10.
As his truck pulled into the driveway out front of the cabin she waited for him on the terrace as her heart raged in her chest.
She was determined she wouldn’t tell him, but she had the distinct feeling that maybe he would sense it in her anyway.
He was half bear, after all, and now she was carrying a part of him inside of her.
She was afraid and shaking as she heard the truck door slam.
She was worried for him and for her, what if her carrying his children put them all in jeopardy?
What if he ran away from her?
She chewed the inside of her mouth as she listened to the front door open and the sound of his footsteps coming through the hallway. He was so tall and heavy they sounded like the footsteps of giants.
She held her breath and closed her eyes.
“There you are,” he said gruffly as he stepped out into the evening light.
He looked so handsome in his low-cut jeans, and his t-shirt was so tight that his muscles were bulging beneath it, making him look like a demi-god.
“Hey,” she smiled warmly.
Her fear was ebbing away, but it was still there, and then she remembered how she had spent the day and she looked nervously to the floor.
“Woah,” he said as he looked around the terrace and at the scatter of canvasses and paints.
Alyssa had spent the entire day creating and she had filled the empty spaces with wonderful images of bears and cubs. She had painted their future.
“You did all of these?” he asked as he walked around the terrace, looking at each of them individually.
“Yes,” she said.
She turned so that her back was to him. She didn’t know that if he saw her eyes that he would instantly be able to tell what was happening to her, and she didn’t want to alarm him. Not just yet.
Her mind was still a mess.
Did she continue to keep it a secret and tell him to leave her? Or did she tell him she was pregnant with his cub babies?
She rubbed her temple and sucked in a lungful of air.
“They’re amazing,” he said genuinely. “Do you even have any idea how talented you are?”
She smiled and felt warm inside.
“Kodhi,” she whispered. “Something’s happened.”
She felt him still behind her and she slowly turned around.
His eyes latched onto hers and she saw his own widen. He took a step closer and searched her face as he sniffed the air between them. He came right up in front of her and reached up, taking her face in his hands.
“Alyssa,” he gasped. “Your eyes.”
She nodded and gave him a half-smile, unsure of how he was feeling.
He looked down at her stomach and then back up to her. She wasn’t showing yet, but it didn’t matter.
He knew.
“I can leave,” she said. “It’s not safe, you said it yourself… I’ll go back to the city. I’ll never see you again if that’s what you want? I know this is madness, and I don’t even understand it myself. But I know you said I would be in danger if anyone knew we were together… and now, this has happened!”
He shook his head and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her.
“Are you insane,” he said as he kissed the top of her head. “As if I would ever see you walk away…”
She felt the tears welling behind her eyes and she found herself sobbing into his chest.
“Babe, this is the most amazing thing to ever happen to me… you’re pregnant?” he pulled back and held onto her shoulders as he looked into her eyes again, searching for answers.
“I don’t even know how it’s possible,” she half-laughed. “But I can feel it. I am.”
Kodhi smiled so wide it looked as if he were about to explode.
“Alyssa,” he said as he wrapped his arms around her again and kissed her over and over. “This is the happiest moment of my life.”
She clutched onto him and kissed him back.
She had been expecting every scenario, but after what he had told her about the gang wars, this had not been what she had anticipated. He was so pleased, so happy.
“You’re going to be the mother of my children?” he asked her as he looked at her again. “You’re carrying cub twins?”
She nodded and looked over to the canvasses lying on the ground.
“There’s two. Just like you and your brother.”
Kodhi smiled and fist pumped the air.
“The first set of Unbroken Twins in a generation,” he beamed. “This is something special, Alyssa, this really is.”
He sat down on the couch and pulled her into his lap. He was so happy and confident it blew away all of her fears.
“Nothing is going to ruin this,” he said. “I honestly can’t tell you how happy I am.”
He wrapped his hand up in her hair and kissed her again.
“We’re a family now,” he said. “The newest generation of Lost Creek Shifters are on their way, and we are leading the trail.”
“What about the wolves?” she whispered, as if she were still afraid of them lurking in the woods.
“They’ll not bother us,” he said. “We have protection.”
Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed slightly in his arms. It had been such an exhausting day and now that she was growing two babies, she was even more out of energy.
“Come on,” he said as he pulled her to her feet and swept her up into his arms as he had done the previous evening.
Upstairs, he lay her down on the bed and ran his fingers through her hair. The way he looked at her told her all she needed to know.
This man loved her.
He had from the moment he set eyes on her, and it was intensifying and growing with each passing moment.
They had found each other in a crazy world. A world where men could change into bears, and towns and societies existed out of the prying eyes of the rest of the planet. Until Alyssa had found herself in Lost Creek she never would have truly believed in fate, or in the possibility of magic. But now, she was at one with the woods and nature, and she had found her soulmate. It was more exhilarating and life changing than she ever could have imagined, and she was completely grateful and in awe of Kodhi, a man who was changing the very fabric of her being.
