by Sy Walker
She hoped that it was nothing. Maybe Trish was busy. But her friend was usually not so busy that she wouldn’t respond, especially to a text where Maggie claimed she was possibly pregnant.
“Okay,” Luke said. “Well, I am going to take you home first. There’s no way you’re going back there. You’ll be safe at home. I’ll see if your friend is at her place and, if she is, bring her back with me and we’ll sort it out from there. In the meantime, I guess you can try and text her again or call her.”
He walked with her quickly back to the car, as though just thinking about the threat of Keith meant that the werewolf was close by. As if thoughts of him went out into the ether like some kind of bat signal.
Maggie did not feel like running into him again either, but she was not sure that her giant boyfriend showing up unannounced at Trish’s place was going to do much in the way of making Trish feel safe. As Luke drove her back home, Maggie sent her another text to try and give her a fair bit of warning. She hoped that maybe Trish would see it and respond instead, which would call everything else off.
Hey, Trish, haven’t heard from you in a while. Just letting you know my boyfriend is going to stop by your place and make sure you’re okay. I’ll call you soon if I don’t hear from you. Xo
She did her best to not betray how worried she was. She really hoped this was nothing and Trish just had her phone off for some reason. Things happened…
She really hated herself for getting Trish involved in the first place.
Luke dropped her off at his house, walking with her inside as though he was a Secret Service bodyguard or something. Maggie chuckled a little. “Am I going to need to start wearing a bullet-proof vest now?” she teased.
He looked like he was considering it.
“You just wait right here. I have my cell phone with me, and I’ll let you know if I see her. In fact, I will bring her back here if I see her. Keep trying to get in touch with her. That’s all we can really do right now.”
He did not like that these two young women were in this situation. This was part of why he hated werewolves. Whenever one lived in town, everyone else had to be on their guard.
“Okay,” she said. “Thank you for all of your help.” Maggie gave him a kiss.
As soon as he was gone, she went into the kitchen to make herself a snack. The Ritz Bits were still there, but she was going to need something more substantial than that. She could not live on frozen yogurt and salty snacks all day, with this kind of anxiety going on. She rubbed her belly as she heated up some French fries that were in Luke’s freezer, wondering if her life was just always going to be this stressful now.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Bear Bodyguard
Luke returned home after about an hour. Alone.
“I knocked on the door and I waited, but I did not see her and she did not answer.”
Maggie raised her eyebrows, even more concerned now. She was sitting on the couch, hugging a pillow to her belly because it was comfortable and more relaxing to do so than to pace the room in despair, which is what her brain told her she should be doing.
Immediately, she took out her phone and called Trish.
It rang and rang, and eventually went to voicemail.
“Shit!” Maggie said, and then waited for the beep. “Hi, Trish, it’s Maggie. This is probably just me blowing things out of proportion. I’m assuming that you didn’t get my text. I’m pregnant, and so my hormones might be making me more worried about you than I actually should be… Anyway, the creepy guy from the club last night told me that he knows where I live and that is where you live, so I want to make sure you’re okay. Please give me a call when you get this. And, whatever you do, don’t go home. If you are home, leave. Call me back please. Bye.”
When she ended the call, she looked up at Luke. He was standing there, arms folded across his chest, looking like a concerned father. Maggie had almost been able to forget about how much older he was, until she saw him looking like that. Would he look like that when their child was home late on a school night? Would he look like that when their child got a boyfriend or girlfriend? Society said that she should have been bothered by his being so much older, but Maggie felt comforted knowing that he had the maturity that she still lacked.
She patted the couch next to her and he sat down. She moved so she was sitting against him now. He rested his arm around her shoulders and leaned his head so it was touching hers. “I guess now we wait,” he said.
The sun had set by the time Maggie’s phone started to buzz. She realized, chagrined, that she had turned it over to vibrate so that her nap on the couch wouldn’t be interrupted. How easy it was to do that…
As soon as she heard it buzzing, she leaned forward and scooped her phone up, pressing the call button. “Trish?! Oh, thank god.”
“I’m so sorry I missed your call and texts,” Trish replied. “I was playing mini golf with my family, which is probably the lamest excuse ever. First of all, wow! You’re pregnant? That was fast.”
Maggie laughed and then realized that she was crying a little, too. It was so good to hear from her best friend again. She did not even know how she had fallen asleep. The stress mixed with the pregnancy must have caused it. “It’s faster with were-people,” she said, and then she laughed a little again. “As if that’s not also a lame thing to say…”
Trish took a deep breath. “Right, so, and second of all, I listened to your voicemail while in the car with my parents and I’m so glad I did because I’m at their house now. You don’t have to worry about some werewolf loser showing up and trying to… eat me or whatever he would have done.”
Maggie closed her eyes. She did not want to imagine what Keith might have done to Trish, and thank goodness she did not have to. “Excellent,” she said. “Stay where you are then. I don’t know what our course of action is now, involving him, but as long as you’re safe that’s the main thing.”
