Walk on the Striped Side (25 page)

If there was ever a moment that he
wanted to wrap his mate in industrial strength bubble wrap, secure it with duct
tape and then secure her somewhere she couldn’t hurt herself, this was it.

“Just look!” she wailed. “Look at
the branch! He’s there, I tell
ya
!”

Refusing to let go of the nozzle of
the gun, Gage looked at the branch. At first he was sure there was nothing and
then a very small movement in the middle of the branch caught his attention.
Focusing his eyes on the spot, he stared until he realized what he was looking
at.

A spider.

His mate was trying to set a tree
on fire because there was spider on it.

Could pregnancy cause a woman to go
absolutely strait-jacket-needed, break-out-the-drool-inducing-meds nuts?
Because that’s what he was worried he would need at this point, and he hated
the idea that the pregnancy was the thing that had pushed her over the edge.

Heaving a sigh of worry, Gage
murmured, “Give me the weapon, baby, and let’s go inside.”

“If you love me, you’ll let me
roast him. He’s taunting me, sitting up there on that branch like that! I swear
to you, he’s
taunting
me.”

Gage felt Alec and Chloe step up to
stand on either side of him as he finally pried the gun to the flamethrower out
of Elena’s hands. Handing it over to one of them without really looking to see
which one it was, he unbuckled the weapon’s strap from around her waist.

“I do love you, mate. More than you
can possibly comprehend since you don’t understand the true ramifications of me
tying myself to your unstable, little ass for the rest of our lives. But you
can’t go around shooting weapons at teeny, tiny, little spiders. He’s probably
not the same spider you’ve seen before. And really, he’s just a harmless,
little bug. What harm could he cause you?”

“He’s not a harmless little bug.
He’s an agent of
evil
. We have to kill him, I tell you, or he’s going to
try and get us in our sleep!”

Pulling the straps off her
shoulders, he tugged the weapon’s pack off her back and then handed it over to
the person that he’d handed the gun section to a second before. He heard the
heavy tank hit the ground next to his foot, yet he didn’t pay attention to it
since all of his focus was on Elena in front of him.

Using his hands on her shoulders,
he turned her body around until she faced him. Smoothing his hands up her arms
until they ran over her shoulders, up her neck and cupped her face, he talked
clearly and slowly as if speaking to a small child. “He won’t ‘get’ us or
bother us in any way, okay? I promise. Now, come with me into the house and you
can yell at me for knocking you up. Won’t that make you feel better? To yell at
me and call me names? Then I can tell you how sorry I am and how much I love
you. While you’re yelling at me, I’ll make you a snack. You have to start
eating more now that you’re carrying our cubs.”

“Our cubs?” she asked, a little shell-shocked.
“You mean there’s going to be more than one baby?”

Oops. He’d forgotten that she’d
stormed off and missed that part of the conversation he’d just had with Alec
and Chloe.

Hesitantly, he answered, “More than
likely, yes.”

Her eyes seemed to glaze over a bit
and then she looked from him to Alec on the side of him closest to the house
and then her sister on the other side of him, who was holding the flamethrower
and standing closest to the tree. When she looked back to Gage, he still
couldn’t tell what she was thinking and it made him nervous. How one strong,
intelligent, fierce woman who’d come from a long line of Amazons could be so
incredibly afraid of spiders, he would never understand.

“How sure are you that there will
be more than one baby?”

“About ninety percent sure,” he
answered honestly. Why lie? She might as well start to get used to the idea of
more than one baby since it was going to be a reality.

“Aunt Thea told me that shifters
don’t grow claws or fangs until they’re in their teens, so the babies won’t be
able to shift to protect themselves until then.”

Gage shook his head. “No shifting
until puberty.”

Faster than he could have ever
imagined a human could move, Elena lunged for the flamethrower’s gun, grabbed
it from her sister, and had both triggers pulled and a line of fire aimed at
the tree branch.

