Twenty-Seven
Wyatt
We decided to tell “the family,” which, apparently, meant the carlyles, vern, and burt, at the carlyles’ annual fourth of july barbecue.
I was nervous. It wasn’t exactly a small thing to tell people. I wondered what they were going to think. After all, Cam and I had barely known each other for four months, and now we were living together, mated, and having a baby.
God, I hadn’t imagined any of this happening when I moved to Coyote Creek. I’d figured on a backwards kind of town, small-minded people, and having to hide who I was. Living miserably.
Just like I had been at home.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that almost no one in Coyote Creek set off fireworks for the Fourth. “We’re shifters,” Cam explained, crinkling his nose in distaste. “You know how dogs go nuts.”
I nodded. “What about the, uh … non-shifter residents?”
“Town council’s mostly shifters. There’s pretty much a ban on fireworks.” He paused, tilting his head. “I think they might let the fire department put on a display at one of the parks. But everyone knows about it, and we can steer clear.”
I nodded again. I wasn’t a huge fan of fireworks myself, so it was a relief to know that I wasn’t going to have to put up with neighbors setting them off at all hours of the night on a holiday weekend.
“So, what do you guys do instead?”
Cam shrugged. “There’s the barbecue. Cal smokes a ton of meat, and most of the neighbors come from all around. Bobby Lam usually gives us a lamb to roast.”
I grimaced, thinking of some of the lambs I’d helped deliver. Cam’s eyes widened. “Oh. Uh.”
“It’s fine,” I told him, but I couldn’t help the way my hand snaked to my belly. I suddenly felt sorry for the ewes.
Being pregnant had turned me into a total bleeding heart, if I hadn’t been one before. I felt a new kinship with a lot of the animals I was caring for, especially the mothers.
Maybe it was because the baby I was carrying was probably … part animal. Or, well. Shifter.
“What else?”
Cam coughed. “Well, after sunset, we usually shift and go for a run around the territory.” He scratched at the back of his neck. “It’s, uh … a bonding kind of thing.”
“Oh.” I wouldn’t be able to participate in that. I hadn’t done any research, but even if I did have shifter ancestry, I wasn’t able to shift. As far as I was concerned, I was human through and through.
“Yeah,” Cam said, grabbing his keys off the counter. “We’ll have to figure something else out, now that you’re part of the pack.”
My heart leapt into my throat. “Part of the …”
He shot me a quizzical look. “Uh, yeah? I thought that much was obvious. You’re my mate. Of course you’re part of the pack.”
I could feel heat in my cheeks, and I curled my toes in my shoes. It made perfect sense when he said it like that, but …
I hadn’t ever thought I was going to be part of a family again, not after Dad basically tossed me out on my own. And I definitely hadn’t anticipated being accepted so quickly or so easily.
We drove over to Rocky Ridge. Really, we could have walked, but Cam insisted on driving. He was acting like I was delicate or something, which was starting to drive me bonkers.
I was half-expecting him to follow me to the clinic one day or something, so he could keep an eye on me. I couldn’t wait until he tried to force me to stop working.
I hadn’t entirely thought about leave yet. I was trying not to think too far ahead; birth was months away, and I needed to get my head around the idea that I was pregnant before I could contemplate the reality that the baby that was currently growing in me had to …
Come out of me at some point.
The barbecue was in full swing when we rolled up.
“Cameron,” said a gruff older man with a battered Stetson on his head.
He looked like some kind of stereotype out of a spaghetti Western.
He shook Cam’s hand, then nodded to me, a smile twitching under his thick, salt-and-pepper moustache. Was that a twinkle in his eye?
“Burt,” Cam returned, clapping him on the shoulder. “Have you met Wyatt?”
“Not had the pleasure, no,” Burt said, hooking his fingers in his jeans pockets. “Vernon won’t shut up about you, though. Sings your praises dawn ’til dusk.”
“Oh,” I said, flushing, and Burt offered me another smile.
“Anyone who’s okay in Vern’s books is okay in mine,” he said, then tilted his beer at me, like some kind of toast.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” I stammered. “I—Cam and Cal couldn’t get on without all you do around here.”
Burt huffed a laugh. “I suspect not,” he said. “C’mon, boys, let’s join the party. Drink?”
“Sure,” Cam said easily.
Burt turned his keen eyes on me. I felt heat in my cheeks. “Oh, uh. No … thanks.”
Burt’s smile seemed to grow under his moustache. “Ah,” he said. “I see.”
My cheeks got hotter. Did he? Did he really see?
He pulled a beer out of a cooler near the steps to the deck, then passed it to Cam. We ascended the stairs and found the Carlyle clan—plus Vern and Roy—scattered across the deck and the yard.
Cal was manning both the barbecue and the smoker. He tilted his hat. “Cam, Wyatt. Good to see ya.”
The scent of smoked meat clogged my nose, and I could practically feel myself drooling.
We’d eaten lunch just a couple of hours ago, but my body seemed to be trying to make up for the perpetual queasiness and lack of appetite I’d suffered through for the last three or so months. Now, I was almost constantly hungry.
Cal blinked at me. “You feeding this boy?” he asked Cam, grabbing his tongs. “Gosh, Wyatt, you look starved. What can I get ya?”
