Pregnant with the Werelion King's Cub (Paranormal Werelion Baby Romance) (Howls Romance Book 2)

by Claire Pike

  “Tammy,” Merek said, calling his secretary back into the room.

  “Yes, sir?”

  He tossed the magazine to her. “Find out who owns that hotel. The Baxter. I want a meeting with them right away.”

  “Yes, sir,” Tammy said, frowning at the article, a confused look on her face. “A meeting for what?”

  “I want to buy the place,” Merek said.

  Tammy arched her eyebrows and then turned and left the room. Merek leaned back in his chair, looking out the window over the city skyline.

  Abigail Sutton might have thought she could slip out of his life quietly. But he would just have to see about that.

  Chapter Five

  Abby stretched her back after finishing with the last room on the second floor. Keeping up with her new job had become harder and harder the further into her pregnancy she’d gotten. She was now five months pregnant, and she was starting to waddle everywhere she went. The only blessing was that ever since being promoted to shift supervisor, she didn’t have to spend quite as much time on her feet. It wasn’t quite a management position—she was still cleaning rooms, but the other housekeepers in her section reported to her—but she did get to spend at least some of her day sitting down and going over the schedule and dealing with other paperwork. The extra time she got to spend sitting instead of waddling was time she was grateful for every day.

  She headed down to the office, holding a hand over her rather large belly. She had concealed her baby bump for as long as she could, not wanting to risk being treated differently at work, but at five months pregnant, it was pretty hard to hide. Still, she did the best she could to conceal it, wearing baggy clothing. And even though it wasn’t a required part of the uniform, she wore a long, gray apron that helped conceal most of her baby bump, at least at a first glance. With the apron on, she could almost pass for someone who was just a bit overweight, instead of someone carrying an unborn child.

  The pregnancy had gone smoothly so far, aside from not being able to get ahold of Merek. After she’d finally gotten the phone number for his office, she’d called again and again, trying to explain her situation to his secretary. But each time, the secretary, Tammy, treated her like she was a liar and a cheat. She had claimed on more than one of the phone calls that it was impossible for her to be carrying Merek’s child, citing some kind of obscure medical reasons. But Abby didn’t care what the woman said. Maybe some doctor had told Merek he was shooting blanks (the secretary had been vague on the details, only saying that it was “biologically impossible”), but Abby was carrying the proof in her ever-growing womb. And since she had never been with any man other than Merek, there was no doubt he was the father.

  She had almost given up on the whole situation. But she didn’t want her child to be raised without a father. Plus, even with her new promotion, money was tight. She wanted to be able to provide the best her baby could get. That didn’t mean she had to get access to Merek’s millions, but she did want to see him at least offer her some form of child support.

  She tried to keep her mind on her work, figuring out next week’s schedule. She was halfway through her work on the schedule when her boss, Nathan, peeked his head into the office. “Abby, you’re up next.”

  Abby groaned and rolled her eyes. “Really? Do we have to go through all this? They’re not firing anyone, so what’s the point?”

  Nathan shrugged. “I don’t make the rules, honey. The new owner said he wants to interview all the management and supervisors. That includes you. Come on. He’s waiting.”

  Abby grumbled as she struggled to get back to her feet. She had been surprised a few weeks ago to learn that the previous owner, Mr. Baxter, had sold the hotel just a few months after its grand opening. When she had first been hired here, just after she’d quit her previous job, she’d heard all about how proud Mr. Baxter was of the quiet, intimate nature of the little hotel. All through her early training, the focus had been on keeping the hotel more personal and more simple than the big hotel chains. Mr. Baxter had wanted guests staying at the hotel to feel less like customers and more like they had been invited to stay with friends.

  That whole philosophy had vanished when Mr. Baxter suddenly announced he’d been offered a deal he couldn’t refuse. Abby wasn’t clear on the details, but apparently he had been offered a sum of money that was far more than what he’d thought the hotel was worth. Now the hotel was changing ownership, and while word had been passed down that there would be no layoffs or changes in staff, it was still a disconcerting transition.

  She headed down the hall to the owner’s office. The nameplate that had once said “Anthony Baxter” had been removed, but no replacement nameplate had been installed yet. Abby didn’t know the first thing about the new owner. The entire buyout had been shrouded in secrecy, even from the staff. She just had to hope that whoever it was, he wouldn’t fire her. She couldn’t afford to lose this job. Not when she was finally starting to get ahead in her finances, and with a baby on the way.

  She knocked on the door. A voice from inside said, “Come in.” She opened the door and stepped inside, walking over to the desk. She thought about sitting down, but she wasn’t sure if she was expected to stand, so she stood there in front of the desk, her hands clasped at her waist. The new owner was sitting with his back to her. All she could see over the back of the leather chair was the back of the man’s head. He didn’t say anything for a long moment while she stood there, fidgeting nervously.

  The chair swiveled around. The man sitting in it was Merek Armstrong.

  Abby’s eyes widened. Her fingers clutched at the fabric of her skirt. “You…!”

  Then her head started to spin, her vision went dark, and she felt her body collapsing to the ground.

