by Kit Tunstall
He put a hand on her shoulder, which had the dual effect of soothing her while also reminding her that those hands could transform into paws with vicious claws at a moment’s notice. She shivered, not entirely certain if it was from fear or the pleasant sensation of having his hand on her shoulder. She was a completely jumbled mess around him, and she needed time to sort out how she felt.
“To answer your first question, no. They might have some excess hair for a couple of days, but it’ll fall out soon enough. They’ll have some different nutritional needs from a typical human baby, but they won’t be able to shift until puberty.”
A wave of relief swept through her. That was one less thing to worry about. “Will they grow faster too, since the pregnancy is accelerated?”
“A bit faster, probably. They’ll probably gain milestones more quickly too, but it won’t be anything too out of place that will make anyone comment on them being far older or more advanced than they should be.”
She let out an uneven sigh. “That’s good to know. I guess I have roughly thirteen years to come to grips with the reality that my babies will be able to shift into bears.” Thirteen years didn’t sound nearly long enough, but she was aided by the fact that she already loved the twins fiercely. She could probably accept Cody’s shifter side too if she loved him. She didn’t, of course. It had only been one night, and she barely knew him, but she was certain if love was there, it would help ease her doubts.
“For your second question, we have contacts, and some of our people are in different professions, especially here in Seattle. I know of at least two obstetricians who won’t bat an eye at taking on a new patient whose pregnancy is accelerated.”
She was intrigued by the idea, though she really liked Dr. Grayson. “I’ll give it some thought.” Realizing they were still standing in the middle of the sidewalk, she started walking again. Questions still zoomed through her mind, but she felt more at peace than she had a few minutes ago after being reassured of the worst details weighing on her mind weren’t as dire as she had assumed. “I’m sorry if I offended you by running out, but this is a lot to take in.”
He nodded. “I’m aware of that, and I’m trying not to take it personally that you ran away from me and don’t want me to touch you.” His tone was cool, but there was a hint of hurt underlying it.
She winced, feeling embarrassed, but unable to conquer her need to maintain a barrier between them. They crossed the last two blocks in silence, and it was the awkward kind that made her eager to escape. When they reached her apartment building, she tried to leave him in the lobby. “Thank you for walking me home.”
“I’ll walk you to your door. I want to make sure you get there safely.”
She let out a sigh of impatience, but decided it would be easier just to let him follow behind her than argue about it. Her back was hurting, probably from her impromptu run, and she just wanted to take a warm bath and relax. If possible, she’d like to shut off her brain for a while, though that seemed unlikely. After her bath, she needed at least twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep to make up for the poor rest she’d gotten over the last few months. She loved being an archaeologist, but that often included living in rough conditions, which had never been her favorite thing. Her idea of vacation was a five-star resort, not pitching a tent in the middle of nowhere.
She was conscious of him walking directly behind her, his chest brushing against her back with every step. It was an innocuous touch, but it was enough to send her heart racing and shift her hormones into overdrive. It was an abrupt reminder that she still found him as attractive as she had before, even though she knew more about him now, including what she presumed was his darkest secret.
Not that he seemed ashamed by it, and nor should he. If he was telling her the truth, and she had little reason to doubt that, it was simply an evolutionary difference between his people and hers. When she regarded it with a purely logical bent, it made her curious to know more. It was only when she allowed her emotions to filter in that panic tried to return.
When they reached the door, she drew her line in the sand. She opened the door and then turned to face him, blocking his ability to enter. “Thank you for walking me home.”
His lips twitched. “You already said that…” He trailed off, his eyes widening before a grim expression took over. “Step away from the doorway.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. “This is my home, and I’m staying here. Without you. It’s time for you to leave.”
With an impatient sigh, he clamped a hand on her shoulder and dragged her physically from the doorway, ignoring her squawk of outrage. “Turn around and look at your apartment.”
She did so, letting out a horrified gasp when she saw the mess strewn about her living room. Someone had broken into her apartment, and it was an even worse mess than her office had been earlier. She was shocked by what she witnessed, and completely unable to figure out why someone would break into her office and her apartment. Was it a random coincidence? That seemed unlikely.
Abruptly, she realized Cody was on the phone, and she tried to focus on his conversation as she stared at the debris that had once been her cozy little apartment décor. She felt violated, and anger was stronger than fear in that moment. If the person who had done that was still in her apartment, she imagined she could take them down single-handedly with her current level of rage, pregnant or not.
Of course she had better sense than that, and she backed away from the apartment when she realized the vandal could still be inside. She focused on Cody’s conversation, quickly realizing he was reporting the incident to the police after asking for a specific detective. When he had hung up, she asked, “Is that Strand guy one of yours?”
He shook his head. “He’s a wolf-shifter, but we’re friends, and he can be discreet. Not that I have any reason to think this is linked to the shifter community. No one knows yet that you’re my mate, and I don’t have any enemies of which I’m aware.”
