Shifter’s Baby (Alpha Fantasy Paranormal Billionaire Shifter BBW Romance) (110 page)

Chapter 2

“Lara, with the pregnancy, I think it’s best if we get married sooner, rather than later. So I’ve got the wedding planner here and were going to try to set the wedding in three weeks from now. I want you responsible for finding a dress you like. I’ll handle the rest, you just have to show up and look pretty.” Rupert told me, taking my hand as we walked around the grounds in the morning after breakfast.

I cringed slightly. He had a logical point and I understood his reasoning. It made more sense to get married before I was big and fat and could still look good in a wedding dress and for pictures, but it still felt like it was being rushed because of the baby. He must have read my face because he stopped me and kissed me for a moment.

“Lara, I want nothing more than to be married to you. I’ve asked you before I knew you were pregnant, and I had every intention of getting you to the alter before the baby. The baby definitely helps my argument on why we should be married, but I’d be pressing this issue regardless.” Rupert told me. I nodded at him. “You are going to be a good wife, a beautiful bride, and if you take after your mother, you’ll be an awesome mom.”

“I’m glad to hear you like my mother so much,” I said and smiled at him. He grabbed my hand again and we continued walking. My mother had married his father, which is how we’d met. I’d worked past my step sibling issues after their marriage, especially when my mother and his father had told us to go for a relationship if we had one brewing between us. They’d both been very open minded to the fact that we had met and chemistry had ensued, and had actually encouraged us to see where it went.

It was weird, to think of us being this one big happy family. I’d never had that, I’d grown up an only child and so had Rupert.

“Do you regret being an only child?” I asked him curiously. We wear getting close to the end of our stroll, we were near the barns, and the palace was on the other side of the barns.

“I sometimes wish I’d had a little brother or sister to play with and terrorize the staff and run the halls with me. I had friends in school, and I had plenty of social obligations that kept me busy, but it would have been nice to have someone who understood what it meant to be a child of royalty and I’m not sure that just any kid could understand that unless they deal with it too. So, a sibling for our child would probably be ideal.” Rupert admitted to me.

“I never really thought about having a sibling, or whatever. It was just me and mom, and I was pretty happy with that. I never really learned how to share well.” I told him and laughed.

“Well, we’ll just see what happens, either way,” Rupert told me and then kissed me. He checked his watch and then frowned. “We walked longer than I thought we did. I really need to sit down with the wedding planner, after that, I have a bunch of political meetings to attend with my father. Get the dress taken care of, and I’ll reward you tonight when I get back.”

“Bribing me now?” I asked him as we walked past the barn and up to the palace.

“If gets you in a beautiful white dress, absolutely.” He grinned at me and then reached down and pinched my butt. “I’ll totally make it worth your while tonight.”

“Okay, deal.” I said and gave him one, long, lingering kiss before he headed off and left me to find this dress person he invited here to help me pick out a dress.

Chapter 3

“I am totally not trying to be a bridezilla here, but if you poke me with one more pin, I swear I’m going to shove a whole handful of them in your butt so you can see how it feels,” I glowered at the young lady who was trying to pin a dress around my body and had stuck me for the twentieth time deep with a pin. I was surprised the dress wasn’t spotted with my blood. She didn’t just prick me, she literally stabbed me with them.

“I’m so sorry ma`am,” the girl looked like she was going to cry. She was doing her best, the woman I was ordering the dress from was taking down measurements and was going over other details now that I’d picked my dress, but her assistant wasn’t very skilled with hemming or sizing a dress when it wasn’t on a mannequin.

“Lucy, finish up what you’re doing so we can move on to accessories please.” Belinda sighed in frustration at her assistant. I gave her a grateful look, although I wished Belinda would take more interest in doing the dress herself if she wanted to protect my body from these pins.

“Okay, that’s it, I’m done. Get this dress off me. You can’t touch me anymore. I’m sorry Belinda, but I can’t handle being poked that many times by your assistant, she can’t touch me anymore. You got the measurements, figure out the rest on something that doesn’t bleed when you poke it.” I told Belinda and ignored Lucy. Then I started squirming to get out of the dress.

“Get dressed then and come take a look at these books.” Belinda was straight forward, and she had strong opinions. Part of me hoped Lucy wouldn’t get in too much trouble for poking me, but my butt actually hurt from all the pokes. So I kept my mouth shut while I got dressed. I was trying to be the bigger person and forgive her, but there’s only so many times you can get stabbed with a needle before you decide maybe they deserve whatever their boss tells them later in private.

