Primal Possession (35 page)

He hated how they’d left things. Well, how he’d left things. She’d called him a coward and now he wondered if she was right. Not contacting her was the hardest thing
he’d ever done. And it was obvious she wasn’t going to leave town. Not that it was fair he’d ever asked her to in the first place. This was her home. She’d been here for a lot longer than he’d known her. On a logical, human level, he knew that. It was just that—

“Uncle Liam!” He turned at the sound of Vivian in the doorway. With a chocolate-covered cupcake in her hand, she smiled broadly and raced toward him. As the little she-cat started to dive for the couch, she froze, then climbed up next to him using her free hand. “Ana would
not
be happy if I got chocolate on her couch,” she said seriously.

Liam bit back a grin. “You could probably blame it on me and get away with it.” Vivian’s dark eyes lit up and Liam shook his head. “Don’t get any ideas, cub.”

She crossed her legs and twisted on the couch to face him. “What are you doing here? I thought Ana said you were out patrolling.”

“We have a pack meeting soon.”

“Oh. That’s probably why Noel made all those cookies. Where’s your girlfriend? She’s pretty. I thought she was going to start living with us. I know she owns a bookstore and I wanted to ask her something.” Vivian shot words at him like machine-gun fire while staring intently.

Liam tried to wade through everything Vivian had just said. “She’s not my girlfriend anymore.”

“What did you do wrong?”

He smiled wryly at her assumption he’d done something wrong. Not wanting to have this conversation with a ten-year-old jaguar cub who would surely repeat every word to Ana, he cleared his throat. “Shouldn’t you be in school?” While Vivian and Lucas, the other wolf cub who lived with their pack, didn’t go to regular school, they were homeschooled by Esperanze, a sweet beta female
recently mated to one of their warriors. Ryan used to homeschool them, but since they’d moved to the ranch, the beta female had taken over the duties, since she was more qualified and genuinely seemed to enjoy it more.

She rolled her eyes. “It’s Saturday.
Duh.
So what did you do to make your girlfriend mad?”

“It’s complicated.”

Vivian snorted loudly in the same manner he’d seen Ana do when annoyed with her mate. The little she-cat was definitely taking after Ana.

He raised an eyebrow. “That’s funny, cub?”

“Whenever Connor says something is complicated, Ana calls him a bad word. Well, I don’t think it’s really bad. It means a donkey’s butt, but I’m still not allowed to say it. I tried once and Ana took away my horse-riding privileges for a
whole
day
.” She shuddered and scooted off the couch, cupcake still firmly in hand. “I hope you and your girlfriend work things out.”

“Me too.” As soon as he said the words, he realized he meant it. He couldn’t live like this. Not without December. It was like living without a limb. Since it was obvious she wasn’t going to leave town, staying apart didn’t really make her any safer, and it drove him crazy worrying about her. He wanted to be the one protecting her instead of other wolves from his pack.

Vivian looked longingly at her cupcake, then at him, as if fighting a decision. Finally she shoved it in his direction. “It’s the last one. You need it more than me.” When he didn’t take it, she sat it on his outstretched leg before running out and yelling for Noel that she needed a cookie.

Smiling, he picked it up and shook his head as Erin strolled into the room. Her eyes widened when she saw what he had. “Are there cupcakes?”

“Last one.” He grinned and took a bite of it.

“Figures.” Sighing, Erin sat on the love seat opposite him.

“I think there might be cookies in the kitchen.” Before the words were out, she had jumped up and was heading in that direction.

Liam ate half the cupcake, then set it on the coffee table. It was good but it might as well have been cardboard going down his throat. As other pack members and Brianna, the fae warrior they’d found the same night as Kat, filed into the room, he grunted acknowledgments to them but otherwise didn’t talk.

Even though he wanted to sulk in his own pathetic thoughts, he tried to shake visions of December and her last parting words from his head.

“You okay?” Brianna, the soft-spoken fae, surprised him with her question. She sat on the opposite couch next to Noah.

“Yeah.” He managed a half smile for her, but by the way she drew back from him, it probably came off as a snarl.

