When I arrived at Bear’s office, Matt’s normal smile was missing. He waved me into Bear’s office immediately.
I braced myself for bad news. Nothing in the ongoing cases had raised warning signs when I checked in last night, so I didn’t know what had blown up.
But it was clear from Bear’s face that something was wrong. He didn’t rise from his desk, merely motioning for me to take a chair.
I sat. And I waited while he inspected me.
Finally he asked, “Did you omit something from your report of extricating Yvette Conway from the rogue camp?”
I thought back. “Did I miscount the number of rogues?”
“Something more personal than that.”
Yvette wouldn’t have told him about us. Would she? It didn’t matter, I couldn’t say anything. It had been a mistake, and my failure shouldn’t reflect on her.
“What are you referring to specifically?”
“Yvette Conway. The person you were supposed to protect.”
That stung. “I located her after she was abducted, and I brought her back to safety.”
“What else did you do?” Bear’s gaze was implacable.
“That’s between me and her.”
“All bear shifters in Northern California are my business.”
“Not all the personal details, not unless—”
Not unless there were cubs. At the thought of Yvette bearing my cubs, my bear and I were united in a primeval joy. Yvette was all I’d ever desired. I wanted to feel her belly swelling with my seed. I wanted to stand guard over her and keep her and my cubs safe and content.
Just as my parents had protected me to their deaths.
“What are you saying, Bear?” I was on my feet.
He rose also. “Yvette is pregnant with your cub.”
My cub. My bear was roaring, demanding to go see her now.
I snarled, “What do you want from me?”
“I expect”—Bear’s voice was razor sharp—“that you will do whatever’s necessary to ensure your cub grows up safe and surrounded with other shifters. So that he or she doesn’t shift for the first time at seven or twelve or seventeen, isolated and not realizing that it’s perfectly natural to shift.”
“Yvette’s human,” I reminded Bear curtly.
He looked at me like I was stupid. Maybe I was. He and Rory had both taken human mates.
I turned to leave.
“Terrence.”
I paused.
“You can’t blame all humans for the wickedness of a few.”
I swung around. “You say that now. You wait until your mate betrays you.”
His face didn’t change. He was rock-solid certain I was wrong. “Are you refusing to accept responsibility for this cub?”
I hesitated. I could barely think over my bear’s clamor. But only one answer was possible. “I’m not going to abandon my cub to humans.”
Bear nodded. “That will suffice,” he said coolly.
It would damn well have to.
I was in the campus library, flipping through my art history textbook and pretending to myself that I was studying, when my cell phone rang. The caller’s name sent my nerves fluttering.
Taking a breath to steady myself, I answered. “Hello?”
“This is Terrence. I want to talk to you.”
“Okay,” I said cautiously. “When?”
“Now. Where are you?”
I hardened my heart. He hadn’t called me before, and now he expected me to jump? “I’m busy right now. I can meet you for lunch.”
A growl came through the speaker. “Where?”
I named a restaurant that was supposed to be good and was definitely out of my student budget.
He agreed immediately, and we set a time. I ended the call first.
My hands shook. It was a waste of time even glancing at my art history book now. All I saw was Terrence’s face and the smooth muscles of his arms and chest.
I arrived at the restaurant a half hour before we were supposed to meet. My shadow pulled into the parking lot behind me. I winced, realizing I probably couldn’t hide from Terrence just how early I’d been, but when I sauntered into the restaurant he was already there.
My whole being leaped at sight of him. It was wrong to be so happy just to be in his presence. My body tingled, and I couldn’t keep myself from crowding close to him.
He casually widened the distance between us. Immediately my spirits fell. Whatever he wanted wasn’t going to be good.
A waiter in a crisp white shirt and pants with a knife-edge crease seated us at a little table in an isolated corner. A tall plant hid us from the other diners. I stared at the handwritten menu. All the words ran together.
Terrence didn’t even open his menu. “You’re having my cub.”
“Our cub,” I corrected. My voice barely shook.
“You know I’m a shifter.”
“A bear.”
“Shifters and humans don’t mix.”
“Really.” I felt numb. My hopes died, killed by this distant man who clearly wanted as little to do with me as possible.
“I’ll pay for your care and anything you need while you’re pregnant, and then after birth the cub is mine.”
“Wait.” My numbness faded, replaced by a sparking anger. “Do I understand correctly? You want me to give up my baby to you? To some man I barely know? Let me tell you something, my baby is not some product that you can just buy from me. You may have provided the seed, but it’s my baby and I’m going to make sure she has a happy home with a loving mother and grandparents and aunties. If you ask politely and if I find out that you can be trusted, then I’ll think about letting you spend time with our child.” I stood. “You know, I’m not hungry after all.”
I stalked out, somehow making it all the way to my car. I managed to pull out of the restaurant parking lot and go two blocks before pulling over into another lot behind a bank. Hidden from the passing traffic, I leaned over my steering wheel and cried.
I watched her walk away. Go after her, my bear roared. I wanted nothing more than to leap after her, to sink my hands in her lush softness, to kiss the anger from her face, to feel the life of my cub thrumming in her belly.
If only she weren’t human. Then I could claim her as my mate, as I so desperately wanted.
But she was human, no matter that she carried my cub. I could never trust her. Despite her strong words and her intent now to protect the cub, I couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t reject my cub later, when he shifted. I wouldn’t let that happen to my cub.
She would have to agree to give me my cub. If not… Well, I might have to take things into my own hands. My bear whimpered at me, confused.
With sudden determination I followed her out. She was already gone.
Our operatives were tailing her. I could find out where she was, if I didn’t mind making myself look like a fool. More of a fool, that is, than I was already for planting a cub in a human.
I went back to security headquarters, on the third floor of Bear’s office building. My office there was bleak, a desk, a chair for me, two chairs for clients, and a couple of locked file cabinets for physical evidence. I’d never bothered hanging anything on the walls. I had a window, and I kept the blinds open. On clear days I could see all the way to the Sierra Nevada.
The blank surface of my desk looked naked today. All my pens and business cards and the other stuff people liked to have on their desks was neatly tucked away in drawers. It wasn’t notepads and pens missing, though. What my desk needed was photos. Yvette in that cute green swimsuit, or with her hands cupped over her swelling belly, or Yvette cradling our newborn cub in her arms…
I was a fucking idiot. It had been a mistake to ever get close to her. I wasn’t about to compound the problem. I’d watch over her until the cub was born, and then one way or another I was taking custody.
After checking the roster, I selected three operatives to search for Rory’s sister. More than likely she’d gone feral, and our operatives might be out in the field for months before they found her. I needed to stay close to town.
I notified the three to come in to be briefed on their new assignment.
One of them was currently working a local case, and I’d have to take over his shifts. It was grunt work mostly. A divorce case, two Silicon Valley executives in a messy split. We were working for the wife, watching to make sure the husband didn’t run off with the children.
That gave me pause. But just for a second. If I took my cub from Yvette, it wouldn’t be for spite. It would be for the cub’s own good.
My bear emitted a plaintive wail.
I didn’t like that thought any better than my bear did. I should have never let Yvette get under my skin.