"How about you choose? It doesn't have to be close to home." In fact, Frannie did not want to eat anywhere where a pack family member might see her. She was aware that her absence had not gone unnoticed, the notifications of missed calls and texts were proof of that. She'd sent the bare minimum of replies ensuring everyone she was alive and that no one had to go off and rescue her again.
Farley drove them to a popular restaurant known for its farmer's breakfast, basically a plate piled with pancakes and another plate piled with sausage and bacon. Her stomach rumbled as they were led to a booth next to the window.
Neither of them spoke until the coffee arrived. Frannie doctored hers up and took that first amazing sip.
She didn't experience the glorious awakening like she normally did but she was already pretty awake, just sadder than normal.
They ordered and the food came. Farley dug into his plate of pancakes like a grizzly bear coming out of hibernation. "So, how are the nieces and nephews?" Farley asked. He'd been told, of course, of the unusual way his nieces and nephews had come into the world. He'd taken it in a typical Farley style with a "that's cool, bro," before returning back to whatever video game he was in the middle of at the time.
"They're great, you should stop by with mom next time she visits."
Farley nodded as he shoved three slices of bacon into his mouth. "Yeah, sounds like a good plan. And that shifter problem you were having. That's all fixed?" Farley had ducked his head down as he spoke and lifted the table insert next to his face to block his mouth from the rest of the restaurant.
Frannie smirked. "Yes, it is fixed." Farley didn't know a lot of the details, didn't know that Frannie had been kidnapped, but he knew something had been going on and for the most part, those issues were resolved.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on with you this morning?" he asked nonchalantly as if he was simply continuing their normal conversation.
Frannie's last bite of waffle dropped down to the bottom of her stomach. "Is it a requirement?"
"Nope." Farley finished his breakfast and then drained his coffee. When he was done, he eyed the rest of her waffle. Frannie shook her head and pushed her plate to the middle of the table so they could share what she had left. "Is it like the last time?"
Frannie clenched her fork.
The last time.
He was referring to the largest secret the two of them had. She hadn't been sure that Farley would be able to keep a secret so big, but in the years since, he hadn't mentioned that day as directly as he mentioned it right now. They were in an unfamiliar part of town and there was almost zero chance of anyone they knew being around them, but she still looked around to make sure. "Kind of. Vaguely."
Farley winced.
Frannie remembered back to that day in the hospital. She'd recently woken up from the short coma she'd been in after the car accident. Her mom had stepped out, her dad was at work, and her other brothers were out getting her a lunch that wasn't hospital food. That had left her and Farley in the hospital room when her doctor came in with the news that not only had she miscarried but that the damage to her uterus had been so extensive that the scarring would likely prevent her from ever conceiving again.
Frannie's face had gone white from the shock of the news and from Farley being in the room at the time. Her doctor had assumed her family had known that she was in her second trimester.
They hadn't. She was too ashamed to tell them how she'd been fooled.
Farley never said a word after the doctor left them. He had just gotten up and held her hand as she bared her soul to him, confessing all her misdeeds and then cried over the loss of her baby and her new, altered life.
If Farley was bringing that up now, then she must look worse than she thought which made her even more thankful she hadn't called Finn to pick her up.
She gave him a bright, fake smile. "More a misunderstanding than anything else."
"Stop showing me your teeth," he quipped. "Do you want me to take you home?"
Frannie grabbed the bill their waitress had left them, pulling out a few dollars to leave on the table, and went to the front to pay. "What are you doing today?"
"Looting."
That was gamespeak for "playing many hours without stopping."
"Is it two players?"
"Yeah, but if you get in my way, I will not hesitate to shoot you."
Frannie followed him out to the car. "I would not expect any less."
Chapter Eighteen
Frannie
Four hours later, Frannie opened her mouth and burped loudly. "How do you drink this stuff?" she asked Farley, handing him back the one-liter bottle of bright green soda that he was drinking.
