by Sophie Stern
I can’t think about that now, though.
Jason and I stride up to the door and knock. There’s no answer, but we hear a rustling at the side of the house. We exchange weary glances, then head around the side of the building.
Like a bad vintage cartoon, Sawyer is trying to climb out of a first floor window, but failing. I don’t know what his pants got caught on, but they’re tearing very loudly as he tries to get away.
“Sawyer Marsh,” Jason says. “Hold it right there. You’re wanted for questioning.”
Forgetting his pants, Sawyer does what any innocent person would do when questioned by the police: he shifts and runs off.
“Fuck it all to hell,” Jason says. He growls and shifts, chasing after him. I follow close behind with a growl. It feels good to run. It feels even better to be chasing after the asshole who put my ranch and my girl at risk.
Sawyer might be a panther, but he injured his leg a few years back, so he’s slow. He’s certainly slower than Edwards and surprisingly enough, he’s slower than me. In a very undramatic way, Jason leaps at Sawyer, knocking him onto his side. He pins him on his back with his mouth at Sawyer’s throat, sending a clear message: move and die.
“Go ahead,” I say, shifting back to my human self. “I’m hungry for loser tonight. Go ahead and move, Sawyer.” I can practically see the wheels turning in Sawyer’s head as he decides whether to try to fight Jason or not, but when he hears sirens in the distance, his body goes limp. With a soft mewl, he shifts back to his very human, very naked self. Jason immediately follows suit.
“Let’s go, asshole,” Jason says, grabbing Sawyer’s wrist. Before he leads him back to the house, though, there’s something I have to know.
“Why?” It’s cliché. It’s totally, completely cliché, but I need to know why us. Why our farm? Of all the places Sawyer could have picked to sabotage, what made him go after our business right now?
“Ma’s business is failing,” he mumbles, shrugging his shoulder. “She’s going to close down at the end of the month. Says it’s time for her to retire, anyway.”
“You fucking idiot,” Jason says, forgetting to act like a cop for just a moment. “Wyatt wants to bring in more tourists and more money to Honeypot. You understand what that means, right?”
“It means even fewer people will be staying at Ma’s.”
“No, asshole, it means more people will be coming to town, which means more people will stay at all the businesses in town and spend more money. This means a great influx of cash for all of us: not just our ranch.”
Suddenly, Sawyer makes the connection, and I have to wonder how much he’s been drinking lately to be acting so stupid. Still, I’m glad the drama is over and he’s going behind bars where he belongs.
I won’t have to worry about Hope anymore. I won’t have to worry about anything but fucking my beautiful darling over and over and over again.
“Dude,” Jason says, suddenly turning back to me. “Calm down, will you? I know I’m sexy, but try to keep your arousal to yourself. I can smell you all the way from over here.”
“Yeah, me too,” Sawyer adds, and Jason slugs him. They disappear ahead of me and I follow slowly back to the house.
Such a simple problem that could have been dealt with through a reasonable discussion escalated into something that could have ended in Hope’s death.
For the millionth time, I’m grateful she’s okay.
For the millionth time, I’m wondering how I managed to live this long without her.
Chapter 25
Hope
Epilogue
3 months later
“The cabins are finished!” Wyatt comes into the room and I wrap my arms around him and give him a kiss.
“Finally!” I say. “Who knew it would take so long to build eight tiny little cabins?” The insurance company processed our claim insanely quickly, but we still started building the cabins before we had the money in hand. Luckily, everything came together in the end and now we’re the proud owners of several beautiful miniature luxury cabins in the heart of Colorado.
“Well, they wouldn’t have taken so long if somebody didn’t insist on them being so fancy.” He says it dryly, but Wyatt’s eyes are sparkling and I know he’d never really be upset with me.
“I know Alex and Micah aren’t fussy about theirs, baby, but we’re going to have tourists in five of them and your parents in the last one. I just want the best for them.” I still haven’t met his parents. I’m going to soon and I have no idea what I’m going to say to them. I’ve never had to meet the parents before. Jake and I were together a long time, but I’d known his folks just as long. I never had to go through the process of meeting parental units and being under their scrutiny.
What if I don’t measure up?
“Babe, you don’t need to worry about my parents. They’re going to love you.”
Sometimes I’m not so sure, but I’m doing my best to trust Wyatt. He’s never let me down and to be honest, it feels good to be able to just relax and let him handle this. He knows his folks pretty damn well, and if he says they’ll like me, I need to believe that, too.
We’ve been engaged for three months and we’re planning a small wedding, but they have no idea. They’re due to return to Honeypot soon and when they do, it’s going to be a huge surprise. We’re planning on throwing a “Surprise! We’re engaged!” party the night they get back to town so we can celebrate together.
I can’t wait.
“It’s been a long couple of months,” I say. “Now Sawyer’s in jail, the cabins are finished, and the wedding plans are well under way. What are we going to do now to keep us busy?”
