Luminous

by Noelle Marie

  “That is no longer true.”

  “What’s no longer true?” Briggs snapped, rethinking his words before something akin to realization began to dawn in his eyes. “You can’t possibly mean...” he trailed off, seeming to truly struggle to comprehend Bastian’s words.

  “Katherine and I are expecting,” Bastian confirmed bluntly.

  Silence met the announcement.

  Then even more chaos.

  The unexpected bomb Bastian dropped on the council detonated and another eruption shook the room. This time, though, Bastian’s words were met with excitement instead of anger – although there was certainly a strong sense of disbelief in the air as well.

  “Could it really be-?”

  “What joyous news!”

  -downright miracle! It’s been decades since a bitten wolf has successfully conceived.”

  “-and she’s not pregnant with just any babe, but the head alpha’s firstborn!”

  “-unbelievable! This calls for immediate celebration!”

  “Unbelievable is right. How can we be sure this isn’t some ruse in an attempt to ensure-?”

  “Quiet!” Bastian bellowed, the power laced in his voice demanding obedience, and once again all but one council member fell silent.

  “That’s awfully convenient,” Briggs pointed out evenly once the excitement of Bastian’s announcement settled. “I certainly hope you don’t just expect us to take your word for it.”

  While some of the alphas seated around the table looked disgusted by the insinuation that their leader would lie, just as many others nodded their heads in apparent agreement, glancing slyly over at their neighbors to see if they concurred.

  Katherine felt her heart sink. Bastian had been right.

  They didn’t believe him, at least not whole-heartedly.

  “You dare question me?” Bastian asked softly, voice thick with authority, as he continued to lean over her. For a second, Katherine thought he might actually throw himself at the other man for what he undoubtedly viewed as a direct challenge to his honor – to her honor. Acting quickly, she placed a hand over each of his, squeezing them tightly in a show of support that she hoped would remind Bastian that he knew very well that this would be a likely reaction to his announcement.

  “Gentlemen, if I may take the floor?”

  Nonetheless, Katherine couldn’t deny the strong sense of relief that enveloped her when Gabriela, the only female alpha of Haven Falls and the town’s resident healer, stood from her seat, breaking the ominous stare down between Bastian and Briggs.

  “There’s a simple solution to this dilemma,” the woman continued when no one objected. “I’ll examine Katherine myself to confirm the pregnancy.”

  As much as Katherine had been dreading such an exam, she could acknowledge that Gabriela’s plan was a sound one. Besides, she supposed that the woman would have needed to look her over sooner or later, anyway.

  Briggs, though, wasn’t appeased by her suggestion in the slightest. In fact, he snorted in open revulsion. “You voted against sending the envoy too,” he reminded Gabriela. That was news to Katherine, though she supposed it made sense considering the woman’s secret knowledge of Katherine’s condition. “Why would we believe you anymore than we’d believe him?” He jabbed a thumb in Bastian’s direction.

  Katherine fought the urge to reach over the table and twist the insulting digit right out of its socket. After all, what did Briggs want? Was Katherine supposed to strip down in front of everyone and let Gabriela exam her on the cold, hard table right then and there?

  “What do you propose then?” Gabriela asked irately, seeming to be riding the same brain wave as Katherine.

  “I agree that performing an exam is a fine idea,” Briggs conceded. “I just also think there needs to be at least one reliable witness present throughout it is all.”

  Katherine’s instinctual reaction to the idea was strong and immediate, denial twisting her gut. “No.”

  Every single pair of eyes zeroed in on her as the first word she’d spoken since the meeting began escaped her mouth, but she paid them no mind, directing her own insistent gaze on Bastian alone.

  To his credit, a troubled frown pulled at his mouth at the suggestion. However, he didn’t immediately swat the idea down either.

  “No way,” she reiterated tersely when Bastian finally lowered his eyes enough to meet hers.

  “It makes sense,” Gabriela spoke carefully, breaking the tense silence that threatened to descend.

  She refused to meet Katherine’s eyes when the brunette’s head nearly swiveled off her body as she spun her neck to stare incredulously at the woman. So much for occupying the same brain wave.

  “Why not?” Briggs demanded, adamant on adding his own two cents. “What do you have to hide?”

  “Nothing!”

  It was the truth, too.

  Excuse Katherine for wanting desperately to hang on to the tiniest sliver of modesty that still resided in her since being introduced to such a frank society nearly a year ago.

  “Then I see no reason not to agree to my terms.”

  Katherine twisted her head back around to face Bastian, trying to communicate with her eyes exactly where she thought he ought to shove Briggs’s “terms”.

  A tense minute passed with no response from Bastian, and murmuring began to break out at his apparent reluctance to answer. Unfortunately for Katherine, the tiny crinkle of apology she saw form between his eyes told her exactly what his answer was going to be before he sighed and opened his mouth. “One witness.”

  Katherine ripped her eyes away from the contrite glance he tried to shoot her, staring resolutely at the tabletop instead, tracing the complicated grain patterns with her eyes in an attempt to calm her suddenly racing heart.

  She wasn’t sure if anxiety or anger fueled the thumping thing more.

