Free Bear No Defeat by Anya Nowlan Page B

hadn’t been wrong. And she was most definitely his.
    There were tears in her eyes again when he leaned forward to kiss her, taking his time with it. She responded, though he could feel her uncertainty, her worry. When he pulled back, he was smiling, cupping her chin with both of his big palms.
    “You should have told me, Alice. We would have figured out a way out of this. I promise you that much. You shouldn’t have run.”
    “I didn’t want to hurt you,” she whispered, her lip quivering.
    “I know,” he said, planting a kiss on her forehead.
    Her pale blue eyes were gorgeous even when they were sad, and it was nearly impossible to drag his gaze away from hers. So he wasn’t going to even try.
    “Alice, listen to me. I know this whole thing is crazy and hasn’t exactly played out the way we thought it would. But I’m ready to do this with you and I don’t want there to be any secrets between us. Whatever the hell’s going on with your father, we’ll figure it out and we’ll fix it. And we will always find a way, together. But only if we do it together. I’m not going to pressure you into staying and if you don’t feel the same way then I won’t keep you here. But I love you and I want to marry you, damn the consequences.”
    He must have been holding his breath as he waited for her response, because when she spoke, he finally let out a breath that had threatened to strangle him.
    “I want that too,” she said softly. “And I love you, Jax.”
    He grinned wide, kissing her on the lips again, finding her responding more eagerly this time, the stress slowly leaving her body.
    From that day onward, Jax Darmuth was dedicated to making sure that those pretty eyes never had to fill with any tears other than happy ones ever again. And the first stop for that was to go find Warren and then make her Alice Darmuth as soon as he could. Frankly, he couldn’t wait.

EPILOGUE
    Alice
    Seven months later…
     
    “Jax! He’s doing it again!” Alice called excitedly, clutching two hands to her growing belly.
    “Tell him not to stop before I get there!” Jax roared from somewhere in the house, making Alice chuckle.
    She was about three and a half months into her pregnancy. With shifter babies, the whole process was faster, with the pregnancy only taking about five months, but to Alice it still felt like a lifetime since she’d found out she was carrying Jax’s baby and to feel it finally start kicking.
    She smoothed her hands over her stomach, placing her palms right where he was kicking, one of them being so hard that it made her wince. Still, Alice smiled. He was a tough little guy. His daddy would appreciate that.
    Jax came flying into the living room, almost knocking over a recliner when he scrambled over the back of the couch and fell next to Alice on the couch.
    “Is he still doing it?” he asked, immediately covering her hands with his wide, callused palms.
    “He is,” she said with a chuckle, slipping her hands out from under his so he could feel it directly.
    Jax’s gray eyes went as wide as saucers when he looked from her stomach to Alice and then back again, a smile slowly forming on his lips. She matched it, grinning as well as he leaned down and put his ear to her stomach, as if he could hear the heartbeat of their baby.
    On second thought, maybe he could. Those damn shifters seemed to have an advantage in just about everything, after all.
    “Clearly he’ll be a hockey player too.”
    “How do you figure?” Alice asked with a smirk, rolling her eyes a little.
    She was sure every hockey bear claimed this. How could their sons not follow in their powerful pawprints, right?
    “With that kind of fight in him? He has to be a hockey player,” Jax said with the utmost conviction, falling back to rest against the couch, letting Alice snuggle close while he kept a hand on her stomach. “We’re going to need a name.”
    “Already? I thought we were going to wait to see who he looks like,” Alice