The Alpha's Heart (Wilde Creek Two) (6 page)

Brynn sat up slowly.  Her head swam and she thought she might throw up, but the feeling passed after a long moment.

Dr. Kimmi frowned and said, “Honey, are you late?”

“What time is it?”  Brynn asked in confusion.

Nila chuckled and released Brynn’s wrist.  “No, sweetie, she wants to know if you might be pregnant.”

“Oh!” Brynn blushed and shook her head.  “No, it’s not possible.”

Dr. Kimmi said, “Are you sure?”  She sounded skeptical.  Before Brynn could answer, Dr. Kimmi said, “You told me a few days ago that you weren’t drinking coffee anymore because it didn’t taste good to you.  Did you eat anything today?”

“Nothing tastes good,” Brynn said.

“No harm can come from taking a test.  If you’re not pregnant, then maybe it’s something simple like a mild cold that’s messing with your appetite.  It happens to the best of us.”

Brynn took the sample cup that Nila got for her into the small bathroom, leaned against the closed door, and put her head in her hands.  Although her first reaction had been disbelief, after a quick recap of the last five weeks of her life, she knew that she hadn’t gotten her period.  She wasn’t really sure how she’d not been aware of missing it, but at this moment it seemed like a really stupid thing not to pay attention to.

After filling the cup, she carried it out into the examination room and gave it to Nila, who stuck a pregnancy test into it.  Brynn knew without watching the strip change colors that she was pregnant.  Since she’d only had sex with one man in the last several months of her life, that meant the asshole who had never called her back after their amazing night together was the father of her baby.

Nila turned around from the counter and looked at Brynn.  She was smiling in a sad way, her eyes filled with compassion, and Brynn started to cry.  Within seconds, Nila had her arms around Brynn and was holding her while she wept.  The unfairness of the situation swamped her.

As Brynn tried to control her raging emotions, Nila said, “Doc, can you give us a minute?”

“Sure,” Dr. Kimmi said.

When they were alone, Nila looked at Brynn and said, “I didn’t know you were dating anyone.”

“I’m not.  It was a one-night-stand.”

Nila hummed in her throat.  “You don’t strike me as the one-night-stand sort, Brynn.”

She chuckled and a sob caught in her throat.  “I’m not.  I…didn’t know it was only one night or I would have said no.”

Sighing, Nila rubbed Brynn’s shoulders.  “I’m here if you need to talk.  Trust me.  I know all about making bad decisions.  But I don’t regret Jack, no matter what brought him into my life.”

Nila left Brynn alone in the exam room.  Sitting in one of the chairs, she stared at her hands.  Five weeks pregnant.  She didn’t know how she’d make things work, but she knew that she wanted to keep her baby.  She’d think about what to do with Acksel later, after she had time to come to terms with what happened.

* * * * *

Two days later, Brynn sat in her dad’s kitchen after telling him the news.  She wasn’t surprised that he was both happy and unhappy.

“I thought kids your age knew all about birth control.”  He sat a glass of milk in front of her.  After her embarrassing passing-out episode at work, Dr. Kimmi had given her a handful of pamphlets about pregnancy, a container of prenatal vitamins, and a stern lecture about eating right.

“Dad.”  She rolled her eyes and took a long drink of milk.  “It’s complicated.”

He arched a dark brow at her and leaned on the counter.  Two steaks were cooking on the stove and the scent made her mouth water.  “What about the father?  You let him know?”

“I tried.  He won’t call me back.”

Putting on her big-girl panties, she had called Acksel three times in the last two days, hoping that he would either answer the phone when she called or return her messages, but he had done neither.  At first she was sad.  Then she was pissed.  She could have said in the messages that she was pregnant with his baby, but she had decided from the beginning that she wouldn’t do that.  All she said was that it was important for him to call her.

She didn’t want him to contact her just because of the baby.  There was a part of her, however small it might be, that still hoped he actually cared about her and that something besides his giant jackass-ness was keeping him from calling.  That he’d show up at her doorstep like he’d done before, except not drunk this time, and tell her what a mistake it had been to walk away that night and that he’d done everything he could to get back to her as fast as possible.

What a freaking pipe dream.

