While she’d been in hiding, she didn’t have to deal with anyone or anything from her old life. She didn’t have to explain to her parents that she was having a shifter child. She’d been able to keep herself in a fairly stress-free environment. But she was out of money and had to come out of hiding. She’d now have to deal with all of the feelings she’d been running away from all this time. And those feelings were coming at her in intense waves that she couldn’t deflect or hide from.
“I’ll go get the groceries,” Drew said, walking out of the kitchen and through the living room to the front door.
Quinn was exhausted from driving all day and processing all of the emotions she suddenly had thrust upon her. She walked into the living room and sat down on the old futon. There was a fireplace on one side of the living room that was cold and empty, reminding her of her life. Maybe Drew would build her a fire and warm her heart and mind enough to get through the night.
He walked back through the front door with handfuls of grocery bags and took them into the kitchen. Quinn didn’t stand up. She was so exhausted, her feet were swollen in her shoes, and she simply did not want to get up again. She didn’t even know what the bedroom looked like. She didn’t even care. Quinn could have fallen asleep right there on the rickety old futon.
“Do you want me to put these things away?” Drew asked, peeking his head out the kitchen door.
“If you don’t mind,” Quinn said weakly.
She hated continuing to ask Drew for help, but she was so exhausted she really couldn’t stand up again. If he wasn’t going to put her things away for her, she would have just left them on the counter until later. Quinn began to push off the rain boots.
It had been raining all month on the coast, and it appeared as if it had been raining just as much up in the mountains. It had been clear since she’d arrived in Fate Mountain Village, but the storm clouds had moved back in since arriving at the cabin. She knew the sky was about to open up again, and she would be here alone during another downpour.
She could hear Drew putting things away in the kitchen. Quinn let out a deep breath and curled up on her side on the futon. She could smell the dust in the musty room, but she couldn’t even bring herself to be upset by it. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, and she was definitely a beggar.
Drew stepped back out into the living room a few moments later, announcing that everything had been put away. She opened her eyes and looked up at him looking down at her.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
“I’m so tired. My feet are really swollen.”
“They do look swollen. Let me rub them for you.”
He walked across the room and sat on the futon beside her, reaching out to grasp her foot in his hands. He began to massage her feet and ankles, eliciting a deep involuntary moan from Quinn’s throat.
It felt so good to have her swollen feet massaged. It felt even better to have Drew touching her. Quinn hadn’t been touched in months, and she wasn’t aware until just then how starved she was for affection. Drew wasn’t just anyone. Drew was her mate. His touch sent sparks of desire and need throughout her body. There was something intensely comforting about having him so close.
“That feels so good,” she said in a soft purr.
“Good,” he said, the words rumbling in his throat.
They sat together in silence while he rubbed her feet. Quinn felt herself becoming deeply relaxed. The swelling started to go down, and her anxiety level began to subside. But the little cabin was cold, and she began to shiver. Drew pulled the patchwork quilt down over her body and stood up.
“I’m going to build you a fire,” he said.
“That would be really nice,” she murmured.
Drew walked over to the fireplace and arranged logs in the hearth. A few moments later the fire began to crackle and burn, casting a warm glow over the entire living room.
“I’m pretty sure this place has central heating,” he said, looking around the living room for thermostat. “Here it is.” Drew turned up the heat and then sat down beside Quinn again on the futon.
“If you’re okay, I should probably get going now.”
She looked at him over the hem of the patchwork quilt she had tucked up under her chin. She didn’t want him to leave. As inappropriate and weird as it was, Quinn wanted him to stay. In fact, she had wished he had invited her to stay with him in his house. It was much more comfortable, modern, and cleaner than this cabin. She hated the idea of staying in this place alone. Just the thought of it brought a tear to her eye.
“Do you have to?” she said, her voice coming out in a whimper.
“I have to get back to the brewery. I’m opening tonight and I don’t have anyone to cover for me.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He patted her leg and stood. “There’s no landline or cell reception out here, but you can connect your cellphone to the satellite internet. That way, you can text me if you need anything.”
Quinn let out a deep sigh and closed her eyes, feeling the tears ready to well up and overflow. She didn’t want to be alone. Now that she had come to Fate Mountain and out of hiding, her need for human contact and support was catching up with her. She’d been on her own all this time and now all she wanted was to be with someone else.
“I don’t want to be here alone.”
“Why don’t you call Juliet? She wants to see you.”
“I’m so tired. I can’t talk to her now.”
“Suit yourself. If you need anything, just call me or Juliet or Levi. But I’ve got to go.”
“Thank you, Drew. You’ve done so much for me, and you didn’t have to do anything.”
“You don’t have to thank me. And yes, I did have to help you. Shifters do take care of their own.”
“I just didn’t realize that you would consider me one of your own.”
Chapter 10
Drew made the long drive back to town in his SUV and parked in front of the brewery. He had to open the bar in less than fifteen minutes and there were already people waiting in the parking lot for him to arrive. He got out of the car and opened the front door of the bar.
