Bear Next Door (Midlife Shifters Book 1)

by J. L. Wilder

  “Then we’ll teach him never to leave his family,” Evelyn said. “Not for love, not for adventure—not for anything. We’ll make sure the importance of staying with the den is understood.”

  Brady nodded. “And we’ll keep him away from the booze, of course.”

  “Naturally,” Evelyn said, smiling. “And you’ll teach him how to defend himself in a fight.”

  “If it’s a boy, yes, of course.”

  “If it’s a girl, too,” Evelyn said. “She might need to know someday. She might need to be able to protect herself.”

  Brady nodded solemnly. “All right,” he said. “Boy or girl. Either way, self-defense lessons from Dad.”

  She saw the way the corners of his mouth twitched when he said the word dad. He was so excited at the prospect of becoming a father, she knew. And she was excited for him. She couldn’t wait to welcome their child into the world.

  When she was finished with her bath, he started to help her back to bed, but she held up a hand. “I want to go to the nursery,” she said.

  He nodded and continued past their doorway to the spare room that they’d converted into a nursery. Though most of the pack’s families were raised on Briar Street, their baby would be raised in the alpha house on Beech. One day, if the baby was a boy, he would own this house and would inherit the den as well.

  She cradled her bump in her arms, looking at the room that would soon welcome its occupant. Her baby had a whole beautiful life ahead, and Evelyn couldn’t wait to see what that life would bring. She couldn’t wait to be a part of it.

  Chapter Thirty

  BRADY

  The sign Brady had taped to the outside of the door read Please do not use doorbell. Visitors were complying with the request so far, but Brady had underestimated just how loud knocking could be.

  He opened the door to see Danny and his girlfriend of three months, Emily, on the porch. Emily was smiling broadly and holding up a lasagna pan.

  “Shh,” Brady cautioned. “Evelyn’s sleeping.”

  Emily’s smile dropped slightly. “Sorry,” she breathed.

  “No, no, it’s all right,” Brady reassured her. “Come on in.”

  “Are you sure?” Danny asked. “We don’t want to wake her.”

  “Alexander will wake her pretty soon anyway,” Brady said. “That baby’s got a pair of lungs on him.”

  “How is he?” Emily asked. “Can we meet him?”

  “If you want to wait for a bit,” Brady said. “He ought to be waking up sometime in the next hour or so.”

  “Yeah, we’ll wait,” Danny said. “If it’s not a problem for you, that is.”

  “No, definitely not,” Brady assured them. “I could use some company. Evelyn and I have been sleeping in shifts for the last few days.” He laughed. “We’re pretty tired.”

  He took Danny and Emily into the den. Emily handed him the lasagna pan. “Put that in the fridge,” she counseled. “You’ll want to heat it up right before you’re ready to eat it.”

  He nodded. “Thanks, Em,” he said. “Let me just go put this away, and then we can all sit and talk.”

  He hurried to the kitchen and cleared a space in the refrigerator for the lasagna pan. It was a little difficult to find room—all the members of the den had come by over the last few days with prepared meals for the new parents, as was customary when a baby was born into the den. Brady himself had participated in this custom many times over the years, first carrying his mother’s meat loaf to the homes of new parents as a child, and later picking up rotisserie chickens at the grocery store to deliver himself. But he had never been on the receiving end of it before.

  When the pan was safely stowed, he returned to the den to find that Evelyn had gotten out of bed and joined their guests.

  Danny looked guiltily at Brady. “We didn’t mean to wake her,” he said.

  “You didn’t wake me,” Evelyn said. “Don’t apologize, Danny. I was awake already.”

  “Brady told us you were sleeping,” Danny said.

  She shook her head. “I’m supposed to be. I’m supposed to sleep whenever Alexander is asleep. But I couldn’t.”

  “Are you all right?” Brady asked, moving to her side.

  She smiled at him. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “Nothing to worry about. I just keep thinking about him. I’m exhausted, and I know it’s a good thing that he’s sleeping, but a part of me really wishes he would wake up so that I could spend more time with him.”

