Cherry
I turned around, still feeling dazed by the sight of him looming in the doorway. I kept thinking that he’d disappear as if he were a figment of my imagination, but nope, he was really here. His tall, muscular body, which I’d pressed up against in the last few days twice, was very much here. His ruggedly handsome face and dark eyes held me with such attention that it threatened to take my breath away.
“Coffee?” he asked, a crooked smile curving his lips.
Heat flushed my cheeks, and I realized I’d just been staring at him. “Sorry, jetlag,” I murmured lamely, hurrying out and following him down the stairs.
My nearest coffee shop was just next door, and both Dylan and I were soon seated at a circular table with steaming mugs in front of us.
I noticed Dylan still took his black as he had when I lived with him while I sipped on a hazelnut latte. I needed as much caffeine and sugar to get me through the shock of Dylan’s sudden appearance. With difficulty, I finally wrestled back the memories of how intimate we’d been over the last few days and Dylan’s declaration. Fixing him with a serious stare, I asked. “Why are you here, Dylan?”
He took a swig of his coffee, the cup looking so small in his big hands, and fixed me with his own serious gaze. “I’ve been waiting here a while, Cherry. Before you arrived, I think I saw your nanny and daughter in the garden outside your apartment.”
My heart tripped over itself. He knew I had a daughter. My swirling thoughts snapped to Bert as I realized he must have told Dylan about my daughter. So, that’s what he was doing here. He thought he could lay claim to what was mine. My expression hardened.
Curiously, Dylan’s sober expression became gentler. “The girl looked just like me when I was a kid.” He held my gaze, and his voice dropped to a murmur. “Is she mine?”
Uneasiness took hold of me, and I shook my head emphatically. “No,” I choked out. “No… Fern’s father’s human.” I stared down into my mug, unable to look at him.
“Fern,” he said softly. “It’s as pretty a name as her mom’s.”
My eyes flew to him, and again my breath hitched in my throat as I was startled at the tenderness on his rugged face. When I’d lived with him, I would have given anything to see such an expression on his face.
Thoughts of the past had me rightly hardening myself again, and I asked for the second time, “Why are you here?”
He sat back in his chair and said, “I needed a suit.”
My lips twitched. “You don’t need to come in person to get a suit.”
An affectionate smile wound across his face. “I do if I wanted to see the beautiful designer of said suit.”
I couldn’t fight the heat that surfaced as he stared at me. I could feel my face turning crimson, and my stomach seemed to be doing cartwheels as the full force of Dylan’s attention swept over me.
But my earlier resolve to move on from Dylan and the mistakes that had happened over the past few days had me saying, “I have a boyfriend, Dylan.”
I thought of how I’d just committed to being with Carl fully and forced myself to be clear. “So whatever you think is going to happen between us isn’t, okay? I’ve told you that already. I’m sorry, Dylan, there isn’t anything more to say.”
And with that, I pushed back my chair and exited the coffee shop without looking back.
*********
Dylan
I left the coffee shop shortly after Cherry. Immediately, I pulled out my phone and called my Beta.
Bert’s upbeat voice was a welcome taste of home, and I felt calmer as I walked down the foreign street. “You seen Cherry yet?” he asked.
“I have,” I answered, awash with heady emotion. “She’s as beautiful as ever.”
“You know it was only two days ago since you saw her last, right?”
“Yes, but she’s majorly jetlagged and still easily the most beautiful woman in any room.”
My Beta laughed indulgently. “How have these compliments not won her round yet?”
“She has a boyfriend, Bert,” I growled out, grinding my teeth. The thought of Cherry with someone else set a furnace roaring through me. The beast within me snarled and threatened to stalk back to her apartment, then carry her off to where no one else but me could find her.
“Oh,” Bert responded. “Yeah, she mentioned there was someone.” I was startled. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“I kinda thought that Cherry having a daughter, who’s likely yours, was bigger news.”
Warmth ran through me at his words. I had seen Fern from a distance in the garden. She had dark brown eyes and hair like mine, and Cherry’s heart- shaped face and delicate build. Besides, it wasn’t just these outward signs and wishful thinking that had me feeling sure that Fern was mine. It was Nuu-Chah’s insight, that flash of the future I’d seen in which I’d already accurately seen Fern before I’d even seen her today.
“I can still demote you, you know?” I retorted to Bert half-heartedly.
“I do remember Cherry saying that she wasn’t sure about her current suitor,” my Beta recalled.
“That’s more like it,” I said, my wolf rumbling happily at my Beta’s words. If Cherry hadn’t been sure about her and her suitor a few days ago, there was no reason for her to be surer now. If anything, she was likely less sure, given how wonderful the kiss with her after my Alpha Ceremony had been.
She was likely simply pushing me away because she was scared: of being treated and hurt by me as she had been in the past. Also, if Fern were my daughter, Cherry would fear that I’d force them to come to live with the Starsmoon Pack. I had to prove to her that she was wrong on both counts. I wanted what was best for her because I loved her. But I would earn her trust and prove to her that she was happiest at my side because I was her mate.
With my resolve hardened, I ordered Bert, “I need you to reach out to our preternatural contacts here in Berlin. Find out about who Cherry’s dating. Get everything you can on him.”