by Hazel Gower
Brock closed his eyes. “Yeah, I think you’re right. I’m going to go see if Sammy will let me visit for a while before I join the family. I need to know she’s all right.”
“How is she, Brock? Is she even seeing you or Slater?”
Brock ran his fingers through his hair. “She doesn’t flinch anymore when we get close to her, so it’s slow progress. The problem Slater and I have is every time we see her our bears come out and become all protective, possessive, and bossy. And possessive men scare her as they remind her of him.” He sighed. “We’re just going to have to be patient.”
Jake grabbed his keys from his desk drawer and patted his cousin’s back. “Good luck, Brock.”
****
Jake snuggled into Sandy’s naked body before kissing her neck and down her shoulder. “Morning, Little Red. I missed you last night.”
She sighed. “I missed you too. I would have gone with you for support.”
He hugged her tightly, loving the feel of her against his body. His family had been exhausting, and as soon as Jake arrived, he couldn’t wait to leave and get home to Sandy. His uncle and aunt had been devastated that their youngest had been killed, and he’d taken the brunt of the blame for not finding the killer. Brock shared some blame when he arrived an hour after him looking miserable.
Jake didn’t get home until way after midnight, and all he’d wanted to do was get some love from his woman and be around people who weren’t angry or expecting things from him.
“Thanks, and I would have loved for you to be there, but I don’t think it was the right time for everyone to meet you. Emotions were high and things were said.” He turned her around to face him. “I want you to meet my family when we are not all emotionally wrung out. I want them to see how beautiful, thoughtful, and loving you are.” He brushed her lips with his. “I know your temper. You would have stuck up for me, and things would have gotten worse.”
Sandy pushed on his chest. “What did they say to you? Why would I have been angry?” Her brow furrowed and she glared at him.
God, he loved this woman. She was angry and ready to fight for him even when she hadn’t been there and didn’t know the situation. “Don’t worry about what was said. I just know that you stick up for the people you love.”
Sandy pushed him onto his back and straddled his waist. “You’re damn right I stick up for the people I love. I have no idea what you could have possibly done wrong, but I would have stood up for you.”
Jake pulled her down to him and held her face. “Yes, I know, and that’s one of the reasons I love you.” He captured her mouth and ran his hands up her naked body. He wanted nothing more than to spend the day in bed with her, loving her. But today was the last day he knew he’d have off for a while so he wanted to spend the day doing stuff for her.
He pulled away. “I want to make love to you all day long, but today will probably be my only day off until I find this killer. I wanted us to go out and have a day together shopping, maybe have lunch and a movie before Zack got home.”
Sandy stared at him like he’d grown two heads. “You’re willing to spend your only day off shopping, lunching, and going to a girly movie with me.”
“Of course. I’d do anything for you, although I never said I’d watch a girly movie.”
She gave a sultry laugh and leaned down to kiss him before pulling away to whisper, “Oh, I think we have enough time for a quickie.” Her hands ran down his chest and she had a wicked grin.
Sandy trailed kisses across his face and neck and stopped at his nipples. She circled one with her tongue. He groaned and watched as she sucked it before moving to the other. He ran his hands down her back and let out a growl as she slid further down, trailing her hands where her body had been.
She rested between his thighs, and her breath feathered over his erection. Her tongue slowly, experimentally, licked him from base to tip. Her hands scraped down his stomach, and she gave a loud moan as her mouth engulfed him.
Jake held her hair as she moved up and down, and her hands gripped his base. She swallowed him until she gagged and slowly moved back to a steady pace. She paused and looked up at him. “Let go. Don’t hold back.”
Taking a deep breath, Jake let himself go. His bear took over. He pulled her up and captured her mouth with his. His hands trailed down her back and around to play with her clit.
Sandy arched into him and scratched a trail down his back. They pulled away panting, and he nipped his way down her neck and nibbled on her ears.
“Oh, Jake, I need you.”