  As if on cue, they heard the soft sound of crying from the baby’s room.

  Evelyn laughed. “I’ll go get him,” she said.

  “No, you sit,” Brady said. “Socialize. I’ll get the baby.” He nudged her gently into a chair, and she didn’t resist.

  He hurried out of the room and up the stairs, following the sound of the cry. The door to the nursery stood open—neither he nor Evelyn was comfortable closing their baby inside. He went to the crib and looked down.

  Alexander was waving his fists and feet in the air, his cries already beginning to diminish as he soothed himself with the simple distraction of his own appendages. Brady smiled, reached into the crib, and lifted him into his arms.

  “What’s up, little man?” he asked. “You’re not hungry again, are you?”

  He probably was. He had been eating every few hours, which Brady’s mother assured him was completely normal. But nourishment was the one thing a father couldn’t provide. Adjusting his grip on his infant son, he carefully made his way down the stairs and back into the den.

  Emily gasped as he entered the room. “Oh, he’s beautiful!” she said.

  “Isn’t he?” Evelyn asked. “He looks exactly like Brady, don’t you think?”

  “He’s much better looking,” Brady countered.

  “I think he has a bit of both of you,” Danny said.

  “He needs to eat,” Brady said. “But I know you wanted to hold him while you’re here, right?” He and Evelyn had found that this was the best way to keep their guests’ visits short—allow them to hold the baby with a warning that they would have to give him back soon for his own sake.

  Emily and Danny each took a turn bouncing Alexander gently in their arms, but as they passed him back to Evelyn and she began to rearrange her shirt for feeding time, they took the hint that it was time to leave. Brady walked them to the door, and they each embraced him and congratulated him on becoming a father.

  He watched as they descended the porch steps and walked down the block, back toward Danny’s house. Those two still had their whole lives ahead of them. He wondered what they would make of it, now that the den was a healthy and happy place to start a family. He wondered whether Emily would be the next member of their family to have a child.

  Smiling slightly, he went back into the den. Evelyn had begun to feed Alexander, reclining against pillows on the chaise. He sat down beside her and took her feet into his lap. “How’s he doing?”

  “He’s doing well,” she said, shifting a little bit to make herself more comfortable. “He’s awfully hungry.”

  “My mother says I was the same way at this age,” Brady said. “He’s got a lot of growing to do. Remember, he’s going to be the alpha one day. He needs to get big and strong.”

  Evelyn smiled. “It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?” she said. “That this little guy's going to grow up to be the alpha of our den. One day, this will be his house, and he’ll have your role. You and I will move over to Harlowe Street, maybe into one of the houses our parents are living in right now, and watch him lead the new generation.”

  “That’s still a long way away,” Brady said, gazing down at his son. “And yeah, it’s hard to believe. I can’t even bring myself to shut the door of the nursery while he’s sleeping. I don’t know how I’m going to hand the role of alpha over to him.”

  “I guess when the time is right, we’ll know,” Evelyn said. “Right?” We’ll be able to tell when he’s ready to take over.”

  “I don’t know,
” Brady said. “I don’t know if you ever really know. It wasn’t normal with my family. My father didn’t just hand the role over to me. I wasn’t fit to lead, and my father had to hand the decision over to the men of the den, allow them to elect someone. That’s how Steve got the job. And then, when I was ready...you know. I took it back.”

  Evelyn nodded. “But that won’t happen to Alex,” she said. “We won’t let him lose what’s rightfully his.”

  “No, we won’t,” Brady agreed. “I’m going to make sure he’s aware, at every stage of his life, of the role he was born to and how special and important it is. I’ll make sure he never takes it for granted. That was my downfall. I took it for granted. I assumed there was nothing I could do that would cause me to lose it. I was wrong—but Alexander won’t make that mistake.”

  “And I’ll make sure he knows he can always come to us if he needs guidance,” Evelyn said, touching Alexander’s cheek. “That was what ultimately drove me away from the den. If I had had a closer relationship with my parents, I wouldn’t have fallen in with Marty. I would have asked them what I should do when he came sniffing around.”