He rubbed a hand over his face. Brianna had filled them in about her time with Adler and the other APL members and today they were supposed to get updates from her boss—or bosses—or whomever—on what their next step was. He knew they weren’t happy she’d failed her mission to ferret out Adler’s boss, but from what he could tell, she hadn’t had much of a choice. What little he knew about the fae was that some of them had powerful psychic gifts, and her powers had been so drained from keeping that evil psycho Adler under her control that she’d passed out after killing him. And she couldn’t have known she had backup in the form of shifters on the way.
The two other humans there could have killed her while she’d been unconscious. Since it had taken her almost an entire day to recover from her comalike trance after expending so much of her energy, she’d clearly been prepared to die for a stranger. It was hard to ignore that kind of bravery.

Liam and his brother had every reason in the world to hate the fae considering they’d killed their father and original pack, but if he and his brother lumped all of them into the same category, they’d be no better than the APL. And as far as Liam was concerned, Brianna had proved herself by risking her own life to try to save Kat. Because of that, she had the full protection of the pack until she decided to leave the area.

As everyone around him chatted, Liam tuned them out until he saw Ana in the doorway. “Connor’s on his way,” she murmured to him. Thanks to his extrasensory abilities he could hear her over the dull roar of conversation.

He nodded. “Thanks.” At least the meeting would be starting soon. Maybe then he could tune out thoughts of a naked, writhing, willing December underneath him. Though he seriously doubted it. While he missed the sex, that wasn’t the only thing he missed. He missed everything about her. Her calming spirit, her undying loyalty to those she cared about, even the way she fought with him. She wasn’t afraid to stand up to him and he loved that. Hell, he loved everything about her. Now he was afraid he’d screwed everything up.

After a full night’s sleep, December was only more pissed than she’d been last night. When her first pregnancy test had come back positive, she’d been sure it was a fluke.

Ten positive tests, however, were
not
a fluke.

Ready to face the inevitable, she steered her car up to the closed gate at the Armstrong ranch. A lock was in place, but she didn’t let it stop her. Slamming her car door, she marched up to the fence and climbed it. As she dropped down onto the ground, she spotted Connor jogging across the yard toward her from the direction of the barn.

“December? Is everything okay?” He asked as he stopped in front of her.

“That’s a loaded question,” she muttered. “I need to see your brother.”

“He’s out on patrol right now.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine. I’ll wait for him.”

“He’s going to be gone for a while. I can tell him you stopped by.” His voice was placating and annoying and she wasn’t having any of it.

Behind her she heard another vehicle pull up. Without looking, she knew it was her shadow, one of Liam’s packmates. She hadn’t recognized him, but he was huge just like the rest of the Armstrong pack. And she hadn’t been surprised when he’d started following her from her house to the ranch.

Reaching into her purse, she pulled out one of the many pregnancy tests she’d brought with her and held it out for Connor. When he looked at it, his entire face softened. “Shit.” He winced, then met her gaze again. “Come on. Liam’s at my place.” He tried to place a gentle hand on her elbow, but she shrugged him off.

He’d just lied to her face when he’d told her Liam was on patrol, so he could shove it too. That knowledge only served to ratchet up her anger even more. The closer she got to the house, the more the rage burned through her.
Like fast-moving lava, it was eating up all her reasoning powers. She knew that it had taken two to get her pregnant, but right now she wanted Liam’s head on a platter.

The man had pursued her relentlessly for over a month; then once she’d finally allowed herself to care for him, even at the cost of her brother, he’d turned his back on her. Now to find out she was pregnant, she didn’t know what to feel. She just knew she was spitting mad and someone was going to feel her wrath.

Connor opened the front door and led her inside. “If you’ll just wait here—”

“I don’t think so.” She stomped farther inside and headed for the living room, to where she heard voices. Liam sat around a coffee table with five other people. Three males and Erin and the blond woman from the other night.

When he saw her, he immediately stood. Concern was etched in every line of his handsome face. “Is everything all right?”

She didn’t give a damn that they had an audience for this. Still holding the positive pregnancy test, she looked at it, then threw it at him. “You tell me!”

