Page 25 of Pregnant Kidnapped Mate

She made an up-and-down motion with her hand while miming grasping something.

I started laughing along with her. “Since when do you make jokes about jacking off?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I guess it doesn’t feel as weird to act more like myself.”

“Well, for the record, I like it.” I bent down and kissed her. “Girls with a dirty sense of humor are a huge turn-on.”

The kiss lingered. “Come on,” she said when we finally separated. “Before I lose my nerve.”

Tannen, Rand, Mark, Malcolm, and Klyte were all sitting on the top patio, most with beers in hand or some other drink. Jameson was behind the bar, shaking a cocktail shaker. They all paused when the French doors slid open, looking toward us.

“Hey, guys,” I said. “This is Iris.

Iris gave a small smile and an awkward wave as her eyes scanned the shifters in front of her. The instant she saw the view, she froze, eyes wide. At first, I thought it was awe, and I couldn’t blame her. The lush green trees reflected in the crystal blue of the lake looked like something out of a painting, too beautiful to be real. But the more I studied her, the more I wondered if it was something else. There was awe, but also something that looked strangely like recognition? As if she’d been here before.

But then she blinked, seeming to remember that she was surrounded by a bunch of unfamiliar shifters. She took an unconscious step toward me.

“Iris!” Malcolm smiled and pushed himself up from his chair. “Good to see you again.”

“You too,” she said, and she sounded like it. I could imagine seeing another familiar face was comforting in this type of situation. I gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

“Hey, Jameson,” I said. “Get us a couple of beers?”

Jameson obliged, flicking the caps off with his thumb and coming over to hand them to us. “Nice to meet you, Iris,” Jameson said. “Welcome to the mansion.”

“It’s beautiful,” she muttered, that confused, distant expression back on her face. She looked like she might say more, but then shook it off. “Thanks for having me,” she said with a small smile.

“Any friend of Alek’s is welcome,” Jameson said.

“I’m surprised you’re not tired of him yet,” Klyte said to her, grinning.

“It’s been a near thing once or twice,” she responded, earning an appreciative chuckle from the entire group.

I pointed to each of them in turn, rattling off their names. Her head bobbed in tandem each time I pointed to someone.

“Nice to meet you all,” she said, moving to sit in the chair next to mine.

“You settling in okay?” Rand asked.

“Yeah, actually. And I love the house,” Iris said. Now that she had a beer in hand, she seemed a lot more relaxed. “It was weird, actually. The first time I saw it, I could have sworn I’d been there before. Like, I’m pretty sure I dreamed about it.”

Malcolm tilted his head, eyebrows raising. “Really?” he asked.

Iris’s face turned a brilliant red. “Um, yeah,” she muttered. “Sorry. Weird thing to say, I know.”

“No, no.” Malcolm rubbed his chin, studying her. “Out of curiosity, have you had any other experiences like that? Almost déjà vu, or like you’d seen it in a dream?”

She hesitated for a minute, chewing the inside of her lip as she glanced at me, at Malcolm, the ground. She picked at the label on her beer.

“Actually, yes,” she finally said. “When I first came out on the patio. I had a dream about that lake, too. And there was one about running through the woods that…” She trailed off, glancing over at me, and I realized that she was thinking about the time she’d ridden on my back through the forest not too long ago. She’d dreamt that, too?

“How often do you dream?” Malcolm asked.

“Um…” She glanced over at me. “A lot? But doesn’t everyone?”

“And how many of your dreams do you remember vividly?"

“A lot,” she said again. She fidgeted in her chair, looking behind her at the door to the mansion as if debating whether to escape.

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