She waited for his condemnation. Malcolm went quiet. For his part, Gerard had totally dismissed her friend as irrelevant. Gerard stood too close, her belly mesmerizing him. She wondered where his mate was and wanted to ask, but the words wouldn’t move past her lips.
Of course, she could look at his ring finger to see if there was anything there, but that wouldn’t prove a thing. The shifters put bonding far above regular old human laws of marriage. Stupid Kelly might be waiting in the car.
She almost laughed at the thought, that Kelly had driven Gerard to see her. Not in a million years. Plus that wind before said Gerard had flown there. Typical of him to drop out of the sky, she mused, and wished she could see him fall just once more. God, how she’d missed him.
“What are you doing here, Gerard?” She didn’t dare look up at him, or Malcolm would see how her love for Gerard gushed up the moment he landed. In seconds, he ruined all she worked so hard for over the last few months. “If you’ve come to give me some type of news, I don’t need it. Nessa and I stay in touch, and she hasn’t informed me of anything I might find interesting. Kelly must be waiting…”
She rambled and couldn’t get control of her tongue. He should go, but it might be too late to salvage the relationship with Malcolm. He knew now, her baby was only half human.
Malcolm handed over her keys. “I should go.”
“You don’t have to. We were going to have pizza and watch a movie.” She sounded lame.
He glanced up at Gerard and then signaled for her to step aside so he could say something to her. He must not know that Gerard would hear whatever he had to say. “It’s clear you want to be with him, Lachelle. I wondered about you all this time. It seemed like your heart was spoken for. I just kept hoping that would change. Now that I know it’s him you love, I’ll step aside.”
“Malcolm, you don’t understand. Gerard and I—”
“It’s fine. And just so you know, I’m not accusing you of anything. I’m not mad at you. I care about you, Lachelle, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I’m crushed that things turned out like this. I wanted to try to be his dad.” He nodded at her belly and then glanced over her shoulder at Gerard. “I can’t replace him. Not in a million years. Good luck.”
He disappeared before she could respond. Her heart broke afresh because Malcolm was such a great catch. Some woman who knew his worth should have found him by now, but it wasn’t her.
“Why are you hurting?” Gerard cried out. “You loved him? He said you love me.”
The big guy towered behind her with pain and confusion in his eyes. Her heart stirred, and he wrinkled his brow, even more baffled. She laughed, not finding his emotions funny but in a way just as confounded by him as he was by her. She’d forgotten just how much her wild swing of emotions drove poor Gerard bananas.
She faced him and reached up to touch his cheek. “Calm down. It’s not like that. Come inside. I’m hungry. Oh and if Kelly’s with you, she’s not welcome in my cottage. If you don’t like that, you know what you can do.”
He followed on her heels into the cottage, and for the first time she realized how low the ceilings were built. Gerard’s head nearly brushed the textured ceiling. At the very least, he could reach up and touch it without a ladder. The small house shrank more with him in it.
“You look terrible, Gerard. You haven’t been taking care of yourself. But never mind that. Why are you here?”
“It’s simple,” he told her in no uncertain terms. “I’ve come for you.”
Chapter 16
“Wha—” His claim stole her breath. She blinked at him, staggered, and then had to find a chair to sit down. Her legs gave out. He was there in an instant, hands around her waist as he assisted her to the armchair.
Even having him touch her flooded her mind with memories of their time together. Bending over her, he filled her nostrils with his familiar scent. The chill from his fingers reminded her of his cool body temperature. The way they warmed up as he drew heat from her body made her battle between pushing him away and drawing him closer.
“I told you,” she panted. “I won’t live there, watching you married to her. You let me go all this time. You chose—”
Her voice broke, and to her shame and surprise tears filled her eyes and tumbled down her cheeks. This couldn’t be happening. She’d cried it all out months ago.
“You can’t be this ignorant, Gerard. You come here, knowing you’ll stir things up again? Is that what you get off on? Making me miserable?”
“Does it make you miserable to see me?”
“Yes!”
He crouched in front of her, holding onto the chair arms either side of her, trapping her in place. “It makes me miserable to not see you.”
Her mouth fell open.
“I am lost without you.”
She pressed a hand to her mouth to halt a sob. “You wanted to be with your mate. You said so.”
“I still want to be with my mate.”
She shoved him as hard as she could, but the idiot didn’t fall over. So she had to fight to get around him and move away. “Well, you can forget about having your cake and eating it too, you jerk! I’m not living with you and her. Never!”
“She’s not my mate.”
“What did you say?” She must have heard wrong.
“I said I want to be with my mate. That’s what my heart says, my gut, everything inside.”
Gerard had never been elegant of speech. She found herself amused despite the confusion on what he tried to say.
He rose and walked toward her holding up a finger and adding to it as he spoke. “One, I want to be with my mate. Two, I want to be with you no matter who my mate is. Three, you must be my mate.”
“A process of elimination? I’m not buying it.”
He frowned. “Lachelle.”
Her heart turned every which way like a happy puppy upon hearing her name on his lips. He played dirty without knowing it.
