Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance

by Riley Moreno

  “Of course I do,” she said grudgingly and Sonya knew that Diesel had heard her reluctance.

  She hated this. Everything had been roses before Melanie Beal had come along to ruin it. Sonya looked down at her bloated misshapen body, a body that still had two more months of growing to do and it would be a year before she would look like her old self.

  ‘Even my old self was a whale compared to Mel the super model bitch,’ she thought gloomily.

  Diesel drove beside her in a prickly quiet that was making both of them uncomfortable. Sonya wanted to scratch her skin then Melanie’s eyes out.

  Chapter Four

  Who’s Your Daddy?

  It was snowing and Sonya was biting her nails. She was in her knee length socks and an old sweatshirt that had belonged to her father. She took the phone and a mug of hot chocolate and waddled to the back porch. The snow melted on her face but she didn’t mind. Her body temperature was so high the entire winter had been a very pleasant affair.

  She sipped and considered what she was about to do. Diesel’s birthday was in three days and she needed to get this done now if she wanted Diesel’s father at the party. She stiffened her shoulders and dialed. She bit her lip, her eyes screwed in concertation.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, may I talk to Andrew Wake please?”

  “Speaking,” the voice was self-assured and deep.

  “Oh,” Sonya felt stupid calling up a man and asking him, hey did you have sex with Martha Cousins in the late 70’s?

  “May I ask who’s calling?” Andrew asked politely.

  “My name is Sonya Blackpaw,” she said.

  “And how may I help you Ms. Blackpaw?” Andrew sounded friendly enough and Sonya felt encouraged.

  “I’m a relative of Martha Cousins of Albany,” Sonya paused. Usually at this point the men had professed they hadn’t known any Martha, or if they had she had been an aunt, a second cousin or their third grade teacher.

  “Oh,” the man said in guarded tones. “And how is Martha?”

  “I’m sorry,” Sonya had to take a minute to tamp down the flood of feelings that was erupting somewhere in the region of her groin. “You knew her?”

  “Well, yes, Martha Cousins and I dated for a while in ’79. Why is she trying to contact me after so long?”

  “She isn’t,” Sonya said and had to kick herself for sounding like such a fool. “I mean she didn’t ask me to find you, her son did. Mr. Wake, I’m afraid Martha wasn’t very honest with you.”

  “She had a baby?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Sonya said carefully, “A Shifter.”

  “She wouldn’t have liked that,” the man laughed grimly.

  “She didn’t,” Sonya said.

  “So what is this regarding?” Andrew asked, “My son wants to see me now? How can I even be sure he is my son?”

  “I can’t say,” Sonya said. “None of us can because Martha has long severed ties with Diesel and he is too afraid to find you,” Sonya bit her lip.

  “So he isn’t trying to find me,” he said.

  “He’s too afraid,” Sonya said quickly. “If you had been rejected by your mother would you be open to other parental relationships or afraid of them?”

  Andrew Wake sighed at the other end of the line.

  “And who are?” he asked finally. “Are you his wife?”

  “His girlfriend,” she said. “We’re having a baby and I just felt that Diesel needed to connect with his father as well.”

  There was a longer pause then he finally said.

  “I have a family now,” he said. “Grown men. A grandkid too. I have a wife and she won’t be pleased that I had an illegitimate son tucked away somewhere.”

  “I understand,” Sonya said, disappointed.

  “Let me talk to them,” he said. “Give me your number. Let me talk to them and I’ll get back to you.”

  “Okay,” Sonya said eagerly. She recited her number, confirmed that he had the right one and hung up. She hugged the phone to her ample chest thinking about the birthday three days from now and if Andrew came… she shook her head to get it out of the clouds.

  ~*~

  Melanie clambered up the hillside to stand beside Diesel at the summit. She observed him looking at the track marks in the sodden earth. It had been snowing all day. The Tyler family had lodged a missing report. Their son, Henry, had gone shifting last night but never made it home. He was a WereWolf and still new to it. His father usually accompanied him with every shifting but had been out of town last night and Henry had gone on his own.

