Heidi nodded at her mate and looked to her Alpha for answers. “How did this happen? I mean, technically. Do you know?”
Ariel sighed, reluctant to share her theory, but had to do so. “Not having access to labs, I have to make giant leaps in assumptions. That’s not true science, but here’s what I think. The nanos seem to be able to handle the regular heat cycles. They know what to do in that instance to keep pregnancy from occurring, which I still believe they’re programmed to do. Basically, they seek out sperm and kill it before conception can occur. That artificial heat cycle Diane Crane put you into seems to have fooled them. On the upside, I’m sure they’ll take good care of any fertilized fetus they find because they’ll know its part of you.”
“I knew they were working on something different. They still talk to me—sort of—now I sound as crazy as Diane Crane.” Heidi looked at her stunned, but smiling mate. “Oh God, Ryan. We’re going to be parents.”
“I know. Mom and Dad are going to be in heaven. We’re going to be great parents,” he said.
“Of one child… or you could have triplets like Ryan’s mother delivered,” Ariel reminded them. “I saw the hormonal markers for pregnancy, but couldn’t determine anything else. Eva is going to want to monitor your gestation, as will I. And we will definitely be keeping this from Sheldon Crane. Brandi, you’ve got to convince Gareth never to reveal it. Heidi’s babies will not become targets if we can stop it from happening.”
“No,” Brandi said firmly. “We’re not going to let that happen. Gareth will agree.”
“Babies—as in more than one. My mind can’t take that in. I think I’m in shock,” Heidi said, reaching back to sit down in her consulting chair. She looked at Brandi and then Ariel. “If your theory is right, then you and Brandi can get pregnant as well.”
Brandi’s head was shaking. “No way. Not me. I’m not the mothering kind.”
Heidi laughed. “Don’t be silly. You have three children already.”
“Which is another good reason why. I don’t need any more,” Brandi said firmly.
Ariel lowered her gaze to the floor. “Let’s see how things work out with your gestation before we talk about real theories and safe practices. After you deliver, which will likely be in a werewolf’s six months instead of a human’s nine, I’ll have to see if the nanos got passed along to the babies. There’s so much we don’t know and can’t anticipate. We’ll just have to keep an eye on things.”
Heidi rose, stopped to hug her grinning, happy mate, then walked to her Alpha to hug her too. “It’s okay whatever happens. I trust you to help me, Ariel. I trust our pack and Ryan’s too. His people treat me with reverence, not like I’m any sort of monster someone created. And I’m happy to be carrying Ryan’s child—children—whatever we get.”
Ariel hugged Heidi back. “This is one crazy journey we’re all on, isn’t it?”
Heidi nodded. She turned her head to Brandi. “Group hug so we feel better. Get over here, Brandi.”
“Can’t do it this time,” Brandi said firmly. “Not that I don’t trust Ariel’s theories about regular heat cycles, but I’ve got to get to the store before it closes. I just hope they have extra large condoms. I’m not about to take any chances. Gareth’s going to be wrapping up until my next heat cycle is good and gone.”
Brandi dashed out the door complaining about her problems and left them all laughing.
Ariel gently pulled away. “Okay. I will see you later, little mama. I’m glad you and Ryan are both okay with the news.” She lifted her hand in a short wave as she left too.
When they were alone, Ryan walked over and lifted a hand to Heidi’s cheek. “In two days, you’ve made every dream I’ve ever had come true. I’m so happy I don’t have words to describe it. I’ve always wanted children, but I wanted you enough to take you on without them. I would have been content either way, but this news is the best. It’s the greatest good that could come out of all that bad stuff Diane Crane put you through.”
Heidi rested her cheek against Ryan’s chest. “You’re going to have to be strong for the both of us. I’m scared to death of what I might give birth to. I’m also scared about being a mother. I don’t know how to not be scared.”
“You’re being as silly as Brandi. Let me look at our child.” Ryan placed a hand on his mate’s abdomen where his child now grew. He grinned at how much he could already sense. “There’s one child and she’s a girl. I can’t vouch for her normalcy, but she seems human at the moment. She’s emitting peaceful vibrations. I think everything is going well so far.”
Heidi shoved at his chest and stared up into his eyes. “Can you really tell all that?”
“Yes. I feel her vibrations, but that’s not the only sense I use.” Ryan tapped his nose. “With this, I pick up pheromones and other scent markers. Right now, I smell female all around you. That much I’m sure about. I only feel the vibrations of one child, but Eva can tell for sure. I hear sometimes multiple werewolf babies hide in the womb.”
Heidi bit her lip at the idea of multiple children hiding inside her. “Six months or nine months?” she asked.
“Now that kind of thing I don’t know,” Ryan said laughing. “Calculating delivery is outside my area.”
