by Maia Starr
She pushed past me into the house and grabbed the remote to the TV. She turned to the news channel, and they were talking about a forest fire that had been started in the mountains on the mainland. They zoomed in on the land from the helicopter, and I recognized it immediately. Danny’s place and the land surrounding it was burning. I felt my stomach drop to the floor and I ran to the bathroom as my stomach heaved my breakfast. There had been no word of fatalities or survivors, and I hoped Kellan and the others had made it.
Claire left to talk to the other girls to see if they had heard anything and I sat on the couch glued to the TV. I shook with fear as I watched them search for bodies and survivors once they got the fire under control. Hours passed, and I still knew nothing. I tried to hold my eyes open, but I was exhausted. My eyelids dropped, and I drifted to sleep praying that Kellan would be returned to me safe and sound.
I woke to the sound of the door squeaking open, and I jerked my eyes open to see Kellan standing in the doorway black with soot. I jumped from the couch and flew into his arms, wrapping my legs around him. I kissed him long and hard and felt his body start to respond. He deepened the kiss as he leaned me against the wall so his hands could roam my body. I pulled back from him as I panted with desire.
“Oh, God. I was so scared, Kellan. I thought you weren’t coming home to me. I thought I was never going to see you again.” I kissed him again before he could say anything, and he kissed back with urgent fervor. This time he pulled back to take a breath, and he lowered me to the floor.
“Amelia, I told you I’d come back to you. I told you I would keep you safe. I always keep my promises. Haven’t you learned that about me yet?” I giggled at the offended look on his face, and he smiled at me.
“Kellan, that was the first promise you made me. You’re off to a good start.” I pulled him to me and kissed him again as I ran my hands over his chest. His hard muscles rippled under my hands, and I could feel his body heat up through his clothes. He started leading us down the hall as he continued kissing me. He slid his tongue inside my mouth, and I accepted it as his danced with mine. We reached the doorway of his bedroom when he picked me up again and carried me to the bed. He gently laid me on the bed and kissed and caressed my body as it began to respond to him.
I pulled back from him and pulled his shirt over his head. I tossed it on the floor and lowered my hands to his belt. He grabbed my wrist with his hand to stop me.
“Amelia, are you sure about this? Won’t it hurt the baby? Are you sure you want me to be your next experience?” I could tell he was nervous, and I was nervous too. I knew I wanted him to be my next, and I wanted him to be my only. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him that, so I kept it to myself and assured him the baby would be fine as I unbuckled his belt.
He pulled at my clothes as I removed his pants. I was shocked at his naked beauty and couldn’t believe he wanted to be with me. He looked at my body in awe as he kissed and caressed every inch of me. My body responded, and his touch made me want more. I bit my lip as he touched me in ways that no one ever had. As he pleasured me over and over, I knew that this man cared for me and truly wanted to be with me and wanted the baby too. I knew he’d do whatever he had to for us to be safe and happy.
I couldn’t take it anymore and begged him to take me. I needed to feel him. I needed to feel the ultimate release. I wanted to make love to him. I wanted to know what it was like to do it because I wanted to, not because someone was making me. I wanted to know what it felt like when two people cared for each other. He granted my request, and I gasped as he entered me.
With each movement of his body, he sent intense sensations through me, and I couldn’t control myself. I moaned in his ear as I shattered around him and he kept going. He turned me in many different positions and made each one feel exquisite. By the time he had neared his peak, I had climaxed several times. My body reveled in the sensations he caused me, and I begged him not to stop as he thrust against me.
I cried out as I shattered around him one final time and he met his release with me. Once the spasms subsided, he collapsed on the bed beside me. I noticed he was still covered in soot and convinced him to take a shower. He got up from the bed and grabbed my hand and pulled me to the shower. He turned on the water and pulled me inside with him. He made love to me in the shower, and we washed each other. Kellan took me back to his bed and pulled me close to him.