"It keeps me alert," he replied without taking his eyes off of the screen.
"It's making me feel like Charlie and his grandpa when they almost get diced to pieces by those fans." Frannie stretched, having spent a few hours hunched in a beanbag chair. She couldn't remember the last time she'd sat in beanbag chair. Farley had two: a blue one with duct tape X marks over the many holes and a black one that he saved for when company came over. So for when one of his gamer friends came over.
"That is a book reference, I'm sure. Sounds gory. I approve."
Frannie thought about getting a glass of water to try and flush out all the junk food she had just consumed. "The book is about candy."
"I approve again. Great. Now I want candy."
Frannie laughed but she felt a sharp spasm of pain in her lower stomach and stopped.
"What's wrong?" Farley asked without moving his eyes.
"Nothing, I think I'm just reaching my limit of soda and corn chips. I should head home soon."
"Want me to drive you?"
"Nah, I can call someone now."
"Now that you've had time to build up that 'I'm fine' wall?"
Frannie did a double take to her scruffy older brother still in his pajamas, sitting at the edge of the bed in the same basement bedroom in which he grew up. "That is ridiculous." And one-hundred-percent accurate. She rubbed the back of her neck, noticing the skin back there was damp. Yuck, she needed a shower badly.
Farley pressed a button on his remote that exited out of the game. "It's cool, this time of day most people who are on are still in high school. Makes me feel too old."
Frannie got to her feet. Had Farley turned the heat up? "You are old Farley."
"Fuck off, I'm not old. Not old old."
"You're in your thirties." She grabbed her purse and slipped on her shoes.
"That isn't old, you whipper-snapper. Thirty is the new twenty."
"Does that mean twenty is the new ten?"
"Gross, no. You always take it that one step too far."
Frannie smiled but inwardly she was relieved he was taking her home. She felt like she was coming down with something, maybe the flu if her flushed skin was any indication.
"C'mon, we'll go out the back so you don't have to lie to mom."
When he pulled up to her house it was early evening. Hanging out with Farley had been the thing she needed to escape the terrible start to her day. The sun was just beginning to set. She closed her eyes and looked at the light through her eyelids. The sun was sticking around longer these days. She loved summer nights where the sun set at nine and she could sit on her back patio. Preferably, while someone barbecued and she looked out on the lawn. This summer Serena Ann would be big enough to walk around. She should get a sprinkler for her or one of those baby pools.
"Are you going to get out or are you going to stare wistfully at the house you own for a bit longer?"
"When did you get so observant?" Frannie snapped.
"I've always been observant, it's just that no one has ever asked for my observations. But seriously, get out. It's lasagna night and dad always tries to steal the edge pieces."
Frannie laughed as she got out of the car. She started walking up the path to her house when she suddenly felt extremely light-headed. Afraid she might fain
t, she crouched down.
"Chips and soda, yeah, sure," Farley murmured by her side. He helped her up and inside. When the door shut behind them she tried to pull away from him. She so didn't need the questions this would create.
"I'm fine, just probably need to eat something a little healthier."
"Frannie?" Finn's voice called from the living room.
Luke came around the corner and saw her and Farley. "What's wrong? Are you sick?" He stepped closer to her and then froze, his nostrils flared.
"I am fine!" she exclaimed pushing away from Farley and down the hallway. Afraid that this would destroy the detached calm she'd found, she let her annoyance power her into the bathroom. After hollering her thanks down to Farley for dropping her off and hanging out with her all day, she leapt in the shower, eager to wash off the day's experiences.
When she got out of the shower, her skin still felt like she was being sprayed with hot water. Prickly, tight, and uncomfortable, she rolled her shoulders and stretched a little on her way to the kitchen. At the table, Luke sat with Finn.
"Where's Serena Ann?" Frannie asked as she opened the fridge. She grabbed a pre-made salad and peeled off the plastic lining on top, depositing the individually packed salad toppings into a bowl so that the salad would feel more homey.
