Warriors,Winners & Wicked Lies: 13 Book Excite Spice Military, Sports & Secret Baby Mega Bundle (Excite Spice Boxed Sets)

by Selena Kitt

  She been lost in the system for a while, fought over and bartered for. The judge kept allowing the state to postpone her trial, but then Nolan saved her from that, too. Whatever strings he pulled, whoever he talked to, once her court appearances started, the whole process moved quickly. But she was still in jail. Sentenced to a year for art forgery, she’d expected her time to be spent on house arrest like her lawyer and Nolan had assured her. It wasn’t, and while Chittenden wasn’t a hardcore prison, she was still uncomfortable. Nolan had become the one bright spot in her life.

  Meeting after meeting, sitting across the table from him and talking to him about everything under the sun had done something to open her heart. Memories of their nights together, the two motel stays that had brought her so much pleasure, kept her warmer than she should have been. Some days she’d been lost in a dreamy fog, others she felt like a girl with her first crush, imagining the way life could be—with her, Nolan and their child together and happy.

  The nurse ripped Weslyn’s fantasy apart with a simple statement. “No one else is allowed to be in here. You’re a prisoner.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” Another pain swept through Weslyn, and she gritted her words out in a strangled scream. “He’s the father. He needs to be here!”

  The nurse shook her head. “That’s not how it works.”

  He wasn’t there and couldn’t come. Weslyn’s thoughts spun, but she held on to hope and her dream. Later he would come, after the baby was born. They would call him and Nolan would rush to her side, tell her he was taking care of everything.

  Through the night, she held on to that delusion. She’d seen something special in his photograph, and she’d experienced it firsthand when he found her in Chicago. He was beautiful inside and out, a true gentleman, a good man. A rare breed.

  She loved him. In the moment of tearing pain and agonized relief when her child slipped from her body, Weslyn experienced love in a way she’d never done before. She was dizzy with it, panting and gasping, reaching for it with shaking arms. Bright spots spun in her vision.

  She wanted Nolan to share in her joy. Needed him.

  “My baby,” she whispered. “Nolan’s baby. Let me see.”

  But she couldn’t see. The bright spots grew brighter, bigger, hotter. Somewhere far, far away, a nurse screamed for a doctor and machines beeped incessantly.

  Weslyn passed out before she could hold her baby.

  * * *

  Life descended into darkness. Pure darkness without light or hope. Only the pain of broken dreams and wishful thinking found a home in the empty void that Weslyn had become.

  She knew she was on suicide watch, but there was no need. She didn’t have the energy for such trouble. The only thing she had the energy to do was cry.

  So she cried. Long, slow silent tears.

  She cried at never having held her baby before they took him away. She cried for the pain that still racked her body and ripped into her heart. She cried for herself.

  Because Nolan had never come.

  Sometimes, in the long, lonely darkness, someone fed her pills and whispered of post-partum depression. Weslyn didn’t have the energy to care about that, either.

  Chapter 14

  The weight of the ankle monitor made Weslyn limp, as she walked out of the probation officer’s office. Her stomach in knots, she still took a deep breath and trekked down the hall toward the lobby. Her P.O. said someone was coming for her, to take her to her new home, which had already been outfitted for her needs. She’d spend the rest of her sentence there, confined. Other than that, the details were vague and Weslyn didn’t care enough to probe further.

  She tried to feel some sort of optimism or even a sliver of hope, but happiness was a far-off dream. Not even a memory, but a wish, perhaps. After all, she had nothing and no one, and hadn’t even gotten a letter from Nolan since she’d given birth to their son. The son that had been snatched from her and given away.

  All in all, it was about what Weslyn had expected. Or feared, rather.

  So when she turned the corner to the lobby and saw Nolan on the other side of the long desk, chatting up the receptionist, she almost fell over. She stumbled to a halt, the monitor dragging her a little to one side. She caught herself against the wall, but lost all her breath in the process.

  He turned to her with a wistful smile that broke the rest of her heart. “Moon.”

  “What—” She forced air into her lungs and ignored the sudden pain in her chest. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came for you.”

  Bitterness flooded her, tears came to her eyes. “Why bother? I haven’t heard from you in over a month. Why bother to come now?”

  “Because you’re coming home with me.” He cocked his head and stared at her with eyes deepening into a grassy green that she remembered meaning trouble. “I didn’t transfer back to Vermont because I liked the fall foliage, you know.”

  “Why did you, then?” She folded her arms over her chest and tried not to hope for much. But the butterflies in her stomach didn’t listen.