He gripped her ass and pulled her over his dick. She moaned and held him as he slammed home. Her slick wet heat enveloped him and squeezed around him. He clutched her tightly and mindlessly pumped into her. She screamed and helped him pick up the pace.
“Harder. Give it to me harder.”
Jake snarled, slipped out of her, and flipped her so she was on all fours. He spread her legs and draped himself over her before thrusting home over and over. Jake moved a hand to her hands to help keep her still while he moved. He rubbed her clit with the other. Jake nipped her neck as he thrust into her in a mindless frenzy.
“I’m…coming. I’m…please.” Her head fell back against him.
He growled loudly as he let go and bit down on her shoulder. Sandy screamed and quivered around him.
“Jake.” Her head fell forward, and he felt her legs tremble.
He emptied himself into her, groaning against her shoulder. They fell forward, and he nuzzled her neck. “You okay, Little Red? I wasn’t too rough?”
“Mmmm, you need to let go more often.”
He chuckled and held her tighter, knowing he was the luckiest man in the world.
****
For the last two weeks she’d been working at Zack’s shop and loving it. The variety of people they got in was awesome. Everyone was on alert for the shifter killer, and no one was ever left alone. Zack and Jake were driving here crazy, and to piss her off more, her brothers and father agreed with them.
Looking up from the phone, she noticed an elegantly dressed lady tapping her manicured fingernails on the desk. Smiling at her, she said to the contractor on the phone, “Could you give me a moment?” She waited for the okay before she placed the phone down and spoke to the woman in front of her. “Hello. May I help you?”
The lady’s eyes narrowed, and she looked at her over the table. “You’re not much. You’re not what I expected at all. I have no idea how you can handle two of the Bear men.”
Sandy’s back stiffened as she figured out who stood in front of her. She stood up and looked the lady up and down just like she’d done. “Well, you’re exactly what I expected. If you wait here a moment, I will tell him you’re here.”
She made sure her back was straight as she walked to the back booth where a pretty blonde gazed up at Zack as he tattooed a unicorn just under her underwear line. She waited for Zack to stop and look up.
“I know she’s here. I heard her. Give me another fifteen here, and I will be there to see what she wants.”
She nodded and looked at the girl who hadn’t taken her eyes off Zack. Great. This is what I have to put up with. She studied the tat. “That is beautiful.”
The girl finally looked up at her. “Yeah, Zack’s the best. He did my first ever tattoo last year on my ass.”
She shot a glance at Zack to see if he showed any recognition of the woman, but he showed no interest in the pretty blonde that she could see. To be on the safe side, she leaned down and kissed his cheek. “Love you.”
He chuckled, and his eyes lit up. Crap. He knows I’m jealous.
Taking a deep breath, she went back out to Zack’s mother. “Take a seat. He’ll be with you in fifteen.”
Sandy watched as Zack’s mother looked around the shop and sat on the seat closest to her. His mother sat quietly for a good ten minutes while she worked on the computer organizing schedules for all the artists.
“What drawings are my son’s?”
Sandy grabbed Zack’s folder and walked around to pass it to her. As soon as she was close enough to hand it his mother, the woman took a deep breath in only to screech, drop the book, and stand to tower over her.
“He mated you. I thought he was joking when he said he had.” His mother yanked at her shirt, ripping it off her shoulder. She growled and started to grow. “He is not your only mate. Who else?” The woman shook her, picked her up, and breathed her in, only to shriek and drop her against the book table. “Who is it? Because you are pregnant.”
Sandy felt the color drain from her face and scrambled back against the reception desk. Zack and all the other artists came running to her aid.
Zack snarled at his mother and dropped down beside her. “Firebird, are you okay?”
Sandy had no idea if she was okay, but she nodded anyway.
Zack yelled, “Call an ambulance.”
She grabbed his arm. “No, please don’t. I’m fine.” She tried to get up, but he wouldn’t let her.
