Page 55 of Shifter's Secret Baby

Avalon chuckled again. “I don’t know how you do what you do, my dear boy.”

“Not all of us can live off in the woods, Av,” I replied dryly. “I’ll wire you a payment upon delivery.”

“Very well.”

The call ended, and I placed the phone back on the desk with another deep sigh. I wanted nothing more than to get up and chase Briar back down the road, urging her back.

But I couldn’t do that, not until I had a way out of this curse that remained over my head.

A two-thousand-year curse that had been for naught. Mathilda was still gone, and I was alone. Everyone I had ever loved had disappeared.

Maybe it was for the best. Maybe the gods had it right, and I should let my destiny play out the way the universe intended.

Yet another part of me couldn’t help but wonder if Briar was my destiny, my mate.

And wasn’t that worth fighting for?

Chapter21

Briar

“Stop here,” I told Royce, leaning forward across the open partition.

Silent as always, the driver pulled over and allowed me out of the car. He moved to grab my bags.

“Is this your stop, Ms. Madison?”

I shook my head, glancing nervously down the road toward the brownstone where I’d lived with my father my whole life.

“No. But I don’t want you pulling up in front of the house.”

Royce didn’t question me any further, but offered to carry my bags the rest of the way.

“No, thanks. I’ve got them,” I sighed, sadness creeping through me as I accepted the handles from him. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, Royce.”

The chauffeur gave me a sympathetic look, the first form of expression I’d ever seen on his face since I’d known him.

“Good luck, Ms. Madison.”

I managed a tentative smile but didn’t respond as I made my way up the street, gulping the stone forming in my windpipe.

I didn’t see my father’s antique car in the driveway as I neared, and a small balloon of relief burst inside me.

Maybe he wasn’t home, and I’d have some time to figure out how to explain everything that had happened to him. I still wasn’t ready to confront him about his betrayal, but now that I thought I was pregnant, I would need his help.

First, I needed to get into his office and find a test to be sure.

To my dismay, the door was locked when I tried to open it, and I had no key to let myself in. I’d been taken in the middle of the night with none of my personal effects.

Biting on my lower lip, I glanced toward the neighbor’s house and then back at my bedroom window. The glass was slightly parted, and hope sprung through me. If I climbed up the eave, I could get in through the window.

Leaving my bags on the stoop, I scrambled up the side of the porch, landing on the roof of the overhang.

“Briar?”

I jumped at the sound of my name, whipping my head around to look as Mrs. Fritz appeared on her patio.

Smiling weakly, I waved.

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