It wasn't nice, more than not nice it was spiteful. Conner looked at Pippen on his back, his dark eyes shining against his pale skin. His jaw still clenched with leftover anger.
He smiled wide.
"What are you smiling at?" Pippen asked confirming that he was in fact trying to look like he hadn't been stealing glances at Conner this whole time.
"You love me," Conner said simply.
Pippen grunted.
"This is going to be a little cold," Felix warned him, slathering some goopy stuff all over Pippen's lower stomach.
"You're being mean," Conner said, his cheeks starting to hurt. "You wouldn't be mean unless you cared."
"Maybe I'm just a mean person," Pippen said.
"No," Conner replied, grabbing Pippen's hand. "I love you, too."
Pippen looked like he was going to say something scathing in reply when Felix interrupted them.
"Looks like your tests were accurate, there's your baby." He pointed to a blobby shadow on the screen.
It was the most beautiful blob Conner had seen. He squeezed Pippen's fingers.
"I can't believe it," Pippen whispered, lost in the moment. "I'm pregnant, I'm really pregnant."
"Did you not believe all those tests you took, love?"
Pippen's eyes were shining. "I only took one, but destroyed it before I could look at the answer," he whispered. "Destroyed the propane grill, too, I think."
Conner's heart swelled. His feisty mate.
"Too early to determine gender, but I'd say you have a healthy little baby in there, Pippen."
"Can we see?" Adam asked.
"Sure, look right there," Felix pointed on the screen.
Bettina did not look impressed and Adam frowned. "That's a baby?" she asked skeptically.
Felix laughed. "It is, don't worry babies grow fast, shifter babies grow faster. Next time you come in, you'll be amazed at how big the baby is."
Felix printed the image off and stuck an arrow to remind them which part of the blobby shadow was Conner's new son or daughter. He sent Pippen home with a bag of vitamins that he had specifically researched and combined to be taken during a male shifter pregnancy and some information about things to expect as they moved forward.
When they left the free clinic on foot it was as a family.
Conner held Pippen's hand with one hand and Adam's with his other as they walked down the sidewalk. It had been warmer and rainy lately, good for melting stubborn snow. The sidewalks looked fresh and clean.
Conner's heart soared with each step. Pippen hadn't pulled away once since they left the free clinic. He held onto Conner's fingers lightly with his left, Bettina on his right.
It felt amazing, natural...right. They weren't a conventional family and Conner didn't know what the future would hold. He still had to find some way to contact Adam and Bettina's mothers and give them the chance to act like good parents. They could be frantically searching for them right now.
All of that though, would be dealt with. Conner would handle it and he would make damn sure that Adam stayed with him from now on.
A few blocks from the pack house, they walked past the playground and Adam's eyes lit up.
"Do you want to stop for a bit?" Conner asked him.
"I've never been on a slide before," Adam confessed, biting his upper lip.
"What?" Conner nearly growled the question. What the hell had happened to his mother that changed her so much?
"There weren't a lot of chances to get out," Bettina explained. "I've been on a slide though, plenty of times, before..."
Conner suspected the end of that sentence would have been, before the drugs. "Well, we're stopping. Pippen? Are you okay with stopping for a bit?"
"Of course."
That was all it took and the kids were off like tiny rockets. Hand in hand, they ran to the swings first. Bettina helped Adam on before plopping on her own. Conner led Pippen to a bench and the two of them sat down, silently watching the children play together.
"Conner?"
"Hm?"
"I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions. I was too close to it. Too ready for it all to fall through. When I found out who Adam was, that you had more of a mate than I thought, all of a sudden you became just like my father in my mind. But you aren't him. You are kind and endlessly forgiving. If you left Adam behind it was for a good reason. I always knew that, but I'm only now able to admit it out loud."
Conner didn't dare say a word that would break this spell. He was the luckiest man in the world. He rotated and leaned over, kissing Pippen passionately.
