Bared for Her Bear (7 page)

night of sex, but a tiny voice in the back of her head kept whispering “what if”.

“Every male shifter knows that if they don’t want a kid then they better keep it in their pants

when a female is ovulating. Of course I suppose if you weren’t ovulating at that time he wouldn’t have

known.” Melissa’s brow dipped low, and she looked thoughtful.

Shifters senses were precise and keen, and a female in heat could be scented a mile away. It

was kind of like a big neon sign that hung over their head stating they were ready to procreate. “I was

a couple of days away from it. I mean it wasn’t like it was flashing across my face.”

“I suppose, but still.” Melissa shrugged and sucked down more of her margarita. “What are

you going to do?” That was the million dollar question.

February shrugged and picked at the bagel she’d hardly touched. “I guess just wait and see. I

mean it isn’t like we weren’t staying safe. The damn thing broke.”

“Was he just that big, or was he going so hard he tore right through it?” Melissa wagged her

eyebrows in a lewd fashion. Ary didn’t need to respond because when she felt her face heat and saw

Melissa’s grin widen she knew that had been answer enough. “I’m just going to assume he was both.”

“You should just tell him, Ary,” Candace said.

“Why get him worried and worked up when I don’t know for sure? If my period doesn’t come

the day after tomorrow I’ll take one of those tests that detect pregnancy like five days before your

missed period, just to be on the safe side. If it happens to come out positive I’ll tell him.” God, just

thinking about possibly being pregnant sent everything inside of her tightening. The thought terrified

her. She wasn’t young, and she’d always wanted children, but certainly not from the result of a one-

night stand.

“Sweetie, don’t worry about it until you know for sure. You’ll just end up worrying yourself to

death, and that’s not healthy. Now, how about I cheer you up with some of the dirty details of Nick

Jamison?” Ary couldn’t help but laugh at the almost dreamy look on her friend’s face.

“First, what happened to going home with Bram Wylde?” Melissa shrugged at Ary’s question.

“I don’t know. I guess I just wasn’t feeling it. I mean he was hot and all, but when I saw Nick I

just had to have a lion that night.” Melissa leaned forward, and Ary immediately worried about what

would come out of her mouth. “First off, if I had known lions had such huge dicks I would have

hopped on that bandwagon a long time ago.” Melissa fanned herself. “It wasn’t even the fact he

wanted to shove that big thing in my ass—”

Candace started choking on her drink, and February and Melissa started laughing. The noise

drew a few annoyed looks from the other patrons. “He was all into this domination shit, like tying me

up in some weird ass contraption, and beating my ass with this homemade paddle.” She leaned back

and shook her head. “This wolf is not into all that shit, so when I said hell no we went back for another

round of wolfie and lion sex.”

For the next twenty minutes Melissa continued to go into great detail on the things Nick did to

her, made her do to him, and how she could barely walk the next morning. Despite the entertaining,

and somewhat shocking, details her friend provided, there was that small voice in the back of Ary’s

head that wouldn’t give it a rest. Her period couldn’t come soon enough, because who in their right

mind had heard of an ocelot getting knocked up by a bear?

****

Charlie wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm and looked at the construction

site all around him. Wylde Construction was a family owned business that had been around when his

great-grandfather had been alive. It was the leading construction company in Sweet Water, and he was

damn proud of it. It was not only their livelihood, but their dream and passion. He and his two younger

brothers had grown up watching their father sweat blood and tears to provide for them and their

mother. When their parents passed away several years back they knew they couldn’t let it fall under,

so the three of them had teamed up and made it what it was today. He looked over to where Bram and

Ford were busy going over a set of blueprints. They were currently in the middle of building a new

city hall named the Hampton. The last one burnt down a year ago. The frame was up, and his men

were busting their balls on making their quota every day.

“Charlie, come over here and look at this,” Ford called out. There were three other shifters

looking at the blueprints with his brother. Everyone was tired as the end of the day approached, and

each one of them was just as soaked in sweat as he was.

“What’s up?” Ford started talking about the pipes and foundation, but Charlie’s thoughts were

elsewhere. Ever since watching Ary drive away several days ago he hadn’t been able to get her out of

his mind. He wasn’t the type of male that chased after a female and wasn’t about to start, but hell, he

wanted to go to her so damn bad. Over and over he had asked himself what it was about her that drew

him in, but he wanted everything about her, and therein lay the problem. At forty years old he should

have been married to a nice bear shifter female and have a handful of cubs, but as it was he immersed

himself in his work and gorged on females when time allowed. His parents had been so in love with

each other, and even though Charlie wanted that, he didn’t want or need the heartache that came when

the one that was loved above all else was gone. It might have been a baseless emotion, because in

reality he knew he couldn’t live his life like that, but the way things were going had been good for him

this far, and he might as well continue on the same path.

“Yo, Charlie,” Bram called out, and he glanced at his youngest brother. He couldn’t help but

feel slightly responsible that Ford and Bram were just as single as he was. Their lives were about the

business and letting off steam with random females. There was Ford, isolated because of some past

relationship he refused to talk about. Bram immersed himself in bar fights because he needed an outlet

for his anger. They were good men, but had he inadvertently steered them away from wanting

something more than what they had? How many times had he been drunk and asked Ford about Mina

even though he knew there was bad water between those two? He knew it was a sore subject, but he

also knew that maybe if he made his brother remember what he had with the female, even if it had

gone bad in the end, he might take the initiative and not let Charlie’s ridiculous fears consume him. It

was cruel to bring up Mina, and after the last time when he saw the clear pain and rage on his

brother’s face, Charlie never brought it up again. His brothers were old enough to make their own

decisions, no matter how much he thought it was his fault or that they were going the wrong way.

