Werebear's Nanny_A Paranormal Romance

by T. S. Ryder

  Someday they planned to move to Quebec, where he grew up. In the meantime, things were good.

  The baby kicked, and Mary watched as her belly rolled with its movements. Everything felt squished up inside, as she eagerly awaited her due date.

  She smiled as Andre slipped into the room. "They're all in bed?"

  Andre nodded, laying down beside her. His hand rested on her belly and the baby kicked at him at once. "Five children under the age of eight. Soon six. How are we going to do it?"

  Mary sighed. With her parents dead, she was concerned for her brothers and sisters welfare. Peter and Amy got their own place in town, where Peter worked as a mechanic. Her other three adult brothers were all studying for college. That had left eight minors who did not want to be split up. Eventually, it was decided that Andre and Mary would take the younger five while Julia, Matthew, and Lydia lived with Peter and Amy and their daughter.

  "We'll manage," Mary promised. "It's not the life I wanted, but I've basically been raising them already."

  "And it overwhelmed you so much that you ran away," Andre whispered. "Do you really want to take on this much responsibility again?"

  "I have you now. And you're great with them." Mary propped herself onto her elbow and kissed him deeply. "I just don't want too much to be put on Amy and Julia, you know? I want them to have time to continue their studies, especially since Peter's decided to go to university."

  "And what about you? I know that you want to finish high school. Can you really do that when we're taking care of six little children?" Andre's expression was worried. "And then farm work is never done—"

  "We'll make it work," Mary said forcefully. "There's free daycare in town if we need it."

  Andre nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, we're going to make this work. I'm just worried about you is all."

  "I'll tell you if it gets to be too much," she promised. She paused a moment, the feeling of his heat against her body stirring up the desire that her pregnancy had made somehow more powerful. A sly grin crossed her face. "You're sure they're asleep?"

  Andre caught her meeting and nodded. "Let me lock the door so they don't walk in on us."

  Mary giggled, slipping her underwear off and propping a pillow under her lower back while Andre rushed to the door. They hadn't had much time for lovemaking since they moved to their new farm. Mary's Wolf barked playfully, and as Andre returned, she felt his Bear reply in like.

  It didn't take long for their souls to merge. As Mary gazed up at her soulmate, grasping at his body while his hands roamed hers, she knew–this was all she wanted.

  Life, for now, was perfect.

  Chapter Fourty Five

  The full moon hung low in the sky. The green leaves of the poplar trees glowed silver and a light breeze blew the scent of the forest to the farmhouse. The sky was cloudless and the stars were almost as bright as the moon.

  Andre wiggled his fingers, growling playfully as he chased the children around a red wagon. They all shrieked with laughter though Lydia had recently decided she was too old to be caught up in such “baby” games. She bounced on her toes, clearly torn between her newfound maturity and her desire to join in. Andre caught little James and tossed him in the air, eliciting cries of “me too” and “again”.

  The door to the house opened and Mary danced out. Her sparkling green eyes twinkled as she lightly clapped her hands, calling attention to herself. James ignored her, tugging at Andre's hair and demanding to be thrown into the air again.

  "It's time to get going," she called, and instantly James was kicking to be set down. Andre laughed.

  Lydia ran to Mary and whispered in her ear. Mary smiled and nodded, and the girl disappeared into the house. The rest of them scattered to the bushes, where they would quickly strip down and embrace their Wolves.

  Andre stepped over to Mary, panting. "Wolves!"

  "They've worn you out already, have they?" She laughed.

  Andre shrugged with an embarrassed smile. "They're always hyper on the night of the full moon."

  "Well, we only have half an hour to midnight and Neal won't embrace his Bear." Mary shook her head. "I'll get the rest of the children in the wagon if you'll go help him."

  Andre nodded, pressing a kiss to Mary's temple as he passed her. He took the stairs to the nursery two steps at a time, anxious to get his little son to embrace his Bear before midnight and the involuntary shift to Wolf happened. He was a rarity, Neal, having a soul that was both Wolf and Bear. But he was a happy, healthy little fellow, with Andre's black eyes, Mary's black hair, and a laugh that was twice his size.

