by KD Jones
“Convinced her?”
“I had to make a deal with her, to set up a bank account in exchange for her signing custody of the baby over to me when he is born.”
“Why didn’t you tell me… or your family what was going on?”
“It was one of her conditions. I couldn’t tell my family or friends about the baby.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She’s human and her father is big anti-shifter. She was afraid of him finding out that not only had she slept with a filthy shifter, she got knocked up by one. He would disown her and Jeanne is a spoiled debutante who would be nothing without her daddy’s money.”
He watched as some of the anger faded from her eyes. “She sounds peachy. So this Jeanne made you keep your silence to your family and friends so that her father wouldn’t find out. Why the hell would you sleep with someone that manipulative?”
Ivan was smart enough not to answer by saying Jeanne was sexy. Instead he answered, “I was a complete and utter idiot and wasn’t thinking with the right head.”
She snorted. “You’ve got that right.” She paused as she considered what he had told her. “So you’ve had to keep this huge secret from everyone you love. That must have been very hard and very lonely.”
“It was, but nothing was as excruciating as keeping the truth from the only woman I’ve ever truly loved.”
“Don’t, Ivan.” She shook her head but he was now letting it all out, everything he held back.
“I love you, Dahlia. I have loved you from the first moment I saw you and I’ve suffered every minute that I couldn’t claim you the way my polar bear wanted to.”
“This is a lot to take in.”
He took her hand into his and brought it up to his lips. “I swear, I never meant to hurt you. I pushed you away because I thought that was the best way to keep from hurting you. Every minute of every day I think of you and how I want to show you how I really feel inside.” He kissed her knuckles then turned her hand over and placed a kiss in the center of her palm. “You gave me hell and God, I loved you even more for it. I need you, Dahlia. Forgive me.”
Tears streamed down her lovely face. “You fucked up big time.”
“I know. I can wait… wait as long as it takes for you to forgive and trust me. Then maybe you might love me, too.”
“Loving you has never been the problem. Trusting you is. I don’t know if I can trust you.”
He nodded his head and gently wiped her tears away with his thumb. “I understand.”
“I am still furious with you.”
“I deserve it.”
“Stop being so agreeable, it’s freaking me out!”
He laughed placing another kiss on her palm. “I promise to disagree with you in the next few minutes.”
She moved her hand to his cheek. “I’m going to need time.”
“Take all the time you need.”
“So, when is the bouncing baby arriving, Ivan?”
“In about three weeks.”
She blinked at him a little, her anger coming back. “So, when were you planning to tell me all this? After the kid graduates college?”
“Once I got the contract for custody signed. I’ve been walking on pins and needles trying to keep a miserable pregnant woman happy, and it’s been a living hell.”
“You really love me?”
He leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips before pulling away. “With all my heart.”
“I need some space to think.”
“You won’t run away again?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m done running. I’m staying and taking my life back.”
“Okay, good. Because Dahlia, if you run again, I will hunt you down and bring you home claimed.”
The challenge was there and she looked at him, surprised, and there was a spark of interest in her eyes. It was going to take time to win her back, but he was determined to do it. If he could live months with Jeanne and her demands, he could wait until his mate finally accepted him. She was worth the wait.
Chapter 13
The next morning
Dahlia had stayed the night with Mara, but the next morning she was determined to get back to her life. She went home to shower and change, then headed to work. Cosmo looked relieved to see her and the best part was that he didn’t question her about why she hadn’t shown up for work the past few days.
“Good morning Dahlia, glad to see you.”
“Morning.”
“I have a morning tour lined up, then Ivan will be taking an afternoon tour so he’ll be in later.”
“Great.” She wasn’t sure how she felt about seeing him again. Last night, when he came by to apologize and tell her what his big secret was, she had been hurt and in shock over the whole baby thing. God, Ivan was having a baby with another woman. She was so confused about the situation.
“Dahlia?”
She hadn’t heard Cosmo talking to her. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I asked if you were okay.”
“Sure.”
“If you don’t feel like working, you don’t have to. I can call Sage to help fill in.”
She shook her head. “No, I need to work and keep my mind off of things.”
“For what it’s worth, Ivan cares for you deeply. What happened with Jeanne was before he met you and it should have ended long ago. Unfortunately…”
“Unfortunately he knocked her up and now they will be tied together for the rest of their lives through their connection to their baby.”
“Jeanne is supposed to be giving up custody of the baby to Ivan, so she won’t be involved with him anymore.”
Dahlia had a hard time believing that the woman would just up her baby without a fight. She wouldn’t. “The problem is… I don’t know if I want to be involved with Ivan either.”
“Oh, I see.” Cosmo looked a little disappointed.
“Look, it’s a lot to deal with and I am trying to figure out how I feel about it. Right now, I just want to work and not think about anything for a little while.”
He nodded his head. “I get it.” He started to walk away but stopped. “Oh, by the way, Andy wants to come by and see you tonight if that’s okay.”
“Sure, I would love to see her.”
