Fur Factor (21 page)

She woke up just after one, sore, hungry and determined to have that talk.

Pushing up into a sitting position, she tucked the bed’s only covering—a mismatched sheet obviously added just for her benefit—under her arms and looked around. Graham was nowhere to be found. She was debating whether or not to waste her energy by working herself into a good mad when the door opened, and he stepped inside carrying a breakfast tray, looking quite human and decidedly gorgeous. His eyes fixed on her, and she blushed.

“Good morning, sleepy head.” He smiled, kicking the door shut behind him and carrying the tray to the bed. “How are you feeling?” He set the tray over her lap and took a seat next to her, taking care not to upset her breakfast when the mattress shifted under his weight.

“Fine.” She shrugged, picking up a piece of buttered toast and trying not to blush harder.

“Good.” He reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “You did a fantastic job last night, but I wanted to make sure nothing that happened gave you any bad moments.”

Ignoring the twinge of sympathy for a man who walked so blindly into a trap of his own making, Missy set down her toast and raised an eyebrow. “Bad moments?” She pretended to think about it. “You mean like when your cousin sent his goons chasing after me, and they hurt one of my new friends trying to get to me? Or were you talking Christine Warren

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about when Curtis grabbed me and threatened to kill me for daring to be chosen as your mate? Because, no. Neither of those caused me any real problems.” He started to relax, but he must have taken a closer look at her face, because the tension flooded back into his body.

Smart man,
she thought.
Occasionally
. “Of course, I suppose you could have been referring to the part where I had to stand by and watch someone try to kill you because of me. Or when I saw him slice your chest open so that you bled all over yourself. Was that what you meant?” He shook his head and opened his mouth, but Missy wasn’t quite finished. “No, neither of those bothered me, really. But thanks for asking.” He forced an uncomfortable smile and reached for her, but Missy pulled away to glare at him. He winced.

“Now that I think about it, though, there was one part of the night that did really upset me, and now that you mention it, I’m not sure I’ve really dealt with it yet.”

“Baby, I’m sorry,” he began, his green eyes dark with regret. “I know I hurt you.

I should have been more gentle. I should have waited until I shifted back before I ever laid a hand on—“

Missy brushed off his apology with a negligent wave. “I wasn’t talking about the sex,” she said, clearly dismissive. “That was fine. No, I’m upset about something else entirely.”

Now Graham looked confused, which was just how she wanted him. “I don’t understand.”

“Oh, I’ll tell you,” she said, her tone so sweet it made him shift uneasily. “It’s just a little thing. You might not even remember it. It’s the part
where I found out I’m
pregnant, you twit!!!
”

She shouted so loudly the silverware clanked together, and Graham winced like he’d been hit with hurricane force winds. Missy figured Category 4 had nothing on her.

“Missy,

I—“

“Were you ever planning on telling me?” she demanded, rising up on her knees and planting one hand on her hip while the other clenched the sheet across her bare breasts. “Did you think I might like to know about something like that before you announced it to a bloody stranger? Huh? Did that ever occur to you, Mr. High and Mighty Alpha?”

“I didn’t mean—“

“Well, I don’t really care what you meant,” she shouted, far from finished. “That was a lousy thing to do! You treated me like some sort of secret weapon, like this whole thing was a plot to knock up the first bimbo who came along just so you could rub your cousin’s nose in it, and that sucks. It’s my body, damn it! I deserved to be the first one to know it was growing something.”

Her anger dissolved on a sniffle, and she cursed whatever hormones were already hard at work turning her into a blubbering idiot. Then she cursed whatever Christine Warren

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ones made her glad when Graham wrapped his traitorous male arms around her and snuggled her close.

“Aw, baby, I’m sorry,” he murmured, letting her bury her face in his shoulder while he drew her into his lap and rocked her like a child. “I know it was lousy, and I apologize. I should never have treated you like that, but my cousin had me trapped.

Telling him about the baby was the only way I could think of to keep you safe. I was hoping that if he knew about the cub, he’d realize his plan was futile and he’d give it up.”

