Tyler stared. He tried to process what was just said—and burst into laughter. Him and Max, fathers? “Right,” he choked out. “Yeah, we’ll just start painting a nursery, then. You got the wrong people, lady. Nobody here is looking to have kids.”
He turned to head back into the house, but the woman pulled a thick set of papers out of her briefcase and shoved them at him. “This is the contract that you both signed. You can take all the time you need to look over it. But you have signed the contract and now a surrogate is pregnant with your child.”
Tyler peered at the papers, his vision just a little blurred with the headache that was increasing in his temples. He kept chuckling, even as his wolf huffed and paced. This couldn’t be real. He and Max were always careful. They made sure that there wasn’t a chance that the women they slept with were able to get pregnant because they didn’t want to have kids.
This had to be some elaborate prank. Max was messing with him. As revenge for the whole chocolate incident last week? This was not cool. He folded the papers up again and shoved them at the woman.
“Nice try, sweetheart,” he sneered. “But I don’t believe it. Max should have hired a better actress.”
“Mr. Vaughn, I assure you—”
“Now you can take that sexy ass of yours and walk away,” he continued, pointing at the cars that were piled into their driveway. He didn’t know which one was hers. “Your boyfriend and you might have come up six months ago or whatever, but our policies have changed. Unattached people only. Too messy otherwise.”
“Mr. Vaughn, I don’t think you understand.”
Tyler whipped around again, a snarl on his lips. There was such thing as pushing a prank too far, after all.
The woman flinched. She clutched the contract tightly in her hands and swallowed hard. “I understand that this must be a great shock for you. But I can assure you, all of this is quite legally binding.”
Tyler growled under his breath, then turned on his heel. He yanked open the door and gestured for her to follow him. She looked hesitant as she stepped into the cabin, her face turning bright red when she saw all the people in states of undress. Tyler strode over to Max and kicked him awake.
“Ugh, what?” Max growled as he slung an arm over his eyes. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Study,” Tyler growled back. “Now.”
He snagged a cup of coffee from the brunette, thanking her with a kiss, and led the surrogate agency woman into the back of the house. Two more wolves lay on the floor with a woman cuddled between them and Tyler kicked them out and shut the door. He drank the coffee, ignoring how it burned, and looked over the contract again.
It took a few minutes for Max to stumble his way to the study. He had a cup of coffee in his hand, too, his pants half undone—they didn’t look like his at all—and his shirt inside out. He blinked blearily at the woman and groaned.
“You were here about six months ago, weren’t you? What’s your name? Vanessa? Oh.” His gaze landed on the ring as he drank deeply from his cup. “You and your boyfriend… what was his name?”
“Adam.”
“Adam.” Max rolled his shoulders. “You two decided to get married, eh? So what are you here for?”
Tyler threw the contract at him. “Apparently we paid for a surrogate to get pregnant with our kid and we’ve got six months before they’re born, and we have to take care of them.”
Max froze. His eyes widened and he let out a string of curses. Tyler growled low in his throat, hoping that Max would suddenly burst into laughter and say it was all a joke. But he didn’t. Instead, he read and reread the contract while Vanessa stood there, wringing her hands and looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here.
“Fuck,” Max said as he sank into a chair. “I remember this now.”
Vanessa sighed. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am. You chose your surrogate out of available pictures and I put a rush on it.”
“We were drunk,” Max snarled. “This isn’t binding.”
“Please,” Vanessa cried as he stood. “Please, there has to be something we can work out. If my bosses find out that I processed this while I was so drunk, I’ll lose my job! I can’t lose my job; my fiancé was just diagnosed with diabetes and he was in a car accident and can’t work. I can’t lose this job! We need the money.”
“Not our problem,” Max said.
