by Lily Cahill
Nina stared at her hands twisting in her lap. She pressed her lips together for a moment, then looked up at Rick. She couldn’t bullshit him. He deserved better than that.
“I don’t know, Rick. I really don’t.”
Van held her glass of Cab aloft in a toast. Next to her, Amy raised her water, and Nina followed suit.
“To twelve weeks,” Van said, smiling at Nina.
Nina snuggled baby Willow against her chest and smiled wide.
“Twelve weeks. Please, God, make the next twelve weeks easier than the first.”
They clinked glasses and drank. Nina stroked Willow’s dark hair and breathed deeply—she smelled like heaven. If she wouldn’t look like a baby-sniffing weirdo in the middle of a restaurant, she’d bury her nose in Willow’s chubby arms and breathe all day.
“You’re a natural,” Amy said, watching Nina with her daughter and beaming.
Nina cuddled Willow and kissed the top of her head. “I’d say it’s more that you have a perfect angel of a child. Anyone could be a natural with Wil.”
Across the table, Van and Amy shared a smile and twined their hands. Nina’s heart ached watching them. Despite the sleepless nights, despite the growing pains of adding to their family, their love seemed to have deepened in the last two months since Willow was born.
Since speaking with Rick yesterday, Nina had been rolling his words around in her mind. She’d wanted to leave LA for a while now, and learning she was pregnant had definitely made the urge stronger. But maybe it really was time to move on. Not someday, but now. And move on without guilt. Rick had put words to exactly what she was fearing. She had worked so damn hard to get where she was, and she was terrified that following her heart—moving to the woods somewhere and being a mother and finishing her novel—would make her look like she was giving up. Like she was failing. But Rick had said it was just a change to her priorities, and that made sense to Nina.
There was something else that made sense, if she’d let it.
Drew. A life with Drew. A family with Drew. Oh, how she longed for it. For weeks now, she’d tried to deny the longing in her heart, but she couldn’t any longer. She wouldn’t. She wanted Drew in her life, in her baby’s life. No, their baby. She wanted family and love, and most of all, Drew. Her heart lifted as she thought of it.
For the first time, Nina truly saw the man, not just the shifter lurking inside. He could be both and still be a deeply caring, good person. She could love a shifter. Nina smiled. She already did love a shifter, if only she’d admit it. Nina let a hand fall to her growing belly—she loved two shifters.
“You’re thinking of him,” Van said knowingly.
Nina glanced up to see Van and Amy watching her. She could barely speak past the tightness in her throat. “I’m going to tell him. I’m going to ask if he’ll … if he’ll be part of our family.”
Amy plucked Willow from Nina’s arms. “Do it now.”
“Now?”
“Right now,” Van said.
“But …,” Nina said, casting about for an excuse. She was suddenly terrified. “The food is going to be here in a minute.”
Van raised an eyebrow. “Which do you want, a hot entrée, or a hot man that you love?”
Nina laughed, then grabbed her phone. With a last look at her friends, she nearly jogged out of the restaurant and around the corner for some privacy. Her fingers flew over her phone.
It only rang twice, and then he was there. His voice filled Nina up with so much happiness, she thought she’d burst.
“Nina? Is that you? Nina, I’ve missed you so damned much.”
Nina swallowed hard. “I’ve missed you too, Drew. So much. I can’t even … I just … do you know when you’ll be in LA next? I want to see you. There’s some news, and—”
“I’ll be on the next flight out. When you wake up in the morning, I’ll be there.”
Chapter Ten
Drew
DREW CLUTCHED THE BOUQUET OF tulips to his chest. His heart was booming, and he could feel the reverberations of it from the roots of his feet all the way up to the tips of his ears.
Excitement to see Nina nearly overwhelmed him, nearly made him forget how he’d left things with his brothers. Things were not good. Bret had again threatened to quit the band when Drew had told them he was leaving for LA. Drew had only headed off the looming storm between Bret and the others by swearing on their mother’s grave that he’d be back within twenty-four hours for the first of two shows in Texas. They were the final two shows before the tour took a three month break for Tiff’s delivery.
