“Oh wow,” Lydia said. How had that happened? Maybe Ashe would share the story with her sometime, if she felt comfortable.
“Right?” Ashe grinned, reached over and placed her hand on Lydia’s. “But after the shock wore off, I swear to you, I never knew such happiness existed. Being here, with Raphael and my baby, it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
A soft smile touched Lydia’s mouth. “It sounds wonderful. But you knew your mate, right? You wanted to be with him?”
Ashe nodded.
“That’s not how this went down for me,” Lydia said. “I didn’t want a relationship. I’d done that and gotten hurt. Really hurt.”
Ashe gave her a sympathetic look and squeezed her hand.
“I only wanted a child.” Lydia touched her stomach with her free hand. “So being here in the Wildlands, it’s not about romance and building a relationship with the father. I don’t even know who it is. I’m nervous to find out, you know?”
“Of course. And no one is going to push you to have a paternity test. That’ll be your choice. And when you’re ready, if you’re ready, all you have to do is let Doctor Julia know.”
“I suppose the first thing is to find out if my baby is truly part Pantera.” Lydia laughed softly. “The donor I used was supposed to be anonymous and…human.”
“I understand,” Ashe said. “I really do.” She took a deep breath. “Listen, you’re going to be around for a few days, right?”
Lydia nodded. She had agreed to that. She wanted that. Truly. She wanted to find out the truth about the baby’s biological history. And if the child was half Pantera, she needed to learn as much as she could about them, so someday she could tell her child where they came from. It was amazing really, Lydia thought. Back in New Orleans, every human she’d come in contact with had wanted her to terminate her pregnancy ASAP. But here in the Wildlands it had been the complete opposite—they’d been almost reverent about the pregnancy, and her. She understood why Ashe felt so happy and content.
“You can, of course, stay here at Medical,” Ashe began. “It’s cozy.” She shrugged. “In a clinical, Nurturers-gawking-at-you kind of way.”
Lydia laughed. Nurturers seemed to be the medical staff here. The caretakers and scientists. Her eyes drifted to the door. She wondered if Roch was a Nurturer. She didn’t think so. He didn’t seem particularly nurturing. Protective, strong-willed, handsome, sexy, maybe. But not nurturing.
She swallowed hard and felt relieved when Ashe continued talking.
“I’d love it if you’d come stay with us.”
Lydia turned to gape at the woman. “Us?”
“Me and my mate, Raphael. And our daughter, Soyala, of course.” Ashe stood up. She looked very trendy. Human, come to think of it, in her black peasant top, skinny jeans and boots. “Now, I have to warn you, she’s only a few weeks old, so you might be woken up at all hours of the night. But it’s homey there and if you needed anything…well…to talk or whatever—”
The pull to say yes was a strong one. She liked this woman. A lot. And to remain in her soft, supportive light sounded so appealing. But the last thing she wanted was to impose on anyone. Especially a new family.
“I’ll stay here,” Lydia said quickly and gently.
Ashe looked instantly bummed. “It’s the baby thing, right? I swear no one wants to hang out with us anymore. All the poopy diapers and breastfeeding.”
Lydia laughed again. “No. God, no. Not at all. In fact, the baby thing is a huge plus for me. It’s just—”
“What?”
“I don’t want to impose.”
Ashe made a shocked sound deep in her throat. “Okay, that’s silly and crazy. You’re staying with us. Period. End of story. I made lasagna for dinner tonight, and garlic bread. Who in their right mind can turn down garlic bread?”
It was virtually impossible to not like this woman. Lydia shrugged. “I do love me some garlic bread.”
Ashe beamed, clasped her hands together. “Perfect. As soon as you’re done here, I’ll take you home. We’re pretty much the same size and you can borrow anything you like.” She glanced at her watch. “It shouldn’t be more than a half hour, I think. Raphael, Baptiste and Roch are having a powwow out in the hall somewhere.”