  “Excellent. Assuming there are no objections, I’ll volunteer myself as the witness in question.”

  Katherine grit her teeth in an effort to remain silent, knowing logically that there was no reason to protest.

  “Fine,” Bastian agreed tersely.

  “Great.” A pause. “Well, there’s no time like the present, is there?”

  The nerve of the loud-mouthed brute-

  “I agree,” Gabriela spoke, interrupting what was undoubtedly about to turn into a derogatory mental spiel of epic proportions. “In fact, I was informed of the subject of this meeting beforehand, and I happen to have my sonogram machine in the back of my truck. I suggest disbursing for the time being so that I can perform the exam, and then reconvening here again in another hour to confirm the results.”

  Gabriela just happened to have-?

  She really was going to exam her in this room right then-?

  “Agreed.”

  Katherine was going to kill Bastian.

  She sat stiffly in her seat as council members around the table took turns either nodding or verbally consenting to the plan. Moments later, they were dismissed by Bastian. She watched them leave the room one by one – even Gabriela left to go fetch her equipment – until only she, Bastian, and Briggs remained.

  Ignoring Briggs entirely, Katherine wasted no time standing from her seat, the chair’s legs scraping noisily against the floor as she turned to face Bastian. She had enough restraint left in her to grab his hand and pull him into the corner of the room – for the sense of privacy, at least – before laying into him.

  “Really?” she demanded heatedly. “Gabriela just happened to have brought along her equipment? You knew this was going to happen! Didn’t you? It’s why you insisted I come in the first place.”

  Bastian ran an agitated hand through his hair at the accusation. “Yes, I suspected as much,” he admitted frankly, “but I didn’t know that Briggs,” the way he spit out the man’s name made it clear enough how he felt about him, “would insist on being present through the exam.”

  “That doesn’t make hiding it from me any better.”

&
nbsp; He should have known very well by then how she felt about surprises, especially unpleasant ones, and this most certainly qualified.

  Bastian raised an eyebrow at her. “But you’re allowed to hide things from me?” he shot back, eyes glancing down at her stomach before he could stop them.

  It was obvious enough what he was referring to.

  Katherine crossed her arms defensively over her belly, hiding it from his sight. “That’s not the same,” she objected quietly, willing away the tears she could feel threatening to flood her eyes.

  She’d been scared.

  She must not have been entirely successful at holding the tears back because Bastian’s own eyes immediately softened, his shoulders deflating like those four little words sucked the fight right out of him.

  “Of course it’s not,” he conceded, leaning forward and pressing his forehead against hers, forcing her to keep eye contact with him. “I’m sorry.”

  Katherine could see that he was, and quite frankly, she didn’t think she had the energy to hang on to any anger at the moment, justified or not. She sighed, releasing her frustration with the man along with the carbon dioxide. “I know, me too.”

  A moment later, they were startled apart by the room’s door bursting open, four tiny wheels squeaking loudly as Gabriela pulled her sonogram machine into the large space. She allowed the door to swing shut behind her before finding a plug-in to attach the ancient-looking thing to. She also took the fuzzy-looking blanket she had tucked under one of her arms and spread it out over a section of the table.

  And to think Katherine had been joking about being examined on the slab of sturdy oak.

  “Ready?” Gabriela chirped when she was finished arranging the blanket, clasping her hands together excitedly and glancing about the room, ignoring the somber air of the gathered trio altogether.

  They all stared.

  After a moment, Katherine realized the question had been directed at her and nodded stiffly. “Let’s just get this over with,” she muttered, hesitantly approaching the table.

  The redhead snorted at the less than enthusiastic response. “That’s the spirit. Here, why don’t you let me help you-” she began, reaching forward to take one of Katherine’s hands and aid her in hauling herself onto the table.

  Before Gabriela could even finish her sentence, however, Bastian’s hands were around Katherine’s waist, easily lifting her and depositing her gently on the blanket covered table.”

  The healer raised an eyebrow. “That’s works too,” she admitted, pulling the machine closer. “Alright, Katherine, I’m going to need you to lie down for me, okay? And go ahead and pull your top up.”

  Katherine obeyed, pulling her t-shirt up to nearly her sternum while Gabriela grabbed a familiar bottle of clear-looking jelly off the top of the machine. Katherine stiffened, however, when the woman reached forward with her free hand to tuck in the waistband of her pants, tugging them down far enough so that the very top of her hipbones were on display.

  “Babies sit really low the first few months of pregnancy,” Gabriela explained at her deer-in-the-headlights expression.

  Katherine risked a peek at Bastian, who was glaring openly at Briggs, who, in turn, was interestedly observing the proceedings. The two men had gathered on either side of the table where she lay, and Bastian bared his teeth at the man. “Just keep your damn eyes on the screen,” he demanded, more than a hint of growl escaping along with the order.

  Briggs snorted, but submitted to the command, moving his eyes away from Katherine’s stomach to the small ten by ten inch screen. “Like I’d be aroused by a skinny, little brat like her,” he muttered.

  A much louder growl sounded from what seemed like the inside of Bastian’s chest, but before he could physically lash out at Briggs for the comment, Gabriela very strategically cleared her throat. “I apologize, but this is probably a little chilly from sitting in my truck,” she warned Katherine loudly in an effort to redirect everyone’s attention.

