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  I followed suit, gosh how was he leading me like this already, how was I already bending to his will? I reached across the table and put a hand on his arm, just touching him made my entire body quiver. “Wait, don’t go.”

  “Don’t go?” he asked, confusedly, his face crunching up. He was cute when he did that. It made him seem younger than he already looked.

  “There is a lot we need to talk about, I think,” I said. I wasn’t used to taking control like this. I wondered if he felt the same way, like I was pushing my luck. “About Emery, of course.” He nodded, sitting back down. I did the same. “We could bring her in here? You could put the problems to her-“

  “I don’t think that’s wise,” he interrupted, with a slight smile.

  I blinked. He had read me. He knew the situation, he wasn’t stupid. So he knew, and he had to know that I knew too. The air in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. I was drowning in it.

  “Yes, it’s probably best,” I said, shaking my head. “Silly suggestion.”

  “You just want what’s best for your…our…for Emery,” he stammered and reached a hand up to his neck, pulling at the collar of his shirt like it was strangling him.

  “Yes.”

  “Of course.”

  This was the worst and best moment of my life. Holy shit.

  “So,” I said, clearing my throat. “Emery’s behavior?”

  “Yes,” he said. “It’s getting a little out of control,” he continued. “There have been a number of incidents involving the other children and today she started to shift as she pinned one to the ground.”

  “Oh my god.” That’s what I was here for, I needed to get my mind back onto the matter at hand. Emery.

  “Claws, fangs, a small amount of fur,” he said. “It was quite concerning. I think I’m just worried where it could lead if we don’t start speaking to her about it now.”

  “I completely understand,” I said hurriedly. She was starting to shift already when she was angry, a typical alpha trait. I’d have to talk to her about it, teach her how to control it. “I’ll speak with her as soon as she’s home tonight.”

  “Good, and if you need any support from me,” he said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. “If you need anything from me at all you now have my number, I have your contact details , we can…we can work something out.”

  There was so much that wasn’t being said, so many things I really wanted to talk about that we were both avoiding. I wanted us to work it all out right now, I wanted us to talk about this gigantic elephant in the room that held both of our futures in the balance. I wanted to know what we were going to do about this. I needed to know. It was infuriating. I wanted him to say something, I wanted him to make that first move.

  “Well,” he said. “If that’s everything then I will leave you to get on with your day.” He smiled. “I’m sorry to pull you into school today, thank you for doing it so quickly. I was worried about her and I wanted you...I wanted you to know.”

  “Of course, yes, I’m glad you did,” I said. And I was glad for so many other things in that moment, I was glad for him just being in my presence, for the fact that I had found him again. I wanted to scream it from the rooftops. In fact, I wanted him to do that, to give me some kind of signal that we were on the same page. I waited for him to say something else, to say anything else. But nothing. He just gets to his feet, so I followed suit. “Well I will speak to you if anything comes up. Maybe I’ll get in touch to tell you how the conversation with her goes. She’s quite spirited.”

  “Spirited,” he laughed. “Yes, that would be the word.”

  He walked me to the door of the office and I reached out for the handle. But he stopped me, placing a hand on my wrist. The contact sent me into a tailspin. I practically quivered at the contact, of his skin against my skin. It was all I could do not to fall into his arms there and then. We couldn’t do anything here, could we? Not in this office, not in this school, it would be too much, too dangerous. And yet I was firm and slick and ready for him.

  “I have one question I need to ask you,” he whispered, his voice coming out like a grumble. “Is…Is Emery…” He sighed. “This is very hard for me to say.”

  “Just say it, Jarrett,” I said, his name feeling right on my tongue, like it should have been there for the past eight years, like I should have been saying it every morning, every night, every moment of every day, not sitting up at night wishing for him. “Please.”

  “Is Emery my daughter?”

  I nodded, tears springing to my eyes. He knew. Of course he knew. He had to have felt it. Maybe it was something that he couldn’t quite explain to himself but he must have felt it when he was near her. “Of course she is,” I whispered. “I knew you could feel it too, I just knew it.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “But I didn’t know. Believe me when I say that I tried to track you down after it happened.” I pulled my hand away from his wrist, taking it off the door handle and turning to face him. We were so close together I had to look up a little just to look him directly in the eyes. They were filling with tears. Perhaps he had been waiting for this moment as much as I had. “I went to the club, I posted an ad online, I walked aimlessly around town trying to just bump into you but I couldn’t. I had no way of finding you, no way of letting you know. I was so scared, Jarrett.”

  We stared at each other for what felt like a lifetime, eight years worth of questions and glances and lost years passing between us. An entire lifetime, Emery’s lifetime, lost. Over three thousand days apart that we would never get back.

  “I have to go,” I said, pulling my arm away from him and walking out of the office, not knowing if I would ever see him again.