  Brady nodded. “I feel the same way,” he said. “We’ll make sure he trusts us, and that he knows he can talk to us. About anything.”

  Alexander yawned and stretched his feet, releasing Evelyn’s breast. Brady reached over and took him out of her arms so that she could adjust her bra and shirt. “Do you want to go back up to bed and take a nap?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Let’s stay here for a while,” she said. “The three of us.”

  He nodded, passed Alexander back to her, and lay down behind her on the chaise, which was wide enough to accommodate both of their bodies comfortably. He wrapped an arm around her waist, his hand coming to rest on the back of Alexander’s head. It was small enough to fit inside his palm.

  “God, he’s little,” Brady murmured.

  “He’ll grow soon,” Evelyn said. “He’ll be gigantic before you know it.”

  “I guess he will,” Brady said. “We’d better enjoy him at this size while we’ve got him.”

  She nodded. “I’m not worried,” she said. “Whatever comes next for us is going to be great. I can’t imagine being unhappy now that I have the two of you.”

  He leaned over and kissed her cheek gently. “I love you, you know,” he said. “I’m so glad to have you.”

  “Hey, I’m the lucky one,” she said. “Mated to the alpha. Doesn’t really get better than that, does it?”

  “You could have anyone you want,” he told her. “Don’t try to tell me you got lucky.”

  “I do have who I want,” she said. “And I’m lucky that you came along. I’m lucky that the trajectories of our lives aligned the way they did so that we were ready for each other at the same time.”

  “Do you ever regret the years we missed out on?” he asked. “Do you ever wish we had just gotten together when we were young?”

  Evelyn shook her head. “What we went through got us to where we needed to be,” she said. “I can’t bring myself to regret any of it.”

  Brady smiled, held her tighter, and closed his eyes.

  He felt exactly the same way.

  Preview of Omegas In Heat Box Set

  "Alright, everyone! It's now or never!"

  A tinge of fear ran through Echo Wilson. The night she'd been dreading for months had finally arrived. She stood among the crowd gathered at the motorcycle-circled cabins in the middle of the woods. She was at the headquarters of her bear pack, the Hearteater Clan, and all she could think about was how she didn't want to be there.

  She realized she was alone in that sentiment. The rest of the Hearteaters—all clad in denim and leather, let out cheers and other cries of excitement.

  "Echo!" shouted a man's voice from behind her. It was one that she recognized instantly.

  She turned and was greeted with the sight of Stone, the pack's alpha. Tall and muscular, his hair and beard coal-black, he looked like a leader.

  "What the hell are you doing just standing around?"

  Echo hated having the attention of Stone. He was all cocky swagger with that typical greedy, eager smirk on his face. He looked at her with that same hungry stare that he had for all the women of the pack, like all he could think about was throwing her over his shoulder and taking her back to his lodge to use her however he wanted.

  "I don't know," Echo said, not sure what else to say.

  Stone scoffed and shook his head.

  "I don't know," he mimicked. "Not sure why I expected you to say anything different."

  "Sorry," she said. "Just...excited about tonight, I guess."

  "There you go," he said. "Excited is better."

  Echo knew that "excited" didn't really describe how she felt. "Fearful" was more like it.

  After all, tonight was the night of the claiming ceremony—the night the entire clan would learn which of the women was fated to become Stone's prime mate, the woman who'd carry his children.

  "No," he said, stepping closer and cutting the distance between them to less than a foot. "That's not it, gorgeous. You're holding back on me, aren't you?"

  He reached up and took her chin into his hand, tilting her head up to face him. Stone was tall, and built. Echo always felt he loved the way he towered over the women, and most of the men of the clan.

  "Holding back what?"

  His smirk spread.

  "You think you're so hard to read, baby girl. But you know I can see right through you."

  "I—"

  He didn't let her finish.

