“Come on, Dad,” Mori said. “You can fill me in on the details on the way home.”
Once they were gone, I told Preston the whole story, including how Barry told me that it needed to stay between us because he didn’t want the headache from his mate.
“Ha!” Preston laughed and nuzzled into my chest again. “My carrier understands needs must and he’s not Venal’s biggest fananyway. I wish he wouldn’t pull shit like this. Dad wanted to see if you’d tell me or play along with me being in the dark and worried.”
“I didn’t tell you earlier because I didn’t want you to worry. There’s no need to worry. I’ll do what it takes to keep you and the baby safe. Our future babies too. Though, once word gets around about what I can do….”
“It won’t. Nightshade Bear Territory has plenty of its own secrets. You’re one of us now and we’ll keep your secrets,” he said, pushing himself upright so that he was straddling me. “It’s sort of hot that you just froze him and buried him in the snow. Like it wasn’t even important enough to mention.”
“I would’ve told you eventually but worrying about him or Sharon isn’t very conducive to relaxing and I’d prefer you do much more of that.”
“I will once we bring him inside in a few days. We’ll shove him in the closet or something. He’s not going to melt if we bring him inside, is he?”
“Nah,” I shook my head and ran my hands up and down his muscular thighs. Even through his grey sweatpants I could feel his ropey muscles tensed on either side of me. He leaned over and scooted the machete back under the armchair.
“Can I ask one question about that?” I asked him.
“Sure,” he nodded.
“How do you keep the baby from getting it?”
“Eh, he knows it’s there. I’ve shown him what it can do to a watermelon, and he leaves it alone. He has his own little knivesattached to his hands. So he doesn’t need mine but also there’s a shield under that chair. Little people can’t get to it.”
“Good to know,” I nodded, still caressing his thighs.
“And just so you know, I didn’t know Dad was pulling that stunt. I… I don’t believe in testing people like that. It wasn’t a fair spot for you to be put in. You’re new here and it put you in an awkward position.”
“I know you didn’t know. No one smells that worried if they know the dude is an ice statue. Your dad cares about you. He… I think he’d have more of a problem with me if I hadn’t done something to stop him. If I just let Venal go, he wouldn’t have understood it. I wouldn’t either but I get where he’s coming from. I don’t know what it says about me that I believed he’d keep something so big from his true-mate.”
“That you don’t know him but also, babe, if lying to my carrier was the only way he could keep him alive, he’d do it. Dad… My sire killed his own twin brother, Uriel. He had killed his chosen mate and was trying to kill my cousin Zeke who was a newborn then. After that he cut their link to the old pack and traveled all the way to Hemlock Mountain to make sure the baby would be okay. That baby is grown up and married to Star Hemlock-Night Star. He’s from a time where you do what you have to do to protect the people you care about, and you don’t give bad guys an inch. It’s why I came home after the baby was born. If Sharon hadn’t pulled all her stunts I’d have stayed in London because Mori liked it there and I didn’t mind it. But I knew here at home… Well, either someone else would get her before me or when I finally hacked her up with my machete, no one would judge me.”
I thought about how hard it would have to be to kill someone you shared a womb with. What complicated things that would make you carry around forever? Preston and Mori were two peas in a pod and I was grateful for it. I couldn’t imagine having someone follow me around since the day I was born but I wasn’t raised that way. My carrier was more introverted than even I was. Only being with Preston filled up my meter. Though, to be fair, I found a lot of quiet time already when he took his naps.
“I don’t think we can judge stuff like that,” I shook my head. “I think it’s unfair to. We all do what we have to do to survive and no one knows how that feels. I mean, I’m all up for freezing her instead of making her into sashimi but ultimately, that’s up to you. Venal is…. Well, he’s already frozen but I can’t imagine how it must feel to have grown up with the type of mother who wants to sacrifice your baby. I mean, obviously, he’s fucked up in the head, but I think we know why.”
“That’s why I don’t want any of his family around Baby Andy. I didn’t know what sort of crazy ran in his blood when we hooked up. I met him on this app called Pheromone Swap.”
“You couldn’t have known. I don’t think people ask for family trees before whipping their dicks out in those situations. I mean, I never asked the wolves I hooked up with for that information. Sure, I knew where they came from, but it never occurred to me to ask what happened if they got pregnant. They have their own birth control, and I still used condoms every time.”
“This is such a weird change of subject from what we’ve been talking about, but do you want kids? I know I want a big family, but big families are loud and chaotic, and you sort of have to learn to roll with it and…”
“Kids don’t bother me. They’re loud because they’re learning. They’re figuring out a big, complicated world. They’re new little people in confusing situations. Like they’re just learning that they have fingers and toes and that other people have complex thought processes that they’re not privy too but sometimes they’re supposed to figure those out by facial expressions and scents. Hell, just thinking about it confuses me,” I laughed. “I mean, maybe they’ll fight about who gets to live on the mountain, but yeah, I want kids.”
For a moment we reveled in the silence of the house and the twinkling lights of the Yuletide tree. This was the start of everything. We’d found each other because Rune outed me to a whole pack of wolves. That was still sucky of him, but this made it easier to swallow. Laying here on the carpet with Preston made all the other stuff matter a helluva lot less. I wasn’t sure what Rune got out of it, but it didn’t matter anymore.
“You might see dead people after our claiming vows. It doesn’t happen with our sire, but Mori has this best friend named Othoni – Ni for short. His mate, Teddy, can see them if he touches him while they’re around,” Preston said, breaking the silence.
“Maybe you’ll see my visions,” I shrugged. “Dead people don’t scare me. I’ll see if I can make ghost popsicles.”
He laughed and leaned down for a kiss and one kiss led to another and another. His warm mouth was so inviting and when I pulled him on top of me his weight was a pleasant trap. He held my face while we kissed and I ran my hands up and down his back, wanting to touch as much of him as possible. His muscles were much looser since the massage, the orgasm, and finding out that Venal was no longer a threat. He relaxed against me asI kneaded my fingers into the incredible round, muscular globes of his ass.
CHAPTER TEN
Preston
Nightshade Bear Territory
Amoan escaped my lips into the kiss as Wess’s strong fingers dug into my ass cheeks. His tongue swept around my mouth and twirled around my own, fanning the fire burning deep inside me. Phantom fur brushed against me on the inside. My bear reached out for the polar bear dwelling inside Wess. Only, the bears wouldn’t be able to reach each other until after we exchanged our claiming vows. Two little bites and a few mouthfuls of clear magical fluid changed so much. Our claiming glands were on our shoulders, and they only filled with the memory-storing fluid once we met each other. The exchange of bites was meant to give us just enough information about the other person not to feel crazy for falling in love so quickly. Only, being around Wess made me feel sane. It was as if broken little shards of my life that never made sense before, made sense with him around.
