Chapter 11
Ian
I’m so giddy with happiness that I might as well be drinking. Julia’s hand is in mine and she’s going to have my babies. There’s nothing standing in the way.
The rest of the evening is a blur as Julia gets drunker and drunker, the music gets louder and louder, and my heart gets more and more full.
I don’t sing again after my ear-splitting performance, but Heidi, Nicole, and Julia mop up the stage multiple times with their rum-and-Diet-Coke renditions of hit girl-group songs.
I do my best to mitigate the alcohol by feeding them nachos and wings, but sometime around midnight, I cut all three of them off. They are giggly messes, falling all over each other. It’s time to take them home.
While they make one last stop in the restroom, I settle up the bar tab and leave a healthy tip for all the extra cherries. Three purses looped over one arm—if you can call Nicole’s belt pack a purse—and Julia hanging on the other, I herd the women to the parking lot and into my Jeep.
Julia ends up in the back seat with Nicole, who’s the most sober, although that’s not saying much considering the way she’s belting out random song lyrics every so often. A completely wasted Heidi takes the passenger seat. When I slide behind the wheel, she passes me her driver’s license, giggling.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
“Sorry, Occi-fer,” she slurs. “I didn’t mean to do it.
There’s my dome headdress. Home address.
” She pokes in the general direction of the card in my hand, but she misses and her finger lands in my chest. My pec jumps, and she pokes it again.
“Ooh. He’s buff, Julia! You’re going to have little buff puddles.
Bappies. Babies.” She burps, and all of them die laughing.
“There are water bottles in the cooler behind my seat,” I tell them, chuckling as I set the GPS for Heidi’s house.
I turn up the radio when they ask, and they sing along all the way to our destination.
I deliver them to the front porch of a very purple Victorian in a quiet cul-de-sac of a mostly human neighborhood.
“Are you sure I can’t take you to your house?” I ask Julia. I know she lives nearby, but she’s pretty wobbly, and it’s probably not a good idea for her to attempt the walk in the dark alone…or with her adorable, drunk friends, for that matter.
She shakes her head. Her hair is a little rumpled on one side where she rested her head against Nicole’s shoulder in the car, and my fingers itch to smooth it behind her ear. “That’s okay. I’ll stay here tonight.”
“Yeah, she’s staying with us!” Nicole shouts. Heidi shushes her, giggling as they attempt to unlock the front door. They manage it and fall through the door together, still laughing.
“Are they okay?” I ask.
“We’re fiiiine!” Nicole calls as they untangle limbs and struggle to their feet again.
Julia waves a hand at them, rolling her eyes. “They’re always like that, even when they’re sober.”
I shake my head, laughing as I pass all the purses to her, but not before I slip her forgotten peach panties into her bag.
I’m sorry to see them go, but I need to be more careful of her boundaries if I’m going to make this thing work.
“Okay, then. Give me your keys, and I’ll bring your car by in the morning.
If you’re done with the paperwork by then, I can pick it up and we can schedule… ” Our mating.
She retrieves her car key out of her purse and hands it over. “I’m ovulating this weekend,” she says, giving me a dreamy smile that tells me she probably won’t remember this conversation. “That’s what Dr. MacDoogie…no, that’s not right.”
“MacDougal,” I supply, grinning at her annoyed little frown.
“Right. She said this weekend. Or should we wait until next month?”
I don’t even have to think about it. “I vote this weekend.”
“Okay,” she whispers, and I will my dick not to get hard right now, in case she does remember this conversation. “Your tail’s wagging.”
“Why do you think that is?” She blushes, and I grab my tail so it will chill the fuck out. I am trying to be cool here. “Good night, pretty girl.”
“Night.”
I watch as she stumbles through the pink front door and wait until I hear the reassuring two clicks that let me know it’s latched and locked.
Conall yawns just as his bobber dips, and in the gray pre-dawn light, he misses it.
I nod at his line. “Wake up. You got a bite.”
His eyes pop open, and he gives his fishing rod an experimental tug. The hook sets, and the fish takes off across the lake, his line spooling out. Conall’s bark of disbelief startles a group of ducks out of the weeds, and they take flight, beating their wings into the fog.
While I grab the hand net and wade out a few feet, he reels in the fish, shaking his head at the effort it takes. The trout fights him every inch of the way, splashing its way with powerful twists of its tail. “Oh wow! It’s a nice size!” he grunts.
When he gets it close, I dip it out of the water and wade back. “18-incher.”
“Must be a few pounds. Meg’s getting a good breakfast today.” He grabs the pliers and meets me by the wicker creel we lined with wet moss. Together, we manage to remove the hook and get the fish in the basket where it joins the two smaller trout I’ve already caught.
For a minute, I consider bringing them to Julia when I drop off her car, but I’m not sure she eats fish or even knows how to clean one. For all I know, it’s an insult to give a human woman a fish, like I’m implying she can’t care for herself.
“Take the ones I caught, too. Your mate’s eating for five now, and you ought to feed her well.”
Conall beams at me. “She’s a good dam already, Ian. And bigger by the day. I hope you’ll be so lucky when you find your mate.”
“When is her due date?” I ask as we pack up and stow our tackle boxes and gear in the back of the Jeep. “Soon, right?”
“First week of November.”
“Our pups will be close in age, then, if all goes to plan.”
