by Elena Aitken
Ella rubbed her belly, which was definitely popping out in a cute round bump, and smiled. As soon as they’d arrived home from Yellowstone, she’d told the rest of the family that they were expecting their own cub in a few months. Kira couldn’t help but be secretly pleased she’d known first. It helped her feel even a little bit more connected with everything she’d missed while she’d been gone.
“Okay, okay,” Chloe said, drawing their attention back to the cakes. “Let’s start tasting. I didn’t think I’d be so into this wedding thing, but it’s super fun.”
“I told you!” Harper clapped her hands together. “I don’t know why all shifters don’t get married. You’re missing out on so much.” Harper took the baby gently from Kira’s arms. “Let me go lay her down so we can eat cake.”
She was sorry to see the gentle weight of the baby go, but more than happy to indulge in some cake. Kira had been absolutely ravenous since arriving back at the Ridge.
Ella reached for a cupcake and passed it to Kira.
“Maybe you’re on to something, muy hermana.”
“What do you mean?” Harper sat down next to Ella. “Weddings?”
“Si.”
“She’s right,” Chloe said. “Weddings are a human thing, but maybe that’s only because we never thought they could be a shifter thing?”
Kira nodded. The idea of having a wedding wasn’t totally unappealing. In fact, the more she helped Harper with the details of hers, the more she could imagine herself doing it, too. Which was crazy, because weddings were a human thing. The only reason Axel had agreed to it was because it was important to Harper, who had only recently discovered her shifter side.
“It could be a business, Harper,” Kira piped up. “Organizing shifter weddings. It could be the next big thing. A service people didn’t even know they needed.”
“As if we don’t have enough to do.” Chloe chose a cake of her own. “But I do like the idea,” she admitted.
“Well, maybe we’re too busy to do it.” Harper tapped a finger on her lips. “But I know the perfect person for such a thing.”
“Bree.”
“Bree.”
Chloe and Kira said at once. The name popped into Kira’s head immediately. She’d been a long-time resident of Boulder Creek, the town next to the one she’d grown up in. She wasn’t a shifter herself, but she was one of the few humans who knew all about them. And she definitely had a sense of style. She ran a store, Bree’s Knees, that catered to the curvy girls that shifters often were, or preferred to mate with.
“She’s perfect,” Harper agreed. “I’ll call her in the morning and tell her our brilliant idea.”
The women spent the rest of the morning giggling over cake choices, talking about Harper’s wedding and Ella’s pregnancy. It was perfect, and Kira had never felt happier. Except for her time with Nash. But at the Ridge, she had it all, and when lunch time drew nearer and the women all scattered to their various duties, Kira packed up a picnic basket and snuck off to meet her own lunch date in the woods.
Nash didn’t waste any time getting to their meeting spot, tucked back in the woods next to the creek. Ever since they’d arrived on the Ridge, they’d been kept busy. Not that Nash minded. He liked to be busy and Kira’s brothers had all been very welcoming. Except for a few tense moments with Luke, who, from what Nash could tell, was just trying to test Nash’s worth as his sister’s mate, things had been good. He liked the guys, and he enjoyed the physical labor.
But there was another type of physical labor he enjoyed more.
Nash’s cock stiffened at the sight of his mate, who was laid out, naked, on a picnic blanket, her eyes closed, the sun warming her creamy skin. Kira’s arms were tucked under her head, exposing the now silver mark of his mate bite. Her breasts, fuller now with the pregnancy, stood lush and ready for his attention.
He moved slowly and silently toward her, shedding his clothes as he went.
When he reached the blanket, he dropped to his knees and started to crawl up Kira’s body with a low growl rumbling in his throat.
Her eyes opened, as if she already knew he was there. “Hey, handsome.”
“Gorgeous.” He kissed his way up her leg until he reached the cleft of her legs.
“Hungry?”
“More than you know.” She let out a delicious gasp as he spread her legs and used the flat of his tongue to lick her crease. “Yummy.” He lifted his head to see her looking down at him, with heat in her eyes. Her hands twisted through his hair, urging him on, and Nash was happy to oblige. For the next few minutes, he licked and sucked and teased until his perfectly sexy mate was screaming her pleasure up to the trees.
When she was satisfied, Nash pulled himself up, stopping to kiss Kira’s swelling belly before he pressed his mouth to hers. “Hi there, beautiful.”
“Hi yourself.” She giggled and, still naked, sat up to get the picnic basket she’d prepared. She handed him a sandwich. “How was your morning? How’s the cabin coming?”
“About that…” She eyed him and Nash purposely looked away. He knew Kira wanted to wait before telling anyone about their pregnancy, but he was no longer convinced it was a good idea. “I think you should come by the site after lunch. I want to show you the progress.”
Nash immediately regretted saying anything at all, only because Kira wasn’t the type of woman to sit by and do or say nothing after a statement like that. Lunch was finished in short order and far too soon, she’d packed up, put on her clothes and was demanding to visit the site. Date over.
