Quinn took the turn off from Portland onto the highway toward Fate Mountain. She’d already been sitting behind the wheel for a few hours and was getting tired. Luckily, Fate Mountain was only another hour away. Her mind played over what would happened when she arrived. She imagined Drew running to her and wrapping her in his arms. That probably wasn’t going to happen.
Her other imaginings weren’t quite so sunny. She saw an image of Drew turning away from her and slamming the door in her face. That was much more likely to happen. What would she do if it did? Her only other option was to go back to Portland and try to get her job back. She’d messed up her career so royally, she didn’t think there was anything to go back to. She’d left her job as a PR executive without any notice. Her firm was pissed and would probably give her a terrible reference to any other firm in town.
She’d been thinking about going out on her own for quite some time, but right now she just didn’t have the cash. Everything was tied up in the condo, and she was on the verge of losing that too.
Quinn had always been a bit of a wild child and a party girl, but she’d never been totally irresponsible. In college, she’d been a good student, despite being at every frat party over the course of her four years there. As a young professional, she had climbed the corporate ladder with ease while sharing plenty of cocktails with her girlfriends, dates, and clients every weekend.
She’d built up a nest egg and had invested in renovating the kitchen in her outdated condo a year ago. It added to the property value, but Quinn had dropped out of life almost immediately after sinking her cash into the remodel. Now she had no liquid assets and was on the run.
What she did know was that she was afraid. She was afraid of what people would think of her. She was afraid of her parents’ reaction to her shifter child. She was afraid of her own feelings for a man she’d just met. Those feelings threw Quinn’s life into a tailspin she was just now coming out of.
If only Drew would be happy to see her and happy about the child. The cub. Maybe then she could come back to her right mind. Everything had been fragmented since she’d left Fate Mountain. It was like she was missing some important component that made life livable. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t feel. It was all so muddled, she didn’t even want to think about it.
When she made it to Fate Mountain Village, she parked her car in the parking lot of a diner and went in to use the restroom. On the way out, the hostess asked her if she wanted to be seated. Quinn was starving, so she let the blonde woman show her to a table.
The hostess placed a menu on the table as Quinn took a seat. The woman walked away and came back a moment later with a glass of ice water.
“Would you like something else to drink?”
“Water’s fine,” Quinn said.
The blonde waitress narrowed her eyes at Quinn as if she recognized her. Quinn had never seen the woman before in her life.
“I’m Lily,” the woman said. “My mate is Shane Keenan. We own the diner and run the kitchen at the lodge.”
“Okay.”
“You seem familiar. Have we met?”
“Not that I know of.”
“That’s so strange. Your scent reminds me of someone.”
“My scent,” Quinn said, angling her nose to her armpit. Did she smell bad?
“I’m a shifter like my mate. I can smell your unique scent. Wait. I know what it is. You remind me of Drew.”
“You know Drew?”
“Yeah. He’s a Rescue Bear like my mate Shane.”
Quinn scrubbed her hand over her face and tried to force a smile. This woman was very close to Drew. And here Quinn was, fully pregnant for all to see.
“How do you know Drew?” Lily asked.
Quinn rubbed her large, round belly and sucked her lip. The baby stirred inside, responding to the smell of bacon and milkshakes.
“We met nine months ago,” Quinn said.
“Nine months ago?” Lily said, looking pointedly at Quinn’s swollen tummy. “Are you?” Lily took a step back and almost dropped her coffee pot.
“I’m Quinn.”
“Whoa. Seriously? Oh my God. No one is going to believe you’re back in town. What happened to you?”
“I think I’ll have the Caesar salad,” Quinn said.
Lily shook her head and blinked several times as if trying to register what Quinn had just said. “Caesar salad… Coming right up.” Lily absently wrote it on her order pad.
“Could you not tell anyone, please? I’m here to see Drew.”
“Everyone’s been looking for you. Juliet’s been so worried.”
“I can’t decide if I want a milkshake or not,” Quinn continued.
She felt bad enough as it was about Juliet. They’d been friends for a long time and she’d just unfriended her, literally. It was as unforgivable as what she’d done to Drew. If Quinn had to be confronted with this stuff all at once, she didn’t know if she’d have the strength to face Drew. Telling him about the baby was the only reason she’d come here. She needed to at least do it before she left again. He had a right to know.
“The blueberry milkshake is delicious,” Lily said.
“I’ll have one of those then,” Quinn said, closing her menu and handing it to Lily.
Lily smiled and said, “Okay,” before walking back behind the bar of the diner. Quinn picked up her phone and checked for texts from Drew. There was nothing. He hadn’t responded since Portland.
This was a low point in Quinn’s life. She was far from being proud of herself or her state. She’d made bad choices, and she knew she was responsible for them. Realizing that didn’t make any of this any easier. She knew she was going to have to make amends with Juliet and Charlotte and the rest of her friends, not to mention Drew.
Lily came back with her milkshake a few moments later and set it on the table with a straw and a long spoon. Lily hesitated a moment and put her hand on her hip.
“Juliet is pregnant,” Lily said.
