by Jenny Tia
“Hey, Stef?”
“Mm?”
“Could you do something for me before you head home?”
He turned to face me and smiled. “Of course. Anything. What do you need?”
“I need to get a pregnancy test.”
The rest of that morning was full of tension as I waited for Stef to run to the pharmacy and come back with the test. The second he walked back through the door, I took it from him and then just held it.
“You’re not going to do it now?” he asked, looking a little disappointed I wouldn’t do it with him here.
“No, I um…”
“You want Casius to be the first to know. Okay, I get it.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry, but—”
“No, Julian, I get it, honestly. Just call me once you know, okay? I have a bunch of pregnancy info I can send you from the midwives at the hospital and—”
“I’ll call you if it’s positive. I might just have food poisoning or the flu!” I tossed the cardboard package back and forth, almost juggling the test like the whole issue was as light and breezy as air.
“Mm-hm. Sure, it’s just the flu. Call me.” Stef threw his arms around me, and I squeezed him in a tight hug while I gripped the pregnancy test so tightly my palm started sweating.
I followed him out to the car, and as I watched him drive down the leafy lane I waved until I couldn’t see his car anymore, and then I lowered my arm, sighed heavily, and looked at the test in my hand. Time to face reality.
I hurried inside, locked myself in the bathroom, and then got to work peeing on the stick. The next two minutes would be the longest of my life, and I kept myself busy by tidying up the bathroom. My lotions and oils in their colored glass bottles looked strange next to Casius’s collection of commercial brands, so I started to shove all of my things into a drawer to make things look cleaner and more streamlined. More like Casius’s style.
But I paused when I glimpsed the test sitting beside the sink and the timer still ticking down. I swallowed nervously and closed my eyes. My life could change completely in less than two minutes… Was I going to live it with my culture shoved away in the bottom drawer, out of sight and out of mind? Hell no. And I knew Casius didn’t want that either.
I pulled my cosmetics out of the drawer and left them on the counter, in pride of place, as if I’d always lived here. So it was messy… Who cared? It was us. It was ours.
The timer buzzed as I placed the last bottle of curl conditioner on the counter. I paused and bit down on my bottom lip as the buzzing continued, my eyes fixed on my own reflection in the bathroom mirror.
If I just didn’t look at the test results, then the future was unknown. If I looked, I’d know if it was going to be life as usual or a whole new ballgame. I wasn’t particularly good at ballgames.
A surge of nausea gripped my stomach, and I braced against the sink as it washed over me. I closed my eyes against the threat of throwing up, and when I opened them, I was looking right at the test results.
“Well, shit.”
When Casius got home, he found me halfway up a ladder with a hammer in one hand, and one of my most colorful tapestries in the other. I spun around when I heard him come in, lost my balance, and careened sideways.
“Oh!” I shouted as I began to fall.
Casius was there in a flash, and I landed with a thud into his arms.
“Shit,” I muttered, looking up at him with gratitude as he beamed down at me.
“Baby, what are you doing?” he asked, setting me down and taking the hammer from my hand to place it gently on the couch.
“I just, well, you said I should put more of my culture up around the house, so…” I gestured around the room and watched as Casius’s eyes widened.
He took in the wall art I’d hung, the pottery I’d put on display amongst his books, and the statues I’d propped up against the walls, waiting for us to buy proper stands.
“Wow.”
I chewed my finger nervously. “Do you hate it?”
Casius chuckled and brought me closer to him into a firm hug. “I love it. Thank you.”
He kissed the top of my head, and I felt a surge of nausea weaken my knees. I groaned and he pulled back, looking me over.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, smoothing over my shoulders.
“I’m just a little dizzy today,” I mumbled, rubbing a hand over my face.
“And you didn’t wait for me to come home before hurrying up a ladder?”
“I just needed to get this done because…” I bit my lip, but it was now or never. “If we’re going to bring up a cub in Everglow, I want them to be connected to Goldleaf.”
Casius spluttered and grabbed the side of the couch to steady himself. “If what?”
I slowly dragged my eyes up to look at him. He was gaping at me in shock. “I know this is the worst timing, what with the war and everything, but…yeah.”
A huge smile broke over Casius’s face, and an ecstatic laugh echoed through the room. “We’re having a cub?”
I bit my bottom lip and nodded. Casius dove forward, wrapped his arms around my waist, and then lifted me high off the ground. He let out a celebratory howl that made my heart soar as he twirled me around and around.
“Julian! We’re having a cub!” He laughed then set me down on the ground gently.
“Looks like you’re happy,” I said a little redundantly.
“Are you?”
Tears flooded my eyes and I let out a soft whimper that broke into a full-blown sob.
“Oh, baby.” Casius brought me back into a warm hug.
I let it go and bawled my eyes out. Not that I had much choice. The hormones surging through my body were unstoppable. I sobbed into his arms. “I thought I was barren. Even when I went into heat, I didn’t think this could happen. I’m so, so, so happy!”
I heard Casius swallow before a deep, guttural sob broke through his strong alpha bravado. Tears trickled down his cheeks and his chin wobbled, but the beautiful smile remained on his face.
