"I think we should head back." Raquel said as they walked out of the bookstore. Bethany ran her hands down her long slender arms as if cleaning them off.

"I can't believe you, Angela. You barely bought anything at the boutique. Nothing at the jewelry store.. No new purses or shoes, but you walk into that dirty dusty book store and you come out with bag fulls." Angela shrugged and was silently wishing that she had werewolf strength as the two bags of books seemed to be growing heavier by the second.

"Mommy, I'm getting sleepy." Kaylee said with a yawn.

"Well let's head home then, munchkin." Rebecca said wrapping her arms around her granddaughter. Everyone except Bethany and Angela piled into Rebecca's explorer. Angela and Bethany had taken Jake's midnight blue Silverado.

"We'll stop by and get some pizzas before we come home. I'm sure the guys will be hungry." Angela said. Rebecca nodded.

"Sounds good girls." she said and drove away. Angela and Bethany drove down the road to the pizza shack.

"Go in and order for us, Angela. I'm going to look at some of these books you bought and see what the big deal is." Bethany said. Angela smiled and walked in the restaurant.

It was a bright restaurant with lots of games for kids. There was a stage where someone in a giant dog costume was currently singing and dancing for a group of kids. Angela walked up to the counter and a middle-aged man with a bushy mustache was waiting to take her order.

"I need ten large pizzas with everything." she said. He typed in her order.

"You having a party or something." he asked as he took Jakes' credit card.

"No, we've got a big family with a lot of hungry men." Angela said smiling when she remembered just how much her werewolf family could eat at one time. The man snorted a laugh and handed Angela the card back.

"It'll take about 20 minutes." he said. Angela nodded and walked over to an empty booth and sat down to wait. She was watching the kids laugh and play as the dog bellowed out a horrible rendition of "You aint nothing but a hound dog" when she felt a cold chill pass down her spine.

She turned and saw a man watching her intently. He had icy blue eye and long pale blond hair. His face was sunken in and pale but she knew he couldn't be a vampire because the late afternoon sun was shining through the window on his face.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and wished that the pizza would hurry up and be done. She nearly stood and ran when she saw the man walking over to her.

"Hello miss." he said his voice just as cold as his eyes. "I haven't seen you around before." Angela saw his nostrils widen and realized he was smelling her. He must be a were creature of some sort.

"I haven't lived around here very long." she replied.

"What brings a beautiful girl like you to our town?" he asked.

"I should probably let you know I'm taken." she said as his eyes roamed over her. The way he was looking at her made a shiver run down her spine.

"Really? No ring I see." he said. Angela cursed silently. She had lost her ring when the subs had attacked her in the woods. Then his eyes went to the pale scar on her shoulder. Angela silently kicked herself for not wearing a t-shirt. "But then this is much more powerful." He traced the scar with his finger and Angela jerked away.

"Is there something I can do for you?" she asked. He shook his head.

"I didn't mean to scare you miss. It's just not very often we get beauties like you around here." Angela didn't reply, merely looked at the clock. She still had ten minutes before her order would be ready. She could call for Jake but she didn't want to worry him over nothing and Bethany would laugh at her for being so uncomfortable with the mans presence.

"Where are you staying while you're in town?" he asked.

"I'm actually living with Jake Collins." she said and she could have sworn his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Is he the one that gave you this then" the man asked pointing to her shoulder. Angela nodded.

"He's very protective of me." she said hoping the man would pick up on her warning. He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Some wolves have all the luck." he said. "Take care of yourself, miss. Jake has made a lot of enemies in his life." With that the man turned and left the restaurant. Angela breathed a sigh of relief. She waited a few more minutes and the man at the counter yelled for her and handed her the ten pizzas. She staggered under the weight of them as she pushed the door open and walked outside.

Bethany had her nose buried in a book and didn't see her standing and waiting on the door to be opened. Angela kicked the truck door and winced when she saw the scratch she'd put there.

"You better hope my brother really loves you or else your ass is grass." Bethany said as she opened the door and took the pizzas from her. Angela jumped in the drivers seat and fired the truck up.

"He'll be ok." she said as she pulled out of the parking lot. Bethany looked at her and saw that her knuckles were nearly white she was gripping the steering wheel so tight and she kept looking around like she was watching for someone.

"Are you ok?" she asked. Angela nodded and forced herself to smile.

"Yea of course. I'm just ready to be home."

888

"Honey we're home!" Bethany said as she and Angela walked in. They had their arms full of pizza's and shopping bags. Greg came running and gladly took the pizzas from her and then took off to the kitchen.

