Gay Paranormal Romance: Daddy Wolf (Gay Shifter Mpreg) (MM Paranormal Omega Romance)

by Sy Walker

  She closed her eyes and listened, hoping he would hurry up and go. Charlie shuffled around at an even slower pace than usual, lingering as long as he could. Jana prayed for him to disappear. She wanted so badly to hear the tell-tale click of the front door shutting so she could cry into her pillow in peace. If she lost it now, she would be vulnerable and Charlie would be able to worm his way back in.

  His muffled voice came through the door. “I’m all packed up and leaving now. Are you going to come out to say goodbye?”

  She squeezed her eyes shut and hoped for a clean break. “No. Goodbye, Charlie.”

  Charlie sighed, but left anyway. He had felt the distance growing between them for a while, he just hoped if he ignored it, it would go away. When their relationship instead got worse, he scrambled to try and right the capsizing ship, but it had already taken on too much water and was going down. It was too little too late; he had lost her.

  Jana waited for the rumble of Charlie’s ancient truck to fade away before she got up to lock the front door. She made a mental note to change the locks in the morning for the hell of it. She didn’t want any opportunity for Charlie to invite himself in when she wasn’t home. He had never done anything like that before, but she didn’t trust him and couldn’t rely on him to stay away.

  The house felt empty and eerily quiet, yet peaceful in a strange way. She had chosen this home after touring countless places in and around Seattle. The house was a wreck. The vaulted ceilings had gone rotten from a bad leak in the roof, the kitchen was an 80s oak and Formica nightmare, and when she saw the master bath, she had almost thrown up. Dead bugs and broken tile had littered the floor, and black mold had bled through the walls. But with plenty of huge, floor to ceiling windows and a massive master bedroom, she saw the potential and threw all her extra money and effort into restoring the crumbling structure.

  It took two years and a brand new foundation, but finally, it was perfect. At least it had been. Tonight, the open, airy feel of the house felt empty and oppressive. The hardwood floors creaked as she padded back to her bedroom. Once her feet hit the threshold, it was as though a force field went up and wouldn’t allow her to enter. She had shared that space with Charlie for so long. Her bedroom used to be her sanctuary, but just standing there in the doorway she suddenly felt unwelcome. Sleeping in the bed she shared with him wouldn’t do. If she had any hope of getting rest tonight, it was going to be the guest room for her.

  Chapter 2

  When Jana hit the reset button on her life, she meant it. It took her just over a month, but she sold off all of her furniture, most of her décor, and her house. What he decided to keep had been packed into her Honda Element, and she drove off, leaving Seattle in her rearview.

  She had no idea where she wanted to land as of yet, but that didn’t matter. The road trip down the coast was the only thing on her agenda; she needed to clear her head and purge her system of Charlie and her rotten luck with men.

  Since she had kicked him out, Charlie called or texted her almost daily. Most of the time she’d get simply, a friendly hello, other times it was a plea to let him come home, and when he had been drinking, he would send her a misspelled diatribe about what a shitty human being she was. Not only was it time for a change of scenery, it was also time for a change of phone number. That was the most heartbreaking process of all, she’d had the same phone number since high school.

  After cruising down I-5 for a few hours, she had crossed the state line and needed to pull off. Portland was only a few exits away, so she held on until then. Being a major city, there was less a chance of her getting turned around or lost. Or so she hoped.

  She pulled off into the first gas station she saw and fueled up. The speaker over the pump was blaring the Muzak version of the local pop station. The instrumental version of Radioactive ended and an ad for a dating website came on. Jana rolled her eyes as the disembodied voice touted how amazing ComeShift was, and how many matches had been made in the last year. She heard the same old spiel that every dating site claimed.

  What made her sit up and pay attention, was the part about meeting shape shifters. An old friend from high school had once bragged to her about her shifter boyfriend, and how amazing he was in pretty much every facet of their lives. She wound up married to him and they were now expecting their third child. Could shifters really be that different from “normal” humans?

