine smiled sleepily at Tyson as he helped her into the golf cart.
Tyson chuckled. “Well that’s good, because they’re your family now, darlin’.”
“Mm, family. It’s been a long time since I had one of those.”
“Being on the road, your brother and Landon were my family. I still have family back home in Louisiana, but sometimes the family you choose is better than the family you were born into.”
“I like that. The family you choose.”
“I do too, beautiful. I do too.”
The rest of the ride back to the cabin was spent in companionable silence. Tyson could see Jasmine’s left hand dangling off of her stomach and he was itching to take it in his so badly. His wolf wanted to be close to her in any way possible. Easing the golf cart to a stop alongside his cabin, he walked around to the other side where Jasmine was starting to doze off and scooped her up in his arms. Knowing full well it was pushing the boundaries she had set, Tyson tried to rationalize in his mind that any friend would do the same if they could.
Nudging open the cabin door, Tyson crossed through to the room Jasmine was using and nestled her down on the bed. Stooping down to slip her sandals off, Tyson smiled to himself. She’d gotten lime green nail polish done on her toes. It could just be a coincidence, but Tyson chose to believe it was for him. Kneeling down next to the bed, Tyson watched Jasmine sleep. He could see a few stray strands of white hair draping down across her face, and the stress lines in her face had relaxed, so one wouldn’t even know they were there if they hadn’t seen them prior to this. Her dark hair fell in waves across the pillow behind her, almost giving her a halo effect with the way the moonlight bounced off it.
Tyson leaned against the bed on his elbows and watched the bump of Jasmine’s stomach rise and fall with her slow, deep breaths. His mind was still processing everything—it honestly felt a little like a dream that any of this was even happening. Their situation wasn’t ideal, but it didn’t make it impossible to overcome. He could love these babies as his own right? He could show Jasmine she didn’t have to do this alone, she just had to be willing to hear what he had to say. But what did he have to say? Hey, you’re my mate, we should just be together? Like she would go for that.
After a few minutes of sitting in the dark watching Jasmine’s belly, Tyson could see a hint of movement beneath her shirt on the side closest to him. Reaching out, Tyson gingerly touched his palm to where he saw the movements and waited. A moment later his patience was rewarded with a small bump, bump against his hand. As he felt the baby pressing up against his hand, he felt something new wash through him. It different than anything else he had ever felt—it was a combination of pride, excitement, joy… and something else. It was something unique all its own, and it sent Tyson’s heart into flutters in the way that a school girl’s heart would if she was about to experience her first kiss.
Leaning forward on his free arm, Tyson whispered softly at Jasmine’s belly, praying silently that she wouldn’t hear what he was about to say.
“I don’t know how to do this, but I’m going to do it anyways. You don’t know me yet, but my name is Tyson. I want you both to know that no matter what, this family, this crew that lives here? They’re going to love you and protect you. I will always love you and protect you. You see, your mama doesn’t know yet, but I’m gonna win her heart. One way or another, this beautiful, stubborn, independent woman who is keeping you safe inside of her is going to fall for me, and we’re going to be a family. Now, I know what she’d say. She’d tell you both that I’m coming on too strong, but what she doesn’t know is that I’m patient. If she needs me to wait ten days or thirty years, I will. Why? Because that’s what you do for the ones you love. The Fates brought us all together for a reason, and while she doesn’t believe in that right now, I’ll believe enough for all four of us.
“It’s gonna be awhile I think before I’ll be able to talk to you both again. I want you to do what you can to make these last few weeks easy on your mama. Stay strong, stay together, and stay safe.”
Feeling satisfied with his declaration to the twins, Tyson shoved off of the floor and headed back through Jasmine’s door and towards the guest room. First thing tomorrow, he was going to start proving to Jasmine why he made such a good mate.
Chapter 12
Jasmine waited for Tyson to leave her room before opening her eyes. She must’ve dozed off in the cart, but the last thing she expected was to wake up to being carried into her room. Then she kept waiting for him to leave, but he just wouldn’t. One of the babies started squirming around inside of her, and he touched her. What followed was even more shocking to her system. Tyson thought she was asleep, but he still continued to pledge his loyalty to the babies she growing inside of her, and to her as well. All of this was so new, and she had no idea how to handle it.
Once he left the room, Jasmine laid there staring up at the ceiling, replaying every last word Tyson said. Stay strong. Stay together. Stay safe. He didn’t just want her, he wanted all three of them. He wanted them to be a family. But how could they do that? Did they just pretend the babies were his? Could Jasmine really be happy up here permanently? What about work? Babies were expensive, and twins even more so. She couldn’t expect Tyson to work and her not pull her weight. No, she was too damaged, and he was too good. He deserved someone better than her. The Fates played a cruel trick on them both -- they weren’t really intended to be together, and it was all a ploy to get them hurt.
But what would the Fates have to gain by doing something so unfair? If we are meant to be, how do we make all of this work?
The words Mama Ally said to her at dinner that night floated back into her mind. There was more than one way to be happy in a pairing. She was a broken half to something greater than herself… The question was, what did she need to do to make this a home? She needed a plan, and that started with getting to know Tyson more.
Crawling out of bed, Jasmine padded over to the dresser and pulled out a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top. After making quick work of changing, Jasmine rummaged through her suitcase until she found a notepad and pen. Climbing back into bed, she flicked on the lamp and set about making her list of every single question she could think of asking him. Once that was done, Jasmine worked on creating a plan. If she was going to be comfortable here, she needed to have some way to make this her home too.
Setting the notepad and pen down on the nightstand next to the bed, Jasmine flicked the lights off and slid beneath the covers. As her eyes fluttered closed, the final thought that ran through Jasmine’s mind
was how it felt to be wrapped up in Tyson’s arms, and how she wanted to do it again as soon as possible.
Chapter 13
Tyson tiptoed around the house the best he could as he put together breakfast. He slipped down to the creek after a few hours of sleep and picked a small bowl full of huckleberries to add to the waffle batter he had planned. He needed to be quick and light on his feet if he was going to surprise Jasmine with breakfast in bed. Huckleberry waffles with huckleberry syrup, sausage, eggs, and some raspberries on the side. That was the best part about summers in the Idaho mountains—there was a whole slew of ripe berries fresh for the taking. Setting everything carefully onto the dinner tray, Tyson stood back and admired his handiwork. His sisters and Ma would be proud; they taught him well. But it was missing something.
Looking outside Tyson caught a glimpse of what he was missing. Right behind his cabin, there were a ton of wildflowers growing. The whites, yellows, and blues of the blooms were all calling out to him. Trotting through the backdoor, Tyson gathered a handful of flowers and went back inside to find a glass to put them in so he could put them on the tray. Walking back through the door, he was brought up short by the sight of Jasmine sitting on one of the bar stools at his kitchen counter, looking rather amused.
“You, uh, you were supposed to be asleep still,” Tyson stammered nervously as he tried to hide the flowers behind his back.
Jasmine shrugged. “I slept well last night and felt like today was as good of day as any to get an early start around here.
Crossing over to the tray filled with breakfast, Tyson scooted it closer to Jasmine. “Go ahead and dig in. I made it all for you to have in bed, but I guess we can improvise.”
Jasmine looked up from where she was sitting and smiled at Tyson. “Thank you. No one’s ever tried to make me breakfast in bed before.”