  Melanie was bored. She stifled a yawn but followed Diesel deeper into the woods. The wood smelled of pine and snow, the smell pure and fresh in her nose. The sky was stark and grey and the gloom got deeper as they progressed. If the Tyler boy was alive he’d soon be dead of exposure.

  She sighed deeply and twirled her hair. She’d tied it up in a ponytail today, her striking features coming in to sharp focus. She’d seen Diesel stare at her lips earlier and it had thrilled her. For the hundredth time she wondered why he was with that dumpy girlfriend of his. Maybe if she hadn’t gotten pregnant Diesel wouldn’t be stuck with her.

  ‘She must have jumped his bones when he was drunk,’ Melanie thought. ‘How else do you explain a hunk like Diesel falling for her? How would anyone fall for a tub of lard like that?’

  She flipped her hair back and took the lead, bending where a few mushrooms had been trampled underfoot. She knew her ass was on display in her tight slacks. She could feel Diesel staring. ‘Good,’ she thought, ‘Get a good look at what you’re denying yourself.’

  They should seriously be together, was her thinking. They were both devastatingly good looking, both WerePanthers and both working as law enforcers. They could be making steaming love in the snow right now instead of looking for a stupid kid who was already dead because of his stupidity.

  Melanie had no sympathy for the stupid.

  “I think he went that way,” Diesel said and Melanie turned her head to see that Diesel wasn’t facing her at all but to the left of them in to a deeper section of the woods that sloped dangerously down in to a ravine.

  Melanie straightened up, annoyed.

  She huffed down alongside Diesel, watching her step, the slope slippery and pretty soon her leggings were wet and she was miserable. Half way down she angled herself deliberately so she went crashing in to Diesel, their bodies falling over each other and they went rolling down the hill clinging to each other.

  “Ouch,” Melanie moaned.

  “Are you okay?” Diesel asked. He was crushed below her, her head nuzzled in to the crook of his neck. Melanie stayed there for a while, moaning petulantly, squirming her hips till she felt a rise in his pants. “Melanie,” he croaked.

  “I think I hurt my thigh,” she moaned, “It feels bruised.”

  “Let’s get you up and have a look,” Diesel said then thought better of it when Melanie started pulling her leggings off. She pulled them partly down so he could get a good look at her shaven pussy; it was nice and pink from the exposure to the cold, her flesh creamy and inviting.

  Diesel looked away.

  “Is it bad?” he asked looking intently up and down the ravine.

  “Yeah,” Melanie said gritting her teeth. “I might need you to carry me.”

  “Okay,” he said distractedly. “You should sit here and rest your leg. I’ll go see where Henry might have gotten to.”

  Melanie wanted to stomp her feet and scream.

  Diesel came back ten minutes later. He was carrying Henry, small for his fifteen years, who he had covered in his jacket.

  “We need to get him to a hospital now!” he said and rushed up the slope as fast as he could while still trying to maintain his balance.

  Melanie followed, furious that she hadn’t managed to seduce Diesel. The kid dying of hypothermia never even registered as something she should care about.

  Chapter Five

  Picture Perfect

&nbs
p; The town was abuzz. Henry Tyler was in the hospital; frail with a broken leg, he was going to survive. The school was planning a safety assembly to go over the rules parents taught in their households. It was imperative that something like this never happen again.

  Sonya had been terrified when Diesel hadn’t made it home that night. She had called the station but no one had picked up. After her third call someone finally picked up the call but all she heard was frantic breathing and a woman’s moaning. She was about to get in her car and go to the station to confront whatever was happening when Diesel walked in.

  “Where have you been?” Sonya was in tears. She had never cried over a man in her entire life and Diesel had her sobbing. She hated being so dependent on him for her peace of mind and her happiness.

  “I was at the hospital in Waterville,” he said. “Didn’t Mel call you? I asked her to call you.”

  “Why were you at the hospital?” she asked urgently, her feelings doing a yoyo between relief that it wasn’t him some woman was panting with at the station but a spike of fear on why he had to go to the hospital.

