Page 28 of Bred Mate (Stalked Mates #2)

E llie

I’ll never know if my mom ate her husband after she killed him, because I’ll never ask. She disappeared with the body, and that’s all I know. We have not heard from her since, and we don’t really expect to.

In the aftermath of the events, Karl, Connor, and I all return to New Orleans, where I accept that pregnancy is as good a reason to settle down as any.

But accepting that also means dealing with all the thoughts that come along with it.

I have feelings I don’t want to face about my past, and about myself.

In the depth of night, while trying to sleep, I ask my mate.

“Karl?”

“Hmm?”

“What if I’m the kind of mother who decides she might eat everyone and has to abandon her kids in the woods?”

“You’re not going to be that kind of mother, because you’re not going to be in that position and because you’re not that kind of person.

Or wolf. You’re a shifter, and you already raised one baby successfully.

Three, really. You’re going to be more than okay.

You’re going to be amazing, because this time you’re going to have everything you need. I promise you that.”

“Karl?”

“Yes?”

“What if I draw our kids into an elaborate plot that sees them arrested and then I try to marry one of them off to the son of my enemy who is also my husband?”

“I don’t think so, dear,” he says, surprisingly patiently.

We snuggle up again. I feel the baby kicking.

“What if…”

“No,” he says, kissing me firmly. “You’re not going to be terrible in any of the ways you’re afraid of.”

“Does that mean I’ll be terrible in new ways I can’t imagine yet?”

He chuckles and groans at the same time. “You’re going to be incredible,” he says. “Now relax.”

“I can’t. I’m bored. Is it going to be boring?”

His hand slides down between us and the tips of his fingers find the bud of my clit. He starts to rub gently, not trying to push me straight to orgasm, but to distract me from the circular thoughts in my head.

I lie back, and I let it work.

Karl

There is no doubt that Ellie is going to have my baby.

She is swollen with child, and a new generation of wolves is about to enter the world.

I am excited in a way I have never been before.

I did not know I was capable of feeling happiness of this kind.

It feels so incredible to have what I used to think were the stupid, simple things.

Everything seems to have worked out for the best, and for that I am grateful. The werewolf has retreated into whatever quiet horrors she prefers, and my family is growing. I finally feel as though I am truly in control of myself, the pack, and even the state.

One morning close to the time Ellie is due, I get up and wander to the kitchen, wearing only a pair of boxers.

It’s early and I am not expecting anybody else to be in there.

I am certainly not expecting the refrigerator to already be in use by someone who stands back and shuts it, holding a quart of milk in her hand.

She is a handsome woman wearing the sort of attire people wear when they want to look respectable. She could be running for district elections. But she’s not that kind of woman. She’s not a woman at all.

“Margaret,” I say. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here for the birth of my grandchild.” She smiles brightly. “I can’t wait to be a grandmother. I don’t want to miss a moment.” She sniffs the milk. “I’m not sure if this is still good.”

The absolute nerve of this woman.

“Get the hell out of here, Margaret.”

“You have no right to shoo me out of here like a stray cat,” she says. “I am the reason you are having this baby.”

“You are not the reason,” I reply.

“Of course I am. Without me, there would be no Ellie. If you had any manners, you’d acknowledge that.”

Ellie

I can hear Karl arguing with someone in the kitchen, which is wild because nobody in this house, let alone this state would dare argue with him. I get out of bed, feeling faintly nauseous and entirely confused.

Being pregnant has made a lot of this easier.

It’s had this effect on me of completely taking up almost all the space in my head so I can’t really worry about the things I used to care about.

I bet I’ll get back to being a certified problem once I give birth, but right now someone I am yet to meet is using my spleen as a football.

I’m surprised to discover my mate barely dressed, and my mom wearing one of her blazer and chiffon skirts I swear to god she time-traveled to the early nineties to steal from some unsuspecting businesswoman.

“Mom, why are you here?”

“Well, I’m at the fridge because I’m looking for half and half,” she says. “You’ve only got full, and these days I find that sets my stomach right off.”

“She’s refusing to leave,” Karl says. “I don’t know how she got in.”

