A Baby for the Bear (Wylde Brothers 1)

“Was he just that big, or was he going so hard he tore right through it?” Melissa wagged her eyebrows in a lewd fashion. Ary didn’t need to respond, because when she felt her face heat and saw Melissa’s grin widen, she knew that had been answer enough. “I’m just going to assume he was both.”

“You should just tell him, Ary,” Candace said.

“Why get him worried and worked up before I know for sure? If my period doesn’t come when it’s supposed to, I’ll take a pregnancy test. If it happens to come out positive, I’ll tell him.” God, just thinking about possibly being pregnant sent everything inside her tightening. The thought terrified her. She wasn’t young, and she always wanted children, but certainly not as the result of a one-night stand.

“Sweetie, don’t worry about it until you know for sure. You’ll just end up worrying yourself to death, and that’s not healthy. Now, how about I cheer you up with some of the dirty details of Nick Jamison?”

Ary couldn’t help but laugh at the almost dreamy look on her friend’s face. “First, what happened to going home with Bram Wylde?”

Melissa shrugged at Ary’s question. “I don’t know. I guess I just wasn’t feeling it. I mean he was hot and all, but when I saw Nick, I just had to have a lion that night.” Melissa leaned forward, and Ary immediately worried about what would come out of her mouth. “First off, if I had known lions had such huge dicks, I would have hopped on that bandwagon a long time ago.” Melissa fanned herself. “It wasn’t even the fact that he wanted to shove that big thing in my ass—”

Candace started choking on her drink, and February and Melissa started laughing. The noise drew a few annoyed looks from the other patrons.

“He was all into this domination shit, like tying me up in some weird-ass contraption and beating my ass with this homemade paddle.” She leaned back and shook her head. “This wolf is not into all that shit, so when I said hell no, we went back for another round of wolfie and lion sex.”

For the next twenty minutes, Melissa continued to go into great detail on the things Nick did to her, made her do to him, and how she could barely walk the next morning. Despite the entertaining and somewhat shocking details her friend provided, there was that small voice in the back of Ary’s head that wouldn’t give it a rest.

Her period couldn’t come soon enough, because who in their right mind heard of an ocelot getting knocked up by a bear?

9

Charlie wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his arm and looked at the construction site all around him. Wylde Construction was a family owned business that had been around when his great-grandfather had been alive. It was the leading construction company in Sweet Water, and he was damn proud of it.

It was not only their livelihood, but their dream and passion. He and his two younger brothers had grown up watching their father sweat and bleed to provide for them and their mother.

When their parents passed away several years back, they knew they couldn’t let it fall under, so the three of them had teamed up and made it what it was today. He looked over to where Bram and Ford were busy going over a set of blueprints.

They were currently in the middle of building a new city hall named The Hampton. The last one burned down a year ago. The frame was up, and his men were busting their balls to make their quota every day.

“Charlie, come over here and look at this,” Ford called out. There were three other shifters looking at the blueprints with his brother. Everyone was tired as the end of the day approached, and each one of them was just as soaked in sweat as he was.

“What’s up?” Ford started talking about the pipes and foundation, but Charlie’s thoughts were elsewhere. Ever since watching Ary drive away several days ago, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind. He wasn’t the type of male who chased after a female and wasn’t about to start, but hell, he wanted to go to her so damn bad.

Over and over, he asked himself what it was about her that drew him in, but he wanted everything about her, and therein lay the problem. At forty years old, he should have been married to a nice bear shifter female and have a handful of cubs, but as it was, he immersed himself in his work.

His parents had been so in love with each other, and even though Charlie wanted that, he didn’t want or need the heartache that came when the one who was loved above all else was gone.