  “Henry Tyler broke his leg. The kid went on a lone shift and fell down a ravine.”

  Sonya noticed the scratches on his neck, fingered them tentatively. Diesel blushed.

  “I fell too,” he mumbled but wouldn’t meet her eye. Sonya stared at him quizzically wondering what it was he wasn’t telling her. He never kept secrets from her and it scared her that he was hiding things from her.

  “Let me put something on that,” she said and went in to the bathroom for the first aid kit. When she came back Diesel stripping his dirty clothes off, his skin white from the cold, his feet wrinkled because his socks had gotten wet. Sonya disinfected the scratches, kissed his cheek then pushed him in for a nice hot shower.

  She had dinner ready for him when he came out. Diesel ate silently, his head bowed, a frown furrowing his brow.

  “Hey,” Sonya said lifting his chin. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m just thinking what if I hadn’t found him when I did,” Diesel said ashen faced. “What if I’d been too late?”

  “But you weren’t,” Sonya said patting his thigh.

  “All the way to the hospital I kept thinking I was too late, that kid was going to die because I hadn’t reached him in time,” Diesel’s knuckles were white.

  Sonya got up and embraced him. Diesel placed his hand on her belly and the baby kicked.

  “I kept thinking how I would die if that were my kid,” he murmured in to her shoulder, “How I’d be demented with grief.”

  Sonya kissed the top of his head; strangely relieved by how passionate he was about their child. She stroked his head and decided to talk to him about the thing that kept her up most nights.

  “D?” she said. “Have you ever thought about finding your father?”

  Diesel held her a little tighter then let go. He began to eat slowly, chewing his bites thoughtfully before swallowing. Sonya decided that he wasn’t going to answer and poured herself some juice to hide her disappointment.

  “I wasn’t sure he’d like me,” Diesel finally said. “I mean, of course, I’ve thought about finding him. I’ve thought about what my life would have been like if he had been around. But it’s too late for that.”

  “Do you think your mom ever wished she’d told him?”

  “No,” Diesel chuckled bitterly. “My mom hated my father. She never took his name in all the years I lived with her. She would just allude to him being this dead beat who left her with nothing. She wasn’t an easy person to love with,” he wiped the crumbs off the table, “I was her son but sometimes I got the feeling that she resented me; blamed me for her life. Don’t get me wrong, she fed me and clothed me and made sure I went to school and she did love me in her own way but she still resented me for ruining her life.”

  “But what if you got a chance to find out who your father was,” Sonya said breathlessly, “what if your mother finally told you his name; would you go find him?”

  Diesel rubbed the back of his neck, wincing when he brushed the scratches. He shrugged.

  “I don’t know,” he said splaying his hands in front of her. “Part of me wants to say yes, part of me is terrified of the rejection. I mean the man probably has a life of his own. I wouldn’t want to ruin it all by showing up at his door. I think it’s enough I ruined the life of one parent.”

  “Don’t say that,” Sonya admonished gently cupping his cheek. “You’re the best thing that’s happened to me and I won’t hear a word that says otherwise.”

  “We won’t be like that to him,” Diesel said placing his hand fondly on her belly, and the baby kicked, always sensing the touch of his father.

  “How can you be so sure it’s a boy?” Sonya asked beaming.

  “I asked Dr. Fitz when I was at the hospital,” Diesel grinned sheepishly and Sonya swatted at his hand.

  “We were supposed to find out together,” she tried to scold him but she was too happy to be angry.

  “I figured it could be my early birthday present,” he smiled goofily and Sonya couldn’t help it she leaned in and kissed the tip of his nose.

  Chapter Six

  Uninvited

  Sonya was on tenterhooks. The party was tomorrow and none of her stupid dresses fit her. She had planned a casual event with Diesel’s closest friends in Shifter Grove and Waterville. Sonya had even gotten in contact with some of Diesel’s Navy buddies and they had said they’d be flying in for the special day.