I closed my eyes, and as I drifted off to sleep, I felt his breathing become slow and steady. I knew he had fallen asleep. Before I let sleep take me, I opened my eyes and looked and Kellan’s perfect face. He looked so innocent and worry-free as he slept. I wondered why he looked so worried all the time and wanted to help him figure things out. I knew that I was right where I belonged, and nothing was going to change that.
I woke the next morning to find the bed empty, and the smell of coffee drifted down the hall. I got up and grabbed one of Kellan’s oversized shirts and slipped it on. I found him in the kitchen cooking breakfast once again. I walked up behind him and wrapped my arms around his bare waist and kissed him on the shoulder.
He turned to face me and kissed my lips as I raked my nails down his sides. He shivered as he pulled back from me. “Go sit at the table. Your breakfast is almost ready you, saucy minx, you.” I laughed as he made a face and sat my plate on the table. Did he actually just call me a saucy minx? My cheeks flushed slightly and suddenly ravenous, I devoured the food and had almost finished my plate before Kellan sat down with his. I smiled sheepishly and sat with him while he ate, and then I dressed for my appointment at the island clinic. This place really was something else, and I began to wonder if it were anything like Hawaii. Much more expansive than I had originally thought. I was going to get an ultrasound for the first time, and it made me both scared and excited all at the same time. I could sense that Kellan wanted to come, but he hadn’t asked me. If he had, I might have agreed to let him. But seeing that he still hadn’t voiced it, I decided to ask him myself. Once I was dressed, I walked back out to approach him with a smile.
“Kellan?” He turned around and looked at me from the table.
“Yes, Amelia?”
“I was wondering if, um,” feeling a sudden wave of nervousness I blurted out the rest in a hurried gasp, “will you accompany me to the ultrasound, please?” the look on Kellan’s face quickly made my worries a moot point. He was clearly enthralled by the idea of being there with me.
“Yes, of course.” He finished his breakfast and got ready, and we made our way to the clinic.
Arriving at the clinic, I noticed there weren’t a lot of patients, which was a good thing. This meant our wait wouldn’t be excruciatingly long. The nurse called me at the door and waved me back.
“Hi there,” she said, “The doctor will be right in soon. First, we need you to provide a small urine sample here. See that cup there?” she pointed to the counter with a smile. “Take that cup and go into the restroom and urinate in it. Then place it in the little door in the bathroom. Afterward, dress in that gown and lay back down and the doctor will be here to finish the ultrasound.” I nodded to her directions and smiled briefly.
When the nurse crossed out of the room, Kellan looked back at me and smiled. I could tell he was doing his best to contain his excitement. It was almost as if he’s excited to learn more about the baby. I went into the bathroom and peed in the cup as the nurse instructed, placing the cup in the door. I picked up the gown and scrunched up my nose. It was essentially a paper sack with armholes and came down to my knees. Instantly, I felt the cold seep into my skin from the lack of clothing and shuddered. Striding back out of the bathroom, Kellan gave me a look of amusement.
“Don’t even,” I warned, shaking my head as if I could read his thoughts from the look in his face. I knew it looked ridiculous, but it had to be done. The doctor walked in and looked over us both.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Rivenis. Is this the father?” he asked. Kellan didn’t miss a beat.
“I
will be,” he stated matter-of-factly. I felt my heart tug in my chest at his words. This couldn’t be real. He had just met me, and already he had made me feel more supported than any other person I had ever known.
“Alright, let’s get this started then,” the doctor smiled, taking out equipment as I laid back on the medical bed. The doctor examined me and said things looked as they should, and he rolled the ultrasound machine into the room and asked me to sit tight for the remainder of the exam. Even though Kellan had just seen me practically naked, he was polite and looked away until I was covered with a sheet. The doctor squeezed warm jelly on a tampon-shaped wand and slid it inside me. He turned the screen toward me as a picture came up on the screen. What appeared looked like a small little peanut with a flashing blip in the middle. The doctor hit a button, and a whooshing sound filled the room.