“Do I need to find this guy and
make
him talk to you?”  Her dad’s face shadowed darkly.  He wasn’t a huge guy, but he was fit and had boxed in his youth.  She didn’t think he could actually take on a werewolf, but she appreciated his offer.

Sighing and rolling her shoulders, she said, “No.  For now, I’m going to let things go.  If he calls me, he calls me, and if not then I’ll be okay on my own.”

“You’re not by yourself by a long shot, honey.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Plus you have Mia, and your friends at work.  If that guy walked away from you, then he lost out on the best thing that could have ever happened to him.”

Her eyes stung with tears at her dad’s sweet words.

He was right.  Dr. Kimmi and Dr. Frank were being very supportive, and she had plans on Saturday to spend the day with Nila and her son and talk to her about being a single mom.

Yes, she still cared about Acksel.  No amount of wishing on her part had erased the feelings that rose inside her whenever she thought of him, or caught a rare glimpse of him around town.  But she could do this without him if that’s the way he wanted things.  Maybe he had a right to know, but she wasn’t going to chase him down and force him to listen to her.  Touching her stomach as her dad turned to the stove to remove the steaks from the pan, she promised her baby that he was most definitely better off without his dad in the picture, because she sure as hell was going to make sure that he never grew up to be an asshole.  And if her baby happened to be a girl, then Brynn would make sure she never dated a wolf like him.  Ever.

Fool me once, Acksel
, she thought,
but you’ll never fool me again.

Chapter 7

Mia Slattery bounced on the balls of her feet on the night of the October full moon as she watched Acksel stand on the back porch of his home and wish his people a good hunt.  She was pretty pissed at him, but she didn’t dare say anything.  He was alpha.  She’d be a giant idiot to insult him, even if she had every right to give him a good, swift kick in the balls for getting Brynn pregnant and then ignoring her for six weeks.

The nerve!

If Mia were in Brynn’s shoes, she would have handled things differently.  She wouldn’t have tolerated Acksel’s ignoring her.  She would have tracked him down and found out what the deal was.  But Brynn wasn’t a wolf, and Mia knew she didn’t have the instincts of one.  She seemed content to leave a few messages for Acksel over the course of the week and leave it at that.  But Mia wasn’t feeling very much like leaving
anything
like
that.

It took two seconds to cross the yard to where Acksel was lowering his jeans, and only one more second for her to open her mouth and call him an asshole.  Two more seconds later, and she was on her knees with the beta’s hand around her throat and a growl in her ear.

Acksel straightened.  “Let her go, Ren.”

Ren gnashed his teeth in Mia’s ear and gave her a little shove as he released her.  She ground her teeth together and waited for a physical reprimand from Acksel.  It was well within his rights to physically dominate her, even knock her around if he wanted to.  She was a female in his pack and he was law.

“Something you want to say to me, she-wolf?”  Acksel asked.

Mia didn’t raise her head, keeping her eyes on the grass in front of her.

“I apologize, Alpha.”  The words were like tacks in her mouth.

There was a long pause and Ren stomped off.  A shiver raced through Mia.  What would Acksel do to her with no witnesses?

“Alpha?”  Caleb asked from behind Mia.  “I’m sorry for my cousin, she’s—”

“Not your concern now.  Leave us,” Acksel said evenly.

“Look at me, Mia.”

Mia raised her eyes slowly.  Acksel’s jeans hung low on his hips and his arms were folded across his chest.  He looked unhappy, but not necessarily angry.

“I’ll only ask you once more, Mia.  Is there something you want to say to me?”

She tilted her head to the side for a moment and wondered if he really wanted her to answer him or if he just wanted another apology.  Deciding that since she had already opened a floodgate without really intending to, she might as well go all-in.

“I called you an asshole.”

“I heard.  Any particular reason?”

She swallowed hard but didn’t let her gaze waver from his steady one.  “Because of what you did to my best friend.  I thought you were honorable, but I was really wrong, and it makes me want to leave the pack because of it.  Except then I’d have to leave her alone and that’s the
last
thing she needs right now.”

In a heartbeat, Acksel lifted her from her knees by jerking her up with her elbow and propelled her around to the side of the house.  He pressed her against the cold siding and slapped his hands on either side of her head.

