by J. L. Wilder
“She’s fine,” Jessica said. “Why wouldn’t she be?”
“I don’t know,” Wes said. “She seemed bothered about something. It was almost like she was mad at me.”
Jessica was definitely avoiding his gaze now. She picked up the TV remote and began flipping through the streaming service options. “What reason could she have to be mad at you?”
“Hey, turn the TV off,” Wes said.
“I thought we were going to watch a movie,” Jessica said. “You like this one, right? It’s the one with the race car driver.”
“Turn it off, Jess,” he said. “Seriously. I want to talk to you.”
She sighed and flipped the TV off. “What?”
“You know something. About Lauren. What is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Please. You think I can’t tell when you’re being weird and evasive? I watched you pull this crap on Mom and Dad for years. There’s something you’re not telling me, and I want to know what it is.”
“What makes you think it’s any of your business?” she asked.
“If it wasn’t, you’d just say that and we’d move on. Come on, Jessica. I’m not falling for this. What’s going on with her?”
Jessica bit her lip. “I’m not getting involved in it,” she said.
“In what?”
“You and Lauren.”
“Me and Lauren what? There’s no me and Lauren.”
“If you’re going to play dumb with me, Wes, I don’t see why I should tell you anything at all.”
He closed his eyes. “She told you?”
“She mentioned it,” Jessica said dryly.
“And she’s...what? Mad at me about it?”
“I told you, I’m not getting involved in this. You can talk to her about it.”
“She didn’t want to talk to me. She practically ran away from me.”
“Okay, well, she has every right to do that,” Jessica said. “I’m not going to tell you what she says, Wes. She’s my best friend.”
“I’m your brother.”
“So I won’t tell her what you said either,” she said. “That seems fair.”
“How is that fair to anybody?”
“I don’t know. How is it fair to me that you two are putting me in the middle of whatever this is?” She shook her head. “Talk to Lauren. Or don’t. Whatever. But leave me out of it.”
“All right, fine.” Wes held up his hands in surrender. “Put the movie on.”
Jessica did, and the two of them sat in silence, drinking the wine and watching.
It was a very familiar movie, so Wes didn’t need to pay close attention. He found his mind wandering, again and again, back to Lauren.
So she had told Jessica that the two of them had slept together.
If he was honest with himself, he hadn’t considered the possibility that his sister would find out. Lauren was her oldest friend, but she’d been living in Palatine. No one had seen or heard from her in the years leading up to her mother’s funeral.
But if she’s back to stay...it might be just a matter of time before the story gets out.
He wondered if that was something he cared about. Did it matter, really, if the rest of the den knew he had slept with Lauren? It mattered to the two of them, and it seemed to matter to Jessica. He guessed that was understandable. But nobody else was going to care, right?
I can’t imagine why they would.
No, there was nothing to worry about. And it had been clear that Lauren hadn’t wanted to talk to him.
So there was nothing Wes needed to do.
He would leave town as planned, as soon as this movie was over, and then he just wouldn’t worry about whatever Lauren’s problem was anymore.
In fact, I’ll just stay away from the city for the next few months. That way, our paths won’t cross. No reason to make things harder for either one of us.
Chapter Seven
LAUREN
The noise out on the street drew Lauren to her living room window. She looked out and saw that a party was happening below her.
This must be what Jessica was talking about. The den’s nightly parties. She hadn’t anticipated that they would be taking place on her street. She wondered if they were here every night, or if they moved around. It would be frustrating to have to put up with this noise and chaos every single night.
Still...maybe it was a good thing that she’d happened to look down on one of the den parties.
I really ought to go.
She was going to need to let everyone know that she was back. And, much as she dreaded it, she was going to need to let them know why she’d come back. The more she tried to cover up her pregnancy, the more it would be whispered about. Better to just face the friends she had left behind and get the news out there. That way, anyone who had questions would just ask her directly, and her version of events would be the one that was believed.
She dressed quickly in a casual sundress and a denim jacket. Then she hurried down the stairs and out onto the street below.
Someone had hooked a music player up to some speakers, and dance music was playing. Looking around, Lauren saw cars parked at either end of the street to block anyone from coming down. Members of the den were everywhere, dancing, drinking, and generally having a good time.
It made sense, she thought, that they had chosen this street for their party. There were a few streets in the city that were entirely shifter-owned, and this was one of them. No human would have any reason to come this way. The human police tended to avoid it too, perhaps sensing that they were out of their depth here.
It was the perfect place to go a little wild.
Lauren wandered out into the street, looking for a familiar face. She couldn’t help but be reminded, looking around, of just how long it had been since she had been back home. Everyone seemed younger than her, and she didn’t recognize anyone.
Where are the people my age?
She spotted a couple of kegs lined up on the sidewalk and made her way over to them, thinking that this would be a good place to hang out and keep an eye out for anyone she knew.
And as she approached, she did see a familiar face at last.
“Lauren?” the blonde woman asked. “Is that really you?”
