Bear Next Door (Midlife Shifters Book 1)

by J. L. Wilder

  “Come on, I mean it. You have to get up.”

  Frustrated, she blinked up at Brady. He was a shadow in the darkness of the bedroom. “What time is it?” she mumbled.

  “Three-fifteen.”

  “In the morning? What the hell are you waking me up for?”

  “I’m sorry. I haven’t been able to sleep. I can’t stop thinking. We need to talk.”

  “Give me a minute.” She sat up and scrubbed her hands over her face, trying to bring herself to full alertness. It was difficult. She had never been good at waking herself up in the middle of the night. “What’s going on?”

  “It’s about the baby. And Steve. Come on, I’m going to start some coffee.”

  “Coffee? You mean we’re not going back to sleep?”

  “No, we need to have a serious conversation,” he said and got out of bed, leaving her staring after him.

  She heard the sound of water running and the coffee pot beginning to percolate. She got to her feet and shuffled into the bathroom to splash some water on her face.

  The water helped. She felt a bit more alert as she made her way from the bathroom to the kitchen, though she was still annoyed at Brady for having woken her. Whatever this was about, surely it could have waited until morning?

  He was in the kitchen, pacing back and forth in front of the counter. She sat down, and he placed a mug of coffee before her. “Drink,” he said.

  Shaking her head in confusion, she took a long sip. The warmth made her want to go right back to bed, but she could feel her head beginning to clear as the caffeine took hold. “All right,” she said. “Tell me what this is all about.”

  “I haven’t slept a wink,” he said. “Something was agitating me. I didn’t know what it was at first. I kept trying to reassure myself with thoughts of you and the baby, with reminders that if it was a boy, he would be the next alpha, and I would be able to raise him to lead the den the way I thought was best. I’ve been turning that thought over and over in my head while you slept.”

  “Well, it’s a nice thought,” she said. “Isn’t it? I like the idea that you might teach our son how to lead. You’d be great at it. You’re not worried about that, are you?”

  “Not that specifically.”

  “Then what? What’s the problem?”

  “It’s Steve,” Brady said. “What do you think he’s going to do when he realizes there’s a chance I might have a biological son?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Evelyn said.

  “Think about it,” Brady said. “Think about the lengths he’s gone to to make sure I’m not a threat to him. He’s done everything he can think of to make sure I don’t have any respect or support within the den. He’s even threatened my life by forcing me to fight against him, Edgar, and Brick all at once. But the one thing he’s never been able to take away is the fact that, biologically, the claim to the alpha position is mine. His only hope is to make me appear unworthy of the role.”

  “Do you think he’ll try to say that our baby isn’t worthy?” Evelyn asked. “Because he thinks you’re not worthy?” Surely that could have waited until morning.

  “No, that wouldn’t work,” Brady said. “Because the baby will have the birthright, but he—if it is a he—won’t have done anything to disgrace himself. There will be no reason he shouldn’t come to power.”

  “But Steve would never just allow that to happen,” Evelyn said.

  “No,” Brady agreed. “He wouldn’t.”

  “Will you sit down, please? That pacing is driving me crazy.”

  Brady sat down at the table, looking as if he was a million miles away. “There are two ways I can see this playing out,” he said. “One is that he waits for the baby to be born. If it’s a boy, he might try to take him from us and raise him as his own. Which would mean that you and I would have to watch our son growing up under the guidance of Steve.”

  “I can’t do that,” Evelyn breathed, fear spiking through her like a knife. “We can’t let Steve get to him.”

  “The other possibility,” Brady said, “is that Steve might not want to wait to see whether the baby is a boy or not. He might attack you as soon as he learns you’re carrying my child.”

  “Do you really think he would do that?” Evelyn asked. She had always despised Steve, and she knew he was a terrible person. But would he really attack a pregnant woman physically and try to end her pregnancy?

  Was it even possible for him to do such a thing without killing Evelyn too?

  A creeping, cold horror spread throughout her body at the thought of it.

  “I wouldn’t have thought even he could stoop so low,” Brady said. “But after what happened at the den meeting the other day, after the way he and Brick and Edgar all attacked me at once, I have to reconsider. I have to take him seriously. The truth is that I don’t know what he’s capable of, but he’s made it clear that he doesn’t mind stooping to violence to keep his control of the den.”

  “We can’t let him hurt our baby,” Evelyn said, wrapping her arms protectively around her body. She didn’t know which of Brady’s hypothetical scenarios frightened her more—the death of her child before she ever had the chance to give birth, or the horror of watching her son be raised by Steve and slowly poisoned against her and Brady.

  “No,” Brady said. “We can’t. This is what I’ve been stewing over for hours, and I had to wake you up to talk to you about it. I think I know what we have to do—but it’s going to be hard.”

  “I’ll do anything,” Evelyn said. “Anything to protect our child.”

  Brady nodded. “So will I,” he said. “But I don’t like it. And you’re not going to like it either.”

  “Tell me,” she urged him. “You’re scaring me.”

  “He can’t know that I have a child on the way,” Brady said. “That’s the only way we can keep the baby safe. He can’t know I’m going to be a father.”