  Jana slid back into her seat and downloaded the app. There was no harm in looking. The sign up process was easy enough. There were no complicated questions to answer about personal morals or philosophies. Just basic contact information, a space for a short bio, and a few questions asking what she was looking for in a date. The whole process only took about ten minutes. She chose the “Find me” option in the settings since she was on the move. At least that way, the app could auto update where she was without her having to think about it.

  She set the phone aside and forgot about the ComeShift for the rest of her drive. She’d had a craving for some ocean time, and after a Google search, she found the perfect little seaside spot. She plugged Pacific City, Oregon into her GPS and stepped on the gas.

  The sun started setting as Jana pulled into her hotel. She was exhausted and starving and her bladder was ready to burst. Her phone dinged as she checked in and got her cottage key. She figured it was her mother and would answer it later. The cottage rental community was fairly close to the beach and Cape Kiwanda state park. Her rental was the third one in as she entered the neighborhood. She unlocked the door to her cottage and almost fell over. The interior was beautiful. The entrance opened up to an open space that included the living, dining, and kitchen areas in one setting.

  The living room area had a comfortably rustic feel with warm wood paneling and leather furniture, the kitchen had all stainless appliances and modern amenities; the building was a cottage in name and size only. But the ultimate surprise came when she pulled the curtains open in her bedroom. The picture window framed the most amazing beach view she had ever seen. Coming out of the water like a towering hulk was a huge monolith; she had her own personal Mt. Olympus to stare at.

  “Good choice, Jana.” She whispered to herself.

  She jumped as her phone dinged in her pocket again. “Whoa!” she had received two alerts from ComeShift already. The first was an interest alert, the other was an invitation from the same guy. Eagerly, she opened the app and checked him out.

  His name was Stephen Marciano. He was a wolf shifter from Pacific City and was Capital-C Cute. The photo was a shirtless photo taken during a fishing trip. He was holding a giant fish as long as his torso and looked damn proud of himself. She studied his beaming smile and every line, dip, and cut of his torso. The man was fit. He wore sunglasses and a backward baseball cap, so Jana didn’t get a good look at his face, but if that jawline was any indication, she had found herself a handsome fella.

  She was all set to respond when she caught a detail out of the corner of her eye.

  Age: 48

  Forty-eight? Holy shit. Stephen was a full fifteen years older than her. “Nope. No, no. Too old.” Jana shut the app down and put her phone away. The free-standing tub in the master was calling her name and relaxation was a much bigger priority at the moment than some guy. Especially some old guy.

  He was cute though. And a shifter. And old enough to know better. And probably well-versed in how to treat a lady. And experienced where it counted. Her thoughts ran round and round this same track while she soaked. After ten minutes, she decided there would be no relaxing.

  The intrigue of a much older man was almost too much to handle. What would he be like? What did he do for work? How do men that age behave? Jana would bet that he didn’t even own a gaming console, and probably did things like hold a job and own his own home.

  “Ah, fuck it.” Jana climbed out of the tub and opened Stephen’s invitation to see what he wanted.

  Hi! My name is Stephen. I found your profile and I saw that you like to hike and be
outdoors. What do you say we meet up for a morning beach hike?

  The man got a point for being polite and a hike sounded like a lot of fun and far less emotionally dangerous than a dinner date.

  I’d love to. What do you say to 7am. on Tuesday; would that work for you?

  That would give her two days to get used to the idea that she was even going on a date. That could be the best or the worst idea she had ever had.

  That sounds perfect. Let’s meet at Cape Kiwanda State Park. Bring a swimsuit.

  A swimsuit? Oh, lord. Did she even still own one? Seattle’s wasn’t landlocked by any means, but Jana couldn’t remember when she’d last had time to go swimming or fishing. It probably had been years.

  Still dripping from the tub, she padded across the hardwood to rummage through her suitcase and came up empty handed. It looked like she was going shopping in the morning.