“I was confused for a long time. I didn’t understand. If what she said was true—that we bonded—why didn’t feel anything for her?”
She gasped. “You’re kidding? Nothing at all?”
“Nothing. No familiarity. No rightness, no love, no desire. No—”
“Okay, stop. I get it. But how can that be? You guys live and breathe your mate.”
“We could not have bonded. It’s impossible.”
“Okay.” Her stomach growled. She rubbed it. A powerful hunger came over her to the point that she was ready to faint. That was another thing about being pregnant with a half shifter. The baby didn’t play when it came to eating. She had to keep herself fueled so that he would get proper nutrition.
When she wobbled, ready to pass out, Gerard carried her to the kitchen. He set her down in a chair and wrenched the refrigerator open—too roughly. She groaned when the handle broke off in his hand.
“Just put it down, Gerard. I’ll call for a pizza. Please, sit over there.” She pointed to the chair opposite her. Gerard, the stubborn thing, ignored her and rifled through the refrigerator. He found fruit and plated some for her and him.
“Eat,” he ordered.
She didn’t argue but tore into a banana and after devouring it went for an apple. The hunger eased a bit. She was able to put in a phone call for two large pizzas. Gerard needed to polish off everything she didn’t eat because she didn’t like him so thin and wasted away.
“So back to our conversation,” she said. “Kelly lied. She wanted to rule the shifters, and she needed you to take your rightful place to do it. There’s no way everyone will be okay with you tossing her aside if I come back.”
He pointed to her belly. “If I am not with her, then the next rightful heir is my son—daughter?”
“Son.”
He grinned, and the happiness in his eyes brought tears to hers.
“What about Bannon?”
“I am the older son. It follows my line.”
“Okay, never mind. You’re ruling
, right? The babies and mates and whatever are moot.”
“I don’t wish to rule. It’s boring.”
She laughed. “You’d rather walk around footloose and fancy free.”
“Yes.”
“So.” She hesitated and fingered the apple core, focusing on it rather than him. “You’re going to reject your mate—or supposed mate—to be with me?”
“You are my mate.”
“You’re being stubborn, Gerard. There’s no proof of that other than how you feel about it. Everyone questioned it when Kelly showed up. You used to feel something for her. I’m not saying I doubt you. I’m just saying that I’m—”
“—afraid I will let you go again.”
Her breath caught in her throat.
“And that you will be alone with our child, here.”
She sobbed in earnest, covering her mouth. He shot to her side of the table and drew her into his arms. Sitting down, he placed her on his lap sideways and held her tight without hurting her belly.
She clung to him, burying her face against his neck. The skin warmed, and his pulse pushed against her lips, beating so strong and steady. Gerard’s scent, familiar, reminiscent, stirring desperate longing in her core, he made it impossible to draw away.
I love you.
He brushed a heavy hand over her hair, smoothing it from her face. When she looked up at him, he captured her lips with his. She drowned in him and never wanted to resurface.
Time stood still. They breathed as one, parted, kissed, separated again to drink in each other through sight, and then melded as one. How could she not be his mate? Why did it matter? It didn’t, not to her, or to him apparently. It would matter to everyone else. Right now, all she knew was Gerard. He was her world.
The pizza arrived, and they ate. All the while, she remained starkly aware of him. It blew her mind over and over that he sat in her tiny kitchen. Nights she had cried alone, longing to see him started to fade. A spark of hope surfaced that somehow everything would work out to allow her to stay by his side forever.
After dinner, they made love. At first she was self-conscious about the state of her body. Her hips had grown so wide, and her thighs thickened to the point of rubbing. It drove her nuts. Her breasts were heavy with milk. She looked like any day soon she would pop.
This body wasn’t what she was used to. She had always kept herself in shape and always felt confident that she looked good. The response from men in the clubs and pretty much wherever she went had confirmed her own thoughts. Now, the man she adored would see the stretch marks that had formed on the base of her belly, and behind her knees of all places.
“You are beautiful, Lachelle,” Gerard told her with an intensity that overwhelmed her emotions. “Don’t ever hide yourself from me.”
“You don’t think I’m too fat?”
“You’re pregnant.”
“And fat.”
He frowned. “I love you.”
“That was below the belt.” She panted, and then smiled, and her confidence returned. She proceeded to show him everything he missed—and demonstrated all the frustrated love that had been forced deep down in her heart.
Later, they sat side by side on the swing she’d purchased and placed on the front porch. Her hips brushed Gerard’s. She laid her head on his arm and watched clouds slowly drift over the moon. Crickets stridulated in the bushes around the property. Peace descended.
“Lachelle.”
She yawned. “Yes?”
“You won’t be afraid, if I have to fight to keep you?”
She sat bolt upright. “What are you saying? I don’t want you turning against your own people, Gerard. And hasn’t there been enough fighting? I haven’t been looking at the news because I didn’t want to be reminded of anything, but everyone is okay, right? Nothing drastic has happened that Janessa has kept from me?”
He rubbed his chin. She made out his features from the moonlight but couldn’t tell what he thought. “I broke into a prison, but nothing else happened.”
“You what?”