  Neal sat in his room, having made a blanket nest on the floor. Unlike the rest of their brood, his energy spike didn't happen until after the full moon, and it lasted for a good three days before he got back to his calm self.

  Andre crept over to his son and knelt beside him. Neal smiled sleepily at his father and Andre smiled back.

  The pain of Isadore and Eve's death had not gone away, but in the eighteen months since Neal was born, Andre had felt it shift. When he thought of them, images of their dead bodies no longer haunted him. Instead, he remembered the good times and the happiness they shared together. He was as happy now with his odd little family as he had been then.

  "We have to go out to the run, bud," Andre said, easing Neal into his arms. "Can't you be with your Bear? You know it hurts if you don't have it when it's midnight."

  "Not tonight," Neal said, his babyish lisp muddled further by how sleepy he was. "Tomorrow."

  Andre laughed and kissed his son's head. "What if Daddy embraced his Bear, too? Come on, you know you love running with your brothers and sisters."

  He tickled Neal's feet and peals of laughter rang through the home. Andre heard the impatient little yips and playful growls from outside that told him that the rest of the family was waiting on them.

  "Help me?" Neal tugged at his sleepers.

  Andre undressed Neal, and with a little encouragement, the toddler wrinkled his nose and embraced his Bear. He was still in the spindly-legged stage, not quite used to walking and Andre carried him down to the yard.

  Mary waited at the door and took Neal, kissing his fuzzy face while she took him to the wagon where the rest of their children waited with their Wolves, tails wagging, climbing all over each other. Andre paused, soaking in the sight of the love of his life settling their little Bear-Wolf son among their adopted Wolf children.

  Peace and contentment filled his heart. He had a family once again.

  Mary trotted next to Andre as he pulled the wagon. The children jostled each other, but the occasional stern woof from her kept them in order.

  The moon's call filled her blood, and she couldn’t stop herself from dancing around the wagon, nipping at Andre's heels from time to time. He gave her an indulgent glare and she wagged her tail, spanking the ground.

  Soon they were at their destination with its wide fields, frosty with the first freeze of the year. The others were already there causing the children bounded off to greet their brothers and sisters, as though they didn't see them every single day.

  Mary hid behind Andre, repressing her Wolf so she could unhitch him from the wagon. The night air made goosebumps rise on her arms, but soon she was safely wrapped in fur once more.

  Neal tumbled out of the wagon and Mary hurried to him, licking his fur to make sure he was okay. He stood on his back legs and wrapped his front legs around her neck, biting at her ear and making a purring noise.

  Peter, Amy and their little girl jogged over to join them, rubbing heads and wagging their tails as greetings. Nearby Julia chased a young man, a human from town she had confided to Mary was her soulmate. His eyes were bright and his cheeks flushed as he dodged her attempts to tackle him. A little further, Conrad Milton and David Monroe roughhoused.

  The children dashed back to Mary and Andre, growling and biting at Andre's thick fur.

  Mary's blood sang, as her gaze was drawn to the moon. It seemed closer than ever before a
nd she could see every crater in its pearly surface.

  There was a long moment of silence as all Wolves turned their faces to the call of the moon. Luna sang to them, and as one, they threw back their heads and sang too. The humans who had joined them cupped their mouths and howled, as the few Bears attending stood on their back legs and roared their solidarity. Neal's thin, puppy howl joined the song, and Mary glanced down to see he had transitioned smoothly from Bear to Wolf.

  The children gathered around Andre and Mary. Tongues lolled out and tails wagged. They watched eagerly. Wolf and Bear shared a glance and as one, they started forward, running together at a speed even Neal could keep up with.

  Mary let the air rush around her. She was aware of each of the children and every other Wolf, Bear, and human in the field. They all ran under the moon, connected by her silvery light.

  And she thanked Luna that this life was hers.

