Page 12 of Wrong Turn, Right Bear (Beartastic Summer of Love)

TWELVE

ASH

“I have someone I want you to meet.”

Theo was snuggled up beside me, his head tucked under my chin. But he leaned back, his brow furrowed.

“That sounds ominous.”

Now it was my turn to frown. “Huh?”

“That’s the sort of thing a person says to their parents when they’ve met their one and only.”

“Is there a dictionary of human expressions I can buy or look up online because I’ve never heard that before.”

“Maybe I’ve watched too many movies.” He fiddled with the duvet before saying, “Go on.”

Where was I? Oh right. Meeting someone. “Do you remember the wolf I met outside the hotel? The smaller one? ”

“Seriously? How could I forget? My heart stopped, I swear, and I almost peed my pants.”

“He wants to see you in person.”

“As opposed to him having a tail, fur, and long canines?”

“Something like that.”

Theo agreed and I messaged Chuck.

Romey took over the zip-lining class I had this morning though I’d conduct the one this afternoon. He asked if I’d mated the cute omega from yesterday’s hike and when I hesitated, he chuckled. “You did.”

When Theo and I finally made it out of bed, I lent him an oversized T-shirt because his clean clothes were at the guest house.

“Pancakes or eggs?” I stared into the fridge. I’d gained a mate but the contents of my pantry and fridge were that of a single guy who wasn’t home much.

“Pancakes but you have to agree to flip them.” He squeezed my ass that was clad only in a pair of briefs, and I flicked his butt with a dishtowel. ‘Or maybe I’ll eat something else instead.”

Gods, this human. My cock engorged and I swirled to face the sink but my mate slid his hands over my hips and rubbed them over the hard ridge under my briefs.

“You have a choice. Eat pancakes and drink coffee or suck my dick. We don’t have time to do both.” I was torn, wanting his mouth on me but my belly grumbled. Our all-night sex marathon had worked up an appetite.

“What a dilemma.” My mate tapped his lips. “Thinking, thinking. Eat dick, maybe with syrup or pancakes, also with syrup. It’s a difficult choice for sure.”

He rubbed his arousal on my butt and I almost came but we had a lifetime ahead of us. Sex could wait until this evening. We’d fucked so frequently last night, Theo must be sore.

“I vote for pancakes this morning and dick this evening.”

Theo laughed. “Does that come on a platter?”

“Which one?”

He shrugged. “Both.”

“That can be arranged.”

I prepared the pancake mixture while Theo poured orange juice and made coffee.

I’d never made much effort when preparing meals; whatever was quick, easy and nutritious was what I ate.

But the two of us together in the kitchen, my mate humming a tune I wasn’t familiar with was like a warm blanket wrapped over my shoulders.

The cozy atmosphere was something I wanted to experience again.

But our sex-capade and mating didn’t cancel the questions I had about our lives going forward. Theo hadn’t quit his job—he was due in the office in two days. How we were going to muddle through hadn’t been discussed.

“You are going to flip that, right?” My mate’s voice brought me back to the present.

Pancakes were easy. Life, not so much.

“Ready?” I was focussed on the perfect flip, just enough tension in the wrist and not too much oomph. My belly tensed, ready for battle.

“On three. One, two, three.”

The pancake hurled into the air, did a backflip and landed with a satisfying plop on the pan.

“Success.” Theo kissed me on the lips and I bowed, elated. “Now for more. I’m starving.”

Just as well we’d chosen food over cock.

Breakfast was slow because we fed one another forkfuls of pancake, kissed, licked syrup off each other’s lips and popped strawberries into our mate’s mouth. Theo slid his bare foot over my leg and I envisioned clearing the table and tossing him on top before plowing into him.

But the phone beeped. A message from Chuck, reminding me of our meet up in less than an hour. Theo and I had to shower so there’d be naked time with slippery skin coated in soap and water teeming on our bodies.

I pushed the meeting back an hour but even so we were racing to make the rendezvous on time .

