Ellis turned to me, his face set, his emotions clearly reined in. “Ruby, you need to think—”
I held up my hand and, God love him, he went silent.
“Yes,” Samuel said with a solemn nod. “That is how I’ve seen it at least, and I feel I’m accurate. And you?”
I nodded too. “I can’t tell. I want it too bad. But I feel I could get through it and then…done.”
“Done,” he said.
“It’s not done!” Ellis roared. “This is something that she seriously needs to consi—”
“Ellis, do you want this baby?” I asked him softly.
He shut his mouth with an audible clack and then sighed. “Of course I do. But I won’t lose you, Ruby. Not again.”
“But you won’t.”
“Bloody, violent…” he said and tossed his hands in the air.
“But okay in the end.”
“You will be a wolf,” he ground out. “Transformed.”
Samuel stood, cleared his throat. “I’m going to leave you to it. I’m going to go check on Roberta.” And his bulk was almost silently gone from the room.
“It’s okay,” I said, putting a protective hand on my belly. Now that I understood my unease in my own skin, I was fine with it. I felt horrible but great. Weak but strong.
“It’s not. You will no longer be a human,” he said. “We work very hard not to change humans,” he said. “Why do you think all the times we’ve been together I have never ever broken your skin? Even when we are in the throes of passion and I do bite you. It is never to the point of penetration.”
“It’s fine,” I said again. I was starving. And horny. And stupidly, sappily happy.
“It’s not!”
He was getting very frustrated with me. I went to him and dropped to his lap. “It is.” I kissed him. “It will be my child…our child…that changes me.”
“But—“
I kissed him again, pushing my fingers in his hair. Tugging ever so gently so he growled. “No buts. And I have it on good authority that I was once—in another life—a wolf anyway. So no big deal.”
“Ruby,” he sighed.
“I need something from you,” I said. I had turned to straddle him, face to face, my lips brushing his off and on.
“What, Little Bird? Anything you need.”
“I need you to fuck me,” I whispered.
“But the baby.”
“Is fine. I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t feel one hundred and fifty percent sure it was okay. I need it, Ellis,” I whispered. “Please.”
I could feel him hard under me and I wriggled in his lap so that the friction from his hard-on pressed my sex. “You are cheating,” he said.
“I know.”
“You’re sure it’s okay?”
“I am. More than okay. Please,” I breathed, now a flurry of fingers as I reached into his lap and tried to work his buckle, his button, his fly.
He pushed me back on our bed and said sternly, “Let me.”
“Do you think they’ll hear?” I asked.
He bounded off the bed and locked the door. “Not if you’re quiet,” he said.
His cock was hard and ready and it made me shiver just to look at him that way. Pulling my clothes free of me so that he could part my thighs and hold them gently down as he slid into me.
“Yes, that is what I need,” I said. And then jokingly, “Mamma needs daddy.”
He rolled his eyes but there was a flush of pride at the word daddy. How long had he been worrying? How hard was it to settle in your heart that you were going to choose your mate over your child if need be?
I tugged his shoulders and he hovered over me, kissing me like I might break. “I love you,” I said.
Ellis thrust hard, filling me, stretching me. His big hands slipped under my bottom and tilted me just so. With each stroke he nudged that tender place deep inside that had me gripping him hard and rocking up to meet him. “I’m just worried. I can’t lose you, Ruby.”
“Now you’ll have me even longer.” I kissed him. “I’ll live longer. I’ll be sexy longer.”
“You’re always sexy to me, Little Bird.”
“And…” I barreled on, my voice hitching a little. “We’ll be a family.”
Ellis pressed his forehead to my forehead and growled. “I’m coming, wife.”
“Me, too, husband,” I sighed and let the orgasm sweep through me.
“I guess we should go down now,” he said a few minutes later.
“We have to. Because I am starved.”
“What do you want?”
“Meat.”
“No doubt, you are pregnant.”
“Duh.”
