Page 5 of Fated Secret Baby

“Of course. Jealous of the fact that she can just shut down and power up again, like it’s all good.”

I laugh. “Same. Nothing keeps the kid down for long, that’s for sure.”

“She’s tenacious. Like her mom.”

I roll my eyes. “She’s four and doesn’t have a good sense of time. When she wakes up, it’s literally like she’s starting over. It’s all in the brain science, my friend.”

“When I have kids, I’m calling you for everything.”

I give Amara an eye raise. “Is that a possibility?”

She blushes. “Story for another time. Short answer, no. But I do want them.”

“I’m ready to hear it.”

“Go to the store, get the cereal, and maybe if you bring home an adequate amount of chocolate, I’ll tell you.”

I roll my eyes at my friend but take the keys she fishes out of her pocket. I start up the truck, wary of the noise waking Juniper. Amara gives me a thumbs-up, though, so I pull out of the driveway.

Going to the store alone is probably a risky idea.

But I have to go. I tell myself that it’s not like I’m part of Oakwood’s pack. I know people well enough to be polite, but it’s unlikely anyone will recognize me, and if they do, they won’t care that I’m in town.

Alone time is just what I need. Somehow, I have to figure out how to tell Orion about Juniper.

And I have no clue how to do it.

Chapter 2

Orion

“Mother. I’m a grown man. I am not going to forget to pick up the steak for dinner.”

My mother pauses on the other end of the phone. “Well, how far from the store are you?”

I might be a grown man who absolutely forgot to pick up the steak this morning, but I’m not stupid. “I’m just turning into the parking lot now.”

“It doesn’t sound like you’re in the parking lot.”

I’ve been out doing some work on one of the properties that I just acquired. Lately, I’ve been buying some of the old shacks in the greater Oakwood area, some in town, some not, fixing them up to rent out to tourists or to some of the new arrivals in the pack. Thorne pays me a small stipend from the pack housing fund if it’s to a pack member, but the tourists are the best, because I can charge them an arm and a leg, and they’re happy to pay it in order to experience the Colorado wilderness.

This place in particular is great. I had to scrape it, but now there’s a cute little three-bedroom A-frame log cabin that sits right on a pond, overlooking a meadow that looks verdantly green against the bluish-purple peaks rising behind it.

“It sounds like you’re at home.”

I hop into my truck, which I can’t risk starting because then she’ll know that I am not, in fact, turning into the parking lot at the grocery store.

“Mother. You can’t hear the parking lot.”

“I can hear when you’re on Bluetooth in the car. It sounds scratchy,” she says firmly.

Fuck. I bang my head on the back of the seat. “I’m getting the steaks.”

“Okay. Don’t forget to ask Tom for extra?—”

“Steak seasoning. I got it, Mother,” I say.

She sniffs, and I curse at my temper. “I’m just trying to remind you. I want us to have a nice time tonight,” my mother says, her voice wobbly.

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