“There’s a space on Main Street,” he whispered as he looked at her deeply in the eyes. “I’m going to set you up with a gallery, if you want it.”
She felt her eyes widen.
“Are you serious?” she asked as she sat up and leaned on her elbows.
“I own the building, you can do what you want with it… but those paintings are incredible, and I can tell they’re only going to get better. You should make something of it… when you’ve got the energy, of course.”
She beamed at him and kissed him on the lips, holding onto his neck with complete adoration.
How had she been so lucky to be written into Kodhi’s life? How had fate picked her to be the chosen one?
“There’s so much good for us ahead,” he said as he lay down next to her and pulled her close.
He wrapped his arm around her and she nestled into his nook, listening to his bear heart beat on under his skin. She had two of those hearts growing inside of her now, and she knew they would be boys too.
The next generation of Lost Creek Shifters.
She smiled and sighed.
“This is making history,” he said as he stroked her belly and looked at her adoringly. “Me, you, and these two…”
She could barely even believe it was real.
After all she had been through, all the hardships, the shitty relationships, the loss of her own way in life and the way she had missed her family unit. Suddenly, it was all being given back to her but with so much more. She had found her fate. She had found her destiny and her happiness. And she had found her man.
Kodhi and Alyssa weren’t just soulmates…
They had been made for each other at the beginn
ing of time, and now that they were finally together, they were going to go far.
An art gallery, a cabin in the woods and twins were just the beginning. This little family was on course for a bright and happy future.
It was a new dawn for Lost Creek.
And a new beginning for two very deserving lovers…
It truly was meant to be.
THE END
BONUS BOOKS
Bear Shifter Romance
Babies for the Bear
Cynthia Wilde
Copyright ©2015 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
Chapter 1
Lois was on her way back to Barrow. She had been unable to take off from work to travel the previous summer, marking the first year of her life to miss the majestic views of Alaska. Now she stood looking out from the boat once again, feeling warm nostalgia for the summers spent in that tiny town on the Arctic Ocean. Her parents had brought her each year to see the whales. Her mother was a marine biologist, who loved sharing the mystery of the sea with her daughter, and her father was the doting spouse, there at her mother’s beck and call for whatever she needed. Lois closed her eyes and felt for a moment as if they were still there with her. It had been 5 years since her parents had been lost in a car accident. Barrow was all she had left of them.
Her eyes adjusted to the reflecting sun and her heart soared as she took in the small town from a distance. Coming here was like coming home. She still rented the same room at the boarding house where her family had always stayed together, ate at the same restaurants, and haunted the same local hangouts. Her life had been so upside down for the last few years that the familiar had become a rare and precious thing. She had been on edge for a month, waiting for the trip. The laboratory where she conducted research at home had been growing smaller by the day, and once the weather was warm enough for traveling north she was more than ready to go.
There was still about twenty minutes from the dock and Lois spent the time repacking the few things that she had pulled out of one of her bags. She hadn’t brought much considering her plan to stay on for at least three months, so she was able to carry all of her things off the boat on her own. She walked two blocks to an old garage where she paid to keep her truck and visited with the owner, Old Merl, before she took off to the boarding house on the other side of town. Burrow was quaint; she loved everything about its rugged, small town charm.
Lois parked her truck and walked toward an old two-story house.
An older woman hurried out onto the porch, opening her arms toward her. “Oh! You’re finally here! I heard there’s a terrible storm coming and I was afraid you would get caught in Ketchikan.”
Lois set her bags on the ground to embrace the nearest likeness to a mother she had left in the world. It was as if this woman had been placed in her life long ago for a future that had already been set in stone.
They walked into the old house together and the familiarity enveloped her. It was exactly like it had always been. Her hand softly ran over the back of one of the couches. “It never changes. That’s why I love it here so much, Miss Beth.” Lois was looking around, soaking up the memories that hung in the air, thick as the scent of the large spruce beams that met overhead in the homey living room. “Do you have a lot of visitors right now?”
“Oh just you and one other, Jeffrey, he’s in town for some hunting I think. You know how those men are, they get all riled up to kill something with a gun. He is kinda cute, maybe you two will hit it off…” Beth turned away slightly, trying to stay casual.
Lois raised her eyebrows in amusement. “I doubt that,” she smiled dryly. “And how do you know I’m single?”
“’Cause I know. You don’t have that glow about you yet, but just wait, it will come in time.” The older woman thought herself something of a matchmaker, and though Lois knew Beth’s successes had been due to the miniscule population of Barrow providing little opportunity for ideal prospects, she wanted to believe her. At twenty-two, she had yet to be in a substantial relationship that went beyond a few dates and awkward kisses. It was long past time for her to get serious, but she found it hard to get close to many people.