Gage shouted in surprise, grabbed
the gun from her, causing her fingers to come off the triggers and the weapon
to stop spewing its flames. He threw it to the ground away from them both.

“
Are you completely fucking
INSANE
?”

She looked back at him as calm and
collected as could be, as though the last five minutes hadn’t happened at all.
“Nope. My mind is definitely not lost. As a matter of fact, it’s right where I
left it, in my head.”

Pointing to the burning branch, he
snarled back, “Yeah? Then explain that!”

Elena shrugged. “I keep trying to
tell you that’s the same spider and it’s out to get me. I would have walked
away from it like you wanted me to, but then you had to go and tell me that our
poor kids wouldn’t be able to protect themselves from it until they were older.
I’m just a mother looking out for her children.”

Gage didn’t know whether to
celebrate her burgeoning maternal instincts or go inside and buy a strait
jacket off the internet. Either way, he knew that he couldn’t love her
anymore
than he already did, even if he was convinced their
cubs were going to be psychotic.

Between his fears of her trying to
leave him because of her humanity, their fight, and then this, he didn’t know
what to say to her. He also didn’t want to open his mouth and voice something
stupid because he was pissed off, stressed out and she’d just scared the shit
out of him with a fucking flamethrower. So instead of saying something that
he’d more than likely regret later, he walked away… and he was headed straight
for his favorite bottle of whisky.

CHAPTER-THIRTY

Elena

Elena watched the man who loved her
enough to resign himself to a death sentence walk away towards his house
without saying another word to her. Sure, she got that he thought she was being
totally irrational, but dammit, she just
knew
that damn spider was
watching her! If he’d only fucking believe her. Hopefully, she’d killed that
little bugger this time and Gage would just get over it.

Chloe clapped her hands excitedly,
startling Alec who had been watching his brother stomp off. “I’m going to be an
aunt! YAY! I have to go tell Delta and our aunts now that you’re going to get
as big as a blimp while carrying your lover’s furry spawn. Don’t play with any
more dangerous weapons; you have to think of the children. Talk to you later.
Toodles!”

Elena’s lip curled up in disgust at
the word ‘blimp’. She wouldn’t get that big carrying around a baby or two,
would she? The thought of her having children once again gave her a headache.
What the hell did she know about kids? Any adult in their right mind wouldn’t
leave her alone with a juvenile, and yet, for some odd reason, Gage had deemed
it okay to impregnate her. Did he have any idea what she was probably going to
be like as a mother? Any child of hers would probably be learning to count with
bullets instead of fingers. She sure as hell hoped Gage was ready for this
whole parenting thing.

Alec shifted his weight from one
foot to the other, and his movement reminded her that he was still standing
there. “You know, ever since I met your brother, my life has been turned upside
down and flipped inside out.” Elena gave a rueful laugh. “Which is saying
something, you know? It’s not exactly like I was living this quiet, peaceful
existence, but when I met him, something told me that, if I got wrapped up in
him, it would really be taking a walk on the wild side of life,” Elena mused.

“Fuck walking on the wild side,
woman, that’s boring. And lonely. Look at me. I’m practically the fucking
poster child for living the untamed lifestyle, and if you repeat to anyone I
said this, I’ll deny it until I’m blue in the face, but I’m so damn tired of
it. I feel like my life has become a regular freakin’ washing machine. Wash, rinse,
repeat. I’d give up all of my freedoms—all of my vices—to have a woman who
wanted me for me, and not just because I’m pretty or fuck like a sex god.”

Elena snorted. “Confident much?”

Alec shrugged nonchalantly. “Just
telling the truth. I’m not the only Ivanov that feels this way, either. Look at
Lulu. She’s so tired of being lonely that she let herself get charmed by some
cock sucking
asshat
who led her on and broke her
heart. You and Gage have what Lulu and I want—a companion. Someone to take this
insane ride called life, push the gas petal to the floorboard, and enjoy it.

