Sold To The Bears (A BBW Paranormal Romance Book 1) (22 page)

He moved his wide shoulders in a shrug, taking a step closer to me. "Well, let's just say I think we still have a chance of taking over the city, but...you're here right now. And I'm here right now. And I guess I've just decided to take my consolation prize right now, even though I may ultimately end up needing no consolation."

Trembling, I tried to take a step backward but ran into the tree.

Malachi took another step forward, making him less than a foot away from me now, then pulled a knife from his pocket and flicked the blade open. "I can slit your throat with this knife while in human form, or I can shift and claw your throat out as a wolf. Your choice. But you've only got three seconds to make it before I decide for you."

THE FINAL
CHAPTER

I'd always been a fighter. Growing up in Stony Rapids after my birth parents had been murdered, I'd had to be. And now, with the man who'd killed them, and then later my adoptive parents, now standing right in front of my face, brandishing a knife, I wasn't about to stop fighting. Even if I died while I did so, which I knew was likely to happen anyway even if I didn't fight. So, if I was going to go down, better to go down swinging, I figured. Better to go down the same way I'd lived my life, fighting, as a tribute to my murdered parents, all four of them.

I knew I had precious seconds to think about
how
exactly I was going to fight. I didn't have any weapons, and I didn't really have much time to think. Not to mention that I was suddenly so dizzy I was having trouble just remaining upright. Instinctively, I slid a hand in my jeans pocket, maybe having a vague thought about striking Malachi over the head with my phone. But I'd reached in the wrong pocket.

However, what I felt in that wrong pocket was even better than a phone. Much better.

After closing my hand around the thin plastic handle, I whipped out a metal nail file. The point of it was sharp enough that I knew it could do some real damage as a stabbing instrument.

Taking a sudden wide step around the side of the evergreen, just to put a little distance between Malachi and me, I brandished the metal file at him. "Now
you
have three seconds. Three seconds to run."

Lowering his knife, he laughed. Actually laughed at me. The sound was sharp, bitter, and grating.

I supposed my threat
had
been funny. I knew it was ridiculous to think he might really become frightened of my nail file and me. I didn't care. I knew making him afraid might be a stretch, but maybe after I got a few good stabs in, he'd at least feel a pang of regret for taking me on, and that would be good enough for me.

So long as killing me wouldn't be an easy task for him, and as long as I could prevent him from killing other people in the city, at least for a few minutes, I'd consider that a victory. It struck me that in this way, I could help protect the city like I'd wanted to, though of course, not from the safety of a steel-and-titanium cage.

Malachi laughed again, even louder this time, the harsh sound drowning out the roaring and snarling still going on somewhere nearby.

"Oh, Lila. Well...you're quite a joke. Think you might have a little revenge on me with that itty-bitty nail file of yours?"

I shook my head, still brandishing the file at him, tightening my grip on the handle. "No. I don't care about taking revenge on you. See, I've learned a few things since I left Stony Rapids. Revenge means nothing to me now. All I care about now is protecting the people and the city I love. All I care about now is protecting my new home."

Malachi snorted, raising his knife again. "Well...say bye-bye to your sweet new home."

The next second of my life seemed to happen in painfully slow motion. He lunged forward and began sweeping the knife in a downward arc above me. At the same time, I ducked and thrust the nail file forward, aiming it at his stomach. But I must have blinked. Because one fraction of a second, he was there. Then, the next, he just wasn't. My file stabbed forward into thin air.

It took me another quick second to figure out what had happened, but near-deafening roaring was a pretty good tip-off. I turned my head and saw two massive black bears rolling on the ground with Malachi very close nearby. Even through the fog, I could see the bears were Grant and Adrian. They must have crept up and tackled Malachi. And not a moment too soon.

Weak with relief, I exhaled, suddenly shaking like a leaf from head to toe. Malachi shifted into wolf form and became a blur of silvery gray against Grant and Adrian's dark fur. Though within seconds, Malachi's silvery gray fur became covered in large bright red blotches as Grant and Adrian slashed at him with their razor-sharp claws. Malachi howled in pain, the piercing sound echoing in the yard.

My legs began shaking so badly I didn't think they could hold me up much longer. When Malachi howled the loudest he had yet, and then something that appeared to be a wolf limb flew past me not a foot in front of my face, my legs began shaking even worse still. Grant and Adrian were literally ripping him apart, limb from limb.

Everything began spinning, the trees, the cloudy sky, everything. My vision began swimming with hazy gray dots, but only for a moment or two before I fainted, my legs finally giving out beneath me.

When I opened my eyes again some time later, I felt like I'd been sleeping. I felt like I'd been deep in a dream. Or a nightmare. I couldn't quite recall which, but a feeling of unease made me think it had been the latter. All around me, machines beeped and chirped. I wasn't in my bed at home; judging from the noises around me, I seemed to be in some sort of medical center.

My vision seemed blurry somehow, and it took me a moment to realize it was because my eyes were only open a sliver. Using more strength than it seemed like I should have had to use for such a simple task, I opened them all the way, and immediately my vision became clearer.

Grant and Adrian were both sitting in chairs by my bedside, and they now both sprang up at the same time, their handsome, strong-jawed faces identical masks of anxiety and concern.

Grant very gently picked up one of my hands. "How do you feel?"

I thought for a moment, the events of the day suddenly flooding back. "The guards...Paul and Matt. Are they...?”

"Both in the room next door." With his expression now one of relief and tenderness, Grant picked up my hand and pressed his full mouth to the back of it. "And both of them are all right. They're both going to make it. They were brave...though not nearly as brave as you." After pressing another kiss on the back of my hand, Grant continued, his voice thick with emotion. "Not nearly as brave as you."

