When my sisters had announced their plans for me, I’d barely had time to make a run for the border of our clan territory, and I hadn’t thought much about the weather or how quickly the temperature could drop in the mountains. Hence my lack of cold weather appropriate clothing. Or any extra clothing, really.
Once I was finished, I was tempted to rush as fast as my rotund body would allow to get out of the frigid cold and back into my semi-cozy den, but instead I picked my way carefully through the bare branches of the bushes and trees, waiting at the edge of the small clearing for several minutes while I listened to the sounds of the woods around me and scented the air, searching for any sign of trouble.
Convinced that the coast was clear, I ducked back into the lean-to and carefully piled the boxes in front of the door from the inside, climbed down through the trapdoor, and was pulling off my windbreaker when I realized there was a change in the scent of the air around me.
Spinning around, I gasped at the sight of a familiar Alpha stretched out on my fur-covered pallet bed. He was lying on his side, propped up on his elbow with his chin in his hand.
My jaw dropped as I stared at the vision before me, my fingers itching to touch the shaggy auburn hair. My jacket dropped forgotten to the floor as I took one step toward him, stopping when I saw an odd glittering in his amber eyes.
“Kade?” I nearly choked on his name, my brain fritzing as it tried to reconcile how the sexiest Alpha I’d ever met, the star of every dirty fantasy that had sustained me through the long, horny months and flash heats of my pregnancy with only my hand for company ended up lying in front of me. “Are you..what are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” Kade’s voice was harsher than I remembered as he mocked me. “What do you think I’m doing here, Jeremy?” he asked, a slight snarl in his tone as his eyes dropped to my round tummy. “You have something that belongs to me.”
Chapter Three
Kade
After months of tracking Jay – sorry,Jeremy, according to the missing and endangered warrant – through what seemed like every damned thicket and over every fucking wildlife trail in the state, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I’d looked out the window of the hunting lodge I’d rented out for the fall and seen a pathetic figure hobbling toward the woods, arms clutching something against a too-thin body as they fought for progress against the whipping wind.
Sitting on thirty acres of prime private hunting preserve just outside of the town of Sharon Hill, the lodge was the only shelter for miles, so it didn’t take much to realize that my rental had come with a stowaway.
I’d waited until the miserable-looking figure had plodded back from the woods and disappeared to strip down and step out onto the front porch, relaxing into the animal that lurked just below the surface of my human form. With his keen night vision, my hyena located the lean-to nearly hidden behind an overgrowth of shrubbery at the back of the building in no time.
Deciding to bide my time instead of risking scaring the intruder, I padded back to the main entrance and reclaimed my human form. Then, I grabbed a book and dragged an overstuffed chair over to a spot beside the picture window where I could see but not be seen.
Then, I waited.
The wind howled outside, bringing the beginnings of the September storm that the nightly news had forecast for the past few days. Pale silver tendrils of moisture began to stretch down from the sky, curling around the nearly bare tree branches and frosting the window panes, hinting at the snowflakes to follow. I was watching a bank of mist float past the full moon when the familiar shape hobbled toward the woods, every step a visible struggle against the storm.
I waited until he disappeared into the edge of the woods to let myself into the tiny lean-to. Once inside, I looked around in confusion. The room was barely three feet by four feet and there wasn’t anything, save a stack of old wooden boxes, to be seen. Besides, that was, a well-gouged drag track in the dirt that suggested the boxes were being used to block the door when it was closed.
It wasn’t until I caught my toe on an uneven patch of ground that I found the answer. Feeling along the wooden boards, I found the slightest upraised bit and raised the hidden trapdoor. A rickety stepladder sat below the opening, squealing alarmingly when my weight landed on it.
I stood in the center of a room lit by a single flashlight hung from a string in the center of the room, staring in dismay.
I was in what I assumed was an old root cellar. Barely tall enough for me to stand, the walls and floor were dirt. A stack of three wooden pallets lay tucked into one corner, covered with one large deerskin and dozens of other tiny pelts that were tied together in an odd fashion. I could tell that some were rabbit, a few others were gopher, but there were many more that I couldn’t recognize. Beyond that, a couple of ratty books sat in a pile on the floor by the bed, a plastic jug about half full of water sat nearby, and not much else.
Taking in the dismal surroundings, I found myself hoping that I was wrong and it wasn’t the spitfire of an Omega staying in the depressing little cell.
But I knew better. His scent was everywhere.
Figuring I had a few minutes to kill, I stretched out on the bed of furs to wait.
When Jeremy finally clambered down through the hole, I caught my breath when the step stool groaned but held. Then, when he turned and saw me, I knew a moment of fear that he might actually pass out from the shock.
The look on his face when I told him that he had something of mine would have been funny if the entire situation hadn’t been so fucked up. But, when he followed my eyes down to his protruding belly and began to strip off his shirt, I was lost.
Did he really think I’d let him go in exchange for a fuck? Not bloody likely with as long as I’d been hunting him, and definitely not while there was a chance he was carrying my baby.
“I’m so sorry,” he babbled, pulling the shirt over his head and holding it out toward me. “You left it in the apartment and I didn’t think you’d mind. I was wearing it when..yeah. Anyway, I’m sorry.” The Omega stared at me expectantly, as if he honestly thought I’d take the stained t-shirt and go, leaving him and our offspring in the cold, damp hole.
“I’m not here for the shirt, Jeremy,” I said quietly.
“You’re not?” he asked in confusion. “Then what..?” I could tell the moment that he realized he knew the answer. “Oh, God, no. Not you.” He took a step back, as if he thought he could make it out of the root cellar and away fast enough to escape. “Please, no!”
“Don’t make me chase you, Jeremy,” I warned.
Even in the dim light, I saw his adam’s apple bob when he swallowed. “What are you going to do with me?”
