Alec (BBW Secret Baby Bear Shifter Romance) (Secret Baby Bears Book 1)

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Alec

Secret Baby Bears I

by

Becca Fanning

Prologue

“Hammer, Smith, & Partridge” hung over the front door, a creaky, faux-antique sign that swung in the breeze.
 

The five men looked at each other.
 

“Nervous?” Alec, the biggest of the bunch, looked around at the others.
 

Jackson shook his head. “Nah, man,” he said with a grin, flexing one of his giant biceps. “I’m sure this is nothing.”
 

Rust and Clay exchanged glances. “I don’t really know what we’re doing here,” Clay said after a moment. “Did you guys get a weird voicemail, too?”
 

Rock laughed. He was the youngest of the group; prone to never taking things too seriously. He grinned, and then said: “No fuckin’ idea, man.” He smirked. “You know, they never found out about what I did with that police car when we were all in college.”
 

“This can’t be about that,” Alec replied. “That was over seven years ago. I got a message, too, but I couldn’t understand what the damn secretary was saying.”
 

A hush settled over the group. Alec took charge and led the way inside. The doorway was so low that all of the men had to hunch down as they passed through. Inside was dark, a bit cramped and dusty. An elderly secretary sat behind a massive oak desk, scribbling something on a legal pad. When she looked up at the group of men, a slight blush washed over her wrinkled features.
 

“Hello, boys,” she said with a smile. “Are you here to meet with Mr. Partridge?”
 

The men all exchanged a look. “Something like that,” Alec said. “We all got this message-“
 

“Oh, yes,” the secretary said, clearly more flustered than before. With surprisingly nimble fingers, she searched through a stack of papers on her desk. “You’re right on time,” she added, glancing up quickly. “Mr. Partridge is in his office. He’s expecting you.”
 

The secretary got up and skittered across the room. She seemed nervous, like she was expecting something to jump out and bite her. As she knocked on the door labeled ‘Partridge,’ Alec glanced at her desk and read the word printed on a folder: “Speculon Labs.”
 

“Come in!” A booming voice sounded from Partridge’s office. The men went in, single file, and arranged themselves around the spacious room. Like the front office, it was a bit dusty, but Partridge had the shades thrown open and sun was streaming through the windowpanes.
 

“What’s all this about?” Alec cleared his throat and settled against the wood-paneled wall. “We all got calls, telling us to come here…” He trailed off, clearing his throat. “I mean, could you tell us why you wanted us to come in? All at once?”
 

Partridge turned to face the group. He was an elderly man with longish, tufted white hair and a silk bow-tie at his throat. Despite his old age, youth twinkled in his clear, blue eyes.
 

“Yes,” he said, clasping his hands together in his lap. “No doubt you recall donating sperm to the genetic research project at Dodson University?”
 

Chapter One

Talia stood at the front of the classroom, her hands poised in front of her. “Class, settle down,” she called in a mild, calm voice. “We’re about to begin for the day.”
 

All of Talia’s students loved Ms. Roberson. Even the rowdy ones could always be brought to order with a stern look or a word of encouragement. Talia was a natural teacher, and it showed. This was her third year at Rickard Elementary, and even though she’d missed the kids over the summer, Talia wasn’t exactly glad to be at school that morning. Recently, her life had become a mountain of stress. Her son, James, was starting to exhibit behavior considered rather abnormal for a two-year-old boy. She could barely leave him alone for a second before he’d make a mess of trouble; lately, his favorite thing to do was chew on the new kitchen cabinets that Talia’s landlord had installed the previous year.
 

That was another thing. Talia’s landlord, Danny, wasn’t just a landlord. He was her ex-boyfriend. They had been college sweethearts, and Talia had honestly thought they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. All her life, she’d wanted children, and she and Danny had worked so hard to get pregnant together. But when it hadn’t happened in a year, they’d gone to see a fertility specialist. To Talia’s shock (and horror), Danny was found to be infertile.
 

“Ms. Roberson! Ms. Roberson!” One of Talia’s students ran up to her, excitedly flapping his arms in the air. “I drew you a picture!”
 

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” Talia said, a little absentmindedly. “Thank you!” She crouched down to her student’s height and looked over the drawing. “Are these…bears?”
 

“Yeah!” The boy grinned. “Mom and me went to a wildlife reserve over the weekend! And we saw bears!”
 

Talia laughed politely behind a hand. “I think you mean a
reserve
,” she said softly. “reserves are like jam, what you put on toast.”
 

“Toast bears!” The boy laughed and ran back to his desk.
 

Talia stood up. Her head was beginning to ache, and something deep down inside her told her that this was going to be an unusually long Monday. She’d stayed up all night worrying about her situation.
 

When they’d found out that Danny wouldn’t be able to make Talia pregnant, Talia had been devastated. Danny wanted a second opinion, and a third, and a fourth, and Talia didn’t want to be the one to point out that the first doctor was probably right. They went to see other doctors, anyway, and they all had the same result: no biological children for Danny.
 

Talia was at a loss. She’d never expected to have this problem, and she felt like her time was beginning to run out. Even though she was only twenty-one, her own mother had experienced fertility problems later in life. Talia knew that if she wanted to have more than one child, she’d have to start immediately.
 

One weekend, when Danny was out of town, Talia went to a sperm bank. She spent hours poring over the profiles, and eventually selected sperm from an engineer with a master’s degree in astrophysics.
I want great things for you
, Talia had said to her lower belly, closing her eyes and wishing hard.
I’ll do anything to make sure you succeed.
 

“Ms. Roberson!” One of the kids yelled, startling Talia out of her reverie. “Ms. Roberson, it’s reading time!” The rest of the kids cheered as Talia made her way to the front of the class. Each morning, she began with ‘reading time’ – ten or fifteen minutes of reading aloud from a chapter book. The kids loved it; this week the book was
Swiss Family Robinson
.
 

Suddenly, Talia heard the high-pitched whine of an alarm. Her breath choked in her throat as she gazed wildly around the classroom.
No!
Talia thought in a panic.
We’re not having a drill today! I didn’t know anything about a drill today!