"I sent her out with Daryl," Luke said sharply.
His tone caused her to turn around, curious at the reason. She noticed Finn's worried expression and the way he kept twiddling his fingers nervously. Then she looked at Luke's face, shocked at the anger she saw there.
A million fears flashed through her brain. They were tired of her. She was too messy. They had found a better place to live. "What happened? Did something happen?" she asked.
"You tell us, Frannie," Luke replied.
She poured a glass of water and then sat down at the table. "I know, I wasted the day playing video games with Farley instead of writing, but I'm ahead of schedule." That was a lie and it also didn't seem to be the thing that he was angry about, judging from the way his expression never changed. "Sales are still good though from my last series. As long as nothing horrible happens, we should be okay until I get this next book published."
"What are you talking about?" Luke asked.
Finn cleared his throat. "It isn't that we are mad, Fran, we are just a little worried."
Luke stood and crossed his arms over his chest. "No, I'm mad. I told you not to get messed up with those two."
Oh. She watched her detached calm evaporate before her. A part of her felt like she deserved this though, she deserved some sort of punishment.
"We don't know them and their lifestyle is a little unusual. I mean, two alphas living in that apartment in the ghetto?"
"Elitist much?" Frannie exploded on the one point she was willing to argue on. "It isn't the ghetto. So maybe the socioeconomic status isn't as high as it is around here, but it wasn't like there were any shootings, which is more than I can say for this neighborhood."
Luke slammed his fist down on the table. "Exactly! You were in danger then because of shifters. I don't want that happening again."
Frannie pushed her salad away, too furious to take a single bite. "This is all moot. I'm not going to be seeing them again." As her anger rose, so did her temperature. She began breathing quickly, almost hyperventilating as she stood, unable to remain sitting.
The front door shut and she turned as Felix came storming into the kitchen with Sorell beside him. He found her and lurched forward, his mouth set in a worried line. "Farley said you aren't feeling well, he told me to come over quic—" Felix stopped speaking as he got within a few feet of Frannie. His entire body looked frozen in time before his entire face turned redder than she had ever seen it. He growled. "I am going to kill them."
Chapter Nineteen
Frannie
"Whoa! What the hell you guys?" Frannie shuffled toward her oldest brother—her protector and guardian—and he jumped from her like she was something disgusting.
"Don't, Frannie, the closer you get, the more I can smell them on you," he said with clear distaste.
She stumbled back as if he had hit her. Her stomach spasmed again and she doubled over, riding out the pain that was much stronger than it had been the first time. Whatever was wrong with her, it was getting worse not better.
Felix stepped toward her, his hands out in front of him as if he was warring with himself over his desire to help her and to stay away. "You told me not to hurt them and I didn't, so how do they repay our respect?"
She'd never seen him this angry. Her eyes found Sorell, who looked at her with sadness. "What do I smell like?" she asked him. He approached her, clearly not as adverse to her new scent as her own brother.
"Them, sweetie," he said quietly, slipping his arms under her to help her to the couch. "Your scent has changed. There is still you, but, there is also quite a bit of them. And, um..."
Frannie was happy he held onto her as another weird wave of heat overtook her. This time though, there was a second sensation. Her nipples hardened and her nerve endings felt like they were working in overtime. She could feel every inch of clothing rough and scratchy on her skin, the pressure and heat where Sorell was supporting her, the light tickles from where her hair brushed against her skin.
What the actual fuck is going on? As if she wasn't already embarrassed enough, her lower area pulsed with need. This was not normal. She remembered back to Finn and how he had felt when he'd first gotten together with Luke. Finn had gone through something similar.
"And you smell like..." Sorell's face grew red and he looked away.
"I don't want to know any more okay?" she muttered, bending over on herself. "I can handle this, just someone get me a hot pad and a glass of wine, I'll wade it out."