I wiped his tears with my thumb. “The only bad thing is that I was looking forward to having another heat.”
Casius chuckled and hugged me tighter, rocking me side to side as he kissed the top of my head and breathed in my scent.
“We’ll just have to wait a few months. Oh, Julian. You’ve made me so happy,” he whispered.
The last of my sobs died, and I relaxed into his arms and let the moment of peace wash over me. I had my fated mate, we were having a cub, and I was beginning a whole new life in Everglow.
I had everything to look forward to.
And everything to lose.
23
Casius
News got out pretty quickly. First, Julian rang and told Stef, and to be truthful, I couldn’t keep such wonderful news from my parents, who of course insisted I tell Alpha Hughes, and then the following day on my way to work, I stopped off at the coffee shop, and was immediately accosted by Josie who’d been told by Nic. Everglow wasn’t a small town, but gossip sure got around like one.
Josie was ready to throw us a baby shower the following week, but Julian insisted we should wait until he was further along in the ten weeks of wolf shifter gestation and over his morning sickness. Josie begrudgingly agreed and pushed the shower back another week.
The first week of July turned out to be one of the hottest months in Everglow so far, and I expected Julian to be suffering from the heat the way other expectant parents often were. But he was still wearing long linens and bundling himself up scarves, saying the weather had nothing on Goldleaf’s summer days. It was wild that there was such a difference in climates when his home town was just a couple of hours away, but the altitude of Everglow and the wind patterns made a lot of difference.
The day of the baby shower was particularly hot and unbearable to me. We drove to the café, and I idled the car to enjoy a few extra minutes of air conditioning while Julian laughed at me. I wished I could have worn a pair of breezy l
inen shorts Julian had bought for me, but Alpha Hughes had me officially on duty and on-call at all times, ready to act as soon as we found any sign of the humans and their locations, so I had to stay in my stiff, starchy uniform twenty-four seven.
“C’mon, it’ll be cool in the coffee shop, and we don’t want to be late for our own party.” Julian nudged me as he unbuckled his belt. At six weeks, his belly was already big, and I couldn’t stop myself from reaching over and rubbing it.
“Just one more minute.” I smoothed both of my hands over his bulging tummy and gasped when I felt a small protruding bump. I pulled his shirt tight over his sides so it clung to him, and I could make out what appeared to be the baby’s foot or elbow or…something.
“She’s been so fussy today,” Julian grumbled as he looked down at his belly.
“Has he?” I asked, teasing.
We didn’t want to know the sex before the birth—mostly because Julian had been adamant he was carrying a girl and saw no point in confirming it. I liked riling him up about it, but in truth, I trusted his intuition and I’d be over the moon to have a girl.
Now Julian just growled at me and threw his door open, letting in a blast of hot air. I growled back and switched off the engine as he poked his tongue out and headed toward the coffee shop, leaving his door wide open. I hurried to get out, rushed around to close the passenger side door, and managed to catch up with him as he was pulling the café door open with some effort.
I reached over his shoulder and yanked it open for him so his belly was able to squeeze through ahead of us.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” he said, smiling at me. “Oh, you look sweaty.”
I growled again, and he winked then waddled in ahead of me with my hand on the small of his back.
“Happy baby day!” Stef and Josie cried as they popped out of nowhere and threw streamers at us.
“Oh my god!” Julian clutched his belly. “You’re not supposed to scare me! It could hurt the baby!”
The two of them ignored him and smothered him in hugs and kisses while the crowd of friends and family gathered around to congratulate us. Josie had gone all-out. The place looked amazing, like a real event with floral arrangements hanging on every available anchor point.
“I just wanted to make it special,” she said quietly as she took my arm. “Since I couldn’t make it to your Mating Ceremony, I wanted to make this…you know. Nice.”
I squeezed her close to me and smiled. “Thank you. It is very nice.”
I looked around at the party, at my parents fawning over Julian and showering him in gifts, Stef chatting to Mikel, and my Inner Guard eating their body weight in finger food. There was one person missing though.
“Hey, Mikel, have you seen Nic?”
“No, he hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Huh…” I frowned and put my hands on my hips as I looked around, a little pissed that he hadn’t shown up.
Mikel tutted. “I’m sure he’ll be here soon. He knows it’s important to you.”
“Yeah. I’m sure he will.”
But in truth, I wasn’t sure. Nic had been acting weird for the past few weeks, ever since Julian had moved to Everglow. I put it down to jealousy at first, but he actually seemed to be more depressed than anything else. He wasn’t avoiding me at work or anything, he just acted like he was in a funk. He was efficient as always, but he’d stopped joking around as much, and he headed straight home after work, even on Friday nights when we’d normally have a couple of beers together.
Even if he was jealous of Julian and me, I was hurt he’d blow off an important, one-off event like this—especially because I hoped to name him Guardian of our baby. But for everyone’s sake, I swallowed down my dejection, ate a few snacks, and got social. I was getting into a fake argument with Josie about the size of my tab at the coffee shop when she glanced over my shoulder and pointed toward the door.
“Don’t look now, but here comes trouble.”