Zack patted her down, and she told him she was okay. He carefully picked her up, cradling her in his arms, and turned on his mother.
“Get out of my shop now. I don’t ever want to see or hear from you again. This is the last straw. I disown you.”
Sandy gasped and looked at Zack’s mother who turned white and shook her head.
“Zack, I’m fine. She came here to see you and got a shock, that’s all.”
The front door of the shop burst open and Jake came pounding in. “What happened? Why is she bleeding?”
Sandy noticed her shoulder bleeding from Zack’s mother’s claws. And the woman gave a sardonic laugh.
“Oh, this is brilliant. What the hell is going on with the universe at the moment? Jake, have you told your family yet? Your sisters are going to love this. They’ve had friends ready for you for years. Is the baby yours or my son’s?”
Okay, this woman is starting to piss me off. Sandy still winced when Jake turned to Zack’s mother. “You are not my mother, thank God, so if you come near my mate again, Adele, I will rip out your throat.”
The woman must have some good sense because she looked between her son and Jake, nodded, and backed out of the shop.
Sandy closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before opening them. “How did you get here so quickly?”
Jake looked sheepishly at her. “Since you started working here, I have had an alert out on the shop. If anything happens, I’m radioed straight away.”
She looked up at Zack as he walked with her in his arm to his office. “You’re okay with that?”
Zack nodded. “Yep, anything to keep you safe.”
She sighed as he sat in his office chair. “So is your mother right?”
Both their eyes narrowed and they said, “About what?”
“Am I pregnant?”
They both nodded.
“Why haven’t you told me?”
Zack groaned. “Because you’re our mate we didn’t know until now. Remember I told you we can’t tell stuff like that with our mates.”
“But other shifters can?” she asked.
“Yep,” Jake said.
Sandy sat up and held her clothes on. She needed to think. She needed her friends. “I’m going home now. I need a shower then I’m going to go visit Susie and Sammy.”
She didn’t give either of them a chance to respond. She reached in the drawer, grabbed Zack’s keys and her bag, and walked out the door.
****
Zack sat in the obstetrician’s waiting room with Sandy. Jake sat on her other side. Sandy didn’t touch either of them. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she shot glares at Jake and him.
Sandy had tried to book an appointment and not tell them about it. After she’d come home from Susie’s, she’d been quiet. Sandy told them on the weekend she would be going out and having a girl’s night, and if she saw either of them once, she would cut off their balls.
Zack reached for her hand again only for her to snarl at him. “Come on, Firebird. We want to be here to hear the good news and know if there is anything you need.”
“I could have told you when I got home. I wanted to come alone and not with two men.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want everyone looking at me like they are now.” Sandy’s voice lowered. “You need to both stop touching me. If I’m pregnant, I have no idea who the father is. I was just going to tell my doctor unknown because it’s the truth. I’m scared already that in nine months’ time, one of you is going to leave me because the baby isn’t yours. I love you both too much to lose either of you. So at the moment, I need time to think about everything this baby will change.”
Jake muttered, “How long you been holding all that in?”
Sandy shrugged and wiped at the tears falling down her cheeks.
Zack looked around him, noticing that many of the women were staring at them. Not caring where they were, he lifted her off her seat and sat her on his lap. She let out a quick backhand, hitting his chest. Turning her face to his, he stroked her cheek and leaned down to kiss her tears away.
“Sandy, we are never leaving you no matter what. If the baby is Jake’s, I will still love it just as if it were my own. We could always work for the next one to be mine. But even if all the children you have are Jake’s, that won’t make me leave or love you or the children we have any less. I love you so much, Sandy. I would marry you in a heartbeat.”
She gasped and her eyes went wide. She wrapped her arms around him, and she relaxed against him.
Jake nodded to him before grabbing Sandy and placing her on his lap. He whispered in her ear, “That goes double for me. I even have a ring for you at home. Yesterday I got my first tattoo.” Jake sat her forward and pulled up his shirt. Over his heart it said, “Sandy’s forever.”