  7

  Jarrett

  I knew I should have stopped him, I knew I should have chased him to the car park and told him everything I was feeling in that moment, but I was at a loss for words. I had so many questions about the last eight years, about where he had been living, about everything he had done, about what he’d done when he’d found out he was pregnant. I felt terrible. If I’d known, I would have been there, and I cursed my reckless, young self for not staying in touch with him or getting his number or doing something other than just sleeping with him in a club. It felt so sordid now. It had been one of the best nights of my life and I’d missed out on so many other nights with him all because of a stupid mistake. I’d missed out on eight years with my fated mate. I’d missed out on eight years with my child. That was a hard pill to swallow.

  Somehow I managed to carry on with the school day, thankful for the distraction from all of the things buzzing around in my head. The kids were okay this afternoon, even Emery seemed to have mellowed out after what had happened at recess. That connection that we’d had wasn’t just because we were both werewolves, not at all. It was because we were blood. She was family and I hadn’t even realized. If I’d have been more perceptive, more curious, maybe I would have figured it out by now.

  I watched her extra closely that afternoon, watched the way she stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth when she was concentrating, something I used to (and probably still) do, the way she would give me that challenging look that I recognized so easily as my own when I was a child. I’d missed so many signs. Maybe I hadn’t wanted to see them. Maybe not seeing them meant that my heart wouldn’t hurt like it did right now.

  I didn’t stick around for too long after school let out, not today. Normally I would stay and do some marking or plan some lessons for next week, but it was Friday afternoon and the day had made me tired. I couldn’t face another minute in there.

  I hurried out not too long after the children, climbing into my car and plugging my phone in to the speaker. I did the thing that I always did in situations like this, when I felt at a loss, and I called my brothers on conference call.

  “Jarrett,” Chasen said brightly. “To what do I owe the pleasure? Are you calling to invite me out for a drink tonight or something because I’m pretty wiped from today, dude?” He thought he was wiped out? Jesus Christ did I have a story for him.

  “Chasen?” Slater piped up. “I thought it was Jarrett calling. What is happening? Have I finally cracked?”

  “What do you mean “finally”?” Chasen quipped.

  “I called you both,” I said, not able to stifle a slight laugh. “I needed to talk to somebody and, frankly, I couldn’t choose between you.”

  “So beers then?” Chasen said, suddenly perking up. “Maybe I could manage one or two, it is Friday after all.”

  “Chase,” I interrupted. “I’m not calling about beer for goodness sake, I’m calling because I’m losing my fucking mind about something that happened at work today.”

  Neither one of them spoke. It wasn’t often that I got this way with either of my brothers but most of the time when you got us together it was a struggle to get us to shut up.

  “What’s your problem, Jarrett?” Slater asked, his deep, grumbly voice calming and dad-like, suddenly making me feel like I was a kid all over again. “I’m listening. Well, we both are, unless Chase is off being a dick or something.”

  “I’m here for you little bro,” Chasen said. “Sorry, I was just dicking around. Talk to us.”

  I took a deep breath and turned the key in the ignition. “Well, I had to have a meeting with one my kid’s parents today. A guy by the name of Brent Bridges.” And I told them the whole story, about how I’d called him and started feeling weird over the phone, how he’d shown up and I was sure that he was my fated mate from all those years ago.

  “Wait,” Chasen said, interrupting me. “Are you trying to tell me that on your 21st birthday you found your fated mate, fucked him and never saw him a
gain until today?!”

  “I wouldn’t put it quite as coarsely as that, but yeah,” I said. “That’s not even the weirdest part.”

  “There’s more?” Chasen sounded almost gleeful.

  “The kid is mine.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line. I had to check that the signal hadn’t cut out on me, but they were both still there, it was just that neither of them had anything to say.

  “Guys, please say something. Anything!”

  “I really don’t know what to say,” Slater said quietly. “I’m not mad before you start thinking I’m mad, I’m just surprised. I mean, I knew you hooked up but I had no idea you knotted and no idea that he was your fated mate and-“

  “Neither did I!” I interrupted. “If I’d known I might have at least got his number or something before he ran off.”

  “This is super weird,” Chasen breathed. “And you had no idea?”

  “I had no idea she was my kid, no,” I said. “I always felt this weird connection with her, something that I couldn’t quite place but I thought it was a werewolf thing rather than a father-daughter thing.”

  “Wow,” Slater said. “So you’re a dad.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Which would make me an Uncle.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, I guess so. You too Chase.”

  “Wow, Uncle Chase,” he said, and I could hear him smiling too. “That’s pretty fucking cool, I’ve always wanted to be an uncle.”

  “I can’t believe you got there before I did!” Slater said. “I’m nearly ten years older than you and I’m not even close to finding mine yet. Wow. That’s pretty fucking cool, Jarrett.”

  I definitely hadn’t considered it that way. My brain was in such a tailspin I didn’t even get a chance to think about the fact that I had found my fated mate, the man I had been dreaming about for the last eight years but hadn’t been able to get near. I actually had a chance at being with him, just like the universe wanted me to.

  “I just want to make sure that there is no other thing it could be,” I said tentatively. “There is no other reason that our bodies could have reacted to each other that way, no other thing that it could be. I don’t want to go running into this head first and getting myself hurt.

