Ours(33)

“I know she’s here. I heard her. Give me another fifteen here, and I will be there to see what she wants.”

She nodded and looked at the girl who hadn’t taken her eyes off Zack. Great. This is what I have to put up with. She studied the tat. “That is beautiful.”

The girl finally looked up at her. “Yeah, Zack’s the best. He did my first ever tattoo last year on my ass.”

She shot a glance at Zack to see if he showed any recognition of the woman, but he showed no interest in the pretty blonde that she could see. To be on the safe side, she leaned down and kissed his cheek. “Love you.”

He chuckled, and his eyes lit up. Crap. He knows I’m jealous.

Taking a deep breath, she went back out to Zack’s mother. “Take a seat. He’ll be with you in fifteen.”

Sandy watched as Zack’s mother looked around the shop and sat on the seat closest to her. His mother sat quietly for a good ten minutes while she worked on the computer organizing schedules for all the artists.

“What drawings are my son’s?”

Sandy grabbed Zack’s folder and walked around to pass it to her. As soon as she was close enough to hand it his mother, the woman took a deep breath in only to screech, drop the book, and stand to tower over her.

“He mated you. I thought he was joking when he said he had.” His mother yanked at her shirt, ripping it off her shoulder. She growled and started to grow. “He is not your only mate. Who else?” The woman shook her, picked her up, and breathed her in, only to shriek and drop her against the book table. “Who is it? Because you are pregnant.”

Sandy felt the color drain from her face and scrambled back against the reception desk. Zack and all the other artists came running to her aid.

Zack snarled at his mother and dropped down beside her. “Firebird, are you okay?”

Sandy had no idea if she was okay, but she nodded anyway.

Zack yelled, “Call an ambulance.”

She grabbed his arm. “No, please don’t. I’m fine.” She tried to get up, but he wouldn’t let her.

Zack patted her down, and she told him she was okay. He carefully picked her up, cradling her in his arms, and turned on his mother.

“Get out of my shop now. I don’t ever want to see or hear from you again. This is the last straw. I disown you.”

Sandy gasped and looked at Zack’s mother who turned white and shook her head.

“Zack, I’m fine. She came here to see you and got a shock, that’s all.”

The front door of the shop burst open and Jake came pounding in. “What happened? Why is she bleeding?”

Sandy noticed her shoulder bleeding from Zack’s mother’s claws. And the woman gave a sardonic laugh.

“Oh, this is brilliant. What the hell is going on with the universe at the moment? Jake, have you told your family yet? Your sisters are going to love this. They’ve had friends ready for you for years. Is the baby yours or my son’s?”

Okay, this woman is starting to piss me off. Sandy still winced when Jake turned to Zack’s mother. “You are not my mother, thank God, so if you come near my mate again, Adele, I will rip out your throat.”

The woman must have some good sense because she looked between her son and Jake, nodded, and backed out of the shop.

Sandy closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before opening them. “How did you get here so quickly?”

Jake looked sheepishly at her. “Since you started working here, I have had an alert out on the shop. If anything happens, I’m radioed straight away.”

She looked up at Zack as he walked with her in his arm to his office. “You’re okay with that?”

Zack nodded. “Yep, anything to keep you safe.”

She sighed as he sat in his office chair. “So is your mother right?”

Both their eyes narrowed and they said, “About what?”

“Am I pregnant?”

They both nodded.

“Why haven’t you told me?”

Zack groaned. “Because you’re our mate we didn’t know until now. Remember I told you we can’t tell stuff like that with our mates.”

“But other shifters can?” she asked.

“Yep,” Jake said.

Sandy sat up and held her clothes on. She needed to think. She needed her friends. “I’m going home now. I need a shower then I’m going to go visit Susie and Sammy.”

She didn’t give either of them a chance to respond. She reached in the drawer, grabbed Zack’s keys and her bag, and walked out the door.

****

Zack sat in the obstetrician’s waiting room with Sandy. Jake sat on her other side. Sandy didn’t touch either of them. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she shot glares at Jake and him.