Downstairs they awaited us. It was an odd scene. A vampire, a bear, a scared human, a giant psychic and a wolf.
They knew.
“Hi?” I said.
“Ruby!” Peabody said and gathered me up. He hugged me until I squeaked.
Even Madeline cracked a smile and said, “Congratulations.”
Roberta was damn near busting and she said, “An heir.”
Tyler looked at me, turned on his heels and left. I ran to the window watching his dark form sweep across the street and enter the stairwell that led to the apartment they’d be using.
For all the good feelings in me, a small shard of pain speared me. I blew out a shaky breath and turned, plastering a smile onto my face. “Well, that went well!”
Chapter 8
I was half way across the street when I noticed. I was intent on catching Tyler, but this still stopped me in my tracks. I stood in the middle of our very sedate street and pressed my hands to my belly. My black turtleneck looked bunched and blousy. But it wasn’t, it was a fitted turtleneck over a fitted pair of trousers. And yet…I had a bump.
And now that’d I’d noticed, my trousers that had been just fine earlier were almost uncomfortably tight. “Um…” I said to myself.
Or maybe the bump.
But then a car was coming and the door slammed and I was chasing after a pissed off vampire in my black boots. I could feel Ellis watching me from our house. He was in the dining room staring, trying very hard to let me be and let me handle this.
It should be creepy how in tune I was with him, but it was only comforting.
I banged on the door because Tyler had locked it behind him, that fucker. Not even officially his apartment yet, but he was locking me out.
I banged and yelled and banged and then the door swung open and I yelled, “What the merry fuck!”
And the lovely woman standing there said, “Merry Christmas to you, too, Mrs. Bach.”
“I…oh…I…uh. Hi,” I said, trying to speak English. “I’m sorry,” I sighed and found my hands on my slightly swollen belly. Already. Touching, protecting, stroking. I was scared.
In general.
She stepped back. Her hair was the color of ripe Bing cherries. No way was it natural. Her eyes were a liquid hazel color that looked like tropical water. “Come in,” she said.
“I’m soooooo sorry,” I muttered. God, what a mess. Christmas Eve, banging down doors, screaming at people.
“It’s fine. I’m Iris. Iris Hunter. Come on in. He went upstairs.” She shook her head and that curtain of burgundy hair swayed. “I’m surprised he didn’t go through the stairs.”
“Yes, I know. He’s a—”
“I know what he is. I can smell it. They have that cold air smell”
Surprisingly, she did not wrinkle her nose. “So, you um—”
Iris shrugged. “I grew up with two friend-of-the-fammily-considered-uncle-types who were fangs. I don’t care about that.” She turned from me. “I’ll just leave you to your—”
“You..um, you’re the worker…person…um niece? You work in the warehouse.”
What the fuck was it about this woman that was scrambling my brain. I couldn’t even string together a simple sentence.
Or maybe it was the baby. The baby was making me brain dead.
; I shut my eyes and tried to steady myself. Nope. It was her I was picking up on. A calm but intense person…some interest…some attraction? To Ty? My eyes flew open and she touched my arm.
“Are you okay, Double L?” Then she blushed six shades darker than her hair.
“Double L?”” I said, trying to rein my mind in.
I think this is her. Ty’s suited mate. Samuel said she was coming and here is this woman…
“Sorry,” she said.
“What is double-L?”
She muttered something and blushed even more. Tyler could probably smell that blood in her face like it was in the apartment with him.
“Sorry?” I said. “Say again.”
“Long Lost,” she sighed. “Ellis Bach is Big Bad and you are his Long Lost. It’s a nickname of sorts. Just one most of us are smart enough not to say to your face.”
I smiled at her. “I don’t care. That’s fine by me. Ruby, Long Lost, Mrs. Bach. Whatever. Anyway, I’m sorry for his tantrum. And for me not being able to talk. And for disturbing you from your…” I nodded toward the bottom door.
She shrugged. “They’re just books. I figured I’d get some work done and—”
“Hey!” I blurted. “It’s Christmas Eve,” I said.
