Aaron's Mate

by Abigail Raines

  “That sounds wonderful,” Michelle says. I’m filled with what’s maybe a foolish kind of giddiness and bring her hand to my lips, kissing her palm.

  When she smiles at me, I can’t help but think things will work out.

  Michelle agrees to come over after work around six and that gives me enough time to pick up some things. I go to the store and buy some dark chocolate, which I know she likes. I also pick up some pomegranate juice because in shifter circles, I’ve heard it’s all the rage with pregnant mates. I buy her a bouquet of flowers too. I want to buy her everything.

  I get home with just enough time to tidy up my place a little. I groan when I see the bra she left on my nightstand. I stash it away. I’ll have to give it back to her, but I don’t want to seem creepy, the way I left it out like that.

  I dim the lights a little and put on some music. We agreed on Chinese food for dinner. Suddenly I wonder if Michelle would like the kind of food they serve on full moon nights at the estate. I’m sure she would. She’s a woman who appreciates a good steak, so I’m sure she’d like short ribs too.

  I spend way too long on my hair. I dab the tiniest bit of cologne. I make sure my breath is fresh.

  I feel like I’m about sixteen again. But there’s a certain weight to the evening. We’re together, whether or not my clan will allow us to be. This is the beginning of that.

  My door buzzes and when I open it, she takes my breath away once again. I swear this pregnancy gives her some kind of aura. She beams at me, leaning in the doorway, holding a few DVD’s.

  “Hello, handsome.”

  I tug Michelle forward by the hem of her soft, white sweater and kiss her deeply. She wraps her arms around me and plays with the hair at the nape of my neck. When we part, she kisses my cheek, and we smile at each other.

  The evening is warm and full of laughter. Michelle’s movies are cheesy, but she seems to be amused when I make snarky comments about them. We feast on Chinese food and her appetite is voracious. That makes sense. I’ve heard shifter pregnancies can make women ravenously hungry. Aware of this, I ordered enough for a small army since I eat a lot myself. Michelle plows through the beef and broccoli and the orange chicken and when she’s finally had her fill, she snuggles up to me on the couch and I throw my arm around her.

  We’re watching How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days which I’m not so much following as watching Michelle watch it. Except that she’s seen it a million times and has a running commentary for the entire film that includes a lot of opinions on the career of Matthew McConaughey. She gets me laughing so hard, I can’t breathe. I find this woman charming as hell.

  “Ooh, dark chocolate,” Michelle says as the credits roll. She lets me feed it to her piece by piece.

  We put another movie in, but I can tell she’s sleepy. I follow this plot even less than the last one but it involves Jennifer Lopez planning weddings. Michelle is resting her head on my chest, her legs curled up under her and it isn’t long before she falls asleep. I let her snooze for a while, messing around on my phone. When it gets to be near midnight, I nudge her gently.

  “Hey, sweetheart,” I whisper. “Do you want to stay here tonight?”

  “Hmm...yes,” Michelle murmurs, smiling when I stroke her hair.

  I extricate myself from her carefully and pick her up in my arms and she’s light as I carry her to my bedroom. She kisses my cheek, smiling sleepily. In the bed, I take off her shoes and kick off my own before curling up with her under the covers. Michelle hums happily and hugs my chest and I think to myself that this is how I want to life to feel everyday.

  Michelle wakes before me and I frown, trying to hug the air, but she returns quickly enough and I can smell toothpaste, so she must have freshened up. All at once, all the things I’m worried about start to race around my head: I have to tell Xander that I somehow managed to get a human woman pregnant, I have to tell my parents, I have to tell Michelle that she’s pregnant with a wolf shifter, and I have no idea how any of these people will react to any of this.

  “You’re so cozy,” Michelle murmurs, hugging me tighter. I open my eyes and smile upon seeing her facing me and I kiss her on the cheek.

  I force myself to roll out of my bed and go brush my teeth, much as I don’t want to get up. We slept in our clothes and I slip out of my shirt on my way back, clad only in my jeans and socks.

  Michelle wiggles her eyebrows when I walk back in the bedroom.