I picked out a pair of shoes I thought I’d be able to walk in and a simple veil. I had jewelry already, so I declined her offer to look at the fake jewelry she usually paired with her dresses. I knew my mother would want me to wear the family pearls, and I Rupert had gotten me a pair of matching earrings once I had agreed to marry him.

This seemed very surreal in some ways. I walked out of there feeling like I didn’t even know who I was anymore. My body wasn’t mine anymore; my life didn’t belong to me anymore. I no longer just have to worry about myself. Now, I’d have a husband and a child to care for. It struck me, that maybe my fear of commitment wasn’t really because I was scared he’d leave me, but rather, that I would fail to be the wife he needed, or the mother my child would need.

Texting my mother, I asked her if these fears where normal. I could probably have tracked her down in person, but right now I just wanted to escape to the comfort of my room and wait for her reply.

She texted me back a while later, stating that fears and having nervous feelings was normal and suggested a couple books I look into reading to help. I appreciated her reply. She always knew what to say to make me feel like I wasn’t a freak. Rupert had that trait too. I think many of us always feel that we are more crazy in our own heads than we actually are.

Laying down on the bed, I fell asleep. This pregnancy was making me so tired. I woke up a couple hours later to Rupert pressing kisses against my body and skin. How he’d managed to get my shirt off without waking me up was beyond me. I smiled at him and wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled his lips against mine.

“I see you,” I told him and gave him a sleepy smile.

“How was the dress fitting?” He asked me as he slipped next to me on the bed, curling his body around mine and held me close.

“I got poked so many times I’m surprised I even have any ass skin left,” I said bluntly and slowly woke up blinking at him. “I’ve never seen a worse seamstress when it comes to not harming your client, of course it was her assistant, instead of Belinda poking me, but she let her do it.”

“Belinda is eccentric. Her family has made clothes and wedding gowns and things for formal occasions for three generations now. I’m guessing she won’t be keeping that assistant for long, not if word gets out that she tortured the new princess.” Rupert nodded at me and pressed a kiss.

“Oh, now you’re making me feel bad for whining.” I told him and moaned slightly when he grabbed my breast under the covers. His fingers slipped over my nipple and he played with it as he snuggled up against me.

“I can make you feel better,” he whispered to me and bit my shoulder playfully. We spent the next couple hours seeing how good he could make me feel.

When we got up in the morning for breakfast, he was drinking some tea and watched me eat. I raised my brow at him, trying to figure out why he was staring at me.

“Do I have food on my face or something?” I asked him and tilted my head, wondering if I was embarrassing myself.

“I just noticed some changes, that’s all. You’re sleeping more, and you’re eating more, and your avoiding sausage. You normally like sausage.” He told me and shrugged.

I wasn’t sure if I was flattered that he noticed the changes, or slightly weirded out that he cared enough to try and notice. Deciding that I was flattered I laughed and gave him a smile.

“I’m sure there will be a lot more changes before this is said and done,” thinking about the changes to my body and that it would never be the same again, I pondered for a moment if he’d be okay with that. I’ve heard some women say that their partners could never look at them the same again. I wasn’t worried about stretch marks or my body changing or even the weight gain, but I did worry that he wouldn’t see me as a sexy, hot woman anymore once I became a mother.

“What’s wrong Lara, you have a deer in head look lights on your face?” Rupert said down his tea cup and stared at me.

“I was just wondering if you’d still want me after the baby. When my body’s changed, I’ve changed.” I whispered to him and felt kind of stupid even saying it out loud.

“That body is a pretty amazing thing, and I’d expect it to change, I also think it’s growing my child, which is a pretty miraculous thing for it to do. I can’t promise I won’t worry about things and we may have to work things out along the way, but you’ll always be beautiful to me Lara. As long as we keep communication open, we’ll be okay, alright?” Rupert told me honestly. “Right now, the baby’s so tiny it’s not quite real to me yet, but eventually, you’ll have a big belly we have to work around. I will worry I’ll break you, I’ve had thoughts too on how to make it work as this progresses. But once the baby’s out? You are fair game again. I won’t worry about breaking you.”

