by KD Jones
Today was Saturday. Even though the scout shop was open on Saturdays for tours, she wouldn’t be going back to work until Monday. Dahlia needed to do her laundry, which she just started, and go grocery shopping. Maybe after a hefty lunch she could take a nap and then read one of her romance novels. She couldn’t help but wonder what Ivan had planned for the weekend.
Chapter 7
The next morning
Ivan felt like shit. He hadn’t slept at all, having stayed outside of Dahlia’s apartment for hours, looking up at her window. He wanted to go to her, take her in his arms and make love to her. It was more than that though—claiming a mate gave a shifter a sense of calm and peace. His father once told him that when he had claimed Ivan’s mother, he felt like he had finally come home.
He tortured himself by standing there like a lovesick puppy. Finally, just before dawn, he headed back to his cabin to shower and change before taking Jeanne to the doctor. She insisted on going to a doctor in the neighboring town who treated shifters, but where the people in the town wouldn’t recognize her or Ivan.
All these secrets were getting to Ivan. He hadn’t been free to spend time with his family and the few friends he did have gave up trying to do things with him because he never went out unless to work.
Jeanne even limited his time to shift to his polar bear form. He insisted that he had to during the monthly shifter run otherwise he wouldn’t be able to control his bear. Of course he may have exaggerated a bit but Jeanne, being completely human, couldn’t tell the difference. However, only shifting fully once a month was not enough. He cheated in a way by shifting before going to his jobs and shifting back before coming home. He shouldn’t feel guilty for doing something that was supposed to be natural.
Ivan tried to make her understand but it turned into an argument and then she half-faked a nervous breakdown. It started out fake but her crying and working herself up sent them rushing to the hospital emergency room. She was prescribed bedrest and to avoid any stress at all.
He was miserable all the time and the more time he spent around Jeanne, the more he grew to despise her. His polar bear was growing testier, being denied freedom of shifting and also being denied time with Dahlia who he insisted was their bondmate.
“Just a little while longer. Jeanne will have the baby, she sign over custody and then she’ll be on her way,” Ivan promised himself and his bear.
Then we claim our mate, his polar bear insisted.
“If she’ll have us.”
“Who are you talking to?” Jeanne demanded as she came out of the bedroom.
“Nobody. Are you ready to go?”
“Yes. Let’s get this over with. I also want to do some shopping while we’re there.”
Ivan rolled his eyes. She was slowly making him go broke. “Don’t you have enough?”
She glared at him. “I need to buy more post-baby clothes.”
“Fine.” They would argue all day if he didn’t drop it. He wanted to get this over with. He promised Cosmo that he would take a couple of tour groups out today to look at some glacier lakes. Cosmo was spending his Saturday doing something special for his mate Andy, a human that his brother met and fell in love with. Today, his younger brother Luka would be helping him with the groups. It was good money and he needed it.
He opened the door to his truck and helped Jeanne hobble up inside it. He closed the door and walked around to the other side.
“I hate this old truck. Why don’t you buy a new SUV?”
He didn’t look at her as he turned the truck’s ignition over. He’d had this truck since he turned sixteen. It was a fixer upper but he was his. “You won’t have to ride in it much longer.”
She sighed, “That’s true. Do you have my savings account set up as we agreed?”
“Yes, and I’ll sign the account over to you as soon as you sign the custody papers for the baby.”
“I guess it will be all done the day the baby is born.”
“I guess so.”
They didn’t say anything else to each other the rest of the drive. He was fine with that. He had learned the hard way that if Jeanne wasn’t arguing about something, she really had nothing to say he found interesting.
Ivan should feel more for the woman who carried his child, but he didn’t. She made life miserable and nothing he did was enough. He didn’t make enough money, his cabin was too small, and—worse—he was a disgusting animal on the inside.
Jeanne disliked him as much as he disliked her. It didn’t take long living together before it became clear that all her cordial attitudes toward him were phony. Soon, she began complaining about every little thing. It was a surprise she’d even dated him. He even asked her about it.
“Was there anything that you liked about me at all?”
“Yes, you have a big dick. I can’t deny the attraction was real, but I always planned to slake my desires then marry someone more influential in my social circles.”
It didn’t surprise him that she was only using him. Working at Scout and Tour, he had plenty of visitors come in and want one-night stands or a weekend of fun. He and Cosmo had even had offers of having both of them together. If it weren’t for Jeanne getting pregnant, that would have been the case. They would have slaked their lusts and moved on.
Jeanne freaked out when she found out that she was pregnant with a shifter’s baby. Oh, she knew beforehand that she was fucking a shifter. She did it on purpose as a sort of retaliation toward her father who was against shifters. Edward Lance III was anti-shifter. He used his money and political influence to try to get policies to round up the shifters and have them relocated and registered. Unfortunately for Mr. Lance, there were shifters in the Senate and Congress, along with the President of the United States himself. They worked to keep shifters safe by keeping their existence a secret. One day though, shifters would be exposed to the human world and they needed the right people in place to ensure that they weren’t hunted down.
