Melinda nodded, tears pouring from her eyes. “Okay.”
Epilogue
It was a little over a week later when Melinda saw Travis’s obituary in the paper. Sitting at Andrew’s table, her breakfast going cold, she handed her boyfriend the paper and showed him Travis’s picture.
“It says he was mauled by a bear,” she said, her breath catching in her throat. She eyed Andrew as he squinted at the paper. “You didn’t…did you?”
“No,” he said indignant. “I told you I don’t do that.”
She sighed, relieved. She rested her elbows on the table and brought her hand to her forehead. “Just thought I’d double check. He was a jackass.”
Andrew hummed in agreement.
Melinda would have returned her attention to her breakfast, but Andrew was still squinting at the paper like he knew something. Weariness weighed down on her breastbone. “Do you know who did that?”
“No,” he said quietly. “But…I’m not entirely surprised this happened either.”
Melinda tensed. “Why?”
Andrew hesitated, glancing between her and the paper before setting the paper aside. “I told you the truth that I knew nothing about my kind, other than that my mother told me to always keep my true self a secret. I think it’s because that whenever a human discovers one of us, other bear-shifters…they…” He winced, tilting his head back in forth. “Take care of the problem.”
Melinda paled, her hands going clammy. “What about me?”
Andrew’s eyebrows shot up, even as his eyes softened. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Mates are excluded from this.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“My mother was human, and she knew what my father was—what I was. And she ended up dying from cancer, not from…well…” He glanced back at the paper. Then he squeezed her hand harder before returning his gaze to her, his eyes blazing. “Even so, I would never let anything happen to you.”
“Not even against a bunch of bears?”
“I’d win that fight. For you, I could do anything.”
Melinda calmed, a warm smile spreading her lips wide. Though anxiety still fluttered beneath her trust, she didn’t let it get the better of her. She kept her sight on Andrew—her love.
“You know I love you, right?” she said.
He smiled back at her. “Yes. And I love you.”
Satisfied, she squeezed his hand back.
It only had to be as complicated as they made it.
THE END
Knocked Up By The Doctor
Knocked Up by the Doctor
Dr. Glen Marrone stood and stared at the destruction he’d wrought. He’d sped toward the front doors at the screech of brakes, just like any other doctor would have. A fender bender, nobody was hurt, but he’d had to check. Melissa had gone outside with her phone, ready to call 911. He’d heard something falling from the front desk, but he hadn’t had the time to see what he’d done.
“Shit!” Melissa’s purse had fallen open, discharging all its contents. Pens, her wallet and...what was this?
He picked up a book, staring at the cover. A woman in chains, a lurid title. “Bound for Pleasure.” Interesting! He had no idea she was into this.
Glenn stroked the cover the book, wondering what he should do about this new development. He had no idea Melissa was so interested in this sort of thing, or what kind of interest it was. Was it mere curiosity over the new and trendy thing in literature, movies, and, in some cases, real life?
She could join the club then. BDSM. Melissa, his mild-mannered nurse, had seemed rather virginal. He wouldn’t have expected her like these books, even if they were all the rage these days. Not that many people understood BDSM, real lifestyle or scene BDSM rather than what some authors wrote. It was something that Glenn and his friends the club laughed about sometimes. When they weren’t cringing about that stupid movie or worrying that innocent people might get caught in situations they had no knowledge to overcome.
Above and beyond all that, he needed to think about what to do about this. Glenn found Melissa very attractive, but he didn’t think they had much in common outside the office. She was younger than him, by about 10 years, and while she got along with everybody in the office, there was a certain quietness, and a certain distance between them that seemed to go beyond professional courtesy.
She was also a girl with curves to spare. It's not that he didn’t like curvy girls, but he’d never actually been with one. Outside of doing scenes at the club with one of the curvier regulars, and while those had been good, he had never wanted to date anybody he done a scene with. This might just change, with Melissa in the picture. Provided of course, that this wasn’t just a passing fancy on her part.