Page 46 of A Surprise Baby for the Wolf Shifter

How I managed to stay sane thus far was beyond me.

Such was the same thing, strolling down the street during my lunch break in downtown Denver. I caught a scent. A familiar one that made my wolf stretch against my frame. I just so happened to glance in the right direction and found her sitting at a table at a local Italian restaurant with another familiar face. I tried to blink the vision of the two of them away, but it wouldn’t leave.

Most of the time it did. Other times, I followed the vision to a woman with similar features. None of it was truly her.

And as I took a couple of steps closer—I happened to have been heading in her direction, to begin with—I realized it was truly her, and the other woman was her friend. I couldn’t recall her name. But her face was unmistakable.

My eyes connected with her friend and recognition dawned on her. She nodded to Gemma, and I gaped at the woman I had no ability to live without. Her back was turned toward me. She was a vision from heaven, even from the angle I saw her sitting in.

Better yet, she looked fucking amazing. I could almost taste her on my tongue, she was so close.

Then the friend pointed me out. My heart skipped a beat and did this funny little move where it felt like it jumped into my throat and fell into my stomach all at the same time. Gemma stiffened and seemed nervous. I wasn’t sure if her reaction was because she was still unwilling to be around me or if she was just caught off guard. But after several breaths, she turned to face me. My eyes dropped to her large, round belly. She was very, very pregnant.

My lips parted as a breath of relief rushed from my lungs. When I first found out about the baby, she had insinuated abortion being an option. After things had ended in the unfortunate way they did, I assumed she would have been done with it. Why have a monster baby? It never crossed my mind she wouldn’t have gone through with the abortion. Never in a million years did I consider the possibility.

Well, that was a lie. I had, but in those scenarios, she was with me. And I was happy.

The surprise of everything really didn’t come close to what I was truly going on inside me. Not even close. Surprise barely scratched the surface.

For the first time in months, I had hope that she was going to keep the baby. Maybe… if I took things slow… I could become more and more involved. I could be around for my child and help him or her through their first shift. Maybe we could start again, build a relationship the right way. The way it was meant to be. All that romancey, touchy-feely type stuff.

But I was getting ahead of myself.

My baby grew inside her and my wolf stretched inside me, itching to be closer to them. I took an absent-minded step forward. Then the friend waved me over. Before I caught on to what I was doing, I was already halfway there.

I almost held my breath as I approached the two of them. I hopped over the small fence separating the restaurant from the rest of the city and took the two steps to their table. When I arrived, I met Gemma’s gaze.

“Hey, Gemma,” I said, breathlessly.

She smiled politely, but I could tell she was extremely uncomfortable with me being so close to her. I gulped. Maybe this was a bad idea.

Either that, or I was going to have to take things excruciatingly slowly.

“Hi,” she finally said and nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “What are you doing here?”

“On lunch,” I said. “What about you?”

“The same,” she said. She pulled her beautiful blue eyes away from me and shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

“You look amazing,” I said, hoping a small talk would help. I didn’t want to give the impression that I expected more.

The sounds of the idle chatter surrounding us faded away as I stared at the woman I wanted to belong to. Every cell in my being craved her… belonged to her. Being this close to her was better than any drug known to man. I would bet my life on it.

“Thanks. So do you,” she said, again being polite.

I was covered with dirt and cement, and wood shavings. I probably stank to high heaven, and I was sweating like there was not tomorrow. Though I appreciated her reciprocation, it was not anywhere close to applying to my appearance.

She took up my vision, my attention… my entire world. This had to be fate. This had to be a second chance to make everything right. But I wouldn’t allow myself to get carried away. Not yet.

“We were actually just talking about you,” Cassidy said.

I nodded toward her. “Why is that?”

“No reason,” Gemma said and stared pointedly at her friend.

I nodded again as all my hopes were dashed in one single move.

I had to find a way to salvage the rest of this interaction of ours, or this was going to be the last chance I would ever receive to have a little closure.

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