  Chapter Six

  Merek shot out of his chair with feline reflexes and caught Abigail before she hit the ground. He held her gently in his arms, slowly lowering her into a chair. He touched her forehead and checked her pulse. She didn’t seem ill, and there was no sign of a fever.

  He was about to try and wake her up when his phone rang. He growled, ready to snap at whoever was calling him, now of all times. But when he checked the phone, he saw it was Caroline.

  Grumbling, he answered the phone. “Yes?”

  “Merek,” Caroline said, her tone strictly business. “We need to discuss these changes to the guest list. They’re unacceptable, and I won’t tolerate any further delays while we sort this out.”

  Merek ground his teeth, looking down at Abby’s unconscious form. “Fine,” he said to Caroline. “Do whatever you want. I’m not concerned with the details.”

  Caroline sighed into the phone. “You act as if I’m dragging you through all of this because I enjoy watching you suffer. This is a serious event, and the details matter.”

  The coldness in her voice reminded Merek of who the woman he was about to marry really was. Most women would refer to their wedding day as the most important day of their lives. To Caroline, it was “a serious event.” It was almost inhuman.

  Then again, he reminded himself, neither of them was quite human.

  “My apologies,” he said, keeping a diplomatic tone. “Have the new guest list sent to my secretary. I’ll look over it tonight.” He probably wouldn’t actually look at it at all. He’d just have Tammy sign off on it for him in order to move things through more quickly. The specifics of the wedding didn’t really matter to him, particularly since it was more of a political event than anything else—a sign of the union between their two clans. If they hadn’t had to keep up appearances, Merek would have been content to be married in a courthouse. It would have saved a lot of time and aggravation.

  “Very well,” Caroline said. “I also expect an update on the land acquisition. There have been too many delays, and that land is very important to my clan. No doubt you understand that.”

  “Of course I do,” Merek said. The land had never been an issue for him. He was buying it simply for the sake of forging a
stronger alliance between the two clans. It had merely taken time to work through some of the details.

  Of course, Caroline had been impatient the entire time, and more than once she had all but accused him of dragging the acquisition out. It was just another way Caroline showed him what a cold bitch she was. He looked down at Abby, reaching out to caress her cheek. She was so soft compared to Caroline. Not that he knew the touch of Caroline’s skin. Their relationship had been completely professional, and he hadn’t known a woman’s touch since his night with Abby, five months ago. He hadn’t wanted to wait so long to see her again, but it had taken time to seal the deal on the purchase of the boutique.

  Part of him, the more human part, told him this was a foolish endeavor. He could have simply tracked Abby down and spoken to her in the way a man should treat a woman. But he wasn’t the type to bring flowers and candy to woo a woman. His urges were more feral. Primal. He had wanted to claim this woman as his own. And now that he owned the boutique, it was like owning her as well. And the animal inside of him was filled with possessiveness. He had always been territorial. This was no exception.

  “Merek?” Caroline said over the phone.

  “Yes, I’m here,” Merek said. “So you’ll send that along?”

  “Yes. And you had better send an update on the acquisition. None of the rest of this moves forward without that land.”

  “Understood,” he said, his eyes still locked on Abby’s unconscious form.

  He hung up and then leaned down, inhaling deeply and taking in Abby’s scent. It sent a shiver through his body. He had missed that scent. It surprised him how invigorating it was. He had never reacted this way to any other woman before, and there had been a fair share of women in his life. Abby didn’t even seem like she should be that special compared to the others. She was attractive enough, but far from beautiful. She was a working-class girl, who had nothing of substance to offer him. And he barely knew anything about her. But something inside of him made his blood boil when he looked at her. And her scent made him feel like she was his. Almost as if he could smell the bond of the intimacy they had shared.

  His obsession with Abby had no doubt been why he’d allowed so many delays in his deal with the Montgomery clan. He had pushed everything he had and put all of his effort into buying this little boutique that had no value to him other than the woman lying there before him. If he had put that same effort into acquiring the lands he was supposed to transfer to the wildlife preserve, the whole deal would have been done by now. But that project, important as it was to his clan and to the Montgomery clan, had been sidelined until he sated his personal obsession.

  He paced back and forth in front of Abby’s chair like a caged lion, watching her sleep. Now that she was here, he needed to keep her here. He needed to make sure he staked his claim.

  He paused, studying the way she was lying there. Her clothes were baggy, and she wore a gray apron over them, concealing her figure. He had thought at first that she had just put on weight, but when he pulled the apron aside and got a better look at her stomach, he saw that it was something else entirely.

  A low growl rumbled in his throat. She was pregnant. And some feral instinct told him the child was his. He knew that should have been impossible…it was a little-known trait of his clan that special circumstances were required for reproduction. But the proof was right before him, and he had no doubt that he was the father.

  He stalked behind the desk and jabbed his finger on the intercom. “Tammy.”

  “Yes, sir?” Tammy said over the intercom.

  “Find me the finest suite this little hotel has to offer. And pull all the personnel records for Abigail Sutton.”