Jax and Tiff were going back to Montana for the birth and to hole up for a few months with their new baby. Drew only hoped they’d be welcomed back to Montana—they were less than a week away from the conclave that would decide the fate of the Hart’s place within the shifters of the Western Clans.
Drew shook his head. He couldn’t think of all that right now. Drew pushed the buzzer outside Nina’s loft and refused to let himself think of the last time he’d stood outside this door hoping to see Nina Marten.
But there wasn’t a wait this time. The door clicked as Nina buzzed him up. Drew climbed the steps two at a time, barely able to stand the distance between them. Drew paused at the door to Nina’s loft, his eyes searching for her.
She was there, standing, waiting. Smiling.
And …
And …
Drew dropped the flowers and crossed to Nina where she stood in the middle of the entryway, her bronzed skin glowing, her eyes bright, her hand resting on the tiny swell of her stomach. Drew couldn’t look away from her stomach, couldn’t tear himself away from the possibility. Drew’s eyes flicked up to Nina’s for a second, then back to her stomach.
“So, I have some news,” Nina said, her voice lilting up with a bit of apprehension as she looked down at her stomach. She held up a finger. “But first, I need to confess how absolutely nervous I am. I spent so many years hating shifters. Until you … until you showed me what a shifter could be.”
Drew stepped closer, hope for them, for this flaring inside his chest. “Nina, because of you, I swear to you that I’ll lead my clan differently. I’ll protect everyone, shifter and human. And you above all else. I can’t walk away from what I am, my responsibility, but with you at my side ….”
Nina pressed the back of her hand to her mouth to stifle a small sob. “Drew, I’m so scared, but together … with you … I can do this. I want to do this.”
He couldn’t stand it any longer—this distance between them. He needed to feel her skin against his, their breath mingling, their hearts fused. Drew scooped Nina up into a giant, sweeping hug. He buried his face into the crook of her neck and breathed in the spicy, sweet scent of her body. It was a scent that had trailed him through dreams for nearly twelve weeks.
Gently, he set Nina back down, his eyes again on her stomach. He didn’t dare hope for this, but could it be? Almost timidly, Drew placed a hand against her stomach and searched Nina’s face.
“Are you …?”
Nina’s bright eyes spilled over with tears as she nodded. The dams around Drew’s heart burst, and love poured through him.
“Drew, I’m sorry. I should have told you right away. God, I was an idiot to push you away.”
“No,” Drew murmured, his hands roaming up Nina’s arms, her neck, her face. He pressed a flurry of kisses against her sweet skin, then leaned his forehead against hers. “No, Nina. I screwed up. I will spend my life putting you first, putting our family first. I promise, Nina.”
“And I’ll put our family first, too. No more space between us, nothing but truth from now on.”
Drew nodded, his hands going back to her stomach. His smile stretched wide and his breath hitched in his throat. “I’m going to be a dad.”
The reality hit him like a bolt of lightning, washed over him like a summer storm. He was going to be a father. Nina was pregnant with his child. His full heart expanded, until love overcame everythi
ng else in his world.
Drew twined his fingers with Nina’s and brought her fingertips to his lips. Then he fell to his knees and kissed her stomach.
“Little one,” he whispered. “I promise to love you as much as I love your mother. I promise to protect you and make this world better for you.”
Nina dropped to her knees in front of Drew, and he pulled her into his lap. Their arms curled around each other, their bodies pressed together. Nina pushed her fingers up into Drew’s hair and held on tightly. She tilted her chin upward and stared into Drew’s eyes.
“I love you, Drew.”
Drew held her to his chest, felt their hearts beat as one. Between kisses, he spoke exactly what his heart was feeling.