“Great, I’ll let her know. Could you double check the list of customers for my morning tour to see if any of them have any health issues that I need to know about?”
“Absolutely.”
She was grateful that Cosmo went back to his office and didn’t ask her any more questions about Ivan. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be with Ivan, she did. Her inner bear had been telling her since the moment that they met him that he was their mate. She couldn’t hold it against him either that he had a past before her. Hell, she could have had a child by another man and it wouldn’t be fair for anyone to judge her for it. So, it wouldn’t be fair for her to judge him and hold it against him. That didn’t mean that she wanted to jump into a relationship with him, especially since he was tied up with that Jeanne woman.
Dahlia not only doubted that the woman truly intended to give up all rights to her baby, but she had doubts that the woman didn’t have feelings for Ivan. She saw him with his family and how caring he could be. She knew firsthand how he could do things with his mouth and hands that made every other man Dahlia ever dated pale in comparison. This human was a fool to give him up without a fight.
Damn it! She had to stop thinking about Ivan and the problems that followed him. He asked her to forgive him but he didn’t ask to date her. It was just so confusing. Shaking her head in hopes of clearing her thoughts, she printed the tour list information and grabbed her yellow highlighter. Time to get to work.
*****
Ivan wanted to go in early to have time to talk to Dahlia, but Cosmo had called him that morning and told him to give her some space. His inner polar bear growled with frustration. He agreed, wanting to claim her right away. That wasn’t fair to her, though.
/> Dahlia deserved the space she needed to decide if being with Ivan and the problems that came with him were worth it to her. For him, there was no question about it. He wanted to claim Dahlia as his bondmate and raise his son together.
“Ivan, I heard something outside the cabin,” Jeanne whispered in a panicked voice, knocking on his bedroom door.
He sighed. “I’m sure it’s just a rabbit or fox or something.”
“No, I could have sworn it was voices.”
He opened the door, ready to tell her she was being ridiculous, but he stopped when he saw the fear on her face. “All right, I’ll check it out before I go to work.”
“Do you have to work? Can’t you call out?”
Jeanne was becoming more paranoid the closer to the due date she came. “I’ll be right back.”
He exited the cabin and took a deep breath. His polar bear was immediately at attention. Something was off. He couldn’t put his finger on it; there wasn’t a scent of anyone that had been near the cabin, but he felt like eyes were on him.
Ivan walked around the perimeter of the cabin and found a footprint that led out into the woods. Could be that a hunter got lost or turned around. If that had been the case, though, then why didn’t they come up to the cabin to ask for directions?
Going back up the steps to the cabin, he entered and found Jeanne huddled on the couch. He couldn’t leave her like this, especially since someone could have been outside like she thought. “I didn’t find anyone, but I’ll call my brother Luka to see if he can take my tour this afternoon.”
Jeanne looked relieved. “Thank you. I’ll feel better.”
“Sure, why don’t you take a shower and I’ll fix you something to eat.”
“Thanks, I don’t know what I would do without you.”
The reality of his situation hit him hard. There was no way he could expect Dahlia to get involved with him while Jeanne was still in the picture. Even if he and Jeanne’s relationship was non-sexual, it would be too painful to see them together. The fair thing would be to leave her be until after the baby was born and he had full custody. Not only that, but Jeanne needed to move out and move on. His bear growled in refusal.
No, want mate!
“It would only be for a little bit.”
Mate needs us, and we need our mate.
Well, Ivan certainly couldn’t argue with that point. He needed Dahlia desperately.
Chapter 14
Later the evening
Dahlia was feeling even more depressed than before. Luka had shown up to take Ivan’s tour group without any explanation of why. Even though she wasn’t sure she was ready to face him again yet, it hurt to not see him.
She heard a knock on her door. She went to open it and smiled in surprise. She was expecting Andy but it looked like she brought some friends with her.
“Hi!”
Andy came inside. “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought a few extra people with me.”
“No problem. Nice to see you all.”
Following Andy inside was Ivan’s sister, Sage, who carried a grocery bag, and a blond human woman that used to work with Andy doing some kind of geographic survey type thing. She wasn’t that familiar with the woman. She reached out to shake her hand.
“Hi, I’m Dahlia.”
“I’m Rhonda Lee. Thanks for letting me tag along.”
“You’re more than welcome.”
Andy helped herself to the sofa. “Rhonda works with Niko and Ryder at the sheriff’s office.”
She closed the door and went over to the bar to see what Sage brought. Curious, she glanced at Rhonda. “How do you like it?”
Rhonda shrugged. “Some days it’s boring as hell with the occasional drunk driver who has to sleep it off in lockup. Then, we get real excitement, like last week.”
“What happened last week?”
Rhonda sits on the edge of the sofa and leans forward. “Well, we got this call that weird noises were coming from Minnie Payton’s house, then screams. Niko and I ride out to see what’s going on.”
Andy halted her story. “Wait a minute, you’re the receptionist. Why are you going on ride-a-longs?”