Tyler frowned, though. Sure, he had no desire to be a father, but he couldn’t think that Vanessa somehow tricked them into this. More likely, they had cajoled and begged and seduced her into doing what they wanted. Although why they had decided to have a baby together, Tyler didn’t know. Maybe they were gayer than they realized…
Max glanced at him, probably wondering the same thing. They both shrugged and looked away from each other. They’d known one another since childhood and had never considered a life living apart from each other. But their relationship wasn’t sexual or romantic. Maybe there was a letter in the LGBT+ acronym that would classify them, but neither of them cared to put labels on themselves. It was fair enough to say that they weren’t straight but even that… who cared?
“We’ll think on it,” Tyler said. “Right now, you need to leave so we can wrap our heads around this whole mess. And you’ll be sending the name and address of that surrogate so we can go talk to her ourselves.”
Vanessa chewed her lip. “I’m not supposed to—”
“There was a lot you weren’t supposed to do,” Max growled, his whole body bristling with anger.
Tyler had to roll his eyes, even though he was just as angry. “Exactly. But don’t worry. We will make sure to let you know what we decide before we contact your bosses.”
Vanessa looked crushed but nodded. She gathered her things and scurried out. Max snorted as he looked at the contract again.
“So, we’re gonna be dads, huh?” Tyler said, forcing a grin.
Max dropped the contract again. “Not if I have anything to say about it. Fuck! What have you gotten us mixed up in this time? And with vampires moving into the area? Your timing could not be worse. Idiot.”
Grumbling, he went back out to where more people were waking up. Tyler rolled his eyes and followed. Why is it always my fault?
Chapter Three
As if this wasn’t a big enough mess to begin with, but it had to be Ian Lloyd’s little sister who was pregnant with their child. Max really wanted to beat something. Preferably Tyler because this was probably his fault somehow. He was the one who was always getting them into these messes. A baby! Why would they need a baby in their lives?
And then for it to be Angela Lloyd? Well. Maybe Tyler had a suicidal streak or something.
Max tried to ignore the playful yipping of his wolf, tried to ignore how that small spot of light buried deep in his chest had lit up when Tyler told him Angela was their surrogate. He vaguely remembered seeing her on the site when Vanessa had shown them possible surrogates. The rest of the night was a blur, but he remembered seeing Angela’s face.
He could only hope that she would be reasonable about all of this. While he wasn’t happy with Vanessa for putting all this through while they were drunk, the fact was that the last thing they needed was some town-wide scandal. If they could just take care of this quietly, they’d all benefit. Angela was well-liked in Deville, a familiar waitress at the best diner in town, and the last thing the wolves needed was for sentiment to turn against them.
Not to mention what Ian would do to him and Tyler if he found out about this.
Angela looked green, contrasting sharply with her luscious red hair, when she answered the door to her apartment. And then, when she saw them, her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. If anything, she looked even greener.
“Angela,” Tyler greeted with his trademark cocky smirk. “Can we come in?”
Silently, she held the door open. Max strode past her, working not to clench his hands while his wolf pawed at his chest and whined. What do you want? He shot at it, but it only whined e
ven more.
His gaze was drawn to Angela’s stomach. She was so curvy that it was difficult to tell in her baggy pajamas whether she was showing or not. The image flashed through his mind of her swollen with his child and his wolf yipped again.
“Forgive our intrusion,” Tyler said as he took a seat. “But there is something we need to discuss with you.”
Silently, she took a seat and wrapped her arms around herself.
Max was already tired of beating around the bush. “The surrogate agency fucked up. You’re pregnant from Tyler or me, but we don’t want any kid and the contract is not legally binding because we were inebriated when we signed it.”
Angela bit her lip and Max tried not to feel how it affected him—although his tightening pants were hard to ignore.
“Oh. Well.” She bent her head, her shoulders hunching. “Well… well, I’m glad you came to talk to me, then. Because I was looking to talk to you about that… you see, I changed my mind.”
Something twisted in Max’s gut. He opened his mouth, about to demand what exactly she meant, but he swallowed it down. No. There was no point in that. He wasn’t going to start feeling about things like that! Instead, he nodded. They were on the same page, good.
