Sold To The Alphas: A BBW Paranormal Romance (11 page)

I moved my head in the slightest of nods. "I guess I just can't talk about the whole pregnancy issue right now. I really don't even want to think about it."

Chase tightened his arms around me, pressing his lips to my forehead. "Of course."

On my other side, Grayson began smoothing my hair again. "Though obviously we should all continue our efforts to
get
you pregnant, Chase and I can both try to not bring up the topic in conversation until Skye is rescued. I know the last thing either of us wants to do is make you unhappy."

Chase agreed, and I thanked them both, though with a heavy heart. Their kindness made me feel even worse.

Soon the three of us headed back to Shadowfen, the two of them in wolf form, and me riding on Grayson's broad, silver-furred back. He was so enormous that it literally felt like riding a horse, which I found kind of fun, and the trip back to the village put me in a slightly better mood. Though just slightly.

That night, I went to sleep alone, because Chase and Grayson had to deal with a problem concerning a small pack of five wolves passing through the area, causing trouble as they went. Chase, Grayson, and a few of their men planned to drive these wolves well past Greenleaf, with a warning to only return on pain of death.

Before leaving my cabin, Grayson held me tightly, speaking near my ear in a low voice. "Whether it's me or Chase who becomes your mate for life, this is, unfortunately, what you have to look forward to. Your mate constantly being called away, frequent nights alone...for an alpha, it never ends. I just hope you can bear it."

I squeezed him back, running my hands along the hard ridges of his back with my chest aching for the second time that day. "I can bear it. I think I can even be happy."

I knew I
could
bear it. I knew I
could
even be happy. Probably even very happy. Though I knew I was likely never going to get the chance to be happy in Shadowfen in the long term. All I had was the present.

I tossed and turned all night. I shed a few tears while a warm April rain pattered against the windows, the weather mirroring my mood perfectly. A brisk wind periodically whipping through the trees even made noises that sounded like deep, sad sighs.

Chase and Grayson returned in the wee hours of the morning, and not wanting to disturb me, they slept in their own beds in their own cabins. Little did they know they wouldn't have been disturbing me at all, as my troubled mind had barely allowed me to sleep anyway.

Late in the morning, they came by to share a quick breakfast with me before heading out on a patrol with some of their men. It had stopped raining, but the skies opened up once again, not more than a few minutes after they'd left, soaking the bright green grass around the cabin with big fat raindrops.

Wanting to get some fresh air and do some quiet thinking, I took a mug of mint tea out on the porch, which the overhanging roof shielded from the rain. And that turned out to be a mistake.

CHAPTER SEVEN

I'd just wanted some time to watch the rain, sip my tea, and be alone with my thoughts out on the porch. What I got was an unexpected visit from Rose. Rose and Jack, that is. Jack, Rose's giant black raven, sat perched on her shoulder, as usual.

Since the day when she and I had met, when she'd told me she knew that I had a secret, she'd been back to the village to visit with Flora a couple of times, though she hadn't come near my own cabin, which I'd been relieved about. It wasn't that I had any kind of problem with her or disliked her; I didn't.

In fact, despite the fact that I could see how people might find her irritating at times, she struck me as an interesting person that I would have ordinarily liked to get to know better. And of course, like everyone else in the village seemed to, I felt a bit bad for her, just because she was older, lived alone, and seemed to be lonely.

Not to mention that she also obviously had some struggles with frequent bouts of drinking too much, which her loneliness didn't help, I was sure.

I was just relieved to not have seen her the previous week because I really didn't want to hear her have any more "intuitions" about me. I'd become pretty convinced that she wasn't
really
psychic, but instead had just coincidentally made a few lucky guesses that had fed right into my guilty conscience about my deception, making her
seem
to really be psychic.

However, while I was about ninety-nine percent convinced about this, it was the one percent of uncertainty that troubled me and I didn’t welcome another meeting with Rose. I just didn't want that ninety-nine percent of certainty to become a smaller number. I had no desire to feel as rattled as I had the first time Rose had come to my cabin to visit.

But, whether I liked it or not, Rose was back. While I sat out on the covered porch, sipping my tea and watching the rain, she came tottering around the side of the cabin with Jack on her shoulder. Raindrops beaded on his black feathers and rolled down Rose's dark gray rain poncho.

