by Liv Brywood
Fur sprouted on his hands and arms. He couldn’t stop the shift, so he ran around the side of the building into an alleyway. Pain sliced through his muscles as he dropped to all fours. In a tangle of cracking bones and elongating tendons, he shifted.
The scent of filthy dumpsters and quiet desperation coiled into his lungs. Heat rose up from the concrete in shimmering waves. The afternoon sun beat down to bake his fur. He panted and trotted toward the back of the casino.
As he crawled down the steep slope of a drainage ditch, his paws slid through a smattering of empty fast food wrappers. His stomach growled. He wasn’t sure where he was headed, but he followed the scent of hamburgers along the ditch until the smell of fresh meat intensified.
He scampered up the embankment and spotted a hamburger shack with its back door open. When he reached the threshold, he poked his nose inside. French fries sizzled in the fryer while burgers charred on the stove.
He padded closer to the chef, who turned with a start. He wielded a spatula, as if that could stop a wolf, and yelled, “Get out, you mutt!”
Jax growled and eyed the hamburger patties. The chef looked from him to the stove and back.
“I’ll give you one if you promise to fuck off. I can’t stand you damn shifters,” the man said.
With a sharp nod of his head, Jax secured a juicy burger. He chomped it down in two bites before turning to eye the fries.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” the chef said. “I supposed you want a combo? You want a soda too?”
Jax grinned as the man shoved a huge serving of fries into a to-go bag. He set a cup of soda on the ground.
“Now go on, get out of here,” the chef said.
Jax grabbed the bag of fries with his teeth. When he turned to leave, he kicked the soda over with his back leg. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with conniving jackasses today.
As he trotted along the drainage ditch, he tried to take his mind off of Riley. But he couldn’t stop picturing her naked, hot, and ready for him. Maybe she regretted what they’d done. She had been a little drunk. They’d indulged in a few too many drinks and now they’d ruined everything.
Maybe pretending that it had never happened was the right thing to do. She didn’t seem to want to talk about it, and maybe that was for the best. He’d just have to stop thinking about the way her breath hitched when he swirled his tongue across her clit. If he could block the image of her flushed, ecstatic face from his mind, then maybe he’d be able to move on.
For now, he’d follow her lead and ignore his wolf. The beast had it wrong. She couldn’t possibly be his mate. He would have realized it years ago if that were true.
Chapter 4
Riley continued to avoid Jax at various tournaments over the course of the next few weeks. Fortunately she hadn’t been seated next to him since the morning after their sex-fest. For once, the tournament software hadn’t betrayed her. But even with the best table draws possible, she hadn’t made a final table since before that night. That night. That’s how she’d been referring to it in her head. As if her entire like could be broken in two: the time before and the time after.
She’d spotted Jax across the room at several tournaments. He’d smiled at her cordially, but he never waded through the tables to get any closer. In his defense, neither did she.
Even now, as she sat waiting for room service to arrive in yet another in nondescript hotel room, in another town full of blinking neon lights, she waited for a text, a call, anything. She picked up her phone and stared at the screen. She hadn’t received a call or a text since confirmation from Pizza Hut the night before. She’d been eating her pain for weeks and didn’t know how to make it stop. She needed to talk to him. But what could she say?
A knock on the door startled her. She hauled herself up off the couch and padded to the door. When she opened it, an older gentleman gestured toward a cart laden with silver-lidded trays.
“Where would you like it, miss?” he asked.
“Over by the bed, please.”
After leaving the cart, he smiled. “Will there be anything else?”
Yeah, could you go find Jax and tell him I can’t stop thinking about him?
“No, thank you.” She handed him a tip and sent him on his way.
The mouthwatering scent of steak, French fries, garlic mashed potatoes, and chocolate lava cake filled the room. She removed several lids before locating a hamburger with pickles. She’d been craving salt like crazy.
As she chomped on a pickle, she glared at the phone. By now he should have manned up and called her. The longer they waited to talk, the worse things were getting. He’d hardly glanced her way at the last tourney.
Although she was supposed to be downstairs in an hour, her stomach churned and her cheeks flushed. She struggled to fight off a wave of nausea. Maybe she was coming down with something. Since she hadn’t registered for the game yet, she could skip it. A night off would be nice. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d skipped the Saturday night game, but there was a first time for everything.
She settled onto the bed with the plate full of steak and mashed potatoes. After finding her favorite reality TV show, she settled back against the pillows. Almost immediately, the mindless whining and complaining of the show’s contestants started to grate on her nerves. As she reached for the remote, her phone buzzed with Jax’s ring tone.
She froze with her hand halfway between the phone and the remote. She quickly grabbed the remote and hit Mute. Then she answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“I’m downstairs playing the sickest cash game since the one we played in the basement of that bar in Texas. Remember that one? Gilly’s or Hill Billy’s or something like that,” he said.