  "Let me guess," he said. "You're worried that it won't be you? That one of the other girls is going to be warming my bed from here on out?"

  "Y-yeah," she said. "That's it."

  He let go of her chin, moving his hand onto her cheek.

  "Don't blame you," he said. "It's a hell of an honor to be the alpha's omega. She gets to carry my babies—she gets to be the favored mate."

  All Echo wanted was to snatch his hand from her face and step away. But that would be the worst decision she could make. Stone was all alpha—all temper. Offending him would mean a slap.

  Or worse.

  "And the worst fucking part," he said. "Is that it's out of my hands. All we can do is perform the ceremony."

  "I know," said Echo. "And that's what worries me."

  It worried her, but not in the way that she knew Stone thought. She knew he could easily see through her lies in most cases, but hoped that this one would be close enough to the truth that he wouldn't.

  "You and every other girl here," he said with another smirk. "The chosen omega...it's a hell of a life waiting for her. Carrying my cubs, sharing my bed, spending the rest of her natural life learning how to please me."

  He shook his head.

  "Don't blame you one bit."

  Then Stone leaned in, closer to Echo's ear, close enough that his bristly beard rubbed against her fair skin.

  "But I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, baby girl," he said. "See, being the alpha comes with its perks, you know?"

  "What...what kind of perks?"

  "See, I only get one omega. Only one girl's fit to carry my cubs. But that doesn't mean I don't get to have a little fun on the side."

  He placed his hand on Echo's slender shoulder and turned her towards the rest of the pack, all of them lining up to begin the first part of the ceremony—the run. There were dozens of them, men and women, ready to shift and tear through the woods as fast as they could, eager to see who was the fastest.

  "That means that every girl here is gonna warm my bed one night or another. And you bet that gorgeous little ass of yours that you're not going to get left out."

  To make his point, Stone reached around and grabbed Echo's ass, giving it a squeeze before she realized what the hell was going on and jumped away.

  "Hey!" she shouted. "What the...!"

  A few of the other members of the pack noticed and looked over. Stone's
eyes narrowed, and Echo knew that she'd fucked up. Stone was a man used to getting what he wanted, and what she'd just done wasn't an option with someone like him.

  "The fuck you say?" he asked after shooting a hard glare at the other members of the pack, getting them to mind their own business.

  Shit, thought Echo.

  "It was just...surprising," she said, forcing a small smile. "Getting grabbed by you. It...does things to me."

  His anger faded, his grin returning.

  "You're gonna need to get used to me having my hands all over you, baby girl," he said. "Because you've got no idea how long I've been waiting to get you naked and squirming underneath me. I'm gonna fill you so full you're not gonna be able to walk right for a week."

  He put his hands on her hips and pulled her close, close enough to feel his cock through his jeans.

  "You like that?" he asked, his voice a low growl. "Because it's gonna be yours. Not all yours...but something tells me you'll be happy to share."

  Echo said nothing, only wanting to get out of his arms as fast as possible.

  "Maybe tonight," he said. "But definitely soon."

  He finally let her go, stepping back and dragging his eyes over her body.

  "Now," he said. "Time to run."

  Relief washed over Echo as Stone turned his back to her and approached the rest of the pack. As he did, she looked out into the woods, wondering if she had it in her to take off right then and there, to break free from the Hearteater pack like she'd always wanted.

  I've got the speed, she thought. Not a single bear here can outrun me. One of the few perks of being a half-breed.

  But she knew, as fast as she was, that Stone wouldn't let her get far. And she also knew that the punishment would be fast and severe for throwing a wrench into the ceremony.

  "Listen up, Hearteaters!" called out Stone as he made his way towards the pack. "You know what fucking time it is!"

  Cheers and yells sounded from them. Echo glanced at the open woods one last time, before starting off toward the rest of the group and falling in.

  The rest of the girls in the pack shot her the same dirty looks Echo was long used to by now. Despite being with the Hearteaters for all twenty-one years of her life, ever since her pregnant mother was taken in by them, she'd never fit it in with the rest of the women.