The Bear's Mate (14 page)

If
he and Charlotte had a child, well, that was if a shifter and human could even
have one, what would it look like? Would it be beautiful like her? Would it be
a shifter like him?

“Okay,
take a deep breath and push harder this time,” Charlotte instructed Jenny. He
saw her digging her fingers into David’s hands. It had to be wonderful for him.
Many of the women had experienced fertility problems when they’d landed on
earth, so babies had been far and few between for many years.

He
glanced in the room again, seeing David holding her hand and kissing her. He
wanted that to be him.
Him and Charlotte.

The
baby…the baby was emerging, and Charlotte now had it in her hands.

He
looked at her face. What she was thinking was written all over it. Shock,
horror…

He
squeezed his eyes shut.

He’d
lost her.

Chapter Twelve

Charlotte
held the baby. It was the cutest thing she’d ever seen. However, she’d never
seen anything like it. It looked human, yet it wasn’t. At first she thought
perhaps it had a birth defect and hence the mother’s troubled labor and the
baby’s unwillingness to want to leave her body. However, her medical background
told her that it was almost alien; half baby, half bear cub with its large feet
and hands and ears.

And the mother.
When she’d
first examined her she’d thought that maybe she’d been born without labia, but
putting two and two together, now she concluded this wasn’t your normal mother
and baby.

“Is
everything okay with the baby?”

“What?
Yes, he’s beautiful,” said Charlotte, forgetting she was still holding him. She
placed him on the mother’s belly and was about to cut the cord when she decided
to let the proud father do the honors.

“Do
you have a name picked out for him?” asked Charlotte hearing him make a noise
that sounded like the bear cub that her father had found lost and abandoned one
day while he’d been fishing.

“Oliver,”
said David. “We...”

He
stopped when Jenny cried out. “I think I’m having contractions again.”

“Let
me take a look,” said Charlotte. “There’s another baby on its way.”

“Twins.
The group
hasn’t had a pair of those for years,” said David.

“Okay,
you’ll need to start pushing again,” said Charlotte.

Luckily
baby number two exited its mother’s body faster than the first and soon
Charlotte was holding another half baby, half cub, more adorable than the first
one, and this one was female.

“We
hadn’t been expecting a second one,” said Jenny cradling both of them. “Do you
mind if we call her Charlotte?”

Charlotte
nodded. “I’d be honored. Everything looks great with you and the babies, so if
you don’t mind I have to be going.”

David
extended his hand. Charlotte shook it. “You’ll stop by with Aiden and have a
meal with us, won’t you?
As our way of saying thank you.”

“I
was just doing my job.”

“Please.”

“Sure,”
she said knowing that probably would never happen now she’d seen all this and
that Aiden was probably one of whatever they were.

She
stepped outside the door and saw Aiden sitting on the top step. He turned to
look at her. She was lost for words.

“Everything
okay?” he asked.

“Twins, a boy and a girl.
Oliver and Charlotte.”

She
burst into tears, pushed by him, ran down the stairs, and out the front door.

It
had started to rain since they’d been inside the house. She stood there, not
worrying that she was getting cold and wet. God, she was about to have a panic
attack.

She’d
finally let her guard down, giving her feelings over to a man she thought might
possibly be perfect and actually be the one she’d always been looking for, but
now this.

Wake up
Charlotte, it’s a dream. It was a nice one, but like life, it’s turned into a
nightmare. They either break your heart or aren’t the man you thought they
were.

“Charlotte.”

It
was Aiden. She couldn’t even turn around to look at him.

“Hey,
you’re going to get drenched out here.”

He
put his jacket around her shoulders, but she pushed it off her body and turned
around.

“What
are those people and what are you?”

“Let’s
go someplace and talk.”

“No,
I need you tell me here and now.”

The
water ran down his face as he looked at her.

“We’re
shifters.”

“Shifters?”

Not
only having a regular nightmare but one with sci-fi overtones.

“I’m
a bear shifter. They are bear shifters, and some of the others are wolf
shifters. We have a few cougar shifters too.”

If
the ground wasn’t getting muddy and soggy, she’d just fall down in it. She
wouldn’t believe a word of it if she hadn’t seen those babies with her own two
eyes.

“How
can that possibly be? What are you, some type of experiment gone horribly
wrong?”

“No,
we’re not from earth.”

“You’re
crazy.”

She
turned and walked away, but Aiden stopped her.

“You
remember the reports of the asteroids that were supposed to miss earth about
twenty five years ago?”

“I
can’t say that I do.”

“Well,
they were wrong, we crashed into earth. Lots of us died; my mother included. My
father tried to get us back home, but he couldn’t. Where we come from, everyone
has a human and animal side. What animal you are depends on where you’re born.”

She
closed her eyes. The cold water was starting to eat through her jacket, and she
felt cold and frightened.

“You’re
shivering. Let’s get you in the car and home.”

He
took hold of her arm.

“I’m
going to walk, okay?”

“Charlotte,
you can’t because you’ll get drenched.”

“Then
I’ll hitch a ride.”

She
began walking.

“Charlotte,
you can’t just walk away because I’m in love with you.”