“Now that you have Gage, you can
live your life going zero to sixty every second of it. You have a man who will protect
you and your cubs until his dying breath, love you with every fiber of his
being, and most importantly, keep your crazy ass in check so you don’t end up
in jail. So, yeah, walking on the wild side is tame to what life with Gage will
be for you. What you’ll have is something so much better. You’re going to have
this epic, fucking journey, and in a hundred years—”

She cut him off, “I don’t have a
hundred years, Alec. I’ll be lucky to have sixty with him before I die.”

Alec shook his head. “This was why
I came over here today. Babushka told me that she knows a witch who owes her a
favor. Apparently, this witch has some experience with a spell that can give
you immortality, but there’s a catch.”

Elena’s breath hitched in her
chest. There was a chance she could stay alive and be with Gage… but what would
it cost them?

“What’s the catch?” she croaked.

“The spell will tie your lifeline
to his. That’s what will give you immortality, but if Gage dies, so do you.”

She felt tears sting the corners of
her eyes. As far as conditions went, that one was doable. Sure, there was a
risk in both of them dying while the kids she was currently incubating were too
young, however she would have to take that risk. She loved Gage too much to
walk away from him again, and she wouldn’t want to live without him anyways.

“I’ll have to go thank your
grandmother for this. It doesn’t solve everything, like how I want to beat your
brother within an inch of his life for shooting me up with his baby batter
without talking to me first, but now I don’t have to live in fear of him dying
because of me.”

One side of Alec’s lips tipped up.
“I’m sure that baby batter is exactly why Babushka made the offer. She’s
probably hoping for lots of cubs. If you’re not careful, she’s going to talk
Gage into keeping you barefoot and pregnant, but don’t shoot the messenger for
telling you that. So, anyways, like I was saying, a hundred years from now, you
and I can sit down and write it all down. We can pretend it’s our version of
that vampire flick with Tom Cruise in it.”

Elena gave him a crazy look. “You
mean,
Interview with a Vampire
?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“You do know it was a book before
it was a movie, right?”

Alec scoffed. “Do I look like I
read, sister?”

She gave him a probing look. “I
have this feeling there’s so much more to you than your looks, Alec Ivanov.”

He playfully pushed her shoulder.
“Are the pregnancy hormones kicking in already, woman? Don’t get all mushy on
me for God’s sake. Anyways, we’ll write all this shit down, and then maybe you can
turn it into your own book.”

Much to Elena’s horror, she found
herself tearing up at Alec’s poignant points about the life she could have with
Gage. Was she pissed beyond belief that he’d done something so drastic as to
impregnate her without her permission?
Hell
, yes. Could she understand
that he’d done it out of desperation at the thought of her walking away? Yeah,
she could understand that, too.

Placing a hand on her flat tummy,
she wondered what the next nine months would bring. Would Gage run out in the
middle of the night to buy her pickles and ice cream if she was craving it? The
combination of the two sounded rather nasty, so she kind of hoped he didn’t run
out and buy that for her, yet perhaps he’d buy her a yummy chocolate cake
instead.

She tried to imagine what their
children would look like with his exotic green eyes and her olive complexion.
Would they have his stark, black hair because of their tigers, or would they
have her dark brown hair instead? And just that fast, her mind was playing tricks
on her because she pictured two little boys with Gage’s black hair, proud
cheekbones and her nose. One boy would have his father’s tiger eyes, and the
other would have her turquoise ones. And as the two of them grew older, they
would be hell on wheels with her feisty, Amazonian blood running through their
veins, driving their father absolutely insane in the process.

That little visual brought a smile
to her face.

“So are you going to go in and tell
my brother you forgive him for being a high handed idiot?” Alec quietly asked,
bringing her out of her thoughts.

Feigning annoyance, Elena sighed,
“If I have to.”

Alec gave her a big smile. “Go give
him hell, sweetheart.”

