Page 312 of As The Shifter World Turns

“Babe, I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, I know. But let’s eat first and then we talk.”

We sat cross-legged on the bed while Nate regaled me with stories from work. I liked this, just being with my mate and talking about our day. I’d prefer if we were at home and not in 3B but the place had memories.

“We need to stop trying for a baby.” Nate wasn’t holding back. He went straight to the point. “Before we decided to get pregnant we were happy. But that happiness has been crushed out of us since we’ve been trying and failing.”

He was making sense but it was a huge leap to actually do it. It was our dream to be dads, but maybe being Charlie’s guardian and uncles to the manor kids would have to be enough.

“It’s mostly my fault. I’ve been a bear.”

Nate laughed at my bear reference. “I haven’t been on a picnic, either.” He pulled a stray thread from the quilt. “Can we be happy? Just us two. Am I enough for you?”

His words were a kick in the gut. I stroked his cheek and inhaled his pizza breath. “Always.”

“Then let’s quit because we’re both miserable.”

And with that it was over. We both flopped back on the bed and the pizza box bounced.

“Wanna have sex?” Nate asked.

“I’m still hungry and this mattress is lumpy.”

My mate sat up and grabbed the empty pizza box. “How about we go out for pie and ice cream and when we get home, I’ll fuck you in the shower?”

“Race you to the car.”

Anthony was coming up the stairs and I almost knocked him over. “Is a new tenant moving into 3B?” he shouted after me. “Is he a shifter?”

Now that our human friend knew shifters existed, he was always asking who was and wasn’t a shifter.

“No,” I yelled as I jumped in the car and Nate leaped into the passenger seat. We were both panting and giggling. We hadn’t laughed like that in forever and Gods it was good.

Later that night after we’d had sex and were finally in bed, I thought back to what we’d given up. There would be days ahead when I’d regret our decision and I’d want to stay in bed and pull the covers over my head. But going forward, the future was bright and we’d decided to go on vacation, just the two of us without the manor family. Somewhere warm and tropical where we’d lie by the pool sipping cocktails.

“Life is good,” I mumbled as I snuggled up to my mate and my eyes slid shut.

144

ICE CREAM MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER. RIGHT?

Nate

I thought I was fine not trying for a baby anymore. It was better to have Daire than lose him and have a baby. At least that was my logic. But now that we were no longer trying, I was miserable. Sure, I tried to hide it and not let Daire see it. But it was there.

Not that Daire was any better. At first he seemed happy and horny. Which sort of made sense. Of course we were getting our sexual mojo back. We didn’t have thewe need to be in this position on this day at this time to optimize our chances of getting pregnantthing going on. I hadn’t truly seen it at the time, but it put a damper on our love making for sure. Now, without all of the fertility stuff hanging over us, we could just be us and have fun.

Sex had inadvertently become a chore. No longer were we randomly blowing each other off or frotting in the shower—we needed to save orgasms for making a baby. In hindsight, it was a miracle we hadn’t both started to hate each other during that time. Although to be fair, we were probably on that road.

This was better. Really it was. I just needed to work my way through the disappointment and more importantly, help Daire do the same. It was extra difficult with all the little ones around and Neil being pregnant. But there would always be families growing, we couldn’t shelter ourselves from that, and we for sure couldn’t shelter ourselves from the family we built here. That would only make things worse.

“I’m home.” I held up a bag of ice cream from the new place in town. They prided themselves on one hundred percent handmade ice cream made freshdaily. We kept talking about trying it out, but never actually made it over there. Today felt like the perfect time to surprise my mate with some.

“Oh,” was all he said, going back to his book.

“I bought ice cream from Dairy Dave’s.” I set the bag on the counter. “Good book?”

“Fine.”

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