“They are?” Lydia felt her cheeks warm. She’d wondered where the man—the male, she’d have to get used to that—had gone off to. She wanted so much to get to know him. This man who had found her in Break for Beignets, saved her from whatever had been in her apartment, then brought her here. She wanted to know how he’d done that. And why?
“So, this Roch who found me,” Lydia began, trying her damnedest to sound casual. “Who is he?”
“He works with my mate. They’re what’s called Diplomatic Faction. Or ‘Suits.’ They’re like politicians or facilitators in our world.”
Suit. Diplomat. Well, that certainly fit. And made him sound even more attractive than he already was. She cleared her throat. “Does he have a mate?”
“Roch?” Ashe started laughing. “Oh, no. He’s a total loner. Really enjoys the single life, if you know what I mean.”
Lydia did. Dammit.
“Totally unattached by choice,” Ashe added. “But a good guy. Loyal, and deeply dedicated to his work. Even more so than Raphael, I think—which is saying something.”
A loner, and a workaholic. Kind of like her. “So, no family dinners,” she said with a forced smile.
“No. Not unless he’s invited to one.” Ashe paused, then her eyes narrowed playfully and studied Lydia. “Wait a sec. I could invite him?”
Lydia’s heart seized inside her chest. “No, no, that’s fine.”
The woman smiled broadly. “I have more than enough lasagna.”
“I was just curious,” Lydia explained, hoping her cheeks weren’t too pink. “He was the one who found me and brought me here. I wanted to thank him or…something.” God, she sounded like a moron.
“It is pretty extraordinary how that all happened,” Ashe remarked thoughtfully. “Actually, it’s unheard of. Everyone’s talking about it.”
Lydia didn’t understand. “What do you mean?”
“A male Pantera finding a pregnant human female.” Her brows lifted. “Especially one he’s never met. Or slept with.” She nodded. “Extraordinary. And something I’m sure Raphael and the others are trying to figure out as we speak.”
Chapter 5
Roch paced the small patch of moonlit grass behind Medical. Due to his erratic and overassertive behavior when he’d brought Lydia in, Raphael, Dr. Julia and Jean-Baptiste had all thought it best that any discussion involving the human woman be done outside the building.
At first, Roch had blown them off, didn’t believe that he was acting in any way but professionally when it came to her welfare and situation. But then he caught himself sniffing at her door, even growling at any Nurturers who tried to enter.
He’d gone willingly with them at that point.
“We have both Hunters and Suits dispatched to this Haymore Center,” Raphael said, his tone just a decibel above a growl. “We’ll find out exactly who they are and what happened. And how a mistake like this could occur. If indeed, impregnating a human woman with Pantera DNA was a mistake.”
“It has to be a mistake,” Doc Julia uttered, more to herself than to Raphael.
Jean-Baptiste inhaled deeply. “So, the blood samples show—”
“Yes,” she said, her tone a strange combination of excitement and concern. “The baby is both human and Pantera.” She lifted her gaze first to meet Raphael’s, then Baptiste’s. “Do you know what this means?”
Jean-Baptiste lifted his pierced eyebrow. “We need to find the father?”
Roch’s lip curled with irritation, but he kept on pacing. Down the path aways he spotted Chayton, the man who had been taken over by Shakpi not long ago. He was working with a Nurturer and the Shaman-in-training, Sage, Lian’s new mate, on some kind of trust exercise.
&n
bsp; Poor bastard, he mused. Forget trust. It was going to be a miracle if the man actually managed to have some semblance of a normal life.
“Yes, we’ll need to find the father,” Julia put in. “When Lydia is ready to allow the testing. But it also means that with Shakpi gone, the curse has truly lifted. We could be seeing pregnancies throughout the Wildlands now.”
Everyone was silent for a moment, letting that information seep in.
“My Genny,” Jean-Baptiste uttered almost reverently. “She has wanted a cub so badly.”
“This could be a new beginning,” Raphael agreed. “But before we start the celebration, we must know how this human pregnancy occurred. Roch?”
Roch stopped pacing and turned to look at the three Pantera, who were all staring intently at him now. “What?”
“Are you certain you don’t know her?”