I looked straight away, terrified that Sloan Hughes was crashing our baby shower. But I gasped as the biggest bouquet of flowers I’d ever seen, accompanied by an oversized teddy bear, came through the door, with starched pants and shiny boots propping them up. Nic lowered his armful of gifts, revealing a huge smile on his handsome face. I hurried over to help him unload the flowers and bear onto a table, grinning with relief that he’d made it.
“Congratulations, man,” he said, bringing me into a tight hug and thumping my back. “Sorry I’m late, the florist took forever to put those together.”
“I mean, yeah, you didn’t exactly pick a pre-made posy, huh?”
He laughed and slapped my shoulder. I was about to tell him how glad I was that he was here when his laughter cut short and his body went completely stiff. His eyes widened and his lips parted, and then a groan rumbled up from his chest.
Julian’s voice cut through the chatter of the crowd and grabbed my attention. “Stef? Stef! Are you okay? Stef?”
He was shaking his best friend by the shoulders while Stefan dragged his gaze across the crowd, his body as stiff and unmovable as Nic’s. I looked back at my second-in-command and watched as he locked eyes with Stef.
And then Nic spoke a single word.
“Mate.”
He moved toward Stef—just as Mikel whistled sharply, and the room fell silent.
“Supreme Alpha Select Burrows, sir! Alpha Hughes phoned in an urgent call. All troops to the base at once. Code orange!”
“Let’s go! Straight to base, straight to base!” I bellowed, my stomach feeling like a stone had dropped into the bottom of it. I lingered behind my troops as they hurried out of the café, and then I took a moment to kiss Julian.
His lips trembled and he looked me over with concern. “Be safe.”
“Always. I need you home and safe, okay?”
He nodded. “Is it…going to be bad?”
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But I’ll do my best to make sure it’s not.”
Alpha Hughes met me at the main doors of the Supreme Mansion and got me up to speed while he walked me to his office. Leroy had found a human scent by a lake and traced it deep into the pine forest, alarmingly close to Everglow.
“How did they get so close without us seeing them?” I asked with concern.
“Like last time, the pines grow so densely in that region we couldn’t see them from the air. And they’re far from any of the usual running tracks we use. I don’t know if they’re aware of that or if it was just dumb luck.”
“Either way, their position is unsettling.” I swallowed down a wad of fear that was wedged in my throat.
“It is unsettling. And possibly a great opportunity. We need to get to the leader to begin negotiations with them. This might be our chance.”
I nodded. “I can take a team in and—”
“No.”
Alpha Hughes stopped as we made it to his office door. He opened it and motioned for me to enter. I looked at him, confused, and then walked inside.
A gnawing worry sat heavily on my chest and I wondered why he wouldn’t send me… I was his best warrior, his best alpha. Surely I’d proven myself by now or had I made myself weak by claiming my mate and getting him pregnant? Had I blown my future as Supreme Alpha? My wolf whimpered, and I was about to ask Hughes what I’d done wrong before he held up a hand.
“It’s too dangerous for any of us to directly go in. That is likely what they’re expecting us to do. You saw the image of those wolf pelts. I don’t want to have to return yours to Julian.”
A shiver ran up my spine and my stomach turned. I nodded in understanding.
“What I think we should do, Casius, is to set a trap.”
“A trap?” The skepticism showed in my voice, and Alpha Hughes chuckled as he closed the door behind us.
“Humans have weaker instincts than we do. Rather, they don’t listen to their instincts as closely as we do, and they often doubt what their gut is telling them. We can use that to an advantage. All we
need is one to give us the intel we need.”
“One what, sir?”
“One human.”
Mikel and Nic were assigned to plant three decoy convoy vehicles on a fire trail as close to the human camp as we could get without them spotting us. I headed straight out with a team of my strongest Inner Guard to hide in the woods nearby. We shifted into our wolves and stood, waiting and watching at a distance. We were far enough away the humans wouldn’t be able to see us, but we could clearly see the parked convoy vehicles with our wolf vision.
And then we waited.
The day passed with no movement. As night fell, I sent half the team off for a shift change. As the new, fresh wolves snuck up behind my flanks, I was laying on my belly in pine needles and wondering if we’d made a mistake.
According to what I’d learned, it was unusual for humans to resist an opportunity like this. Maybe they knew what we were doing. Maybe we were doing exactly what they thought we would… What if they had laid the trap, and I was stuck in it?
My heart started pounding with paranoia, and I almost jumped out of my pelt when I heard the crack of a branch breaking under a heavy boot. The sound echoed through the forest, and at first, I thought it came from behind me. I spun my head around with my ears pricked up, searching for the source of the sound, terrified we were being crept up on from behind. But I caught Nic’s orange eyes glowing behind me, and he nodded toward the convoy, confident that was where the sound had come from.
I spun back around and rose to all fours, keeping my chest and head low as I crept forward, light and soundless on the thickly cushioned forest floor.
Nic was right. Another crack came from behind the vehicles, and I caught a glimpse of the shine of a rifle reflecting the moon’s light. I held back a growl and stopped in my tracks.
