Heading East

I fixed Dorothy a plate and left her alone with Ian to talk. Everyone else had the same idea; Leo and Adrienne went to take a nap while Mom and Dad were taking the ATV’s and an Esky to go exploring. “You two should have some fun while you can,” Mom said. “You only have four hours more of your honeymoon since the helicopter is coming at six.”

“Three hours,” Nicholas said. “I asked them to come an hour early because I have a surprise in store for you.” He yawned. “I could stand to lay down for a while with my wife.”

I laughed as he waggled his eyebrows at me, then gave me his puppy-dog look. “Let’s clean up from lunch first,” I said. He helped me with the table, leaving his parents as his mother ate. “So what is this surprise?”

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise,” he said. I couldn’t let that stand, so I snapped his ass with a dish towel, he retaliated, and it was on like Donkey Kong. The towel fight led to a tickle fight. A few minutes later, I ended up exactly where I wanted to be: face down on the bed with my sweats at my ankles. I rolled through one orgasm after another as Nicholas held my wrists behind my back. I was moaning like the bitch in heat I was, struggling enough to make it fun but not enough to get free. My mate alternated between slamming his big dick into me and spanking my ass cherry red. “Are you going to behave for me,” he said after one hard smack.

“Noooo! Ugh, ugh, FUCK YES!” I spasmed around him, clenching him tight, as a massive orgasm swept over me. It was too much for Nicholas, who grabbed my hips and held himself deep inside as he unloaded his precious cargo into my womb. He let go of my wrists, but I couldn’t move. “It gets better all the time,” I said softly.

He pulled out, placing the towel he’d brought in under me before he rolled me until my back was against his chest. “I love you so much it hurts, Vicki. Now I can understand why my parents are breaking up.”

“Why does it feel like I’m failing them,” I said softly.

“You’re going to do everything you can do to find their true mates, Vicki. Joseph and I are the only ones in our Pack who know the love of a mate, and people noticed. When he met her, the love Joseph had for Fiona was more than he had for Margaret after decades of marriage. He put her aside without a second thought; it’s harsh, but it’s what our nature demands.” I hadn’t thought about that. “What did you learn about mates growing up?”

“That your mate was a gift from the Goddess, meant for you, and no one else could give you what he would. They were right,” I said as I wiggled back into him.

“Yet I wasn’t your original mate,” he said.

I didn’t hide my history from Nicholas, but I could see how being ‘second choice’ raised doubts in him. “And I thank Luna for that every day,” I said. “She must have looked down at what happened and realized how bad she’d screwed me over. She fixed it, though. Timothy Lords is the trial I had to endure to get Nicholas Corcoran, and I couldn’t be happier.” I shifted around, kicking off my sweats so I could swing my leg over his. “I didn’t settle for second best, no more than you did.”

He looked at me with wide eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you had another mate too, but something happened to her. Maybe she died, or maybe she took another as a mate. You’ll never know who she was or why you got another mate but think about something for a second. Am I second-best? Do you think you got cheated in the deal?”

It hit him at that point. “No,” he said. “I feel like I hit the lottery with you.”

“I feel the same way, baby. I don’t look back because I have a future with you.” I pulled him close, kissing him deeply as we luxuriated in the feeling of our bond.

“Thank you,” he said.

“We do need to talk about one thing,” I said. “When I was in the hospital, they verified there was no damage from my ectopic pregnancy. The doctor said I needed to wait three months before trying to get pregnant. I started birth control pills that day.” I looked into his eyes. “What do we do in April? What do you want?”

He rested his head on mine. “When I found out you’d had an ectopic pregnancy, every emotion you could imagine went through my head. I was happy and shocked you were pregnant, angry and devastated we’d lost our first child, and furious at the people who held you. When I got you back, I didn’t know what to say about it because I didn’t know how you felt. You had told me you didn’t want to start a family yet, so I didn’t know if you were mad at me for getting you pregnant.”

I snuggled into his chest. “I barely had a chance to feel like a mother before it was gone,” I whispered. “In my mind, I knew the baby couldn’t survive, but in my heart? I was a mother, and then my baby was gone, and I still feel empty inside.”

“We can start trying again in April if you are ready,” he told me. “Or we can wait until things settle down a little more. You’ve got a few things to do in 2034, you know.”