“We’ll see, I guess. When it happens, it happens,” she resolved out loud.
“That sounds well and good dear, but sometimes you gotta get out there and take what you want. The hell with trying to wait for it to fall in your lap, go find it.”
Lois was surprised by the advice, but more surprised by the gumption in Beth’s expression. She considered the last few men she had written off after hardly taking time to know them. She weakly attempted to reassure herself that they hadn’t been worth her time. She could keep an open mind without changing what she wanted in a man, after all. He was out there somewhere, but she was becoming impatient.
“What are you thinking about, dear? You’ve got the strangest look on your face,” Beth interrupted her thoughts.
Lois blushed and started up the stairs towards her room. She knew it would already be ready for her, probably had been for a week. “Nothing, just my love life,” she laughed absently, “Maybe you’re right, Miss Beth. I need to get out more, and I will, after I get back home this fall. You know there aren’t very many men out here, even at this time of year.”
“You never know,” said Beth with a twinkle in her eye.
Lois nodded and promised to be down in a bit for dinner after she cleaned up. She felt tired and dirty from an entire day of travel. She had ended up sleeping in an airport during a storm in Chicago that delayed her flight, and a shower was in order. As she climbed into the relaxing steamy water, her thoughts were still on her non-existent love life and the older woman’s words. It sounded like something her mother would have said. Lois had never truly imagined allowing someone beyond the barriers she had placed between herself and the men she knew in the past. She realized the only thing that held her back from new experiences was fear of the unknown. Looking down at her body, slick with water and suds, she wondered what a man would think of her if she were indeed to open herself up to knowing someone on a deeper level.
The hot water was a blessing and she was soon feeling human again. Throwing her shoulder-length hair in a bun, she tiptoed down the hall with a towel wrapped around her. There was a tall man in the hallway next to her open door and she could tell he was looking in. He hadn’t noticed her and she almost backed into the bathroom, but she did not want to put the old clothes that reeked of fish back on after her shower.
“Excuse me, I need to get through,” she said hurriedly. The man turned around and his blue eyes held hers for several moments before the words seemed to reach his brain enough for him to move. She thanked him and walked into her room, shutting the door softly behind her. Her heart thudded as she looked down at herself and was thankful that no part of her had been sticking out. The towel certainly exposed a bit more than she would have liked for a first meeting.
As she was getting dressed, she couldn’t help but think about the man in the hallway. She tried to remember if Beth had given her his name, then she recalled it was Jeffrey. He was blonde and blue eyed, with broad shoulders, surely over six feet tall. It was the way in which he had looked at her and his set jaw that caused her to think about it for the rest of the evening. She really did not care for hunting, but with Beth’s words in mind, she figured she could go down to dinner with an open mind.
Beth’s boarding house was one of the best places in town to get food. Many wanted her to turn the old place into a restaurant, but she insisted if you wanted her food, you would just have to stay the night and have dinner. It was one of Lois’ favorite times as she wasn’t much of a cook herself and had mainly subsisted on take-out in the
city for the past year. There was also more than a passing thought of seeing Jeffrey again, and at least the next time, she would have some clothes on.
Chapter 2
Lois finally made her way downstairs and the aroma of a home cooked meal immediately greeted her as she entered the dining room. Beth had made her favorite, as she always did on the first evening of a summer trip.
“Smells great, Miss Beth!” she chirped gleefully. Taking a seat, she smiled over at one of the men already seated at the small table. He introduced himself and Lois shook his hand. She nodded to Jeffrey, who was sitting a few chairs down the length of the table. She was unsure whether a proper introduction was even necessary at this point considering their unofficial meeting in the hall only minutes before.
The three of them quickly fell into conversation about some of the animal sightings around the hotel, and Jeffrey’s face lit up with excitement as he told them about the polar bears he had spotted a few days before.
“I only get to take one head home. There are some endangerment laws, but I paid a pretty penny to get the one, so I want it to be the biggest damn one I can get out there. I almost got one earlier this week, but thankfully I missed because that one was a runt compared to the two I saw today.” He paused with a confused look on his face, “They are strange creatures though. I’ve never seen an animal that acted like these bears.”
Lois was entirely disgusted with the conversation. The idea that someone would pay money to kill something was beyond her. It was not as if he would be eating the bear, he only wanted the head as a trophy. She shook the image from her mind and decided that sleep was in order.
Miss Beth looked at her half-full bowl with questioning eyes, and Lois shrugged. She bade the group goodnight and plodded up the stairs. Her hopes of a romance with the striking Swedish man were off the table.
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