  He smiled again. “I found us a house with a real nice room you can use for a studio. A friend of mine is working on your website as we speak. This time, the landscapes you sell can be Moon originals.”

  “I told you, my stuff doesn’t sell.”

  “It didn’t,” he agreed. “But that was before there were fake Moon fakes out in the world, Weslyn. You’ve made a name for yourself, and now it’s time to make it legit.”

  Her stomach shook up into her chest and her eyes burned. Weslyn wanted nothing more than to fall into the plans Nolan outlined, let him take care of her the way no one else ever had. But she’d tried that before, and spent long, lonely months in jail because of it.

  “Why?” she managed in a thin, strained voice. “Why now, when I haven’t heard from you? Why all this after…you stopped coming to see me. Not even a fucking letter, but now you just show up and—”

  “I was a little busy, Moon. Something real important.”

  “I bet.”

  Nolan winked and disappeared behind the counter. The lady manning the phones grinned. When Nolan straightened, he held a baby.

  Their baby.

  Weslyn’s heart dropped to her toes.

  “You have no idea what I had to go through to get our child from the state foster system, Weslyn. Paternity tests, letters from my supervisor, court testimonies. I had to undergo investigation from every state agency Vermont could think of to get involved. I had to agree to stay here for an extra year on top of your sentence so we could continue to be evaluated as parents, and I’m relegated to desk duty at the Bureau for the foreseeable future.”

  The tears that had been crowding her eyes finally fell. Weslyn stepped forward hesitantly, scared to dream, scared that her wish might have come true. “You got our baby back?”

  “I did.” Nolan held out his hand, pulling her close the moment she was within his reach. “But I didn’t want to tell you how close I was until I had everything together. I didn’t get the final custody papers until a few days ago, and by then I figured… I’d surprise you.”

  “Oh, I’m surprised. Very.”

  She huddled close to his side as he put their baby in her arms. Weslyn was shaking so badly she didn’t dare move away from Nolan’s strength, terrified she’d collapse. Hot shudders raced through her and the butterflies that clogged her stomach worked their way into her throat. Her head spun.

  “I love you,” she told him on a broken breath. She told both of them, her lover and their baby.

  Nolan dipped his head and put his lips next to her ear. “I love you, too Moon. Now, let’s go home.”

  “I’ve never had one of those before. Not a real one.”

  He picked up the carrier the child had been in and steered her toward the door with a hot hand against her back. “Now you do. A home, a family…and I’ll make damn sure you get a happily-ever-after, too.”

  The End
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  Celine and the Bear - WICKED LIES (secret baby) by Aurora Woodlove

  Chapter 1

  “Whoever said Friday 13th was the most unlucky day of the year was definitely right!” Ryan cursed.

  “I have to agree with you on that. You know I don’t believe in superstitions, but I don’t think this day can get any worse than this,” Adam replied, combing his hair with his fingers in frustration.

  Ryan huffed. “Man, if playing darts can’t help, nothing can!”

  It was Friday night on a hot July evening. Well, as hot as it got in North Bloom Lake, one of those four season places in the world. You know, the one with freezing-your-ass-off-snow-shoveling-for-fun winters and I-need-shade-and-ice-cream-now summers. Now you know.

  Ryan and his twin brother, Adam, were chilling out playing darts and pool like they did every two weeks for a few hours. Friday was the only night off they took, which was one of the busiest they had. They didn’t take every Friday off, just two a month. This was because they needed to remind themselves they are more than their job and others can manage without them on those two evenings every month. Shifting Impulse was one of their favorite places in town. They had been going there at least once a month for years now and they knew the manager, the bouncers, the bartenders, the DJs and some of the regulars.

  It was an oddly-crowded evening and that said a lot about the number of tourists visiting their area. They had various reasons to come. One of the most frequent was spending quality family time up in the mountains, but there were also hiking up to the lake, going bird-watching, camping and the like.

  There was something in the air. Ryan had sniffed it ever since they came in. A feminine aroma. Flowery. Fresh like a bud daring to show the world its colors and enrich the air with its fragrance.

  They say flowers make people happier. Ryan agreed with that. As a bear shifter, his highly sensitive senses, nose especially, helped him protect himself and the ones he cared about. That wasn’t the only way that part of his face helped him deal with life. Being in nature reminded both Ryan and his brother of their mother. They were very young when she died but they had shifter genes so they had quite vivid memories of that time. They remembered the lessons she taught them in the forest. How to select the berries that were edible, how to mark their territory, how to fish in the creeks, how to express their feelings and communicate in bear form. Those were the things they remembered, but there had been other things as well.