She froze, dismayed at the warm glow of pleasure sweeping through her in a discordant mess. “I’m your what?”
He stilled, his cheeks darkening a bit with a flush. “I shouldn’t have said that this soon.”
“What does that mean? I’m your mate? In your world, if you screw someone, have you mated?”
He grimaced. “Of course not. Bears mate for life—at least bear-shifters do. We have good instincts. When I smelled my mate—you—I could tell by your scent that you belong to us. It’s the same for female bear-shifters, of course. When I smelled you across the bar, my bear knew right away you were ours.”
Her laugh held a definite note of hysteria she couldn’t repress. “That’s a special talent to have. What if your mate doesn’t want to be your mate?”
He sagged against the wall, looking temporarily defeated. “Then I guess I’m going to live the rest of my life in misery, alone. I hope you’ll change your mind after you get over the shock and at least give me a chance. All I’m asking is for you to get to know me, and let me be part of our children’s life. I want you as mine, but I’m never going to force you to do anything you don’t want to.”
Before she could formulate a reply, a man in his late thirties came up the stairs. He wore jeans and a polo shirt, but there was something about him that screamed “police.” It was funny, because Jade certainly didn’t have a built-in law enforcement detector. She’d never even gotten a ticket, and she had no reason to be fearful of the police, or to identify them when they were undercover. She just knew this was the detective by the way he carried himself. As he got closer, the visible bulge of a hip holster also reinforced her assumption.
Cody greeted the newcomer with a handshake before turning to put his arm around Jade and draw her closer. She didn’t miss the fact that he didn’t drop his arm once he brought her to face the detective, and nor did it escape her attention that she didn’t step away or shrug him off. It felt good to have him touching her and offering some comfort and support,
though she was conflicted by feeling that way.
“Detective Jason Strand, this is Dr. Jade Barnes. It was her apartment that’s been burgled.”
“I don’t actually know if anything was stolen, but they’ve torn everything to shreds.” She was saddened by the loss of her things and angered by the fact someone had broken into her private sanctuary to destroy it.
The detective shook her hand before he pulled out his gun. “I imagine they’re gone by now, but you two wait out here while I double-check.” A second later, he slipped inside the apartment, carefully closing the door behind himself. Presumably, he wanted to block any person trying to flee, or at least slow their escape time.
Jade leaned against the wall, awkwardly trying to rub her back as she did so. She didn’t object when Cody gently turned her to face the wall, urging her to extend her back by tugging lightly on her hips. It was uncanny how well she understood exactly what he wanted from her without a word spoken between them.
It should have been more alarming than it was, and she realized the reality of it all was starting to sink in. The terror and irrational fear she had experienced earlier were starting to fade, though she wasn’t quite at the point of acceptance just yet. His fingers were getting her closer though, she had to concede, as he began to rub her lower back. He instinctively found the spot that was bothering her the most, and she moaned low in her throat. “I could get used to this.”
There was a trace of amusement in his tone. “I’ll be happy to rub you whenever you’d like. All you have to do is ask.”
That would require accepting his revelations and agreeing to spend more time with him. It would also require a small measure of pride sacrificed to the altar of humility to request anything from him. She was used to being independent and doing things on her own, but asking for a backrub from the man who had impregnated her didn’t seem like something that would rob her of her feminine power.
The pain had eased considerably just from a short massage by the time the detective returned to them. His gun was back in his holster, and he was alone, indicating no one had been in the apartment. He opened the door wide and gestured for them to enter. “Come in and do an inventory please, Dr. Barnes. I need to know if anything is missing.”
At first, she wandered aimlessly through the apartment, feeling lost and out of sorts. It was like a foreign place to her now, and the warm and comforting vibe that she always got from stepping inside the door was gone. Her trust in the place was shattered, and she knew she couldn’t sleep there tonight. She might never be able to again, which enraged her. The building was close to the university, meaning she could walk to work, and she had liked the quiet and coziness. Someone had robbed that from her, and a surge of rage filled her.
She struggled to calm down and focus on determining if anything was missing. The television and her laptop were exactly where she had left them this morning, as was an expensive stereo system. This clearly hadn’t been a run-of-the-mill burglary, because nothing of any value appeared to be missing.
She wandered from the living room to the kitchen, eyeing it quickly. Whoever had broken into her apartment had clearly done a less thorough examination of the kitchen, because it wasn’t quite the mess that the living room was. Her stand mixer and countertop convection oven were still there, and they were the only expensive appliances that might have interested a burglar, though she doubted they would have.
Moving on, she peeked into the bathroom, which was mostly undisturbed, though someone had left up the toilet seat. “It looks like it was a guy who broke in.”
The detective had shadowed her, and he asked now, “What makes you think that?”
She waved to the toilet seat. “He left the lid and the seat up. It’s not something I would do. Trust me.”