Duh.
“It is.”
“Why are you here alone?”
She shrugged. “I have no family. My uncle owned the shop and the apartment. But I have my own and so I just come and work and…”
I waved my hand, pointing. “Go.”
“What?” she blinked, confused.
“Go over there and eat. There’s food and Ellis and some of our beloved town folks. It’s a zoo and a shambles and noisy but you shouldn’t be alone on Christmas Eve.”
She blushed more.
“Fuck me, who is that!” Tyler called from upstairs. “I’m going to go on a blood rampage if she doesn’t stop that.”
I snorted, covering my mouth. I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialed home. Ellis answered immediately.
“Gee, worried much?” I teased. And then, “I’m sending Iris over. Iris…” I stared at her.
“Hunter,” she said again.
“Iris Hunter.” I said to him. “Jeremiah’s niece? Right?”
She nodded. He was rumbling at me over the cell phone. “Why don’t you talk to her when she comes across the street. Feed her, ply her with liquor and I will go talk to his highness.” I motioned for her to go and she shook her head but went, smiling at me over her shoulder. “She’s on her way,” I said.
Then I dropped the bomb. “And, Ellis? I’m showing already.”
There was silence on his end that drove a splinter of fear into my heart but then he said, “I’ll be damned.”
“What?”
“We have to go see the doc, but I think that means we’re good Ruby. I think that means…we’re going to be parents.”
“I have to hang up now,” I whispered. “Before I pass out from terror.”
He chuckled lowly and said, “I love you.”
“I love you too.
Then from Tyler upstairs, “Are you coming up here to fucking talk to me or are you going to have a party in my new stairwell all night?”
God damned prima donna vampires.
* * * *
The place was huge and it was nicely furnished. I wondered why Iris didn’t just stay here, but who was I to judge? Folks had their reasons for all they did, or did not do.
“What is wrong with you?” Tyler asked.
“What is wrong with me? I didn’t storm out of a Christmas party.”
“You left your life to live on wolf mountain and have a wolf baby and you’re going to become a fucking wolf, Ruby. If you have that thing–”
I clutched my belly—already so damn protective. “It’s not a thing, Tyler. It’s a child. And if you weren’t my friend—my best friend, whether you act it or not—I wouldn’t be able to forgive you that statement.”
He blew out a sigh, though it was unnecessary. Old habits die hard when you’re worked up. “I’m sorry. I just…I miss you. I didn’t think it would cement. I thought you’d be home by now and you’d hate him and we could move on.”
“I’m in love with him and married to him and am now going to have his baby.”
“And become a monster,” he said.
“Some say that’s what you are, Tyler. Are they right?”
He frowned, running a elegant white hand through his dark chocolate locks—still unruly, still too long, still sexy as hell. “No.”
“So thanks for the vote of confidence.”
He turned on me and I saw the fear in his startling green eyes. “I’m so fucking scared for you, Ruby. I can handle you not loving me.”
I frowned at him and raised my eyebrows.
“I’m getting there,” he amended. “And I can handle you starting a new life and all that. But this, this could kill you. What if you don’t change? Or it goes wrong? Or it’s too just too fucking much for your body and you…die. Or any of that stuff?”
“What if it’s fine? What if it goes smoothly? What if this is my destiny?” I countered.
“You’re going to change, Ruby. You’re going to change.”
“For my child, for Ellis, for my family—I will change,” I said. “Please stop all this. Please be a part of my family again, Tyler. Please be my friend.”
“Christ,” he said, and pressed his forehead to the painted-paneled wall. “Ruby, if I weren’t already dead, you’d be killing me.”
I smiled.
“And you’re already showing,” he said.
“I know.”
“Doesn’t that freak you out?” he asked.
“A little,” I lied. It freaked me out a lot.
My phone rang and I took it. “Yes, dear?”
“The doc stopped by to wish us a merry Christmas and I told him. He wants to give you a once over to be safe.”
