"I'll make an appointment with my doctor," I promised, because truth be told, I didn't want to argue with Orion about taking care of the baby that both of them believed was inside of me.

  "Actually, if you could schedule an appointment with one of the pack's approved doctors, we'd really appreciate it."

  I saw red. "Seriously, dude? I'm humoring you by going to the doctor at all. I probably just have a stomach bug," I said feebly, even though we both knew that I knew that I was carrying their were-cub. "Don't push me," I warned. "You won't like the consequences."

  We were sitting here at a gas station because they had overwhelmed me with information. I just didn't want to have a push-pull relationship where we'd have good times until they scared me away. I didn't want them to hire private investigators to scare me and stalk me. I just wanted a normal relationship with my lovers. I was getting the impression that werewolves were a little different from humans.

  Quinton sighed. "I can give you a list to choose from, if it helps." I could see that his eyebrows were drawn together. Guilt hit me like a wrecking ball. All they wanted to do was take care of me and all I wanted was to be independent. We had been together for a matter of days and it already seemed like our relationship was doomed.

  "Why don't we wait a few days for that?" I asked.

  "It's complicated for a human woman to carry a shifter baby. Most of the time, it turns out okay, but we have to closely monitor the pregnancy. If the baby tries to...if..." He covered his eyes.

  "What is it?" My heart sped up. I felt like he needed to tell me something.

  "It can go wrong," he said, uncovering his eyes. I could see the naked fear in them. "It can go really wrong."

  I clenched my right fist. "I never asked for this," I told him.

  "But these are the cards that have been dealt," Quinton said. "Get back in the car. I'll send someone for yours."

  "I can drive myself," I said.

  "You're not leaving my sight until you give birth," Quinton growled. "Get in the car."

  I looked around him. I could probably make a break for it.

  I was firmly lifted off of my feet. I thought that if I weren't pregnant, he would have less of a problem manhandling me.

  "Put me down!" I yelped.

  "You're getting into the car. We're going home. You're going to be observed by a doctor. It'll be a house call. Don't worry."

  Don't worry? I was sort of being kidnapped by my lover and taken away from my own car. He clicked the child-lock before closing the door on my side. He really wasn't going to let me out. I didn't know if I was highly aggravated by his highhandedness or touched that he cared so much. Probably a mixture of both.

  I didn't talk for the first 10 minutes, and then I dropped off in the middle of Sweet Home Alabama blaring from the radio.

  Running

  ORION

  I was sitting on the porch when Quinton drove up. As soon as he parked, I went to his door. “How is she?" I asked Quinton.

  "Tired," Q said. He pulled her out of the truck. I could see her soft stomach. It wasn't big and round with our were-cub yet, but it would be. I touched it reverently.

  "She doesn't want to see a pack doctor," Q said.

  "Not optional," I replied.

  "I know. But we have to convince her that we're doing what's best for both her and the baby. Otherwise, she'll just run out. I think you should let me handle this, Alpha."

  My wolf snarled at the idea that anybody, including my beta, would keep me away from my mate. But when she ran away, I knew that I had overstepped. She was human. I was used to being obeyed within the pack. It would take an adjustment for me to wait for her decisions.

  "Feed her," I said, my voice lower than my normal human register. I pulled off my clothes as I went into my shift. I needed to run.

  Venison

  QUINTON

  I watched as the Alpha ran into the woods near our home. It was our territory and he needed to calm down. Raven wasn't likely to run anytime soon. I thought that she felt a little lighter than she was before, which worried me. Were-cubs consumed a lot of energy. If she didn't want to sleep her way through the whole nine months, we were going to have to make sure that she had access to what she needed.

  I started to cook. First, I defrosted some venison we had sitting around in the freezer. We preferred to hunt in wolf skin, but we didn't eat everything as wolves. Sometimes we shifted to human form to field-dress deer and bring the meat home. She didn't know it yet, but the baby needed more than just domestic meat.

