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Chapter Thirteen

Tyler

Life at animals was such a dream. This wasn’t a pack, not in any true sense. That didn’t matter. There was this feeling of home and connection between all of the other residents and staff members that embodied pack life—at least good pack life, not the political garbage our skulk had turned into.

Every night, I fell asleep in my mate’s arms, and every morning he was the first person I saw. And in the middle? We worked in the same space, his scent never far from me, his hugs only a walk away.

Our apartment was beautiful, nothing like what you’d expect if someone mentioned staff housing at a nightclub. It was shockingly quiet. Muffled by the rock of the mountain, we couldn’t hear a single thing from the business side of the property. Not the music, the cars outside, the lines of chattering, laughing people waiting to come in. We were at Animals, but not. And nothing could beat the location. It didn’t matter that I didn’t have a car, because all I had to do was walk through a couple of corridors and boom, there I was. At work. At a restaurant or where I could pick up ingredients to make a meal for my mate in our little home.

And the land it was built on—the acreage became my fox’s playground. Even in my skulk, I’d never felt as safe taking my fur as I did here. Running with my bear had become one of my favorite pastimes, but shifting with my coworkers and their families wasn’t far behind.

But, as wonderful as everything was, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Dimitri had turned down the offer to be his birth den’s beta too soon. Well, he hadn’t yet, but he was leaning in that direction. He was doing great at his job here. That wasn’tup for debate. I couldn’t say he was thriving in his position, though. Quality and performance? Of course. Work satisfaction? I didn’t think so.

He loved the people and was amazing at what he did, but deep inside I got a nagging feeling that it wasn’t giving him what he needed professionally.

I understood his immediate no when offered the job. He wanted to protect me. He didn’t say it in so many words, but he was concerned about me being marked as rogue. He didn’t need to say the words. His eyes flickered to my shoulder the second the offer came in, and every subsequent time we discussed it.

Nothing about the alpha suggested he was going to be a jerk about it. I doubted that his den mates would either. Even so, it was understandable that he would protect me because, in his shoes, I would do the same exact thing, which was why I was going to have a talk with him.

“We should at least check out the den and see if maybe it might it was a good choice for us.” I practiced my words as I put the last of the dishes I was drying away before wandering to the kitchen of Animals.

We had our own full kitchen in the apartment, of course. But I was on a mission. Rumor had it, scones were being made today, and, for some reason, scones sounded like the most perfect food in the world, which was good because I hadn’t really been hungry the past couple of days. Or, if I was hungry, I’d take a couple bites and my stomach would be like,nah pass. My fox didn’t even hunt us down a snack. At first he’d been so into what the desert could provide.

I smelled the scones before I even pushed through the door. The kitchen was empty, with one notable exception, Karma. Karma was holding a plate of scones in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other.

“Scones are my weakness,” I said

“Yeah, apparently they’re my weakness, given I already have two in my belly and am taking these with me.” She wasn’t fooling me; those were for her mate. She spoiled him as much as he spoiled her. They were ridiculously adorable.

“And there’s choices…or all of the above.” She indicated the platters of scones spread out on one of the stainless steel tables. Yes, platters.

I approached and checked out the baked goods. There were maple ones, cranberry ones, and ones that I suspected might be savory, either that or mint. They had little flecks of green in them. I didn’t care which, because I was all about the maple. I snatched one, taking a big bite and making yummy sounds around it, not even caring my boss could hear.

It was so good and exactly what my stomach wanted.

“You spoil us, Karma.”

“I do, that is true, but this wasn’t me. This was the baking masterpiece of Goldie. She made each of her mates favorites’.”

Goldie was one of the bartenders, and she had three bears of her own because, of course, she did.

“She likes to use our kitchen because she can bake them all at once instead of spending all day in theirs. And as a reward, we get scones.” Karma snatched another for her plate.

“It’s an excellent reward.” I took another bite.

Karma stepped closer. “Have you told Dimetri yet?”

I looked up at her, unsure what she meant. “About the scones? He’s the one who told me.”

“Not about the scones…about the baby.”

“The what?”

She looked at my stomach. “Oh, you haven’t told yourself yet. Well, when you do, let him know too.” She took a bite of her third scone, winked and walked over to one of the chefs.

Pregnant?

Could I really be pregnant?