  She nodded. “I can—I can go back to my parents’ house,” she said. Much as she didn’t want to go back to them now, it was much better than the alternative. “When I start to show, I’ll tell everyone that the baby is Marty’s. No one needs to know that you’re involved.”

  Brady closed his eyes. “You’ve been here with me for six weeks now, Evelyn.”

  Evelyn felt as though a pound of lead was settling in her stomach.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she whispered.

  “You know it does,” he said. “The moment it becomes obvious that you’re pregnant, people are going to start talking. It’s been too long since you left Vegas, and everyone knows you’ve been staying with me. Steve knows you’ve been staying with me. Even if he can’t be certain, he’ll suspect that I’m the father of your baby. And that suspicion might be enough to drive him to take drastic action. We can’t take the chance.”

  “What do you want me to do?” she asked, frightened of the answer.

  “We’re going to have to get you your own place,” he said. “Somewhere out of the neighborhood, where no one will be able to see your pregnancy progressing. We’ll have to tell everyone that you decided to leave the den, that you didn’t want to be one of us anymore. People will believe it after what happened with Marty.”

  She shuddered.

  “I’m sorry,” Brady said, resting a hand on her arm. “I don’t like to use that against you at a time like this.”

  “But you’re right,” she said. “People already think of me as the kind of person who doesn’t mind deserting her den. Her family. No one will be surprised that I did it again.” She closed her eyes. “Not even my parents.”

  “We could tell your parents the truth,” Brady said uncertainly.

  “No, we couldn’t,” Evelyn said. “I want to. I really do. But I can’t trust my father with this. He might decide it would be best to let Steve know the truth, and if he did, everything would be lost.”

  “I’m sorry,” Brady said. “I’m so sorry, Evelyn. I hate that you’re going to have to do this. You just g
ot back. I know you wanted to reintegrate yourself into the den, and I wanted that for you too.”

  “There will be time for that later,” she said. “At least, we can hope so. But you’re right, Brady. For now, I need to find somewhere else to live. Somewhere safe, where I can keep this a secret.”

  He pulled her into his arms. She rested against his chest.

  “The worst part,” she said quietly, “is that I’m going to have to leave you.”

  “You won’t be far away,” he said. “We’ll still see each other.”

  “But it won’t be the same,” she said. “It will be hard for you to get away, to make excuses for the time you’re going to spend with me. I’ll be on my own a lot.” She rested her hand on her stomach. “I won’t really be alone, of course. But it’s hard to imagine doing this without you by my side. I want you there to feel the first time the baby kicks. To watch me grow.”

  “I want that too,” Brady murmured. Evelyn could feel his lips against the crown of her head. “I’ll be with you as often as I possibly can, Evelyn. I promise. I won’t let Steve keep us apart.”

  She nodded. “When will we look for a new place for me?”

  “We should start first thing in the morning,” Brady said.

  “You mean tomorrow morning?” She pulled away from him, out of his arms. “You’re in such a rush?”

  “We don’t know how long it will take to find the right place,” he said. “And to be honest with you, Evelyn, this isn’t going to get any easier if we wait. I’d rather just get it over with. That way, at least I’ll be able to feel sure that you’re safe.

  Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. “This isn’t fair,” she said. “Why does it have to be like this? We’ve had so little time together.”

  “It isn’t permanent,” he said, tightening his arm around her. “It won’t be this way forever.”

  “But for how long?” she asked. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. When will it be safe for me to come home? When the baby is born, it will be even more dangerous for us.”

  “I know,” Brady said. “But we just have to keep looking to the future. Someday, eventually, we’ll be able to bring our family back together.”

  Evelyn nodded. She knew that he was doing his best, and that this was hard on him too. She knew that he needed her to be strong right now. She couldn’t afford to fall apart. Neither of them could.

  But it was hard to see how they would ever find their way back to each other. It was hard to believe that there was another side to the long, dark tunnel that they were entering.

  The only thing that will make us safe again is if Brady takes over as alpha. If he managed that, it would be all right for her to come home.

  But she kept quiet. He put so much pressure on himself. She couldn’t stand to make him feel any worse about the role he had lost.

  Chapter Eighteen

  BRADY

  Brady kept to the fringes at the next den meeting. It would be difficult enough, he knew, to do what had to be done today, and spending time in the company of his denmates would only make it harder. Better not to make himself talk to him.

  Besides, being distant now would make the story he had to sell to them more believable.

  Steve called the meeting to order with talk of what kind of beer they ought to add to the week’s shopping list. As everyone chimed in with their suggestions, Brady tuned out.

  It was such a waste of their time to make this a conversation. He appreciated the fact that there was a refrigerator at the alpha house that everyone was welcome to take from, of course. He liked that it fostered a sense of community among the den. But did it really matter what it was stocked with? Everyone would still buy their favorite drinks and put them at their own houses.

  Then he realized that Steve was darting glances at him, as if waiting for him to say something.

  Did he really expect that Brady was going to weigh in on a conversation about what kind of beer they should get? He must know that Brady had no investment in that.

  Then it clicked.

  He doesn’t want me to name a kind of beer. He’s hoping I’ll stand up and say that den money shouldn’t be spent on beer, because not all of us drink it.