“Am I certain?” He cursed. “Do you really think I’m the kind of male who wouldn’t remember someone I bedded four weeks ago? That I’m that low, that vile?”
Raphael didn’t answer. Just kept his gaze locked on the male. Whatever his personal opinion, he wanted an answer.
“Christ, no,” Roch answered tersely. “All right? I’ve never seen her before in my life.”
I would remember. Hell, I’d never be able to forget. Never be able to look at another female again after her.
“It seems improbable,” Baptiste put in.
Roch whirled on the heavily tattooed Nurturer and flashed him a feral glare.
Baptiste chuckled and put his palms up in surrender. One had the name of his mate, Genevieve, inked onto it. “Easy, brother. My point is only that you went searching for her—”
“I went to New Orleans. There was no search.”
“And you found her, brought her back here. And look at you now.”
“What?” Roch ground out. “Look at what?”
“You’re acting mated,” Jean-Baptiste said calmly. “You’re acting like me and Raphael and Parish when someone gets too close or threatens our females.”
Raphael nodded in agreement. “I have to say it’s true. I’ve never seen you like this, Roch.”
“I’ve been ill, that’s all,” he tossed out.
“Don’t think so.”
Confusion, irritation and anger all rose up to claim him. “What the hell are you implying, Raphael?”
But it wasn’t Raphael who answered.
“That this child could be yours,” Doc Julia put in, her expression amazed.
A knot formed in Roch’s chest. He ripped his gaze from them and stalked away. Just a few feet. Then he stopped and turned around. “Impossible,” he hissed at them.
“Is it?” Raphael said.
“I’ve never seen her before.” Roch looked up to the heavens. “I swear on Opela. And even if I had, I don’t take risks like that. Even when we were cursed, I made sure the females beneath me were protected.”
“Beneath him,” Baptiste uttered under his breath.
“Beneath me, on top of me—”
“All right. Too much information, brother,” Raphael said.
Roch snarled at them. “You can all go to hell.”
“Hey,” Julia put in, her eyes bright with amusement. “I didn’t go there. I wanted to. But I didn’t.”
“Oh fuck,” Baptiste said, his tone instantly grave.
“What?” Raphael said. “What’s wrong?”
“Remember back when we found out about the curse? We all had samples taken from us for the purpose of testing. Blood, urine, semen…”
Something curled inside of Roch’s belly.
“Oh fuck, is right,” Raphael said, his mind working behind his green eyes. “That was over fifty years ago. I had forgotten.”
“Would someone have given those samples to a human lab?” Julia asked, the moon above casting an eerie glow to her skin.
“It’s possible, I suppose. We were trying in any way we could to keep our race going. But it would’ve been covert, against our laws. The experiments were only to be done in our laboratory.”
Jean-Baptiste looked murderous. No doubt deducing that whoever had leaked samples was probably a Nurturer. “We need to find out who did this.”
“Maybe Hiss will know?” Roch put in.
“I will take that bastard out with my bare hands if he’s in any way responsible,” Raphael threatened. Then he took a deep breath and cursed. “If this is true, we’re in deep shit.” His nostrils flared. “We can shut down The Haymore Center and recover the remaining samples, but who knows how many human women have been inseminated already.”
“We could have males running off, going in search of their offspring,” Baptiste put in. “All we can hope for is what Roch did. Find the mother of the cub and bring her back here.”
“The child is not mine!” Roch roared.
All three of them went silent and turned to look at him.
“Most males would be pleased to know they had sired a Pantera cub,” Jean-Baptiste said, his chin lifting a fraction.
“Not this way!” Roch returned, his chest tightening around his heart muscle. “Christ. Not this way.” He cursed and uttered a battered, “Not in a lab.”
“You have feelings for this woman,” Julia said, her eyes going wide.
Roch didn’t answer her. In fact, he didn’t acknowledge any of them. He was done. Fractured by the possibility they’d just laid out before him. The impossible, amazing, horrifying possibility.
Turning away, he headed down the path, shifting into his puma state just before he was lost in the shadows of the garden.