“I love you, Nina,” he murmured. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
Chapter Eleven
Nina
AFTERNOON SUNLIGHT SLANTED THROUGH THE windows of Nina’s bedroom and turned her and Drew’s naked bodies to glowing embers. They’d been in bed for hours, talking, dreaming, making love. Nina smiled lazily and stretched, rolling onto her side so Drew’s muscular body curved around her own. His hand slid across her skin, roving up and down the dip of her waist and along the ample roundness of her hips.
Nina squirmed under his light touch and mewed softly. Her body ached in the most wonderful ways from her hours with Drew, but already she could feel her desire firing anew. Drew’s fingers walked slowly upward toward her shoulders. She felt his breath of her back and then a light kiss.
“These scars,” Drew said quietly. “Are they …?”
Nina sighed, then nodded. They’d talked about her assault, about her anger that the shifters she’d grown up with—her family—hadn’t protected her when it came down to it.
“You know how rare seers are. They started bloodlettings when I was five.”
Nina heard the choked gasp from Drew, but kept going. If he was going to lead his clan like he claimed, if he really wanted to be a different sort of chieftain than what she’d experienced, then he needed to hear the truth.
“I thought it made me special, an integral part of my clan. They never forced me or took much, but now … looking back.” Nina grimaced and turned to look up at Drew, and she found strength by the compassion writ large in his eyes. “I was a child, Drew. If someone did that to … if our child is a seer ….”
“No one will ever touch our child,” Drew growled. He leaned over Nina, her shelter and protection. His large hand cupped her face, smoothed away the frown creasing her brows, though he was wearing a frown of his own. “I’ve never told anyone this, but my mother ….” He paused and took a shaky breath. “My father wasn’t always a bad person, but I watched his power warp him over time. When I was twelve, he started beating my mother. She sheltered us from the worst of it, made all sorts of excuses for his behavior.”
Nina held on tight to Drew as he spilled out the secrets of his past. She could be his shelter as well.
“My brothers don’t even know this, but when I was fourteen, I convinced her to run. I thought—stupidly—that it would protect her, take away the … the bait that turned my father volatile. Instead, he turned his hatred on me. I spent two years lying to my mother, telling her we were fine, to stay away. When all I really wanted was her to come back and take care of us. I hated myself for it, for being so weak to want her to come back to a man who hurt her for my own comfort.”
“Oh, Drew,” Nina breathed. She couldn’t imagine that, how a boy could stay strong and keep all his pain to himself. “Did she ever know the truth?”
Drew’s chin dropped, his breathing turned ragged. “That’s how she died. After a particularly brutal night, when Errol had hurt not just me but my brothers, I finally wrote to her, told her the truth. She was tearing home to take us away from that awful man, and she got into a car accident.”
It was a long moment before Drew looked up, his lovely green eyes liquid emeralds. “The clans had wanted us to stay with our father because he was chieftain, because it was thought we should learn how to lead from him. It only hurt us. Thinking of the shifter world before all else hurt you too.” Drew’s face grew defiant, strong. “I won’t let that happen again. That’s why I need to fight for my place as clan chieftain. To protect all people, not just the shifter way of life.”
Nina pressed her lips together. “You said something on the beach, something I kept thinking about. Is there trouble in the territories? When I was growing up, everything seemed so … settled.”
Drew’s eyes looked past Nina, and she could sense the tension creeping into his shoulders. “There’s a clan in the Southern territories, wolf shifters, who have been causing trouble for the ruling Alvarez clan. They’re taking advantage of the uncertainty in the Western Clans to sow chaos. I don’t even know what their grievances are, to be honest. But for the safety of everyone, I can’t let them get away with it.”
Nina crushed Drew to her in a fierce hug. They’d both overcome so much, kept so much of their misery locked away. But together, they could be stronger than anyone or anything. Nina felt that certainty deep into her very soul. “You’re going to be a great chieftain.”