  It was so transparent that Brady almost wanted to laugh. He would have laughed if he hadn’t been so upset about unrelated matters.

  If he had tried to argue that den money shouldn’t be spent on beer, Steve would retort that it was Brady’s own fault that he couldn’t drink. That he was the one who had developed a dangerous habit. It would be another opportunity to shame him and deride him in front of the rest of the den.

  What a joke.

  Brady sat back, folded his arms across his chest, and said nothing. If that was what Steve wanted from him, he was going to be disappointed.

  Eventually, the conversation moved on. Will needed a new roof, and money would have to be set aside for that. Travis’ wife was pregnant, and it was tradition for the den to give gifts to the baby, so there was some discussion about what the family needed. That was the most difficult part for Brady to listen to. It wasn’t that he was upset that his baby wouldn’t benefit from the den’s money, exactly. But even though he disliked Steve so strongly, there were people here who he considered his family, and he would have liked to share in this moment with them. He would have liked to receive the congratulations and the encouragement that Travis was getting.

  Finally, the business part of the meeting concluded, and Steve asked whether anyone else had anything to say.

  Steeling himself, Brady got to his feet.

  Steve stared at him. “Don’t tell me you want to challenge for the alpha position again so soon,” he said. “You didn’t get enough the other day? Is that it?”

  Brick laughed cruelly.

  Brady waited.

  Exasperated, Steve waved a hand, acknowledging that Brady should speak. “What is it?” he asked. “For God’s sake.”

  Brady took a breath. He had to sell this. He had to make it believable. Everything depended on it.

  “Evelyn’s left me,” he said. “She moved out last night. I thought the den leadership ought to know.”

  There was a moment of silence as everyone processed that.

  “Where did she go?” Steve asked.

  “I don’t know,” Brady said. “I think she’s still in the city. But she’s left the den, and she’s left me. She says there’s someone else.” He had added this detail to his lie on the off chance that Evelyn might be seen by a member of the den. He would need to be able to sell the story that someone else was the father of her baby. The only alternative had been to get her out of the city altogether, and they had agreed that that felt too unsafe.

  “Well, I’m not surprised,” Steve said. “She always was a flighty bitch. And it’s not as if you were ever appealing enough to convince a woman to stay. Nobody would want a washed-up alpha has-been. I was surprised she was with you at all.”

  Edgar laughed openly at that.

  Brady ground his teeth. He wanted to argue, to defend Evelyn, to defend himself. But he couldn’t. This, what Steve was doing right now, was what they wanted. This was the goal.

  “Right,” he said. “I guess that’s true.”

  “Of course it’s true,” Steve said. “I hope you didn’t really believe she was with you for the long term?”

  “I guess not,” Brady said.

  “Did she go back to that wolf?” Edgar asked. “Is that who the someone else is?” His lips were still twitching with laughter.

  “Hang on,” Will interrupted. “If she went back to a wolf, that isn’t funny. If she went back to a wolf and she’s still in the city, that means we have a wolf in our territory.”

  Steve waved a hand dismissively. “I’m sure it’s fine,” he said. “There’s no reason to think a wolf had anything to do with it.”

  “I think it was someone she works with,” Brady said. He didn’t want to leave his den worrying about the presence of a wolf. />
  But at the same time, he was staggered. How could Steve not take the possibility of a wolf in their territory seriously? What kind of leader was he?

  Steve adjourned the meeting, and some of the den members went out onto the porch for a smoke, while others split into small groups to talk amongst themselves.

  Brady stood up, thinking that he would just leave the alpha house now. There was no reason to stay. He’d done what needed to be done, after all. He had covered Evelyn’s tracks, and hopefully, now she would be safe.

  “Brady?”

  He turned. Danny was there with a couple of cans of soda in hand. He offered one.

  Brady hesitated. He hadn’t planned on sticking around after the meeting. He wanted to get away as quickly as he could.

  But Danny looked so earnest, so genuine, and Brady found that he couldn’t refuse the offer of company. He accepted the soda and sat back down. “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey,” Danny said, taking a seat beside him. “I’m sorry about Evelyn.”

  Brady shrugged. “She wasn’t here for very long,” he said.

  “Yeah, but I could tell that you really liked her,” Danny said. “You were different while she was here.”

  “Was I?” This was news to Brady. “Different how?”

  “I don’t know how to describe it,” Danny said. He glanced over his shoulder nervously.

  “Are you okay?” Brady asked him.

  “I...don’t be offended?”

  “I won’t be.”

  “I don’t want Steve to hear me saying this stuff to you,” Danny admitted. “He wouldn’t like it.”

  “No,” Brady agreed. “He definitely wouldn’t.”

  Will came over and joined them, pulling up a chair. “Hey, Brady,” he said. “I’m sorry about Evelyn.”

  “Thanks, Will,” Brady said.

  “I don’t...” Will bit his lip. “I don’t agree with all that stuff Steve was saying about her. I want you to know that. I thought she was a nice person.”

  Brady nodded gratefully. “She is a nice person,” he said. “Breaking up with me doesn’t change that about her.”