by Ava Walsh
Marla smirked. “We’ll see. I’ll bring you some crackers for your stomach.”
She brought the crackers and Ella was nibbling on them when Jesse came into the room, a plastic bag in his hand.
“Ready to do this?” he asked.
“I don’t see how we have much of a choice.”
They went into the bathroom and took out the pieces of the test. Jesse read over the directions while Ella went to the toilet with the stick. She peed on it, then set it on the counter.
“If two lines appear, you are,” he said. “It takes five minutes.” He turned to her and squeezed her hands. There was a long silence. “You okay?”
“I… don’t know,” Ella said, confused.
“Would you be happy? If you are?”
“I don’t know. After everything that happened…”
“It would be ironic.” He glanced at his watch. “Two more minutes.” He let out a hard breath and squeezed her hands again. “I’m kind of excited.”
“Really? But we’re not even married yet.”
He lifted a shoulder to shrug. “We can do that anytime.” He looked again at his watch, then picked up the stick.
She leaned over to look at the little window. There were two pink lines.
“Oh wow,” she said.
He wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her to him as she cried.
“This is so weird,” she said, through her sobs. “I pretended to be pregnant before and now I really am. The universe is messing with me.”
He laughed. “Or maybe it’s giving us what we really want.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready for a baby.”
“I guess we’ll find out real fast.”
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
“It was my fault. I seduced you and didn’t use a condom.”
“You’re right,” he said sarcastically. “You evil succubus. How dare you force me to make love to you?”
“Stop it,” she said, half laughing and half crying. “I feel really bad.”
“Well, don’t. We’ve moved on from the past, and what’s done is done. I’m happy about this, Ella. Very happy.”
She looked up at him, her eyes puffy and sore. “Are you really?”
“Yes! Why aren’t you?”
“I just can’t believe it’s really happening. I’d thought so much about it and planned so much for a fake pregnancy. And the whole time, I actually was pregnant.”
“Well, it’s a good thing we thought you weren’t. At least this way we know that we love each other and want to be married, and we knew that before we knew we had made a family.”
“I wanted to have a fancy wedding, though.”
“Then we will.”
“But how can we do it that fast? That stuff takes time and the good places book up fast.”
He winked at her. “Money can buy almost anything.”
Chapter Eleven
Two Months Later
Ella stood at the end of a wide aisle. Her white dress clung tightly to her body around her chest, then flared loosely to the ground in layers of chiffon, leaving room for her growing belly to peek out in a gentle bulge. The top layer was covered in glittering gems, like a veil of stars cascading over her. Her hair was swept high on her head and twisted into curls, more gems tucked amongst the strands.
The aisle before her was strewn with white rose petals and glitter. The wind blew cool against her skin in the evening air. She glanced behind her, through the glass walls of the elevator. From her position, she could see only clouds and the darkening blue sky behind her, and ahead, the same sky, but with a layered circle of people in chairs beneath it. And at the end of the aisle, Jesse was standing beside a minister in his white tuxedo. Candles flickered along the edge of the aisle and along the altar.
“That’s your cue.” The wedding coordinator fluffed her veil and train one last time, then stepped aside so Ella could walk out of the elevator.
There, on top of the tallest building in the city, the place where they had first flown to, the place where Jesse had proposed for the second time, they would be married. They both loved this place. It was so high above everything and so quiet once the hours for the observation deck had passed. They often flew up here to watch the world below, to make love, to talk. It had seemed like the perfect place. Jesse had made one phone call, mentioned his name once, and it was done. After paying them a nice sum of money, of course.
Armed security guards stood on either side of the elevator and were placed throughout the venue. Ella had been right about Charlotte’s reaction. When the media got hold of the information about their actual engagement and real pregnancy, she had gone crazy. Charlotte had called what seemed like every media outlet there was to try to smear them. It took one press conference, where Jesse showed the media the restraining orders they both had against Charlotte and explained how she’d cheated on him and had been pissed he’d broken up with her. He’d confirmed that Ella and Charlotte had been friends once, but that they were no longer. And that was it. The tabloids still played up the story, but no one else seemed to care.
The guards were a precaution only. They would have had them even if it weren’t for Charlotte, Jesse had said. Mostly, they were there to keep the press at bay. One thing Charlotte’s craziness had done was put them in the spotlight. The media loved them. They loved the story of the dog walker who’d been covered in mud the first day they met and how they’d fallen madly in love and had found out they were expecting soon after getting engaged. Of course, plenty of stories speculated that they were only getting married because they had to. It was ironic that that had been her plan once. But Ella loved their story. Every twisted bit of it.
She knew that Jesse loved her and wanted to be with her. No tricks of the heart, no magical spells were needed. He had proposed and she had accepted when they thought she wasn’t pregnant, and finding out she was had only increased their joy and their love. Well, once she had stopped freaking out over it and was able to enjoy the new life growing inside her.