“Yeah,
I thought I might be in love with you, but I don’t ever want to see or hear
from you ever again.”

Chapter Thirteen

Aiden
couldn’t remember driving back to his place until he woke up in the middle of
the night on the couch, drapes still wide open and the most beautiful night sky
he’d seen in ages. He got up and walked to the window. The stars were bright
and if he looked close enough he could see the empty space where their former
home used to be.

Life
was simple and uncomplicated. They didn’t have to worry about people finding
out that alien shifters lived and worked, and yes, loved, among the humans.

Loved.

He
loved Charlotte and his heart was breaking into millions of pieces because
she’d told him she loved him too but didn’t want to see him again.

How
could he put this right? He didn’t think he could live without her.

Aiden
turned away from the window. He never thought that a human would be his true
mate, but he was certain she was the woman for him. If he couldn’t have her,
he’d live the rest of his live a lonely bachelor.

Knowing
he wouldn’t be able to sleep, he decided to go into the woods and let his bear
run free. He’d swim, and he’d maybe do some hunting and fishing. He’d think of
all the things he could do to convince her that the union of a shifter and
human could work, and they’d be living proof of it.

****

Charlotte’s
head throbbed. Each time she tried to raise it off the pillow, even just a few
inches the pain shot through her temples. She felt hot but chilled at the same
time. She had to get up and take her temperature because she was probably
coming down with the flu that was going around.

She
was brave and managed to sit up and swing her legs around to the side of the
bed. She had nightmares all night about Aiden, the couple, those babies,
aliens, shifters.

Shit,
the pain in her head was getting worse. She needed a pill or something to take
the edge of it.

She
stumbled toward the bathroom, squinting when the sunlight shining through the
window met her eyes. She squeezed them shut because the pain was
unbearable.
 
There was no way she could
make it into the clinic. She’d call Ginny and let her know they either had to close
for the day or find a replacement for her.

Charlotte
slide close to the walls to guide herself back to the bedroom for the phone.
Whatever she was coming down with was making her feel like shit. Guess she’d
been around too many patients with that nasty flu bug.

She
fell onto the bed, barely managing to get the phone. She pushed at the numbers
sensing she was about to vomit.

“Hi
Ginny, it’s Charlotte, I won’t…”

The
next thing she knew she was heading face down toward the floor and fading out
just a little more the closer she got to the carpet.

****

Aiden
put the pillow over his head. He heard both the doorbell and his cell phone
ringing but refused to respond to either of them. This was the first time in
his entire life that he’d retreated into his bed, taking pity on himself and
refusing to acknowledge that a world out his condo existed.

He
was entitled to his space, and his self-pity, but whoever was at the door or
calling his cellphone failed to accept that fact.

Putting
the pillow over his face this time he hoped whoever these people were they’d
give up. What if they were one and the same person? Only one guy he knew would
do this, and that was his brother. Both ring tones stopped. There was silence
at last.

Damn,
Christopher has a key to the front door.

Aiden
sat up, hearing someone heading up the stairs. Next thing he knew the bedroom
door was being pushed open and there stood his brother.

“You
sick or something?”

“I’m
something all right.”

“You
look like shit,” he said sitting down on the bed.

“I
don’t really care at this point.”

“Something wrong?”

Aiden
took a deep breath. Where did he begin with what was wrong?

“It
was all so perfect, and then it went downhill,” said Aiden sitting up and
pushing his back against the bedhead.

“Charlotte?”

Aiden
nodded. “I should have known what would happen when she found out. I should
have been the one to sit her down and tell her.”

“So
she knows about us?”

“Oh
yeah, she knows. She delivered Jenny and David’s twins last night.”

“Oh
shit.”

“You
think she’ll tell someone”

Aiden
shook his head. “If she hadn’t seen the twins I don’t think she’d even believe
what I told her about who we are and how we got here, so I’m sure she’s not
going to risk being the laughing stock of Flathead County.”

“And
you think it’s over between the two of you?”

“Oh yeah.
I told her I
loved her, but she told me she never wanted to see or hear from me again. I’d
say that fits the definition of it’s over.”

“That
doesn’t sound like you. You’ve always fought for everything for us, for the
survival of the group. If you love her, you have to fight for her too.”

“Do
you really think a relationship between a shifter and a human would work?”

Christopher
shrugged his shoulders. “The two of you could be the first to try it. And I
feel shitty about this whole thing. I mean if I hadn’t got injured you would
never have met her and you wouldn’t be lying in this bed looking like crap.”

If
he hadn’t met her, his heart wouldn’t have known what love felt like.
To care for a person besides your own family.

“I
think you need to get yourself up, dressed and shaved would be recommended too,
and go and get her back.”

****

Charlotte
tried to focus on her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was feeling
sick, calling Ginny and then getting woozy.

Her
body ached, her head still hurt like hell, and something pricked in her arm.
She barely was able to focus but saw an IV stand by the bed. She squinted, seeing
a nurse standing beside it adjusting the tubes. She was in the hospital.

“Hi Charlotte.”

“I’m
not feeling so good, and I’m kinda tired.”