“Well, at least your honest,” I said laughing. The image of him fucking me from behind, with a belly had me wondering what sex would be like when I was largely round and pregnant. I guess something to look forward too, right now, it felt pretty great. I wondered if it would still feel like that in a few months.

“I am happy Lara, thank you.” Rupert told me and rubbed my hand across the table for a minute. Checking his watch, he gave me an apologetic look. I was coming to see his work face. He always seemed reluctant to leave me, but he took his obligations seriously, and it was one of the things that I loved about him.

“I’ll see you tonight?” I asked him.

“I actually am going on a business trip with my father. He just informed me of it last night, I forgot to mention it. Your mother is handling the rest of the wedding plans, I’ll be back in time for the wedding, so you take things easy and enjoy yourself for the next couple weeks. No pressure. Oh, and your doctor’s office called and scheduled your first appointment right before the wedding. I’d like to be there for that one, they told me they’d be giving you an ultrasound, so we can see the baby together.” Rupert walked around the table and hugged me. He pressed a kiss to my temple and squeezed my shoulder.

“Be safe, and hurry back,” I nodded at him. I watched him leave and I realized that I would miss him. The more time I spent with him, the more I was coming to rely on having him be a part of my life. I sometimes found myself waking up in my sleep reaching for him when he wasn’t there. I wondered if I’d sleep at all over the next few weeks.

Chapter 4

“Mum he’s late. He wanted to go to the doctors with us, why isn’t he here?” I said and texted him again. I knew he’d been on a plane earlier, and I haven’t heard from him since. I wasn’t thinking anything bad happened, but I just didn’t understand where he was.

I smiled sardonically to myself as I thought about everything else I’d thought about lately, like if I’d be able to sleep if he was gone. The pregnancy had me so tired, I was barely able to stay awake under the best conditions. Having to cut back on caffeine to one cup a day wasn’t helping. I never realized how much caffeine I drank in my tea, until they’d switched me to a no caffeine one.

My mother had insisted that I follow nutrition guidelines and she’d been a stickler the last couple weeks. She told me I had to keep her grandbaby safe. I was trying hard to be patient and indulge my mother, but right now she was so over the top on over protecting every little decision I made, I felt a little smothered. It probably wouldn’t have been so annoying had Rupert been here to keep me busy at night, but without him to balance out the rest of what was going on, I was a little ready to run away from everyone. I was tired of being fussed over.

I headed out to my doctor’s appointment and invited my mother when I couldn’t get ahold of Rupert. I knew she’d like to see her grandchild too, and if Rupert couldn’t get there, I didn’t want to be alone if I didn’t get good news. Yeah, I was realistic. I knew the odds were good things were fine, but what if it wasn’t?

Walking in, I sent Rupert one more text while waiting for them to call me back. He never responded and I sighed, giving up. My mom followed me back. They did the normal routine pregnancy stuff I guessed. Took my temperature, had me pee in a cup, weighed me and took my blood pressure. Once that was all done, they put me in a little room here a tech came in and put some cold gel on my belly and used a probe to find the baby.

It was so cute, the little flutter of its heartbeat, she let me listen to it and gave me a few pictures. She described what each thing was, she said I was about three months along, or about twelve weeks. Just enough the baby started to look like a baby instead of a blob. I walked out of there happy. Everything was going fine, the doctor was happy and told he’d see me in a month.

My mom couldn’t stop squealing over the baby pictures, and texted her husband all about the doctor visit. Yet, I was worried about Rupert. I didn’t know where he was, or why he wasn’t answering. This was very abnormal for him and I was starting to panic.

“Mum, something doesn’t feel right to me,” on the way home, I finally confided my fears to her. It wasn’t about the baby; it was about Rupert. “Rupert was supposed to be here, he’s not answering his texts, I’m worried. Can you text his dad and ask him if he knows what’s going on?”

“I haven’t gotten a text back from Rupert’s father yet either. Honey, I know it’s hard to understand, but sometimes things come up, just be patient and I’m sure everything is just fine,” my mum looked at me, but the lie didn’t quite reach her eyes. I knew she didn’t believe everything was okay. Her eyes had that worry line she got when she was thinking about something she wasn’t happy about. Something was definitely wrong.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked her bluntly.

“Nothing dear, I can’t tell you something if I don’t know the answer,” she admitted. “It’s not like Rupert’s father not to message me back either. I know the plane landed safely, but that was the last thing I’ve heard.”