  Chapter 3

  Jana managed to score herself a new bikini that fit like a dream off the clearance rack. She also couldn’t sleep. Her brain buzzed with a whole hive of what ifs? and should I’s? Her first date in five years felt like a bigger deal than it probably should have. Never mind the fact that there was a fifteen year age gap – that was the point that kept screaming the loudest at her – but she also had to deal with all of her own personal insecurities to make sure they were silenced and not ready to spring from their box to ruin her day. Of course, there were upsides, but the downs kept shoving them to the side so they could get all the attention. Perhaps, the biggest downer was wondering if they would have anything in common. She was trapped in a mental circle chase she couldn’t get away from.

  When her alarm went off at five-thirty, after the longest night of her life, she had managed to log zero hours of sleep.

  Thankfully, during her insomnia, she had packed, checked, and rechecked her backpack, and laid out her outfit for the day. A hike called for casual and comfy, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t wear a snug pair of shorts and a form fitting tank over her sassy new bikini.

  The drive to the state park mercifully, took only a few minutes so the jitters didn’t have that long to ramp up. She pulled up next to a cherry red ’65 Chevy pickup that had been lovingly rebuilt. A beat up yellow surfboard looking cheerfully caked in sand, greeted Jana as she stepped out of her car. Staring at the beautiful old truck helped her forget her nerves; temporarily anyway.

  A voice tickled the back of her neck, “Are you Jana?”

  She whirled around, clutching her chest, to find a pair of sparkling blue eyes smiling down at her. As her focus and heartbeat came back she could see that those eyes were part of a very handsome whole. He had high cheekbones and a straight bridge nose, and the cutest dimple in his chin. The man had a very old Hollywood look about him that was quite fetching. “Yes. I’m Jana.” She held her hand out for a shake.

  He took her hand and gave it a light squeeze. “I’m happy to meet you, Jana. I’m Stephen. I’m so glad you could make it.”

  The tense formality between them hung heavy in the air. Stephen could tell Jana was waiting for him to say something else. He wanted to tell her she was beautiful. He could tell her something poetic about the way the sunrise glinted off her hair, making it shine like threads of gold, but that was corny. He could tell her how hard it was to maintain eye contact because the shape of her legs made his head spin and his heart race. She had the strongest looking thighs he’d seen on a human woman, and it took every ounce of restraint not to think about spreading them.

  When she popped up on his profile, all innocent smile and come hither stare, he knew he had to meet her. He found her constant moving about intriguing as well. When he initially found her, Jana was in Portland. Once he decided to message her, she was in Newburg, and when he finally heard back from her, she was in Pacific City, which made him wonder; was she a vacationer or a runaway.

  He peered over her shoulder into her car. The backseat was jam packed with bags and boxes. Runaway.

  Jana’s husky voice pulled him back to Earth. “Since it’s such a nice day, let’s hit the trail. Should I follow you?”

  “Oh yeah. Yes, of course. Let’s go.” The idea was to get to know her free from distractions and the rest of the world, but what he hadn’t considered was if things went wrong and they were in the middle of the woods somewhere. They wouldn’t be able to get away from each other. Why he hadn’t thought of it before startled him. He just figured things would automatically go well. They always did for him where women were concerned. The problem was, none of them were the right woman.

  Jana took a deep breath and followed a couple of steps behind him. In her insomniatic state she spent some time researching Cape Kiwanda and the entire Three Capes Loop. Part of the trail snaked along a cliff side, most of which was fenced, which created a guideline for hikers to follow. The fence idea looked good on paper, but she still found one recent news article about a couple who ignored the trail warnings, hopped the fence, and slid to their deaths into the choppy Pacific. That story alone was the stuff of nightmares and Jana didn’t doubt it played a part in why she couldn’t sleep.

  Stephen led her on the trail down to the beach. “Just so you don’t think I’m leading you to your death or anything, we’re going to head north to Tierra del Mar for a picnic breakfast.”