  *****

  THE END

  Heat, Hockey and Two Werewolves

  Description

  A curvy witch who is also an artist PLUS two sexy Werewolves who want her PLUS a hot hockey game!

  The only thing Piper Diamond wants to do with hockey is to stop hearing about it so much.

  For this witch, gallery owner and artist, the absolute worst time to be in her hometown of Uphoria, Alberta is when the town hosts the Werewolf League games, resulting in hockey permeating every aspect of her life. Even her normally attentive, sexy Werewolf mate, Baxter, loses his head during the hockey season and eats, sleeps and breathes hockey.

  But when the hunky center forward of Uphoria's home team, Patrick Giles, wants Piper and Baxter for his trois amour, a three-way mating group, Piper's interest in hockey suddenly skyrockets. Even though Patrick is sexy and Baxter is more than willing to have him join them, Piper's not certain that she can commit to a relationship with another Werewolf.

  Unfortunately she doesn't have much time to think about her love life. Her gallery is in financial trouble and it's all she can do to keep warlock Thor Wragge from buying it and turning her dreams into cheap reproductions. Things don't get any easier when the gallery becomes a target for vandals and burglars, so Piper has to decide what she really wants from life.

  Chapter One

  Piper Diamond tried to ignore her mate, Baxter, as he sighed, rubbing his thumbs in small circles at the base of her neck. He always knew just the right way to touch her to ease the tension in her spine. His musky Wolf scent so close to her stirred desire like it always did, but right at this moment, he wasn't after sex.

  Instead, his eyes were sad and droopy, his mouth downturned, trying to convince her to do something far different. And far less exciting.

  "Please come to the game with me."

  "Baxter, I can't."

  "Why not?"

  "Because I have all this work to do," she gestured to the receipts and invoices strewn over her desk. "And because I don't want to. You'll have more fun without me, anyway."

  It was the Wolf League playoffs in Uphoria, Alberta. Winter howled outside and the windows rattled as sand-like grains of snow beat against them. And it always led people to bundle up in woolen hats and parkas to brave the frigid temperatures, so that they could sit in a freezing cold hockey arena and watch a bunch of Werewolves skate around on the ice, slapping around a puck with their little sticks.

  Hockey season was the worst season in Piper's opinion. Though she could easily summon up a small dragon to keep her hands toasty in the arena, she just didn't see the appeal of the sport. Not a very Canadian attitude, as Baxter repeatedly told her.

  When it came to hockey, the only delightful parts of watching a sports game–the rippling muscles of the athletes–were hidden beneath layers of padding and fur. Boring.

  What made it even more unbearable was that while the playoffs happened, they were all anybody in Uphoria, especially Baxter, would talk about. Piper couldn't even walk down the street without hearing fights over the finer points of what happened in the last game.

  Baxter leaned over her, nibbling at her neck. She tried to ignore the tingle that it created, focusing on her bookkeeping papers.

  "You have been pouring over these books for hours," Baxter nipped at her earlobe, his steamy breath in her ear. "If you come with me, I can make it really worth your time…"

  Piper swept her blue-and-purple hair out of her eyes and turned to her mate. As a Werewolf, he was able to shift forms at will and either be a man with firm muscles, dark hair, dark eyes, and a Latino complexion, or a humanoid wolf with hairy, clawed feet, hands the size of dinner plates and boundless muscles that rippled under gleaming fur the color of midnight.

  "You'll be able to enjoy the game better without me," Piper repeated. "The gallery is in the red again, I'm not sure how I'll make rent. It seems every time I break even, something happens and I'm in debt again."

  Baxter caught the arms of her swivel chair, trapping her. "Piper Diamond, you get your delicious ass out of this chair this instant. You need something to distract you, and you know how… desirous I get after we win a game."

  "You're insisting, aren't you?"

  Baxter nodded, and Piper wrapped her arms around his neck. He rarely insisted on anything, and so she knew that this was very important to him. "Okay. I'll go. On one condition. If we lose, you don't start pouting."