Quinn dropped her milkshake spoon onto the glass and it made a loud clank.
“Juliet is pregnant? How long?”
“About six months.”
Quinn looked down at her milkshake and frowned. Now she felt even crappier. She’d missed so much.
“Why are you telling me this?” Quinn said, looking up at Lily.
“I thought you might like to know. You guys were good friends for a long time, weren’t you?”
“Yes. Since college.”
“Charlotte was the matron of honor at her wedding.”
“Oh? How was it? I bet it was beautiful.”
“It was. We had it in the atrium. Poppy’s parrot Malcolm got lose and flew over the bride and groom right before the kiss. It was so adorable. But I guess you kind of had to be there.”
Lily was obviously being a jerk right now. Quinn sighed and shoved her spoon into the ice cream. She took a big bite and tapped the spoon on the glass.
“This is delicious,” she said with a full mouth.
“Well. Enjoy your lunch,” Lily said brightly.
Quinn smiled up at her and then rolled her eyes as the blonde woman walked away.
Quinn didn’t have any delusions about her relationships with her friends or with Drew, but she hadn’t expected a perfect stranger to call her out at lunch.
Lily came back a few moments later with Quinn’s Caesar salad and asked her if she needed anything else. Everything in Quinn wanted to say something rude back to the waitress, but she just didn’t have the energy right now.
“I’m fine. I just want to eat my meal in peace. I’ve been driving all day.”
Maybe she’d made mistakes, but she didn’t believe she deserved to be treated so badly. She was nine months pregnant, after all. That should count for something. At least this woman could be nice to her for the baby’s sake.
“I’m sorry for being a bitch,” Lily said, still standing over the table.
“It’s fine,” Quinn muttered.
“You
’ve left some serious heartache in your wake.”
“I’m well aware.”
“Are you planning to stay in town now? I can only assume that baby bump belongs to your mate.”
“I’d rather not get into it. I’m here to see Drew. That’s the end of it.”
“I get it. I had a similar situation myself. Sometimes the bears can be a little intense, especially for a human who isn’t used to it.”
Quinn sighed dramatically. “Can I just eat my lunch now?”
“Of course.”
Lily walked away, and Quinn felt closer to tears than she had in a long time. She’d never been a particularly sensitive woman, but something about what Lily said brought out that side of her. She sniffled and shoved a bite of crisp lettuce in her mouth to keep back the tears. She was not going to cry in the middle of the diner in front of Lily or anyone else who might know who she was.
She finished her lunch and went to pay at the front counter. Lily walked up and pulled out her check.
“How was everything?” Lily asked, punching buttons on the computer screen.
“Fine. The dressing was good.”
“That’s a Shane Keenan special.”
“How nice.”
“Look. I really am sorry about earlier. Good luck with Drew.”
“Is he very angry?” Quinn asked, handing Lily a credit card.
“He’s been real messed up for a long time about you. I’m not sure if angry is the right word for what Drew is now.”
“What is the right word?”
“Sad. Stuck, maybe. I think he’s really depressed.”
“Oh.”
“I hope you two can work things out.”
“I don’t know if that’s possible. We don’t even know each other. We have no past. Just a one-night stand.”
“It was more than that, though, wasn’t it?”
A family walked into the diner, and Lily and Quinn looked over at them.
“Maybe,” Quinn muttered. “See you around.”
She ducked out of the diner behind the family and left as Lily said goodbye to her back. At least the conversation had taken a turn for the better, but somehow Quinn didn’t feel any better.
Lily said Drew was depressed. That was the last thing she wanted to hear. Drew was a great guy, from what she remembered. Their night together had been magical, sexy, amazing. She’d lost control because it all felt so good. She’d never felt that in her life, and Drew didn’t hold back when she asked to let go. He lost control too, and they had become two irresponsible idiots, living like there was no tomorrow.
Maybe things could have been happily-ever-after if she hadn’t run off. But at the time, Quinn was way too freaked out by her feelings to do anything but leave as fast as her pink pumps could take her.
Quinn slid into her car and turned on the engine. She knew exactly where Drew lived and worked from the last time she’d been on Fate Mountain. It was now or never. She’d come all this way to confront the bear who’d sired her cub. If he hated her and told her to go to hell, at least she’d done what she could do.
Drew had a right to know she was about to give birth to his baby. If he didn’t want to help her, she’d just have to figure something else out. Quinn was ready to come out of hiding and face what had become of her life.
She pulled out of the diner parking lot and started the drive across town to Drew’s brewery and the house he owned behind it. At this time of day, he might be working in the warehouse or he might be at home. Either way, she was about to show up at his doorstep.
She parked in front of the brewery. There weren’t any other cars in the parking lot. She hefted herself out of her seat and waddled across the parking lot to the front door.
She lifted her hand and knocked. After waiting a few moments, she knocked again. There was no response so she walked around the back to the warehouse door that faced the back of the building.
She knocked and waited, feeling like a fool. After a few minutes, the door slid open and Drew stood before her. He wore a white apron and a black graphic t-shirt that showed off his tattoos. His eyes were darker than she remembered, or maybe it was because he was staring at her with a stunned scowl that made his eyes narrow and shaded.
