The Rogue Mate

Chapter Six.

The smell of bacon filled the air as I walked down towards the kitchen. Kate hummed happily as she dashed nimbly around the kitchen, despite being seven months pregnant.

When Kate had stumbled out of the trees that night, five months pregnant and an utter wreck, she hadn’t said a thing. She’d been scared and hit me using all her supernatural strength and sent me crashing into a wall. The next morning she’d apologised profusely after Chev had explained where she was and what had happened.

I guess I was a sucker for lost wolves because I offered her a room, clothing and a job cooking for me and the boys. She insisted on cleaning the house top to bottom, doing all the chores while Giz followed her around, always keeping one eye on her.

“Good morning Evan.” She sung, laying a plate of eggs, bacon and toast onto the breakfast bar for me. “Juice?”

I smiled and nodded, taking a seat on one of the wooden stools. “No thanks, coffee if you made any would be great though. How are you feeling this morning?” I asked, knowing that she’d had bad morning sickness for the first few weeks she’d been here. There were times, like now, when she was happy and it was a beautiful sight to see, but then the darkness would descend after she realised that she’d lost her family; hunters had attacked them, so she’d told us, and I was inclined to believe her. I knew what it was like to lose family and it was hard to see her sadness; I think that the thing that kept her going was the life inside her.

“Fine, I haven’t felt sick this morning at all; but we’re nearly out of bacon, ice cream and pickles.”

I knew that the ice cream and pickles were for her and I didn’t mind at all, but why the bacon. “Who’s been eating all the bacon? I bought enough to last a few weeks only a few days ago.”

I heard the side door to the house open and I turned to watch Chev, Maddox and Jake trudge into the house. “That may have been us.” Jake said. Maddox elbowed him in the side and Jake growled. “Fine, me.”

I rolled my eyes as Kate slid a cup of coffee in front of me. “We’ll just have to go into town; do you need anything?” I asked Kate, ignoring the boys as they slid into the stools next to me.

She paused, staring out the window as she thought about it. “Well the baby will be here in two months and I figured I needed to begin stockpiling things… start from scratch again.” She said sadly.

I cleared my throat and put my coffee cup down. I’d never been good with comforting others; hell I could barely comfort myself, I just shut down. “Well there’s a really nice baby store in the next town over; we can go there, get the groceries and set up a nursery for the little one in your room. Actually you know what? You’re moving into the room just down the hall from mine, they’re a bit bigger.” The house was a massive two story log cabin with at least seven bedrooms, many with at least one queen sized bed or two singles, a massive kitchen, a living room, office, dining room, three bathrooms and a laundry. “In fact, boys would you be happy to move into the main house because I want to renovate your quarters.” Ernest already lived here, though he was over in Virginia to negotiate sales with a rancher there, probably for another week.

They readily agreed and I left them soon after to get dressed and go out; today the boys could do the chores alone.

-

“Let’s go load everything in to the truck; it shouldn’t take too long to get the groceries.” Kate seemed to be in a happier mood as we bought a ton of baby things; even I was getting excited. I felt like she and he child would breathe a little more life into the house that’d been empty since… since they died.

We drove a little way to the local grocery store and got a trolley. She seemed agitated as we strolled through the supermarket, picking up the necessary items.