  Flowers always triggered melancholy in him. Melancholy and heartache. His office at the main restaurant he and his brother owned and managed was always filled with fresh flowers that were in season. His secretary had been instructed to take care of that every week. At first she had been confused as to why such a mountain of a guy wanted to be surrounded by flowers, but then Ryan took care of the problem by spreading the rumor that it was a new business strategy he wanted to try in order to attract more women to their restaurants. They owned a chain of restaurants not only in North Bloom Lake, but in several cities around the country. European Mix, their business, had been a family dream for as long as they remembered. Their mother’s dream to be more precise. Their father worked real hard after their mother disappeared to get his mind off his wife. He found some of the best chefs in the country and persuaded them to work together to create a menu that would remind everyone of their European roots. It proved to be a bold move with little success in the beginning but after some years when the twins got involved in the decisions, Ryan’s intuition for modern ways of attracting customers and Adam’s financial strategies combined with their father’s management transformed the place.

  After three rounds of darts, all of which he lost, Ryan couldn’t take it anymore. The most annoying part of the whole situation was that he felt something was up with his twin brother as well. Had he smelled the same fragrance? Was that the reason his bear kept sending him mixed signals? His bother wasn’t focusing on the game either. He was fighting his instincts. The link they shared as twins was strengthened by their non-human genes, the shifter genes they inherited from their mother. This was why they could sense what the other felt.

  The woman was still there and the aroma of lilies was overwhelming. It was only a woman. What was it about her that drove him crazy? He went to the bar for another beer and there she was. Right opposite the bar there were bright orange modular couches and glass coffee tables between them. A cheerful group of about twenty people sat in a circle around a girl who was encouraged to blow the candle shaped like a number. So she was twenty-eight.

  “Happy birthday, dear Celine!” they all chanted in unison. He noticed Janet, one of his favorite bartenders and close friend, in the crowd of people. They must be friends, he thought.

  Ryan knew the moment he set his eyes on her that the curvy, blushing birthday girl in the middle of the group was the source of the maddening fragrance that had been driving him crazy for the past hour. He didn’t know what it was about her that lured him to her, but he was willing to try. After all, he hadn’t been with a woman in years now. While not being with a woman might not be a problem for his brother, Ryan’s bear was set on reminding him of women and children at least a few times a week. Ryan thought the animal was clearly going nuts for some reason. It wanted to run free more often too. Dreams about roaming the forest haunted his nights and flashes of cubs paraded in front of his eyes whenever he saw a woman with curves in all the right places. It was even worse when he saw a pregnant woman. His heart would go into overdrive and the anger he felt made him look and feel like a madman.

  That was the reason Ryan almost lived at the restaurant and spent all his free time at the gym these days. His gym buddies tried to hook him up with their single friends but given that being in the company of women made him react like a crazed animal - which of course he was - it hadn’t been the best idea.

  Only his brother managed to get him to a public place. He said it did him good to be around new people from time to time. The proximity of his brother helped with the anger and anxiety.

  Taking a sip of the obscure local unfiltered beer that Brad, the owner of SI, sold as a favor to him, Ryan watched Celine giggle and chat with her girlfriends who had gathered around her to hug and congratulate her. It was clear that his bear had set its eyes on her, but Ryan didn’t trust the animal. It was one thing to agree with the animal on who was honest at a business meeting and another completely different to listen to it when it came to a woman. The animal seemed to be attracted to any woman with wide welcoming hips and large lush breasts, so it couldn’t really be trusted.

  What Ryan couldn’t understand was his own human fascination about this woman. Her delightful aroma, her cheerful, timid smile and big brown eyes suddenly staring into his eyes. When that happened, he expected his bear to flood his mind with pictures of babies.

  He waited.

  Nothing happened.

  He only felt serenity.

  It only took that one moment for their eyes to meet to make his bear bow his head in submission to the gorgeous woman staring at him. His bear’s behavior was no
surprise to Ryan as it did strange things all the time. Visibly embarrassed, the woman blushed and looked away.

  This is my cue. I’m going to go and talk to her. Without a clear idea of what to say, he headed to the sofas. He was confident in his abilities to start and keep a conversation. He was an expert now. He had been practicing since he was fourteen. He had accompanied his father to business meetings and negotiations since he could remember. It had all become official when he was fourteen and his father started asking his opinion on different aspects. He was the general manager of the European Mix chain of restaurants all over the US at the moment, but that wasn’t the job he officially got when he was eighteen. He had worked his way up the corporate ladder as they say. Working as a waiter was humiliating, but it helped him and his brother learn to deal with people and earn their respect at the same time. He had refined his people skills over time and he could adapt to any situation. Even the one he found himself in now.