Jesse was already a perfect father. He went to every doctor’s appointment with her. He waited on her constantly or made sure he paid someone to in his absence. She always had whatever she needed—chocolate, tea, massages, the best healthcare around. Most evenings, he would rub her feet and back and they would read baby books together before making love and lying in bed, cuddling.
Then they’d started planning the wedding, and their days were full of dress fittings and cake tastings and meetings with the wedding coordinator. Everything had come together exactly how Ella had dreamed it. Though in her childhood dreams, she had never thought her groom would be so handsome, so rich, or a dragon shifter. Their shared magical ability had only made them closer. And once the baby grew bigger, its presence drew them together more, giving off some sort of magical presence that Jesse assured her was the baby’s own magical essence. They could feel him already.
The baby stirred inside her now. She put her hand on her belly and he pressed back against it, saying hello. She closed her eyes and sent warm feelings of love toward him. He flipped inside her and she felt the warmth flow back. When she looked at Jesse, he wiped a tear from his eyes. He could feel it, too. A wave of joy rushed over her, coming from his direction. She grinned and took in a breath as she stepped forward.
The white petals rustled in the cool breeze. Ella stepped from the elevator as the music grew louder. The crowd stood to face her. Jesse beamed.
She walked forward slowly, toward him, and toward her magical future.
*****
THE END
The Bear Detective's Mate
Description
A personal assistant who comes under attack PLUS a hot Bear detective assigned to protect her PLUS a conspiracy they have to uncover!
Curvy Ana Medina is sick of unlucky romances and focuses on her job - being the PA to a Senator fighting for Shifter Rights. But they have enemies and when there’s an
assassination attack on the Senator and herself, she is put in protective custody.
Detective Joseph Baker has found his mate. At least, that’s what his Bear tells him. Joseph doesn’t want a mate, but no matter how he tells his Bear to shut up, he can’t help himself when he’s around her. He’s supposed to protect her, but her luscious curves, delicious scent and mocha-kissed skin call out to him.
Police rules forbid intimacy between the two, which proves to be a challenge. All Ana can think about is the muscles that ripple all over him, his dress shirt that stretches over his perfect pecs and those buttons strained to keep it closed. Too bad he’s proving himself to be a class-A jerk.
Joseph tries to protect her any way he can but the attackers will stop at nothing and Ana and Joseph have to work together to uncover a conspiracy, even if that means that Joseph has to pretend to be her boyfriend.
Can they resist the undeniable attraction to each other? Will they stay alive under the string of attacks? And can they find out who the enemy is?
Chapter One
Ana Medina turned off the video camera. Her boss, Senator Seth Fischer, was practicing the speech he would make before parliament the next day and had elected to record it so he could hear for himself how it sounded.
Everything needed to be perfect if he was going to convince the other senators that the proposed Shifter Registry was unconstitutional and posed a risk to shifter lives. It could neither be too harsh nor too mellow; he could not attack his opponents or even appear to be doing that or they'd argue his arguments were against a straw man and not the real issues; he had to deliver it passionately, but not emotionally.
It was a headache, but Ana was more than happy to help him perfect his delivery. After all, the Shifter Registry Act was just one step away from a Shifter Detainment Act and she wasn't going to just sit around and watch American citizens have their hard-earned rights stripped from them. Ana wasn't a shifter herself, but that made little difference to her. People were people.
"Let's see the playback," Seth said. He sat in his chair, loosening his tie. "Politics are going to be the death of me."
"You're making the world a better place," Ana replied comfortingly. "Little shifters all over the country are watching you on television, thinking that they can be anything they want to be, because you are standing up to the voices that would tramp them down."
"Thank you, Ana. It means a lot, especially these days." He smiled at her.
But before she could return the smile the window shattered. Glass sprayed every which way. A flower of blood bloomed on Seth's shoulder.
Ana acted on instinct, throwing herself over the senator's desk to tackle him to the ground. Bullets ripped holes in the wall where his head had been and Ana spread her body out over her boss, trying to shield as much of him as possible. He tried to shift her off him, but she held tightly. A PA was replaceable. A senator with Seth's popularity was not.
The door burst open and two security guards rushed in. Both zeroed in on the window, standing on either side with their guns drawn, but the bullets had stopped. Not that their handguns could do much against a sniper rifle. One of them drew the blinds, blocking the room from the shooter.
It was only then, after the immediate danger was over, that Ana actually realized what had happened. It wasn't some random shooting, it had been as assassination attempt. Her limbs began shaking and her throat went utterly dry.
Somebody had just tried to kill the senator. She had no doubt that they would have had no problems killing her, too, if she happened to be in their way.
"Are you okay?" Seth gripped his arm but peered up at Ana with worried eyes.
"I'm fine."
She realized she was still laying over him and pulled herself up. If she and Seth didn't have the brother-sister relationship that they did, that could have been very awkward.
"You were hit," Ana said. "We need to get you out of here and bandage that up. I'm going to call 9-1-1."