"What about the rest of this you sorry ass!" Bethany demanded. Jake came down the stairs from upstairs and Angela felt her heart stop beating. He was still dripping wet from a recent shower. He wore only a pair of jeans and they were riding so low on his hips she could see the sexy v of muscle between his hip bones. His hair was wet and slicked back where he had run his hands through it to comb it out.

Angela nearly dropped her bags and would have if he hadn't caught them in his hands. He kissed her and smiled.

"You ok?" he asked. She forced herself to look up from his tight stomach and to his golden eyes.

"Don't' you want to put a shirt on?" she asked. Bethany pushed past them.

"Yes please put a shirt on. We would all like to be able to eat." she said as she sat all her bags down next to the stairs. Jake set Angela's bags down as well.

"Did you all have fun?" he asked as he put his arm around Angela and they walked to the kitchen.

"Yes. It was so nice to go out shopping with other women. I hadn't done that in a long time." Angela said. She gave her father a hug when she walked into the kitchen and saw him standing there.

"Hi daddy! What have you done all day?" she asked as she took a seat next to him at the table.

"I took Kayleb out fishing." he said. "He's pretty good. You all will have plenty of fish to fry up and eat tomorrow."

"What do you mean? Aren't you going to be here?"

"I have to get back home, Angel. I did talk to Rebecca and Jake though and if it's ok with you I'd like to retire from the factory and find me a house around town here somewhere."

"I told him he could stay here but he wouldn't hear it." Rebecca told her.

"I tried too but I think he's stubborn like his daughter." Jake said while sticking almost an entire piece of pizza into his mouth. Angela looked at Jake with disbelief.

"How do you keep these.." she pointed to his chiseled abs. "When you eat like that?" she asked pointing to his mouth which was so full of pizza he couldn't even close it completely. He smiled the best he could with his mouth full and shrugged.

(I'm lucky I guess.) he said. Angela shook her head and looked back at her dad.

"I would love it if you would come live in town daddy. I haven't seen nearly enough of you the last few years." He smiled happily.

"Good. In the morning I'll head home. Get my retirement finalized and in a few weeks I should be able to come down here and find a place."

Angela became lost in the chaos of meals with her Werewolf family. Everyone eating, talking, laughing and arguing all at once. She forgot all about the stranger at the pizza store and the fear he had made her feel.

888

The weeks went by quickly. Angela and Jake were barely apart for even an hour during the day. Lane had hung around for almost two weeks before saying there were places he needed to be and wandering away again. Bethany and Greg had been gone almost constantly on modeling trips. Max still hadn't moved to town yet but he assured Angela it would be soon.

Jake had been keeping Angela very busy dashing her all over the world.. They visited Paris and shared a passionate kiss on top of the Eiffel Tower, spent a few passion filled nights in a castle in Scotland that Jake said belonged to his mother and he had even taken her snorkeling in the Caribbean.

The days were filled with laughter and fun while the nights were full of heat and passion.

One afternoon Angela was sitting in the living room with Bethany and Raquel reading magazines and watching soap opera's when Raquel suddenly took a deep breath and dropped the magazine she was reading.

"Are you ok?" Angela asked as she picked the magazine up off the floor and handed it back to her. Raquel set it down on the coffee table and looked at Angela with wide eyes.

"How have you been feeling lately?" Raquel asked her. Bethany looked at her sister questioningly. Then she too leaned over to Angela and took a deep breath.

"Oh my god." she said. Angela threw her hands up.

"Would you two quit smelling me!" she yelled. "What in the world is going on?"

"You... You're...." Before Raquel could finished the air in the room rippled and Lane appeared. Angela jumped up and hugged him. She had grown close to Lane over the weeks when he was around. He was immature, a jokester, a flirt and extremely spoiled but he kept Angela laughing and she loved him for that.

"Where have you been?" she asked him as she pulled away.

"You know me, sis. Been running wild, breaking hearts and winning money." he said giving her his charming toothy grin.

"Oh my god you're an idiot." Jordan said walking into the room and flopping her tiny frame down on the recliner.

"So, Angela, has my brother been keeping you....." Lane stopped and his blue eyes widened as he stared down at her.

"What!" Angela practically screamed.

"Oh shit.... Um...." Lane stuttered. Angela grabbed him by the collar of his blue button up shirt and yanked him toward her.

"Tell me why all you freaking wolves are acting so crazy today!" she demanded. His gave her a lopsided grin and put his hand on her stomach.

"This family is officially screwed. Your temper mixed with Jake's temper... The house will never stay standing." Angela looked at him and her eyes widened as what he was saying sunk in.