Sighing, I looked out the window and wished for a moment I had psychic powers to communicate with Rupert. Phones had their limitations.

We got back to the palace and the butler opened the door and helped us out. By this time, I was really worried, but I didn’t want to freak out in front of my mother, she’d get upset about the baby if I got too frantic. I tried to remember to breath and stay calm, but inside I was twisted up in knots.

When we walked inside, a security team was there to meet us. I knew in that moment, something was definitely wrong.

“What is going on?” I asked the one who stood in the middle who was staring at me.

“The Prince and King are fine, but Rupert’s at the local hospital. Someone shoot up their car on the way home from the airport. We shut down all communication until we caught the shooter. I can take you to go see Rupert, if you’d like Lara,” he told me.

My mother gasped and I was worried she was going to faint. She looked green around the edges and I put my arm around her to comfort her. Her husband sounded like he was fine, but if Rupert was in the hospital…

“How badly was Rupert injured?” I whispered, staring at the man, blinking back tears. I swallowed hard. The idea of losing him had me absolutely terrified. He was always this rock, this unbreakable will that had filled my brain with his strength and nothing bad would happen. Except, he was still human and he could still die. I needed to see him.

“Our last update was he was stable, for now. I’ll take you there now. The King will be coming home to deal with this politically, he has to make the announcement and deal with the press now that his son is okay. He wasn’t injured. It appeared that someone was targeting Rupert on purpose. We caught one of the shooters, but there was two.” The guard told me and offered me his arm. I took it and gave my mom a worried look, I wasn’t sure if I should leave her.

“Go on, you need to see Rupert, I’ll be okay here.” She told me and nodded. I wasn’t entirely sure I believed her, but I wanted to go be with Rupert, so I pushed her from my mind and let the body guard take me to the hospital, he never took his eyes off me, and I wondered if he thought I’d be a target too if they didn’t catch the other shooter soon.

I wanted to ask more questions, but I was in shock and couldn’t find a way to get the words out right now. I felt like I was walking in a vortex where nothing felt quite real. The walls blurred together on me as the body guard walked me through the hospital halls. He took me up to the fourth floor and let them know who I was. The nurse gave me a sorry look and lead me to a room and Rupert was there. He was awake, and I sighed in deep relief. He had bandages in his shoulder and he was attached to monitors and IV’s.

“Rupert?” I asked quietly, standing in the doorway staring. He looked over at me and smiled when he saw me. I ran over to him and threw myself at him, holding him close and breathing a sigh of relief that he seemed okay. Or at least alive.

“Ow, not so hard Lara, they had to dig a bullet out of my shoulder. It hurts.” He said and choked back a half laugh and a half moan of pain. “I’m glad you’re here. I’m sorry I missed the appointment for the baby.”

“That’s not what matters right now, what matters that you are okay, what happened?” I asked him and loosened my grip so I didn’t hurt him. I sat next to him on the bed and held his hand thankful he was alive.

“We got off the plane, we were loading the car up and out of nowhere, this truck pulled up and shot at us. My father got out of the way, but I got hit. I guess they chased them down. It was a man and a woman. They apprehended the woman, but the man got away.” Rupert had a guilty look on his face and then took a breather and then explained the rest. “The shooter was... an ex. She heard about our wedding. Decided to get revenge and shot me. They assume the other person was her brother.”

“You had an ex that tried to shoot you? Not a political assassin, but a jealous ex?” Blinking at him in complete surprise I just stared at him. “Why would she do that?”

“It’s complicated, but I dated her when I was in high school for a few months. I barely remember to be honest. She was one of the women at the banquet we attended a few weeks back. She flirted with me, I ignored her, she was offended that I didn’t even remember who she was… and decided to get even.” Rupert scooted up in the bed and cringed, his shoulder hurting.

I couldn’t quite understand how someone would be so offended that you didn’t remember them that they’d try to shoot someone.

“I am having trouble fathoming what kind of screws you’d need to have loose in order to shoot someone. Especially years later.” I shook my head and saw the nurse open the door and walk in.

“Pain meds,” she held up a pink cup and walked over to the bed and handed them to Rupert, who took them and made a face when one got stuck in his throat. He choked it down and gulped some of the water down hoping to rinse it out of his throat.

“They got an update, they caught the other shooter.” The nurse smiled pleasantly. “So we can remove the guards off the door, and as soon as the doctor clears you, you can go home and recover with your family.”