She fished her cell phone from her pocket and reported what had happened, still crouched behind the desk with her boss, peeking warily at the window. But with the blinds drawn and the two guards in the room, it seemed like the attack was over.
Seth winced as he clutched his injury. He attempted to stand and Ana had to loop her arm around his waist to support him. She might be in shock, but from the pallor of his face and the fact that he had been shot, Seth was clearly off worse. He wasn't letting that stop him, though.
"Ward, call up the captain of the seventh precinct. He's an old friend of mine and I want his team handling this."
One of the guards nodded and whipped out his phone. Ana helped Seth to another room, this one without windows. The guards cleared everybody out of the surrounding rooms, just in case. Ana helped Seth lay on the floor and went to her desk of get her first aid kit.
Until the buildings around them were cleared and it was determined that there were no more snipers in the area, Seth wouldn't be leaving the building. She had to get the bleeding under control.
Snipers.
Ana choked back bile. Just our luck that there would be an assassination attempt now when shifter tensions are running so high...
"Do you think this is going to help my case?" Seth asked as she finished wrapping his arm with a bandage. "Assassination attempts on a senator… we might be able to swing a few fencers to our side on their American pride alone."
"If anybody can do it, it's you."
They were safe now, and that Seth was still thinking politically helped her know he was going to be okay. It was only an arm shot, after all.
"So you want to work it into your speech? Maybe replace the cultural section?"
Seth shook his head. "I'll give the media a separate address about this. We will not be intimidated and all that. Reminding people that the way Western culture sees shifters is fairly rare is important to refute the necessity of the Registry."
Ana nodded.
Different cultures the world over had different approaches to how shifters were seen, but during the European colonialization period, the attitude that they were devil-worshipping witches took hold, and shifters were slaughtered wholesale–burned at the stake, hanged, hunted down. It was sickening, but what was even worse was that there were still people out there with that attitude.
Overall, though, the tides were changing, especially with other countries like China decrying the treatment of shifters in America. Seth's election was proof of that. He was only the third shifter to ever be elected to a senator's position and had so far served longer than either of his two predecessors.
It helped that before he came out as a shifter, he was an insanely popular movie star. Admittedly very hot, he was the epitome of the all-American man. He had even been used as the poster boy for an anti-shifter group before he came out as a shifter. This wasn't the first attempt on his life since he went into politics, fighting for shifter rights.
But he had been elected and that meant a lot.
Of course, the fact that he turned into a golden retriever, man's best friend, probably helped his cause. Ana doubted he would have been so successful if he had been, say, a tiger or even a deer, let alone something like a fox.
Nobody really knew what determined what sort of animal a shifter could turn into. There was a genetic disposition towards shifting. Children of shifters tended to be shifters, and it was rare that shifters were born to non-shifter parents. If one parent of a shifter child was a predator, that child would tend towards predation as well. But there hadn't been a lot of research into the area and many people held onto damaging stereotypes.
Anti-shifter hysteria groups especially liked to spread false assumptions. Their most popular one was that shifters could actually choose whether they had an animal side to them or not, given that the actual shifting was completely voluntary, but it wasn't true. It, unfortunately, led to many "therapies" that advocated the suppression of the animal side, which was incredibly damaging to a shifter's mental state.
"Good. The sooner this is resolved, the sooner we can get back to work."
Ana was hoping the case would be resolved soon too, if only because catching the perpetrators would decrease the risk of a new attack on Seth. She cared deeply about him. They'd known each other since childhood and were just friends. It was why Seth had hired her for the job despite the fact that she had no credentials. He'd approached her about taking the position, and when she protested she didn't have the training, he told her that she was an intelligent, courageous woman who always made sure she got her own way when it mattered. Plus she was passionate about shifter rights, and those were the qualities he needed in his staff. And so she had taken the job.
They had been dealing with a lot of hate mail and an increased amount of threats recently. Some people simply couldn't understand why a shifter would be against a shifter registry unless he was trying to take over the world, apparently. But none of it had seemed credible enough that she thought there would be an actual attempt on his life!
***
Not much later, Ana found herself sitting in an interrogation room, waiting for a detective to come take her statement. It was a non-descript room with that one-way mirror reflecting her image. Her hair was a little wild and the red lipstick she favored faded, but other than that, she looked okay. She sat at a wide table, a chair on the other side the only other item in the room. The door stood ajar and a uniform stood just outside, ready to bring her anything she needed.
"Detective Baker," she heard the uniform say in greeting and turned to the door.
Ana's eyes widened and she had to stop herself from drooling as a detective strode in. He was, without a doubt, the yummiest man she had ever seen. First off he was huge, in that 'take up the whole room' kind of way. Muscles rippled all over him. He had to get his suit from the big and tall section, but even then it was just a little tight around his shoulders, and his dress shirt stretched over his perfect pecs. The buttons strained to keep it closed and she wanted to pop them off one by one as she—
