Chapter One
Five weeks later
Dex
When the knocking started, I groaned into the pillow over my head. “Go away!”
The racket stopped only to be replaced by the vibration of my phone ringing in silent mode on the nightstand. At least that I could deal with from the comfort of my bed.
“What?” I snarled in the general direction of the phone after swiping to answer it in speaker mode.
“What do you mean what?” my best friend, Taylor, snapped back. “You were supposed to meet me at the park hours ago, dickhead!”
I was? Screwing one eye open, I groaned when I saw the time on my alarm clock. Four in the afternoon. Where the fuck had my entire day gone?
“Sorry, Tay,” I said with a sigh. “I’m fighting a bug, and I must have silenced my alarm when it rang.”
There was a long silence before my friend spoke again, sounding a little concerned. “You’re still in bed? Have you eaten anything?”
“No. This is the first time I’ve even been aware of waking up.” I yawned, struggling to sit up. “Give me a minute and I’ll open the door.”
There was another long pause before Taylor responded. “You do that, boo. Then, while you shower, I’ll order us some food, mkay?”
My stomach growled. “You’re the best, Tay. I really am sorry I stood you up.”
This time there was a little sigh through the speaker. “I know, boo. Hop on up and let’s get this dinner started.”
By the time I showered and dressed in a snuggly plush lounge set, Taylor was done sifting through the bags of food and dished me up a large bowl of hot and sour soup from my favorite Chinese restaurant.
For the first time that I could remember, my go-to under-the-weather cure failed me.
My butt barely even hit the wooden chair seat before my stomach revolted and I bolted for the bathroom.
I wiped my mouth and flushed the toilet before dropping to rest my cheek on the toilet seat.
“Well, that’s gross,” Taylor said with a little snort.
“Is puking ever not gross?”
“I was talking about you putting your face on the toilet seat.”
I was too wrung out to do more than shrug. “It’s clean.”
I heard my friend moving around behind me, then water trickling into the sink. A cool, wet cloth blotted against my neck and wiped gently over my cheeks.
“Feels good. Thanks.”
“No problem.” Taylor continued to wipe my neck and face with the cool cloth for several minutes before he spoke again. “Dex, how long has this been going on?”
“I dunno. A couple of weeks, maybe?”
“Have you been to the doctor?”
I lifted my head and twisted around to face him. “No. It kind of comes and goes. Every time I feel bad enough to make an appointment, it goes away before I do.”
Taylor frowned, concern etched in the lines of his face. “Honey, I think we should go now.”
I shook my head weakly. “I just need a little more sleep.”
“When was the last time you kept food down?”
I didn’t answer and Taylor sighed. “Don’t make me call your Dads, yeah? Let’s just go over to the clinic and see if it’s the stomach flu or something else, okay?”
I gave in under his worried gaze and let Taylor help me to my feet.
My body weighed a ton, and I felt like I was fighting my way through quicksand as I struggled to change into jeans and a sweatshirt.
I could sense Taylor’s anxiety level rising when I stumbled over the pattern in the carpet in the common hallway on our way down to the parking lot.
Later, Taylor was driving me home with a bottle of anti-nausea medication gripped in my hand, a prescription for prenatal vitamins in my pocket, and a diagnosis of something else stretching the silence between us to a near-breaking point.
We were almost home when I couldn’t take it anymore.
“I didn’t know, Tay. I swear it.”
Taylor’s huff was close to a laugh. “I know that, dork. Do you really believe that I think you would risk hurting a baby?”
“I..I don’t know,” I admitted, dropping my head back against the headrest. “I’m having a hard time believing that I didn’t put two and two together.” I hesitated and forged on, “And you looked really mad at me when we got the news.”
Taylor glanced over at me with a sad smile.
“Never mad,” he assured me. “I was, well, shocked. I mean, you've been saving yourself for when Otto finally got his head out of his ass since we were old enough to know what sex was. I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone, much less that involved. I guess I just thought we were the sort of friends who talked about that kind of shit.” Taylor barked out a laugh.
“Apparently, I’m a teenage girl who feels left out of the gossip.
