by R. E. Butler
“He or she should be able to shift, though?” Angel asked.
“Most likely. But like anything in life, there are exceptions. I know of a few shifters who have shifting parents of the same breed and are unable to shift, so the luck of the genetic draw can change the outcome for the baby. It’s hard to tell until a child becomes a teen whether they’ll be able to shift or not.”
Brin didn’t care if their kids were shifters; he just wanted them to be healthy, and for Angel to have an easy pregnancy.
After the doctor finished with all her questions about Angel’s health history, the nurse brought in a portable ultrasound machine.
“At five months, we’ll send you to the radiology department and they’ll do an ultrasound on the belly. If the baby cooperates, you’ll get to see whether you’re having a boy or a girl. If you want to, that is.”
“Oh, I definitely want to know,” Angel said as she laid back on the table and put her feet up in the stirrups. Brin and Quill both held her hands on either side of the table, and Ian stood by her head with his hand on her shoulder.
“We do, too,” Ian said. “Gotta start thinking up some awesome baby names.”
Angel winced as the doctor pressed the ultrasound wand into her and concentrated on the screen.
“You okay, baby?” Brin whispered.
“Ah, yeah. Just…uncomfortable.”
“Sorry,” Dr. Sherran said. “It’ll just be a few minutes while I get some measurements.”
The doctor clicked around on the screen with a mouse, made notes, and murmured things to the nurse. “Okay,” Dr. Sherran said as she turned the screen to face them fully, “here’s your baby. You’re nine weeks along. Your due date is August eighteenth.”
“Oh, look! He’s so little,” Angel said, her eyes glistening with tears again.
“He’s perfect, just like his mom,” Brin promised.
“Or she,” Quill said.
“I think it’s a boy,” Angel said. “Call it mom intuition.”
“Whatever he or she is, they’re going to be so loved,” Ian said.
“You’re all adorable,” Dr. Sherran said, smiling. “I love this part, when a family is so excited for the new baby.”
They waited for the doctor to finish, and then she said, “Get dressed and meet me in my office across the hall.”
Brin handed Angel paper towels so she could clean herself, and then he gathered her clothes from the chair in the corner.
“You guys are all smiling really broadly,” she said as she tugged her jeans up. “I think you’re as happy as me.”
Quill chuckled. “We are, sweetheart.”
After talking to the doctor about the pregnancy, Angel made an appointment through the receptionist for the ultrasound at five months, and then a visit the day after that with the doctor.
“The time will go fast, I’m sure,” she said as Ian opened the door to the truck and helped her into the passenger seat.
“We’ve got lots of time to decorate the nursery and get ready for our little one,” Quill said, waiting for Ian and Brin to get into the back before he sat behind the wheel. He turned on the engine and said, “We need to celebrate.”
Angel arched her brow. “We’ve been celebrating ever since the pregnancy test came back positive.”
“Well, you know that we always want you naked and glowing with pleasure, but I meant we could go to dinner somewhere and then stop at one of the baby stores and look around.”
“Oh! That would be so nice,” Angel said.
Brin squeezed her shoulder. “What are you in the mood for?”
She looked thoughtful and then said, “Steak.”
“Oh, it’s definitely a boy,” Ian said. “Only nine weeks along and she’s already craving meat.”
She laughed. “We’ll see in a few months, but right now, momma needs a big steak and then her sexy mates.”
“You have the best ideas, sweetness,” Ian said.
Brin settled back in the seat and smiled. So much had changed in their lives since Angel had stumbled into them. He’d wondered for so long if they’d ever be able to recover from their father’s deeds, but Angel had been their balm. She’d helped them heal the damage and start fresh. Every day was brighter because she was theirs. He’d wanted love, and he had it with her. And in a few months, they’d be welcoming the first of what he hoped were many children – girls as sweet and beautiful as their mother, and boys as fierce and loyal as their fathers.
The future was wide open for them, and he’d never been happier.