She was ready to do just that, but
she had to do one more thing before she went in. She stepped up to Alec,
grabbed his face with both hands, and pulled him down until she could press a
chaste kiss against his cheek. “Thank you.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.
I’m awesome and you’re so disappointed that you’re stuck with my moronic
brother for the rest of your life instead of me. It’s going to be a hard
sacrifice settling for him when you could have had me, I know, but don’t worry,
I’ll still drop by here at the most inconvenient times to cock block him and
embarrass you. I have to teach my future nieces and nephews these things, you
know.”

Elena lost all of her good will and
humor towards her brother-in-law. “Not if you want to keep breathing, you
won’t.”

***

He was pacing like a caged animal
in his living room, talking to himself while he walked back and forth, back and
forth across the floor. Elena stood on the other side of the French doors,
watching him as he walked and talked himself to death. She’d give anything to
have those shifter superpowers right now so she could hear what he was saying,
but short of using some top secret equipment from the government, she would
never be able to hear through closed doors or walls. It was a crying shame. She
bet the man was punishing himself much worse than she could ever do so at this
point.

She was just about to go inside
when she noticed something moving across the floor, undetected by her frantic
tiger, and her eyes zeroed in on it. At first, she thought it was a very stupid
mouse that was in danger of becoming an anxiety snack for Gage and his temper,
yet then she noticed the mouse was traveling forward in jerking movements. It
was that damn robotic mouse she’d bought and left here when she’d kidnapped his
Babushka and sister! How the hell had that gotten out of his nightstand drawer?

Looking through the door’s glass
over to the beginning of the hallway, she saw Alec peeking around the corner
with a devilish grin on his face. How the hell had he gotten in the house
before she had? Elena grabbed the door handle, prepared to open the door and rip
Alec a new asshole for acting like an idiot again, when an angry roar shook the
glass in the door.

Looking back to Gage, she found him
stomping the poor robotic mouse into teeny, tiny pieces under his foot. He
looked like a two-year-old throwing a temper tantrum. If that was what their
kids ended up like, she was so screwed.

Opening the door, he was so busy
smashing that toy to smithereens that he didn’t even hear her come in. She
called his name, but he didn’t hear her, so she called it again. Still nothing
over the loud growling and stomping of the pathetic toy. This time, she yelled,
“
Gage
!”

He stomped his foot one more time
and roared at her until she thought her eardrums would bleed and the windows
would blow out. When his voice gave out and he finally stopped, Elena crossed
her arms over her chest and glared at him.

“Done with your hissy fit?”

Gage’s angry and unfocused eyes
looked at her and then widened as if he was just now realizing who she was. He
roared again in answer, only it was at her this time and not some poor robotic
mouse.

“You drive me
crazy
!”

She shrugged as she walked closer
to him. “Yeah, but you love me anyways. And I have good news. According to your
brother, your grandmother knows a witch that can make me immortal by tying my
lifeline to yours. That means I can drive you crazy for eternity.”

Gage processed what she’d said.
“You’ll be immortal?”

“Apparently so. Doesn’t that make
you happy?”

“Yes and no,” he answered.

“Yes and no?” she parroted.

Gage nodded back. “Yes and no. Yes
because having you for eternity is beyond my wildest dreams. It makes me the
happiest man on earth.”

“And no?” Elena asked with a scowl.

“No because I’m going to have to
think of some kind of weapons vault that can lock you out until the end of
time. Sometimes I think you’re a little too unstable to play with my toys.”

“You
back stabbin’
,
motherfucking
—”

He closed the distance between them
and shut her up with a kiss that fried all of her mental circuits. She felt
everything he hadn’t said in that kiss. How happy he was that he no longer had
to worry about her leaving him long before he would ever be ready to let her
go. His lust, his passion and all of his hope concentrated on her lips. Nothing
had ever tasted sweeter.

Breathless, he pulled away. “I love
you, mate.”

“I love you, too, cat, but you
won’t really keep all of the weapons locked away from me, will you?”

He shook his head. “No. Only until
you’re around three hundred and have given me a whole litter of cubs.”

Sneaky fucking cat!