“You know, it could have waited.” He laughed and slid his hand in hers as they made their way to the site. All of the brothers had their own cabins away from the main lodge. It was their way of having privacy from their guests who stayed in the rooms in the lodge. As a sign of acceptance, and a welcome home gift, the brothers had offered to build Nash and Kira a cabin. It was a generous offer, and Nash had been enjoying working on the project, but they’d reached a point in construction where a decision needed to be made.
The foundation had been laid, and walls were starting to go up, but Nash had stopped work on the back side of the house until he talked to Kira. There was something he needed to go over with her. “What do you think?” he asked after she had a moment to look it over.
She looked confused, as he thought she might. “Can you walk me through it?”
“Of course.” Nash held tight to her hand. “This is the living room.” He pointed to the front area. “There’ll be a kitchenette area along the back wall. I thought we’d mostly use the main kitchen in the lodge.” She nodded her agreement. “This is the bathroom.” They walked over to the space marked on the floor. “And our bedroom.”
“Right.” Kira nodded. “But what’s this? Why is there all this space here?”
She pointed to the space in the back. The space Nash was struggling with.
“This will be the baby’s room.” Kira looked at him, waiting for the rest of it. “I think we should make two.”
“Two?” She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “Like, two bedrooms?”
Nash nodded.
“Why would we do that?”
He’d suspected from the very beginning that there was something a little unusual about Kira’s pregnancy, but watching her since they’d arrived at the Ridge, Nash was almost sure of what was happening.
“I think we should tell the others.”
“Tell the others what?”
Shit.
The brothers were back from their own lunch break. Nash had been so wrapped up in Kira, he hadn’t noticed them come up.
“What do you think, Kira?” Axel gave his sister a quick hug. There was a lot of love in the Jackson family, particularly when it came to their little sister. “Do you like it?”
“I do.” She smiled. “A lot. Thank you so much, guys.”
“But?” Kade noticed her hesitancy right away. “What’s wrong?”
Luke flashed Nash a look. No doubt ju
st being the overprotective brother. Again.
“Nash was just showing me the floor plan and—”
“Right,” Luke interrupted. “You have something to tell us.”
“That was a private conversation.” Nash shook his head. “It was between Kira and me.”
“Sounded like you had something to tell us.” Luke stepped forward and Kira put a hand on her brother’s shoulder.
“Luke. Seriously.” Kira looked to Nash. “What’s going on? With the house?”
He took in a breath and let it out slowly. There was no point keeping quiet. “Okay,” he started. “We’re almost done closing in the main floor.”
“But Nash had us stop on this room,” Kade offered.
“I did.” Nash walked toward the room in question. “I was just telling Kira I think we should make it into two rooms instead of one.”
“Why?” It was Axel who asked. “I thought the idea of the room was for when you had a cub one day.”
Nash nodded.
“You can always add another room later if you expand your family.”
Nash raised his eyebrows.
“Isn’t that still the plan?”
He nodded.
“But that’ll be awhile,” Luke said and looked between them. “I mean, first you have to have one cub.”
Nash nodded again and looked at Kira, who looked just as confused as her brothers. “Right,” Nash said slowly. He watched Kira closely as he spoke. “And if that were to happen, I think everyone should be prepared for the possibility of twins.”
“Twins?” Kade almost choked on the word, no doubt thinking of Ella.
“There are twins in the family, after all.” Nash looked pointedly between Kira and Kade but his eyes rested on Kira, whose face had gone white.
She opened her mouth; her lips formed the word but no sound came out. Twins.
Nash nodded and went to her. His hands went straight to her stomach, which had swelled much faster than it should have. And then there was her scent. He was surprised the others couldn’t sense it. Her hormones were so strong, it had changed her scent almost at once. He’d suspected that day that there was something different about her pregnancy, but as the days went on, the more positive he was.
“Nash?” Her voice was quiet. “Twins?”
He nodded. “I think so.”
Tears flooded her eyes. Her emotions were always so close to the surface in the past weeks. “Oh my God. I can’t even…I don’t know….oh my God. Twins.” She laughed as the tears fell down her face.
Nash didn’t care that they were surrounded by her older brothers; at that moment, Kira was the only person in the world. Her and their unborn babies. He took her face in his hands and kissed her with all the love he felt for her and the lives she was carrying within her.
There were whoops of shock and surprise around them as her brothers put it all together and shouted out their celebrations. Somehow, in the next few minutes, the women arrived with bottles of champagne and sparkling apple juice. All together, outside of what was to be Kira and Nash’s new family home, they toasted to love and life and family.
It wasn’t the family Nash had expected, and the loss of his own still tugged at something deep inside, but that no longer mattered. Because his whole world, his entire future, was right there on Grizzly Ridge.
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THE END
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Stay tuned for more sexy shifter romances…maybe even another visit to Grizzly Ridge.
But in the meantime…did you know that I also write contemporary romances?
Why not give one a try?
Check out an excerpt of Love in the Moment right after this…
AND…don’t forget to join my mailing list where you’ll be the first to hear about new stories, sales and promotions and giveaways!