Chapter 15
*One Year Later*
Angel held the large gift bag and watched as Ian unhooked their son from the car seat and lifted him into his arms. Cade yawned but didn’t wake, nuzzling into Ian’s neck. She loved to watch her mates with their son. It always made her teary-eyed to see them be so sweet with him.
She ran her fingers over the soft hair on his head and smiled. He looked like his fathers, but he had her blue eyes, at least for now. She knew they might darken as he got older, but she hoped they wouldn’t. She liked seeing a bit of herself reflected back when he looked at her.
“Do we need anything but the bag?” Brin asked as he reached into the SUV and pulled out the colorful diaper bag. He shut the door, and then winced, looking to see if he had woken the baby.
“No, we’re good,” she said.
Quill joined them. “He did so well on the trip. Hopefully he’ll sleep tonight.”
“Well, if he doesn’t, there are four of us to walk the floor with him,” she said with a chuckle.
“Nah, just three. You need your rest,” Brin said.
Her sweet caretaker was the first one up when Cade cried at night. She knew she was lucky to have such helpful mates.
“I bet he’ll wake up when we get into the party,” Ian said, holding him close with one hand and taking Angel’s hand with the other.
They’d come for her mom’s fiftieth birthday party. Fred had wanted to throw the party for her, and Whisper and Heaven had happily handled all the preparations, since Angel lived too far away to do it. She was excited to see her friends, including Bliss, who had driven up with her mates for the party.
Her step-dad opened the front door and said, “It was really nice yesterday, and then overnight we got a half foot of snow. I think you brought it down with you.”
She smiled. It snowed in New Jersey, but not as much as in Northern Pennsylvania. She was used to the wintery weather, but she preferred to be cuddled up in front of the fire with her mates when it was cold and snowy out.
Kissing Fred on the cheek, she asked, “Is Mom back yet?”
“Miracle just texted to make sure you were here, and I said you’d just pulled up, so she’s heading back now. Should be twenty minutes or so.”
“Cool, just in time,” she said.
Fred shook her mates’ hands and whispered hello to the still-sleeping Cade.
“I hear my bestie!” Whisper called from inside the house.
Angel hurried into the house and found Whisper, Bliss, and Heaven in the family room with their mates and their children. Whisper’s son Jasper and Bliss’s son Beck were playing with toy trucks on the floor. Heaven’s newborn daughter, Destiny, was asleep in Kayne’s arms.
Whisper and Bliss hurried to Angel and enveloped her in a three-way hug that brought tears to all of their eyes. “I’m so happy to see you guys,” Angel said. “I missed you.”
Both Whisper and Bliss answered that they missed Angel, the three talking over each other in a rush.
Then Whisper said, “Let me see my nephew.”
Angel and her friends had already promised each other that they’d be aunts to their kids. Even though each of them lived in a separate state now, the love between the trio was strong and Angel knew they’d be close for the rest of their lives. She hadn’t grown up with siblings, but Whisper and Bliss were as close to true sisters as possible.
Cade woke up when Ian handed him over to Whi
sper, and he blinked his big blue eyes at her, which made Whisper and Bliss sigh.
“What a heartbreaker he’s going to be,” Whisper said. “Such a handsome fellow.”
“His eyes are gorgeous,” Bliss said. “Hand him over, bestie.” Her son switched places, and Bliss sighed happily. “What a cutie.”
Angel pulled out the toys she’d brought as gifts for Jasper and Beck, and then she sat with Heaven for a few minutes and got to meet little Destiny. Angel gave Heaven a soft-bodied stuffed doll and took Destiny into her arms, smiling at the pretty little girl and her head of soft blonde hair.
“She’s beautiful,” Angel said.
“We were all surprised to have a girl,” Heaven said, “Since the guys and I are predator shifters.”
“She’s never dating,” Kross said.
“Never ever,” Kayne said.
Heaven rolled her eyes with a smile. “They’re already being protective dads, it’s adorable.”
Kross grunted. “Just wait until she’s older and stunning like her mom. Then you’ll be glad we’re overprotective.”
Heaven’s cheeks pinked in blush. “She better watch out for charming wolves.”
