by E A Price
Yep, dinner hadn’t actually turned out as boring as he thought it would.
*
Boris and Ryder both started working on their second sandwiches.
“Should have just come here in the first place,” muttered Boris.
Cecile wiped a large spot of mustard off his chin. “Yes, darling, you’re quite right.”
Shaw’s was busy as usual, but since both Boris and Ryder were regulars – and could eat enough to keep a small army fed for a week – the owner made room for the two couples. Ryder and Boris had practically ordered the whole menu. Cecile was demurely working on some soup and half a sandwich, while Juliet – usually as lusty with food as she was in the bedroom – was strangely only picking at her two sandwiches and fries.
She was too busy staring at her phone to eat. Ryder sneaked a hand over to her fries, but before he could get one, a small hand reached out and gave his hand a resounding slap.
“My fries,” she muttered absently.
Ryder grunted, and his inner tiger snickered. “What are you doing?” he asked peevishly.
His hand actually really hurt. He sometimes forgot how strong his tiny mate was, or the fact that she had only recently rediscovered food and was just a tad possessive about it.
“Buying a crib.”
“Really? That was sudden.”
Juliet gave him an almost sheepish smile. “Cecile told me the model number of hers, and I really have been putting it off for far too long.”
His tiger let out a happy yowl. “What changed your mind?” he asked, draping an arm around her shoulders. “I can tell you’ve been worried.”
Juliet snuggled against him as she started munching on her fries. “Tonight, really. I spent more than five hundred years wishing for a baby, and now I have one within my grasp, a part of me still can’t believe it. I guess I just didn’t want to jinx it. But, what will be will be, and I should just get on with it. I was being silly, trying to avoid everything baby related.”
“Yeah, you were,” he agreed with a smirk.
“Thanks.”
“It’ll be okay,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her temple.
Juliet gave him a slightly anxious look. “You don’t know that for certain.”
Ryder cupped her face, and his tiger purred for their beautiful mate. “I feel it.”
He gave her a brief kiss, and Juliet gave him a sweet smile.
“Okay, you can have one of my fries.”
He reached out to grab a handful.
“I said one!” she snapped.
Thwack!
*
Boris snickered as Ryder bellyached about how much his hand hurt.
“Boris, I…” started Cecile.
“You’ve been nervous all night,” he complained. Barely noticeable, but he saw it, and it had his bear agitated. It was in the uncertain looks she kept darting in his direction, and he didn’t like how much perfume she was wearing.
“I… think I might be pregnant,” she admitted wearily.
“What?”
“I haven’t had a test yet, but I have the same feeling as when I was pregnant with William, and my swan’s ecstatic.”
His face, normally set to surly, broke out in a huge grin. His bear roared ecstatically.
“Beautiful, that’s wonderful.”
“You do realize this means my mother may never leave our house?” she told him cautiously.
Yeah, she probably wouldn’t, or she’d probably try to move them all to her larger house where she could fuss over them to her heart’s content. But that didn’t matter. He had his beautiful mate, he had his cub – hopefully soon to be two, and his life had never been better.
“Small price to pay.”
Cecile smiled beatifically.
“Happy Valentine’s, darling.”
“Right back at you, beautiful.”
The end
Three: Growing Pains
Calisto screamed. Rick leaped to his feet and bolted upstairs to get to her. So did Ariadne, but being human and pregnant meant that progress was a little slower for her.
Rick burst into her daughter’s room letting out a lion-sized roar. “What’s happening?”
Panting, Ariadne joined him. “Callie, baby?” she gasped. She really needed more exercise – in spite of what Rick claimed, sex was not the best work out for her.
Rick looked around the bedroom searching for an attacker. His eyes flashed yellow, and he looked like his lion was about to burst out of his skin at any moment.
No one was there. Other than her daughter Calisto, who was staring at them while clutching one of her cheeks.
Ariadne frowned. “What happened baby?”
Calisto uncovered her face, and Ariadne laughed.
“It’s not funny,” griped Calisto.
“Why were you using magic?” asked Ariadne in between hiccups of laughter. Because surely magic had to have caused it.
“I had a huge zit,” hissed Calisto.
“Oh honey, I can’t see anything at all,” she said peering at her daughter’s cheek. Though it was pretty hard to tell given that the cheek was now green with purple spots. “Let me take a look.”
Gently, she propelled Rick out of the room and closed the door. Both Ariadne and her daughter were witches. Admittedly, Ariadne wasn’t a very strong practitioner, but glamour spells were pretty manageable.
Ariadne ran her own cake shop and had recently mated with Rick after she accidentally cast a spell to bring her mate to her. Rick was a lion shifter and the medical examiner for the SEA. Ariadne already had her thirteen-year-old daughter, Calisto and was now expecting a baby with Rick.
“It’s awful!” complained Calisto, staring at her cheek.
“This?” said Ariadne soothingly, “this is nothing. We’ll have this sorted out in no time.”
She tried a couple of spells, which lessened the green but didn’t make it disappear completely.
“You can fix this, right?” asked Calisto with increasing agitation.