For so long, our life has been one long to-do list. Now it’s starting to slow down. Tonight is the first time we’re going to have some time alone together and I’m thrilled.
I have some big news for Wyatt.
Bigger than the engagement, even.
“I can think of a few ideas,” he wiggles his eyebrows and strides toward me.
“Oh, Wyatt,” I strip out of my clothes quickly and by the time he crosses the room, I’m completely naked.
“Woman, you’re going to be the death of me,” he says, but he’s smiling. “You get naked so fucking quick. Are you sure you don’t have shifter blood in you?”
“Well,” I say, realizing this is the moment. There’s not going to be a more perfect one for this announcement. “I might have a little in me now.”
He cocks his head, looking confused for a moment, but I take his hand and place it on my belly. For a brief second, his eyes light up, but then I see him quickly reign in his excitement. Wyatt, always the epitome of self-control, is trying to stay calm in this moment because he doesn’t want to get his hopes up.
He doesn’t want to be disappointed, but he doesn’t need to worry about that.
“Baby?” He asks, licking his lips, looking down at me, and I just nod.
“You’re going to be a daddy, Wyatt.” My eyes tear up. Just a few short months ago I was down on my luck, completely alone in the world, without a single person who cared about me.
And now?
Now I have a family.
I have a family and I’m going to be a mommy.
“I’m going to be a daddy?” He drops to his knees in front of me and kisses my belly, squeezing my ass and pulling me close to him. “I’m going to be a daddy!” He says again.
“Careful!” I say, laughing. “You don’t want to give the baby hearing problems.”
“I’m going to be a daddy,” he repeats, a little quieter this time.
Wyatt stands and wraps me in his arms. He kisses me like there’s no tomorrow, like nothing else in the world exists but the two of us. I breathe in his masculine scent, realizing that life can’t get more perfect than this.
“Hope Demers, thank you for making me the happiest man in the world.” He kisses me again, holding me close, and I can’t believe that just a few months ago, I was hopeless, dreamless
, jobless. Just a few months ago I had nothing going for me.
And now?
Now I’m on top of the world.
“Come on,” he grins, taking my hand and pulling me out of the room. “Let’s go tell my brothers.”
The thought of keeping this news a secret never even crossed my mind. I knew we’d be telling Micah and Carter right away. The Blairs aren’t triplets, but sometimes they sure act like it. Shifter siblings tend to be a lot closer to each other than human siblings, or so I’ve heard.
It certainly appears that way.
I manage to grab a robe as he hustles me out of the room. I slip into it as we’re laughing our way down the stairs. The Blairs might be comfortable with nudity at all times, but I’m still human. I still don’t want my soon-to-be brothers-in-law seeing me naked.
“I’m going to be a dad!” Wyatt calls out when we get to the kitchen, but as I round the corner, I see that we aren’t alone in the house. Carter and Micah are there, of course, but so is Savannah.
From the looks of things, she’s been crying. Her hair is a mess, her clothes are wrinkled, and her face is streaked with dark mascara.
What could possibly be wrong? Savannah and I hang out occasionally, but she’s never said anything about life being hard on her right now. I can’t imagine anything that would make her cry like this. She hasn’t been dating anyone and there isn’t a single person in Honeypot who doesn’t like her.
Next to Savannah, there’s a little boy sitting on the countertop who is covered from head-to-toe in dirt and he’s clutching a teddy bear. The kid’s clothes are ratty and torn, and his eyes are puffy and swollen.
He looks like a sad, frightened little mouse, and my heart clenches.
“So am I,” Carter says, and looks up at Wyatt, but his eyes are hard and cold, and if I didn’t know Carter, I’d say he’d been crying, too. “So am I.”
He turns back to Savannah and squeezes her hand, but for someone who is about to be a parent, Carter looks worse than I’ve ever seen him and I can’t help the feeling that our shared good news is about to be overshadowed by something horrible.
Read Carter and Savannah’s story in The Bear’s Virgin Mate. Make sure you
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A Note for Readers
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Alien Dragon
Want more shifters? Check out Alien Dragon: an alien shifter romance!
I'm on the last ship out.
I don't think I'm going to make it, but I do. Earth is dying and there's only one way I can possibly survive: fight for a spot on the dragon planet of Taneyemm.
They don't want humans there.
They don't like us.
They don't know us.
But when I step foot on the ship bound for Taneyemm, I know it's my last hope. I'll do anything I have to survive.
I'll do whatever it takes.
When I finally reach my destination and I see the alien dragons for the first time, I realize I'm in way over my head.
And I don't know if my heart is ready for this.
Order your copy on Amazon!
Beware of Dragons
Sneak Peek of Dragon Isle Book Five!
Get your copy here:
Beware of Dragons (Dragon Isle Book 5)
“Two weeks,” Audrey said with a frown on her face.
“One week,” Gabriel protested.
“Two.”
“Fine.”
