24. TWENTY FOUR
TWENTY FOUR
Colton
When I can manage to keep my hands off Natalia for more than five minutes, we start talking about going to get Jayden.
I feel guilty because I’m torn. I want to see my son and hold him, and of course I’m not going to leave him with my parents forever, but I am not quite ready to lose this little cocoon of happiness we’ve been nestled in while Natalia’s heat lasted.
Well, to be fair, her heat ended overnight, but we didn’t let that stop us all afternoon.
I’m lucky she made me stop and eat something or I might have tried to live forever off just her creamy milk.
It’s after dark when I ring Mom to let her know we’re coming to collect Jayden. “Good. Just in time for dinner. I’ll save yours.”
Since Mom’s on speaker, I give Natalia a sideways look to check that she’s OK with staying at my parents’ house for dinner.
She nods.
“Great. See you soon.”
“Yeah.” And then something occurs to me that should have occurred a lot sooner. “Hey, Mom?”
“Yes, Colton?”
I can feel the heat creep up my neck, and I’m worried about upsetting her, but I blurt it anyway. “Listen, you’re not going to, ah… you’re not going to ask any awkward questions, are you? Just remember that Natalia grew up human, and she’s not used to shifter stuff yet.”
Natalia is smothering laughter into her hand.
Mom makes an incredulous noise. “I know that! Don’t you think I know that? Just bring her here so I can feed you both. I can tell you’ll need it.”
Oh boy.
Natalia waves off my offer to collect Jayden by myself, which I’m relieved about.
Mom will be outraged if I don’t bring Natalia with me.
I know how she works. She will now see it as her duty to cook dinners for us for the next week and ply us with food.
It’s traditional for a newly mated couple, especially in their first few heats.
When Jayden spots Natalia he instantly reaches for her, letting out a happy squeal and then an angry cry, thrashing his little body while Mom hangs on for dear life.
“Oh!” Natalia presses her hands over her breasts, and I sweep Jayden up quickly. “I guess he’s hungry!”
“Do you want to feed him in the car?” I say to Natalia, not sure what she’ll feel comfortable with.
“In the car?” My mother glares at me. “What are you talking about? She needs to be comfortable. Bring her inside.”
Ignoring my mother for the moment, I lower my voice. “It’s your call, Natalia. I’ll drive you both back to my place if you like.”
“Oh, I don’t mind going inside. It would be good to have a comfortable chair actually.”
“Of course. You come with me. Ignore my son’s bad manners.” Mom shepherds Natalia away and sets her up in the sitting room with a plate of snacks, a glass of water, and a comfortable armchair.
I hand over a crying Jayden, who instantly latches when Natalia gives him her breast. The quiet in the room is sudden and relieving.
I straighten with a sigh only to find Mom watching Natalia like a hawk. “Oh, he is latching so well. You are doing brilliantly. You’re a natural.”
“Mom, you promised to be chill. Can we please go in the other room and give Natalia some privacy?”
Natalia laughs. “I think we’re all a bit beyond that now, right?”
Mom gives an approving nod. “Sensible. Why would you hide something so magical?”
I sigh, resisting the urge to remind her again that Natalia is human and might have different views.
But honestly, I have to agree. I try not to stare as blatantly as Mom, but there is something so beautiful about seeing Jayden tucked up against Natalia and hearing the sweet little sounds of satisfaction he makes.
“Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, someone called from the Black Pines. They said it was urgent. They’d been trying to reach you. I explained the situation, of course, but they said you should call as soon as you can. Something about a media leak?”
I dread to think exactly how she explained the situation, but I guess I’ll have to face that one next training session. “What kind of media leak?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “Who knows. They probably just want you to do some interview. Maybe someone else has some bad press. I’m sure it’s nothing bad.”
I’m less sure. They wouldn’t have called me urgently if it was just bad press about the team or someone else. “Do you mind if I make the call now?” I ask Natalia.
“Course not.” She swaps Jayden to the other side and Mom rushes at the chance to ply her with more food and water.
I step into the room that used to be mine and shut the door, dialling the number. Our team PR manager, Thorpe picks it up after only two rings, which puts me on alert instantly. “Hester, you had Coach worried. We thought your mate must be in hospital or something.”
I laugh. I said mate didn’t I? I’m pretty sure I did. The whole day from getting Natalia’s call to landing in Waterton is a bit of a blur, but I’m glad I told the team the truth. “Ah, no. No need to worry. So you had something to tell me?”
“Right. I’m afraid it’s not good news. In fact, it’s about your mate that I’m calling.”
I freeze. My bull presses against my spine, sensing danger and wanting release.
I hold the shift back with the discipline of years of practice, but only just. “What about my her?” I grit out.
“She called us yesterday to say she was worried about you.”
I blink. “She couldn’t have.”
There’s a pause. Thorpe clears his throat. “Are you certain?”
Heat spreads over my body when I recall all the things Natalia and I did yesterday, none of which included time for secret phone calls.