“Because it’s fucking boring sitting at the station by myself.”
Sage looks at her in awe. “So my big bossy brother just lets you come with him?”
“It’s either let me come, or when he comes back he might have his ass glued to his chair… again.”
“Come on, get back to the exciting case,” Andy begged, putting her feet up.
“Okay, so we drive over to Minnie’s house. Niko wanted me to stay in the car but I wasn’t going to do that, but I did tell him I would stand by the car. We get out and nothing. At first we thought it was a prank call. Then we heard smacking sounds.” Rhonda smacked her hands together to demonstrate. “Followed by a long moan. Niko went to the front door and tried it but it was locked. He gently knocked but no one answered. Then a blood-curdling scream filled the air. Niko broke down the front door and I was too freaked out to just stand there, so I followed after him. No one was located on the main floor. The bedrooms were empty. We heard the smacking again but this time it sounded like it was coming from underneath us.”
“A basement?” Sage asked, totally absorbed in the story.
Rhonda nodded her head and her eyes widened. “Yes, a basement, but the door was locked. Somehow the handle broke right off.”
Dahlia looked at Andy and Sage, knowing the real reason the door handle broke.
“So Niko and I started down the stairs and we saw that the basement is dimly lit. It gave me the creeps. Then we heard the smacking sound and it was even louder than before. Niko pointed for me to go back upstairs but I refused. He told me to at least stay put so I figured I would do that for him. He jumped down the few remaining steps and moved around the corner pointing his gun yelling out, ‘Freeze!’ I was too curious to stay so I went down and peeked around the wall and…”
“What?” all three women demanded.
“There was old Minnie Payton in a black leather bodysuit with a bustier that had cut out areas that exposed her boobs and nether region. Her hand was raised up in the air in mid swing ready to spank the very naked rounded ass of Pastor Makings. He, too, was in some sort of BDSM getup with cut outs for his ass and his cock, which was standing loud and proud.”
The women burst out into laughter. Dahlia shook her head, not being able to control the chuckles, “I can’t believe Pastor Makings is into BDSM.”
“I refuse to have that man baptize my baby,” Andy declared, wiping a tear from her cheek.
Sage snorted. “You don’t even go to his church.”
“Well, still, I can’t believe him—being in his sixties—would do that with one of his parishioners.”
Dahlia couldn’t help but say, “I can’t believe he can still get it up.” All the women laughed another round of laughter.
Sage pulled some bottles out of the bag she brought in. “Okay, time for margaritas. I’ll make a virgin one for Andy.”
Andy pouted, “And so it begins.”
Dahlia smiled looking at her friends as they laughed and told stories. It was exactly what she needed to make her forget her troubles… for a little while.
Chapter 15
How long were they going to stay? Ivan wondered as he paced outside Dahlia’s apartment. He felt horrible about not coming into work that day, but Jeanne was scared and paranoid and he felt uncomfortable with someone coming so close to the cabin without his knowledge.
He tried calling Dahlia later that afternoon to explain what had happened, but she left the office early. Ivan asked Ryder to keep watch over his cabin in case if the hunter or whoever it was came back. He needed to talk to Dahlia but his plan was thwarted when Andy, Sage, and Rhonda showed up hours ago. He could hear some laughter but couldn’t really tell what they were saying. He was about to call his brother to come and get his mate, but just then the door to the entrance of the apartment building opened
and the three women walked out.
He kept to the shadows but he knew his sister sensed him. She didn’t say anything, just smiled in his direction as she helped Andy to her car. As soon as they were gone he made his move.
Entering the apartment building, he ran up the stairs. Hers was the first apartment on the left at the top of the stairs. He knocked on the door.
She opened the door. “Did you guy forget something?” She froze as soon as she saw him standing there.
“Hi.”
Dahlia just looked at him in surprise. “Hi. What are you doing here?”
“Can I come in?”
She bit her bottom lip, unsure what to do. He hated that he was the one that made her doubt him. “I promise I won’t stay long.”
Finally, she moved out of the way and allowed him inside her apartment. He quickly looked around. She had a large living room open to her kitchen and a door on the other side of the kitchen when he assumed led to a bedroom. “Nice apartment.”
“Thanks. Do you want something to drink?”
“You got some beer?”
“No but there are margaritas left over.”
“I’ll pass.”
“Okay.”
There was an awkward silence. He cleared his throat. “I missed you today.”
She walked over to the sofa and sat down. “You called out, so there must have been a reason. You never call out.”
He moved to sit across from her in a chair. “Jeanne thought she heard voices outside the cabin. She was in a panic. I checked outside and I did find footprints. She asked me to stay and I did to help calm her.”
“Sure, she needed you so you were there. As you should be.”
He didn’t miss the hurt in her voice. Leaning closer he took her hand. “I’m sorry. I feel I’m being torn between trying to be there and preparing for my son, and where my heart is pulling me… to you. It’s not fair to ask you to get involved with me now when my life is such a mess.”
