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“I’m Rika. I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”
“Fuck you.” I’d taken my helmet off to say it. Really, what else could I say? The situation was way beyond pleasantries.
“You know what you call a shifter who can’t shift? No guesses?” Rika clucked her tongue. “You were supposed to be clever. They’re called useless. Although in your case, you have one use. You’re an incubator.”
A nauseating fear crept over me.That must be what Max meant.I would kill myself before I’d incubate her offspring.
“You can sit on your own damn nest,” I said.
Rika’s smile revealed gums and rotten teeth. “Stupid girl. Still haven’t figured it out yet?”
I wanted to shift right now—raise my fox spirit and bite her, then run like hell. I wouldn’t do much damage, really, but it’d feel great. When I reached down for my fox, though, it lay quietly within me. Almost asleep, but not quite. What the fuck was the matter?
The words formed from my lips at the same time as they registered in my brain. “I can’t shift because I’m pregnant. But that isn’t possible. I haven’t been with a fox shifter,” I babbled. Apparently shock had muddled my brain.
Rika gave me a hard look from under her fur hat. “Don’t underestimate my intelligence because you overestimated your own.”
“It’s not possible.” I shook my head, trying to clear all this away like a bad dream. “Evan is a wolf shifter. Different species of shifters can’t reproduce.”
“Just because you haven’t seen that in your short life doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Let’s call it unlikely but not impossible. If I were you, I’d buy a lottery ticket.”
“Evan.” I had to tell him.
Rika read my thoughts. “Let’s just keep this between us girls.”
“Evan has a right to know he’s the father.”
“Max, make sure you get her back to the house before you freeze. I’ll be along shortly.”
“I’m not one of your sex slaves. You can’t make me help you,” I said.
Rika raised her hand, and my tongue lay heavy in my mouth. “Time for talk later. Now you are my guest. Go get settled in at my house.”
I climbed on the snowmachine behind the vamp. My mind whirled in a million directions. I was pregnant with Evan’s child. Never crossed my mind, even though we’d been with each other several times a day for the last few weeks.
I’d never heard of a cross-species pregnancy, even when I was a kid and Sleepy Briar was a bustling community once upon a time. The pregnancy sure would explain my symptoms, though. And even though I’d had this information for such a short time, I already knew I’d do whatever it took to protect this baby.
The vamp and I progressed into increasingly hilly territory. I was forced to hold his waist so I didn’t fall off. Max’s skin was like ice under my gloved hands. Being glamoured by Rika meant wearing BDSM garb under a snowsuit. This was not a fate I wanted to share by any means.
Chapter8
EVAN
Outside the inn, my snowmachine wouldn’t start. Incredible. I gave the back tread a swift kick, which did nothing but stub my toe. My first order of business was to repay Rika and tell her to leave Maddy alone. Then I’d seek Maddy out and try to make things right between us before I left town. I bent over the snowmachine engine again, trying to figure out what was wrong. My skill was solving financial problems, not mechanical ones.
Fuck this.I couldn’t concentrate on fixing the machine. I had to pay Rika back and see Maddy. The first thought gnawed at me, and the second was like a fire under my skin. I’d never felt so agitated before in my life.
I stripped out of my clothes, tossing them in a heap inside the empty inn. I stepped outside in the falling snow, barefoot. My toes dug into the snow, but I didn’t feel cold. I felt strangely alive. I started out in a slow jog that increased to a run.
My wolf was joyful to be unleashed. A desire to roll in the snow and head out to the snow tugged at me. But I wouldn’t be dissuaded. Maddy’s cabin was easy to find after all these years. Ihadto see her. Rika could wait.
Before long the cabin came into view. Even covered by deep snow, its shabbiness made me wince. It wasn’t just the peeling paint and gutters pulled down by thickened ice, it was the loneliness of the place.
When I’d thought of Maddy over the past years before returning to Sleepy Briar-and I’d thought of her more than I’d ever admit-I always imagined her surrounded by her family. Like wolf shifters, foxes usually have strong bonds among all their family. Rebuilding Sleepy Briar was Jax’s attempt at bringing those families. Even if it’s not something I wanted to be a part of, I respected the effort.
I shifted again in front of the cabin, returning to my human form. From what Maddy had said, Jax ran around naked much of the time. I didn’t love the idea of her getting an eyeful of my brother’s junk on a regular basis.
“Maddy?” I called, turning the door handle. It was open. The cabin was without power and heat. And it smelled rank.