  Getting Diesel to the event wasn’t going to be hard. She’d told him the school was hosting a fundraiser for Henry Tyler’s hospital bills to help the family out and the Locke’s had graciously given the rent of their barn.

  Now Sonya was standing in the try room of a JC Penny trying to fit in to a bright blue and orange dress that refused to fit. This was the largest size they carried and Sonya seriously considered tearing the thing to pieces.

  “Maybe you could try Maternal America,” the sales girl, a petite blonde, the picture of wholesomeness said when Sonya handed her the dress.

  Sonya wanted to gouge her eyes out but Claus pulled her out of the store. She had tried Maternal America but they had such bland colored clothes, pastels and greys, that Sonya would rather go naked than wear one of those dresses.

  She was decidedly depressed and wanted a big helping of chili cheese fries at the food court but Claus took her to Macy’s instead. Sonya was in the middle of a change when her phone began to ring in earnest. She was so busy trying to work the intricacies of a strappy dress so she didn’t see who was calling but attended the call.

  “Hello?” she said.

  “Hello, dear,” Andrew said. “I hope I’m not calling at a bad time.”

  “Andrew!” Sonya said and Claus squealed outside the try room. “No, of course not. It’s good to hear from you. How are you?”

  “Fine, fine,” Andrew said. “I talked to my family,” he said and Sonya had to suppress a smile. Andrew was jumping right to business; just like Diesel he didn’t have the gift of small talk.

  “And?” Sonya said pulling her sweatshirt on and exiting the dressing room.

  “My boys think I should go for it,” he said and Sonya got the impression he was beaming. “My wife was a little upset; it’s understandable, but she knows it happened long before I ever met her so she isn’t averse to me getting to know Diesel.”

  Sonya was crying now. She was getting really sick of the leaky tap in her eyes since her pregnancy, she hadn’t cried tis much in her whole life!

  “So you’ll come?”

  “I was thinking I could fly in tomorrow,” Andrew said. “Would you mind me bringing one of my sons?”

  “Of course not,” Sonya said, “Actually tomorrow would be perfect. It’s his birthday tomorrow. I have a whole party planned…”

  “Oh,” Andrew seemed hesitant. “I’m not sure I’d want such a public place to see him. I don’t know how I feel about this; I don’t know how he’ll
feel about it.”

  “I understand,” Sonya said quickly. “I’ll bring him to the hotel in Waterville after the party. I’ll book you a room right away.”

  “That’s sweet of you Sonya,” Andrew said. “Diesel is a lucky man.”

  Sonya was jumping for joy, crying and laughing at the same time.

  “Excuse her,” Claus told the staring clerk, “She’s just pregnant.”

  They were late. Diesel had made them very late. He had joined her in the shower, then insisted on cleaning her up thoroughly. Then he’d nuzzled in to her as she tried to dry herself then did it for her, rolling in the sheets. Sonya had dressed twice because Diesel had had to undress her right there and then.

  She didn’t mind it all that much but Diesel had noticed that she was distracted.

  “You don’t love me anymore,” he pouted and Sonya swatted his arm.

  Diesel pulled up outside the Locke barn where a host of cars were already parked. It had just started snowing again and the roads were slick with the last of the ice of the winter. Sonya bundled up in her coat, her heart beating faster as they approached the closed doors, Diesel by her side suspecting nothing.

  She opened the door for him, watching his face intently when the crowd cheered for him wishing him a happy birthday, her heart filling to the brim watching the play of emotions on his face. He kissed her long and deep then they joined their friends to celebrate.

  Sonya was sipping on the punch when she noticed her. Melanie Beal, who she hadn’t invited, was wearing the blue orange dress that wouldn’t fit her. The neck line scooping down to reveal the perfect tops of perfect breasts, synching at the waist and flaring at the hips; her long legs exposed for the world to admire; and she was kissing Diesel on the cheek, lingering to close to his face, whispering something inane as her hand rested on his chest as if it belonged there.

  “Who is that?” Samantha asked staring as well.

  “The new deputy,” Sonya said woodenly.