As much as he loved his business, it was hard for him to leave Quinn by herself in such a state. The woman was clearly in distress and shouldn’t be left alone right now. He didn’t know what else he could do. He had responsibilities, and he hadn’t been expecting her to arrive.
In fact, Quinn was the last person that he expected to see ever again. For her to arrive at his place of work after nine months of complete silence with a full pregnant belly was beyond unimaginable. Drew knew that the two of them hadn’t used any protection the night they’d made love. Quinn had dropped off the face of the Earth. She’d never contacted him, so why would he ever expect her to be pregnant?
He went about turning on all the lights to open up the bar. A few moments later, he unlocked the front door and turned on the open sign. Customers started to funnel in as they usually did at this time of day, especially on the weekends. Being a Friday night, it was going to be a busy one. That didn’t make it any easier to leave Quinn by herself right now.
He wished that she would just contact Juliet. The two women had been friends for a long time. He knew that from what both Quinn and Juliet had said about their relationship. Quinn really needed someone right now, and that person couldn’t be Drew for obvious reasons. The two of them were going to have to work out how they could possibly co-parent a newborn when they barely knew each other.
With Drew unable to provide the kind of emotional support that Quinn needed, the most logical alternative was her best friend Juliet. But Quinn seemed reluctant to contact Juliet. Drew could understand why. Quinn had run out on her friends as much as she had run out on him. But Juliet was not the kind of person who held grudges. Drew had known Juliet for nine months, and during that entire time, she had been nothing but sweet, kind, and gracious.
Of all the people who could be there for Quinn, Juliet was the absolute best
option. Drew was beginning to see that Quinn had an incredibly stubborn streak. But he could also tell she was exhausted and ashamed. Those two feelings combined into something that made Quinn’s stubborn nature even more prevalent.
Drew turned on a playlist on the jukebox and went behind the bar to start pouring beer for his customers. There was a group of human tourists who had come into town for a fishing trip. With the waters in the river so high from the constant rain over the last several months, fishing would not be as good as usual. These guys wanted to blow off some of their disappointment by sampling every kind of beer Drew had on tap.
He put the sample glasses out on the bar and the men went through each brew, commenting on which ones they liked the best. They’d come up from Portland and had a taste for local craft beer. Drew was proud of his brews and enjoyed sharing them with new people. He laughed and joked with the men until they decided to go off and play darts and pool on the other side of the room.
As Drew was wiping the bar down with a rag, he saw his crewmate Zach walk into the building. The blonde polar bear was as cheerful and energetic as usual. He slid into a stool and rapped his knuckles on the mahogany bar that Angus had built for Drew when he’d first opened the establishment.
“A pint of Fate Mountain Lager, please,” Zach said happily.
Drew pulled a cold pint glass out of the refrigerator and slipped it under the tap. He pulled back the handle, and golden liquid poured down across the glass until it was full. He set the glass with the frothy head down in front of his friend. Zach took a long swig and sighed, setting his glass back down on the bar.
“What brings you into the brewery today, Zach?” Drew asked him.
“Just having a good time on Friday night. With all the rain, I haven’t been able to give any mountain climbing lessons for weeks. Skiing season doesn’t start for at least another month. The only thing I have to do is take people out on the lake to go fishing, and sitting around in a boat all day long with tourists is not my idea of a good time.”
“Levi pays you the same no matter what,” Drew said.
“It’s not the money. I’m just bored.”
“So you came down to my establishment to get into some trouble,” Drew teased.
Zach was known among the Rescue Bears as the impulsive thrill seeker of the bunch. Drew knew that Zach got a bad rap for his impulsivity. He had saved the Rescue Bears more than once using his high energy and his numerous outdoor skills. Zach was an expert mountain climber and an expert skier, but the code name Ski Bear was what had stuck.
Zach had once been a world champion athlete. He had even competed in the X-Games as a snowboarder before the war. Nobody could touch Zach when it came to his acrobatic skill. Drew, for one, admired him for his ability. Nevertheless, Zach was a guy who had a way of stirring things up.
He worked as an exotic dancer on the side, and never seemed to lack for a female companion. Although, as far as Drew knew, Zach was still looking for his fated mate.
“I came down here to talk to you,” Zach said in an uncharacteristically serious tone.
“What about?” Drew asked.
“I heard from Levi that Quinn is back in town.”
“She is. And pregnant as can be with my child.”
“That’s what Levi said. How are you doing with that?”
Zach was never the guy who you went to talk to about your problems. That distinction usually went to Angus. He was a giant of a bear, but the man underneath was as gentle and sweet as they came. Everyone knew they could go to Angus if they had a personal issue, and he would try to help them solve it. Zach was a guy you went to if you wanted to go to a dance party or learn a new trick on a snowboard. Drew wasn’t sure how he felt about opening up to him right now.
“Fine,” Drew lied.