He caught it midair. When he looked at it, his eyes widened. He met her angry stare with confusion. “We used condoms. Lots of them. Maybe this is a mistake.”

At the word “mistake” her heart cracked. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was feeling right now, but the word “mistake” had never entered her mind. Gritting her teeth, she pulled out a handful of the other tests and threw those at him. They clattered to the floor at his feet. “Are these mistakes too? Your super sperm apparently has no problem battling mere condoms!”

At the word “sperm,” the others in the room quickly scurried out. As she stared at him, she’d never felt more
lost in her life. Her throat was thick and she couldn’t help the small tremor that raced through her. “Aren’t you going to say something?”

He swallowed hard but still didn’t say anything. Instead of anger at his silence, a terrible hollowness filled her chest. Even when he hadn’t returned her calls, she’d figured they still had a chance. He’d freaked out and emotions had been high, but this…nonresponsiveness was too much.

Fighting back the tears burning her eyes, she turned and ran out the door.

Liam stared at the plus sign on the white stick in his hand and tried to catch his breath. December had asked him something. She was looking at him expectantly, but he couldn’t think straight. He was going to be a father. He didn’t know how that was possible, but holy shit, it was true.

When December turned away from him, his entire body jerked to life. He couldn’t let her go. Not again.

The past few days he hadn’t been able to sleep. Had barely been able to eat. The whole pack had been following up on leads and checking into local APL members, but he’d been functioning on autopilot. Without December he was absolutely lost.

He still didn’t understand how his brother had walked away from Ana all those years ago. The pain inside him right now was like tiny razors shredding away at his soul. If that’s what his brother had gone through for all those years, then he was a better man than he. Liam was too selfish to walk away from December, no matter what he’d said to her days ago.

“December!” He caught up to her halfway across the yard. Damn, the woman was fast. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her to a stop.

When she turned to face him, her blue eyes were bright with unshed tears. The sight was like a punch to his gut. She looked down at where his hand still held her upper arm and jerked away from him.

He hated the pain he saw in her eyes and knew he had to make it right. “I’m sorry. You just took me by surprise.”

“Whatever.” She started to turn away from him, but he gently held her arm again.

“I don’t know how this happened, but are you…okay?” God, the question sounded lame to his own ears, but he didn’t know what to say. Or even if there was a right thing to say in this situation.

“I don’t know what I am. I cut myself last night and healed instantly. What’s going on with me?”

Oh, shit.
He’d heard of what happened when shifters got humans pregnant, but it had been centuries ago. If a woman was in heat, shifters stayed away. Or used protection. Which was exactly why he’d used condoms. It wasn’t as if he could get any STDs or give them for that matter, so he hadn’t even bothered to explain to her about all that. He’d used condoms because she’d been ovulating. He thought she’d been perfectly safe from pregnancy. He snorted at the word “safe.” Lot of good that had done them.

“Is this funny to you?” she practically shrieked.

Shit. She was going to hate him even more when he told her the truth. “No! I don’t know how you got pregnant…. Well, I know
how
, but I didn’t think it was possible since we used protection. I never meant to do this to you, I swear. I’d heard about this happening, but it’s been so long and—”

“Spit it out, Liam. I want details, not excuses.” She crossed her arms over her chest as she continued to glare at him.

Why couldn’t there be an easier way to explain this?
“When a human female becomes pregnant by a shifter, she…her body adapts to that of her child. In shifter terms it means we’re mates.”

“I thought you said I’d have to be your bondmate to…change to be like you. I didn’t think I could just become your mate unless I was a shifter.”

He nodded again. “Under any other circumstance, a human can’t become a shifter’s mate. Well, technically I guess she can, but her life span would still be that of a human. To be a bondmate, I’d have to take you from behind and sink my canines into your neck as we made love under the full moon. I didn’t even think
this
was possible.” He held out one of the sticks she’d thrown at him.

For a moment she eyed him curiously. “That’s how the bonding process works? I thought…” She shook her head angrily. “So I’m a shifter now? Does that mean I’ll live as long as you? And will my baby come out as…?”