Audrey smirked, thinking she had won the argument, but Gabriel planned to bug her endlessly until she got the pictures back sooner. He knew she could work faster than that, but he also knew his little spitfire was a bit of a perfectionist. She always needed everything to be perfect.
If only she felt that way about her own life.
Audrey pushed away from the table and stood, smoothing her black dress. She grabbed her red hat from the table and slipped it on, completing her pinup girl look. She was forever living in the past, but Gabriel suspected it had more to do with her love of photography and the trendiness of 50s fashion, rather than a personal statement.
Gabriel stood as she did, his large frame towering over her small one. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was intimidated, but he did know better. Nothing scared Audrey. Nothing. Not deadlines, not arguments, and certainly not dragons.
She was the fiercest human on Dragon Isle.
Maybe anywhere.
“I have to go,” she looked at her cell phone to check the time. “I have a meeting with Emerson about taking photos of his new baby. Then I have to meet with some of the older dragons to talk about pictures for their church directory.”
“There’s a church on the island?” Gabriel said with a smirk. Audrey just rolled her eyes. The dragons were more open to sexual deviances than most humans, but the older generation still appreciated the solitude that church offered them.
“Yes, Gabe, there’s a church.” Audrey smiled playfully at Gabriel. Fuck, she was beautiful. If only he could convince her there was so much more than friendship between them. Audrey had been adopted by a dragon couple as a small child and had grown up on the island. Though she and Gabriel had grown up together and were the best of friends, she hadn’t made a move to pursue anything else between them.
And it was killing him.
Each day that passed was one more without her. Gabriel wasn’t sure how much more he could take. He needed Audrey like he needed his next breath. She was all he could think about. She was consuming him.
“Want me to fly you?” He asked, desperate for a few more minutes with her. She cocked her head in surprise and raised her eyebrows. “To Emerson’s? No. I’m going to his house. It’s not too far to walk. You can walk me, though,” she added, fluttering her eyelashes in joke seduction.
He’d take it.
Gabriel dropped some money on the table to pay for their drinks, looped his arm through hers, and led Audrey out into the bright summer sunshine.
She chatted aimlessly as they made their way through the village and to the clan leader’s modest house. The entire time, Gabriel was wondering how much longer he was going to let things stay the same. How much longer could he stand being her best friend? How much longer could her handle being the guy she ran to with all of her problems? How much longer could he be the one she cried on when some other loser broke her heart?
How much longer could Gabriel wait for Audrey to realize he was standing right there?
When she kissed his cheek to say goodbye, he held her in a tight hug for a few seconds too long, wanting the moment to last just a bit more. He knew they were reaching a turning point. He was going to break or she was, and he wasn’t sure which, and he wasn’t sure where they were going to end up.
He would always love Audrey.
But if he couldn’t have her, he couldn’t wait around to see who would.
***
Audrey watched her best friend turn and walk away before he stripped down, tossed his clothes in a nearby basket, and shifted. Fuck, if he wasn’t the most gorgeous dragon she’d ever seen. Did Gabriel even know how much she wanted him? Craved him? She doubted it. She’d had a huge crush on him since they were kids, and she didn’t know what to do about it.
She didn’t know how to tell him she was crazy about him, that she dreamed about him every night. She didn’t know how to tell him that when she touched herself, it was to thoughts of him.
She had left Dragon Isle the moment she turned 18, but she had come back for him.
And he had no idea.
With a
sigh, she finally pulled her eyes from Gabriel’s retreating form and knocked on the door. Janae opened the door and Audrey was immediately greeted with the sounds of a wailing infant. Janae’s eyes were hollow and tired. She was bouncing the baby, but she looked like she was about to pass out from sheer exhaustion.
“Let me take him,” Audrey said gently, and Janae happily handed the baby over before laying down on the couch and promptly passing out. Audrey carried baby Weston around the house, bouncing him quietly and singing to him. Soon the baby was calm and content, cooing up at her as she told him stories about growing up on the island.
“You’re really good with children,” a voice said from the doorway. Audrey turned to see Emerson, the clan leader, watching her with a curious expression on his face.
“Thanks,” she said. “I love babies, but who doesn’t?” She shrugged. “Janae seemed really tired, so I took the baby for a bit while she rested.”
“Yeah, she’s still passed out on the couch. He hasn’t been sleeping much at night.” Emerson looked grim. “I knew parenting would be hard, but I didn’t realize how tough it would be to go back to work and have to leave Janae with him on her own. He’s a handful, and I feel bad, but the clan needs me.”
They both turned to look at Janae, who was curled up under a blanket and snoring loudly. Audrey hadn’t realized how tired her friend had been.
“Do you still want to do infant pictures?” Audrey asked, looking down at little Weston. “I can come back, but I don’t mind surprising Janae. He seems to be in a good mood.”
“Let’s do them now,” Emerson agreed. “Who knows when we’re going to get him smiling like this again?”