* * *
Twenty-four hours ago Lydia had been in her apartment, standing at the kitchen counter, eating a supermarket salad and wondering what the following day would bring. Who knew it would bring so much: a firing, a possible Pantera baby, kindness, danger, beauty, confusion and—she glanced around the table at the small family gathered there—an altogether different existence.
Truly, she didn’t know what was going to happen from this day onward, but here in the Wildlands she felt no fear about herself or her child’s future. Maybe that was naive. Or maybe she had an example of what was possible right in front of her. Standing over the long, rustic wood table in her lovely two-story antebellum home, sliding a ginormous piece of lasagna onto Lydia’s plate.
She started to laugh.
Ashe glanced up. “What? Does it look bad? Too runny?”
“It looks amazing,” Lydia assured her.
“I swear I didn’t go crazy with the sauce.”
“Ma chérie,” Raphael put in, his gold-green eyes warm with love as he ran his hand over her hip. “I think she’s just worried she can’t eat it all.”
“Oh,” Ashe laughed, her cheeks flushing pink. “Well, no worries about that. Just do what you can.” She gave Lydia a knowing smile. “But there is the growing baby to think of.”
“Cub,” Raphael corrected, then gave Lydia a gentle smile. “It’s not too early to get used to that.”
“Or how much the little fur ball likes to eat,” Ashe said, glancing down at her beautiful blond baby, who was fast asleep in her raised basinet beside the table. “Even when they’re inside you.”
“I’ll remember that,” Lydia said with a grin.
Ashe sighed as she sat down and picked up her fork. “We’re so excited for you, Lydia. All the Pantera are. It’s such a blessing, and we just want to make sure you have everything you need. We want you and the cub healthy.”
“Yes, we do,” came a male voice behind her.
A ripple of heat moved through Lydia’s body as she turned and caught sight of Roch standing in the archway between the grand entryway and the dining room. Gone was the suit and tie. And in their place were black jogging pants and a black t-shirt. Both molded to his incredible body. He looked sporty and masculine and hot, and she tried not to drool as she stared at him.
“How did you get in here?” Raphael asked good-naturedly.
“Door was open
.”
“And you didn’t think to knock?”
He walked over to the table and pulled out the chair beside Lydia. “I was invited to dinner.”
“By whom?” Raphael demanded.
Ashe cleared her throat as both her mate and Lydia turned to look at her. She cut another sizable piece of lasagna and slid it onto an empty plate. “He hasn’t been feeling very well, so I thought a little home cooking…”
“Poor little cub,” Raphael said with heavy sarcasm, turning to his colleague and friend and giving him an amused grin.
Roch tossed the male a fierce glare.
“Are you going upstairs afterward and having Ashe tuck you into bed? Read you a story?” He paused, realizing what he’d just suggested. He rounded on his mate. “No, ma chère. Please don’t do that.”
“Not a chance,” she answered. “Only one who’s getting tucked in tonight is you.”
He growled softly at her. “Mmm, I like that.”
“Hey,” Roch said, standing up. “I can go.”
“No,” Lydia said without thinking.
He turned to look at her, and the heat and hunger in his gaze was blinding. In fact, it made her heart race like a rabbit’s. He liked her. She was sure of it.
“Sit down,” Raphael called out to him. “I was just giving you a hard time. Let my mate serve you a piece of lasagna the size of your head. It would make her so happy.”
“Hey!” Ashe said, then started laughing.
“Don’t get upset, ma chérie. You know I live to make you happy.”
“And you always do.” She blushed, and he leaned in and kissed her deeply and hungrily until she sighed.
Roch turned to Lydia. “How are you?”
“Good. Fine.” Glad to see you. You look gorgeous. Then again, you always look—
“Are you happy staying here?” he asked, his expression raw with concern. “You don’t have to. I’m sure you won’t get any sleep with the cub.”
“We’ve already discussed that, Roch,” Ashe remarked after coming up for air.
He turned to his plate and picked up his fork. “She needs more than food to keep her healthy and well. She needs sleep.”