Gray Back Alpha Bear (9 page)

“I’m nervous,” Gia admitted out loud as she wound a loose string from the hem of her blouse around her finger.

“Why? I promise, Damon Daye is stoic, but he’s very polite. You have nothing to be worried about.”

“Yeah, but he’s like a father figure to you, right?”

Creed tipped his head back and forth and squinted at the mountain road they were climbing in his truck. “Kind of.”

“Well, he’s like family to you, and I already know we’re screwed on my side, so I’m nervous Mr. Daye won’t like me. Does he like humans? Does he care? He probably doesn’t care. Not like my parents who are very anti-shifter. He’s not anti-human, is he?” She was rambling, so she sucked her lips in and bit down to stop from going on.

Creed squeezed her leg gently and chuckled. “Gia, I swear, it’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but he’s immortal right? Aren’t dragons immortal?”

“Only him.”

“So he’s eons old, and it’s really intimidating to meet someone who was around since the dinosaurs.”

Creed’s eyes tightened in the corners. “I don’t know if he’s quite that old.”

“What if he eats me?”

“Where did you hear that from?”

“Matt said to hurry back to the trailer park and not to get eaten…” Her voice trailed off as the scenery in front of Creed’s truck changed abruptly. “Wow,” she said on a shocked breath. Out the front window towered a glass mansion that had been built into the side of a jagged stone cliff. She’d never seen anything like it.

Creed parked next to a black Town Car and led her to the front door. Oh God, she was really going into a dragon’s lair. The hairs rose on her arms.
Please don’t eat me!

Creed rested his hand on Gia’s belly. “Calm down,” he murmured against her ear. “I wouldn’t bring you here if I thought you or our baby would be in danger. Just breathe. I’ve got you.”

Gia inhaled deeply and held onto the crook of Creed’s arm. Everything in her trusted him.

“You ready?” he asked.

She nodded, feeling a little steadier now.

A man named Mason answered the door and led them down a white marble hallway capped with sprawling chandeliers and edged with Greek statues. Her sneakers squeaked loudly with each step, and she deeply regretted her decision to stay in the clothes she was going to travel to Minden in. She should’ve worn a dress to meet Damon. This was important to Creed, and she was showing up unprepared.

Mason opened a set of great wooden double doors and gestured for them to enter first. “Mr. Daye, Creed Barnett and Gia Cromwell.”

Wait, how did Mason know her name? She hadn’t told him. Perhaps Creed had talked about her on the phone or something. But the surprised look on Creed’s face said Mason had got his information from elsewhere.

“I was wondering when you would introduce me to your new mate,” a man said from behind a gigantic mahogany desk. He was trim and straight-backed. His hair was dark like Creed’s, but there was a hint of silver at his temples. His face was smooth and handsome with dark eyebrows over lightened silver eyes.

A rush of familiarity blasted through her, but was gone in a moment. For a split-second, Damon Daye looked like Creed. Surely the sense of deja vu was a trick of her mind. Still, she had to ask. “Have we met before?”

A slow, controlled smile spread his lips, revealing two dimples. “Your mate is very observant.”

“Oh, I’m not his—”

“What do you mean?” Creed asked Damon.

“Please, sit.” He offered his palm formally, gesturing to a pair of leather chairs in front of his desk. He watched Creed settle into a chair, then said, “I’ve been waiting for a special occasion to tell you where you came from. When I found you, I’d missed nineteen years of your life.” Damon’s smile faded, and the corner of his lip twitched. “I have three sons and one daughter now, but I’ve had many over my lifetime. Dragons used to be plentiful before we killed each other off. My oldest son, Arden, is cold and distant toward his offspring, a trait I’m afraid he inherited from me. And though I’ve changed in recent years, Arden isn’t capable.” A flash of sadness washed through Damon’s bright eyes. “If I had known that Arden had produced a child, it wouldn’t have mattered that you were dragon or grizzly, I would’ve taken care of you long before your mother tried to kill you.”

Drawing to the edge of his seat, Creed shook his head slowly back and forth. “I don’t understand.”

“I have no one left who is a full-blooded dragon, Creed. I’ve bred with bear shifters over the past few centuries because I have a fondness for them—a deep respect for such a strong animal, if you will. My son Arden was born a dragon, though his mother was a grizzly, and you inherited her traits. You are my grandson, and that precious child in Gia’s stomach is my great-grandchild.”

Gia’s heart pounded against her ribcage as she jerked her shocked gaze to Creed. Holy fireballs, he was the son of a half-blood dragon, and the grandson of the last immortal dragon.

Gia could see the gooseflesh ripple over Creed’s skin from here. She couldn’t take her eyes from him as he stared at Damon with an unfathomable expression.

Creed scrubbed his hand down his face, then linked his hands behind his head. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought I had no family left but my mother. Why didn’t you tell me I was your grandson?”