"It's been too long since I did that," he said.
"I'm also sorry I pulled a knife on you again," Pippen said. "And I'm sorry that I ripped holes in all of your shirts."
"You did what?"
"Joking, I didn't."
"Oh, Pippen."
They sat at the park for nearly an hour as the kids played on each of the playground structures. Finally, Adam and Bettina came back with red cheeks, wide smiles and breathing hard.
"What do you two think about some hot chocolate?" Pippen asked them. "And pizza?"
He'd spoken the magic words.
"I called Luke from the free clinic, he's excited to meet you two," Conner said, trying to prepare them.
"He's the alpha?" Bettina asked.
"You're the alpha!" Adam insisted.
"Luke is the alpha of this pack, the pack your daddy found when he went out on his own."
"I wish you had taken me," Adam said the thing Conner had been repeating in his mind.
"Me too, son."
Seconds later they were walking up the path to the pack house. Sorell's house across the street was dark, Conner figured they would be spending more time at Howling now. He would, too.
The pack house door opened and Frannie hurried out. The hair on the back of Conner's neck rose. Something was wrong.
***
Pippen stopped in his tracks. Frannie's face was turned down in the corners and her cheeks flushed. She looked mad. Not just mad—pissed as hell.
"Frannie?"
She shook her head and crouched down so she was at the same level as Adam. "Hello, you two. You must be Adam and Bettina. I am your Auntie Frannie and we are going for ice cream with your new Uncle Finn."
Pippen let go of Conner's hand, looking at him questioningly as he also searched the area for clues. What the hell had happened? Adam and Bettina both looked to Pippen and Conner before taking Frannie's hand. Conner nodded that it was okay and Pippen gave an encouraging smile.
"You two should go inside. Luke's in the kitchen," she said as she and Finn passed. "Call us when it's clear," she said cryptically before leaving down the sidewalk.
"I don't want to go in there," Conner said, not fearfully, but wearily after Finn and Frannie had disappeared with the children around the corner.
Pippen understood the feeling. They had just made up. How many more curveballs was life going to throw them before they'd proven their love to the universe or whoever it was that kept giving them more problems?
Pippen walked through the door hand in hand with Conner. He heard a woman crying softly. Together, they went through the living room and into the kitchen where he spotted Luke and Daryl standing on either side of a lady sitting at the table with her back to them. She had her head down in her hands as she sobbed quietly. The oddest part though was that neither Luke nor Daryl was doing anything to comfort her. The opposite, actually, they both looked as angry as Frannie.
Conner's grip on his hand clenched and then relaxed to the point of letting go. He stepped forward alone, walking around the kitchen island to the table where he got down on one knee, shock clear on his features.
"Andrea?"
Pippen's heart clenched. Conner didn't look happy or angry to see the mother of his child, just shocked. He didn't try to touch her, which was good because Pippen wasn't sure he could handle it if he had tried.
Andrea lifted her head at his voice. Pippen rem
ained in the back so he couldn't see her face. Her voice was soft and light like bells. "Conner?" She launched from the chair, wrapping her arms around his neck.
A growl ripped from his throat before he could stop it.
Andrea jumped, startled into stillness. She turned toward the noise and Pippen got his first look at her face. Impossibly large blue eyes marred only by the huge dark bags beneath them, a small upturned nose, and full bow-shaped lips. She looked like a doll. "Who is he?"
Conner straightened. "He is my mate, Andrea. His name is Pippen."
"Your—your—what? You're my mate, Conner, we have a child together."
"Andrea, I'd say our mating ended the day you sliced my chest in two."
"You were making a horrible mistake."
"Was I? What happened to you? When were you even going to ask about your son? You don't look healthy, Andrea. What has happened to the pack?"
Andrea glanced from Conner to Luke and then from Daryl to Pippen. "Can we talk about it somewhere in private?"
Pippen snarled silently.