“And hyenas,” Bliss said. “They’re just as devious as wolves when it comes to finding mates.”
“It’s not devious when truemates are involved,” Quill said. “Right, sweetheart?”
Angel smiled and said, “Absolutely.”
“Your mom’s almost here,” Fred said, coming into the room. Angel handed Destiny to her mom and joined Fred at the archway that led from the foyer to the family room. He was holding the cake that Whisper and Bliss had picked out: a huge sheet cake covered with white frosting and purple and pink flowers.
The front door opened and her mom stopped in her tracks. “Angel? What are you doing here?”
“Happy birthday, Mom,” Angel said. “You didn’t think I’d miss your big day, did you?”
She met Angel and hugged her, and then gasped as the others in the room clapped and cheered, wishing her happy birthday.
Angel smiled as she watched her mom hug her friends and laugh as she wiped tears from her cheeks. “To be fair, we’re not celebrating my fiftieth,” she said. “It’s the twenty-fifth anniversary of my twenty-fifth birthday.”
“You got it, Mom,” Angel said with a laugh.
“Give me my grandson,” she said. “I need some birthday kisses from my sweetie.”
Cade was given to her, and Angel moved to sit with her mates on the couch, tucked between Ian and Brin, with Quill resting his arm on the back of the couch and rubbing her shoulder. She loved how they always had their hands on her in some way, as if the thought of not touching her, even innocently, was too much bear. She felt the same. She only really felt complete when they were all together: her, her mates, and their son.
“I love our family,” she said quietly, knowing they would be able to hear her with their sensitive hearing.
“We do too, love,” Brin said, kissing her temple. “It’s perfect.”
“Well,” she said with a wink, “Cade needs two brothers, and a sister to watch over, too.”
Ian squeezed her hand and gazed at her, his eyes flashing to the amber of his beast for a brief moment. “Love you.”
Her eyes stung with tears, and whether it was new-mom hormones or just the sweet emotions that surged whenever she found herself surrounded by her mates, she smiled. “I love you, too. All three of you. From the very depths of my heart.”
Her mates took turns telling her quietly how much they loved her, and when her mom put Cade in her arms, she felt entirely content. Loved, cherished, and important to the four males in her life who held her heart.
She’d gone to Pennsylvania for a fresh start and to help out a new friend, and she ended up finding her heart in the most unlikely of places. Her mates were everything to her, and she couldn’t wait to see what the future would bring.
The End
*Keep Reading for Brierley’s story – The Owl’s Minotaur*
The Owl’s Minotaur (A Hyena Heat Novella)
By R. E. Butler
Brierley Pine has spent the last nine months wondering what her future holds. Set free from her owl-shifter nest by a kind-hearted wolf named Bliss, she’s happy working in the hyena campground, but she’s ready to start the next chapter of her life. When her sort-of adopted sister, Angel, introduces Brierley to her new hyena mates, she has a dream about a man and knows that he’s her truemate.
When Wallace, the owner of an illegal were-fighting group, tries to kidnap Angel to force her mate to continue to fight for him, Brierley is abducted instead. Although she’s frightened, she’s positive that Wallace knows where her truemate is. She’ll do anything to find him, even willingly go with her abductors.
Axtyn, a rare minotaur shifter, is in trouble. Now that he’s reached the age of twenty-four, he’s losing the ability to control his shifted form. Twice in the illegal fights he’s lost control and shifted, killing his opponents. Wallace has relegated him to a bodyguard position and forbidden him from shifting. The only cure for his debilitating control issue is to find his truemate, but where she is or how to find her is a mystery. He just knows that unless he finds her soon, he’ll eventually shift into his minotaur form and be stuck like a monster forever.
Axtyn will protect Brierley at any cost. When the fights are over, though, he’s not sure how he fits into his new mate’s world. Brierley refuses to give up on him, determined to build a life together. This book contains a feisty female owl, a minotaur who would die to keep his mate safe, and the illegal fights that bring them together.