  It worked, and more than that, Katherine appreciated the warning – though still couldn’t quite suppress a flinch – when the cold jelly was unceremoniously squirted onto her bare belly. Gabriela grabbed the wand-like tool attached to the sonogram machine. “Here we go,” she muttered before beginning to use the device to spread the goo around Katherine’s stomach.

  Katherine forced herself to focus her eyes on the screen.

  After one tense minute passed, however, and then two, and the center of the screen, which Katherine assumed showcased her uterus, remained black, she felt something akin to panic form inside her.

  What if she really wasn’t pregnant? Or worse... what if something had happened to the baby?

  Katherine was shocked by the intense disappointment and even loss she felt at possibility.

  “Hm,” Gabriela muttered to herself after another half a minute had gone by, and a tension so thick it might as well be its own entity began to befall the room, “I suppose the baby may still be small enough that I’ll need to use a transvaginal wand to pick up a proper image.”

  Katherine stared incredulously at Gabriela.

  ...a transvaginal what now?!

  “Oh, never mind! Here it is!”

  Katherine jerked her eyes back to the screen at the exclamation. And just like that, she forgot the name of what had to be some sort of medieval instrument of torture.

  Because there it was. The baby. Her baby.

  Bastian’s hand was suddenly entwined with hers, his borderline too-tight grip nearly crushing her fingers, but she paid neither the clutching hand nor the man attached to it any mind.

  Because the tiny, wriggling thing on the screen was much more human-like than Katherine could have ever anticipated. She stared in astonishment at what were clearly little arms and legs extending from a small body, and despite the blurry quality of the picture – the sonogram machine was dreadfully old – she swore she could even see a dainty nose protruding from the baby’s head.

  “What-?” Katherine began, but it felt like something – disbelief, or maybe even awe, at the image presented before her – was sticking the inside walls of her throat together, and she couldn’t get any more words to come out.

  Everything she’d been taught in high school biology told her that a baby shouldn’t be so developed at this stage of pregnancy. When Gabriela had wheeled the sonogram machine in the room, she’d been expecting to see something that more closely resembled a lima bean in her uterus than an actual human being.

  Katherine swallowed around the emotion in her throat, once again attempting to speak, and this time succeeding. “I didn’t know you could see so much already,” she muttered weakly.

  Gabriela frowned at the observation, carefully looking over the screen. “Oh, I’d say he looks right on track for an eight week fetus as long as we’re counting from the first day of your last period. Does that sound about right? Implantation of the fertilized egg likely occurred shortly after the full moon two months ago, which explains why you still transformed then but not on the night of the most recent full moon.”

  Katherine didn’t take anything more in than the first sentence. “He?” she questioned faintly. She could see a lot of detail on the tiny screen, but certainly not anything that indicated that particular gender.

  Gabriela laughed. “Generic title,” she assured. “It’s impossible to tell if it’s a boy or a girl yet.”

  Ignoring the blush she could feel creeping up her neck, Katherine nodded, taking a moment to absorb all the other information Gabriela had spewed at her. “Eight weeks?” She supposed that sounded about right, but... “And you’re sure that we’re supposed to be able to see all of this at eight weeks? I didn’t think anything more developed than a blob with a heartbeat would show up on the screen.”

  Realization dawned in Gabriela’s eyes, and something akin to dread tickled under Katherine’s skin at the woman’s sudden understanding. It didn’t help that she could feel the intense gazes of Bastian and Briggs drilli
ng into either side of her head.

  “Oh. Oh. You’re thinking of the gestation period of a typical human.”

  Katherine stiffened. “What do you mean ‘typical human’?”

  “Well,” Gabriela explained matter-of-factly, “human females are usually pregnant an average of 280 days or so before giving birth, but werewolf pregnancies are generally much shorter and last between 180 and 200 days.”

  What?

  “What?”

  Katherine’s mind fought to comprehend the new information. 200 divided by 30. That was like, what? About six months?

  But if werewolf pregnancies generally only lasted six months, and she was already eight weeks along, that meant that the baby would be here – that she’d be pushing a melon-sized human being out of her vagina – in four months, give or take a few weeks.

  A kind of nausea that had both everything and nothing to do with her “condition” suddenly hit Katherine. “I don’t feel good,” she managed to express weakly before unceremoniously snatching her hand free from Bastian’s grip and pushing the wand-like device Gabriela still had pressed against her stomach away from her. She used her other hand to sit herself up, praying that the bile she could feel swirling in her belly would stay put.

  “It makes sense if you think about it,” Gabriela explained gently after a moment, like she could feel the panic rising in Katherine. She imagined all three alphas in the room could feel it. “Regular wolves experience a gestational period of about 60 days or so, and while we’re certainly human, no one can deny there is a bit of wolf in us as well. Plus, considering the fact that the mother isn’t capable of transforming and properly defending herself while pregnant or even nursing, it’s logical from a revolutionary perspective that the body has naturally sped up the process over time to ensure a greater chance of offspring survival, and thus the continuation of our species.”