"No, Andrea, we can't. As I said, Pippen is my mate and Luke is this pack's alpha. Anything you have to say to me they are able to hear as well."
Andrea started crying again and Pippen grabbed a glass of water. He hated when people used their tears as weapons. He filled the water up and set it down in front of her. She pushed the glass away, knocking it over.
"What the hell, Andrea?"
"I don't want anything from your slut!"
"My—?" Conner began as Luke and Daryl both growled on Pippen's behalf. Pippen did not react. He got a towel, tossed it on the water puddle on the table and then sat down on the other side.
Eventually, Andrea stopped crying and started talking. She told the same story Pippen had heard over and over. The new alpha moved in, had new ways of making money, slowly the pack members began experimenting with what they were selling until they were all hooked. The only part Pippen didn't know was how she had found them and the pack house. The trail would've been too cold for her to track them.
"I know I messed up, Conner. I was so strung out that I didn't even notice my own son had gone missing. My own son. Luckily this man helped me get sober, he kept me in a hotel room until the drugs were out of my system. Then he told me where Adam had gone and how I could get to him. Where is Adam?" She looked around the kitchen as if he was standing somewhere in the room with them.
"He's with his aunt," Conner said darkly.
Andrea's doll face scrunched up in confusion. "His aunt? Conner, your family is all in Chicago. Your mother would have died if another of her kids tried to leave. Of course she died any—" Andrea had the decency to stop talking once it became clear that this was news to Conner.
"Who was the man?" Pippen asked.
Andrea ignored him.
"Who was the man?" he asked again more slowly as if she had simply not understood the first time he'd asked.
She rolled her eyes but answered. "He said he was a friend of Conner's, I didn't trust him at first, of course."
You were so high out of your mind you probably didn't even know if he was real or not at first.
"I was scared in the beginning, but he was very respectful. He never tried to touch me and just kept telling me that when I was clean, I could go see my son and take back my family. He was beautiful, like an angel. My guardian angel."
Pippen's mind spun with possibilities, whoever this guy was, he probably wasn't a guardian angel.
But who would have the intel on Conner? Not just the intel but the motivation? They had to know what it could do to Pippen and Conner's relationship. As it was, Pippen was barely keeping himself back from staking his claim on Conner for the whole kitchen to see.
Someone who knew Conner and had the motivation and resources to try to break them up this elaborately?
Silas.
"Why would he do that?" Luke asked. Apparently. Pippen had spoken his suspicions out loud.
"Because he plays a long game," Pippen muttered.
"Bettina said that a visiting shifter had told her where I was," Conner said then, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
"How long has Silas known about your old pack?" Pippen asked.
Daryl, convinced that there was no immediate danger, sat down at the table as well. Pippen worried about what he might say, Conner and him had never been great friends. Not after Conner had accused Daryl of being a traitor in the early days of their pack. "We're missing a lot of information here," he said with his voice like gravel. "Conner had a mate? And what's this about you being an alpha? You've never shown your traits before."
Andrea looked appalled. "These people don't even know who you are! Please Conner, I made a mistake, but I can admit that that was what the last two years without you was, a mistake. Be a man and do the same. My guardian angel agrees, we need to get Adam and you need to come back with me. You can challenge for pack master and when you win you can turn the pack around, with your family—not just me, your father and your brothers—like you were always meant to."
Pippen watched Conner's face like a hawk watching a mouse scurry through a field. That was why he could see the tiny flicker of emotion. Most likely not visible to anyone else except Pippen. But he did see it, that brief nostalgic yearning for things to be as they were and it made Pippen feel like he had to throw up.
He ran to the bathroom and bent over the toilet just in time. Conner was by his side in a flash. Pippen wanted to push him away. All he could see was the nostalgia in Conner's eyes where for one small second, he imagined his life as Andrea had described it. The life that didn't include Pippen or his child.
Pippen threw up again, a steady stream of sick that made his stomach feel like it was turning inside out.