"I'm pregnant?" Angela mumbled as she sat down hard on the couch.

"What?" Jake's voice came from the doorway. Everyone turned to stare at him. Angela couldn't stop the happy smile that formed on her face.

"You're going to have a bambino." Lane replied walking over and slapping Jake on the back. Angela waited for Jake to smile but it didn't happen. He looked at her and she felt her heart fall when he frowned.

"You're pregnant?" he asked. Angela laid her hand on her stomach and nodded.

"They all seem to think so." she said looking around the room. The room was suddenly silent. Jake growled and turned and walked away. Angela heard the front door slam and knew that he had left the house.

She couldn't stop herself from crying. Lane looked at her helplessly.

"Look at that, he's so excited he's going to out to celebrate." he joked lamely. Raquel went to Angela and wrapped her arms around her.

"Lane, do something useful for once." she snapped. "Go figure out what's wrong with our brother." Lane nodded and headed out the door.

He found Jake in the garage slamming things around in a toolbox. He walked up and leaned on the wall.

"What are you looking for?" Lane asked. Jake growled and slammed the toolbox closed.

"I don't know"

"You're not going to find Angela in there." Lane said matter-of-factly. "She's in the house crying."

Jake didn't need his brother to tell him that. He could feel her sadness and it was breaking his heart. He suddenly felt exhausted and he sat down on the tool box. Lane was surprised by his brothers sudden show of weakness. He sat down next to him on the tool box.

"I'm going to take advantage of your moment of weakness..."

"Lane..." Jake said in warning.

"I know that you are smarter than me. You're stronger than me. You're more responsible me than me...."

"Lane..." Jake warned again. He knew it was simply not in his brothers nature to be supportive and he was up to something.

"But there is one thing that I am better at than you. And that is women."

"Lane..."

"Big women. Little women. Old women. Young women. Face it brother I've had much more experience with them than you."

"Lane..."

"You never were very good with the ladies so I feel that I owe it to you to try to help you out..."

"Lane..."

"What happened in the living room... Yea you didn't handle that well." Jake shoved Lane who tumbled off the toolbox and onto his back on the floor.

"What was that for?" Lane demanded as he stood up and began wiping off his backside.

"For being such an asshole." Jake said standing up and storming out of the garage. Lane laughed.

"I was only telling you the truth!"

Jake stormed into the house looking so intense that even Bethany held her tongue as he shoved past all of them and took the stairs four at a time. He burst into his and Angela's bedroom and then slammed the door behind him. Angela screamed and jumped up off the bed.

"Oh my God Jake you scared me! What in the world is the matter with you?" Jake stood there for several long moments just staring at her. His golden eyes blazing, his jaw tense and his fists clenched.

"Jake..." Jake was across the room and taking her into his arms in three long strides. He kissed her and Angela felt her knees buckle from the amount of passion he poured into that kiss. He pulled away and Angela moaned and sagged against him.

He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight and breathed in the scent of vanilla and lilacs. He could smell the proof then. The scent of the life growing inside her. The life that he had helped her make.

"We need to talk, Jake." Angela said her head against his chest listening to the steady beat of his heart. He led her over to the bed and they both sat.

"You've been crying." Jake said as he dried her face with his hands. She managed a smile.

"You've been an asshole." she replied softly. Jake nodded.

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Are you happy about this?" Angela asked laying her hand on her stomach. Jake covered her hand with his.

"I have never been happier about anything in my life." he assured her. "But I've also never been so scared."

"You scared? No way.. Not Mr. tough guy..." Angela teased him gently.

"The rest of the world thinks I'm a tough guy, Angela.. You know the truth about me." he said pressing his forehead against hers.

"Why are you so scared?"

"What if he's like me?"

"If she is like you then I think that would be wonderful. She'll be loyal, strong, passionate...."

"Hot headed, bad tempered, socially awkward." Jake cut in. Angela slapped his arm.

"You are an amazing man Jake. You will be a great father." Jake sighed.

"I don't even know how to be a father. My own dad wasn't really a father. He looked at me as a partner.. A weapon to be used as he saw fit.. .."

"I know you told me all about hunting rogues." Angela said running her fingers through the back of his hair. "Listen to me. You have put that life behind you. You will not be like your father"

Jake looked down into her dark eyes and prayed silently that she was speaking the truth. He prayed that the life he had led for over 200 years was behind him and he could make start fresh with Angela and their baby.

"Make love to me, Jake." Angela said looking into his golden eyes. She saw sparks fly in them at her words. He growled and happily obeyed.