The Billionaire Shifter's Secret Baby: (Paranormal Weretiger Secret Baby Romance) (Howls Romance #4) (Billionaire Shifters Club)

by Diana Seere

  Kara gasped. “Did Eva tell—”

  “Oh, no,” Molly said. “I can see it. I’m not a shifter, but I… I can see things. I didn’t want you to think Eva broke your confidence or that you have to worry about us sharing your secret.”

  “Was that you, Kara?” Jess asked, pointing at the screen.

  “No, no. But I think Jamie’s confused.” Kara silently apologized to her little boy for accusing him of such a thing.

  “Is he… Has he…,” Jess began.

  “He hasn’t shifted yet,” Kara said softly, then bit her lip, fighting the tears pricking her eyes. It had been a long day.

  “Is that bad?” Jess asked.

  Kara sank onto a chair and closed her eyes. “Yes. It’s bad.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Molly said. “Why—never mind. We shouldn’t pry.”

  “The longer he goes without his first shift, the more dangerous it is. If he shifts for the first time when he’s… when he’s too big…” Tears burned in Kara’s eyes. She couldn’t say the rest. If he didn’t shift as a cub, an effortless, relatively painless change might be impossible later. He might only partially shift—and then stay that way. She’d only read horror stories, so she didn’t know, but the images in old books she’d seen as a child (thanks to her mother) haunted her sleep.

  Kara jumped to her feet. “I’m sorry, you must think I’m crazy. I didn’t get enough sleep last night, and I spent most of the day at the hospital with Jamie’s nanny. She’s an older lady and a good friend. I’ve been worried about her.”

  “You don’t have to apologize!” Molly jumped up and came over to her with her arms wide. To Kara’s surprise, she threw them around Kara and squeezed. “We’re so glad we could help in our little way. Jamie is so cute. Both of us are rubbing our ovaries with this urge to have babies tomorrow because he’s so cute.”

  “Rubbing ovaries isn’t how you make a baby,” Jess said. “I would’ve thought you and Edward had figured that out already.”

  All three women, even Kara, burst out laughing.

  “Jess is getting ready for med school,” Molly said, wiping her eyes. “It makes her think she knows everything.”

  Kara went over to Jamie, who had lost interest in the TV when the tiger story had turned to politics, and picked him up for another hug before she went back to work.

  “Daddy!” he cried.

  This time, he wasn’t pointing at the TV.

  The nearly white corn silk hair, so like his own as a child was similar enough, but as the tiny tot in front of him turned and beamed at Lars, the dimpled chin was the dead giveaway.

  It was like looking at a picture of himself as a toddler.

  But in real life.

  As his eyes locked with the lad and his mini me stumbled toward him, Lars inhaled sharply.

  Blue.

  Ice-blue eyes.

  The shape was different, curved more like Kara’s, and as the little boy changed direction and walked over to Kara, burying his face in her lap and giving Lars a few shy peeks, he saw the profile.

  My son.

  There was no doubt. No need for tests.

  Emotion pooled in his throat, making his tongue drop in the back of his mouth, his breath halting.

  “Lars!” Kara’s cry was an apology, the single word filled with longing and regret, pride and love, as she scooped the child into her arms and brought him closer.

  “Daddy,” the little boy said, soft and open, a sweet smile on his face.

  “This is Jamie,” Kara said, looking at the boy, who reached for Lars’ nose with stubby, fat baby fingers that smelled like sugar and love.

  The second he made contact, Kara began shouting, a high-pitched shriek that made no sense as skin became fur, fingers turned to claws, the little boy’s clothing ripped, and Lars found himself precariously rocking on his heels with thirty pounds of tiger cub in his arms, face being licked by a wet, rough stretch of pink sandpaper, four paws and a tail spread over his torso.

  “Jamie,” Lars said, laughing as he hugged his cub, who wriggled out of his arms and scampered over to two women he struggled to remember. “Jamie.”

  “Oh my God!” the brown-haired one called out. “Molly! He’s a tiger!”

  Jess. That’s right. Derry Stanton’s fiancée.

  “Kara said he was one!” Molly shouted back through laughter.

