by R. E. Butler
Four and a half months pregnant and feeling big as a house even though she’d only put on a few pounds, Cadence smiled at Jason’s reflection as he came up behind her and slid his hands around to touch the small swell of her belly. “Why are you so nervous? She’s still the same girl you used to ride bicycles with when you were kids.”
“Because I don’t understand any of what she’s doing, Jas.” She dropped her head back to let it rest on his shoulder and he pulled her closer. “It’s like she turned her back on everything that made her special.”
“It was her decision to leave, Cades, you didn’t force her.” Cadence pressed her tongue into the back of her incisor so she didn’t say what was resting on the tip there: No, I didn’t force her, but you did.
She could feel the shiver of tension that stole through her husband every time Callie was mentioned. Along with having residual guilty feelings about putting her down back in January when she was early pregnant, he worried about her getting all emotional, which she tended to do every time she talked to Callie. It wasn’t just that she’d walked away from the pack, but she had walked away from her, too, and that cut her deeply. As a result, she found it hard to trust anyone else, even the women she’d made friends with. Suddenly it seemed like everyone she loved was showing her their backs. Except for Jason, of course. He wasn’t going anywhere. He’d planted his flag in her like he was Christopher Columbus and she was America, and he’d slaughter anyone that tried to take her from him. But he sure wasn’t a woman and other than occasional pillow talk after they made love, she didn’t have anyone she could confide in.
Linus’ wife Karly was the closest thing to a friend she had now that the position had been left vacant by Callie, and it was probably fitting that she wasn’t really human, but a supernaturally perfect mate for Linus. She’d already given him a son, who promised to be a powerful wolf. So why did it bother her so much that Callie was getting married tomorrow afternoon?
A knock at the door interrupted her thoughts and Jason went to answer it. Cadence looked at herself again. The dress was a casual maxi that hugged her curves and showed off her belly bump. She heard Jason making silly noises and saw he was holding Linus’ infant son Remy.
“You don’t look well, Cadence, are you feeling nauseous? I have some crackers in my clutch.” Karly joined her, looking perfect as usual and suddenly Cadence missed Callie even more strongly than before.
She settled her flying emotions before answering, “I’m okay, just tired from the trip I guess.” Kind of true. But the half of her that was wolf was extremely uneasy. They were in cat territory after all. She snorted to herself and adjusted the combs holding her now nearly waist length hair back at the sides. Cats! Callie was mated to and marrying twin mountain lions! Even if they were gorgeous as she’d said time and again, it was just against nature!
“Sweet? We should get going.” Jason called to her, handing Remy back to his doting father.
They left the Route 77 Inn in their SUV. They were meeting at a place called Caske Winery, which according to their website was a five star restaurant about twenty minutes from whatever podunk town they were in. Her mood was darkening further. Neither she nor Callie could drink so why the hell were they meeting at a winery?
Nestled back in the trees, the restaurant portion of the winery looked like any other expensive restaurant. Jason held her hand tightly and told the maître d' that they were with the Fallon party.
“Cades?” She heard Callie’s familiar voice and turned her head to see her best friend standing in an archway with two very tall, very handsome men on either side of her. They each had one of her hands and every fiber of their being said that she was theirs and they weren’t shy about expressing that.
She would have gone to her, flung herself into her arms and cried out her frustration at losing her so quickly, but Jason’s grip on her hand increased and instead they walked together as a group. The two men, identical twins, were taller than any of their men, broad shouldered, muscular, and not entirely happy to see them. And she had a feeling that mountain lions were bigger than wolves in their shifts and that meant something, too.
Callie looked wonderful. Different. Her belly was bigger, too. Callie looked at both men and Cadence couldn’t help but notice that she was marked on both sides of her neck, and they silently stepped backwards one step and released her hands and Callie closed the distance and threw her arms around her neck. Cadence stiffened slightly – Callie smelled wrong – but then relaxed and hugged her back. “I missed you, Cades.”
“I missed you, too.” She choked on the words. Was anyone in more hell?
An unmistakable growl came from in front of them and her eyes popped open as Callie slid away and moved back to the men. They put their hands on her, possessively, and the growl stopped. This had the potential to blow up in all their faces. Callie smiled as if she were used to their behavior, and she probably was, “This is Eryx and Ethan, my mates.” She made small gestures with her entwined hands but Cadence couldn’t tell them apart for anything. They were even dressed identically.
Callie introduced Jason as alpha and her as alpha female and waited for Jason to make the introductions, which he did with his normal authoritative tone. Callie suggested they head into the banquet room and Cadence was surprised to see a lot of men at the table and only one woman. Callie introduced everyone, starting with her future father-in-law, James, the twins’ brother Alek who scowled unhappily, and then several uncles and one aunt who was clearly human. Pack introductions were made again and the wolves sat down on one side of the table and the cats on the other, with Callie and her two men at the head.
