1. Kai

Chapter 1

Kai

"I can't have the baby here."

Why did I leave the safety of my home to follow a scent? Not any old scent, but so tantalizing, so intoxicating that at nine months pregnant I decided to galavant around the city.

But though the pain of the contraction was everything, blocking other thoughts, the scent was all around me, tickling my body and teasing me as a man took hold of me. He drew me into his arms, just as his scent wrapped itself around me.

"You're pregnant."

"Ya think?" Yikes! As soon as the words left my mouth I regretted them. I'd been carrying the baby around for nine months, but this guy had just entered my life.

"Sorry…" I mumbled, the rest of my apology cut off by a contraction.

"Come inside."

I bit off another snarky response. Gods, that wasn't me. Even through the chaos of living in Tarrin, I'd never snapped at Dante especially or Gideon. Or had I? Eek! I hoped not.

"Thank you, but I need to be with my mates." I grunted as my body prepared my baby for the world.

"Mates?"

Geez, the conversation with his new guy was slow-going. Damn, I was being an asshat again. He had a lot of catching up to do. New guy wasn't just any old dude. He was the owner of that scent. The alluring one that brought me here in the dead of night.

"I have two." I added, "Maybe three," not wanting him to feel bad, because whether he liked it or not, he was number three. And though I wasn't a shifter, I'd been around enough shifters—and had them in me and on me—to recognize a shifter scent.

"Seymour."

I grunted in response, but I was in labor and I was miles from home and my mates. My baby wanted out, and Dante and Gideon, who'd been with me through all of my pregnancy—or much of it as my bear shifter mate had—deserved to be at my side when our baby came into the world.

"Where are they?"

I took a deep breath. What did they say in those videos? A cleansing breath. Yeah, that. Seymour knew nothing about me so I needed to be patient until he caught up. But, and there was a big but… I was in labor and in no mood to consider anyone else's feelings, not even my newest mate.

Not that he'd confirmed he was my mate. But I was his.

"At home."

"I don't have a car."

Great. Public transport in Martslock was kinda lacking in the early hours of the morning.

"Still here."

Ohhh, he waited, my cab driver. But I didn't want my baby born in the back of a cab. I imagined our little one's birth certificate in the place to write "location." There'd be one three-letter word: cab. Or worse, "Back seat of cab, location unknown."

I paid off the driver and waved him off. Possibly a ridiculous choice because now I was alone with my new mate, who I was sure was a great guy. It was dark and quiet, and I was in a strange neighborhood, far from my mates.

"Maybe not a sensible decision."

"What's that?" Seymour asked. He hadn't dropped his embrace, and now that I was familiar with his scent, it kissed my skin, and I almost swooned but another contraction stopped the nearly swooning.

"Oh, nothing." While Seymour had eyes and it wasn't a surprise, pointing it out would draw more attention to us being alone, though the baby made three. It occurred to me I should have thought of our little one and had put them at risk by skedaddling from home.

I sighed as the list of my mistakes became longer. But my belly cramped, and I almost thanked it because it diverted my attention. Leaning my head on Seymour's chest, I studied his bare feet. Where were the man's shoes? I was pleased my mate apparently had a "no shoes in the house" policy, but did he ever wear any?

My thoughts were zigging and zagging, trying to distance myself from the pain of the contractions.

When I lifted my head, the moonlight illuminated us, and Seymour gave me what I took to be a look of love. He put a hand under my chin and moved my head to the right and left. I grinned because he was memorizing my face, including every freckle and line.

"I know you."

Yay. His beast was telling him I was his mate. I'd been a teensie-weensie bit worried that he was just being a concerned citizen helping a pregnant omega wandering around a quiet neighborhood in the early hours of the morning.

"You're Kai from The Secret Lives of Pinedale." He squeed. Did adults do that? Squee? I did, but I was kinda different to everyone else in Tarrin.

Seymour let go of me and put his hands to his mouth as he jiggled up and down. I was tempted to yell and say my labor and baby were the focus and he needed to stop with the damned squeeing.

He didn't.

"I cried when you died, and like so many of your fans, I thought you'd asked for a raise and gotten bumped off the show." Now my newest mate was raising his hands to the moon and doing a little jig. Who did that?

He gripped my shoulders. "I'm so glad you're still around. So many actors get kicked off a serial and the fans never hear from them again until someone sees them bagging groceries, their career in tatters."

Wow! This guy was something else. He was a fan extraordinaire. Or maybe a super fan. What did they call them in Tarrin? He sure was invested in my career.

Except I wasn't an actor, I didn't have an acting career.

"I have to tell everyone." He fumbled for what I assumed was his phone but he didn't have it. "Shoot, it's inside."

He took in my bump. "And the pregnancy? How did that happen?"

I gritted my teeth, ready to give him my best wolf or bear impression.

"Is this a sequel?" He did a 360 turn. "Where are the cameras?"