I rolled my eyes and started counting with my fingers. “Alpha duties in a newly-formed and zero-experience Pack, bring Vampires and Mermaids in to form the Australian Council, show mermaids how to efficiently find partners, organize a global werewolf mating meetup, send most of my Pack to said meetup, oversee editing and final production on the first season of our reality show, plan and film the second season, organize the Sea Scout expeditions, run the Sharkbait Foundation, appear on the Discovery Channel post-shows, get our dream home designed and built, manage a multi-million-dollar portfolio, take college classes, figure out what to do with the yacht, deal with the North American and European Councils, self-defense lessons, and exercising to maintain my swimsuit-model figure. Did I forget anything?”

“Me,” he said. “I can be VERY demanding and protective of you.”

I rolled my eyes. “I suppose in my copious free time I can go to bed.”

“That’s the time I plan to be demanding of you,” he teased. “It’s a lot, Vicki. That’s why I thought we were going to wait on pups for a few years. I figured we could start a family after I was out of school, you were past your Bodyglove contract, and our other commitments had settled down.”

“I guess we can talk again in a few months?”

“We can talk about anything. A lot can change in three months, you know.”

Yeah, I did know. Hell, it was only ten months ago that I was worried I’d be claimed, mated, and pupped by some guy I’d never seen before. It didn’t happen the way I thought, but it all happened anyway. I tucked into Nicholas’ side, and we drifted off to sleep.

His alarm woke us up at four; we showered and changed, packing our things back into our bags as the helicopter would be here soon. I checked in with the others over the link; they would be ready on time. “Change of plans, Vicki,” Leo sent to us. “Dorothy will be flying back to the States with us; she needs some time to get her head straight, and she wants me to be her Alpha.”

Leo and Adrienne had to get back home and take care of their Pack; Leo had been gone for almost six weeks and Adrienne for two. Mom and Dad were going to stay for another week to see Brisbane and Sydney, joining the family already at Mermaid Beach. “What about Ian?”

“The helicopter will take him back to Port Lincoln. He needs to turn over the business and put their house on the market.”

Nicholas looked crestfallen as he linked back. “Take good care of Mom for us?”

“We will.”

We were waiting near the landing area as the helicopter approached ahead of schedule, and Nicholas was getting antsy. “What’s the surprise?”

“It’s on the helicopter,” he sent back. When the helicopter landed, a woman in her thirties carrying a small briefcase hopped out. Nicholas handed off his bags to Ian, staying in place as the human approached. “Vicki, this is Jennifer Hawthorne. She’s a local architect who specializes in historic homes.”

I shook her hand, shocked my mate had worked so quickly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Corcoran. I saw the site from the air, but can we go look at it quickly?”

“Of course,” I said. We walked out on the point, and I quickly described the kind of home I wanted.

“If we can build it here, it will be spectacular,” she said as she took more photographs.

“We have to load up now,” Nicholas said.

“Why couldn’t we build here,” I asked her as we headed for the idling chopper.

“Coastal zoning laws. One hundred yard setbacks, single-story buildings, low-pitch roofs, no breaking up the skyline, probably a few more things.”

I felt like someone just took my ice cream away. “We can’t get around it?”

It was too loud to talk until we were inside with the headsets on, the channel allowing us to speak over the engines as the helicopter lifted off and headed north towards Adelaide. “We can try. I can draw up some options to present to the zoning body, but you may not get everything you want.”

She pulled out some work she’d already done based on the information Nicholas had given her. I felt us descending, but we were nowhere close to Adelaide yet. “What’s going on?”

“Your husband said you liked this home a lot, and I know the owners,” Jennifer said. “They agreed to let you tour the Hazelmere estate with me so I can pick your brains on what you like and don’t like about it.”

I was so lucky to have a man who listened! We circled the property once as Jennifer described it, then landed in the parking lot. The helicopter shut down as we got out, and the owner met us at the front door. We only had about forty minutes, so we made the best of it. I loved the thick stone walls, the deck, and especially the indoor pool. “We do between fifty and a hundred weddings or large parties a year, so it’s important we have everything here,” he said. “Ten bedrooms, a huge party area, the pool, and seventy acres with horses available.”

“It’s a beautiful property,” I replied as we thanked him for his time.

“This memory stick has hundreds of homes on it that might give you ideas; jot down the picture number and your thoughts. Your husband took a video during the tour, so if anything else comes to you, just shoot me an email. Mr. Corcoran said you’d be back in about a week, and I should have some preliminary drawings ready by then.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing them,” I said. We left Jennifer behind and flew the rest of the way to the airport, this time with me in the co-pilot seat. It was tough saying goodbye to Leo, Adrienne, and Dorothy; they’d dropped everything to help us, and I missed them already. They were flying to Sydney for their connection to Los Angeles while we were going to Brisbane.

Our honeymoon wasn’t over yet.