“Of course, but I don’t know why you were worrying in the first place. I’m sure your friends wouldn’t even notice a zit.”
Callie glared at her. “Everyone would have noticed. It was the size of a barnacle – there was no way I could leave the house with it.”
“Is this because of Jeremy?” teased Ariadne.
“Mo-om!” cried Callie.
“Is he going to be there tonight?”
The kids were going bowling and then out for cheeseburgers – there were about eight hormonally challenged teenagers going. Fortunately, Ariadne and Rick hadn’t drawn the short straw as chaperones. They were free to enjoy their own Valentine’s.
“Mom!” fumed Callie.
“You have a little crush on him, right?”
“Mom, you are so embarrassing!”
Her pixie-like daughter gave her a scowl that could stop a rhino in its tracks, and Ariadne considered it best to drop the subject. She muttered another spell, and Callie’s skin returned to normal.
“Here we go,” said Ariadne cheerfully.
Calisto grabbed a mirror and inspected her cheek, grunting in appreciation.
“You look beautiful,” said Ariadne. In truth she did. She hid behind bangs and scowled a lot, but her daughter had the face of the angel.
“You have to say that,” grumbled the teenager, who was apparently at an age where she couldn’t just take a compliment – she had to argue about it.
Ariadne kissed her daughter’s forehead, and Calisto immediately rubbed the spot. Ariadne sighed. She supposed she was the same when she was her age – but that was because her mom didn’t understand her at all. Her mom wasn’t cool like Ariadne was now.
She left Calisto to debate which pair of jeans – that looked completely identical but apparently weren’t – to wear. Ariadne found Rick hovering outside.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes, just a zit.”
“I knew you could see it,” howled Calisto
through the door.
Ariadne dragged Rick downstairs.
“Don’t worry,” she soothed, “in just over five years she’ll probably move out to go to college.”
Rick grunted, and she added, “But then it’ll just be another seven years until this little one turns into a raging hormonal monster.”
Rick caressed her stomach and Ariadne beamed as Calisto made her way downstairs.
“Oh, Callie you look so pretty,” she gushed.
Calisto scowled.
“You do, baby,” agreed Rick.
Calisto smiled slightly. “Thanks, Rick.”
Ariadne narrowed her eyes. Her daughter was so much better behaved to her step-dad than her actual mother – it wasn’t fair! Just because Ariadne was always fretting about safety and her homework and Rick was laidback with her and spoiled her rotten.
The doorbell sounded, and Rick went to answer as Ariadne grabbed some money out of her purse. “Enjoy yourself on us, honey.”
Calisto muttered a thank you.
“Ahem.”
“Thank you, Mom,” she said a little more loudly.
Ariadne grinned and rubbed her stomach. Calisto smiled – a genuine smile that emerged from behind the bangs of hair always covering her face.
“Have fun tonight,” said Calisto in a tone of voice approaching happy.
“We will.”
“I was talking to my baby sister.”
“Of course you were.”
Her stomach got more love than she did these days, not that she begrudged the baby her excited older sister. She was sure Calisto would have been happy to get a baby brother, but since finding out it was a girl, Calisto had been extremely excited about the baby.
“What’s the holdup?” wondered Ariadne.
Rick appeared to be outside, talking to the chaperone.
Ariadne opened the door to find them murmuring to one another. “Hey.”
The chaperone jumped slightly, but Rick merely gave her his gorgeous, quiver inducing grin – the one that led to the baby brewing in her stomach in the first place.
“Hi, Mark. How are you?”
It was Jeremy’s dad. Mark glanced at Rick, who gave him a charming look in return.
“Fine, and umm, you?”
“I’m good.”
He seemed nervous, but she probably would be too if she were in charge of that many teenagers. She looked over his shoulder to see his minivan was full of bored-looking kids tapping away on their phones.
Calisto appeared at her elbow.
“Have fun, baby.”
She tried to kiss her and Calisto gave her a death glare and dodged away from her lips. Right. Not cool to show your parents affection. Rick caught everything and smirked, before draping an arm over Ariadne’s shoulder.
They waved goodbye to the kids. Mark gave them a nervous wave, but none of the kids looked up from their phones and Calisto pretended she didn’t know them.
“Oh, my stomach feels funny,” murmured Ariadne.
Rick went on high alert immediately. “The baby?”
“No, no, no! Just nerves because of Callie. This is the first step before she starts going on real dates – the group outings. Soon she’ll have a boyfriend, then she’ll be going out with him, then kissing, then… ooh, this isn’t a good feeling.”
Rick kissed her temple. “It’ll be okay.”
“Yeah.” Ariadne couldn’t be so laidback, but what would happen would happen – just as it had with her. Though she was determined to be cooler about it than her mom - who had tried to lock Ariadne in her bedroom on more than one occasion. Pointless really. Ariadne may not have particularly strong magical powers, but she had managed to unlock a door.
“So, Alfonso’s?”
She was looking forward to their Valentine’s Day dinner. They made reservations three months ago, and she had practically been salivating for a week about their ravioli. She planned on ordering double everything.
Rick winced. “Unfortunately, it’s canceled.”