Luke looked at her and his blue eyes lit up a little when he overheard the fact that Trish was safe. He seemed so relieved, and so ready to carry on with their happy lives.
“You got it, dude,” Trish said. “We should get together sometime soon and get me up to speed with everything.”
Maggie agreed and politely ended the call. She set the phone back down on the coffee table and let out a loud, overdramatic sigh. “I swear she is going to give me an ulcer.”
He chuckled and hugged her close. “Just wait until you’re a parent,” he said.
“Don’t remind me,” she said with a smile. “Especially not right now.”
Petting her hair, he looked into her eyes. “But you know, you are going to be a great mother. I can tell that already, by how much you care about people. Not everyone would have given a second thought to their friend as soon as they themselves were safe.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I guess that’s true.”
Before she knew it, he was making out with her. And she was not complaining. He dipped her back onto the couch as he had done the night before. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders, kissing him back. Her heart was pounding.
“Can we do it on the bed this time?” she asked him. “The bed feels more like a couple thing, not a one-night stand, as soon as possible kind of thing.”
He chuckled. “Fair point.”
Carefully, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her to his bedroom. He pulled the dress off over her shoulders and kissed her as she lay there in her bra and panties. Her tummy was bigger than Maggie had ever seen it.
She wondered as she kissed Luke if their baby was going to be extra-large as well as extra fast at developing.
Luke’s cock was poking at his boxers intensely, and he started petting her pussy through her panties.
“You’re so delicate with me,” she murmured against his skin. “You don’t have to be. I’m a big girl.”
“A big girl who’s about to have my big cock inside of her,” he grunted.
“Yes, please.”
“Oh, yeah,” he growled into her ear. “Maggie, you feel so good.”
She licked her lips and raised her legs so they formed a V that he was in the middle of. He was filling her up with his cock and nothing but good feelings. He was not wearing a condom this time.
To hell with it. A condom clearly cannot hold him off anyway.
He bit at her calf muscle and pressed up against her clit with his fingers, pressing her g-spot at the same time. Maggie came hard, her opening contracting around his large cock and catching him off guard, causing him to come inside her much sooner than he had been planning to.
Laughing a little, he fell against her. “Wow,” he said. “It’s a wonder what relief can do to a person.”
She kissed Luke, running her fingers through his slightly damp hair. “I hope relieved sex is something we keep having.”
“Well, I think completely relaxed sex is better,” he replied, giving her a wink.
Once he had regained his composure, Luke got off the bed and went into the bathroom to shower. Maggie understood why he did that now. Sex made him sweaty. …And she loved it.
She got out of bed and put her panties and bra back on. Not wanting to dirty her pretty new dress, she placed that in the washing machine and just put on some lavender sweatpants and a tank top that was also new.
It said Chicago Bears. Perhaps she was a bit lame, but it amused her anyway.
When Luke came out of the shower, he went back into the bedroom and got dressed. Maggie was on the couch, filling in the crossword puzzle. He came back out of the bedroom wearing dark jeans and a red T-shirt. He smiled when he saw her there, reclining and no longer tense with worry.
“I’m going to go to the store and get some things for a nursery,” he informed her. “Don’t worry; I’ll avoid blue or pink. I don’t really like those colors anyway.”
She looked up from the newspaper in her lap. “Want me to come with you?”
He shook his head. “Nah, you should stay here and relax. You’ve had an eventful day already. There’s frozen pizza in the fridge if you get hungry. I shouldn’t be gone more than an hour or two.”
“When should I worry?”
Luke thought about that. “If you don’t hear from me in two hours, call my cell.”
She smiled at him. “’Kay.”
He went over to her and gave her a kiss, mussing her short hair a little. He left his house, closing the door and locking it behind him. Maybe he would get more than just nursery things. He was thinking that it might be worthwhile to get some security cameras installed, at least outside of the house where a certain person might be lurking.
It turned out that there was no reason for Maggie to worry. Luke came back from the store about an hour later, carrying several bags. She smiled at him from her place at the breakfast bar, where she was eating a whole frozen pizza by herself. Hey. If I have to gain weight anyway, I might as well enjoy myself.
“That didn’t take long,” she said when her mouth wasn’t full.
He set the bags down and walked over to her, picking up the last slice of pizza and taking a bite.
Maggie cackled a bit. “Rude!” She looked down at the bags. It looked like he’d bought something from every section of the store. “Are you completely building a new room, or…?”
“My spare rooms are pretty sparse,” Luke answered. “I’ve only really inhabited the main floor of this place, but there are three bedrooms upstairs, including another master bedroom.”
She stared at him, surprised but also not really. She knew that his house was way bigger than one man needed. “Why did you build yourself such a big house?”
“I didn’t,” he replied. “My dad did. He wanted me to have a family, so he built me a house made for one. It’s a shame he did not live long enough to see me actually fill it with kids.”
“Aww, I’m sorry,” Maggie said, gently rubbing his arm. “But at least you are—wait, who said anything about kids plural?”