You can join me here —>
https://elenaaitken.com/newsletter/
About the Author
Elena Aitken is a USA Today Bestselling Author of more than thirty five romance and women’s fiction novels. Living a stone’s throw from the Rocky Mountains with her teenager twins, their two cats and a goofy rescue dog, Elena escapes into the mountains whenever life allows. She can often be found with her toes in the lake and a glass of wine in her hand, dreaming up her next book and working on her own happily ever after with her very own mountain man.
* * *
To learn more about Elena:
www.elenaaitken.com
[email protected]
Also by Elena Aitken
Bears of Grizzly Ridge
His to Protect
His to Seduce
His to Claim
Hers to Take
Bears of Grizzly Ridge: The Complete Set
The McCormicks
Love in the Moment
Going for the Moment
Only for a Moment
One more Moment
In this Moment
From this Moment
Castle Mountain Lodge
Unexpected Gifts
Hidden Gifts
Unexpected Endings - Short Story
Secret Gifts
Mistaken Gifts
Goodbye Gifts
Tempting Gifts
Holiday Gifts
A Castle Lodge Collection (Books 1-5)
Love in the Moment
Please enjoy an excerpt from my contemporary romance, Love in the Moment.
Walking along the lakefront in front of his old family cabin, Ian McCormick was hit by a flood of different feelings. He’d had so many good memories of his summers spent there as kids. Every year, his mother would load the four of them in the van and they’d make the drive out to the lake, where they’d spend the next two and a half months playing, swimming, getting into trouble, and basically having the best summer any kid could ask for. His father would come out for a few weeks in July and the occasional weekend here and there, but mostly it was just the boys and their mother.
It had been perfect.
Until the truth came out.
The perfect family the McCormicks presented themselves to be were anything but. He’d just completed his first year of college when his father had finally announced he was leaving their mother, and them, for his other family.
His. Other. Family.
For over fifteen years, his father had led a double life and had another woman, and worse, children. Two girls. His sisters.
Ian had made a vow that day that he would have nothing to do with them.
He made his way to the waterline and threw a rock as far out as he could. He watched the ripples fan out and dissipate as they went. The ripple effect. He laughed at the irony. That’s exactly what his father’s actions had caused. He’d been successful for years in keeping his vow to distance himself from his other family. Two of his younger brothers, Declan and Cal, who were still in high school when everything went down, had been involved with their half-sisters Chelsea and Amber and even gotten to know them. They were closer in age, all four of them had been somewhere between sixteen and thirteen, and much to Ian’s annoyance, they’d become sort of friends. It was harder for Ian, and Mitch, his other brother. They didn’t look at it the same way. They couldn’t see past the hurt on their mother’s face. How she had to start over and work two jobs to scrape by while their father went on to happily live a different life. It was beyond Ian how he could have done that to her.
He didn’t blame Chelsea and Amber. Not really.
But it didn’t make it any easier to be around them. Which was why he had no idea why he’d agreed when Declan had called him and asked him for a favor. Not just a favor, but a total sacrifice.
A few months earlier, Ian told his brothers that he’d planned to return to Cedar Springs to open up the old house for the summer and check out the business opportunities in town. Recently there’d been a resurgence of business in town and Ian was always one to jump on a good investment. But when Declan had called to ask him to please let Chelsea,
the youngest of the two girls, to spend the summer with him, Ian had been expecting anything but that. She was only twenty-two and according to Declan, a good girl, but lost and confused. She needed to get out of the city and away from the influences that were steering her down the wrong path.
“Whatever.” He threw another rock. “Not. My. Problem.” Ian kicked a pile of rocks and scared some ducks that nested nearby. He immediately felt guilty. Just the way he had when Declan told him how rough it had been for Chelsea. Apparently she had a lot of pent-up anger at both her parents and being around them was only feeding her rage.
“Join the club.” Ian laughed and shook his head.
In the end, he’d agreed.
And if he didn’t hurry, he’d be late to pick her up. She was set to come in on the four o’clock bus, and Ian planned to take her straight over to meet Samantha. He’d secured her a job at the Grizzly Paw, because he’d be damned if she was going to lie around in the sun all summer and not pull her weight. Leaving the beach behind, he jumped into his jeep and set into town. The row of old log homes that used to be full of activity and bustle for the summer were still mostly locked up. That would change. It was still early. But soon, when school got out for summer, his old summer neighborhood would be full of life again. It surprised him how much he was looking forward to it.
The bus had just pulled up when Ian arrived. He realized he had no real idea what Chelsea looked like beyond a few old pictures he’d reluctantly looked at years earlier; he probably hadn’t seen a picture of her in the last few years. He scanned the crowd. There were a few elderly women who probably had been in the city visiting children and grandchildren, a few couples and then—Chelsea.
He strode through the small crowd and bent to pick up her bag before she could get it. He might not be happy about the situation, but he was still a gentleman. His hand locked around the handle of the duffel at the same time hers did. “I got it.”