"It's too early for morning sickness," Conner mumbled. "When Andrea was—" Conner grabbed a towel, and got one end damp. "Never mind."
"I should have killed Silas," Pippen said, wiping his mouth.
"His crazy elaborate plan is not going to work, Pippen. I meant everything I've said to you. You are my mate. My future includes you and our children."
Pippen got to his feet, reaching for his toothbrush. "She's the mother of your child, it isn't like you can simply send her away like we tried to do Silas. She has rights, if she wants to get clean and be a part of her kid's life, she should be able to."
Conner's jaw clenched. "I know."
"So she'll what, stay here? Stay with you? Or will she move back to her drug-addicted pack? If she does, are you going with her?"
"Pippen, you're thinking too far ahead here."
Pippen brushed his teeth and returned to the kitchen with Conner. He sat down across from Andrea. She looked confused and annoyed. Her eyes drifted to Conner standing protectively behind him and then back to Pippen before her already large blue eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "You're pregnant?"
Pippen didn't answer. He accepted the glass of water Luke had gotten him and took a sip, letting the clean, cold liquid slowly slide down his scratchy throat. His stomach rolled but this time it wasn't from sickness. Silas wasn't gone. Pippen had been a fool for thinking he would go away so easily. The only question he had now was, how much further was Silas going to go to get what he wanted?
Chapter Thirteen
Conner handed Andrea a blanket and extra pillows. Watching Adam reunite with her had been heartbreaking not just for Conner. Initially, Adam had hidden behind Frannie's leg when he first spotted his mother. Apparently, Frannie had made a fast positive impression. He only left her with Bettina by his side and even then, he didn't run into Andrea's arms like one would expect a child to do after not seeing his mother for a long period. Like Adam had done with Conner. The trust that should have flown freely between son and mother was gone and the way Andrea reacted, with apologies and tears, made Conner wonder just how long she'd been gone, lost in a drug-induced high.
Eventually though, Adam warmed up and was now asleep on her lap in the pack house livin
g room.
"Thank you," she whispered, taking the blanket from him and arranging around her and Adam. "Where are you sleeping?"
Conner stared at her. He remembered the first day he'd set eyes on her, so many years ago. He'd thought himself lucky then, that she was so beautiful and betrothed to him. When he was dumped on the side of the road after his pack kicked him out, he thought he would never see her again. That had made him sad, if only because she was part of a very important time in his old life. Not seeing her meant not seeing his family. He thought of his mother, tough and loyal. He would mourn her. "In my room."
"With him?" she sneered.
"With my mate," Conner answered simply and turned from her. Bettina snored from an air mattress next to the couch. She wanted to be near Adam, though she had not warmed up to Andrea yet. Conner thought she wanted to be near Adam more to keep an eye on him than anything else. He'd asked Andrea about Bettina's mother, but she'd just shook her head and said she'd been too high when Silas had kidnapped her to really know where Bettina's mother was. Conner added that to the lengthening list of things he needed to deal with.
Next on his list was something he would enjoy handling. He stepped in his room, shutting the door behind him quietly and padded to the side of the bed where Pippen was lounging on his side. His eyes were open as he stared out the window. "Is Adam asleep?" he asked quietly.
"Yes, everyone is settled in. Tomorrow we will have to find a place for them to stay more permanently. I think Felix would be fine with letting us use the safe room at Howling for a bit. Though it isn't ideal, since it's still technically a bar."
"Us?"
"Andrea, and Adam, and Bettina if she wants to."
"And you?" His question was so quiet and vulnerable.
It hadn't been easy for Conner to watch Andrea and Pippen interacting. But Pippen had dealt with her so well, he should have known his tough mate wouldn't have handled the situation any differently. But he was still unsure at times. Conner would take great pleasure in assuring him.
He peeled his clothing off and then slid in bed behind Pippen, spooning him from the back. "I belong by your side, Pippen."
Wolf's Mate Mpreg Romance Box Set Page 62