  “Jamie?” Kara squeaked, tears streaming down her face, her neck twisting back and forth between Lars and the cub. “He’s never—oh,” she gasped, hand going to her throat, eyes wide. “This is the first time he’s ever shifted.”

  Alarm flooded Lars’s limbs, his mind spinning. “The first? Isn’t that late? Is he okay? Is he healthy? Does he need a shifter doctor—”

  “He’s fine,” she said, smiling sadly at Lars. “He’s fine now. Lars, I am so, so sorry. I should have told you. I should never have kept him from you.”

  A loud racket behind a chair made them both look. Jamie’s tiger face was digging through Molly’s open purse, a lipstick rolling across the floor, a bag of gummi bears being shredded by their cub.

  “I wonder if this is what Edward was like as a cub,” Molly mused, arms wrapped around her midsection as she brayed with amusement. “Oh, and hi there, Lars,” she added with an amused smile.

  Molly Sloan. Lars had danced with her at the Stanton ranch recently. She was the center of so much controversy in the shifter world and also one of many women he’d once propositioned, however lightly. Her presence barely registered, though, as he processed the moment. All of that was in the past, as if life had been cut in half by the sharp line of Before and After.

  His son. His son was here. His real life began now.

  Lars took it all in, his breath coming in fits and gasps as he gave Jamie a tender look. The little cub looked up, a green piece of candy stuck to his wet, black nose. Widening his eyes, the glittering pupils narrowed.

  And just as quickly as he’d shifted, little Jamie changed back to human, paws turned to fat fists that rooted around for candy. His naked little toddler back faced them all.

  “Oh, my goodness!” Kara exclaimed, grabbing the boy and hiding him with her body, curled around him protectively as if she wanted to hold on to him forever. “Oh!” She was rattled, Lars could plainly see, tears streaking her makeup, an unfocused stare revealing an overwrought heart.

  “Kara,” he said softly.

  “I’m so sorry!” she choked out, eyes wild, her body radiating shame. “I just—your mother. I was so afraid. So afraid she’d take the baby away. You— Your family has money and power and all I had… all I had was him.” Smoothing the child’s hair away from his face, she kissed the crown of his head.

  “Again! Again!” Jamie shouted.

  Kara kissed the boy again, but Lars knew that wasn’t what he wanted.

  Jamie wanted to shift again. To be in his tiger form, wild and loose, able to roam and explore. At that age, it was fun, nothing but pure joy, a visceral pleasure that was simple play in animal form.

  A stab of envy coursed through him.

  He remembered being so carefree.

  Jess approached Kara with a sweatshirt, which she put on the boy. It was far too big for him, and he giggled, reaching for Lars.

  “Daddy! Again!”

  Kara flinched at the word “Daddy.”

  Lars smiled.

  “Come here, son,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion on the last word as Kara handed Jamie to him. Heart bursting with everything he’d assumed he would never feel, he embraced the wiggling child, feeling his heartbeat sync like gears in a newly oiled machine, finding the just-right fit.

  A warm hand on his shoulder, accompanied by Kara’s scent, made him feel complete.

  “Want Nana! Want Nana!” Jamie began to chant, pushing off Lars’ chest.

  “Nana?” he asked, confused.

  “His nanny. Our— Well, it’s complicated. She’s in the hospital right now. That’s why I had to bring Jamie to work with
me.”

  “Had to? Why?”

  “Because I have to work, Lars. I have to support him. Us. Nana watches him while I work, but her heart— We thought she had a heart event, but it seems to be dehydration…”

  Stone-cold certainty snapped him out of the strange, overwhelmed fog he found himself in.

  “I wish I’d known,” he said, taking her hand, gentle and tender.

  “I’m so sorry. I’m a terrible person for keeping you from him. I just— I was so afraid you’d take him.”

  Lars pulled her into his arms, a surge of desire and comfort, of the future and the past, all blending inside him. Molly and Jess gave them understanding looks as they kept little Jamie occupied, flipping the television channel to cartoons. A small laugh escaped him, then a bigger one, the sound finally settling in his body as Kara relaxed slightly in his arms.

