Page 27 of The Alpha's Surrogate

The table fell silent, and Callahan took the time to wet his tongue and throat with some beer. He didn’t mind the silence. He’d just shared a lot of information, and it was going to take them a while to fully process all he had said.

Fannar swore softly. “Those were-bears again. We do our best to warn cubs and young wolves about associating with them. They have nothing good to offer, but we share the mountains with them, and we have a fragile truce. Do you know what they want with her?”

“I have no idea,” Callahan admitted. “My main concern was getting Josie out of there. I’ve asked her a bunch of times about them, but she gets angry and withdrawn every time I do, so I’ve learned to leave it alone.”

He remembered something. “Speaking of, Fannar, I need your help with some mana crystal flowers. Josie is one of your lead researchers, and she needs some samples to keep working. She said they don’t leave Silver Peaks?”

“She’s not lying,” Fannar said. “But this is a delicate situation. I think I can get you a few plants. I’ll see what I can do.” He glanced around cautiously. “We’ll speak about this later.”

“Thank you,” Callahan said. He glanced at Fannar and had a nagging feeling his friend wasn’t telling him everything he knew about the were-bears. “Fannar. I need you to tell me all you know about these were-bears. I think Josie is in danger, even though she’s working hard to hide it from me. I need to know so I can protect her.”

Fannar refused to meet Callahan’s eyes, sipping slowly from his bottle. “It’s not my story to tell,” he said, looking up with sad eyes. “It’s not my place to tell it, I’m sorry.”

Callahan’s face turned dark. “Then I will hold you responsible if something happens to her. I know it’s a big ask, but she’s carrying my child. I won’t be able to forgive myself if something were to happen to her. I need to know why they were after her.”

Fannar nodded thoughtfully and sighed deeply. “Josie’s relationship with the were-bears goes way back to her mother. Josie wasn’t directly connected with them at all, and I’m guessing her mother is the reason they’re after her.

“Larsen Ray, Josie’s grandfather, was a warrior in my father’s army. His daughter, Josie’s mother, was also a fine warrior back then. She was supposed to replace her father as a warrior in my father’s army when Larsen retired.

“She had different plans, though. She chased a life of glitz and glamour, and tried to escape through were-bear territory. What she didn’t know was that she was pregnant with her lover’s child before she fled. Her lover was a servant in her father’s household…”

Fannar paused to take a drink from his bottle. The table was deathly quiet, and everyone watched him with a quiet intensity, waiting for him to get back to his story. Callahan wanted to thump him upside his head. Did he not know how badly Callahan wanted to hear this story?

“Where was I?” Fannar said thoughtfully. “Right, she was pregnant, but she didn’t know. A were-bear patrol found her passed out in the snow and took her back to their headquarters. When they asked what she wanted, she said she needed safe passage into the human world.

“Long story short, the were-bears found out she was pregnant and useless to them. They worked her like a mule, and then returned her and her newborn baby—Josie—to old Larsen. She died a few hours later. I’m guessing the were-bears waited for Larsen to die before making a move for Josie.

“They run a crime ring, those were-bears, Callahan. I’m talking smuggling, drugs, arms, and I think assassinations. If they are coming after Josie, then you were smart in moving her to your home. Although, I fear that may not be enough.”

Fuck. Callahan sagged in his seat. It all made sense now. He understood why Josie had been so afraid. He pictured all he knew about her now, and realized he hadn’t known her at all. It was a chilling discovery.

While he had accused her of being cold and harsh, she’d had to deal with the price of her mother’s mistakes. That was why she was the way she was. How could she have ever expected him to understand? How could she have trusted anyone with something so painful?

Chapter 11 - Josie

Josie stood in the middle of her now completed lab, smiling pleasantly with herself. Callahan had given her a room downstairs that had its own back door out into the gardens behind the house.

It was similar to the lab she worked in back home, albeit much smaller. Callahan had spared no expense with the lab equipment and construction, and he’d put in the hours when he could spare the time.

Quincy had helped her set up a miniature greenhouse just outside the lab, using transparent plastic for the walls and roof. He’d also helped her prep the soil and had given her some of his flowers for her to get started on her own work.

She was good to go, all that was left now were the mana crystal flowers. She didn’t want to hope too much. She couldn’t deal with the disappointment that came with false hope.

But she knew one thing. If Callahan was anything, he was resourceful. If he told her that he would get her some mana crystal flowers, then she knew he would get them for her. It was one of her favorite things about him.

She looked around the lab, impressed. But the feeling was fleeting. Her joy at finally finishing the project was cut short by a truth she had been hiding from for weeks.

She’d thrown everything into finishing the lab as quickly as possible. She’d dedicated all her focus and attention to the lab, not leaving any part of her mind idle. And now, she was done. There was nothing else left for her to distract herself with. There was no running away from the truth she had been denying for weeks, nothing to hide behind.

Something serious had started to blossom between her and Callahan. She didn’t know precisely when it had started, but it was there now. She could feel it. It was in the way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her. The way he behaved when she was around him.

But Callahan alone was not responsible for this. Josie felt it too. She saw everything he did. She now noticed traits that she’d not cared enough about a decade ago. When he went away for work or business, she found herself irritated and missing him.

When that happened, she focused more on her work. They spoke often, and conversation never seemed forced. In the last month, Callahan had made Whispering Oaks feel more like a home to her than Silver Peaks ever had.

She never forgot that everything they shared was temporary, though. It was always there, at the back of her mind, clawing at her and nagging at her. A reminder that no matter how good this felt—and it did feel really good—it was going to end after she gave birth to Callahan’s baby.

It was easy to forget that this was a business transaction, with how well she was living. Her life was beautiful now. She had everything she wanted, and she had a man who looked at her as if she was royalty. It was easy to imagine this perfect life as hers, to give in to the fantasy of what could be. To play the part of a happy couple.

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