I wait for the information to sink through his thick skull. When it finally does, he whoops, the sound ringing through the morning quiet. “You found your mate! So that’s why your Jeep smells like pussy. Does Pa know?”
I shake my head. “You’re the first.”
He squeezes me in a hug that forces all my breath out, picking me up so my feet leave the ground momentarily.
Then he drops me and slaps me on the back.
“Congratulations, big bro. I’m happy for you.
Pups so soon, eh? She must be a fast mover.
” He waggles his brows, tongue hanging out the side of his mouth like a cartoon dog.
“Shut up about my mate,” I say, laughing. He’s so stupid.
“When do we get to meet her?” he asks after we pile into the Jeep. I take the bumpy dirt road slowly, easing the tires through the ruts and potholes toward the highway.
“Now, if you want,” I hedge, a little nervous tell him the truth about Julia. “I could use a hand dropping off her car. Just so you know, when you meet her…” I can’t finish the sentence. Damn, this is harder than I thought.
Conall twists to stare at me. “Oh shit. What is it? Is she in heat or something?”
“No. She doesn’t have heats.”
“Oh. Huh.” I can practically hear the gears turning in Conall’s head. “But you said puppies, and you need heats for…oh. What species?”
“Human.”
He gives a low whistle. “Interesting. I guess they’re okay. Weird faces, but at least they have some hair.”
“She has a great face,” I growl, keeping my eyes on the road as I turn from the rustic side road onto the highway and gun the gas, taking us toward town.
“She’s like a fucking peach. The most perfect peach.
Like your mouth waters, you want to take a bite so badly.
” My mouth is watering just thinking about her, and I have to swallow a mouthful of saliva so I don’t drool while I’m driving.
“Holy shit, you got it so bad.” Conall belly-laughs. “Well, don’t worry about telling Pa and Mam that she’s another species. They aren’t bigoted like some. They’ll welcome her as a daughter, and you know it.”
“That’s just it.” My voice rasps and disappears.
Ah, damn, why am I getting so emotional?
It all tumbles out like rocks from a bucket.
“They can’t. She can’t be part of our family.
It’s fucked up, Conall. She’s married to some human.
She has kids with him. And he’s a complete dick to her.
That’s the worst part of all of it. I can’t protect her from him unless she wants me to! ”
“Take her to the Court of Fates,” he says immediately. “A Fate will split them up, no question, especially since you want pups.”
“I don’t want to ruin her life. The one she chose for herself.”
“You’ll give her a better one,” he says instantly, the loyal bastard. “You would, Ian! Your mate belongs with you.”
“What good is that if she hates my guts?” I moan, taking the opportunity at a stoplight to bang my head gently against the steering wheel.
When the light changes, I make a right turn into the bar’s parking lot.
“I’m lucky she agreed to carry a litter of pups for me.
I’m trying to content myself with that.”
“That’s something, I guess.” It’s clear he thinks it’s not enough. “You know what Pa always says when Mam puts her foot down on an issue. ‘She might come around yet,’” he mimics in our father’s hopeful brogue.
I roll my eyes. “When has he ever been right about that? Mam always gets her way.”
Conall chuckles knowingly. “You just wait. Once your mate has your pups in her… all bets are off.”
“You think I’ll feel differently?”
“Yup. And so will she. Meg’s voracious for a good dicking now that she’s pregnant. Like starving for—”
I leave the engine running and get out of the Jeep, slamming the door to drown out his cackles. He scrambles out, too. “You’re not pissed, are you? I was just playing.”
“It’s fine.” I know he means well. I know he’s not thinking about how it’s probably Richard who will fulfill her desires, should she develop any.
But also, a part of me I don’t want to acknowledge would really like it if Julia got horny and fussy.
If she got so frustrated that she texted me in the middle of the night when her husband was out of town.
I want her to crave me like I crave her.
“Maybe, if I’m really good to her, she’ll look to me when her husband inevitably fucks up,” I muse out loud.
Conall points a finger at me. “Now you’re talking like a Lyall. You are going to charm the hell out of her. And so am I. The whole family’s going to woo her until she can’t resist us, just wait.” He tosses my keys in the air and catches them. “Easy as huckleberry pie, you’ll have your mate.”
It’s not going to be that easy, but I can’t help but be grateful for his unwavering support, especially right now. His hope gives me hope.
“Be cool when you meet her,” I warn as he starts back toward the Jeep.
“When am I not cool?! I’m always cool,” he says over his shoulder. And then he does one of those leprechaun heel clicks.
This was a terrible idea.
Her address is on the registration in the glove compartment.
That’s all I can think about as I’m driving Julia’s Volvo to Heidi and Nicole’s house, Conall following me in my Jeep. I could pull over and check. Find out exactly where she lives.
And then what, you dumb dog? Show up at her house to piss on her porch and warn away my human rival, who just happens to be her actual husband?
No, I have to wait until she tells me. Until she invites me. Otherwise I’m going to end up with a restraining order instead of a mate.
Conall’s right. It’s not enough to hang around and hope. I need to charm her.
I make a sudden right turn that I know will have Conall griping and pull up in front of Holy Dough.
He parks next to me and gives me a thumbs-up when I come out of the shop with a box of fresh-glazed doughnuts, including a couple with cherry filling.
I wasn’t sure if Julia would like it if I turned up with fish, but I’m positive she likes cherries, because she must have put away two dozen of them last night.
Maybe I got lucky and cherry is her favorite. Maybe someday, I’ll be her favorite.