Billionaire Bear’s Human Mate by Alicia Banks
Chapter 21
Vivica
Vivica felt warned and the way that Shane was sure they wouldn’t get along, she wondered if he wanted them to. She would try her best, but there was something that Shane was leaving out. She wasn’t sure what it wasn’t, but she would figure it out.
She thought that any family had to be better than no family. She had lived without any family for so long, that the idea of somebody turning away a perfectly good one was hard for her to fathom. It didn’t upset her, more it just confused her.
Shane was more nervous than she was, as they opened the door to a bedroom in a part of the house that she hadn’t been in. The place was so big that it was easy to see that there were some nooks and crannies in the place that she hadn't explored just yet.
Yet. She was planning on staying. What did that mean for her? Were they together for good now?
Obviously, the man was Shane's father. They looked remarkably alike, and she couldn't believe the resemblance. Shane, of course, would probably not want to hear it. She had a suspicion that he did not want to be like his father at all. They certainly looked alike though. Her body was responding to him in much the same way it did with Shane, not knowing the difference between the two. That's how close to each other they were.
Vivica was at a loss and Shane was just standing there next to her. He looked at her strangely, like he knew that she was turned on and Vivica’s face turned pink. She looked away and hoped that Shane wasn’t near as good at that sort of thing as she thought he was.
Shane wanted to know what was going on, asking with his eyes, but Vivica didn't have an answer. She had never met the guy before, but it felt like Shane. Shane was obviously perturbed, and Vivica wished that she had reacted differently. Her idiot body was getting her into trouble and there wasn’t much that she could do to stop it.
“Sorry, but wow, you just look a lot alike. It is good to know that Shane will age well.”
As soon as the words came out of Vivica’s mouth, she wished that she could take them back. She was gushing over the father, and Vivica remembered well that Shane said that he could sense things about her, sexual things. She was mortified to think that Shane would know that his father had turned her on. She snuck a look at him, but thankfully he was preoccupied with his father. He looked like he was ready to pounce, and Vivica had no idea why. She needed to know though, because it felt like it was important.
Vivica didn't want to apologize again because it would only bring more attention to the stupidity that was coming out of her mouth. She hoped that Shane didn't notice, but he did. He was not happy about it either. She smiled at him, trying to pull the same gesture back, but Shane wasn't going for it. He was rightfully upset with her. How could she say such a thing out loud?
George looked at her and then back at his son several times. The older copy of Shane eyed her with curiosity and then dismissed her all together, talking to his son instead. Vivica felt miffed but tried not to show it. She was trying hard to get along with him, for Shane’s sake.
“I'm not really sure what's going on here, but I can tell you that having a damn human in your bed isn’t going to get you back in the good graces of the clan. You can never bring her home with you, just remember that, if you insist on having one of them in your bed.”
It was clear to Vivica that Shane had heard the same words before. She felt like she was beneath them all of a sudden, and George’s comments solidified her assumption that not all shifters would see humans as equals.
“I am home, dad.”
“Where is your clan?”
“They kicked me out. Why would I want to go back?”
“Because a shifter needs its clan.”
“This isn’t what I came here for.”
“So, what did you come here for then?”
“I wanted you to meet Vivica, dad. I thought the two of you should know each other.”
George scoffed.
“Don’t do that.”
“Well, you brought a human here to be introduced to me as what, your lover? What did you think I would say? Did you think that I was going to invite her into my open arms and pull her into my bosom? This is unacceptable. The clan will never stand for this.”
The whole time, Vivica was looking from one man to the other, and it took her a minute to realize that Shane's dad was talking bad about her. She started to realize very quickly that her being brought there was like a big slap in the face to George apparently. She didn’t know how to feel about any of it.
Vivica had felt like it was one hard thing to accept him. It had taken her some time, but she’d managed. Now though, she was suddenly worried whether they would accept her. It was a horrible pain apparently, and she didn't know how to feel about it. It was one thing to accept him, but she had never considered that they would not accept her. It was a wild concept and Vivica was going to need a few moments to really understand the full scale of it.
It felt like the day was just full of new experiences and not all of them were good. She did not like Shane's father, almost immediately. She would be happy to never have to see him again.
The two men were still fighting and at some point, Vivica just left the room. She had no desire to sit and hear people talk about her like she wasn't even in the room and like she had no choice in anything. Vivica imagined that she didn't have much of a choice. She was human after all, lower than low according to Shane's dad. How was she supposed to focus on anything, knowing that he hated her so much? Vivica had really wanted the meeting to go well. She wanted to make a good first impression, but she couldn't change what she was. Vivica was human and there was nothing she could do about it. How funny it was that she suddenly wanted to change that. Even funnier that there was something else besides humans. So much had changed for her in the last few weeks, so much that it was hard to imagine.
***
“I'm sorry you had to hear that.”
Vivica shrugged. She was actually all the way outside, because no matter where she had gone in the house, it felt like she could still hear their booming voices shouting at each other. It was okay for a moment, but it went on for quite a while and the things that she was called, her people, not her in particular but just humans in general, was enough to make Vivica realize that it was impossible. How could they ever be together when obviously every one of his kind would look down on him for being with her? She couldn't even imagine that it was possible, but Vivica was realizing quickly that nothing was as it seemed. Being with Shane really was impossible.
“No, it’s okay. I guess your dad answered a lot of questions that I had about your people. First things first, they hate humans.”
“No, they don’t. Well, some do. The older ones do more than the ones my age. My father is from a time when his people were hunted. He grew up in fear. I grew up alone and without a pack, with humans. I can’t look at them as an enemy. I never mixed well with them, not like this… but I never saw them as my enemy either.”
“What is so wrong with the two of us mixing or whatever?”
“Dilution of the shifter blood, but that doesn’t really matter, half-bloods turn into shifters too. Very rarely will a human be born of the mix and when they do, it’s usually a special kind of human. It’s a win-win in my book.”
Vivica wasn’t too sure about how easily he was talking about everything. Like it was no big deal. It was a big deal to her. She didn’t understand why he was being so blasé about it. Then, her mind went to them and what they had already done. Did that mean?
Vivica shook her head at the thought. She wasn’t going to be able to move forward from that. It was too hard of a topic and the answers would probably not be the ones that she wanted to hear.
“Just ask, Vivica. You know that I can feel all of your emotions, but I don’t know the words for it. I want you to have your answers. I didn’t want my dad to start in with all of his drama, but I knew that it was a possibility. The older generations still believe in the old ways. They don’t want to listen to reason, see the proof, any of that. They have their way and that is all that matters to them. I am not the same. I do not subscribe to the idea that we are better or worse than the other one. We are different and that is all.”
Vivica was happy that he felt that away about the two of them, but she wasn’t quite sure if that alleviated the worry that was dying to come out. She needed assurances, but not the ones that he had given so far. She needed the reassurances about what she was doing with him and what the results could be. Vivica hadn’t even thought about children or how they would turn out. She hadn’t been thinking at all, but Shane had cleared it up whether they could have kids. She wanted to clear up what happened if they did, if she was already pregnant.
Vivica felt like she was going to swoon. It was hard for her to focus, knowing that it was something that could have already happened. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? What made her think that everything would be fine? She had every proof that it wasn’t going to be fine.
“Tell me, what is it?”
“It’s just, you’re talking about kids like it is no big deal and now I know that it can happen. Could have already happened…”
“It did.”
“What?”
Vivica really was going to faint at some point. There was no way that she was going to be able to say what was really on her mind. She was now full of the idea that she was pregnant, with a non-human baby. Vivica’s gaze started to get fuzzy, and she saw black. Yea, she was going to lose it.