Damon leaned back in his chair and pressed his fingers together, resting them in front of his chin. “Because I was ashamed of what my son had done. I was ashamed because his actions have caused you pain, just as my actions have caused my own children pain. His failure was a reflection of my own failure as a parent.” His lip twitched again. “It seems to be a cycle with the dragon-blooded. You’re different, though. Warmer. Caring. Strong with an apex dominant grizzly inside of you, but with a level head and a big heart that makes you better than my son. Better than me. I wanted you to find your own way before you knew what kind of lineage Arden cursed you with. Would you like to see a picture of your father?”

Creed sank back into his chair and rested his hand on Gia’s round stomach. In her, the baby fluttered. Creed stared at her for a long time, and at last, he turned to Damon and said, “No. My father is nothing to me but a hard lesson. Dragon-blooded or not, it doesn’t matter where I came from.” He looked back at Gia with those lightened silver eyes, now so like his grandfather’s. “All that matters is being enough for Gia and my crew and the life we’re building.”

“Are you angry he didn’t tell you sooner?” Gia asked.

Creed was propped up against the headboard of the hotel bed, hugging a white pillow to his bare chest. He’d been staring at the television without seeing it for a half an hour. She knew because she’d turned it off five minutes ago, and he was still staring.

Creed softened and hunkered down closer to where she lay on her side, watching him and worrying.

“I should be, but I’m not. I think a part of me knew we were related somehow. I just didn’t consciously piece it all together.

Gia shoved a pillow between her knees to relieve her aching hips and slid her hand over his taut belly. “So will our baby be born a dragon shifter?”

“I don’t think so. Too much grizzly blood.”

Gia snuggled against his side and stared at the blank television screen that held Creed’s attention. She realized he was staring at himself. He’d been quiet all day, barely speaking on the car ride with Willa and Matt to the airport or on the plane. He’d touched her constantly, though, as if he needed her affection. Creed had been through so much already, and to find out about his lineage just as he was starting his own family? Gia squeezed her arms around his hips and sighed. She wished she could make things easier for him. He already carried such an enormous burden on his shoulders with the Gray Back Crew. With her barreling back into his life pregnant and with the breadcrumbs Damon had given him today about where he came from, it was perhaps too much at once.

“It seems like a lot to do lunch with my parents tomorrow considering everything that is happening right now,” she murmured, giving him an out.

“Bullshit,” Creed said with the ghost of a grin. “I’ve always wanted to eat a luncheon at a country club right off a golf course.” His accent had gone proper at the end.

She laughed and bit his side gently. “That’s a typical power-play done by Graham and Judy Cromwell, a-k-a the kind and sensitive grandparents to your child. It’s a signature move to take parties they want to belittle to their country club instead of their home. It says they don’t respect us enough to invite us into their territory. They’ll probably have an
I Hate Shifters
banner across the grand entrance to greet us.” She giggled at the image. Mom and Dad really weren’t as nice as Creed was thinking he could convince them to be. It was very sweet of him to try, though.

“If I can handle Easton for two years without killing him, I can handle a lunch with your parents.”

She looked up at his strong jaw and chiseled cheek bones when he stopped talking. He hadn’t shaved this morning, and the scruff on his face made him look rugged and sexy. And those silver eyes he’d been donning most of the day gave him an edge of danger. Perhaps he could handle her ball-busting parents.

“Do you think the boys fought on the landing without you and Matt there to break them up?”

Creed laughed and stroked a strand of her long hair out of her face. “That’s a hell yes. They probably didn’t get any work done. I don’t know why I even sent them up to work today. We’ll have to make up the numbers when we get back. I might be scarce for a few days trying to catch us up.”

“Hmm, that sounds not fun,” she murmured as she rolled up and straddled his hips.

Shimmying down him, she pulled the elastic waist of his gray cotton sweats down his legs, unsheathing his cock.

“Frisky mate, you gonna make me forget all my problems?”

“Keep calling me your mate, and I’ll try.”

A satisfied rumble vibrated through Creed’s chest, and she pressed her palm against his top two abs to feel the sexy growl. He pulled her hand to his mouth and bit down gently on the flesh between her thumb and forefinger.

A shiver rattled up her spine and landed in her shoulders as he released her. Oh, she knew what his bite would do to her, and he’d never Turn her—not while she was pregnant. He sure did like to tease her with the claiming mark she’d read all about, though.

With a wicked grin, she blew softly against the head of his cock. Creed was long and thick, swollen with need, and already there was a tiny drop of moisture at the tip. She tasted it, and the second her tongue touched his skin, he rolled his hips and groaned as if he couldn’t help himself.

Her mate. Big, powerful, carefully-controlled, ever-loyal, ever-caring, dragon-blooded mate. Pride surged that he’d picked her. Not just because she’d come to him pregnant or pleaded with him. She’d been patient, and he’d chosen her because he wanted her. Because she was enough. When Gia slid her mouth over his dick, Creed hissed and gripped her hair.