  “You look like an entire meal,” she says, leaning back on her elbows. Her eyes rove up and down my body and I smirk. The hours I put in at the gym to maintain these abs and these biceps are all worth it for the looks she’s giving me.

  “You look like you want something,” I say, crawling up on the bed. Michelle’s wearing a loose tank top and leggings and I run my hands up her legs, stretched out in front her, squeezing her thighs.

  “I want you,” Michelle whispers, and I kiss her. Her mouth’s becoming familiar to me and I can’t get enough of that taste and the electric sensation I feel every time I touch her that insists she’s my mate and my destiny.

  “I’d like to taste you,” I murmur, kissing her along her neck as she grips my shoulders.

  Michelle hums and says, “Yes, yes…”

  I take my time as I kiss my way down her body, stripping her of her tank top. I’ve been craving her for so long but I force the wolf to heel, restraining myself and focusing only on bringing my mate as much pleasure as she can take for as long as possible. Michelle is warm and pliant in my arms as I play my tongue along her nipple, cupping her other breast. I give them attention until she’s arching up against my body, demanding more.

  “I got you, baby,” I whisper, and kiss my way down her belly before slowly peeling down her leggings.

  She thinks she knows where I’m going but I smirk to myself when I give attention to her thighs instead as her legs part willingly. I suck on the inside of her thigh, cupping her ass in my palms, and she moans, writhing in the sheets.

  “Are you wet for me, Michelle?” I breathe, licking and nipping along the soft flesh, closer and closer to her core.

  “Yes, Aaron, please…”

  My cock is painfully hard by now and I press against the mattress, weakly trying to find some of my own relief even as I finally plunge my tongue inside Michelle who throws her head back. She holds a hand to the back of my neck, urging me on, and I lap at her, quickly finding her clit and sucking there until she’s helplessly crying out, her legs wide open. I tease her, pulling away and going in again until she’s weak in my arms.

  “Wait, wait,” Michelle finally says, grabbing my hand. “Aaron, please, please, I need you…” I look up to see a pleading expression on her face, “Please…”

  I’m hardly going to deny her. She helps me pull off my jeans and smiles slyly at the sight of my cock practically bursting out of my briefs.

  “Want you inside me,” Michelle murmurs. “Please, Aaron.”

  Soon enough we’re both naked and I climb on top of Michelle, ever so carefully, and kiss her softly, chastely, as if it’s the first kiss we’ve ever shared. Michelle wraps her legs around me, and I’m shaking from the effort of restraint as I push myself inside her, slowly this time, taking care of her. I want to memorize her every expression and I lean back even as I push deeper and deeper into the perfection of that heat and Michelle hugs me to her, looking up at me as if this act contains all life’s answers.

  “I love you,” she whispers, quivering in my arms.

  “I love you too, Michelle,” I say.

  We make love slowly this time, with soft kisses and tight embraces. We make love like it’s a sacred ritual for a religion we’ve invented just for each other.

  We rock together, finding a shared rhythm as we clasp hands. I thrust as she squeezes her legs around me, wanting me ever deeper. I hold myself back until she comes, crying out my name and the sound is the sweetest music I’ve ever heard.

  “Yes, my love,” I whisper in her ear. My mate. “Ye
s, my darling…”

  Chapter Ten: Aaron

  “You just sit right there!” I point to the kitchen table with my spatula. “Sit!”

  Michelle smirks and giggles and sits back down. I’m trying to make her breakfast but she keeps distracting me, coming into the kitchen and wrapping her arms around me from behind while I’m trying to cook. I’m going to burn the eggs if her clever fingers keep sneaking under my shirt, tickling my abs and tweaking my hips as she kisses my neck.

  “Is there meat?” Michelle calls from the table where I’m making her sit still.

  I peak through the open doorway and see her with her chin in her hands. She’s wearing one of my flannel shirts and my socks, her hair tousled and messy. She’s adorable.

  “Of course, there’s meat!” I say. “You need protein. Sausage, bacon…”

  “Mmm…”

  “And fruit,” I add. “Do you want regular toast or French toast?”