A waiter wearing a long white apron and all black dress clothes filled up water goblets and took drink orders. All the wolves got beer, all the cats got wine, and since Cadence was relegated to something caffeine free and boring, she just stuck with water. She looked at Callie and her men with annoyance. The twins had waited for her to order a lemon lime soda and then ordered the same thing themselves. Clearly they weren’t going to partake in alcohol when she wasn’t able to and a shiver of jealousy spiked through her. Something about the whole thing was off. They were too – devoted – to her. It was all over their faces. Over-the-top possessiveness that put the wolf males to shame. These men, these cats, didn’t do anything without considering the needs of their mate.
Cadence twirled the straw in the glass and stared into the depths of the water. Callie had told her that they were very affectionate. That it was the males that raised the children and supplied the love and nurturing for the children, that the female lions were dispassionate to the extent of being cruel. She had never heard of such a thing before. The whole thing smelled rotten and for a long minute she regretted that she’d pushed for them to come. Callie hadn’t seemed to care one way or the other and maybe that hurt the most...that she’d moved on so easily while Cadence still felt the loss of her friendship so sharply.
James stood up and raised his glass. “A toast to my sons and future daughter. I’m thrilled to see the day when lions find mates.” He raised his glass further to the trio, “A better mate for my sons I couldn’t have described, Callie. Welcome to the pride.”
They all clinked glasses and Callie kissed first one of them and then the other, and the cats clapped happily and Cadence bristled. Callie was not pride. That word was ridiculous. Callie was a wolf, no matter what was growing in her belly, and that meant she was supposed to be pack.
“How was your trip?” Callie asked after several quiet minutes when the waiter had taken their orders and left again.
Cadence waited for Jason to answer, but he didn’t seem inclined to do anything except try to find the bottom of his beer. “Not bad.”
“I’m glad you could come. It means a lot to me that you’re all here.”
Cadence stifled the snort of derision at the statement and nodded stiffly. She caught a dark look from one of Callie’s men, as if he sensed that she wasn’t pleased about the situa
tion, but suddenly she didn’t care. She wasn’t pleased.
Callie seemed oblivious to her discomfort at the situation, which Cadence was having some trouble sorting out herself. “How are things at the garage, Jason?”
He looked at Callie, “Good, thanks.” He paused and then said, “So you live on a farm?”
All three grinned at the same time. It was eerie. Callie answered, “Yeah, in a converted apple barn at the back of Uncle Rhett’s farm. We were planning to work his farm for him, but that didn’t quite happen.” She gave a sweet look to the men on either side of her and they returned the look with warm smiles that made her jealous. Jason didn’t look at her like that. Unless he was planning to take her clothes off.
She ground her words out, “Why is that?”
“Well, when we got to town the mayor found out that Ethan and Eryx were cops so they asked them to take over the police department, and Eryx is sheriff now and Ethan runs the ambulance for the police department as their on-staff EMT.” Callie’s smile was so genuine and full of pride that it almost hurt to look at it. Had she ever been proud of Jason like that?
The conversation swirled around her, with Karly talking the most to Callie. Cadence couldn't put her finger on what was bothering her so much about everything, but she was feeling completely petulant and the whole scene in front of her left her with a bad taste in her mouth. She listened as Callie talked about the town, the lions moving from Pennsylvania with them, and the cats all joined in with the chatter. Except for Karly, none of the wolves were really saying anything. Jason wasn't feeling anything much one way or the other, he just looked bored.
Their food arrived and Cadence was glad to have the distraction. She could feel Callie's eyes on her, but she hadn't been able to meet her gaze. She was afraid she'd say something terrible to her or that she'd cry.
"Oh no!" Callie slapped her hand over her mouth and lurched from her chair and ran out of the banquet room. Cadence looked after her in alarm and then back to her mates. "What did she just take a bite of?" One of them asked, looking over her plate with a frown.
“I think it was the chicken this time," the other said, and made a motion to the waiter.
"I'll go take care of her," the first one who spoke said, putting down his napkin and standing up.
The second one said, "Do you have her mouthwash?"
"Yeah," the first one patted the pocket of his dress shirt and left.
The waiter appeared and the second one lifted the plate, "My wife's pregnant and the chicken didn't sit right with her. Can you bring out the fillet, rare, lobster bisque and some crackers or bread?"
The waiter nodded and took the plate away, and James chuckled, "I thought she could eat chicken?"
The second one said, "Yesterday she could. She ate two whole rotisserie chickens before we even got home from the grocery." He smiled fondly when he said it. Cadence bristled again. Jason didn't have any idea the things that turned her stomach now. And he'd definitely never joined her in the bathroom. She almost missed another revelation from the man when he said, "I think the babies are starting to test her stomach. Every day she wants something new and something she liked the day before makes her ill." He wasn't annoyed about it. He was – proud?
One of the uncles laughed, "You know what I thought was hilarious is when she sent Eryx out on a mission for non-alcoholic beer, olives, and salt and vinegar potato chips."
The men and the woman, Lisa, all laughed. Apparently it was Ethan that was still at the table and Eryx that had gone with Callie. "Yeah, by the time he got back with the stuff she'd changed her mind and wanted milk duds and orange soda, so he went right back out again."
Lisa chuckled, “At least he thought to call first before he headed home the second time.”