“Do you hear that?” the doctor asked. I nodded, realizing it was the baby’s heartbeat, and I started to cry.
“It’s my child’s heartbeat,” I muttered, my eyes brimming with tears. It was the first time I ever heard my baby’s heart beating inside of me. Alive, inside of me. A living part of me.
I looked at Kellan as he watched the screen with a look of awe on his face.
“Wow, that’s incredible,” Kellan muttered, listening intently. The doctor nodded.
“Yes, it sounds like a strong beat too.” She smiled, “It sounds like everything is going exactly as it should be and from your exam, all is well. I’ll get you a print out of the ultrasound.” She smiled and removed the wand, holding out a towel for me with a smile. I took it and began to wipe the gel off myself, the chill I had felt earlier now replaced with a warm and happy sensation. A sensation I was sure came from hearing and seeing the baby on the screen. Kellan looked away again, and I changed into my clothes quickly. While we waited for the picture, I decided to let Kellan know how much I appreciated his company.
“Thank you for coming with me today, Kellan. It means more than you could possibly know,” I stated. The doctor came back with the picture, and I immediately knew where it would go. When we returned home, I put the picture on the fridge and wondered how I was going to raise this child who would someday discover his or her shifter ability in a place where wolf shifters didn’t live. As I looked at the picture on the fridge and touched my hand to my belly, I knew I would do whatever I had to so my child would have a happy, healthy life.
Chapter Seven
Amelia
I woke up to the sun shining on my face and a warm, humid breeze gently parting the drapes of the window. I heard a rustling outside the window and sat up straight, trying to get my bearings on my world. The bed was soft and enveloped me, and the last thing I wanted to do was to climb out of it, but I didn’t remember going to bed here, and I had no idea where I was at or if I was still in Kellen’s hut. As much as my body didn’t want to move, I needed to know where I was, who was making noise outside, and if I needed to run or hide.
I slid my feet out from under the cool sheets, setting my feet down on the floor as gently as possible. I eased my weight up onto my legs, trying to avoid a groan. The soreness of everything that had happened, the accident, the stress, my changing body… it was all catching up to me, and I felt like an eighty-year-old woman as I made my way to the window. I crouched low, just in case I needed to hide, and made my way to the curtain. The breeze picked up and parted the material just enough for me to see a body in the foliage outside the window.
It seemed as if the ground was level with the window, and I had to look up to see what was going on outside. The room I had been sleeping in must have been set into the ground, perhaps as some kind of defensive strategy? A way to have a private area that was hidden from prying eyes? The person making the noise outside was a good distance away in what looked like a small clearing. The edges were defined by tropical trees, with the middle of the area chopped down and covered in a mossy ground cover. There were branches and boards and vines hung in a variety of arrangements and Kellen was climbing and lifting himself, through and around them in a variety of rounds. I watched as he pulled himself up to a platform, using only his arms and letting his legs sway out, only to swing himself back off and fall to a lower branch and climb his way back up again.
He was working out. The man had built himself a private workout gym in the middle of this tropical forest. I smiled and shook my head in disbelief. To find a man like this in the midst of world chaos was more than I could hope for. It seemed unreal, but at this moment, I was willing to take it. I stood to the side, still hidden by the fluttering material, watching his body as he moved and pulled and leaped through the air, practically flying from one platform to another.
He must have started working out as soon as he woke because he was wearing nothing but a pair of cotton lounge pants, just tight enough for me to appreciate the strong muscular backside barely hidden under his waistband. The soft cotton didn’t leave much to the imagination, and it seemed that even among all the activity going on that the front of his pants was barely large enough to contain all of his… assets.
