Page 23 of A Surprise Baby for the Wolf Shifter

She walked to the door and placed her hand on the knob. “I’m staying at the motel just inside the town’s limits. Room one-forty-three. I’ll be leaving at the end of the weekend. You have until then to make up your mind whether or not you want anything to do with this baby.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as something inside me turned unsettled. There was something in the way she had said those words. Something that pulled my attention and made my heart sink.

She sighed and remained silent.

“Please tell me,” I said, taking a step forward.

“I mean, I can’t keep the baby. Not on my own,” she said. “I was just doing what I thought was right when I decided to come here and let you know. Clearly that was a mistake. But if you change your mind, you know where I’ll be.”

“Are you referring to an abortion?” I asked after what seemed like several minutes had ticked by with nothing but silence settling between us. “Are you thinking about killing it?”

My heart started to race. I just found out I was going to be a dad. It was a lot to take in. But my reaction was doing nothing but pushing her away. In hindsight, I couldn’t blame her. But at the moment, my world felt like it was pivoting on the point of a needle. Back and forth. It was enough to make me sick to my stomach.

I half expected her to walk through the door and completely out of my life again, but she hesitated with her hand resting on the doorknob. Finally, she said, “I haven’t decided. I just thought you should know since it’s your baby too.”

I started to reach for her. I started to open my mouth and apologize. I started to move to pull her into my arms and make her stay. I was an asshole. I was being unnecessarily brutal toward her. She didn’t deserve my rudeness.

But the second I made a move toward her, she pulled the door open and ran out of my house, leaving me standing in the middle of my living room, staring after her, willing myself to move even though I was glued into place, and my legs felt like they were made out of tree trunks.

I couldn’t do anything but watch her go.

Helplessly, within a matter of a couple of hours, Gemma left my life for the second time.

9

GEMMA

Well, my plan ended in a cosmic failure. Of course, it would. Why wouldn’t it? As though having bad luck in relationships wasn’t bad enough. The one man I couldn’t stop thinking about since the moment we met practically called me a liar about our baby.

How could he be so blind?

No. It’s not his fault. It was mine. I should have been more careful. But I wasn’t. And it was too late to turn back now.

If I only had grabbed the proof from my car before being drawn into him. But I didn’t grab the proof from my car. I didn’t think about it. The proof was the farthest thing from my mind. I was too enthralled with being in his presence—being so close to him. Telling him about the baby was the point of seeing him, that was the reason for coming here. However, the process of making one… that was a completely different story. And the sex was definitely a worthy distraction.

I didn’t bother to close the door behind me and headed down the driveway of Weylan’s cabin, heading down the same road we came up on as I thought about what to do now that Weylan wouldn’t be a part of the plan. Part of me wanted Weylan to come chasing after me, apologize for his less than expected response, and talk this out. He was in shock. I had dropped the mother of all bombs on him, in terms of news.

When he didn’t, I realized, this whole trip was a huge mistake. But at least I understood where he stood. So, maybe it wasn’t a total waste of time. At least, he certainly didn’t seem inclined to help me out. So, it was only me and this thing growing inside me. A thing I didn’t want. A thing that had already started to ruin everything.

But… for a second there… I sort of did want the baby. It was strange. I had this small, growing part of me warring with an already established and larger part of me that wanted nothing to do with kids for a few more years. I had bought into the idea that things were going to be amazing. I could do the family thing with him. I would be an amazing mom and we would co-parent like champions.

I supposed the idea—or delusion—was a byproduct of the sex and undeniable chemistry between us.

Stupid hormones.

I had three options now. Of which none I deeply wanted to do. One: keep the baby. Despite all my planning and all my attempts to make sure that I never got pregnant, this baby still happened. That said something about its personality already. It wanted to live. Whether I was ready or not. The universe had to be telling me as much, right?

I wasn’t so sure. Mistakes happened all the time. This one could have been a universally cosmic mistake.

Two: I could give the baby up for adoption. If I took the time to face the facts, I had no business trying to be a mom. Not now. And there were hundreds of families in the city alone who couldn’t get pregnant and desperately wanted to be a mom more than I. Any one of the companies I could go through would go out of their way to find a family who would love and care for the baby more than I could provide.

The last option was the most unlikely, and the least popular of the options. Still, it was an option. That was to have an abortion. Being pregnant changes the body permanently. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t exactly model material, but I loved the way my body was. Just the right amount of curves. I loved them, even if there were those who didn’t. But their opinions didn’t matter. Mine did.

I was, as my mom would say, perfectly voluptuous.

Her opinion mattered to me.

I didn’t want to give up everything about me yet. My mother’s compliment nor my perfect curves. Call me shallow, but I said what I said.

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