  “I’ll have someone check on her,” he said. “One of my best people. He’ll make sure she’s getting the best care and report back to us if anything changes.”

  “Thank you, but—”

  “Let me do this,” he said. “Please. This is one time when vast, unlimited wealth comes in handy. She will have the best care, you understand?”

  She smiled. “Thank you.”

  “You’re right, though, Kara.”

  “About what?”

  “I am going to take him.”

  The shove, he had to admit, was fair. Her arms pushed hard against him, but he stood steady, gripping her elbows.

  “No! How dare you! No, no, you can’t take Jamie from me—”

  “I’m taking him. And you.”

  “And—what?”

  “And your nanny. Anyone else in your life I need to know about?”

  “What are you talking about, Lars?”

  He swept his arm out as if gesturing to include the entire planet. “I’m taking you, Jamie, and your nanny to my home. You’re officially done here at the Plat. You’re coming home with me. That rat trap you live in is no more.”

  Her eyes narrowed as she stood at arm’s distance. “What?”

  “You heard me. I won’t have my son living in that disgusting hellhole.”

  “That hellhole is a perfectly decent apartment!”

  He just stared her down.

  “Okay, but no—no— I don’t want your money.” Her mouth set with firm determination. “You accused me of being a gold digger. I won’t let you turn me into that.”

  He had only one answer for that statement.

  A kiss.

  Chapter 11

  Kara knew she’d been saying something, had been worried about something, had decided something, but now…

  Now…

  Lars’ kiss washed it all away. There was only the hot pressure of his mouth and luxurious pleasure sliding over her, through her, into her. His tongue probed the seam of her lips, separating them, and then he pushed inside her mouth to explore. As their tongues tangled, his fingers gently stroked her jaw, then cupped her face and tilted her to one side. Now they fit together like yin and yang, two pieces of a puzzle that had gone through life undone, lost, incomplete.

  They were together. They belonged here. Her heart thrummed in steady agreement.

  Mine, she thought. He’s mine. And I’m his.

  He pulled away and dropped featherlight kisses from her cheekbone to her temple. “Mine,” he whispered into her ear, making her shiver. “My Kara.”

  Her name on his lips sent shivers through her body. The way he said it… nobody had ever said her name like that before, and yet it was as familiar as her own pulse.

  What had they been arguing about? Oh, right. The apartment. Money. Living together.

  He turned her face in his hands and captured her mouth in another kiss, this one more fierce than the last. The whiskers on his jaw scraped across her chin, and blinding, burning sensation shot through her.

  To hell with the apartment. It wasn’t the hellhole he made it out to be, but it wasn’t like she wouldn’t be happy living with a fabulously rich rock star weretiger instead. And if she ever doubted her choice, she’d remind herself she’d done it for Jamie.

  Because she was self-sacrificing like that.

  Straining against him, she broke the kiss to drag her tongue along the whiskers and the dimple that was such a turn-on. He tasted better than cream. Smelled better than—

  “Darling.” His rough voice wouldn’t have stopped her, but the strong thumb he planted over her lips did. “We… We’re not alone.”

  “Don’t mind us,” Jess said cheerfully.

  “No, we’ll go into the other room,” Molly said.

  “We will?” Jess snorted. “Do you mean the closet?”

  “There’s a dressing room,” Molly muttered. “We can—”

  By now Kara had broken enough of the spell to bring her tongue back into her mouth, remove her hand from Lars’ ass, and turn her face, only slightly, away from his. She couldn’t bear to lose too much contact, so she intertwined her fingers through his.

  Her thoughts were as scrambled as her feelings. Flushing with embarrassment, she couldn’t bring herself to make eye contact with the two women at first. “Sorry, we shouldn’t— I don’t know what came over us. We should go—” Reality set in. She did have to go. She’d promised to work at least another hour. Carl must be going nuts. “Oh God. I have to get back to work. Lars, please—”

  Before she could ask him to wait for her—again, but this time for just another hour or two—she saw Jamie.