She waved, and I waved back, silently cursing myself for making the mistake of taking my tea outside, feeling mean at the same time for having this thought. She was, after all, just a harmless elderly woman, and I knew it was unkind to begrudge her a few minutes of conversation if she was lonely.

She climbed up the two porch steps, her wooden walking stick thudding on each one, and came to stand a few feet away from me. "Sure picked a fine day to come visit, didn't I? I knew it was going to rain, but...well, a little rain has never bothered me. A little rain is just part of life."

Perched atop Rose's shoulder, Jack suddenly cawed, as if vocalizing his agreement with Rose that a little rain was indeed just part of life. Rose glanced at him with a little smile curving her small, pale pink mouth. "He doesn't mind it, either."

There was something charming about Rose, something that made me really like her. Though at the same time, I was still a bit afraid of her. A bit afraid that she'd suddenly start going off again about me having a secret.

Seeming to read my mind, she gave me a little apologetic-seeming smile. "I haven't been into my wine today, and I'm sorry about the other day when I was. Sorry if I came on a bit strong, which I'm sure that I did."

I returned her little smile, relieved that the experience of the other day probably wouldn't be repeated, at least not right then. "It's all right. Would you like to sit down and have a cup of tea with me?"

She said she'd love to and took a seat on a wooden porch rocker next to mine.

I went in the house and made another mug of tea, arranged some cookies on a plate, and returned to the porch, setting the plate and Rose's mug on a little wooden table between us. "Please help yourself."

She thanked me, picked up a sugar cookie from the plate, and took a bite herself before offering Jack one. "He's got a bit of a sweet tooth, this one."

He sure did. He clamped his beak around the cookie, bit off a large bite, and dropped it on Rose's shoulder before nibbling on it with obvious eager enjoyment.

I picked up my mug of tea and sat back in my wooden rocker, and Rose did the same.

She took a few sips of her tea, looking out at the rain, before turning her gaze to me. "Flora told me about what happened to your sister, and I was sorry to hear that."

I nodded, kind of cradling my warm mug to my chest. "Thank you. But she's doing okay, and she's going to be just fine. The Bloodfur wolves that have her outnumber our pack here in the village, but Chase and Grayson have some shifter wolf friends from up farther north who are coming down to help them by joining in a raid. They should be here in just a few days, as long as they don't run into any trouble from any hostile wolf packs on their way down.

“I have to think positively. Even if they do run into a problem or two that holds them up, they should still arrive well before the Bloodfur's alpha, Richard does. Chase and Grayson's spy overheard the Bloodfurs saying that he intends to spend a few weeks down near Ashcrest, trying to have one of his scenters sniff out a fertile woman to kidnap.

“Chase and Grayson have already gotten word to the royal family about them, because, of course, they don't want any women kidnapped or harmed; so the shifters in Ashcrest are aware of what Richard's trying to do, and they're keeping an eye on things to make sure he doesn't accomplish his goal.

“But at the same time, they're not going to attack him and drive him away either, because they know that Chase and Grayson need him to stay gone for a while. My sister, Skye, needs him to stay gone too.  Because once he returns...well, that's when she'll be in danger. The whole situation is just a...."

Sighing, I trailed off and took a sip of my tea. "A really complicated one, I guess. But as long as Chase and Grayson's friends from the north arrive within a few days or so, and as long as the raid to free Skye can happen before Richard returns, everything will be just fine."

          
Or, at least fine until I have to come clean and tell Skye, Chase, and Grayson what a complete fraud I am
, I thought.

Rose nodded slowly, looking thoughtful. "I've had no premonitions about this situation with the Bloodfur wolves...none at all. Some things and future events I can see with crystal-clear clarity, and others not at all, and this is one of those 'not at all' instances.

“But I think you are right. I think that in the end, everything will be just fine. Like you, when there are so many possibilities and variables concerning a situation, and when I don't have any intuitive feelings about a situation, I just try to think positively. After all, what could we do otherwise? In the absence of foresight, hoping for the best and having faith can be a great comfort."

I nodded and took a sip of my tea but didn't say anything. Now that Rose had brought up her supposed psychic abilities, I certainly didn't want to say anything that would wind her up and make her continue.

For the second time during our visit, she seemed to read my mind, giving me a little smile before she spoke. "I know you don't believe, and that's fine. No one else does, either. I've come to accept this. I know everyone simply thinks I'm a delusional old woman with a tendency to overdo it on the wine, and I suppose they're not wrong about that.