He made a note of it, looking slightly amused. She continued down the hallway, pausing at the room she used as an office. It was a complete and total mess, even worse than the devastation at her university office. Papers were strewn about, and the desktop computer she kept there was completely gone, though they had left the monitor. Whoever had broken in was definitely looking for something, though she wasn’t sure what.
She moved gingerly through the mess on the office floor, heading for her filing cabinet. It was open, and she had left it closed. She wasn’t surprised that it was open, since there were papers everywhere, but she was curious to see if she could determine which files had been of interest.
It was difficult to tell, since everything was such a mess, and she let out a sigh as she moved on. Feeling dejected, she sank into her computer chair and stared around her at the debris. “I don’t think anything is missing besides my desktop, and I’m not sure why they’d want that, but would leave the laptop. It makes no sense.”
“Perhaps they assumed all your work-related things were done on your desktop. Or maybe they searched through your laptop already and decided there was nothing of interest,” suggested Cody.
The detective offered his own theory. “Maybe they cloned your hard drive on the laptop, but couldn’t manage to do so with the desktop, so they were forced to take it.”
She grimaced. “They can do that?”
Strand nodded grimly. “If they know what they’re doing, they can. I’d suggest calling your bank and having all your cards and accounts changed or closed down in case the person got your sensitive financial information.”
She let out a low groan of disgust. “That’s going to be terribly inconvenient.” Not that she was going to ignore the detective’s advice, because she didn’t want whomever had broken in to rob her blind. Somehow, she thought this was about something other than money though, but why take the chance?
As she stood up, her hand brushed against the drawer of her desk, and she looked down when she realized it was closed, but not completely. She had locked it earlier, and she tugged it open. It stuck for a moment, but whoever had been in her office had broken the lock, and it finally yielded. The drawer was now empty. “They took something.”
“What’s that?” asked Detective Strand as Cody came to stand behind her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“I just got back from a dig at a Sumerian outpost. At least that’s what we surmise it is, though we’re still waiting for carbon dating and confirmation in other ways. All my notes and pictures from the dig are gone.”
The detective seemed surprised. “You think someone broke in to steal your academic records?”
She shrugged. “It makes sense. Someone also broke into my office at the university earlier in the day.”
The detective looked troubled. “Why didn’t you say something about that sooner?”
She lifted her shoulder. “I guess I just didn’t think about it. We reported it to the school security officers, but it will be handled internally, and I didn’t make the connection. I was still in shock about learning…” She trailed off, looking over her shoulder and upward at Cody uncertainly. “About things.”
The detective looked at them both for a moment before nodding, apparently realizing to what she referred. “Well, I’ll file a report, and someone from the CSI unit will come out to dust for fingerprints and look for forensic evidence. In the meantime, you can’t stay here.”
“I don’t want to anyway. I’m not sure I can ever sleep here again and feel safe.”
The detective reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. “You can reach me here if you think of anything else, and I’ll be in touch if I learn anything. Where will you be staying?”
“The Hilton by the university,” said Jade.
At the same time, Cody said, “She’ll be with me.”
The detective arched a brow, looking mildly amused. “I’ll let you two sort that out, but at least I have a vague idea how to find you.”
A few moments later, he left them, and she went to her bedroom to pack a case. Cody followed behind her, but she didn’t look at him or talk to him. He was being a presumptuous ass, and he was in for a rude awa
kening. She wasn’t staying with him.
Chapter Four
A couple of hours later, she stared at her reflection in the mirror in the bathroom attached to his bedroom, still not entirely sure how she’d ended up yielding to his demand that she stay with him. She knew it had something to do with his logical arguments, combined with the naked need in his eyes. She had a feeling she’d lost the battle when he had implored her to let him keep her and the babies safe, sensing he needed to have that role. Plus, her own heart was guiding her to this path, despite her brain’s stubborn resistance.
Delaying the inevitable could be put off no longer, so she slipped out of his bathroom and into his bedroom, staring at him warily. “I still think I should sleep on the couch.”
He shook his head, his jaw firmed. “You’re not sleeping on the couch. It’s lumpy and uncomfortable, and you already have a backache. Besides, don’t pregnant women need like ten pillows?”
“Two or three,” she conceded. She arched her brow as she saw him walk to the bed and pull back the sheets and blanket. “Turndown service even, huh?”
He laughed, though his heart didn’t appear to be in an amused place. “Yeah, this is better than the Hilton.”
She approached the bed and slid in, deliberately picking the side he hadn’t folded back for her, though she couldn’t say why. A moment later, she almost bounced out of bed as she scrambled to get up when he laid down beside her. “What are you doing?”
He gave her a look as though she were mentally deficient. “I’m going to bed. What does it look like?”
She glared at him. “It looks like I’m sleeping on the couch then.”
He groaned. “No one is sleeping on that uncomfortable thing. Just go to sleep.”
She started to scramble out of bed, which was more difficult than it should be due to her expanding stomach and slightly clumsy moves these days. She let out a cry of protest when he put his arm around her waist, gently pulling her back against him before clamping her against the heat of his body. “Let me go.”