  Chapter Seven

  Abby woke up in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room. At least, it was unfamiliar at first. When she sat up and looked around, confused, she gradually realized what had happened. She had fainted, and it appeared that she was in one of the hotel’s suites. The bed was covered in red silk sheets, and a warm fire was burning in the fireplace across the room.

  She wasn’t sure how she had gotten here. As far as she had known, no one was staying in the suites this week. She got up, looking around. Then she heard a voice from the other room. It took her a second to recognize it as Merek’s voice.

  She crept over to the door and peeked out. Merek was pacing back and forth in the other room of the suite, looking like a predator cat on the prowl. He was talking into his phone and gesturing animatedly with his hands. It took her a moment to understand what he was saying, and when his words started to become clear, she broke out into a cold sweat.

  “Yes, that’s right,” Merek said, still pacing as he talked into his phone. “No, today. All of it. Don’t worry about that. I’ve already sent the keys. Don’t worry about that, just get it done. Yes, I have her address.”

  He paused and picked something up off the table. Abby realized it was her driver’s license. She could see her purse sitting on the table as well, the contents spilled out.

  Merek read her address off her license. “Have it all taken to my apartment in the city. Just stack it in the living room. I’ll let her sort it all out when she unpacks.”

  Unpacks? Abby ground her teeth together. What the hell did this man think he was doing? She stormed out of the bedroom to confront him, waving a finger in his face.

  “Now hold on just a damn minute!” She planted her hands on her hips, staring him down. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Give me that.” She snatched her license from his hands and then started shoving her things back into her purse. That’s when she noticed her keys were missing.

  “Tammy, I’ll have to get back to you,” Merek said. He hung up the phone, glaring at her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “What the hell gives you the right?” Abby screamed, still shoving things into her purse. “You went through my things…and my keys! Where are my keys?”

  “You’ll get them back after you’re moved into my apartment,” Merek said. He grabbed the purse from her and set it aside, giving her a stern look. “Why didn’t you tell me, Abigail?”

  Abby clenched her fists at her sides. “Tell you what? That you’re a psychotic asshole? Because that’s what this looks like. Fuck, Merek, did you really buy the hotel I work at? I quit my job at your hotel so I could get away from you!”

  He grabbed her by her shoulders, leaning close, a dangerous glare on his face. “The baby, Abigail! Why didn’t you tell me about the baby?”

  She pushed him away, slapping his hands off of her. “I tried! I called your office half a dozen times. Your secretary kept giving me the runaround. Eventually I gave up.”

  Merek ground his teeth. “I’m sure Tammy would have told me if someone had called to tell me she was carrying my child.”

  Abby threw her hands up in the air. “Well, I guess you didn’t get the memo! She kept accusing me of trying to con you out of money, saying it was impossible for me to be pregnant with your child. Well, guess what?” She gestured to her rotund belly.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Merek said, gesturing angrily. “Five months, and I’m only just now learning about my child. My heir.”

  “Yeah, well, you know what? I don’t need your help. I’m raising this baby by myself.” Abby turned and stalked toward the door. She was done with this. Before that moment, she had wanted his help. She had been almost desperate to get ahold of him, to get him involved in his unborn child’s life. But now that he was acting this way, all she wanted was to be away from him.

  Merek grabbed her arm, gently but firmly. “You can’t leave.”

  “The hell I can’t.” Abby yanked her arm from his grip. “I’m going home.”

  “No,” Merek said, “you’re not. I’m having your things moved to my apartment.”

  “What gives you the right to do that?”

  “That is my child!” He gestured forcefully toward her stomach, a low growl building in his throat. “That gives me the right.”


  “Go to hell,” Abby said.

  She took another step toward the door. Merek slammed his palm against it, holding it shut.

  “You can’t take my child from me,” he said. “We’re bound together now. I’m going to take care of my child. And you and I will be mated…ahh, married.”

  Abby started shaking from head to toe. She didn’t think Merek would become violent with her, but the way that he was acting was still frightening. She frowned at him. A few months ago, she would have given anything to be told that he was going to support her and the baby. But that was before she realized what an asshole he was. “I’ll call the cops,” she said, crossing her arms and staring him down.

  “Fine,” he said. “In that case, you’re fired. And by morning I’ll have contacted every hotel in the tristate area, ensuring none of them will hire you.”

  Abby’s eyes narrowed. “You wouldn’t.”

  Merek stood up straighter. “Don’t test me, Abigail.”

  Abby’s heart was racing. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t afford to lose this job. Not when she was so close to having the baby. Part of her said that Merek couldn’t possibly do what he was proposing. But he was rich enough that he could probably get it done.

  Maybe, she thought, being supported by Merek wouldn’t be so bad. She hated the idea of being forced into it…but if he had just asked her, it might have been different. He was filthy rich, after all. He could provide everything she and the baby needed. She just didn’t want to give up her freedom and independence in order to be taken care of. That was the reason she’d moved out of her mother’s house when she was seventeen. She had been suffocated under her mother’s oppressive rules. She would rather struggle and work two jobs than have someone else dictating the way she lived her life.