  The beta wolf part of me wanted to go in there, wake her up, and make love to her until she told me how to fix our relationship. He was both horny and emotionally stressed. I nixed that idea for the moment, because I'd pushed her hard enough for one day. Orion definitely was the aggressor in this relationship.

  I began to whip up my mother's version of Italian wedding soup. It was quick, easy, and nutritious. I turned on the radio and sang along as I pulled together the ingredients. I put in extra meatballs. Since the normal number of meatballs when feeding werewolves was twice the human number, the number of meatballs in soup being prepared for a pregnant mate was easily four times the human number. It was honestly more like meatball stew with extra ingredients thrown in. I knew that the baby needed all of it, though.

  I heard the sound of something metal crashing on the ground.

  "Raven!" I ran to her room. A lamp was sitting on the floor. The bulb had been smashed.

  "I'm so sorry!" she said. "Give me a broom and I'll clean it up."

  "Stay in bed. I don't want you to get cut by the glass." I left the room, grabbed a broom and dustpan, and came back to carefully clean everything up. I didn't want Raven to cut herself in her own bedroom.

  "What happened?"

  "Nightmare," she said.

  My wolf reached out to her and pulled her head to my chest. I could hear her breathing heavily.

  "What happened?"

  "I was in a cage," she whispered. "And the cradle next to me was on fire. I could hear my baby screaming but I couldn't reach her and I needed someone's help but nobody was there."

  "We're always going to be here. Where were we in your dream?"

  "You weren't there at all." There was a hitch in her voice which meant that she was crying. I kissed her hair and rocked her back and forth.

  "Sweetheart, we'll always be there." She didn't understand the depth of the mate bond. When she'd run away, she'd stretched it thin. But with her right here in my arms, we knew that we could take care of her. I could feel Orion's approval. He was still in wolf form.

  "Now, let's get you some soup." I pulled her out of bed so that I could take her into the kitchen.

  "I'm capable of walking, you know." But her protest seemed half-hearted.

  "Of course," I said. "I just like taking care of you." I put her down in a chair. "I'll get you soup in a minute." I pulled out a bowl and ladled out some soup. She had soup spoons in her utensil drawer. I grated some Parmesan on top and presented it to her.

  "Thank you," she said, her eyes warm. "It smells incredible. What kinds of herbs did you put in?"

  "A little of everything. Eat."

  The wolf inside of me was happy to watch her eat the food that we'd cooked for her and our cub. It eased something inside of me that I didn't even know was tight. The wolf needed to provide for his family. We needed to take care of our mate and the baby. And we would do it the best way we knew how.

  "Orion is coming," I told her after I felt him approach. I knew that he couldn't stay away from her for long.

  Chances

  ORION

  I shifted back into my human skin. The wolf had eaten a few rabbits, so I wasn't hungry. But I could smell Italian wedding soup. I heard the clatter of a spoon which meant that Raven was eating.

  "Smells good," I said as I came into the kitchen.

  "Soup," Quinton said. "You hungry?"

  "Not right now." I shook my head. “I ate already.”

  Raven looked up at me, her hand shaking and spilling a little soup from her spoon.

  "Are you scared?" I asked. My voice came out a little louder than I intended it to.

  "No," she said. There was a slight quiver in her voice which belied her words.

  "I'm here for you," I told her. "We want the best for you."

  She put the spoon down and stared into her bowl. "I know."

  The wolf snarled. He wanted our mate to accept us fully right at this second. Even after we'd mated, she still was holding herself back. The alpha inside of me found that totally unacceptable.

  "Listen," I growled, the wolf making his way to the forefront. "I can give you space if that's what you need, but you need to understand where we're coming from. We can't have you at risk."

  "You're just worried about the baby," she said, a hint of bitterness in her voice.

  "No, we're not," Quinton said. "Of course we care about the cub, but we want you, too. It's not like we wanted a baby with any random woman. If anybody would work, we would've mated someone years ago. We chose you."