“Quinn,” he growled.
“Hi, Drew.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“Whose is it?” he said through clenched teeth.
“Whose do you think it is?”
“Honestly? I have no idea.”
Quinn felt sick to her stomach. She gripped her belly, feeling the tears welling in the corners of her eyes. She’d expected him to be at least a little happy to see her. She was his mate. And she was carrying his child. She knew she’d screwed up, but couldn’t anyone forgive her?
“Why are you being like this?” she said, her voice shaking.
“Being like what? You’re just some random chick I screwed one night who took off and didn’t answer my calls or texts for nine months. Now you show up at my business with a pregnant belly. What did you expect me to do? Have a celebration?”
“The child is yours, Drew. There was no one else.”
Drew stood there, stunned, his arms crossed over his muscled chest. His brown eyes were dark under his black eyebrows.
“What do you want?” he finally said.
“I…I thought you should know.”
“Now I know. You can be on your way now.”
“Drew…” she said in a pleading voice. Why was he being so cruel? Didn’t he have any feelings for her? She thought shifters adored their fated mates. She was his. Didn’t he care?
“I don’t have anywhere else to go. I need help. I’ve been…confused for a long time, and I’ve gotten myself into a lot of financial trouble.”
“How is that my problem?”
“This is your baby. Don’t you care?”
He stood there staring at her with that cruel look in his eyes. She sniffled and turned away, the tears really flowing now. By the time she got halfway around the building, she was sobbing uncontrollably. She pulled open her car door, totally blinded by tears. As she yanked the door open, a firm hand caught her elbow and pulled her around. Drew looked down at her, his hand gripping her arm. She tried to pull away, but he held her still.
“Let go of me,” she shouted.
“Just calm down. You can’t drive like this.”
“What do you care?”
“Quinn. I’m not a monster.”
“Neither am I. Even if everyone wants to treat me like one. I’m a good person!”
“No one said you weren’t.”
“Sure. Right. You hate me. Lily hates me. Juliet hates me. I’m the bitch who ran away. I get it. I screwed up. No one will ever forgive me.”
“Is that what you want? My forgiveness?”
“I don’t deserve it. That’s been made perfectly clear.”
“Where did you go, Quinn? Why did you disappear on everyone?”
“I was confused,” she whispered.
Drew let go of her arm, and she started to cry softly, covering her face with her hands.
“Come on. Let me make you a cup of tea.”
He put his arm around her shoulders and led her around the brewery to the front steps of his house.
They walked inside, and he directed her to sit down at his dining room table. The last time Quinn had been in here, she’d been drunk out of her mind and more turned on than she’d ever been in her life.
She barely remembered Drew’s house, but it was familiar enough that she knew she’d been there before. There was a line of barrels along the back wall of his kitchen, and she knew it was his beer.
Drew was a bit of a genius when it came to brewing beer. Quinn had always been a fan of local craft brews, but Drew took his beer to the next level. It was so crisp and fresh, yet it was so high in alcohol that it got you giddy pretty fast.
He walked into the kitchen and put a kettle on the stove before reaching
into a cabinet and pulling out a jar of loose tea. When the water was done, he shoved tea into a strainer, dropped it into a mug and poured boiling water over the whole thing.
He sat in front of her at the table, sliding into the seat across from her and folding his hands in front of him.
“So, you were confused? Is that what happened?”
“Confused doesn’t even begin to describe it. I was terrified. You have no idea how I was raised. My parents are the leaders of one of the oldest anti-shifter organizations in the country. When I lost control with you, it made all the things they’d ever said about shifters rise up out of my subconscious. I thought I was under an evil spell meant to rob me of my senses.”
“If it makes you feel any better, the same thing happened to me with you. I couldn’t resist you any more than you could resist me. I’m just used to the instinctive drive, and you aren’t.”
“I guess I can see that now. At the time, I couldn’t. I thought I was being brainwashed. I had to get away as fast as I could so I didn’t become your slave.”
“Did you really think I wanted you to become my slave?” Drew said, smiling for the first time since she’d arrived.
She could see the light in his eyes. He was so much more handsome when he smiled. She could tell that he was a man of good humor when he wasn’t heartbroken and pissed.
“Not anymore, but that morning after you marked me, I did. It was how I was raised. I can’t tell you how many stories I’d heard of the exact same thing happening to women. The shifter marked her and she could never escape him.”
“It’s more of a mutual thing,” Drew said. “Shifters are just as bound to their mates as human mates are to shifters.”
“I understand that now. I just couldn’t rationalize it at the time. I panicked. The confusion got the better of me, and I had to go into hiding. I couldn’t tell my parents or my friends what had happened to me. I was too ashamed. Too confused. I didn’t know what to do. Did you know I quit my job? I’ve been living on savings and credit cards for nine months. I rented a house on the coast, and I’ve been paying for my condo too. I’m going to lose my condo if I don’t sell it soon. I just don’t have the money for the mortgage payments. I seriously screwed up my life, Drew. I don’t have anywhere else to turn.”