  Baxter flicked his tongue across her lips and she opened them readily and moaned.

  "I'll get your coat," he whispered, slipping away from her grasp.

  Piper smiled at him. She really did not want to go watch hockey, even though she had to admit the sex after Uphoria won a game and Baxter was all hopped up on adrenaline and excitement, was always mind-blowing. But Baxter was right, as he usually was. She needed a distraction and hockey was better than sitting around stressing.

  They had been mates since senior prom night. Neither of them had really understood just how permanent Werewolf mating actually was. They had been hormone-fueled teenagers with their heads in the clouds, lost in a night of music and dance.

  They hadn't even known each other prior to that night.

  Nobody had asked Piper to prom. She was the high school's fat-girl that nobody noticed, except for when she snuck candy into Mr. Breton's oh-so-boring History of Magic in the Americas class. She wasn't the only one eating chocolate while Breton droned on and on, but she was the only one the other students seemed to notice. Back then, Piper hated her body, bouncing from diet to diet, her weight yo-yoed like crazy, making her constantly sick.

  She hadn't even wanted to go to prom, but her mother wanted her to go. Her mother had just stopped chemotherapy and so Piper had agreed. During a slow song, Piper was making up an exciting story to tell her mother about how much fun she had when Baxter approached. He complimented one of her art pieces that was displayed in the school hall. Talking lead to kissing, intense and fiery.

  Piper was still not entirely certain how or why it happened, but before the end of the night, they were in the backseat of his car, clumsy, awkward, but with no second thoughts.

  It had been a mistake.

  But it was the best mistake Piper had ever made. Baxter was the sweetest, most attentive mate she could ever hope to find. Even though knowing that she was his mate for life scared the shit out of her at first, it didn't take long for her to truly fall in love with him.

  "I love you," she said, leaning against him for warmth as they scampered out to the car.

  Baxter kissed the top of her head. "I love you, too."

  ***

  The game, as Piper had predicted, had Baxter jumping from his seat, swearing like a sailor at the referee every few minutes, cheering and stomping his feet every other time. He wasn’t the only one, either.

  Piper watched him with a smile, only half paying attention to the game. On the rink, two teams of Werewolves, both in their beast's forms, faced off, snarling and slamming into each other. The Wolf League games were notoriously more violent than the ones humans played and it was
common for the ice to stain red.

  "There he goes, there he goes!" Baxter screamed, pulling Piper to her feet.

  The center forward for the Uphoria team had the puck. Skating so quickly that it was hard to keep her eyes on him, he zig-zagged through the opposing team players. Baxter screamed so loud his voice grew hoarse.

  In that instant, as though she had called his name, the center forward looked up. His wolfish face was twisted into a snarl, white teeth flashing in the arena lights. Brown eyes burrowed into hers and he winked with a distinctive nod of his head.

  There was a flash of movement and a roar of approval from the crowd. Piper strained to see what had happened. A buzzer went off, announcing the end of the game. Or at least, she hoped it was. Her cheeks were flushed all of a sudden, her pulse quickening.

  "We won!" Baxter shouted, jumping up and down. "We won!"

  Piper applauded half-heartedly. Her gaze continued to follow the center forward, but he didn't look back at her.

  ***

  The next morning Piper yawned as she flipped the sign in the window of her art gallery from closed to open. After the game had finished, she and Baxter had celebrated with a few beers when they got back to the house her father had given to them as a gift after they graduated from college. The bottles were still sitting on the kitchen table, abandoned when Baxter had begun kissing her.

  Winning the game had made Baxter more passionate than normal and he had given her a night that made her forget all about that odd wink at the game–unfortunately, it had also given her only a couple hours of sleep.

  Piper walked around her little gallery, admiring the pieces of local art on display. As the host for the Wolf League playoffs, Uphoria always experienced an influx of tourists during the hockey season. This usually also brought in a couple extra thousand dollars and helped offset the unpleasantness of the season.