He parked the truck in the parking lot and helped Jeanne get out. They entered the OBGYN office and the receptionist greeted them warmly.
“Good morning Miss Lance, Mr. Vedar.”
They took a seat, and fifteen minutes later a nurse came out to get them. “Right this way. We’re going to do an ultrasound.”
They were taken to a room and the nurse helped Jeanne get up on the table and pull her shirt up, showing her belly. Ivan longed to cup his hands against the rounded flesh to feel his child kick, but Jeanne had stated that she didn’t want them to have skin contact.
Another woman came in. “Hi, I’m Abby, the ultrasound technician.” She applied the gel to Jeanne’s stomach and placed the scanner to her skin. “There he is. He’s a big boy, healthy looks like.”
Ivan couldn’t stop staring at the image of his son. He didn’t look big but was tiny and vulnerable. “Amazing.”
“We’re going to run some tests just to make sure, but it looks like he’ll be arriving on time, just four weeks more. Have you picked out a name?” She helped clean off Jeanne and pulled her shirt down.
Jeanne shook her head. “Not yet.”
“Well, you still have a little time to pick one. Here.” The technician took a small pamphlet off the table. “This is a small baby name pamphlet with their meanings.”
Jeanne didn’t even reach for it. Ivan took it. “Thank you.”
The technician looked at the two of them and shrugged. “No problem. I’ll go get your doctor now.”
“I hope they don’t take blood, I hate it when they do that.”
Ivan ignored her as he took a seat and started thumbing through the baby name book. Four more weeks, and he still needed to get things for the baby. It was all starting to really hit him that he was going to be a father of a small baby that needed him to take care of him. He didn’t have a crib or anything ready. Jeanne was sleeping in the only spare bedroom he had. It was too small to add a crib with the full size bed in there. The least he could do is pick a name. How hard co
uld that be?
Chapter 8
Sunday Evening
“I think the rolls are almost ready.”
Dahlia smiled as she opened the oven with the mittens and pulled out the pan of freshly baked rolls. “You’re right. They’re ready and absolutely perfect. I still want the recipe, Mara.”
“It’s a family recipe, but it’s yours anytime you want it.”
She smiled at the older but still very beautiful woman. Mara Vedar was Ivan and Cosmo’s mother. In fact, she had seven children—six boys one girl—including one set of twins and one set of triplets. The family was huge but some of them were spread out a bit, living in different cities. They always came back home for Sunday family meals whenever they could… all of them except for Ivan. The doorbell rang, interrupting her thoughts.
“Dahlia dear, could you go answer that? It’s not the kids because they would have barged on in. I have a special delivery coming as a surprise for Andy.”
“No problem.” Dahlia turned and left the big country kitchen and walked down the hallway to open the door just as the bell rang again. She froze, seeing Ivan standing there looking very unsure of himself.
“Hi.”
She slowly smiled. “Hi. You came.”
He nodded then shuffled his feet like a nervous prom date confronting a girl’s father.
“Come in. I mean, it’s your family’s house… basically your house, so you don’t need me to let you in.”
“It’s been a while so I felt like I needed to ring the bell first.”
She reached out and pulled him inside the house and closed the door. “You’re silly.”
They were standing almost chest-to-chest. She felt his warm breath on her face and remembered how his lips felt on hers. Her inner polar bear emitted a growl of desire and his inner bear responded with his own growl. The intimate moment was broken.
“Dahlia, is it Andy’s surprise?” Mara called from the kitchen.
She smiled up at Ivan’s worried face and patted him on the chest before she turned to face the kitchen. “No, it’s your surprise.”
Mara appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. “My sur… Oh Ivan!” Mara raced down the short hallway and threw herself in her taller son’s arms. Tears streamed down Mara’s face. “I can’t believe you came!”
“Mom, you act like it’s been years since you last saw me. I see you when you come to the scout shop all the time.”
“But not here, at home for family Sundays!”
Dahlia couldn’t help but get emotional too. She wiped away a stray tear. She couldn’t remember a time that someone was this happy to see her. She was so grateful that Ivan came… for Mara’s sake.
“Well, you come and help me and Dahlia get everything on the table. The rest of the kids will be arriving any minute now,” Mara insisted.
Dahlia watched as his tiny mother dragged Ivan down the hall and into the kitchen. He glanced back at Dahlia and she gave him a smile and wink. She was taking pleasure in seeing him bend to the will of his mother.
She couldn’t resist teasing him by whispering in his ear, “Not so big and bad when you’re around your mama, are you?”
Before he could respond back, Mara placed a dish in his hands. “Take this to the dining table and make sure all the places are set.”
“How many are coming?” Ivan asked, looking at the huge amount of food that they had made.
“Everyone.”
“Even Damen?”
“Yes, he’s actually going to be staying in his old room while visiting.”
Dahlia took another bowl with green beans into the dining room and sat it down. Most of the dishes were already laid out. She counted the place settings and realize that they one setting short, because Ivan was a surprise.
“Ivan, pull that spare chair in the corner over while I get another places setting.”
“Hey, what am I? Free labor?”