“I…sure…I remember it,” she said to cover her shock. He’d finally called! But to talk about poker?
“Are you coming down soon?” he asked. “The tourney won’t start for another forty-five minutes. You can get into this game right now if you can get down here in the next five minutes.”
“I…I’m not feeling very well. I think I’m going to skip the game.”
“Save your energy for the tourney. No problem, more money for me,” he said in a joking tone.
“Jax…” Her voice trailed off as everything she wanted to say to him caught in her throat. “I can’t make it today. I think I’m coming down with something, so I’m going to skip it.”
The silence on the other side of the line lasted so long that she checked to make sure they hadn’t been disconnected.
“Are you there?” she asked softly.
“Yeah. I’m just surprised. You never miss games,” he said.
“I know. But I haven’t been feeling like myself recently.”
“Me either… Actually, I was hoping I’d get to see you tonight. I was thinking that maybe we could talk after the game.”
“About?” she asked.
“I’d rather not get into it over the phone. It’s something I’d rather say in person. Maybe I should just come up there right now if you’re not going to play,” he said.
Her guts clenched with trepidation. What did he need to say to her that was so important that he needed to do it in person? She wasn’t sure she was ready to find out.
“I… I might be sick,” she said. “I don’t want you to catch it.”
“I really need to talk to you,” he said.
“We can talk next month at the Shifter Access Unlimited bounty tournament.”
“Next month?” he asked in a harsh voice.
“Or we can talk on the phone.”
He sighed. “I guess it can wait. I’ve waited this long.”
“Good luck tonight.”
“Riley…”
“Yeah?”
“I… I hope you feel better,” he said.
“Thank you.”
After disconnecting the call, she shoved the plate of steak away. Her belly gurgled and rolled. It seemed to get worse with each passing secon
d. The stress of losing her friend was killing her and she didn’t know how to bridge the divide between them. They needed to talk. That was a given. But she was terrified that he didn’t want to continue their friendship.
Maybe he just wanted to tell her what she already knew, that they’d destroyed their relationship by giving in to their lust. Or worse, maybe he’d found someone else and he wanted to tell her before the gossiping gamblers broke the news. Either way, she wasn’t ready to face him.
Heat flooded her cheeks. She blotted her forehead with the back of her hand. She’s already turned the AC down several degrees but it wasn’t enough.
As she slid out of bed, the room swayed. A rush of burning heat bubbled up from her belly. She stumbled through the room and hurried into the bathroom. After dropping to her knees, she hurled every last bite of food into the toilet.
When she’d finished retching, she lay weak and trembling against the cool tile floor. She hadn’t been struck down with stomach flu in years, but from what she remembered, the symptoms were much different. It could be food poisoning, but that didn’t make sense. She had a stomach of steel and she could handle even the sketchiest restaurant food.
After regaining some strength, she crawled up to the sink. She splashed water across her mouth and washed her face. As she stood, the fabric of her T-shirt caught on her belly. She frowned and ran her hands over her stomach. Was she gaining more weight?
Pregnant!
Oh holy shit. She couldn’t be… when was her last period?
She tore into the makeup bag on the counter. Where in the hell were her birth control pills?
She yanked the packet out and checked. Fifteen days into the new pack. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. When she’d missed her period at the end of the last pack, she hadn’t thought anything of it. It could be late from time to time. But not two weeks late.
How could this be? She’d been on birth control when she’d had sex with Jax. She hadn’t been with anyone else for months before, or anyone since.
This couldn’t be happening. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe this was a really bad false alarm. There was only one way to find out.
She changed clothes and hurried out to the local drugstore. After getting a pack of three pregnancy tests, she returned to her room.
She dumped the contents of the brown paper bag on the counter. She eyed the box warily. This was ridiculous. She couldn’t possibly be pregnant after one time…scratch that… three times with Jax. The odds were so completely against it. She probably just had some weird virus that was making her late.
But she had to know, so she ripped open the packaging and lined up each of the tests. She peed on one stick and set it on the counter. When her phone’s timer sounded three minutes later, she peeked at the test. She gasped. A bright pink plus sign glistened in the results window.
“No. No. No,” she whispered.
She repeated the testing process with the other two sticks. The results were conclusive. One could be wrong. But not all three. She was pregnant.
As second wave of nausea overcame her. How was she going to tell Jax? He was going to be furious. He never wanted kids. They’d been joking about how children were little monsters for years. Hell, they’d bonded over the fact that they never wanted kids. He’d told her that although he was an alpha, he had no desire to settle down and raise a pack of wolf-babies. And even if he did want children—which he didn’t—but if he did, it wouldn’t be with a human.
Any chance they had at repairing their friendship was gone. The minute she told him the news, he’d hate her forever.