Cadence gave a sharp look to Jason. One time she'd asked him to get her chocolate milk and he'd complained he was tired. He'd gone to get it eventually, but only because she pitched a fit. “There’s milk and hot chocolate mix, Cades, it's the same thing.” These men seemed delighted to take care of their pregnant mate. And the way the lions all reacted to the situation it was as if they all cared about her and paid attention. Cadence decided to go check on her, because she wanted to see if it was true that her other mate was in there holding her hair back and tending to her. She couldn't believe that was the case. And she couldn't believe that Callie hadn’t told her about having twins!
She ducked Jason's hand that he’d thrown up to try to stop her from leaving the table and stalked to the bathroom, opening the door and not believing the sight in front of her. On a small fainting couch in the plush outer area of the woman’s bathroom, Eryx held Callie in his lap and cuddled her, smoothing her hair back from her face and talking in a soothing voice. She was shaking and he was holding a tumbler of something fizzy in his hand.
Eryx looked at her for a long minute. "I don't want you upsetting my wife, Cadence."
She couldn't help but bristle again. They were both calling her wife and they weren't married yet. Why did that bother her? Did she look as angry as she felt? Why was she so upset anyway? She took in a few deep breaths and said, "I just wanted to make sure you were okay, Callie."
Callie opened her eyes. They were bloodshot and she looked very tired suddenly, but she smiled in a small way. "They take good care of me. Thanks."
She felt tears prick at her eyes and she gritted her teeth and fought them. "You didn't mention you were having twins." That explained why she looked a little bigger even though she was a month behind her.
"I thought I did." Eryx held the glass to her lips and she took a sip of the offered drink, probably ginger ale, and sighed.
Cadence swallowed past the lump in her throat, but found she had nothing really to say to her, so she turned and left. The scene in the bathroom had been intimate. Not sexual, but she felt as if she was intruding on something profound. Jason was wonderful. Everything she'd ever wanted, but as she walked sullenly back to the banquet room she couldn't help but compare. Her own marriage seemed a pale shadow compared to Callie's relationship with the cats. Jason was a wonderful man, but he wasn't necessarily the most compassionate man. He was raised to be alpha and alphas weren’t the most outwardly affectionate men in public. She had never felt like something was missing from her marriage to Jason but, still, she wasn’t happy right now. She detoured out to the front patio of the winery, not hungry and not interested in conversation or pretense. She just wanted to go home.
By the time she was chilled from the night air and not having a jacket, she'd come to the conclusion that part of what was bothering her was that she felt like an intruder on Callie's life. They had grown up together, shared everything, and Callie had given her up in a matter of months as if she were of no importance at all. And all the men, not just her two mates, looked at her with complete devotion, as if she were the most important person in the world to all of them.
"There you are," Jason said, coming out to join her.
Cadence looked at him. He stood slightly apart from her, hands in the pockets of his dress slacks, rocking back and forth on his heels. She knew if she asked him to hold her, that he would. If she went to him first, that he would wrap his strong arms around her and kiss her worries away. If she told him that her heart was breaking and she felt so out of control with her emotions that she was terrified she was going to say something hurtful if she opened her mouth, that he would shush her gently and let her lean on him for as long as she needed to feel grounded again. But she didn't want to ask. She didn't want to have to ask. She wanted...she wanted to have Jason be so worried about her that he would instinctively cuddle her like she'd seen in the bathroom. That if she got sick from something she ate that he would know what she would like to have instead without even asking. That his father Peter would know just as much as their father James did about what went on in her life.
Jason sounded slightly annoyed, "What the hell is the matter with you today, Cades?"
She felt her eyes well up and befo
re she could stop the words from leaving her lips she said, "It's not supposed to be like this!" It came out on a wail, followed closely with, "She's supposed to be miserable and want to come home; she's not supposed to be happy!"
Jason looked completely shocked at her outburst. And then she realized with a sinking feeling that they weren't alone.
"That's a fucking thing to say," one of the twins said with an angry growl. Callie stood open mouthed, shocked, between the two.
She flushed with embarrassment. "Callie, I'm," she struggled to find something to say that would fix it, but the look on Callie’s face said she'd done irreparable damage.
"Maybe you should head back to the hotel," the other twin said tightly as they turned Callie around and moved her back inside. It looked like she'd lost the ability to walk and they were supporting her. Cadence could guess that she was crying.
"Fucking stay here. I'll get the pack." Jason growled with authority and Cadence had no choice but to obey. Mortified, she waited dutifully until their party came out and they went back to the hotel. No one talked to her, but she could feel Jason's anger at her outburst and she was angry, too. Angry that she’d asked to come here. Angry that they’d come. Angry that she’d hurt Callie. And most of all, angry that she’d lost her. She could see that much now. Her friendship with Callie was all but a memory now.
Chapter 23
**Callie**
She wrenched her hands into Ethan’s shirt and wept. She knew that something was wrong with Cades the minute she walked into the restaurant, but to know that she expected her to still come back to Allen, even knowing she was pregnant and about to be married, just boggled the mind.