Chapter 1
Axtyn cracked his knuckles as he stared down at the fights from the glass-enclosed room where Wallace, his boss and the owner of the warehouse they were in, was watching the fights with bored disinterest. Axtyn wasn’t allowed to fight anymore. As a minotaur shifter, he was stronger and faster than most shifters and had won nearly every fight he’d ever been in. But then he’d reached age twenty-four, and his control over his shift had started to deteriorate. When he got enraged, especially during a fight, he’d suddenly shift into his minotaur and slaughter his opponent. Two males had brutally died at his hands and Wallace now refused to allow him to fight, giving him a job as his personal bodyguard instead.
He wished he could have a straight job somewhere, but because he was a rare shifter, he didn’t share what he was with anyone. Employers weren’t interested in hiring someone if they thought he was keeping secrets. Axtyn hadn’t told Wallace what he was, and Wallace hadn’t cared because he was a good fighter and made a lot of money for him. But when he’d shifted during a fight, the truth had come out. He’d never met another minotaur shifter outside of his own family, and he was the last one. His mother had died shortly after he was born, and his father was killed in a fighting ring when he was a teenager. So he’d kept to himself for a long time, honing his fighting skills and living off his savings until he had no choice but to find work.
He’d ended up with Wallace, first fighting in the illegal underground were-fights, and now simply a spectator.
There was a loud crack, followed by a howl, which brought his attention back to the ring. Two wolf shifters were trying to beat each other into submission. One’s arm had been broken so severely that Axtyn could see the white bone sticking out from his skin. The other male howled triumphantly and Wallace grunted.
“I knew that one was a beast.”
“Good thing you bet on him,” Axtyn said.
“Well, I always bet on a sure thing.”
“Is there such a thing?” he asked, glancing at his boss.
“I would’ve said there was with you, but you turned out to be very unpredictable. I’m sure you’d still win any fight, but you’d be killing opponents instead of just beating them, and that’s not good for business.”
Axtyn resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
“Hey boss?” Stan, one of Wallace’s employees, said as h
e came into the booth. “That hyena isn’t here. No one’s seen him.”
Axtyn’s brows rose. There was only one hyena shifter who fought for Wallace, a male named Ian. He had a chip on his shoulder a mile wide, the sort of heavy weight a male carried when his past was too much to bear alone but he couldn’t risk sharing it. He’d never spoken to the male, but considered him honorable – he never tried to cheat in the fights or go too far with his opponents. And he was a big earner for Wallace, which would certainly be an issue if he didn’t show up to fight.
Not that Axtyn cared too much about the minutia of other peoples’ lives. He had a lot going on in his own life to worry about, the sort of stuff that kept him up at night and made him wonder at every new dawn if that would be the day that he’d shift and permanently become a monster.
He needed to find his truemate before that happened, but he didn’t even know where to begin to look for her. He hoped that they would cross paths soon, before he lost himself to the beast.
Permanently.
* * *
Brierley Pine woke up to the sound of voices in the family room of the cabin she shared with her human friend, Angel. Her bedroom door was shut, but since she was an owl shifter, she had excellent hearing and could pick up the muffled words through the door. Angel and her hyena mates were talking about were-fights, whatever those were.
She looked up at the ceiling, watching as the moonlight through the window made pale blue patterns on the surface. She and Angel had shared a cabin since they’d come to the Clear Water Campground in January.
Her bedroom was small, but she loved it. She hadn’t minded letting Angel have the largest bedroom; she’d just been happy to have a friend and a place to work and live. As an owl shifter, she’d grown up thoroughly sheltered and under the thumb of the king owl and their archaic beliefs and laws. Her body hadn’t really been her own, and when she was twenty-one, he’d arranged a mating for her – to a male who had beaten his first mate to death. When Bliss, a non-shifting wolf female, stumbled into the owl’s territory, she’d set Brierley free and brought her back to New Jersey to live. But the pack alpha hadn’t wanted Brierley there, and if it weren’t for Angel stepping in and offering to help her get to the campground for a job, she probably would’ve wound up homeless, jobless, and friendless.