“Ah, yeah. Couldn’t be more sure.”“Hmm. Well we did get a call yesterday. Someone claiming to be your mate called to say she was worried there were nasty rumors spreading about her in the media. She directed us to a story, and it’s not great. I’m glad you haven’t seen it yet.”
“Why? What is it?”
“Just take a breath and process, OK? I’m handling it. I don’t need you to make any public comment about it, and I’ve got our legal team on it, trying to get the pictures taken down.”
“Pictures of what?” My voice booms through the silent room and Thorpe coughs nervously.
“Ah, well I assume you know about her past. I know you’ve only just claimed her as your mate—”
Is that all this is? “Oh, I know about her engagement and the joke of a wedding. Yeah, I know about that.”
“Joke? So it’s not true?”
“Oh it’s true. She was engaged to marry someone else, but he walked out on her.”
“I see.” He doesn’t sound pleased.
“What?”
He sighs. “Listen, you should read the stories yourself I guess.”
“Stories?”
“There’s a few now. You’re a hot-ticket item. Most of them are painting her as a fake. Someone planted by the team to make you look good since Jayden’s mom isn’t in the picture—”
I groan. “Jayden’s mother was a surrogate. I showed you the contract.”
“I know, I know, but we haven’t gone public with that, and apparently there’s been talk.
Look, the long and the short of it is, it looks bad.
People are saying you’re unstable and distracted.
That you’ll move to West Coast and leave the Jacks.
You have to admit that it looks odd that she was walking down the aisle to marry someone else a month ago and now she’s sitting in friends and family with your jersey on. ”
I take a long calming breath. “Well I’m telling you she’s the one. My fated mate. It doesn’t matter how it looks because that’s the truth! And I’m not going anywhere. I turned West Coast down.”
“Great. See, this is what I was saying. I think the answer is we go really public with it. Let’s do a big photo shoot, and we can show off the mating mark and—”
I have to stop him there. “Well… about that…”
“Hester, is she your mate or what? I’ve worked with supes long enough to know if there’s no mark there’s no mate.”
“She is! But we haven’t talked about the mark.”
“Well I need you to get on that. I’ve got the shoot booked for tomorrow.”
I sputter. “Tomorrow!”
“Yeah. Don’t let me down now. We need to take the opportunity to ride any positive press we can generate. This will be great for the team.”
“Great. Look I’ll talk to her about the photo shoot, but bovine shifters don’t do visible marks.”
“Hmm. Maybe we can fake something.”
I’m shaking my head even though he can’t see me. “No. We’re not faking. We don’t need to. At the end of the day I don’t care what anyone else thinks. What we have is bigger than all that.”
Thorpe chuckles softly. “This is the stuff I was hoping to hear. Listen, I’ll stop interferring. Just don’t let me down tomorrow, OK?”
I rub my hand over my face, wondering how I get myself out of this one. I want to help my team. Of course I do. But I’ve only just won Natalia’s trust. If I push it now…
A tap at the door makes me jump. Natalia opens it and peeps in just as I end the call and shove my phone back in my pocket.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
There’s a pause. I feel bad leaving her standing out in the hall, so I hurry forward to open the door for her. “Come in.”
“Is everything OK?”
I sigh. What do I tell her? I can’t lie, though, so I sit on the side of the extra-large single bed I used to sleep in when I was a kid and pat the mattress for her to sit beside me. “There’s been a development, and the team wants me to do some media stuff tomorrow.”
“OK. That’s no problem. I’m feeling so much better now, and I can look after Jayden.”
“I’m glad, but that’s not what I’m worried about.”
“It’s not?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know how much to tell you because I don’t want to upset you, but I want to be completely honest. So let me just say that nothing in the world would make me rush you, OK?
And I don’t want to make you feel like I want you for some media stunt.
Of course I don’t. I mean, I want you, but I—”
She puts her hand on my knee, and my brain short circuits. “Colton. Just tell me, m’kay? I know you’re genuine.”
I breath out a huff of breath. “OK. There have been some stories in the media about you…”
“About me?” she frowns. “That has to be a mistake.”
“I wish it was. I haven’t seen them, but PR is worried they make you look bad and me look… like I’m getting scammed.”
Her frown deepens. “What stories?”
“Do you want to look?”
“Show me.”
It only takes a moment of searching for my name before the first one pops up.
There’s a photo of Natalia that looks like it was taken from her social media.
She’s smiling, and it’s clear the photo has been cropped from a couples picture with her ex.
She’s being hugged by a very obvious, very masculine arm.
The headline reads: Beloved Jacks Star Player’s Romance Scam
I scroll and it only gets worse. The article labels Natalia a scam artist and suggests this is a pattern of behavior. Below there’s an interview with her ex and a video clip.
I glance sideways at Natalia. “Do you want to watch it?”
She chews her lip. “I’ve got to know.”
With some hesitation, I press the red play button in the center of the video.