Lauren grinned. “Hi, Felicity. Nice to see you too.”
“I thought it would be another twenty years before I saw your face again,” Felicity gushed. “But you’re back so soon! I can’t believe it.”
Lauren nodded. It was a stroke of good luck that Felicity was the person she’d found first. Though the two of them had never been as close as Lauren and Jessica, they had been friends in childhood and in their teenage years. And Felicity had always been a bit of a gossip. She would be the perfect person to spread Lauren’s story without twisting it or trying to make Lauren look bad in the process.
So she confided the truth in her friend. “Actually,” she said. “You’ll never believe it, but I’m back because I’m pregnant.”
Felicity’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope,” Lauren said, laughing a little. “I know—at my age, it’s pretty wild, right?”
“I mean—no offense! I just thought our generation was kind of done with the whole having kids thing!”
“So did I,” Lauren said. “It was unplanned. But I’m excited about it now that it’s happened.”
“I’ll bet!” Felicity said happily. “You’ll be an awesome mom, Lauren!”
“Thanks,” Lauren said, flattered.
“Who’s the father? Is it someone I know?”
“Nah,” Lauren said, doing her best to sound casual. “Just a human guy. He worked with me at the restaurant.” She had invented this detail earlier that afternoon, hoping that it would make her story seem a little more credible.
“Jeez, really?” Felicity said. “A human? I heard they’re terrible in bed. Is it true?”
Lauren laughed. That, at least, she could answer t
ruthfully—she had plenty of experience to speak from. “Some are good and some are bad,” she said. “Just like with shifters.”
“And this mysterious father—is he your boyfriend? Will I get a chance to meet him?”
“No, nothing like that,” Lauren said. “He doesn’t even know I’m pregnant. He’s not going to be involved at all.”
“Yikes. Is that what you want?”
“I don’t see what choice I have. My babies will be shifters, after all. I don’t want to have to explain to a human man why his children are suddenly turning into bear cubs.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Felicity agreed. “I guess a human guy would be pretty messed up by that.”
It did make sense. It made so much sense that Lauren was almost starting to believe her own lie.
Which is probably a good thing. I’m going to have to keep repeating the same lie over and over for the next eighteen years. So I’d better start practicing it now. I need to get used to it. And it will be that much easier if it feels like the truth.
She looked at Felicity’s face, trying to read her. Her friend didn’t seem to suspect anything.
“Can I get you a beer?” Felicity said. Then she laughed and waved a hand. “No, of course I can’t! What am I thinking? You can’t have a drink if you’re pregnant!”
“It’s all right,” Lauren said. “It took me a little while to get used to it too. Don’t worry about it.”
“You’re pregnant?”
The voice came from behind them, and it sounded incredibly unhappy. In fact, it sounded borderline angry.
Lauren turned slowly.
She found herself face to face with someone she hadn’t thought about in a long time.
“Tina,” she said. “It’s...nice to see you again.”
Chapter Eight
LAUREN
“You’re pregnant?” Tina repeated, her eyes narrowing.
Lauren suppressed a sigh. It wasn’t really nice to see Tina again, not at all. She’d been unhappy when her childhood bully had married her cousin—though, of course, it was to be expected. Tina had always been a social climber. Of course she’d want to be linked to the man with the best chance of becoming alpha.
And now Cody had become alpha. Tina must be ecstatic.
She didn’t look ecstatic now, though. She looked angry.
“Yeah,” Lauren said. “I am.”
“And that’s what you’re doing back here?”
“That’s right,” Lauren said, wondering if Tina was going to try to make her feel as though she didn’t have a right to be among the den.
I do, she reminded herself. I might have been away for a long time, but this is my family just as much as it is Tina’s. I have as much right to be here as she does.
“Who’s the father?” Tina demanded.
“No one you know,” Lauren said. Answering these questions for Felicity was one thing, but she didn’t feel like explaining her life to Tina.
Unfortunately, Felicity spoke up. “It’s just some guy at the restaurant where she works,” she said. “Not a member of the den.”
Tina’s face twisted. “You mean, it’s a human?”
The way she said it, she might as well have been asking if Lauren had been eating dirt. She sounded utterly disgusted.
“Yeah, that’s right.” Lauren supposed she had known that some people would react this way. And it made sense that Tina was one of them. She’d been one of the harshest critics of Lauren’s decision to go and live in the human world when they had come of age. “He’s human.”
“You’re a freak,” Tina spat.
“What difference does it make to you?” Lauren asked. “It doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“It does if you bring those half-human babies back to my city,” Tina said. “Are you planning to give birth here?”
“I don’t know that I need to explain my birthing plans to you, Tina.”
“Uh-oh,” Felicity murmured.
Apparently, Tina wasn’t used to being talked back to. Her muscles tensed and her body sank into a crouch. She trembled all over, her eyes darkening.
She’s going to shift. Right here in the middle of the street!