Heidi pushed on his chest again, but Ryan held her tight. “If you don’t know anything useful, don’t pretend you do. I’m nervous here.”
“You can believe me, Heidi. I know all kinds of useful stuff—some I haven’t even shared yet,” Ryan protested, smiling down at his mate.
“Really? Like what,” Heidi asked, fisting a hand on one hip.
Ryan grinned as he went to get her jacket so they could go home. “I know that, unlike poor Gareth, I’m definitely not going to need to wear condoms for at least six months.”
Heidi rolled her eyes and then laughed. “I want to be mad, but it’s true, and I’m grateful. Take me home and feed me. I’m starving.”
“Mom made dinner for us. She said she knew you’d be too tired to do much.”
“Your mother has been so nice to me since we got back.” Heidi sighed happily as she hugged her mate. “Even Carson and Dillon have been great. It’s nice to have a family.”
“Yes, it is,” Ryan said softly. “It certainly is. And we have the very best.”
— THE END —
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Note From the Author
Hi. I hope you enjoyed reading Heidi: Nano Wolves 3.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a positive review or rating on the retailer site where you purchased it.
Reader reviews help my books continue to be valued by resellers and help new readers make decisions about reading them. You are the reason I write these stories and I sincerely appreciate each of you!
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~ Donna McDonald
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Shift Happens Series, Book 1
Book Description
I never planned on going back to Hung Island, Georgia. Ever.
I was a top notch Were agent for the secret paranormal Council and happily living in Chicago where I had everything I needed – a gym membership, season tickets to the Cubs and Dwayne – my gay, Vampyre best friend. Going back now would mean facing the reason I’d left and I’d rather chew my own paw off than deal with Hank.
Hank the Tank Wilson was the six foot three, obnoxious, egotistical, perfect-assed, best-sex-of-my-life, Werewolf who cheated on me and broke my heart. At the time, I did what any rational woman would do. I left in the middle of the night with a suitcase, big plans and enough money for a one-way bus ticket to freedom. I vowed to never return.
But here I am, trying to wrap my head around what has happened to some missing Weres without wrapping my body around Hank. I hope I don’t have to eat my words and my paw.
1
“You’re joking.”
“No, actually I’m not,” my boss said and slapped the folder into my hands. “You leave tomorrow morning and I don’t want to see your hairy ass till this is solved.”
I looked wildly around her office for something to lob at her head. It occurred to me that might not be the best of ideas, but desperate times led to stupid measures. She could not do this to me. I’d worked too hard and I wasn’t going back. Ever.
“First of all, my ass is not hairy except on a full moon and you’re smoking crack if you think I’m going back to Georgia.”
Angela crossed her arms over her ample chest and narrowed her eyes at me. “Am I your boss?” she asked.
“Is this a trick question?”
She huffed out an exasperated sigh and ran her hands through her spiked ‘do making her look like she’d been electrocuted. “Essie, I am cognizant of how you feel about Hung Island, Georgia, but there’s a disaster of major proportions on the horizon and I have no choice.”
“Where are you sending Clark and Jones?” I demanded.
“New York and Miami.”
“Oh my god,” I shrieked. “Who did I screw over in a former life that those douches get to go to cool cities and I have to go home to an island called Hung?”
“Those douches do have hairy asses and not just on a full moon. You’re the only female agent I have that looks like a model so you’re going to Georgia. Period.”
“Fine. I’ll quit. I’ll open a bakery.”
Angela smiled and an icky feeling skittered down my spine. “Excellent, I’ll let you tell the Council that all the money they invested in your training is going to be flushed down the toilet because you want to bake cookies.”
The Council consisted of supernaturals from all sorts of species. The branch that currently had me by the metaphorical balls was WTF—Werewolf Treaty Federation. They were the worst as far as stringent rules and consequences went. The Vampyres were loosey goosey, the Witches were nuts and the freakin’ Fairies were downright pushovers, but not the Weres. Nope, if you enlisted you were in for life. It had sounded so good when the insanely sexy recruiting officer had come to our local Care For Your Inner Were meeting.
Training with the best of the best. Great salary with benefits. Apartment and company car. But the kicker for me was that it was fifteen hours away from the hell I grew up in. No longer was I Essie from Hung Island, Georgia—and who in their right mind would name an island Hung—I was Agent Essie McGee of the Chicago WTF. The irony of the initials was a source of pain to most Werewolves, but went right over the Council’s heads due to the simple fact that they were older than dirt and oblivious to pop culture.
Yes, I’d been disciplined occasionally for mouthing off to superiors and using the company credit card for shoes, but other than that I was a damn good agent. I'd graduated at the top of my class and was the go-to girl for messy and dangerous assignments that no one in their right mind would take... I’d singlehandedly brought down three rogue Weres who were selling secrets to the Dragons—another supernatural species. The Dragons shunned the Council, had their own little club and a psychotic desire to rule the world. Several times they’d come close due to the fact that they were loaded and Weres from the New Jersey Pack were easily bribed. Not to mention the fire-breathing thing…
I was an independent woman living in the Windy City. I had a gym membership, season tickets to the Cubs and a gay Vampyre best friend named Dwayne. What more did a girl need?