She gave him a saucy smile. “I wouldn’t call you free, more like cheap labor.”
“Watch it, Dahlia Berry, I was just starting to like you.”
“Oh, we can’t have that,” she fired back making him chuckle. Laughter made the stress lines fade and he suddenly looked much younger and a whole lot more irresistible. The sound of the front door banging out and voices in the foyer kept her from teasing him further.
One by one the Vedar children arrived, and all of them welcomed Ivan enthusiastically. Cosmo ushered his new mate Andy to a seat and showered her with attention. Dahlia couldn’t help but be a little envious of their relationship. They were true bondmates and the first pair she had ever seen. Along with Cosmo and Andy came Andy’s human father, Vincent Johnson. Dahlia and Ivan quickly pulled another chair and place setting out while everyone was greeting each other.
“Sit down everyone, please,” Mara ushered everyone toward the dining room and blushed when Andy’s father offered his arm to escort her. There was an attraction there.
“Hey Dahlia, are you still single?” Luka asked. He was the youngest male of their family and part of the triplets that included Niko the sheriff and Ryder the deputy sheriff.
“Luka, you need to watch your manners.” Damen warned. He was the third oldest and lawyer of the family.
“I’m just saying, she’s hot… Ow!”
Damen smacked the back of Luka’s head, which was a strange way for him to act. He was usually quiet and reserved, a very serious person. He always treated Dahlia with kindness and respect, and she appreciated that. Seeing him reprimand his brother good-naturedly made him more appealing.
A low growl next to her had her jumping in her seat. She turned to look at Ivan, who for some reason sat in the seat right next to her. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
Mara tapped her glass of wine to get everyone’s attention. “Thank you all for coming. I can’t tell you how much this means to me to have my whole family here once more. Especially since Cosmo and Andy have something very special they want to announce.”
Everyone turned to look at Cosmo and Andy. They both had such a happy glow on their faces. Cosmo kissed Andy’s head and cleared his throat. “We’re breeding… pregnant.”
“What?”
“That’s wonderful!”
“Way to go bro!”
Everyone congratulated the happy couple. Dahlia smiled as she glanced over at Ivan and noticed that he had a sad expression on his face. She didn’t have a chance to ask him what was wrong because he excused himself to get some fresh air. Mara pulled Dahlia over to start talking about planning a baby shower. She wasn’t the only one who noticed something was off with Ivan. Damen stood up quietly and followed his brother outside. She hoped he would open up and talk to someone.
Chapter 9
Ivan felt like his heart was crushed, watching how his family took Cosmo and Andy’s announcement. It’s not that he begrudged his brother happiness, but he was jealous because he wanted that excitement for himself as well. His son was coming to come into this world without being surrounding by his loving uncles and aunt and grandmother.
“Ivan, what’s going on with you?” Damen asked, following him outside.
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“That’s bullshit. You’ve been distant for months now, pushing everyone away. I want to know what’s going on or I will enlist the entire family to have an intervention.”
Ivan groaned. His brother Damen would totally do that, too. He didn’t make threats he wouldn’t follow through with. That’s what made him such a good lawyer. “I messed up.”
Damen pointed to a fence that surrounded the livestock. They walked over and leaned against the old wooden fence. A farm out here in the cold was almost unheard of, but his parents were unusual people.
“How did you mess up?”
“I started dating a human girl named Jeanne about eight months ago. We weren’t a good fit and soon, not even the hot sex made things work. We ended things but then…”
“Then what?”
“She found out she was pregnant.”
“Wow, you really did fuck up literally. I assume she kept the child.”
“Yes, the baby is due in four weeks.”
“Why would you keep this from your family? You know we would be there to support you and this Jeanne person.”
“There’s more. Jeanne is Jeanne Lance, daughter of Edward Lance the III, mogul and…”
“Known enemy of all shifters. Damn it, Ivan! What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t know who her father was until too late, after she found out she was pregnant by a disgusting shifter. She was worried that her father would find out and disinherit her.”
“I’m surprised she agreed to have the baby at all.”
“She did agree but at great cost. I had to open a savings account to put money in it for her, and break off social interactions with friends and family. In return, she agreed to sign over custody of the baby to me the day the baby is born.”
“What kind of contract? Who prepared it?”
“I did. I researched contracts and used Cosmo’s computer at the scout shop to type it up.”
“Email a copy of it to me and I’ll look over. How much of your money is she getting?”
“All of it.”
“What the fuck?”
“The account for Jeanne is large enough to satisfy her now. I don’t owe anything for my truck or cabin and I have no credit card debt. It will be tight once the baby is born since I haven’t even gotten a nursery ready, but I’ll work extra shifts the next few weeks and I can make the crib myself.”
“You don’t have to do that. You have a family that will all pitch in and help you. Let us.”
He shook his head. “Not until after the baby is born. Jeanne is adamant that her father doesn’t find out at all and I have to agree. Some of the stories I’ve heard about him are vicious. I wouldn’t put it past him to kill Jeanne to keep the baby from being born.” Everything in him growled at the possible threat to his child.