“What? No!” The dream of mouthwatering ravioli slipped through her fingers.
“Burst water main. They called while you were talking to Callie.”
“Darn it.” Her taste buds whimpered – they had been so looking forward to tonight.
“Don’t worry; I got us some new reservations.”
Ariadne sighed in relief. Thank goodness for her sexy mate.
*
“Umm, I know this was last minute and all, but honey, this is a food truck. Do they even take reservations?”
Ariadne stared at the huge truck in dismay. She had envisioned tonight would have candles, velvet covered chairs, real napkins – the fabric kind! But this was a truck in a courtyard, surrounded by three other food trucks.
“They sure do, that’s our table over there,” said Rick cheerily.
Ariadne eyed it. “That’s a picnic bench. Rick, honestly, we could have just stayed home.”
Rick kissed her, and she shuddered in his embrace.
He raised his hand to her face, and his fingers danced over her cheek. “This place is great. We can still have a good night.”
“Ah, okay,” she whimpered. Yep, his kisses could make her agree to almost anything – probably everything, she hadn’t wanted to say no to anything yet.
He escorted her to their bench, letting out a rumble as two teenagers tried to cut in before them. Then he ordered and brought their food over.
Okay, it wasn’t bad, the food was nice – nope, scratch that, delicious, and the courtyard looked really pretty with all the twinkly lights. There were a lot of younger couples there – looked like college kids who probably couldn’t afford anything fancier. Plus, someone was singing and playing the guitar – all romantic love songs. It was actually kind of cute and kooky.
She looked at the inordinately handsome man beside her, currently munching on a hot dog. He really was a wonderful man – so kind, warm and patient. It didn’t really matter where they were, as long as they were together. She snuggled against his body, and he let out a purr.
“This is yummy.”
“Glad you like it,” said Rick, “it’s better than I expected.”
Ariadne frowned. “Haven’t you been here before?”
Wasn’t that why he brought them there?
“Ah, yes.”
“Okay.”
She probed their bond and found him strangely guarded. Though that didn’t necessarily mean anything – sometimes he was that way when he was trying to surprise her - like her birthday surprise party.
“I’m just going to go find a bathroom,” he said, rising to his feet.
“Okay, do you mind if I finish your cheese fries? Because I’m planning on finishing your cheese fries,” she told him guilelessly. They were the best she had ever eaten – he couldn’t possibly expect her not to eat him when he left them unguarded.
Rick grinned. “Go ahead; I can get more when I come back.”
He kissed her head – her mouth was busy getting to grips with the fries – and sauntered away. She paused in eating for a moment to enjoy watching his long-legged stride and perfectly toned ass, and then she went back to eating. She finished them in record time and pulled out her phone to have a quick check on Callie’s Witchbook page. Being friended was the only way Ariadne allowed her to have a Witchbook account. Callie complained, but it really wasn’t like she was posting anything Ariadne couldn’t see – and that was the way it was going to stay.
Callie had already posted a few pictures of her friends bowling. They looked so happy and innocent… oh, why couldn’t they stay that way forever? She patted her bump reassuringly. At least she had a good twelve to thirteen years before this baby would start getting interested in boys.
With a sigh, she checked her messages and frowned that Rick seemed to be taking so long. She got tired of waiting and got some more fries and some apple pie. It was tasty pie – not quite as good as hers – but tasty.
Finally, Rick reappear
ed.
“Sorry, there was a line,” he said.
“No worries.”
He sat down and cuddled her while she inhaled her apple pie. She showed him her phone. Showed him Callie was having fun. She had posted a few more pics. Her friends must have taken some of them, because there was one of just her and Jeremy, standing close together and smiling shyly.
“Who’s the boy?” asked Rick quietly.
“Oh, Jeremy – Mark’s son. I think they’re possum shifters.”
“Rabbits,” said Rick crisply.
Ariadne shrugged, she’d take his word for it – his lion’s sense of smell was better than her memory.
Rick pulled out his own phone. “I have to take this in private.”
She gave him a baffled look. “Take what?”
“This call – it’s important, it’s about work.”
“But I didn’t hear your phone.”
He gave her a shifty look. “It’s on silent.”
He strode away, and Ariadne stared after him. He seemed like his usual self, yet something clearly wasn’t right. She checked her phone again and noticed there was a new picture of the kids bowling and… no, that couldn’t be. She squinted at her phone and enlarged the photo. Was that…
Ariadne found Alfonso’s number in her contacts. She had to check on something.
*
Rick growled as he glared at Mark. His lion paced furiously.
“I told you to keep my girl away from your horny son!”
Mark almost looked like he wanted to cry. Rick felt for the guy. He was a rabbit shifter, and to Rick’s knowledge, a decent guy. He probably didn’t deserve a pissed-off lion shifter breathing down his neck. Usually, Rick wouldn’t behave this way. Rick was usually a nice guy – making friends was as easy as tying his shoes. But, this was Callie. His Callie. His cub. And where his cub was concerned, there was no such thing as friendship. When he looked at Mark’s mild face, all his could thing of was his horny offspring having lascivious intentions towards Rick’s perfect, somewhat cranky, little angel.