He smiled at her. “I won’t rush you.”
She picked up the pizza slice that he already bit a chunk out of. “You better not,” she said, eating it.
Chuckling, Luke picked up the bags again and headed up the stairs to work on organizing one of the spare rooms for the nursery. He wondered if it would be better for them to sleep upstairs close by, but then realized that they would probably sleep better if they were not directly next to the crying baby.
Maggie looked over at the clock and realized numbly that it was already ten o’clock. “Hey, don’t start hammering and sawing things now,” she called up to him. “We should go to bed if you have work tomorrow.”
He came back down the stairs a few moments later, smirking at her. “I just moved some stuff out of the room. I won’t paint or anything until tomorrow. And I don’t need to hammer or saw anything; the room is perfect.”
“I’ll take your word for it for now,” she said, finishing up the pizza and then standing to put the plate in the dishwasher and clean up the counters. “So should I start work tomorrow or do you expect me to just stay put every day until this baby is out of me?”
She said it jokingly, but she did worry about going stir crazy while Luke was at work. She had worked so hard to be an independent person, and now she had to let him do things for her.
Luke looked at Maggie, considering his options. “You can spend time with Trish if you want. Just make sure you both stay far away from her apartment. She might want to just go ahead and rent a new one.”
Maggie sighed a little. “I wish that I’d never gotten her involved. I should’ve just stayed at my old apartment. I kicked my ex out anyway…” She sighed again. As much as she had wanted to get away from Tony, she would’ve much preferred his continual presence in her life versus Keith’s. At least her ex was annoying and lazy; he would not physically bring harm to her or her friend.
“But I guess if I had stayed there, I might not have found you.” She gazed into Luke’s eyes. Coming over to him, she moved against him and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “I’m better off having you in my life. I know that.”
He brought his lips down to hers and they kissed.
It was too late to think about what might and what might not have happened had they never met. It was too late to regret spending a night with Trish. God, had it only been one night? Maggie supposed that all it took was one night before a whole life could change. Look at what was going on in her belly now. That was the real proof.
“Come on,” Luke said. “Let’s go to sleep now.”
He led her to the bedroom and she put on one of his large, button-up shirts. Even though Luke had taken her out shopping, Maggie was not keen to rush into buying a whole bunch of new outfits. Being pregnant meant that her body would be growing and changing. She did not want Luke to buy a bunch of clothes that she would not end up wearing. Sweatpants and tank tops would be the majority of her wardrobe for the time being… and his button-ups to sleep in.
As much as she liked the dress he got her, it had been a frivolous purchase. She decided that she would wear it as often as possible without feeling like a crazy person for doing so. After all, the baby was growing so quickly that Maggie doubted she would have the figure for such a dress for much longer.
Eyes closed and drifting off to sleep, she suddenly was entertained by a thought. Am I going to keep having normal cravings, or am I going to start craving salmon and honey soon?
CHAPTER SIX
Strange Cravings
Trish was all for hanging out with Maggie the following day, while Luke was at work. Despite his wanting them to just stay at his house together, the two friends met up and went into the city. Trish seemed as excited to get out of the house for a while as Maggie was.
“You need to tell me a
ll about everything,” Trish said as soon as Maggie got into the car and shut the door. “How you came to be with this bear guy, who the fuck this dangerous dude is, and how the hell you’re pregnant.”
Maggie laughed. It was all such a long story.
“Also, where do you want to go?” Trish asked. “I just put gas in this puppy, so we can go anywhere as long as it’s fairly local.”
“Let’s do lunch,” Maggie said, making sure to say it in the poshest way possible. “Anywhere. It’s your choice, because I owe you.”
Trish smiled at that and hit the gas, heading north on the highway.
“When you went to work the other day – god, it really was only a few days ago… Anyway, you went to work and I downloaded this stupid dating app for shifters. Tony always hated shifters. And I can’t say I whole-heartedly blame him now. When I met up with the werewolf guy, I knew pretty quickly that I’d made a mistake.”
“Was he hot?”
Maggie rolled her eyes slightly. “Yeah, that’s part of the problem. I thought he was hot and it would be fun, but it turned out that he was threatening almost from the get-go. Anyway, when I refused to go home with him, he got really mad and was probably about to start hitting me when Luke stepped in.”
“I need to meet this Luke guy. He sounds like a saint.”
Smiling, Maggie nodded a little. “He is, kind of. He took me to his place in order to keep me safe. He gave me snacks and helped me feel better. And, you know… One thing led to another. He is handsome and gentle. You’d never know that he is a werebear, except that he is massive. I think he might be a grizzly bear.”
Trish’s eyes flashed mischievously. “Now I definitely have to meet him.”
“I never knew you had a thing for bears,” Maggie laughed.
“I didn’t either!”
It felt good to joke around again. Maggie was so tired of worrying and being scared. She wanted to be able to have fun and live again, like a normal person.