“Alright, then. I know that the agency has a clause that you have to pay back the fee you were given if you seek to terminate the pregnancy before—”
Angela’s head shot back up. For a moment she turned so green he thought she might vomit. He leaned forward, his wolf pawing at his chest again. But the green passed, replaced by a red as bright as her hair.
“That isn’t what I meant!” she shrieked. Her hands clenched over her knees as she narrowed her eyes.
Max had never seen her look this fierce. His eyes widened in shock. “Excuse me?”
“I am not getting an abortion!”
Beside him, Tyler shifted and leaned forward. “Please forgive this, Angela, but we are rather confused. If you changed your mind about the pregnancy—”
“I changed my mind about the surrogacy,” Angela replied. Her hands still trembled in their fists, but the fighting light disappeared from her eyes. “I… I…”
She seemed reluctant to say it now, but Max had a pretty good guess. “You want to keep the baby.”
“Babies,” she replied softly. “I’m carrying twins. And yes, I want to keep them.”
Max sat there in silence for a moment, uncertain what the fuck was going on. On one hand, it was a perfect solution. He and Tyler didn’t want a kid, let alone two, and Angela did. There was a clause in the contract that allowed them to sign away their parental rights, to revert the responsibility to the surrogate should she refuse abortion. And if she wanted to have a pair of twins running around…
His wolf growled at him as he imagined running out with the pack, his children running with Ian as their uncle. Not acknowledging him as a father. What would Tyler do? Would he want to be an intermittent dad? And they all lived in Deville! Not only that, but Tyler and Max belonged to the same pack as Ian. They were bound to Angela, albeit loosely, unless they left and that… well, that wasn’t going to happen.
Unexpected anger swelled in Max. This wasn’t in his plans! The world was a hard, cruel place and he wasn’t going to be obligated to take care of anybody but himself! His wolf snarled and growled, for once as angry as he was… he had a feeling they were angry about different things, though. But what did it know about how complicated this made everything?
“I’m not going to have some brat with half my DNA running around messing everything up,” Max snarled.
Angela flinched back from him and Tyler grabbed his arm. His wolf was about ready to tear a hole through his chest, it was so incensed.
“Let’s not lose our heads,” Tyler snapped, glaring at him.
Max snorted and leaned back.
Tyler turned to Angela, who was trembling at this point. Max hated to see her like that. But if he apologized, that meant he’d be undoing everything he’d just said. And he’d meant it all… hadn’t he? He was from a long line of violent wolves. There was a reason why he’d joined the military. There was a reason he’d been so good at the undercover work that took him and Tyler into a terrorist organization. She should be afraid of him.
If she knew what sort of creature she had in her womb, she’d tear it out herself.
“Angela, I know that this has to be a very trying time for you and there is a lot for you to think about,” Tyler said in that soothing voice he’d perfected when working with grieving people trying to arrange their loved one’s last farewells. “But you are aware that if Max and I withdraw from our agreement, by the agency’s rules you are legally required to either abort or pay the legal fees for our parental rights to be severed.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But they aren’t as high as the fee I was paid to provide my body as a surrogate to begin with. I can afford it.”
There was a doubtful tinge to her voice and Max opened his mouth—they could easily pay those fees since they were the ones who were going to say they didn’t want the service anymore. But he closed his mouth again. It didn’t change the fact that he didn’t believe that his DNA should be passed on at all. His brow furrowed as he glanced at Tyler.
He looked so calm Max wanted to punch him.
“It was always in the contract,” Angela continued. “I made sure before I signed up. The only reason I would abort was if the pregnancy put my life in significant danger or the baby developed in such a way that it wouldn’t be able to survive outside the womb. Didn’t you read my stipulations before you chose me as your surrogate?”
“No.” Tyler grinned. “We were too drunk for that.”
Max flinched. Why had he admitted that?