“Through the front door, dear boy.”

“You’re banned from this city, not to mention this house,” he snarls.

I don’t recall there being hostilities between Karl and my mother, but I guess watching me almost get shot by her unhinged husband, the fact that she tried to marry me off so I’d kill the guy’s kid, and the fact that she’s a werewolf who once abandoned her family because she was afraid she’d eat her baby all play a role.

“I’m a werewolf, darling,” she reminds him. “Your little subby wolves can’t help but roll over for me.”

Karl makes an irritated sound. “Ridiculous,” he says. “Last time you were here you kidnapped…”

“Mom!” Connor yells an entirely unearned title at her as he comes down for breakfast. The entire house is now orbiting the kitchen.

It’s fortunate my other brothers no longer live with us.

They have their own places and girlfriends.

Tim is going to start studying soon, and Tate has a talent for concrete work. “You’re here!”

He is so incredibly excited to see her. Not going to lie, seeing him so happy to be in her presence when she gave him up for me to raise is like a punch to the guts, but I’m trying to not be bitter. It’s bad for the baby, who is now using my intestines as a jump rope.

“Of course I am, darling,” she smiles at my brother. “Would you like a gun?” She has the insanity to pull a weapon from her purse and offer it to Connor as if she is giving him a toy car.

“Yes!” he exclaims.

“No!” I say, sweeping the weapon out of her hand before she can give it to him. Karl takes it off me and disassembles it in a matter of seconds before summoning Baldwin to take it away.

“Mom! You cannot be here,” I say.

“I want her here! I want to have pancakes with my mom!” Connor starts stamping his foot.

“I have to be somewhere,” she says, diabolical as always. “Would you rather have me here, administrating my erstwhile husband’s estate where you can see me, or would you rather not know where in the world I am?”

“I would rather you were at the bottom of the ocean,” Karl growls. He’s fiercely protective at the moment. I think it is an instinct thing. Anybody looks at me the wrong way and he is ready to lose his shit, so the fact that a baby-eating werewolf just raided his fridge is clearly pissing him off.

She smiles, wickedly calculating.

“You should be more careful,” she says. “If you send me away now, I promise I will make you pay.”

I am about to intervene, because this does not sound good.

“Get out of my house,” he says. “Get out of my city. And get out of my state.”

“Very well,” she says. “You want to do this the hard way? We will do it the hard way.”

“No! Don’t do things the hard way! Mom!” I try to intervene, but the baby decides to sucker punch my diaphragm.

She turns on her heel and leaves the kitchen. Connor runs after her, eager to spend more time with the woman who gives him absolutely everything he wants.

“Baldwin, make sure she doesn’t run off with him again.” Karl says.

Baldwin follows, and there is more bickering as he confiscates a child-sized machete from my mother. Connor is losing his mind about the unfairness of it all and loudly declaring how he is more than old enough to have his own weapon and how he won’t do anything stupid with it, he promises.

“He’d cut off his own foot off within five minutes,” Karl says, deeply unimpressed.

“She’s tormenting us,” I sigh. “We’re never going to be rid of her. And the threats about making us regret sending her away aren’t idle. She’s going to do her best to fuck everything up. I guarantee it.”

“I need to be able to stab people!” Connor shrieks from the hall.

“Every good story needs an evil witch,” Karl says, surprisingly salty and sassy for a man who used to show his aggression primarily through the medium of murder. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’m going to ensure we have a happy ending.”

“I’ll give you a happy ending,” I grin, reaching for my favorite food at this stage of things—a sleeve of plain crackers.

“It’s not fair! I never get to kill anyone!”

Connor is pissed, but Baldwin is handling it with his usual diplomacy.

“Would you like some toaster strudel, young master?”

“Yes,” Connor says. “Assuming I get to use a knife with it. God! I’m not allowed to do anything!”

He’s immediately entered his obsession with weapons era, thanks to my mother’s influence. She knows exactly where to put pressure and it is making me extremely wary to know that she wants to be part of our world.

I yawn.

I’m so damn tired.

Karl ushers me back to bed with some electrolyte juice as a special treat, while the baby breakdances on my bladder.