  “I get that, Jarrett,” Slater said kindly. “But if your body was reacting to the pheromones of this guy then there isn’t another explanation for it. And the connection with the little girl, I mean, I know you said it’s a feeling but if you really feel it then why couldn’t it be true?”

  “Wow.”

  “What are you going to do?” Chasen asked.

  I pulled the car up in town, just outside Frostbites, a bakery in town that my best friend Tate Heely had run for the past eight years. I took a few calming breaths.

  “I really don’t know,” I said. “We sort of talked around it today when he came in for the meeting and he confirmed that Emery was mine but we didn’t talk details, we didn’t talk about whether or not we’d see each other again and-“

  “Oh my god!” Chasen growled down the phone.

  “What?”

  “Are you kidding me with this, Jarrett?” he said. “Be a little bit more alpha in this situation please! How long have you been out of the game?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Stop moping around in your car and go and see him,” he whined. “I know it’s scary and it’s weird and new but you have to try and bond with Brent and your daughter. You’re not going to know if you don’t try.”

  “But there is so much to think about, so many other factors to-“

  “The only factor you need to consider here is love,” Slater interrupted. “You can deny it all you want but you need to see if this can work, damn the consequences.”

  There was so much to consider, there truly was and it was sort of annoying that my brother’s didn’t get that. With Emery attending Rippling Woods and me being her teacher, it was a weird sort of conflict that I didn’t know how to navigate. But I guess there would be nothing to navigate at all if I didn’t at least try.

  “Earth to Jarrett,” Chasen’s voice teased down the phone. “Are you still there or did you miss the sounds of our wisdom?”

  “I heard you,” I chuckled. “I was just thinking about it.”

  “And?”

  “And I need to think about it some more, I think,” I said. “But thank you for listening to me yammer on about it. I really appreciate it.”

  “Always here for you little bro,” Slater said. “It’s kind of nice that you’re having problems too, makes me feel like less of the screw up Ewen brother.”

  “You’re not a screw up!” Chasen exclaimed.

  “Definitely not!” I added.

  “Stop it, that wasn’t a point of entry,” Slater laughed. “A story for another day. Jarrett, you go do some thinking and you talk to us if you need us okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “And keep us updated,” Chasen said. “I want to know how this turns out.”

  We said our goodbyes and I hung up the phone. I really did have some thinking to do. I didn’t want to rush it because surely that would be dangerous but my body so wanted to be close to Brent again. I could feel it in the air, like there was this magnetic pull dragging me closer to him.

  I got out of the car and walked into Frostbites. I was never so sure on his choice of colors for the bakery. It all looked a little too cute if you asked me. Splashes of pink and yellow and baby blue that made it look like a bakery for kids or something. But it did well. People liked it. Tate was damn good when it came to baked goods.

  I hurried inside and to the counter where Tate is wiping down the work surfaces. His face broke into a beautiful, broad grin when I walked in, his hazel eyes brightening and creasing at the corners.

  “Jarrett!” he exclaimed. “Look at you running in here, where’s the fire, huh?”

  He rushed around the counter and pulled me into a tight hug. I hugged him back and instantly felt a little better. This was what I needed. I loved my brothers but they couldn’t hug me through the phone.

  “Christ, that’s a hug and a half, is everything okay?” Tate mumbled into my neck.

  “Sort of, I think, fuck,” I muttered. Tate pulled away, keeping his hands on my shoulders and looking me right in the eyes.

  “What is it?” he asked. “Do I need to be worried? Do you need a Danish, you look a little pale? Is your blood sugar low?”

  “Tate, stop,” I said, not able to stop a smile stretching across my face. “I think…I think I’ve found my fated mate.”

  His face goes blank. “Shit.”

  “I know. I spoke to my brothers and they think I need to go after him but I’m scared Tate, holy fuck I’m so scared.”

  “What the hell are you doing here talking to me? You should be at his house, you’re insane!”

  “There’s a little more to it than that,” I said. “I have a child too. I think.”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Wait,” he said, looking away from me for a second, apparently doing the math in his head. “Is this the guy you hooked up with at your 21st birthday party?”

  “How could you possibly know that?”

  Tate snorted. “Well, you’re hardly a Casanova, Jarrett!”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It’s not a dig, Jarrett, I’m just saying, you’re not exactly known for sleeping around,” he said.

  “Unlike some people.”

  “Well,” Tate shrugged. “If you’ve got it, you’ve gotta use it or lose it.”

  “You’re vile.”

  “And you love it,” he said with a smile. “What did Chasen say?” he asked.

  “Same as Slater,” I said. “Both of them said that I needed to go after him.”

  Tate sighed. “You know they’re right, don’t you?” he said. “You’re one of the lucky ones, Jarrett, not everyone gets to find their fated mate. Make the most of it and go and claim him.”

  8

  Brent

  I drove back home and slammed the door behind me, falling back against it trying to catch my breath. I couldn’t get his face out of my head. The way he smiled, the way my body just reacted to his presence; it was intoxicating and I sort of wanted it more. But maybe I’d screwed all of that up by running away. That honestly seemed like the most likely thing. Gosh what shower if shit this was.