Missy snorted. “Yeah, and that strategy worked really well.”

“I noticed.” He hugged her close and pressed a warm kiss to the top of her head.

“I almost died when he went after you, and letting him live after he touched you was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I never wanted to put you or the baby in any danger.

You have to believe that.”

She did believe that, just like she believed the big moron was in love with her, but she still intended to make him say it. “I do,” she whispered, nuzzling his throat and letting her arms snake around his chest. “I believe it. But I’m still hurt that you told him before I knew, and I don’t understand how you did know.”

“Your scent,” he explained, kneading her back with soft, affectionate circles.

“Like I told you, I recognized you as my mate the minute I smelled you. When you got pregnant, your hormones started to change, and that changed your scent. Pregnant women all have a similar sort of scent. It’s hard to describe, but it’s a little bit like…pumpkin.”

She pulled back to frown at him. “Pumpkin?”

“Like pumpkin pie,” he clarified. “Rich. Spicy.” She took a second to digest that. “And is that a good thing?” He grinned. “Am I happy you’re pregnant? Sweetheart, I’m ecstatic. I can’t think of a single thing that could make me happier.” Missy could think of a single, very important thing that would make
her
happy, but they were getting closer. She could sense it building in him, but it would require a few, well-placed digs before she finally uncovered it. “Does that mean you didn’t deliberately get me pregnant? That you want me and the baby for ourselves instead of to satisfy some weird Lupine laws?”

Graham drew a deep breath and opened his mouth to answer. Then he snapped it shut and frowned. Missy felt her stomach knot.

“Are you saying you
did
just want the baby because of your damned Breeder’s Rights thing?”

“God, no!” he assured her, his arms tightening around her to keep her from escaping. “That’s not the part I hesitated over. I don’t give a shit about Breeder’s Rights.

The elders can decide whatever they want, but anyone who wants to take over the Christine Warren

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alpha position of my clan will have to kill me first. I’m not giving in just because of an archaic tradition.”

Missy felt her eyes widen and her jaw drop open. “Then…are you—are you saying you deliberately got me pregnant?”

“You make it sound like I had it planned,” he protested, looking grumpy and uncomfortable and very sweet. “It wasn’t like that at all. It’s not something I had in mind, but when you came into heat—“

“When

I

what
?”

“Ovulated,” he corrected quickly. “When you ovulated, I knew what would happen if I came inside you, and I did it anyway. As soon as I pictured you having my baby, I knew I wanted that. I knew exactly what would happen, but I did it anyway. So yeah, I guess it was deliberate.”

How had this conversation spun so far out of her control? The man created more questions than he answered. “Okay, first, how did you know I was ovulating?” He gave her a look that said it should be obvious. “If I can smell when you’re a few hours pregnant, I can certainly smell when you’re fertile. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, just a good nose.”

“So you really want this baby.”

He hugged her. “I’m over the moon, honey. Like I told you, you couldn’t make me any happier.”

Unable to pull free to hunt up a blunt object to knock some sense into him, Missy had to resort to point-blank bluntness. “Is it
only
the baby that makes you happy? Do I have anything to do with it?”

He jerked back to stare at her with an expression of abject confusion. “What? Baby, of course not! I love you, just like I love the baby. How can you not know that?”

“Because you’ve never told me so, you hairy twit!” Frustration made her yell and curved her mouth into a pout, but she could feel her tension melting away. “Remember, I’m the human here. I have no magical powers. No mind reading, no wonder nose, nothing. If you feel something for me, you need to
tell
me, okay?” His lips twitched into a slow smile, and he leaned down to press a kiss on the end of her nose. “Okay,” he agreed, and snuggled her close against his chest.

They sat that way for a few more minutes until Graham brushed her hair away from her face and pressed a kiss to her temple. “You know, for all our strength and speed and heightened senses,” he said, smoothing his hands over her back with lazy strokes, “werewolves are really different from vampires. We’re not just humans who’ve been infected with the virus and had our DNA mutated. We’re an entirely different species. Closely related, yeah, but still different from humans.” Missy lifted her head and frowned up at him. “What?”