  Oh, how lovely! Jana was pleasantly surprised at the romantic thought. And he wasn’t trying to kill her; double score! She looked forward to breakfast on the beach followed by a little swimming, and if things went well, maybe a roll in the sand. She flicked her gaze to scope out Stephen’s high tight ass. The man clearly spent a lot of time hiking.

  After traveling for a few minutes, Jana needed to run the silence off. “So what do you do?”

  “Oh, a little of this and a little of that. I retired from the military a few years ago with a healthy pension and a smart retirement account so I travel and take on the occasional odd job for something to do.” She didn’t need to know what kind of odd jobs he took.

  “So you’re a handy man?”

  “Something like that. What about you? What do you do, Miss Jana?”

  What a good question. At the moment she was working on a Master’s in running and hiding. “I’m in real estate, but I’m taking a much needed vacation. Pacific City is just the first stop on my West Coast road trip.”

  “You picked a great place to visit. I grew up here so I’m what you’d call, an expert.”

  “Is that so? Well, while I’m here, maybe you could be my official tour guide.” Jana stopped in her tracks. Where had that come from?

  “That might not be such a bad idea.”

  Jana and Stephen continued their walk down to the coast and the view stole Jana’s breath away. Golden rock formations sprung up out of the ground around them, casting their long shadows into the Pacific Ocean. They created a sightline, drawing the eye to the vast blue expanse of water, stretching out until it spilled over the horizon line and out of sight.

  Stephen pulled Jana closer to him. “If you look out over here,” he pointed to a massive monolith rising out of the waves like a Titan. “That’s Haystack Rock. It’s almost impossible to get a photo here without catching that beast in the frame.”

  His hand lingered on Jana’s shoulder, but she hardly noticed. Her date was being totally upstaged by the splendor all around her.

  “Come over this way and we’ll eat.” Stephen dropped his pack near the foot of a sand dune that had to be close to four stories high, and laid down a striped, natural texture blanket.

  Jana waited on the sidelines, watching Stephen prep for breakfast. The age difference between them still nagged at her a bit, but that voice was being stifled by the part of her that was excited at the prospect of a man who could take care of not only himself, but maybe her too.

  It’s not like she was one of those women whose ultimate goal was to be in a leisurely situation. It was most definitely not. She’d lose her mind if she didn’t work. Besides, here were too many ugly homes in
the world for her to quit. However, to see that she could potentially find a partner, was huge and frankly, gave her hope for her relationship future. “Do you need a hand with anything?”

  Stephen stood up and brushed his hands on his jeans. “If you could search the hill for some dry kindling that would be great.”

  “Sure. You’re building a fire?”

  “Of course. That is, unless you want cold coffee.”

  “Oh, hell no. I am off.” As Jana trotted up the hill with Stephen chuckling behind her.

  She zoned out as she picked dried grass and sticks, tossing them in the makeshift basket she made by holding out the front of her tank top. From her vantage point, she could see Stephen milling about below, but she had to take a minute to enjoy the landscape. A hike was a great idea and the sea air helped clear her head of any doubts about what she was doing. Getting out of Seattle was definitely the right choice and not just because of the company.

  She took in one last lungful of salty air and started for the beach and the silver fox below. The sun glinted off something to her left and caught her attention. A dark man lay on his belly in the grass. Jana couldn’t make out any more than the figure, but he seemed to be watching somebody down below.

  It was odd, but she put it from her mind and sat on the edge, pushing herself forward so she surfed down to the beach on her ass. “Here’s your fire starter,” she said passing the armful of dried sea grass to Stephen.

  “Thanks. I’ve just about got everything else set up so have a seat and I’ll get this coffee going.”

  Jana parked herself on a corner of the blanket and was once again surprised. It would appear, Stephen had thought of everything. He had a spread of cut fruit, yogurt, and croissants under a mesh cover. He had a bottle of champagne chilling in a bucket with a half-gallon of orange juice. “You really thought this through!”