I bit the corner of my lip as I watched the sweat drip from his temples and fall onto his chest, tight and rippling as he pulled his body up a vine to a row of bars constructed from branches. He worked his way across the makeshift ladder, his stomach taut with the exertion and his legs working their way back and forth, the thickness of his thighs and the lines of his muscles showing through the beige cotton.
As he reached the end of the ladder, he cast his legs back and generated momentum to swing his body up and over the last rung, then pulled one leg up and stood himself up to jump onto the primary platform in the middle. He paused, stretched for a moment, obviously enjoying the feel of the swelling in his muscles, and then slowly stepped forward with one leg, placed both hands on the edge of the platform, and kicked up into a handstand, his legs touching together at the top and the muscles of his buttocks tightening. His back flexed and rippled as he shifted here and there to maintain the position, staying still for what seemed like an eternity. I was mesmerized by the glistening of his skin under the strain until I saw him leaning towards me, about to fall off of the platform. I waited for him to correct his balance, but he kept leaning until he was past his center of gravity.
I couldn’t stifle my gasp as he fell off of the platform, his hands letting go of the edge and his body freefalling. Instinctively I reached my hand out towards him and called
“Kellan!” but at the last minute, he flipped, like a diver tucking into a pool of water and then landed on his feet. He stood up straight and looked at my window. Suddenly embarrassed, I jumped to the side of the window and hid my now reddening face. I waited for a minute, not wanting to walk back into the room until I was sure he wasn’t looking this way.
“Awake, are we?” his voice echoed into the room. I jumped, nearly knocking over the chair that was beside me. I caught it from falling and looked over at the window. He was leaning on the windowsill like he was about to do a push-up, grinning from ear to ear. His sweat was a reflection the sun off his swollen shoulders and biceps, and it made it difficult to look him in the eyes.
“Um, yeah. I, uh,” I said, stammering. I put the chair back where it was before and straightened out the nightgown I was wearing, realizing it was a bit more see-through than I had noticed the night before. “I woke up and heard something and then looked out the window and saw you falling through the trees and it surprised me. I mean, I realized after I shouted that you were working out, but you know, I just woke up, so things were a little confusing. How did I end up in here, and where exactly am I?” I hoped that changing the subject would distract from the fact that I had been staring at him for the last five minutes.
“This is a spare bedroom. I’ve been collecting… well, what I mean to say is, I’ve tried to furnish it as nicely as I can. It has a very comfortable bed, and when you fell asleep last night after dinner, I decided it was best to let you get a good night’s sleep where you would
n’t get woken up by my noises. I wanted you to be able to have your own private space, somewhere that you could feel safe and have privacy to think or do whatever it is you want to do. You still have to share the shower and bathroom with me.” And with those words, he looked away and scratched his head. “I mean, it doesn’t have its bath separate from the rest of the hut. I didn’t mean…”
“I understood what you meant,” I interjected. Although sharing a shower with him sounded quite heavenly right about now.
“You’ve been exhausted, barely able to keep your eyes open since you’ve got here. I’m not even sure how much you remember since you’ve gotten here since you fall in and out of sleep so easily, and I have a feeling the days are running together for you. The sleep that you have been getting seems to be riddled with nightmares, and you’re not sleeping very soundly. I knew I was going to have a hard time sleeping last night anyway, and your body is going to need some more recovery time still.” He paused, and I caught him glancing down at my belly, the growing curve of it making it practically the elephant in the room. Maybe even the elephant in the hut. “You’re going to need taken care of, and I plan to make sure you have the best of everything your body needs.” Taken care of?
“You know, women have been having babies long before squishy cotton beds and the luxuries of in-home plumbing. I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’m a big girl; I know how to take care of myself. I don’t need taken care of.” Somehow, in the back of my mind, it felt good when he said it, but my pride wouldn’t let me admit to him that I might need taken care of. I couldn’t help but feel defensive and offended that he thought I would need to be watched over. Apparently, he could hear it in my voice as well, because I could see his muscles tense up and his eyes narrow.