  "I don't see how," she said, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. "You met me when I looked like a drowned rat. I'm the opposite of pretty."

  "I told you never to talk about yourself like that," I said.

  "A few days of being told that I'm desirable is not going to erase a lifetime of feeling like I've never been good enough."

  "How can we convince you that you're the one for us, the woman of our dreams, everything we ever wanted?" Quinton turned off the stove.

  "I don't know if you can." Raven played with her hair.

  "You just have to give us a chance," Quinton said. "And we promise that we'll be there for you." Quinton brought more food to the table. The three of us ate in silence. My wolf didn't like the way that Raven was silently crying.

  Challenge

  RAVEN

  I was overwhelmed by the werewolf alpha thing. They kept telling me that we were mates and that they cared about me, but what would it be like if I didn't have the baby? I felt like there were a lot of secrets that they weren't telling me. They hadn't told me that they were shifters from the beginning. One of my cousins had mated a shifter and our great-aunt had thrown a fit about her marriage. I didn't want to deal with Aunt Georgia, but it felt like I was going to have to. The baby inside of me sealed the deal.

  When I refocused myself on the dinner table, the two werewolves had finished eating.

  "What do you want to do?" Quinton asked me. I knew that he wanted to make sure that I felt okay.

  "I don't know...hang out, I guess." I shrugged.

  "How about we rent a movie and eat popcorn?" Quinton suggested.

  "Sounds good," Orion said.

  Quinton dug into my pantry for the Movie Theater Butter popcorn that I had. I loved to eat the good stuff. He started to pop one bag. Orion and I sat down on the couch. I picked up the remote and clicked to the video app on my SmarTV.

  "What do you want to watch?" I asked.

  "Up to you." Orion leaned back on the couch. It looked like he was in his own home.

  "I want to watch The Notebook," I said, just to test him.

  He winced but said, "Whatever you want."

  I clicked around. They had Practical Magic starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. I chose that one. The microwave chimed when the popcorn was ready. After pouring it into a bowl and starting a second bag, Quinton came to the couch. He gave it to me. The two men were sitting on either side of me.

  We watched the story of two sisters going through various stages of their lives and dealing with multiple tragedies. I cried my eyes out when her husband died. Quinton put his hand on my thigh while Orion put an arm around my shoulders. I felt better with them there. Maybe what I needed was a good cry.

  We had eaten our way through both bags of popcorn when Orion's phone rang and buzzed against my thigh. He slid his hand into his pocket and fished it out.

  "Yes?" he said.

  I couldn't hear what was going on with him, but his face got a little paler. Quinton disentangled himself from me and went to put on his shoes.

  "What's going on?" If they really were shifters, then they must have shifter hearing. Quinton could hear the call as clearly as Orion could, even though he didn't have a phone in his hand.

  "Bad news," Quinton said. "Stay here. We'll be back as soon as we can."

  "You're scaring me," I said. Both of them had grim faces, although Orion was still on the phone.

  "Be there soon," he eventually growled. Apparently that was also his goodbye, because he pressed the red button to end the call.

  "What happened?" I asked.

  "Nothing you need to worry about." Orion put on his shoes, too.

  I could feel my anger rising. "Why am I supposed to blindly trust you when you keep stuff like this from me?" I shouted at both of them. I was normally a pretty nice girl, but my buttons had been pushed. They kept trying to pressure me into relying on them but then evaded my questions.

  "I'll tell you," Quinton said. "But you have to promise to stay here."

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "Challenge," Orion said. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

  "What does that mean?"

  "It means that someone wants to take Orion's spot. They think that he's unmated and hasn't fulfilled his obligation to the pack to have a baby."

  I looked at the gentle curve of my stomach. "But I'm pregnant...at least you guys are saying so."