***
Jax paced the tournament room as the clock ticked closer to the start of the game. He’d been waiting a month to see Riley and was hoping he’d get to talk with her before the tourney started. After she’d failed to show up at several other games, he’d tried to call her, but it always went to voicemail. She wouldn’t miss the Shifter Access Unlimited bounty tournament unless there was something seriously wrong. He’d already charmed the front desk girls into confirming that Riley was staying in the hotel. But he hadn’t scented her yet.
“Hey Jax,” Tony said. The grizzled old gambler took a seat at a nearby table.
“Hey. Have you seen Riley?” Jax asked.
“Not since she tossed her cookies in a trashcan an hour ago.”
“She’s still sick?”
“I don’t know about sick, but something’s up,” Tony said. “She looked paler than a snowman.”
“Damn. I need to go check on her.”
“Hurry up. The game’s starting in fifteen minutes,” Tony said.
“They can blind me out.”
Jax didn’t give a damn about the game. If Riley had been sick over a month, then he needed to get her to the hospital immediately. In all the time he’d known her, she’d never been sick more than a day or two at the most. So something was really wrong.
After schmoozing the front desk girls into giving him Riley’s room number, he jumped into an elevator. It took forever to get to the thirty-fifth floor.
When he arrived, he pounded on the door.
“Riley!”
She didn’t respond.
“Riley open up!”
A man poked his head out of one of the other rooms and glared at him. Jax narrowed his eyes until the man scurried back into his room.
A minute later, security came running down the hall, Tasers drawn.
“Back away from the door, sir.”
“She’s in trouble. I need to get in there,” Jax said.
“Back up or we’ll be forced to Taser you,” one of the security guards said.
The door to the hotel room opened. Riley stood wrapped in a fluffy white robe. Water dripped from her hair.
“What’s going on out here?” she demanded.
“This man was trying to break into your room,” security said.
She glanced at Jax before turning back to the Taser-wielding men. “It’s okay. He’s my friend. He didn’t know I was in the shower. Sorry for your trouble.”
“No problem, ma’am.”
Riley grabbed his arm and dragged him inside.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He inhaled the fresh, clean scent of her then froze. She was pregnant. With his son!
“Riley,” he whispered.
He held his hands out and took a step toward her.
“I need to dry my hair.” She turned and walked into the bathroom, then slammed the door in his face.
He stood on the other side with his jaw hanging open. She was pregnant. With his son. Holy shit. How? That night she’d told him that she was on birth control. Had she lied?
Unable to wait for her to come out, he opened the door. She stood completely naked in the center of the room with a wailing hairdryer in one hand and a brush in the other. His gaze raked across the soft swell of her belly.
“Jax,” she snapped. “I’m not dressed yet.”
“I’ve seen you naked before.”
“I know. But I’m not talking to you until I have clothes on.”
“You’re…pregnant,” he whispered.
She flicked off the hairdryer and set it on the counter along with the brush. After slipping back into the robe, she knotted the belt at her waist. She avoided his stunned gaze.
“How long have you known?” he asked.
“A month.”
“A month?” His stomach plunged through the floor. She’d known an entire month and hadn’t told him. What the fuck?
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” she whispered.
“Are you kidding me?” he yelled. “How could you keep this from me?”
Her bottom lip trembled and tears formed in her eyes. Part of him wanted to go to her and wrap her in a comforting embrace. But his wolf was furious. The beast growled and clawed at his chest. He wanted to show his mate that she belonged to him.
His mate? Not again. His wolf was totally wrong about that. There was no way Riley was his mate. A true
mate would never lie to him, especially not about something this important.
“I’m sorry,” she sniffled. “I was scared.”
“Scared?” He roared. “Of what? I wouldn’t have been angry if you’d told me as soon as you found out. My God, Riley. Did you know when I talked to you last month?”
“No. I didn’t take the test until later,” she said.
“Later when? You said you’ve known for a month.”
“That night. After we hung up I got sick again. Then I realized I’d missed my period. So I took a test. Three, actually. And… I just didn’t know how to tell you.”
His alpha instinct charged forth to overcome him. He couldn’t control his animal’s powerful need to possess her. Still in human form, it was rare that his wolf could completely command his body, but that was exactly what happened when he rushed forward to grab her.
“You’re mine,” he snarled.
He walked her back until he had her pinned between his body and the wall. A powerful compulsion to possess her body and soul raged through his veins. She was his, and he damn well intended to prove it.
As he crushed his mouth to hers, she whimpered and pushed against his shoulders. He didn’t budge. Instead, he snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her hard against him. The thick length of his cock pressed against her. A demanding, feral need had him thrusting his tongue between her lips.
She moaned and stopped trying to escape. As she wound her arms around his shoulders, he growled with approval.
Mine! his wolf insisted.
He stood back and yanked the rope open to expose her swollen breasts. Her chest heaved with shaky breaths. Fire burned in her eyes as if challenging him to do his worst. He’d never hurt her, but by the time he was done, he intended to be damn sure she knew that she belonged to him.
Chapter 5