"No one get her wine," Felix ordered harshly over her head.
"Come the fuck on, bro!" Frannie yelled at him. "I get that I disappointed you and destroyed your angelic view of me but I don't need to be punished! So I fucked two guys, at the same time! It was great and you need to cool it." It wasn't until she was done yelling that she realized all that she had said.
Felix moved from behind the couch to the front. He lowered down to his haunches so he could see into her face but still didn't get near enough to touch her. "I never thought you were an angel and I am not upset with your...sexual choices. I am mad at them for letting this happen to you."
"That is a sexist double stan—" Her words were cut off as a wave of desire rolled through her, it was too intense though, bordering on pain. She moaned and then clamped a hand over her mouth. This was without a doubt the most embarrassing moment of her life. Worse than when she found out her first love, her writing professor, was married. Worse than when she had to tell her married ex that she was pregnant. Not worse than when you lost it and discovered you wouldn't be able to have children. Nothing would be worse than that.
"Frannie, right now I believe you are experiencing something similar to an estrus cycle where your body is preparing to reproduce and I also have a guess that alcohol will exacerbate your symptoms. Many shifters experience something like a heat cycle as well as, from my limited research, the humans who have mated with them. When I say 'mated' in this term I do not mean simply the act of intercourse–though that is a necessary component that I really can't think about right now-rather I am implying the bonding process that occurs between compatible mates, like Finn and Luke."
"And you and Sorell?" she offered.
"Yes, except in Sorell's case, he was a shifter and was much more accustomed to the phenomenon and well, no one knew what was going to happen with Finn, until they did."
Frannie did remember back to the time when Finn was acting seriously pissy and very standoffish. More standoffish for even him, which was saying something. She sent him a silent apology for ever making the joke behind his back that he was going through his manstration.
"This is horrible," Frannie moaned.
"I agree," Luke said, bending ove
r her with a wet washcloth in his hand. He breathed through his mouth as he dabbed at her forehead. "Those bastards are going to pay," he cursed.
Felix left the room and then came back with water and a couple of pills. "Take these," he instructed, getting close enough to put them in her hand. "They are fairly strong muscle relaxers, I can only hope that they help curb the spasms and cravings."
She downed the pills with a sip of water just before the strongest wave of painful arousal rolled through her. "No, this is horrible for a different reason," she said through gritted teeth. "I can't—reproduce. That car accident I was in freshman year? I was pregnant at the time and the trauma from the accident injured my uterus. I lost the baby and developed scarring."
"Asherman's Syndrome? Why didn't you tell me? Wait a minute. Your freshman year of college? You were eighteen! Who the hell got you pregnant, Frannie?" Felix asked as Finn and Sorell hovered in the background, unsure as to how they could help.
"That is none of your business!" Frannie screamed back louder than she needed to, but damn it, it was a horrible situation. "Will someone please just help me to my bed where I can cry and writhe in agony in peace?"
In the end, Finn and Felix helped Frannie into bed. Felix had a hunch that with them being related, they would wreak the least amount of havoc on her hormones. The muscle relaxers had started to kick in when Felix finished tucking her in and Finn had plugged in her phone, brought her laptop to the bed, and left her with a mug of chamomile tea. The pills dampened the worst of her cravings though every couple of minutes her body would tense up and her teeth would chatter. Her pussy clenched around nothingness, demanding to be sated.
Frannie had never dabbled in drugs but she thought this would be what quitting them would feel like. She felt as if she was in withdrawal and her drug was sex.
This was the punishment she deserved finally, after all these years. She'd thought her punishment was her crushing guilt for unknowingly sleeping with another woman's husband, but no, that was all the appetizer to this. Because if what Felix said was true—and since being appointed pack doctor and leading his own pack he had started doing a lot of research on shifter medicine—the usual relief for her condition was copulation.
Wolf's Mate Mpreg Romance Box Set Page 75