Well, possibly sex, but the bastard had ruined me for other men…
Hank “The Tank” Wilson was the main reason I’d rather chew my own paw off than go back to Hung Island, Georgia. Six foot three of obnoxious, egotistical, perfect-assed, alpha male Werewolf. As the alpha of my local Pack he had decided it was high time I got mated…to him. I, on the other hand, had plans—big ones and they didn’t include being barefoot and pregnant at the beck and call of a player.
So I did what any sane, rational woman would do. I left in the middle of the night with a suitcase, a flyer from the hot recruiter and enough money for a one-way bus ticket to freedom. Of course, nothing ever turns out as planned… The apartment was the size of a shoe box, the car was used and smelled like French fries and the benefits didn’t kick in till I turned one hundred and twenty five. We Werewolves had long lives.
“Angela, you really can’t do this to me.” Should I get down on my knees? I was so desperate I wasn’t above begging.
“Why? What happened there, Essie? Were you in some kind of trouble I should know about?” Her eyes narrowed, but she wasn’t yelling.
I think she liked me…kind of. The way a mother would like an annoying spastic two year old who belonged to someone else.
“No, not exactly,” I hedged. “It’s just that…”
“Weres are disappearing and presumed dead. Considering no one knows of our existence besides other supernaturals, we have a problem. Furthermore, it seems like humans might be involved.”
My stomach lurched and I grabbed Angela’s office chair for balance. “Locals are missing?” I choked out. My grandma Bobby Sue was still there, but I’d heard from her last night. She’d harangued me about getting my belly button pierced. Why I’d put that on Instagram was beyond me. I was gonna hear about that one for the next eighty years or so.
“Not just missing—more than likely dead. Check the folder,” Angela said and poured me a shot of whiskey.
With trembling hands I opened the folder. This had to be a joke. I felt ill. I’d gone to high school with Frankie Mac and Jenny Packer. Jenny was as cute as a button and was the cashier at the Piggly Wiggly. Frankie Mac had been the head cheerleader and cheated on every test since the fourth grade. Oh my god, Debbie Swink? Debbie Swink had been voted most likely to succeed and could do a double backwards flip off the high dive. She’d busted her head open countless times before she’d perfected it. Her mom was sure she’d go to the Olympics.
“I know these girls,” I whispered.
“Knew. You knew them. They all were taking classes at the modeling agency.”
“What modeling agency? There’s no modeling agency on Hung Island.” I sifted through the rest of the folder with a knot the size of a cantaloupe in my stomach. More names and faces I recognized. Sandy Moongie? Wait a minute.
“Um, not to speak ill of the dead, but Sandy Moongie was the size of a barn…she was modeling?”
“Worked the reception desk.” Angela shook her head and dropped down on the couch.
“This doesn’t seem that complicated. It’s fairly black and white. Whoever is running the modeling agency is the perp.”
“The modeling agency is Council sponsored.”
I digested that nugget in silence for a moment.
“And the Council is running a modeling agency, why?”
“Word is that we’re heading toward revealing ourselves to the humans and they’re trying to find the most attractive representatives to do so.”
“That�
�s a joke, right?” What kind of dumb ass plan was that?
“I wish it was.” Angela picked up my drink and downed it. “I’m getting too old for this shit,” she muttered as she refilled the shot glass, thought better of it and just swigged from the bottle.
“Is the Council aware that I’m going in?”
“What do you think?”
“I think they’re old and stupid and that they send in dispensable agents like me to clean up their shitshows,” I grumbled.
“Smart girl.”
“Who else knows about this? Clark? Jones?”
“They know,” she said wearily. “They’re checking out agencies in New York and Miami.”
“Isn’t it conflict of interest to send me where I know everyone?”
“It is, but you’ll be able to infiltrate and get in faster that way. Besides, no one has disappeared from the other agencies yet.”
There was one piece I still didn’t understand. “How are humans involved?”
She sighed and her head dropped back onto her broad shoulders. “Humans are running the agency.”
It took a lot to render me silent, like learning my grandma had been a stripper in her youth, and that all male Werewolves were hung like horses… but this was horrific.
“Who in the hell thought that was a good idea? My god, half the female Weres I know sprout tails when flash bulbs go off. We won’t have to come out, they can just run billboards of hot girls with hairy appendages coming out of their asses.”
“It’s all part of the Grand Plan. If the humans see how wonderful and attractive we are, the issue of knowingly living alongside of us will be moot.”
Heidi: Nano Wolves 3 Page 17