  “Both!”

  I chuckle to myself. “You just want to eat everything, don’t you?”

  “The baby does!” Michelle counters.

  Just her saying that nearly brings a tear to my eye. The baby. The baby, my pup. I wonder if it will be a boy or a girl? I don’t even care as long as it’s healthy, although I can’t help but wish a little bit for a boy.

  I make Michelle a huge plate of French toast, eggs, bacon, sausage, and strawberries. I make myself breakfast too, but the real joy is watching her eat. She shows no compunction about putting it away and I find it endearing and even a bit sexy.

  “Did you already know I was pregnant before I told you?” Michelle says, swallowing some juice.

  That makes me sit up straight in my chair, my ears perking up. “Know?” I say, all innocence. “How would I have known?”

  “I have no idea,” Michelle says casually. “You just didn’t seem very surprised. It was almost like you expected it.”

  I take a deep breath. I’m going to tell her the truth, it’s not as if I have a choice in the matter. Of course, that goes against centuries of rules and tradition for shifters but it can’t be helped. It’s hardly my fault I somehow got a human woman pregnant. That’s not supposed to be possible.

  “I did,” I say quietly, taking a bit of toast.

  Michelle raises an eyebrow. “And you’re going to explain this to me eventually, right?”

  “Yes,” I say firmly.

  “Are you a vampire?” she asks, every bit as casually as the entire conversation had already been.

  I snort at that, mildly insulted. Vampires have always been our greatest foe. “No!” I say, frowning in my coffee. “Vampires… really, Michelle.”

  “Okay but…” She leans forward and stares at me hard. “Am I that far off though?”

  I don’t know what to say. I suppose that’s because I truly don’t want to lie to Michelle. I want to share everything with her. She seems to read that on my face and looks pale for a moment as the weight of that registers.

  “That’s what I thought,” she says quietly. “Well… I guess I’m in for an interesting pregnancy, aren’t I?”

  “I’m going to figure this out,” I say. I feel like I keep promising this. I reach over and squeeze her hand. “I just need to talk to my brothers first. Hopefully I can talk to Xander before he somehow finds out about you. I told Mason about you but I’m afraid he’ll slip it to Micah without meaning to and Micah would slip it to Xander… ugh.”

  “I didn’t realize you were that close to them,” Michelle says.

  “We tell each other everything,” I say, nodding. “It’s just that Xander’s the oldest and he’s sort of...”

  “In charge?”

  “More or less,” I say. “But I will need his help. Comes with the territory.”

  “Aaron, whatever this is,” Michelle says slowly, “I trust you and I know you wouldn’t be keeping this from me without good reason. But don’t wait too long to tell me. It’s hard to live under this not knowing.” She points to her stomach and says, “And keep in mind, there’s a ticking clock on this.”

  I think of the baby like a ticking time bomb, a very cute one.

  “Understood,” I say simply.

  Michelle and I decide to make a day of it. When she showers, I join her. She wraps her arms around my neck as we stand under the hot, cleansing spray and we kiss lazily as I pretend to be washing her back. Michelle seems to take great pleasure in soaping up my chest and I flex a little to put on a bit of a show for her.

  After we shower, I leave her to amuse herself while I go to the store to pick up some provisions. If it were up to me, I’d have her stay at my place through her whole pregnancy. Who knows though? I’m swept up in the giddiness of having her near me, the scent of her calming the wolf that wants to be close to her and the pup all the time. In my head, I imagine that I’ll somehow be able to smooth over the world shaking revelation that I, a shifter, got a human pregnant.

  I whistle as I drive to the store. I’m on cloud nine.

  At the grocery store, I even get sidetracked in the baby aisle. It’s hardly as if that’s relevant yet but I’m already wondering if shifter babies have different needs. All I know about human babies, I’ve gotten from pop culture. But shifter infant care, I know even less about. I suppose it’s partly because I’m the youngest of the family. There have been family friends and members of the clan with babies certainly, but I never paid very much attention when they talked about what shifter babies require.

  I do remember that shifter babies are particularly difficult when they’re teething.