“What’s wrong with Brynn?”  He didn’t sound angry, he sounded worried. 
What the hell?

“As if you don’t know.”

“I don’t.”  He eased away and gave her some space.  “Is she okay?”

“You care about her?”

“Of course!  Why do you think I’m staying away from her?”

“Um, what?”

Acksel explained that staying with Brynn meant she’d have to deal with the pack females, and she wasn’t strong enough to handle them.  As a human, she would become his Achilles Heel, and might never be safe.

“Well, that’s just dumb.”  Mia threw up her hands.  “If you’re going to be an idiot
and
an asshole, then you don’t deserve her anyway.”

She turned to walk away and Acksel grabbed her arm.  “It’s not idiotic for me to want her to be safe.”

“You’re the alpha, Acksel.  You can’t keep her safe?  You think the females wouldn’t leave her alone if you told them to?  She’s not pack, so the rules shouldn’t really apply to her.  And it doesn’t matter if you intended her to be safe, because you left behind a little present and now it’s not just about her or just about you, but about what you did and what happens when an asshole idiot forgets protection.”

“Stop calling me an asshole,” he snarled.  And then he snapped his teeth together, his eyes widened in surprise.  “She’s pregnant?”

“Yeah.  It happens, you know.  When guys stick their dicks in girls.”

“I didn’t know.”

She raised a brow.  “She told you to call her, Acksel.  She said it was important.”

“She could have said she was pregnant in the messages.  I would have gone to her.”

“If you showed up just because she said she was pregnant, how’s she supposed to know if you really care about her or just the baby?  Or care about her
because
of the baby?  Now that you know, though, I probably just royally screwed you over, so I’m sorry.  Brynn is planning to go through this alone, Acksel, because she’s too proud to tell you that she wants you to be part of it with her.  You broke her heart when you walked away, and I’m not sure what your deal is, but if you ever cared for her at all you need to talk to her.”

“I care about her a great deal, Mia.”

“You don’t act like it.”

“I’ll fix it.  I’m not going to let her go through this by herself.”

“Well, that’s an uphill battle, so I guess I’ll wish you good luck.  Do me a favor and don’t tell her that I told you.  But if you break her heart again, it won’t matter to me if you’re alpha or not, because I’m going to rip your balls off and throw them in the creek.”

“Go hunt, she-wolf, before you say something that pisses me off.”

“Yes, Alpha,” she gave him a little salute and darted away to where her cousins were waiting for her, worried.  After assuring them that she was fine and hadn’t been punished by the alpha for verbally attacking him, she stripped and shifted and they joined her as they raced off into the woods to hunt.  Brynn had wanted Acksel to call on his own, but if he remembered not to mention that Mia had told him what was going on, then maybe Brynn would forgive him and those two could finally get together.

Mia liked seeing a human and wolf together.  So far, only Acksel’s sister had mated to a human.  Wolves were nice, but Mia thought that there were some humans who were even better than nice.  Like her brother Malachi’s best friend, Lucian.

Sighing inwardly, she chased the image of Lucian’s strong, tattooed arms out of her mind and concentrated on the deer she could scent.  She had her own case of unrequited love, and maybe she wouldn’t mind if someone decided to help him get a clue the way that she’d helped Acksel get a clue.

Too bad her brother had a firm hands-off-my-sister attitude when it came to his friends.

Too.  Damn.  Bad.

Chapter 8

The night after the October full moon, Brynn locked up her desk and said goodbye to the staff.  She’d stayed later than normal to organize the supply closet.  She wasn’t certain, but she thought that Dr. Kimmi had asked her to stay late so Brynn could have some overtime.  Certainly the closet didn’t need to be organized that night, but it was a nice gesture and Brynn liked the mindless busywork.

When she left, she walked to her car in the parking lot quickly.  It was a cold night and the wind was brisk, cutting through the light jacket she wore.  Her low heels clicked on the pavement as she hurried to her car.  The hairs on the back of her neck rose and fear swamped her suddenly.  She didn’t know what was wrong, but she knew something bad was near.  Spinning on her heels to rush back into the office, she crashed into a tall body.  A hand gripped her arm savagely.