“Teeth, woman.” His voice was low and gravelly—toeing the edge between human and snarling bear.

Mine, mine, mine.
Creed was ruining her fun with his rules, though, so she clamped down gently around his swollen head and released him, then took him as far as her mouth would allow.

“Fuck,” he drawled in a shuddering voice. His knees drew up on either side of her, and his spine curved forward as he rolled his hips. She took him again and again until both of his hands slid into her hair.

“Don’t stop,” he said, voice strained.

Stop? Never. Gia was no quitter, and she wanted the salty taste of him to coat her throat.

His hips bucked rhythmically with each deep suck now, his ab muscles twitching and jerking as his breath came in short pants. His fingers tightened in her hair, and he pushed her down harder.

A snarl rattled his throat, louder, and he yanked her off him. Her stomach dropped as he pushed her backward. Her shoulder blades hit the cold door, and she marveled at the distance he’d just taken her in the span of a moment. He was much more powerful than he’d ever let on.  Creed was on her, body pressed against her, arm locked around her waist, knee jamming her legs apart.

“Don’t want to come in that sexy mouth of yours, mate.”

His voice was gritty and edgy, and the feral tenor made her wrap her leg around his waist in desperation to be closer to him. He slid into her until their hips crashed together. The burning sensation of his thick size disappeared on his second thrust. His teeth grazed her neck, and she threw her head backward to give him better access. God, how could anything feel this good?

She dug her nails into the smooth skin across his shoulder blades, and Creed gripped the back of her hair and dragged her gaze to his eyes, the color of polished chrome. “Careful with those claws, kitty.” A wicked grin curved up the corners of his mouth as he bucked into her again, refusing to release her from the intensity of his eyes.

Trapped, trapped, trapped—she was trapped looking at the one she loved while he drew her orgasm ever closer.

“Creed,” she said on a gasp.

“Louder.”

Pressure was building so fast, so intense in her core where they collided. Arching her back, she obeyed and yelled his name as release pounded through her.

Creed pushed into her again and gritted out her name. Pulsing warmth sprayed into her as Creed’s muscles tensed and released, tensed and released. He dipped his head and set his teeth against her shoulder, biting down, but not nearly enough to break skin. Oh, her sexy bear. Chest heaving, she closed her eyes as aftershocks rocked through her core, matching Creed’s as they fell into oblivion together.

Creed’s gentle nip turned into a lingering kiss. He trailed more up her throat and along her jawline, adoring her slowly as her bones felt like they were melting away.

“Sexy, beautiful, sweet mate,” he murmured against her skin as he sucked and nipped. “I do wonder if you were my fate.” Palming her belly, he kissed her lips, then rested his forehead against hers. “I don’t know how I would’ve handled everything this week without you.” He eased back and searched her eyes as his dimmed to the onyx color that said his bear was sleeping. “You make me feel stronger.”

The baby kicked from inside her, hard, and Creed’s eyes went wide.

“Please tell me you felt that,” she said on a hopeful breath. He hadn’t been able to feel the kicking and rolling that she did. Not yet.

Creed slid out of her and carried her tenderly to the bed where he lay her down and propped on his elbow beside her. He laid soft kisses along the curve of her belly and settled his hand over her again.

A thump against her other side had Gia dragging his palm to where she felt the movement. A moment of stillness, and then another hard kick. The smile on Creed’s face was instant and beaming—beautiful. He looked so proud she wanted to cry.

“You’ll be a wonderful father,” she whispered through her thickening throat. “No matter what happened in your past, I can tell you are going to be great.”

With a sigh, he pulled her against his chest until her belly rested against his.

“You make me better,” he murmured, laying a kiss on her forehead. “I was so frustrated with my crew before you came, and now you’ve reminded me that the reward for trying could be great. You’ll make an amazing alpha’s mate, if you’ll have me.”

Gia smiled as she endured another solid kick to her middle. “You’re mine, too.” A steady rumble vibrated against her chest, and she laughed. “You purr when you’re happy.”

“Bears don’t purr.”

Gia leaned back and grinned up at him. “I wonder if our cub will purr like you.”

“I hope it’s a girl,” he said suddenly.

“You do? I thought you wanted a boy. You always say
he
.”

Creed dipped his chin slightly and stroked her hair. “I want a little girl who looks like you. One who’s sweet like you.”

She hugged him close to hide the tears welling up in her eyes. Her big, tough bear. Alpha to the feral Gray Backs and keeper of so many scars. Steadfast and strong and hoping for a cub with a tender heart.

Big, tough bear who was so much more than he seemed.

She loved him. She
loved
him.

And no matter what happened tomorrow, or next week, or ten years from now, her heart would belong to him always.