“And since we were drunk, if we can’t take care of this quietly—"
“We’ve already taken care of it.” Angela’s hands were bunched on her knees again and she even managed a glare. “You’re going to withdraw from your end of the contract and I’m going to keep the babies. I’ll pay whatever fee you have to pay on your end.”
“That’s not the point,” Max started, but his phone interrupted him.
If it was anybody but Sly, the alpha of their pack, he would have ignored it. But one did not simply ignore Sly. He answered, working hard to keep the growl out of his voice as his wolf paced back and forth. “What is it?”
“Max?” Sly actually sounded… relieved. “Tyler with you?”
“Yeah.” Max’s brow furrowed. “What’s this about?”
There was a beat of silence and then Sly growled, “The both of you get up to my cabin right now.”
He hung up without so much as a goodbye. Max snorted, rolled his eyes and turned to Tyler. “We’ve been summoned by the alpha. We’ll talk about this later,” he said over his shoulder to Angela.
He thought he heard her mumble there was nothing to talk about, but he didn’t pay any attention to her. His wolf was, by this time, furious with him, and if it had been a physical entity in his chest, he’d have been killed by the way it was tearing into his heart and lungs. It only made him angrier, being so at odds with his wolf. Didn’t it understand what was going on?
Soon enough he was having to swallow his anger, as Tyler pulled the truck up to Sly’s cabin. Devon, the second-in-command, was already waiting on the porch. He frowned at the two of them, but there was that strange sort of relief in his eyes when they got out of the truck as well.
“What’s this about?” Tyler asked as he swaggered up the steps. “We in trouble for the party last night? Ian was there checking IDs again.”
Devon rolled his eyes. “He has to do that because of neighbor complaints.”
“What neighbors?” Max grumbled. “The closest people to us are Kristoff and Roman and it’s a half-hour drive to either of them. If the townsfolk don’t like us—”
“That’s not why you’re here,” Devon interrupted. “Come in inside.”
Max’s brow furrowed as he entered… to se
e a body on the table. His eyes widened. Not just a body—his body! He stopped as Tyler gasped. For a moment he was uncertain what to think. There was some predation on the face, marring it just enough that it was easily mistaken for him. The body’s build and coloring were all him. It even had tattoos similar to his.
Kristoff and Lucas both stood in the cabin, looking grim and anxious.
“What the fuck is this?” Max demanded.
Sly looked up from where he stood next to his mate, Chloe. “Vampire victim found in the woods this morning.”
Tyler whistled as he moved closer. “Okay, that’s just freaky. I thought that the vampires in the area were under surveillance?”
“They are,” Lucas said. “Kristoff and I found him when we were going to relieve Roman and Omar. They didn’t see any movement from the vampires all night.”
“And,” Kristoff added, “we made sure to search the cave for any secret passageways or anything. There is no way they could have gotten out.”
Sly put an arm around Chloe. “Which means there is another vampire around.”
Max knew better than to ask whether Chloe had an alibi. He and Tyler had to collect blood from their clients’ corpses in order to feed her. But as Sly and Devon’s mate, she was above suspicion. From the pale marks on Sly’s neck, Max could guess where Chloe had been and what she had been up to.
“So. We have a vampire killing a hiker that looks suspiciously like me,” he said, keeping his voice even. “What’s the next plan?”
“The plan,” Sly rumbled, “is that you are going to take extra precautions, and we’re going to keep a closer eye out for more vampires. You aren’t to go anywhere without Tyler. And—” Here Sly grinned wryly. “None of your parties for a few days. We don’t want you inviting strangers into your house until we know if this is coincidence or you’re being targeted.”
Max kicked the floor and let out a string of curses but nodded. Sly was right, of course. As if they needed more complications in this situation. Should we tell him about Angela? Max stared at the body on the table and shook his head. No. There isn’t any reason to. It’s completely unrelated—and Angela will take care of herself.
Surrogate for the Wolves Page 2
