Chapter 28Jules
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
JULES
A baby shower. I honestly didn’t expect one, but I’m touched that so many people care about Gavin and me enough to throw us one. A surprise baby shower at that. I thought we were just coming for Sunday breakfast.
I can tell the boys put a lot of time and energy into planning this for their father and me, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Maybe it’s also the pregnancy hormones that have me tearing up a few times while Callum and Silo help me open gifts.
“How many babies do hawks have at a time?” Silo looks up at Gavin as he joins us after talking to Thane and Iolani.
“Usually one.” He lays his hand on my neck and squeezes. I relax into his hold with a soft groan. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve discovered just how magic his hands are as I’ve swollen to the size of a balloon on the cusp of bursting. “Sometimes more. Hawks give birth to eggs. The chicks work their way out.”
“Shouldn’t you be worried about the litter of babies that bunnies have?” Altair asks.
Silo waves his middle finger at him. And Baz for good measure, since he’s laughing under his breath. “Joke’s on you. I’m never having children.”
Callum presses against Silo’s side. “What if I want children?”
“Get knocked up then,” Silo counters as he pushes him away. “Nothing about that” —he points at me, or more accurately my belly— “looks enjoyable.”
He isn’t wrong. It’s pretty uncomfortable to be pregnant, especially as I get closer to my due date.
Callum glances at my belly as well. “You’re right.” He tugs Silo against his side, and Silo settles there happily now that Callum is agreeing with him. “Plus, any kids we have will bite and I get enough of that from you.”
I hide a smile behind my hand but Silo laughs. “We can always adopt if you really want babies. Then we can have the fun of making them without ruining my cute figure.”
Gavin makes a strangled sound and I glance up. He looks a little pale. Maybe the idea of being a grandfather so soon after becoming a father again isn’t appealing. I can’t blame him, really. We’re about to have our hands full as it is now.
“Your parents should’ve raised you both better.” Altair dances away from his older brother when Baz swats at him and misses, but Callum manages to slap him on the thigh as Silo flips him off—again.
“I failed all around. But that’s why I’m trying again.” Gavin kisses my head as he runs his hands down my arms. I lean into him as the bell above the front entrance dings.
“We’re closed for a private event,” Baz says, turning towards the door. “But we’ll be open to the public tomorrow.”
I start to stand but freeze when a rancid but familiar and unwelcome scent hits me in the face, like a well-aimed fist. No. No. This can’t be happening. Not now. Not when I’m finally happy.
“I’m looking for my husband.” The voice of the mate my parents chose for me, the one that haunts my nightmares, sends a shiver down my spine. I cover my mouth, scared to breathe too loudly.
He’s here. He’s found me. I need to go—to run, to hide.
I need to protect myself and my babies.
“I doubt he’s here. Everyone’s mated, married or forever single.” Baz doesn’t have a clue that he’s talking to the very reason I left home and ended up in Pine Glen in the first place. How could he?
“Jules?” Gavin rubs my shoulder as he leans over and searches my face with a concerned smile. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
I open my mouth but shut it. What am I supposed to say?
Gavin is my mate. I’m his. But... what did— I squeeze my eyes shut.
Alan. His name is Alan Rossco. The thought of his name alone makes me want to vomit. And he just said he’s looking for his husband. He can’t possibly mean me, can he? But who else can he be talking about? I’m why he’s here.
“Gavin.” His name trips off my tongue as my eyes burn. “He isn’t?—”
He has to know Alan isn’t my husband. I never married him.
“Jules?” Gavin frowns, and I shake my head quickly.
He jerks upright and whips around. “You need to leave. Now.”
I swallow and curl over my stomach. As much as I want to be strong and brave and face Alan head on, I’m just a pika. A pregnant one.
“Not without my husband,” Alan sneers. I shove my fingers into my hair and whimper. Everyone can hear me, I’m sure. The diner is so silent the absence of sound is almost painful. We were all laughing and having a good time just five minutes ago. Now—this.
Altair stands in front of me, joining Gavin to form a protective wall. “We already said your husband isn’t here.”
“Are we really going to do this, Jules?” Alan sighs and I cup my hand over my mouth as tears roll down my cheeks. No. No. I hate the way he sounds my name. “If you come peacefully, I won’t have to involve the police in this... misunderstanding.”
I jerk in my seat as my gaze snaps to him.
He looks the same—tall and lanky, with a sharp nose and chin, dark mean eyes, and a flat mouth. I’d hoped to never see him again, but he’s here. And he’s threatening to call the police.
