If she shook those hips any harder, she would break something, Lucy thought.

“You’re Lucy,” the woman said.

“I am.”

“I’m Caroline. I’m sure Micah has told you about me.”

“Nope,” Lucy said.

Caroline pressed her lips together and huffed out a huge sigh. “Why are you here?”

Lucy wasn’t sure what to say. She wanted to tell Caroline it wasn’t any of her business and if Micah wanted her to know, he would tell her. However, it really wasn’t her place to tell off Micah’s friends.

“Micah and I are friends. I’m staying while I’m getting my business started.”

“You being here is only hurting Micah. It’s making him look bad because he has a hoochie living in his house.”

Lucy coughed to cover up her laugh. “I can assure you that I’m not a hoochie.”

“Yeah, right,” Caroline said, sweeping a lock of hair over her shoulder and sticking her nose in the air. “I’ll give you all the money you need to start your business if you move out of the house today. Micah and I are betrothed. We will be going through the mating ceremony together, and I really don’t want his name besmirched.”

Shaking her head, Lucy replied, “I’ll leave when Micah asks me to and not a second before.”

Caroline snarled. “We’ll just see about that. You’d better watch your back.”

She turned around and stormed out of the house, leaving behind her an overpowering scent of some kind of nasty flowery perfume.

Lucy went out to the gazebo. Her heart was heavy. She was devastated at the idea that Micah was going to mate with someone else, especially someone like Caroline.

Then, logic took over and said if they were going to be mated, then Micah wouldn’t have needed a surrogate to have a child.

She sighed. Regardless of the situation, I need to put my emotions in check.

12

Micah

“Mom. What are you doing here?” Micah asked, looking up from another environmental report on a new piece of property.

“I just thought that I would visit my favorite son.”

“I’m your only son,” Micah said, playing along with the cliched joke.

“Which makes you an easy pick.”

“You’ve been in my office more in the last week than you have all of last year. What gives?”

“Lucy,” Rose said.

Micah instantly tensed. He sat straight up in his chair and looked across his desk at his mother. “What about her?”

“She is amazing. Lucy is smart and funny. She’s very kind, but I’m willing to bet that she wouldn’t back down from a fight if she was forced into one.”

“Not likely. I think she would definitely stand her ground.”

“You didn’t tell me that she was a bear shifter,” Rose said.

Micah studied his mother’s face. “I didn’t think that it mattered.”