“Thank you,” Rupert said politely to the nurse. He waited until she left and then looked around for a moment.

“What are you looking for?” I asked him finally when he looked completely baffled.

“My phone is missing,” he said.

“That explains why you didn’t text me back,” I said and patted his hand. “It’s okay, we can replace a phone, but I can’t replace you, so no more crazy ex’s okay, I can’t handle marrying someone that’s going to have women trying to shoot him simply because he doesn’t remember their name.”

“Her unpredictable behavior and odd choices and clinginess is why we broke up in the first place. When I was young, and a prince you get chased by women, but her obsession with me went a little deeper than my royal title. We didn’t last long, but I never would have thought she’d be so offended by not remembering who she was that she’d shoot me. That’s beyond a realm of offended and crazy that doesn’t even make sense to me.” Rupert was starting to talk a little funny, and I wondered if the pain meds messed with his brain a little bit.

“I love you Rupert, I’m really glad you are okay. This scared the life out of me. Can we just go live in a cabin somewhere and avoid people from now on?” I wasn’t entirely serious, but right now, I definitely felt the need to protect him. Which was such an odd feeling since normally I felt like he was busy protecting me.

“We can definitely go on vacation or a honeymoon once my shoulder’s healed up. I should at least be able to get into a tux and marry you on Saturday. I’m sorry if this screws up any plans.” Rupert told me and then yawned and shut his eyes for a minute. “Is the baby okay? I wish I could have been there.”

“I have pictures. The baby’s adorable, growing fine. The doctors very happy.” I told him and pulled an ultrasound picture out of my pocket. I set it on the table next to his bed, but Rupert was already snoring.

Leaning forward, I kissed his forehead and then adjusted the sheets around him before getting up. He was going to be okay, but now I needed to go somewhere safe to have a good cry and panic. Hearing he was shot took years off my life and now that I knew he was fine, I needed to have a little meltdown.

I wrote him a note telling him I’d be back in a few hours and left it next to the ultrasound. I walked out and told the nurses desk he was sleeping and I’d be back if he asked, and let them know where I’d left his note in case he didn’t see it.

Pulling my phone out, I called my mother and found a dark, empty lobby on another floor in the hospital. Telling her everything that had happened, I started to cry.

“I was so worried mom, I thought I’d get here and he’d be dead or something awful.” I told her.

“He’s going to be okay, I’m glad he wasn’t more seriously injured and it’s definitely a good thing that the girl can’t shoot to save her life. I’m sorry you had to deal with an experience like this. People think being royalty is easy, but we will always have a target on our back, you can’t let it stop you from living your life, but it will make people who are likely to do something stupid focus their attention on us.” She told me, and I understood what she was saying, but for a moment, I wondered if raising a baby around a lifestyle like this was a good idea.

“Mum, do you think it’s safe to have a baby and raise it as royalty if someone might try to harm them?” I asked her quietly, wiping a tear off my cheek.

“I think that because of public scrutiny, your child is safer in a lot of ways. Everyone will know what your kid looks like, predators are less likely to target your children because they wouldn’t get away with it, but on the other hand, you’ll be dealing with other things. It all ends up in a risk or reward ratio that you’ll have to consider and learn to cope with. Rupert was raised as royalty and he turned out okay. You may not have been a princess, but you were raised as an upper class woman, with a title. It’s really not that much different honey.”

“I guess, I am just getting cold feet and seeing my husband to be in the hospital hooked up to machines and seeing that he got shot definitely makes me question the sanity of everything right now,” I muttered and then shook her head. “I love him mom, I do, but I can’t protect him.”

“Honey, it’s not your job to protect him. You just have to trust and have enough faith in life that it will work out. Live, love, laugh. Don’t focus on things you can’t control, focus on the good things and learn to embrace whatever life throws at you.” My mother gave me advice, and I understood her words, but sometimes it wasn’t so easy to accept things like seeing the man you love be shot.

“I’m going to go back down and see him soon mum, is there anything you want me to tell him for you?” I asked her, changing the subject now that I was calmer. At the very least, she’d helped me regain some emotional composure with our talk.

“Yes, tell him if he’s too sore to get married on Saturday, I’m going to be grumpy with him.” My mother told me and then laughed, I wasn’t sure if she was entirely kidding. My mom had worked hard to make the wedding go smoothly to the way Rupert had wanted it to happen.