Why would they get involved?
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’ve always been stupid but this is beyond your typical behavior. We’re married.” He ignores Gavin, who is shaking with rage, and speaks slowly, as if I really am stupid. “And you’re playing house with another man. Bigamy is still a crime.”
“I never married him,” I rush to say as I latch onto Gavin’s hand. His fingers tighten around mine but he doesn’t spare me a glance. He has to believe me. I didn’t lie when I said I ran away before we got married. The plan was to be mated, anyway. Not married.
Alan’s laugh is cruel as he pulls a rolled-up sheet of paper from his back pocket and waves it in the air for everyone to see. “Funny. The marriage license has your signature and everything.”
It has to be fake.
“Let me see that.” Gavin releases my hand. A dark and cold abyss opens in my stomach as Alan passes the paper to him and I look around the diner. This can’t be happening.
Gavin barely glances at the paper before he rips it into multiple pieces and flings them in Alan’s face. I gasp for breath as Gavin yanks his collar to the side and exposes the bite on his throat—my bite.
“Your shitty piece of paper is invalid in every way.” He reaches back and I grab his hand with both of mine. I’m his mate. A fake marriage license has no power here. “Leave and I won’t have to involve the county coroner.”
“You had no fucking right to mate him. He’s mine!” Alan yells, his voice sharp and ugly as his jaw ticks and his fingers curl into his palms.
I want to hide but I’m safe. In Pine Glen, with my family.
Pine Glen protects its own and I’m one of them now. I’m Gavin Strange’s mate.
“I’m not.” My voice is small and it shakes because I’m scared, fucking terrified, but I want to be brave for Gavin. For the family we’re building.
“The alphas are talking.” Alan’s voice is a gunshot that has my heart skipping a beat. “When I want you to speak, I’ll fucking tell you to.”
Altair springs forward, with all the speed of someone his size but all the strength of a man twice his size, and backhands Alan across the face. The echo of his slap sends a shockwave of satisfaction down my spine.
Alan hisses and lunges at Altair who tips his chin up, ready to go toe to toe with the alpha, but it’s not Gavin who steps in front of him. Baz and Callum fall on the coyote as a two-man team hell bent on pain and suffering and quickly take him to the ground.
They punch and kick him, every hit loud in the diner. No one steps in to stop the beating. Alan’s blood perfumes the air. So does his anger and fear.
I press my face into Gavin’s spine. Before I left home, Alan was the scariest thing around. No one messed with him. He was the alpha of the burrow. But red-tailed hawks kill coyotes all the time.
“Enough,” Gavin says after several minutes. I peek around him to see Alan curled up on the floor, his hands wrapped protectively around his head. His face is a bloody, swollen mess. Bruises are already forming on his exposed flesh. It wasn’t even really a fight. He never stood a chance against Baz and Callum. Just like Finnick against Gavin.
“Stay with the boys.” Gavin cups my chin and presses a kiss to my mouth. It’s soft and sweet and everything I love about my mate. My eyes burn and I blink back tears. “I won’t be long.”
I grasp his wrist. “Where are you going?”
He just shakes his head and pulls away before he shoves his fingers into Alan’s hair. Everyone watches as he drags Alan kicking and screaming towards the door.
Is no one going to intervene? To say something, at least?
“Now’s your chance to find out where your father really is buried,” Callum whispers to Silo, but everyone can hear him. Is Gavin really going to...
I stand but Altair wraps his arm around my back. “Easy. Don’t worry. Father will take care of everything.”
That’s what I’m worried about. “He’s not worth it.”
Iolani presses against my other side, her arm joining Altair’s around my back. “It’s not about him. It’s about protecting you and your babies.”
I lay my hand over my belly. They’ve been fussy all day and I’ve been swallowing the discomfort but I’m tired and just... done. “Yeah.” I blow out a slow breath. “Okay.”
“Why don’t you let us take you home? You can have a nice bath while you wait for Gavin.” Iolani runs her hand up my back. I look from her to the door. I don’t really want to know what Gavin is going to do to Alan but if he’s doing what everyone seems to think he is, he’ll be a while.
“Come on.” Baz takes Altair’s place at my side.
I lean into him with a grateful smile. “Thanks, Baz. For everything.”
Not just for the baby shower, but for standing between me and Alan. For being a good person, and an even better son.
Baz’s arm tightens around my body, but not so hard as to hurt. “What else is family for?”
I’m still learning, but today is a masterclass I’ll never forget.