  He was deep asleep in Molly’s arms, as limp as a noodle. His blond head was tilted back, resting against the curve of Molly’s shoulder, and his mouth gaped open, his little pink tongue visible past the rounded, human baby teeth. Pale eyelashes fanned against his pink cheeks, their baby, peach-skin softness so unlike the tiger cub he’d been a moment ago.

  Her baby had never looked so beautiful. She sank against Lars and felt joy rise up in her chest. The pounding of the Beat was deafening.

  “You don’t have to go back to work,” Lars said firmly.

  Such the alpha. As much as she’d love to give in to him and make love on Molly’s sofa, reality be damned, they still had responsibilities. At least she did.

  “I promised Eva,” Kara said. She gave Lars a playful smile. “It’s only another hour or two.”

  Jess jumped to her feet, propping the stuffed tiger on Jamie’s tummy. “Forget that. I’d love to finish your shift for you.”

  “You can’t do that,” Kara said. “You’re engaged to Derry Stanton. He’d never—”

  “Never allow it?” Jess laughed. “I don’t let him call all the shots, are you kidding? He’d be impossible if I didn’t remind him what century we’re living in now and then.”

  “And I’m happy to sit here with Jamie as long as you need,” Molly said, beaming at Jamie in her arms. “He feels like heaven. So, so sweet. What an angel.”

  Lars chuckled. “Now that he’s asleep, you mean. The first shift is notoriously exhausting. It’s common for a child to sleep an entire day to recover,” he said. “If he’s anything like me, he’ll be a devil as soon as he wakes.”

  “He’s a lot like you,” Kara said softly.

  He squeezed her hand, caressing her knuckles with his thumb. Again the Beat thundered in her soul.

  Jess patted each of them on the back as she strode to the door. “I’ll explain to Eva on my way. It’ll be fun to serve drinks again for a little while.”

  Kara tried arguing one more time. “No, I can’t let you—”

  “Yes, you can,” Lars said.

  “Imagine how jealous Derry will be when he sees me serving men at the club. He’ll be a tiger in bed tonight!” Jess waved as she walked out the doorway. “So to speak!” Her voice trailed away with her laughter.

  “Go on, you two,” Molly said. “You need to, uh, talk. I’ll be right here with your cutie. Come back after you’ve, um… talked.” And then the damn woman winked.

  He remembered Edward St
anton’s incredible possessiveness toward Molly at the Stanton ranch during the emergency meeting of shifters. Now he understood.

  “Thank you, Molly,” he said with a grateful smile. Lars released Kara for a moment to stride over and stroke the dimple on Jamie’s chin. “It has been a pleasure. A great pleasure.”

  “Yes, thank you so much, Molly,” Kara said.

  After another moment gazing at his son, Lars turned abruptly and hooked an arm around Kara’s waist, grinning. “We need to, uh, talk,” he said in her ear.

  “But where?” Kara asked, waving goodbye to Molly. But Molly was staring at Jamie, completely oblivious to anyone else. Somebody had baby fever.

  “I’ll show you.” Lars escorted her out of the boutique to the elevator. “This building has a lot of secrets.” He kissed her on the mouth, lingering over her lips as they waited for the elevator to come. “Like you.”

  The Beat continued to chime in her head and chest, giving each step they took the feel of a dance, not unlike their first evening together. His hand felt warm and steady in hers, leading her through the building to the elevator and then down to the lobby, the same spot she’d been so shocked to see him only a few days earlier. How could so much change so quickly? Again, like their first meeting, they weren’t entirely in charge of their own lives or each other. The current of fate had swept them up and taken them away to another world—thankfully together. She could look at his profile and see her future, all the days to come she would be with him, at his side, loving him.

  I love you, she said silently, barely registering how he’d taken them to the service elevator behind the lobby reception desk.

  He turned his profile to her and pinned her with his shining blue gaze. “I love you too,” he said, sliding his hand up to her cheek.

  “Can you hear me?” she whispered.

  “In my heart,” he said, then smiled. “I think. I’m not quite sure. But yes, I can hear you.”

  “Do you think we’re going crazy?”

  “If this is crazy,” he said, “let’s be crazy.”

  “That sounds like it’s from one of your band’s songs,” she said with a laugh.

  “I wrote it after I met you,” he replied seriously.