“But I
do
have intuitive abilities. I
am
a psychic. And don't worry...I won't go off on a rant about what my abilities have allowed me to see and learn about you, like I did the last time I was here. I really am sorry about that. It really wasn't right for me to do that in front of your men.

“Just know...in case you ever want to talk...I
do
know your secret. The details about it have become even clearer to me over the past couple of days. I know exactly what you did in secret, and why, and who you were trying to protect. I know you were just trying to protect your sister.

“I can see the caring you had in your heart when you did what you did, and I know your motives were pure. I can also see other things. Things that still strike me as some sort of a funny joke."

Jack immediately did a series of short, fast caws, almost as if laughing. Almost as if
he
knew what the funny joke was.

Giving her head a little shake with her dark brown eyes twinkling, Rose offered him another bite of her cookie. "Yes, he knows. He's my best friend. I tell him everything."

Jack bit off another hunk of cookie, dropped it on Rose's shoulder, and began pecking it into smaller pieces. Gently rocking in her chair, Rose took a long drink of tea. I sat speechless, my mind reeling because of the things she'd said.

Now I knew for sure. She
knew
. My being ninety-nine percent sure that she wasn't truly psychic had suddenly turned into believing a hundred percent that she
was;
a fact that deeply troubled me, because of what she could tell Chase and Grayson. Because of what she might be able to convince them of.

After watching Jack peck and nibble briefly, Rose turned her gaze to me. "I don't want to upset you, so I'll say no more about this matter. And don't worry. I'll say no more to your men, either. It's your business what you want to tell them, if anything, and when. I'll stay out of all this from here on out. I'll tell Jack to keep what he knows to himself, too."

She gave me an almost imperceptible wink before popping the last bite of her cookie into her mouth. Relieved by what she'd said, I sat back in my chair and sipped my tea. I hadn't even realized that I'd inched to nearly the edge of my seat while she'd been talking about my little secret and her psychic abilities.

Rose and I drank our tea in silence for a little while while rain continued to fall on the bright green grass around my cabin. But after she'd drained her mug and set it on the little table between us, she cleared her throat and spoke again, her gaze on some of the tall evergreens that bordered the yard.

"Well, I already know some of your secrets, so it just seems like I should tell you one of mine. My secret is that I'm not quite as harmless as everyone around here thinks. Like I told you the first day I met you, I'm not only a psychic, I'm a bit of a sorceress as well. Maybe not one of very considerable power, though I'm really not even sure about that, as I've never met another sorceress to compare."

With Jack still pecking at crumbs on her shoulder, Rose paused briefly before continuing. "Maybe about a decade or so ago, I started to develop some magical powers to go along with the intuitive gifts I've always had. The gifts I've always had that always seemed to separate me from people, the gifts that have always made me feel like an outsider.

“They eventually led me to come out here to live on my own years and years ago. And perhaps that's why my powers developed. Perhaps I'd always had them, but just needed to be completely alone for a while until my subconscious felt like it was safe enough to let them out."

After pausing for a long moment, still looking out into the trees, she turned her gaze to me. "It's true. I'm not quite as harmless as everyone around here thinks. Though, perhaps needless to say, I'd never use my powers on anyone in the village. I'd only use my powers to defend everyone around here, if the need ever arises.

“I doubt it will. Your men and their pack seem to do a pretty darn good job of protecting everyone around here on their own."

Giving me a smile, Rose abruptly stood, eliciting an irritated squawk from Jack. "I'll leave you be now. Promised Jack I'd take him down to the stream while it's still raining. He likes to watch water falling into water. I think it's soothing to him for some reason. Thank you for the tea, Rowan, and have a good day."

I wished her the same, and off she and Jack went, her walking stick tapping across the porch and down the steps. Jack cawed softly, eying a shifter who was patrolling the village, padding down the main dirt lane in wolf form.

When Rose reached the lane herself and was maybe ten or fifteen feet away from me, she paused and stroked Jack's dark feathers while surveying the tall evergreens, periodically glancing at the patrol wolf, seeming to be waiting for him to pad away out of earshot.

Once he had, Rose turned in my direction and spoke in a voice just barely loud enough for me to hear her. "Flora's going to have a wonderful surprise soon. She's pregnant. Don't tell
her
that yet, though, or anyone else. She doesn't know yet. But once she finds out...she and Hunter are going to be so thrilled. They've been trying for a good little bit, here."