“Oh, okay. When?”
“Now,” Ellis said.
Of course now. What was I thinking?
I sighed. “I’ll be right there.”
“See ya,” Tyler snapped.
“Oh, no. Come on, you’re coming with me.”
“No.”
“Yes. Peabody is there, so is Madeline, the O’Dells. And now a girl with cherry red hair who blushes a lot and doesn’t think you smell bad.”
“Well, fuck,” he said. “How flattering.”
Chapter 9
Again, it was the street where something happened. Tyler was flanking me but hanging back. He was making his point that he wasn’t happy with me. The wolf was fast—fast and low to the ground until it actually sprang.
I saw arctic blue eyes and a striped coat like a mink. It hit me with its teeth bared and its paws wide. The force struck at my shoulders and knocked me back. I had time to scream once and then the creature was turning its head
Tyler was on it, fangs bared, eyes surreally dark with almost no pupil. And then two more wolves helped in fending off the intruder and there came the undeniable sound of a shotgun being cocked.
A few snarls and a yelp and the strange wolf was gone. The smaller wolf that came with Ellis—Bertie, it must have been—took off after it, but Samuel whistled so she’d return.
Bertie, God bless her, walked out of the woods by our house stark naked and entirely at ease. Tyler was bleeding and Mr. O’Dell was seeing about him.
I still had no air in my lungs, no words in my mind. Then my naked husband was crouched over me and demanding to know if I was okay. …Okay, okay, okay…
“Ruby!”
“What?” I shouted back.
He blew out a sigh. “Are you okay?”
Doc Burns stood over me and said, “Do not move.”
“I’m fine.”
“Do not move,” Dr. Burns and Ellis said in unison.
“If I may?” Peabody stepped forward.
The doctor nodded and Ellis looked pained but stepped back.
&nb
sp; “You are naked,” I said to him.
“Hush, Ruby.”
“Bertie is naked too,” I whispered as if none of them could hear me.
Samuel laughed out loud and handed a now-shivering Bertie his jacket.
I stared up into Peabody’s big, brown concerned eyes and said, “Thank you.”
He was carrying me to the front door and the whole klatch of folks followed us. Poor Mrs. O was still inside, due to that damn wheel chair.
“You weigh nary an ounce,” Peabody said to me.
“No, not that. Thank you for not shifting.”
He cocked an eyebrow, smiling.
I felt a little weird. A little dizzy. A little freaked out. “I’m pretty sure I’m in shock.”
“Aye,” he said.
Have I mentioned he’s Scottish? And a bear?
“What I meant was,” I babbled on. “Thank you for not shifting into a bear out there. You really smell when you are a bear.”
Peabody’s head fell back and he laughed. A big, loud happy sound in my little house.
And then Ellis and Doc Burns were getting him to lay me flat on the bed and they were poking and prodding and being general pains in the ass.
“I’m fine,” I said. I started to shiver.
“Cover her, Ellis,” Doc said.
“They’re all down there waiting for us,” I sighed.
“They’re eating, they’re mingling. They are fine,” Ellis said with great restraint. He wanted to rampage and break something and burn the fucking world down, I could tell.
“I am, too.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Can I wash my hands?” Doc Burns asked softly. He was trying to be calm for me—and for Ellis—I could tell.
“Right there behind that door, Doc,” Ellis said.
Ellis dropped to his knees, kissing my face, my hair, my lips. He inhaled deeply, his nose pressed to my neck.
“Ellis?”
“What, Little Bird?”
“You’re still naked.”
He sighed mightily, and grabbed a pair of jeans and pulled them on. Commando—I usually approved. Right now I was too tired to care. He pulled on a sweater and then was back by my side.
“Okay, Ruby. I need to give you a once over. And then I’m going to drape you with a sheet and just do a very fast pelvic to make sure all is well. I’m really sorry. I know it’s odd. And I had planned on waiting for that until maybe the day after tomorrow to get you in the office, but given what just happened…”
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