Drew hovered above Nina and looked deep into her eyes. “If I claimed that title, if I moved back to Montana after the tour ends and made my life there … would you come with me?”
Nina pressed up onto her elbows and captured Drew’s lips in a searing kiss. “Yes, I would. I think you knew I was longing for a different life before I would even admit it.”
“Really? You could finish your book, raise our baby.” The hope in his eyes, in his voice, made Nina smile wide.
She slid her hands down his taut muscles and held on tight to his delicious ass. She eased him closer, until she knew he could feel the heat between his thighs.
“Yes, really,” Nina whispered.
Then Drew plunged into her, and she pulled him deep, until his body was buried inside of hers, until they were connected, fused together. Drew pulled out slowly and thrust again, his eyes locked with Nina’s. His fingers worked into her hair as her hands roamed up his back and held on tight to his shoulders. Nina didn’t look away, didn’t break the intense contact between them. Drew’s hair was pulled loose, the dark strands whispering at his chin, and his eyes—so vivid—held more love than Nina had ever dreamed possible.
Their ecstasy built together, a wonderfully gradual sensation that smoldered, then sparked, then roared. Sweat misted their bodies, and their breath mingled, and Nina grasped hold of Drew and held on for her life, for eternity.
“My flight leaves in twelve hours,” Drew said sometime later.
Nina leaned against the doorframe, a silk robe thrown over her shoulders and a tray of food in her hands. She was starving from all their lovemaking. She grinned to herself—she’d been perpetually hungry for about twelve weeks now, actually.
A feather pillow sailed through the air and landed at her feet.
“No need to grin at the thought of me leaving so soon, Ms. Marten,” Drew said with a smile.
Nina padded to the bed and slid the tray closer to Drew, who started eating ravenously.
“I was actually thinking about how hungry you and this little nugget make me.”
Drew crawled across the messy bed and pulled Nina down to nuzzle at her stomach. “He’s growing in there. You give him whatever he wants.”
“Him? I think it’s a girl.”
Drew peered up and her, a smile curling his lips. “It’s our family, whatever it is.” He rolled onto his back and stretched out. “I’ve got to get back to the tour or Bret will track me down and murder me, but I want to spend the night with my family.”
Nina threaded her fingers through Drew’s dark hair and sighed. Outside her windows, the sun was starting its slow descent toward the horizon. The idea took hold in an instant, and she jumped to her feet.
“I want to show you something,” she said, yanking Drew up to stand. “And I think you need to show me something.”
Drew quirked an eyebrow. “We’ve shown each other quite a bit in the last eight hours.”
Nina spared him a look, then threw his clothes at him. Within a couple minutes, they were in Nina’s Corvette and headed up the coast toward Point Dume. Nina explained along the way why it was special to her. Drew squeezed her hand where it gripped the manual shifter and smiled.
The sun was large and orange by the time they parked atop Point Dume and started down the rickety stairs for the beach. Just like she’d hoped, it was empty. Nina turned away from the sun and faced Drew.
“I need to see you shift,” she said.
“Here?”
“There’s no one around, and I need to see it. I need to meet your bear. I’ve spent years hating shifters, but I love you, and I need to make sure I love your bear too.”
Drew stared off toward the vast ocean for a moment, then nodded. He took a step back and closed his eyes. The transformation was quicker than Nina had expected, and seamless. For a wild second, Nina panicked to see the man she loved turning to something primal and wild. Her old fears rushed back into her mind, but she quashed them.
It’s Drew, she intoned to herself.
And it was. Before her stood a majestic, giant bear, its pelt shiny and dark brown with lighter streaks threaded through the thick fur. Its giant paws left deep gouges in the sand, and its breath huffed out in enormous grunts. But its face—his face—was Drew. She saw him in there, the same way she could sense the bear within the man. His muzzle quirked up in a tiny, private smile just like Drew, and his eyes were deep, intelligent, watchful.