“I—”
Sandy was cut off as a doctor said, “Sandy Silverman.”
She got off Jake’s lap, stood up straight, and turned to them holding out both her hands. Zack let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He and Jake both got up and grabbed a hand before following the doctor into the room.
****
The doctor confirmed what he and Jake already knew, told her the vitamins she needed to have, and the food and drinks she couldn’t. He’d been a really nice doctor and didn’t even blink when Sandy said they were both the fathers. He nodded his head and told her that when she came back in four weeks’ time, they should be able to do a scan and hear the heartbeat.
They were all home now snuggling on the lounge and watching a movie. Sandy lay happily between them. Zach stroked her hair, and Jake rubbed her feet.
Every now and then Sandy would stare at her hand and the two diamond rings. Zack’s ring had a stone in the middle surrounded by blue sapphires. Jake’s ring fit perfectly with his just the way they’d designed it with diamonds and blue sapphires alternating in a curve around his ring.
They had cooked her an early dinner, and at the end both of them got down on one knee and asked her to marry them. She’d jumped up to hug them, and they’d moved to her bedroom to celebrate.
A knock on her back door had Sandy jackknifing up.
“Who on earth is that? It can’t be my brothers. They just barge in.”
Sandy moved to get up, but Zack held her to him and Jake went to the back door. Minutes later Sandy’s brothers and father come in behind Jake. Zack watched her as she cocked her head to the side and her brow furrowed.
“What’s going on? You never knock.”
Sandy’s father cleared his throat a couple of times, looked at Zack and then at Jake who’d taken his spot next to Sandy.
“Ah, well, you boys have been here for well over a month, and we…I just wanted to know what intentions you have toward my daughter.”
Zack winked at Sandy. “Jake and I are almost done with her here. We all just need to find a bigger place of our own. You have nothing to worry about. She’s not our girlfri
end anymore.”
Her father turned bright red and sputtered. “Sandy, baby girl, do you want your brothers and me to get rid of them?” He came forward, but Philip’s eyes widened and he held his father.
Sandy burst into giggles, and got up. “Dad, he’s just playing with you.” She held out her hand to show him her rings. “They asked me to marry them, and I said yes.”
Her father staggered back, and Zack watched as Sandy rushed to him. Her father glared at him and Jake. “Baby girl, I think it’s a little soon to get married. I just wanted to know what was going on.”
Sandy hugged her father. “I love them both, Dad, and they treat me like I’m a princess.”
Her father held her tight and Jake eyed him. They both got up and Jake said, “We would love to have your blessing.”
Sandy’s dad hugged her more tightly and studied the both of them before he nodded. “Okay, I give my blessing. Same rules apply as before. You hurt her and no one will find your pieces, got it?”
They both nodded and Zack couldn’t help the grin that spread over his face. He was one very lucky man.
Chapter Ten
Sandy came home from having a much needed girl’s night out. Sammy was feeling good and wanted to go out, so they’d all gone out dancing. Blake, Brian, and Slater didn’t fool anyone when they all just happened to turn up at the same places. Sandy had been so happy not to see Jake and Zack, especially after the news they’d confirmed the other day.
She’d needed this girls night away from them to breathe and sort out how she felt about being pregnant. After talking to Susie and seeing what her two men were like, Sandy had no doubt that her men would support her and help her with anything.
Sandy loved her men but hadn’t known them long. Bringing a baby into the world was a huge step.
Sandy felt good as she parked her car and got out. The other day she’d even had the chance to talk to Sammy about what she thought about everything and what she was going to do about the two bears pursuing her. Sammy eventually admitted they were growing on her, but she wasn’t ready for a relationship.
Sandy opened and walked through her front door. She paused because the house was way too quiet. She looked around and gasped before backing up as she looked down at the blood. She knew the sight of blood on the floor thanks to her brothers and their football matches.