Chapter 17
Lachelle’s throat dried. She faced bad guys in the past, but here she was practically shaking in her boots over facing Gerard’s people. After closing her house up and deciding she would deal with it later when she knew where she stood among the shifters, she drove with Gerard back to the homestead.
After climbing out of the car, she looked up at Gerard. His eyebrows rose as he gazed toward the main hall. “What’s that expression for?” she wondered.
“Come. It’s better we talk to the council now.”
“God, can’t I sleep on it? It was a long trip, and I’m still pregnant, you know.”
He looked down at her in surprise. “You’re tired?”
“I…” She thought about kicking him. No, she wasn’t tired. The more she exerted herself, the more the baby’s healing or whatever kicked in. She was always good, unless she didn’t eat. Gerard knew that. “Fine. Let’s go.”
He nodded.
“Are you really going to tell them you’re quitting being king? That’s why you think there will be a fight?”
“There won’t be a fight.”
“This isn’t the time for positive thinking, Gerard. We need to be realistic. You and I have always preferred the city, but it might be better to raise the baby here. Especially if at some point, he decides he needs to fly. Lord, I can only imagine the humans’ reactions to that in daycare.”
“Daycare?”
“Never mind.”
Gerard took her hand and laced his fingers through hers. She tried to pull away, not wanting to show off their decision to be together right off the bat. Gerard refused to let her go, so she had no choice but to waddle along close to his side.
One of the shifters opened the door as they strode up and nodded in respect to Gerard. Lachelle expected the next person they ran into to be stupid Kelly, demanding to know where Gerard had been and what he thought he was doing bringing Lachelle back there.
She got the shock of her life when Declan strolled up and drew his brother into a hug and followed it with one for her. She blinked in confusion. “Declan? You’re out? Janessa didn’t tell me.”
Her sister darted around her husband and hugged Lachelle. “I knew you guys were coming here. Rather, I knew Gerard would drag you back. I wanted it to be a surprise.”
Lachelle glared at her sister. “You’re laughing, but do you know the stress I’ve felt the whole way here, woman? Now I know why Gerard looked like that when we drove up. He knew Declan was inside the building. Must be nice to smell everything.”
Janessa snorted.
“Auntie Chelly,” Bannon declared and launched himself at her leg. She bent down and kissed and hugged her nephew. He’d grown in the few months she was gone.
“Hey, little man. Look at you, looking like your daddy.”
Her nephew stared at her belly. “You’ve eaten a lot of food! I eat a lot of food too, but my belly doesn’t get big.” He patted his stomach.
Janessa shook her head. “Shush, boy. You know she’s pregnant. I told you she’s having your cousin. Sorry, Lachelle. I don’t know where he’s getting his sense of humor. He’ll be a stand up comic when he grows up, if the mess that comes out of his mouth is any indicator.”
Lachelle laughed. “You think he’s joking?”
“He is. Wait until you’re around longer. He drives me crazy.”
Someone cleared their throat, and Lachelle noticed the council members for the first time. Her stomach knotted, and Gerard led her farther into the meeting room. She didn’t have to be a shifter to sense her lover’s defiance. The determined set to his jaw, the angry light in his silver eyes, and the stiffness in his gait told their own tale.
“I’m here to resign,” Gerard growled. “And I intend to bond with Lachelle. If any of you try to get in the way, you’ll regret it.”
Declan burst out laughing. Lachelle ran a hand over her face, groaning. The council members all paled
and mumbled about respect and the proper way a king should carry himself.
One of the men spoke up. “You’ve hardly taken your role as our leader seriously, Gerard, and you come in here with another human—”
Gerard’s teeth sharpened as he drew his lips back from them. “What did you say?”
“Uh…”
“Everyone, calm down.” Declan beamed as he took a seat at the long table, around which the council members reclined.
Lachelle was glad he was amused. Never mind that she might be thrown out on her own. Gerard said he wouldn’t leave her, but she couldn’t allow him to be separated from his family. She had suffered being apart from her own family, even with Malcolm’s friendship.
“I have some news you’ll all want to hear,” Declan explained. “Before you jump to conclusions.”
Declan signaled to one of his men, and the man disappeared only to return with Kelly. Bitter disappointment gripped Lachelle. She’d hoped Kelly flew back to whatever precinct she worked in and would stay there. She should have known that was too much to hope for. Then something occurred to her. Kelly didn’t come into the hall of her own accord. She was practically dragged in.
“What’s going on?” Gerard demanded. “Why are you being rough with her?”
Jealousy raised its ugly head in Lachelle. Was he still claiming to feel nothing for this woman? Of course, he didn’t act like he wanted to rip someone’s head off to defend her, but he didn’t like her being mistreated.
“This person has some explaining to do,” one of the men said, holding onto Kelly. He spoke to Declan. “Your suspicions are confirmed, sir.”
Declan nodded. “I’ll explain, Gerard. You can let go of all of your guilt over leaving Kelly to die alone.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you never left your mate. She died, just as you said. And I suspect as you remember, you didn’t bond with her. If you had, you wouldn’t have survived this long.”
Mate For Hire: For Hire Series - Book 3 Page 9
