Gray Back Alpha Bear(6)
“Kind of?”
He shook his head, searching her scared eyes. From here, he could see little gold flecks in them. “What does ‘kind of’ mean? What are you sick from?”
She scrunched up her face. “Don’t freak out because I don’t need anything from you, and I’m not asking you to be involved if you are really against it. I just need help, and you’re the only one I can think of to answer my questions—”
“Gia, Gia, hold up. Slow down. What are you talking about?”
With a sigh, she eased away from his touch and pulled her sweater over her head. Underneath, she wore a skin tight T-shirt that clung to the graceful curve of her belly.
No. Creed backed up and ran into the coffee table, horror making it hard to breathe. “Gia, tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
She shrank away, pressing her back against the front door and looking devastated. “I’m pregnant.”
“But it’s not mine. I can’t have babies. I shouldn’t. I can’t.” He shook his head back and forth. This couldn’t be happening. “We used a condom!”
“And it broke!” Gia was crying now. Tears slipped down her cheeks, and her breath came in short pants. “Don’t you remember?”
Remember? He’d been drunk as a skunk, but fuck, that sounded familiar. “It’s not mine.”
“It is.”
Her voice rang clear as a bell, and with such honesty, he stopped his retreat around the coffee table.
Gia’s soft brown eyes pleaded for understanding. “I haven’t been with anyone but you in two years.”
Creed ran a hand through his hair as his heart ripped to shreds. He could barely control his crew, and allowing Willa up here had gotten her Turned and almost killed, but this was so much worse.
He wasn’t supposed to have a baby. Ever.
“I have to go,” he rushed out.
“But…we should talk about it,” she said, her voice coming out as small as mouse. And that right there was another problem. Gia wasn’t Willa, able to handle the psychotic fuckers who made up his crew. Gia was too soft. Horrified, he looked down at her stomach, swelling with his child. He’d screwed up this woman’s entire life and the life of the child, too.
Gia was standing between him and the door, so he took off through his bedroom and headed for the exit that led out to his porch.
“Creed! I need help. I have nowhere else to go!”
“Well, you can’t stay here, Gia. You aren’t safe here.” Creed turned and leveled her a look. “Neither is that thing you’re carrying.”
He blasted through the door to the soundtrack of Gia’s agony. That thing? Why had he said that? He was that thing, too. Didn’t matter. It was best if she hated him and moved on.
He was no good.
He was a bad man, a bad bear.
No kid of Creed’s would have a chance if he was in its life.
Gia and her baby were much better off without him.
Chapter Three
A strangled noise wrenched from Gia’s throat when the sound of Creed’s truck engine roared to life. The gravel spraying across his trailer as he peeled away felt like bullets to her heart.
She hadn’t expected him to take the news easily, but this? Calling her child a thing and telling her to leave? She cradled her stomach. It wasn’t big yet, mostly she looked like she’d eaten a big meal, but this baby was hers, and she’d fought harder to keep it than anyone knew or would ever understand.
The horror in Creed’s dark eyes when he looked at her stomach had gutted her. Gia sank to her knees on the faux wood floors as a sob clawed its way up the back of her throat. Now what was she going to do? Mom and Dad had disowned her for choosing to have the child, her friends had abandoned her, and now the father of her child wanted nothing to do with her. Five months ago, she’d been at the peak of her life and hadn’t even known it. Now, her body was being battered as she hit every rock on the way down to her bottom.
“Well, that was unfortunate,” Willa said from the doorway. She crossed her arms and glared out the open door where the sound of Creed’s truck was now disappearing. “Did I say he was strong and level-headed? I meant dumbass and fuck-for-brains. Do you want the camper or a trailer of your own?”
“Wh-what?” Gia asked in a broken voice.
“Well, if Creed ain’t gonna take care of ya, then I will, boo. I still have my camper. It’s parked behind Matt and my trailer. Or I can get you your very own deluxe, two bedroom, two bath, thirty-five year young trailer.”
“But Creed said I can’t stay here.”
“Let me worry about your baby daddy and his rules.” Willa ratcheted up her dark eyebrows. “Pick your mansion, G. I have to get this shit in motion before Creed gets back.”