With his green eyes kind of shiny and pink, Adrian leaned over the bed railing and pressed a tender kiss to my forehead. "Not even a fraction as brave. Or as strong."

I managed a weak thank you before my eyes closed, seemingly of their own accord. I just couldn't keep them open any longer. Grant said something about Dr. Bradley having given me something to help me rest, and he said I should just try to go to sleep again.

I gladly took his advice, already drifting off. But not a moment later, I remembered something, something that gave me a little jolt of energy. At least enough to speak, and open my eyes a sliver again.

"I'm pregnant. Twins. I want to tell you both something. I'm not choosing. I just decided that. I don't care who the father of the twins is, I'm not choosing between the two of you. I love you both. I want to spend the rest of my life with you both. And...." I paused, struggling to keep my eyes open even a sliver. "That's that. And if either of you have a problem with that...."

My eyes closed, and I fell asleep before I could finish the thought.

I didn't wake up again for several hours, and when I finally did, I felt refreshed, alert even. Grant and Adrian were still by my bedside, now joined by Fiona and Mil. For the next little while, I was showered with kisses, over-the-bed-rail-hugs, and countless inquiries as to how I felt, which was perfectly fine.

I did, however, feel a pretty urgent need to use the restroom, and Mil volunteered to help escort me there. Along the way, I asked her if all the wolves were dead, and she said all but a few dozen, who'd escaped to parts unknown, probably never to be seen again.

"And although many of our men were injured, no deaths, and everyone will recover."

I breathed a sigh of relief, literally a bit weak with gratitude. Fortunately, Mil was half-holding me up with an arm around my shoulders.

Immediately after I'd returned to my bed, Dr. Bradley came bustling in and kicked everyone out while she gave me a brief physical exam to make sure everything with me and the babies was fine, which it was. Once she'd assured me of that, she told me that she had the result of the paternity test back, though there was no rush for me to hear that result.

"I can wait to deliver that news until you feel completely up to it."

I felt completely up to it right then, and I told her so.

"But first...can I please have a minute alone with Grant and Adrian? Can you please send them back in?"

She said of course, and left the room, and Grant and Adrian soon came striding in. Once they were both standing by my bedside, each of them holding one of my hands, I didn't waste any time.

"I was a little out of it earlier, but I remember what I said, and I meant it. I'm not deciding between the two of you. Ever. I just can't. And I won't. Before Dr. Bradley gives us the paternity test results, I just wanted to make it crystal clear that no matter which one of you is the father of the twins, I want you
both
to be my mates for life." Realizing something, I paused, swallowing. "That is...if you'd both be okay with that as well."

Grant and Adrian exchanged glances, their expressions unreadable.

Adrian looked at me with the hint of a smile curving his mouth. "We've actually already discussed it, and whatever will make you happiest is what we want, too. The babies will be ours...the three of ours...collectively. I think the most important part is that they're raised surrounded by a lot of love...which they definitely will be."

I smiled, emotion welling in my chest. "I guess one of you can call Dr. Bradley back in, then. I think I'm ready to hear if our babies are more likely to have green eyes like yours, Adrian, or blue eyes like yours, Grant. But either way, I'm going to be happy."

A short while later, Dr. Bradley stood to the side of Grant and Adrian, who each still held one of my hands.

After briefly scanning a paper on a clipboard she was holding, Dr. Bradley looked at me with a smile softening her normally very serious features. "Congratulations, Lila. You're having Grant's baby."

I'd just opened my mouth to ask if she didn't mean Grant's
babies
, plural, when she continued.

"You're also having Adrian's baby. Your body released two eggs that were each fertilized with different genetic material, one with Grant's and one with Adrian's."

Speechless, I turned my gaze to Grant and Adrian, who both looked just as shocked as I felt.

After a long moment, I turned my face toward Dr. Bradley again. "Is that...is that even possible?"

She grinned, hugging her clipboard to her chest. "It is, in the case of fraternal twins, which yours will be. I can't even begin to tell you the astronomical odds of this occurring. On top of the astronomical odds of a woman conceiving twins in this day and age in the first place."

Dr. Bradley soon left the room when I began to get a little misty, overwhelmed by emotion, shock, and happiness. Judging by their expressions, Grant and Adrian seemed to be experiencing the same emotions themselves. I knew it would take a little while before the three of us came back down to earth.

Much later that night, after Grant and Adrian left to check on the injured shifters and attend to the disposal of the hundreds of wolf carcasses littered around the city, Mil and Fiona came in and took seats beside my bedside.

I quickly filled them in on the most recent developments, then went on to tell them that Grant, Adrian, and I were already planning on a December wedding, right before Christmas. "And...I'm sure it will be the most unusual wedding this city's ever seen. Just the fact of two men marrying one woman and all. Though I'm so happy right now, I don't even care if that's weird."

Mil and Fiona exchanged glances, both of them wearing secret little smiles.

Then, Mil looked at me, giving my hand a little squeeze. "Marriages of two men and one woman actually aren't as 'weird' in Sun Creek as you might think."

Beyond curious, I sat up a little straighter. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you're not the first young woman who's come to town from an auction and has refused to choose a mate from among family members right away. You're not even the second or the third or fifteenth. Most of the time, the young woman eventually makes a choice between the two brothers or family members, and gladly. But sometimes she falls in love with both men, and a choice ultimately becomes impossible. So, the result is, of course, a marriage with two men and one woman. And there have been enough of these marriages in Sun Creek by now that no one really bats an eyelash anymore."