Lauren took several steps backward, but she ran into the kegs. Her mind raced. Should she shift? If a bear was about to spring at her, that would be the safest thing to do.
But right here? In the middle of the street?
The den had always been very careful about where they shifted. It was never done in the city, where humans might accidentally see. Even on a fully shifter-occupied street like this one, that wasn’t acceptable.
Is she really going to do this?
“What’s going on?” a voice asked.
Lauren turned and saw her cousin, Cody. He was shirtless, clad only in a pair of jeans. The sole concession he seemed to have made to his humanity was hair gel—he’d clearly used a lot of it, and his hair was sticking up in spikes.
The tension eased a bit. Tina, still glaring at Lauren, moved to stand by her husband’s side.
“Lauren,” Cody said. “I didn’t realize you were back.” He didn’t seem angry about it, as Tina had, but he didn’t sound overjoyed either.
“She’s pregnant,” Tina informed him.
Cody’s eyebrows shot up. “You are?” he asked Lauren.
She nodded coolly. “And the father’s a human,” she said. Might as well get that piece of news out of the way before Tina had the chance to spill it. “I don’t think your wife is very happy about my life choices.”
“You can’t let her raise a half-human here, Cody,” Tina said. “A freak like that will never be a part of the den, and you know it. She should be exiled. Send her back to Palestine.”
“Palatine,” Lauren said irritably. “And my children will be shifters. You know the shifter gene is dominant. They’d be much more out of place in the human world than they will be here. That’s why I came back.”
“Get rid of her, Cody,” Tina said.
“I don’t know,” Cody mumbled. “She does have a point, right?”
“Are you serious?” Tina practically screeched. “You’re going to let her stay?”
“Felicity’s seen her,” Cody said. “I’m guessing other people know she’s back, too. And they know why. If we send her away now, everyone’s going to know why.”
“Nobody’s going to want half-human kids being raised among the den,” Tina hissed. “She doesn’t belong here, and you know that. You know what it could mean.”
What it could mean? Lauren frowned uneasily. She had no idea what Tina meant by that.
“You keep to yourself, that’s all,” Cody said to Lauren. “You can live in your mother’s house.”
“Thanks. That’s generous,” Lauren said sarcastically. She owned that house.
Cody didn’t seem to pick up on the sarcasm. “No involvement with any of the men in the den.”
“You have to make it an order,” Tina said. “It’s pretty obvious she’ll sleep with anybody.”
Cody nodded. When he spoke again, there was a new authority in his voice. “I forbid you from becoming romantically or physically involved with any of the den members in Chicago.”
Lauren felt the weight of the order wash over her and knew that she would be compelled to obey.
She resented it. She had always hated this part of belonging to the den. It was one of the reasons she’d left for the human world in the first place.
But at least in this instance he’s not ordering me against doing anything I actually wanted to do. She had no intention of getting herself into a relationship while she was here.
But I wonder why Cody and Tina don’t want me to?
“Fine,” she said. “I won’t get involved with anybody.”
Chapter Nine
LAUREN
Well, that was awful.
Lauren closed the door behind her and leaned against it, trying not to think about the glare on Tina’s face and the dismissive look
in Cody’s eyes as he had turned away from her.
Why are they so unhappy to have me back?
Of course, Tina had never liked her. They’d been rivals as children, competing for attention from adults, and when they were older, for attention from the young men in their den.
But now Tina was married to the alpha, and Lauren was pregnant by a man who wasn’t in her life. A man who, as far as everybody knew, was just a random human.
Tina should be smug, not angry. That was the reaction that Lauren had been expecting.
She went to the phone, bit her lip, and then dialed Jessica’s number.
“Lauren?” Jessica picked up on the first ring. “Is everything all right?”
She sounded as if she knew that something had happened. Lauren was surprised. “I’m fine,” she said. “Is everything all right with you?”
Jessica hesitated. “I heard you talked to Wes,” she said.
“Ah,” Lauren said.
“He came to my place right afterward.”
“Oh, hell. I was totally weird when I saw him, too. Did he mention that?”
Jessica hesitated again, and Lauren had the distinct feeling that her friend was trying to figure out what to say. “I think he knows something’s up,” she said at last. “I thought he might stop by your house after he left mine and try to talk to you again.”
“Well, he didn’t,” Lauren said. “I haven’t seen him all evening. Actually, I was outside. They’re having a party outside my house.”
“Oh, I know,” Jessica said. “Don’t think I can’t hear the noise.”
“Really?” Jessica lived two blocks away. “If you can hear it, that means there are humans who can.”
“Yeah,” Jessica said. “I don’t know how the police are never called on Cody’s parties. He’s probably bribing them.”
“How can he afford to do that?”
“He’s the alpha. He controls the den’s treasury.”
“You think he’s spending our money to bribe the cops not to shut down his parties?” Lauren asked, momentarily distracted.
“That’s what most people think,” Jessica said. “I mean, there’s no proof of it. But it makes a lot of sense, don’t you think?”