” He shook his head. “Not sure why I’m making it about me when we need to figure out how you’re gonna tell the baby papa. ”
I swallowed against the bile rising in my throat at his words and forced out the confession. “I’m..not seeing anyone at all. It was a spur-of-the-moment one-time thing. He, um, even told me right after that he doesn’t want to see me again, so I don’t think telling him is really an option.”
It was a good thing that there wasn’t any other traffic on the small side street because when Taylor turned to gape at me, we rolled straight through a red light.
“Who is the fucker?"
~*~
Otto
I was in the old orchard, clearing the years of fallen leaves, broken sticks, and other storm remnants when voices wafted over from the gate.
My sleepy bear perked up, assuming Dex was trying to catch my attention again but I knew it wasn't him.
The voices were too deep. Besides, I would never forget the shattered look in the Omega's eyes when I thanked him for the fuck and explained it would be a one-off, that our lives were at a crossroads and I was intent on walking my path alone before ushering him out the door and on his way.
If there was one thing I was certain of, it was that Dex wouldn't be coming back to see me.
Sticking to the shadows, I worked my way toward the front of the house and saw a familiar sedan parked at the intercom, the driver impatiently jabbing his finger at the call button over and over. Clark Boreal. One of Dex’s two dads and the town manager slash den leader of our community.
"Easy on the equipment, man," I called out in greeting, stepping out of the trees and cutting across the grass. I reached through the gate to enter the access code and then stepped to the side to allow the sedan to pull in before the gate closed behind it.
"Otto." Clark greeted me warmly, climbing out of the driver's seat to clasp my outstretched hand and jerking me in for a tight hug. "I thought I told you to come around as soon as you settled in? Jackie's likely to think it's something personal."
I laughed and pressed against his chest just hard enough to buy back a few inches of personal space. "I call bullshit. If Jackson is worried, why isn't he here?"
The passenger door of the sedan opened and the Omega in question stepped out of the car with a cheerful wave. "And here I am!"
Mindful of the possessive bend some bears have toward their mate, I opted to offer my fist for a bump instead of hugging Jackson. “Good to see you, my friend.”
“You, too.” Jackson’s smile broke for the briefest of seconds before he forced it back in place but that was all it took for me to know there was a problem.
“This isn’t a social call,” I said. “What’s on your minds?”
“You remember Mitch?” Jackson asked, letting the smile fall completely.
"Mitch Fraser? The warden's son?"
"Yes, that Mitch," Clark confirmed, his face tight. “Word came through the grapevine that there is a plan in place for the warden to appeal his conviction by discrediting Mitch’s testimony. Any chance you’ve heard anything about it?”
“No, nothing.” I shrugged. “Truth is that I haven’t exactly been out in the world to hear, though.”
“That could work in our favor.” Clark blew out his breath. “We need someone who can blend in over at the bar in Silver Leaf and keep an ear cocked for any scuttlebutt. Word is that one of the warden’s lackey’s is a regular there.”
“And you don’t think Jackson could do it?” I teased with a wink at my friend’s mate.
“I told him I could,” Jackson huffed with a put-out roll of his eyes.
Clark didn’t bother rising to the bait. “Any chance you could help us out? I know it’s last minute but if we could get you in there this afternoon and keep you in place until closing, you’d be doing us a huge favor.”
"Of course, I will," I agreed quickly. I glanced down at my sweaty, dirt-covered clothes.
"Can you give me five minutes to clean up?
" Clark nodded and I turned toward the house, gesturing for them to follow me.
"You might as well come in and get me up to speed while I change.
Just give me a hot minute to shower off. "
Bypassing the master bedroom, I stripped my clothes off in the bathroom.
The water was barely creeping up on lukewarm when I flicked the faucets off.
I ran a towel briskly over my head to dry my tight curls, wrapped it around my waist, and returned to the bedroom where Jackson was leaning against the wall and Clark was pacing in front of the window.
In all the years I’d known Dex’s adoptive fathers, I’d never seen Clark agitated, so I held back a joke about him wearing holes in the carpet and rifled through the drawers to find something to wear.
Pulling a clean pair of jeans over my hips and grabbing the first t-shirt I touched in the drawer, I glanced over at Clark. "You might as well start talking.”