Chuck was standing in the place where he’d met Theo after the blister incident. His grandson, Errol, was behind him, his head bowed, much as his wolf had done the night Theo saw us.

Chuck introduced Errol and nudged him forward, the boy’s downcast eyes, a sign he wished he was anywhere else.

“Sorry I scared you but my wolf?—”

Chuck cleared his throat.

Errol started again. “It was my first real shift and me and my wolf kinda got carried away. You were his first human and he was fascinated by you.”

“You gave me quite a scare but thank you for having the courage to apologize.”

Errol responded with a small smile. “Grandpa has been helping me pull my beast back so he doesn’t cause any more incidents.”

“Great.”

The boy’s smile turned into a cheeky grin. “He liked your scent but it’s different today. Why is that?”

Theo sniffed under both arms and glanced at me for an answer. Errol was probably confused. He’d been inside his beast for the first time. The sights, smells and sounds were so confusing during that first shift.

“Ash?” Theo was expecting an answer.

But Chuck replied with, “Usually strong emotions change a person’s scent, whether human or shifter.” He guffawed. “Either that or you’re pregnant.”

Theo snorted. “That’s not possible because we only?—”

Chuck cleared his throat and sent my mate a look that cut him off. He jerked his head at Errol.

“Oh well, yeah, it couldn’t be.”

“Only takes one time.” Chuck put an arm around Errol’s shoulders and they said their goodbyes. “And I agree, your scent is different.”

“Why are they making such a big deal about my smell? Surely after our antics in the shower, I got rid of all remnants of slick and cum.”

Something niggled at my brain and I dredged up a memory from my youth when I attended a Saturday shifter school every weekend.

It was a sex ed class and like the teens we were, we’d sniggered and nudged one another and rolled our eyes at the teacher.

But there was something in a text book we’d studied, just a paragraph about humans and shifters mating.

Damn. I should have warned Theo. We should have taken precautions.

He was so new to the shifter world. He hadn’t even attended a full moon run.

And now? Now he was … I couldn’t say the word.

Not that I didn’t want to be a parent. I did.

But there were so many hurdles to get over before we started a family .

Is he… ? My bear hadn’t picked up on the change in his scent.

“Why don’t you sit.” I eased my mate onto the same tree stump he’d sat on days earlier.

“Why do I sense you’re about to tell me something life-changing?”

“It’s not bad. And we don’t know if Chuck and Errol are correct.” I asked myself how a fifteen-year old first time shifter had sussed out the difference in my mate’s scent when I hadn’t.

“Spit it out.”

“Where do you want to live? That’s probably something we should discuss.”

Theo’s head tilted to the side. “What does my scent have to do with my job?”

“Ummm, indirectly it does or it might. That’s to be confirmed.”

“Ash, look at me.”

I didn’t want to but I couldn’t go around and around, avoiding what had to be said.

“You might be pregnant.”

His lips parted and he giggled, then guffawed. “Is this a joke?” He checked his watch. “We had sex all through the night. You’re little swimmers are still… I don’t know. Swimming, I guess.”

“Ummm you being human and me a shifter that’s a little different from two humans or two shifters having sex.”

“What are you saying? That Errol and Chuck might be right? That we’ve made a baby since last night?”

“It’s possible.”

My beast looked around saying he couldn’t see anyone else inside me but I explained if our mate was pregnant, the baby would be smaller than a sesame seed.

How big is that?

Tiny.

I squeezed onto the log beside Theo. “An omega’s scent changes when they get pregnant. Both Errol and Chuck picked up on it.”

“And you didn’t?” He didn’t wait for an answer and got up, picking a dead leaf off the ground and let the wind carry it away.

“Is this real?” He pinched his arm. “Feels like a dream. Or one of those reality TV programs.” He peeked under a bush.

“Is someone going to leap out and tell me I’m a sucker and I’ve been conned? ”

I let him talk because I didn’t have words to make sense of it all.

“We should find out for sure. Do tests from the pharmacy detect a human shifter pregnancy?”

“As far as I know.”

“Let’s go.”