“It’s actually lucky that we share enough common DNA with humans to make reproducing fertile offspring possible,” he continued, ignoring her question. “A few Christine Warren

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more separations in our genetic code and we’d be like oil and water. We’re really lucky.”

She pushed away from his chest to stare at him in confusion. “What are you yammering on about?”

Again, he ignored her. “Because some people just sort of assume that because we’re both different, werewolves and vampires must have a lot in common. But it’s just not true. Other than being faster and stronger and those kinds of surface things, vampires and Lupines are as different as night and day.”

“And your point is?” By now, Missy’s spine had straightened like a poker and her arms rested in a fold against her chest.

“I just made it. My point is that Lupines and vampires are really very different from each other.”

“Well I knew that,” she said, exasperated. “What I want to know is why you’re bringing this up now.”

He gave her an entirely, suspiciously innocent look. “Well, I just thought that since you’re such good friends with Regina, and you know Dmitri and all, that you might be a little confused.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, I think that even with my human senses, I can tell the difference between fangy and furry, Einstein. You can relax.” His green eyes opened wide, and she could swear he actually batted his eyelashes at her. “Oh, so then you
haven’t
assumed I can read your mind?” His sledgehammer subtlety finally got his meaning across, and Missy groaned.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Yes, I love you! Are you happy now? I really don’t think that elaborate torture session was quite necessary.” Graham shrugged, grinning his wicked grin. “Maybe not. But it was fun.” She reached out to thump him in the chest, but he caught her hand easily and brought it to his lips. “I need the words just as much as you do, honey.” Missy humphed, but she knew he was right, and frankly, she was still in a fairly charitable mood after hearing him declare himself. Blame it on the hormones.

Letting her head drop back to his shoulder, she rested a hand on her unchanged tummy and sighed. “It doesn’t seem quite real,” she murmured. “What if we’re wrong and I’m not really pregnant?”

“Well, I certainly would be willing to put my all into trying again,” Graham said with a grin, “but we’re not wrong. He’s in there, honey, growing up quick.” She looked up at him. “Do Lupines grow that much faster than humans?”

“Not once they’re born, but a standard Lupine pregnancy is only about five months.”

Missy’s eyebrows shot up and her lips parted in surprise. “Five months? I’ll only be pregnant for five months?”

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“More like six, in your case,” he said. “I called an obstetrician—a Lupine—to ask her if she knew anything about mixed pregnancies, and she said when a human woman has a Lupine baby, her pregnancy is usually about six months long. Longer than Lupine, shorter than human.”

“Usually? I thought this didn’t happen a lot. Lupines and humans together.” Graham shook his head and shifted his grip, one arm still supporting her back with his hand resting on her bare hip. The other reached out to tug away her sheet and bare her to his appreciative gaze. “Not often, but it’s not entirely unheard of, either. Dr.

Howell knows enough about it to take good care of you. In fact, she told me to have you go to her office this week for an exam, just to make sure everything’s normal with you and the pup.”

Missy gave up the sheet after a brief struggle. Graham was simply too strong, and she was simply too easy. He traced little circles around her nipples to watch them pucker. She shivered. Then she registered what he said, and she tensed. “The pup?” She swallowed hard. “Um, Graham, Annie and Samantha told me I wasn’t going to have a puppy. Please don’t tell me our baby will be born with a tail.” He laughed out loud and hugged her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. ‘Pup’ is just an expression. We tend to call our children ‘pups’ or ‘cubs,’ but they’re normal babies.

Unless you were Lupine—which you’re not—and you happened to be in wolf form when you went into labor—which you won’t—you don’t have to worry about whelping anything but a normal baby.”

She gave a sigh of relief. “Maybe I should make an appointment to see that doctor. I think I’ll have a lot of questions to ask her.”

“We’ll call tomorrow. I’d like to go with you, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not,” she assured him, shifting in his arms and pressing the breasts he’d been teasing against his broad chest. “I’d like to have my mate with me. After all, this is your baby, too.”