  "You are, but we haven't told them yet. Sometimes were-pregnancies can have certain risks, like we told you when we talked about you seeing a pack doctor. If you had, then everyone would know about you."

  "But I've refused to, so..."

  "Now we're facing a challenge to our seemingly mateless alpha." Quinton ran a hand through his hair.

  "Well, that's easy to clear up. You can just tell them that you're mated and..."

  Both of them shook their heads. "Once a Challenge has been issued, it can't be called back, not in this pack. It's an irrevocable step. It's meant to make hotheads think twice, but my third has always been gunning for the top spot. He just had a son, and it probably was the push that he needed to try to take over the pack."

  "But you'll be okay, right? What is a Challenge?" My eyes were wide.

  "A fight to the death." Quinton patted my shoulder. "But don't worry."

  "DON'T WORRY?" I shouted. "Are you crazy? You're telling me that we're mated but I shouldn't be worried that he's going into a fight to the death?"

  "It's not a problem," Orion said. He was so cocky that I couldn't stand it. He didn't seem to have any concern for his own safety at all. "I've beat every Challenge that has ever been made. I'll beat this one. We'll be back in no time."

  My heart beat wildly as I stood on the porch and watched them get into their car and drive away. What would it be like if the wolf in the Challenge killed Orion? I'd still have Quinton, but...something inside of me needed both of them, not one.

  When their car was out of sight, I went back into the house. I wanted a bottle of cold wine in the worst way, but I couldn't have that if I was technically pregnant or thought I could be. So I ordered a bacon-potato pizza with Alfredo sauce and ate it alone. Some of the saltiness came from my tears.

  Baking

  RAVEN

  I waited all night, but they didn't come back. All of my nervous energy went into baking. I loved to bake, which was why I wanted to make it my day job, but that dream literally went up in flames. So I plugged in my mixer and went to town with everything that I had in my pantry. I made pineapple chunk cupcakes with white chocolate ganache inside and dark chocolate frosting. I made extra-fudge brownies with semi-sweet chocolate chips inside. I finished off the night with lemon bars that had powdered sugar dusted over the top. All of those things might not have sounded like the fanciest food I could make, but they were comfort food, the kind of stuff that I used to make with my besties in middle school. They brought back good memories of getting sugar high when the most important thing in my life was worrying about boys. Some people might think that my life hadn’t changed much, since I was unable to sleep while thinking about the cute boys in my life. Those thoughts were way dirtier, though.

  * * *

  I woke up in the morning to the sound of the front door opening. I quickly scrubbed my mouth with the back of my hand to make sure that I didn’t have powdered sugar around my mouth.

  Orion was limping through the door. "Orion Wolfe, you scared me half to death."

  "You sound like Aunt Barbara scolding me and Aric. He's married to Jordan now, but she still scolds my cousin like he’s a little boy.”

  "I thought you were dead!"

  "No such luck," he said, wincing.

  "What's wrong with your foot?"

  "It was nearly bitten off," Quinton said. "The pack doctor wanted to keep him longer, but he wanted to come home to you."

  "There are phones, you know! I don't think you should be walking on that."

  "He has shifter healing," Quinton explained.

  I put my hands on my hips. "I don't care about shifter healing! That man needs to be off his feet right this instant."

  "Yes, ma'am." There was a little too much amusement in his voice, but Orion sat down on the couch. "I could really use some steak right now."

  "I'll run and grab some," Quinton said, already halfway out the door.

  I went to get a glass of water. "Drink," I commanded.

  He drained the glass and set it on a side table. "Come here." He pulled me into his lap and had me straddle him.

  "You're hurt," I said, trying to slide off. His big hands settled on my waist.

  "I need a little sugar," he said. He put one hand on the back of my head and guided my lips to his. I writhed against his body. The position made my clit grind against the growing bulge in his pants.

  "I refuse to have sex with you while you're injured. I don't want to hurt you," I said, even though I couldn't control the way that my hips were moving against his body.