“Yeah, I hear yah.” He told them what needed to be changed in order for everything to be

stable enough and flow smoothly, and although some of the measurements seemed off, his mind was

so fried from working and thinking about Kitten that he didn’t want to deal with it right now. He

wanted to leave, get cleaned up, and throw back a few beers. It had been a rough couple of days, and

only harder because he wanted to feel Ary again, and not necessarily in a sexual way. Maybe he should

just look her up? He still didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed her before taking her to his cabin. She

had this magnetism that drew him in like nothing else, that made him want to control her, take her,

and claim every part of her body until she screamed that there was nothing of her that he didn’t own.

His bear tried to take him over, wanted to shift and hunt her down, mate with her, and mark her flesh.

He wanted to run his tongue along the mark he gave her, and show it to everyone until they knew that

she was his. Shaking his head at his ludicrous and dangerous thoughts, Charlie knew he was treading

on a very slippery slope, because despite the fact he desperately wanted Ary with a fierceness that

actually stunned him, it was all around bad news. Thinking about her this way, and wanting her like he

wanted to … mate with her … was not a place Charlie was going to go. His life had worked out fine

with only himself and the occasional female to warm his bed at night, so any thought about taking on a

mate was off limits. No, there would be no looking her up. He would go on with his life, put her

behind him, and move on. She had been an incredible sexual partner, the best female he had ever been

with, but that was where he needed to leave it.

“Come on, boys, let’s call it a night and get drunk.”

Three days later

Ary stood in the center of her bathroom, that damn little stick of doom hanging loosely in her

hand. She had known this was a possibility, but to actually miss her period, something that
never

happened, and to see those two pink lines show up on the pregnancy test, was like dropping into the

seventh realm of hell.

“Are you sure that two pink lines mean pregnant?” Candace said, and Ary looked at her as if

she lost her mind.

“Candace, I know none of us have been in this situation before, but damn girl, don’t you watch

TV and the commercials for shit like this?” Melissa asked her incredulously.

“Good God, Melissa. Of course I know two lines mean pregnant, but I’m just trying to make

Ary look on the bright side, or not feel so bad about it.”

Ary sat on the closed toilet seat lid and hung her head.

“It’ll be okay, Ary. I promise.” Melissa stood by her side and ran her hand up and down her

back. They had showed up twenty minutes ago with a bag full of pregnancy tests. When she hadn’t had

her period she thought maybe, just
maybe
she had stressed herself out to the point of her period

stopping because of it. She had certainly been worrying enough since all of this happened and didn’t

have any nails left because of it. Then she had made the call to Melissa and Candace, asked them to

grab the tests because she was too much of a wreck to go and get them herself, and here she was,

freaking the freak out right now.

Casting a glance at Candace, who was looking just as worried and nervous as she felt, Ary had

no idea where to go from this point on. She was a single thirty year old woman, an ocelot shifter, and

was currently knocked-up because she’d enjoyed one night of meaningless sex. To make matters

worse the baby she carried was the child of none other than Charlie-flippin-Wylde.

“So, do you think the baby will be an ocelot or bear shifter?” Leave it to Melissa to bring up

something she hadn’t even thought about. There were no hybrid shifters. They were either one or the

other, which meant her child would have her shifting genes or its father’s.

“You know we are here for you, right?” Candace moved next to her and got down on her

haunches. Her strawberry blonde hair was twisted in a cute braid and hung over one of her shoulders.

Her light blue eyes were filled with so much compassion they had Ary bursting into tears. There was a

hushed murmur from both of her friends, which only caused her to cry harder.

Yes, she was so scared about what all of this meant, but she was also crying because she knew

she was lucky to have these friends standing beside her. Their arms wrapped around her, and they held

her tight. Ary knew she had to tell Charlie, but she also knew she needed some time to herself to come

to grips with all of it. This was huge, and until she was comfortable with it, how in the world did she

expect to tell the father?

Melissa and Candace pulled back, and each of them grabbed her hands and helped her to stand.

“Come on, this calls for a monster bowl of ice cream over at Freezy Breezy.” Yes, that sounded like

the perfect, temporary solution to her permanent, horrifying situation.

****

“Charlie, what the hell is going on with you?” Bram cracked open another beer and planted his

ass beside him on his couch. The football game was on, a leopard shifting team from New York

playing against panther shifters from Chicago. The teams were brutal as they tackled each other so

hard against the ground pieces of sod sprayed all around them. There was nothing better than shifter

football. Humans playing the sport were entertaining, but they couldn’t take a hit like a shifter could.

“Hello? You with us?”

“He’s been acting all kinds of fucked-up since he slept with that cat. What did she do, drag her

teeth across your dick?” Ford asked, but his attention was on the game.

Charlie didn’t bother responding, just flipped his brother off and sank further into the leather

couch. He hadn’t talked about February with his brothers, the two people he cared about the most,

because he thought if he didn’t talk about her and tried to block her out, he might be able to put her

behind him. Yeah, that hadn’t worked out as well as he’d liked, and when Bram and Ford brought her