I shook my head. “What’s good?”
Cal snorted. “Everything.”
Cam rested an arm on his brother’s shoulder, leaning against him. “Cal’s barbecuing is legendary around here.”
“It’s why we end up feeding half the county.” That was Aunt Caroline.
“You’re only complaining because it means making more potato salad.”
Caroline sighed, then glanced at me, her sharp amber eyes dancing in the afternoon light. A slight smile curved her pink lips. “You look well,” she said, almost like it was some kind of secret.
“Uh. Thanks?”
She smiled knowingly, then turned around. “Hey! Cody! Get out of that beer, you know you’re not allowed to have any alcohol!”
“Aw, come on!” Cody barked, but he slunk away from the cooler, jamming his hands in his pockets.
“He could have one,” Cam said.
Caroline crossed her arms. “He’s underage.”
“It’s the Fourth of July,” Cam argued. “He’s eighteen, and he’s not leaving the property. He could have one.”
Caroline pursed her lips, then turned to me. “You hear that, Wyatt? I hope you know what kind of parent he’s going to be.”
I seized up, as did Cam. Caroline’s smile dropped. “Oh,” she said, her eyes widening. “Um. I’m sorry—”
“No, no,” I said, glancing at Cal, who was holding out a paper plate. His eyes were wide. “It’s okay.”
“We were planning to tell everyone today anyway,” Cam said.
“Really?” Cal asked, drawing my gaze back to him. “Then you’re …?”
I swallowed hard and nodded. Gingerly, I accepted the paper plate from him.
Cal blinked at me, then snapped back into action. Caroline rushed the table, grabbing the bowl of potato salad and marching back to me, brandishing the serving spoon. “Here honey, let’s load up that plate.”
“It’s okay,” I said, trying to dodge out of the way as both she and Cal assaulted my plate, heaping more food on it.
“You want anything else?” Caroline asked. “Karla makes a mean blueberry grunt.”
“I think I’m okay for the moment—”
“Hey, Wyatt!”
That was Vern, who was standing with Burt near the cooler Cody had been poking around in. I turned to him, eyes wide.
“Catch,” the older vet said, and I barely had the presence of mind to shove my plate at Cam and snatch the airborne can out of the sky.
I looked it, then bellowed, “I can’t drink, Vern, and you know that!”
“Oh, you told Vern?” Cal looked offended.
“I couldn’t help it,” I protested.
“It’s non-alcoholic!” Vern shouted to me.
I glanced at the label again, and sure enough, it was a mocktail. “Well,” I grumbled, then popped the tab.
“Here,” Caroline said, taking me by the wrist, “sit down, honey. We don’t want your feet to swell up.”
“Uh, I don’t think—”
She pointed at a lawn chair, and I plonked myself down. There was no sense in arguing with a woman wearing an expression like that, especially not one who could turn into a coyote.
A ball came sailing through the air toward the house.
“Hey!” Cal barked. “Away from the windows, you assholes!”
“Sorry!” Connor called, but he was grinning. Behind him, Cody and another man were laughing.
Caroline put her hands on her hips. “You boys better smarten up! You’re all uncles now, you gotta look out for your little niece or nephew!”
“What?”
“Huh?”
I took a deep breath, putting a hand on my belly, listening as the brothers trotted closer.
Connor peered over the back of my chair. “Seriously?” he asked, eyes widening.
“Who let Cam reproduce?” Cody asked.
The third brother plonked himself into the chair beside me, stretching his arms behind his head. “So you’re the new omega,” he said, grinning.
He held out a hand when I turned to him—not to shake, but to fist bump. “Us omegas gotta stick together,” he said.
“You’re Chip?” I guessed.
“The one and only.”
“Nice to finally meet you.”
Chip smiled winningly. “Good to have another omega around,” he said. “You know, we’ve got to stick together, against this pack of alpha brutes.”
I gave a weak laugh. I didn’t think Cam was a brute. Nor was Cal. Connor was maybe a little rough around the edges, but he was just eighteen. And hadn’t we all been stupid at that age? I sure had been. I was pretty sure it was par for the course with guys.
If that was what omegas were. I bit my lip, suddenly unsure. I glanced at Chip—a shifter omega, someone who had been raised in this space and knew what that meant.
And he seemed like any other guy I knew. I let the tension leave my shoulders, relaxing further into my chair. If Chip could be raised as an omega and call himself a man, then so could I. No need to ask any questions, no need to have an identity crisis.
“You back for the summer?” I asked.
Chip made a face. “Nah. Just the weekend, really. Some friends and I are road tripping, so we stopped in here. I’m staying up at the hotel outside of town.”
“Like a loser,” Connor sneered as he darted by, ruffling Chip’s hair.
“Hey!” Chip snapped, whipping around.
Caroline was practically hovering over me. “You need anything, sweetie?”
I shook my head. “I’m good,” I told her, and I was surprised to find that I meant it.
I was good. Very good. The best I’d been in a long, long time.
And I had Cam to thank for it.
I beamed across the way at him—my mate—and I let myself revel in the summertime heat, the long sunshine of the afternoon, satisfaction settling deep in my bones with the knowledge that this was my now and forever.