Page 14 of Her Shifter Babe

I shook my head. “Nope. He didn’t get that far. He just asked if the baby was mine, then bolted. He looked pretty shattered, to be honest. It was awful.”

Tanner grinned. “Then you won’t know until they make physical contact. David has to shake her hand or something. I’m sure he was just reacting out of shock.”

“Didn’t you keel over when you met Stacey?” Nancy asked me, sitting forward on her chair and reaching for a small plate that contained a piece of pie. “My boys did.”

I chuckled softly, imagining her “boys” falling to their knees from the mere touch of their mate’s hand. “Ah, not really. I mean... I felt an electrical buzz a bit. But I was so drunk when we met, like... blind drunk. So, I think that might have taken the edge off the whole ‘knocking me to the ground part.’”

Tanner laughed. “Well, don’t tell Markus and Oliver that, they’ll be jealous as hell.”

I glanced around, noting their absence. “Did they come today?”

“Oh, yeah,” Nancy said. “But Lexie is so pregnant, she didn’t want to stay long. She’s really uncomfortable at the moment, poor thing.”

I nodded absently. “Yeah, I saw her a few days ago.” She was past her due date and getting grouchier by the day.

“So, what are you going to do about David?” Aunt Tess asked.

I grabbed a chicken leg from another platter in front of me and shrugged for the second time since sitting down. “I have no idea.”

“Yes, you do,” Nancy said, glaring at me like I was a fool. “You’ve got to get them together. It’s the only way.”

“Stacey’s exhausted,” I said, worry coursing through me unexpectedly. “I don’t want to put any more on her today.”

“Well, bring him tomorrow,” Nancy resolved. “Stacey can stay here, and I’ll do what I can to help her rest and recover from whatever she’s been through, but it looks like it’s been a lot.”

The group looked at me expectantly, but I kept my lips firmly shut. I only knew a fraction of the trials and tribulations that Stacey had gone through to find me, and I wasn’t about to blab that around my family without her consent. “That would be great,” I said finally. “And I’ll see what I can do to work on David.”

“And get her in for that ultrasound,” Nancy added, grinning at me. “You never know. Hers might show the same thing mine did.”

I laughed, not sure which way I wanted the results of the ultrasound to go. “It’s possible. But she’s on the smaller side for thirty weeks, so I’d guess she only has one baby in there.”

Nancy pouted. “Oh, no! I forgot about my belly. I’m going to be huge, aren’t I?”

The rest of the family went on to tell her how beautiful she was and that she didn’t need to worry about her body, while I let my mind drift to my brother and Stacey.

Did I want them to be together in the poly family I always thought we would have and share? I should, I knew it in my heart, but there was an unsettling, niggling sensation lurking in the back of my mind that I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

David and I’d grown up knowing we’d probably share the same wife, but we’d never tried it until now. Always dateing separate women, we’d never even tried to love the same one.

Can we share a woman like Tanner and Wade do? Will we have issues like Markus and Oliver did in the beginning? Surely, there has to be teething issues with this sort of arrangement?

I stayed another hour or so, hoping to catch another glimpse of Stacey, but in the end, I headed home to an empty house. David wasn’t there and neither was his car. When I tried his cell phone, it went straight to voicemail and the Bailey’s was closed, and I wasn’t going to disturb my parents this late. So, with nothing else to do, I heated up some leftovers and turned in earlier than usual, wanting the time to pass quickly so I could see my mate again.

Instead, I ended up lying on my back in bed unable to sleep, just listening to the soft sounds of cars and people around our neighborhood. We were close to town, too close in some ways. The house had worked for the past ten years while we were single and wanting to get to the restaurant and medical clinic running quickly, but now... maybe a larger property would be better for my child?

My child...

Those two words hadn’t been ones I’d thought I’d be saying or thinking about really for a long time.

Would Stacey’s baby be a girl or a boy? Would she want to breastfeed? I was a huge advocate for a woman’s right to choose from a doctor’s perspective, but something primal—the shifter in me—yearned to see our infant at her breast.

She’d lost a lot of weight since I’d last seen her, which meant her pregnancy hadn’t been easy on her. So even if I couldn’t get David to go and see her tomorrow, I’d get her into the clinic for an ultrasound, just to be safe and make sure she and the baby were okay. There wouldn’t be anyone there on a Sunday, but I had keys to everything, and I’d let the clinic manager know in case she came running in. Agatha was a great manager, but she ran a tight ship.

I stayed awake well into the early hours thinking about where we’d live after the baby was born. I resolved to go straight to the real estate agents in the morning to get a jump-start on our future.

When I finally fell asleep, I sent up a little heartfelt prayer of gratitude. I was going to be a father, and it was all thanks to Stacey. She had conceived my child and kept it safe even when she didn’t know where I was.

She could have lost the baby or chosen to terminate...

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