  I’m fidgeting with a rubber teething ring when my phone buzzes.

  I’m so distracted, I actually pick up without noticing who it is. I suppose I was expecting Michelle.

  “Hey,” I say brightly

  “Is the human woman pregnant?” It’s Xander’s voice and my stomach drops.

  This isn’t going to go well. I might as well rip the Band-Aid off.

  “Yes.”

  “Aaron!” Xander’s voice screams in my ear and I wince. “You are dead, little brother! Your human girlfriend is pregnant? Are you joking? When were you going to tell me! Do you have any idea-”

  “Whoa whoa whoa!” I have to lower my voice. Xander is yelling so loud, I glance around to make sure nobody’s giving me funny looks. “Calm down-”

  “Oh, don’t you dare tell me to calm down!” Xander always does tend to start at a ten when he’s upset but eventually he settles down to about a seven. If you’re lucky. “Where are you right now?”

  “I’m at the store,” I say, pinching the bridge of my nose. I sigh heavily. “So, what happened? Mason told you?”

  “Mason knows?!” Xander all but explodes. “You told Mason before you told me!”

  It’s annoying to me that he’s acting surprised by that. This has always been the way the four of us communicate; running big stuff by Mason before we go to Xander. It’s sort of like taking the pack’s temperature. Though I suppose nothing this big has ever happened before. I guess it’s kind of unprecedented.

  “Micah?” I ask, confused. “I didn’t tell him but I thought maybe Mason told Micah-”

  “No,” Xander says. “Jack Didion told me.”

  Full of nervous energy now, I start pacing in the baby aisle, frowning. “Jack Didion? How the hell did he know?” Jack Didion is an alpha from another pack within our clan. The Didions are from Seattle but they do spend a lot of time in Quinton. I know Jack. I’d call him a friendly acquaintance, more or less. His pack does fall within our clan so that cements a certain amount of loyalty.

  Xander says, “His cousin saw you at some restaurant with a human and smelled the pregnancy on her. Confused the hell out of him because he could tell she wasn’t a shifter. Aaron, my God...what have you done?”

  “I didn’t do anything!” I say, feeling as defensive as when I was a teenager and Xander was yelling at me because I chewed through one of his school books. “It’s not my fault she got pregnant,
Xander. How can you blame me for something that’s supposed to be impossible?”

  “You should’ve told me!”

  “Xan, it just happened and frankly, it’s my life. I know you’re the alpha but-”

  “It’s all our lives when you’re in a pack,” Xander says, “and you know that as well as I do. If you don’t want to be babied, don’t say things that make you sound like a child.”

  I growl at that. He really gets under my skin sometimes. “She’s my mate, Xander,” I say in a tone that leaves no room to argue.

  “Aaron…” He sounds horrified yet grave.

  “If you only understood,” I say, as I pace around the store, absently tossing things into my shopping cart. “I feel the same as if she were a shifter woman who was to be mated to me. She’s for me, Xander. There’s no mistaking it. Everything within me says we’re meant to be together, especially now that she’s going to have my pup. My pup, Xander. A child.”

  “This isn’t the way it’s done. You know that.”

  “Xan...I don’t know how the clan would stop me. But if anyone tries to stand between me and my mate and my unborn child, I will end them. Even if it’s you.”

  Xander only snorts at that. “Oh, for crying out loud, don’t start a blood feud. Look, bring her to the estate. Immediately. We’ll all come down. We have to hash this out. I have no idea what’s to be done though.”

  “Alright,” I mumble.

  “Hey brother,” Xander says. “There is one more thing, although it feels strange to say it under these circumstances.”

  “What’s that?” I say warily. I’m on the verge of wanting to throw my big alpha brother against the wall even if that would probably end up with me on the ground.

  “Congratulations.”

  I give up on the grocery store trip because now there’s no point. I just hope Michelle is agreeable about a sudden jaunt to the estate. Although considering how much she wants to know just what the hell is going on, she’ll probably be alright with it. Even if we don’t tell her yet, she might gain some satisfaction from meeting my family. It’s hard not to be impressed with the Tremblays.