Page 47 of His Determined Bear

Gabe beamed and nodded, “Damn it, Dad, I wanted to be the first one to congratulate Graham on joining the parent’s club.” He turned to us, “Congratulation, you two. Welcome to team no sleep will ever be the same.”

Kian laughed and turned to Cooper, “At least the pregnancy is short, so you don’t have to worry about that. Do you know if you’re having twins? I did, and so did Nash. We were taking bets on if it would happen again.”

Somehow my family didn’t notice that Cooper had gone pale and stiff as a board. But I did. He was like a block of ice in my arms.

When the surprise finally wore off, he turned to face me, his mouth open, but nothing came out. He tilted his head, and his eyes widened. Cooper took a step back from me. “You know?” he whispered.

I sighed and rubbed my brows. “Yeah, I do.”

“But I didn’t tell you,” Cooper murmured. “How’d you know?” He croaked out. “I can’t believe you knew, and you didn’t say anything.”

“Oh, fuck,” Gabe said under his breath to Kian.

I took my eyes off my mate for a second to see my family wearing apologetic looks.

“We’ll give you two a moment,” Papa said, dragging Dad away. I could hear him telling him off for mentioning Cooper’s pregnancy before Cooper did.

“Good luck, bro,” Gabe said right as he let his mate pull him away until it was just Cooper and me.

I pushed my hand through my hair and sighed, “I didn’t say anything because I was hoping you would tell me.”

Cooper shook his head, still stunned.“That doesn’t explain how you know. No one knows,” he whispered almost to himself.

“I swear there’s a good explanation for this, and I’ll tell you but just not right now.” I nodded towards where Kelly was walking towards us. “Once the wedding is over, we’ll talk. I’ll explain everything.”

Kelly walked up before Cooper could reply. “There the two of you are. Aaron and I are about to leave Coop, and we didn’t want to go without saying goodbye.”

Cooper's lips curved, but his smile was all wrong, “Come on, mom.” Cooper took her hand and pulled her away as fast as possible without actually running. “Let’s get you into your going-away clothes,” he said.

“But I have to pack my wedding dress. Aaron wants to—” I heard Kelly say before they were out of earshot.

Aaron appeared in front of me, thanking me for everything. I managed to smile for my friend.

“I know Cooper is in good hands with you,” he said, giving me a pointed look.

“He is,” I replied.

He nodded firmly, “Good. You kids make sure you have all this sorted by the time we get back.”

Aaron clapped my back before walking off when his bride reappeared. I let out a relieved sigh when I saw Cooper with her. Part of me that was terrified he would take off yet again. But there he was.

Everyone waved as the bride and groom left for their honeymoon. When they had gone, my staff came over to talk to me about packing up our stuff, and I went to help them. By the time I was finished, Cooper was no longer at the party.

Great Urs, please do not let him leave again, I begged as I broke into a run heading for the main house.

Chapter 19

Cooper

I stood in the bedroom after the reception, shell shocked at what had just happened. He couldn’t know. There was no way he could have found out. But he did. And not only did he know, but his whole family was privy to my personal information. How? I hadn’t told anyone other than the doctor I’d seen to confirm the pregnancy. Not my mom, and not even Linc.

I’d wanted to tell her, but I couldn’t ask her to keep something like this from Aaron. They’d just gotten married, and neither of them deserved that on their wedding day. As many times as I’d picked up the phone to tell Linc, I just couldn’t. Graham needed to be the first one to know about his child.

I guess I don’t have to worry about that now since apparently he already knows.

Had he been watching me? Could I have been that wrong about him?

Fuck! I couldn’t think. I needed to get out of here. And out of Asheville. I’d considered extending my stay to see if Graham and I could figure things out. I was so dumb.

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