He wasn’t fine. He was anything but fine. Having Quinn come back to town, pregnant with his child, was seriously messing with him. It was the last thing in the world he had ever expected to happen. Drew had spent the last nine months resolving to be alone and to never see his fated mate again.
It was a hopeless place to be, and Drew had lived in that place for a long time. He’d been there so long that he had become used to feeling hopeless. The hopelessness had become a comfort to him. Now that she was here, and he was about to be a father, he couldn’t quite feel so hopeless anymore. That didn’t mean he understood how he felt at all. Because he didn’t. He wasn’t sure about anything anymore, and it confused the hell out of him.
“You obviously aren’t fine,” Zach said, taking another swig of his beer.
Drew was quickly becoming uncomfortable with this conversation. It was hard for Drew to look into Zach’s bright blue eyes and that cheery grin of his and pour his heart out to the guy. It just wasn’t going to happen.
“Since when have you become my shrink?” Drew asked.
“Dude, you have to talk to somebody,” Zach said.
“You’ve just never been the guy to talk to about this kind of thing,” Drew said.
“How many times has something like this happened to you?”
“You have a point.”
“It must be weird seeing her again. You’re going to be a daddy. Are you happy?”
“Happy? I have no idea. I guess I’m happy about it. What bear in his right mind wouldn’t be happy to have a baby? I know that most of us want to settle down and start a family—well, except Corey, anyway. Corey is a special case. The rest of us, that’s all anybody’s been able to talk about since we settled on Fate Mountain.”
“You don’t sound very sure.”
“How would you feel if your mate ran off on you and then came back pregnant with your child nine months later?”
“Probably pretty shitty,” Zach said.
“That’s how I feel.”
“Are you going to try to get back together with Quinn?”
“Quinn and I were never together.”
“Of course you were. You marked her.”
“Just because I marked her doesn’t mean that we were ever together.”
“Bro, that’s exactly what it means.”
“Quinn is a human. These things mean something different to humans.”
“Not from what I’ve seen. All of the Rescue Bears’ mates have been human. Juliet, Poppy, Lily. From what I understand, they all feel connected to their bear mates.”
“That’s them. It’s not Quinn. Remember? Quinn is the woman who begged to be marked and then ran away.”
“But she’s back now, Drew. Aren’t you even going to try to fix things?”
“That’s what you don’t understand, Zach. There’s nothing to fix. There never was anything. It was a one-night stand gone wrong. Just because she’s my fated mate doesn’t make it any different.”
“Of course it does. What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about the fact that Quinn destroyed me. She ripped my heart out and stomped all over it. I’m not going to give that woman a chance to do that to me again.”
Drew felt anger rise inside him, heating his face and boiling his gut. He wanted to punch something, but instead turned away and ignored Zach to serve another party of humans.
When he was done pouring for the humans, he turned around and saw Zach staring at him out of the corner of his eye. He wished the polar bear would just leave. He was uncomfortable enough talking about this in the first place. Zach was being a real ass about the whole thing, and Drew wanted him to drop it.
“Why are you so interested in my love life, anyway?” Drew said, standing in front of Zach.
“I still haven’t found my fated mate. You have. She’s here. She’s carrying your baby. Do you have any idea how lucky you are?”
“You call living through what she did to me lucky? That woman dropped out of her entire life to avoid me. She quit her job. She shut down all her social media. She changed her phone number and moved to the coast. You have any idea how insulting that is?”
“She’s a confused
human,” Zach countered. “Do you have any idea how weird it used to be in the old days before shifters came out to the public?”
“I’ve heard the stories. I was a kid back then. It’s not like I don’t remember.”
“I don’t think you do remember. Imagine your fated mate is a human woman who doesn’t even know that your race exists. Then she starts having all kinds of uncontrollable feelings that she can’t explain. And then you have to tell her that you belong to a race of super humans who she thought were fairytale creatures. Like falling in love with Santa Claus!”
“I see your point. But we aren’t living in the old days.”
“No, we’re not. We’re living in a time, the first time in history, when humans and shifters can mate and they don’t have to hide their love. Shifters don’t have to hide who they are. You don’t realize how lucky you are.”
“There you go again, using that word lucky.”
“Your mate is right here. Right now. I don’t understand why you are being like this about it. Why don’t you go over there right now and tell her that you want her?”
“Never going to happen.”
Zach made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat and slipped away from the bar with his pint glass in hand. He walked over to the jukebox and put a quarter into the machine. The song came on over the speakers, and Zach found the nearest hot human woman and asked her to dance. Zach was the kind of bear who could do that kind of thing without a second thought. Drew, on the other hand, had never been that kind of bear. In a lot of ways, he and Zach were exact opposites.
Drew liked to think about things deeply and mull them over in his mind. He wasn’t all intensity like Zach. Running the bar was the best way to share his craft with others; otherwise, Drew would not have spent all his time listening to loud music and the chatter of excited patrons. As it was, he already had several employees that ran the bar throughout the week.