Luminous

by Noelle Marie

  “Oh my!”

  “What do you suppose she’s doing out of the house?”

  Katherine turned to the source of the noise, taking in the two woman who were staring at her with such mystified expressions. They both appeared to be in their late forties, a hint of gray in their hair and the first sign of crow’s feet near their eyes. One was nearly six feet tall and the other was rather squat, and though Katherine couldn’t say she knew their names, she did vaguely recognize them from around town.

  “I’m shocked Bastian’s let her out of his sight,” the taller one said as she continued to ogle. “Why, excepting my baby shower, Charles kept me locked away day and night back when I was pregnant with my Vincent.”

  “Yes, well, I can’t say I’m all that surprised,” the other interjected. “Times have changed since then – not for the better, either. Plus, I hear that she can be quite stubborn, you know.”

  “Ah, yes,” the taller one agreed, as if a revelation had suddenly dawned, “It’s been said he’s a bit of a pushover when it comes to her, too.”

  Katherine bristled at the comment on Bastian’s character. It was bad enough that they were talking about her as if she wasn’t there, but to openly gossip about Bastian, her mate and their head alpha... well, it was enough to raise her metaphorical hackles. After all, she knew that if he was there, he wouldn’t appreciate any of his perceived weaknesses being pointed out.

  Even if it was her. And sort of true.

  “Excuse me?” Katherine demanded, hoping that the women had some sense and would offer forth an apology.

  “Oh, don’t mind us, dear,” the shorter insisted with a wave of the hand. “Satisfy an old woman’s curiosity and tell us, though, how are you faring? Have you been very sick? Tired? Any feelings yet on whether you’re carrying a boy or a girl?”

  Katherine blinked at the bombardment of inappropriately personal questions. “Uh, well...”

  “Oh, I remember that when I was pregnant with Vincent I was practically bed-ridden I was so exhausted,” the other inserted herself before Katherine could think of a suitable response.

  “Ah, yes, and if I recall correctly, any time you didn’t spend resting, you spent eating.”

  Both women chuckled at the remark. Then they turned their attention back to Katherine, and she watched with rising annoyance as both sets of eyes flickered down to take in her still flat stomach. Their mirthful expressions transformed into concerned frowns.

  “Why, it hardly looks like you’ve gained any weight at all! You’re such a skinny, little thing for someone who should be heavy with child by now.”

  “Are you sure you’re eating enough, dear?”

  “Why, I find it hard to believe that there’s a baby in you at all!”

  Katherine tensed as one comment after another about her lack of weight gain spewed forth from their mouths. She knew that werewolf pregnancies were much shorter than a typical human’s, but did they really expect her to have an extended gut already? She was only two and a half months along!

  Worry trickled down her spine as the two women continued to chatter. After all, what did she know about werewolf pregnancies really? Maybe she should have been showing already.

  All of Katherine’s concerned thoughts fled, however, as soon as the shorter woman had the audacity to reach forward and place a hand on her stomach, palming her right over her bellybutton, like she was actually trying to check if there was a baby in there.

  Protective instinct had her own hand darting forward, fingers wrapping themselves around the woman’s wrist in a crushing grip and ripping the limb away from her. Even once she’d removed the woman’s hand from her belly, however, she refused to release her, only tightening her hold on the surprisingly bony wrist as she continued to squeeze without mercy.

  She was probably only seconds away from truly breaking the lady’s wrist when another voice sounding behind her caused her to freeze, her senses abruptly returning to her as she hastily released the ashen woman’s hand.

  “You realize that it’s your own health you’ll be worrying about when I tell the head alpha that you’ve been touching his pregnant mate without permission, right?”

  It took a moment for Katherine to grasp the words, and another for her to recognize the owner of the voice. She turned on her heel to take in Melanie.

  The girl looked as ornery as she’d been when Katherine had seen her last, arms crossed over her chest as she sneered at the two woman on the other side of Katherine.

  “We were only making friendly conversation,” the taller woman pointed out primly, eyes worriedly roaming over to her friend as she clutched her hurt wrist to her chest.

  “Yeah, well, from over here it looked more like you were being rude, old hags, too busy reliving their glory days to realize that they’re making the head alpha’s pregnant mate uncomfortable.”

  “Why, you insolent-”

  “Now, now, Dolores, there’s no use going off on her,” the taller woman quickly cut off her friend.

  “But Denise-!”

  “After all, she’s nothing but riff-raff,” she pointed out, glaring in Melanie’s direction. “She doesn’t even have a pack to call her own. Bastian should have truly banished the little ogre last year. Honestly, he must be going soft.”

  “Can I help you ladies?”

  Both of the middle-aged women stiffened at the sound of Sophie’s voice. Katherine, however, could physically feel relief flood her at the blonde’s sudden appearance, her tense shoulders finally relaxing for the first time since they had cornered her near the quilting supplies.

  “Because I swear I just heard you talking about my brother,” Sophie continued, “and I’d be happy to relay a message to him for you.”

  “Oh, no,” the taller one immediately attempted to backtrack, hands fluttering nervously at her sides. “What I meant was... well, you see...”

  “No, no, that won’t be necessary,” the other woman interjected a bit more strongly. “We were just leaving.”

  Sophie offered them both a falsely bright smile, showing off her teeth. “I figured as much.”

  They tilted their heads in a respectful sort of nod before hurrying out of the store, not even bother to buy whatever it was they’d come in for.

  “And you.”

  Melanie raised an eyebrow as Sophie turned her piercing cerulean stare onto her, not nearly as impressed as the two fleeing women. “Me,” she deadpanned in return.

  “Why are you hovering over Katherine? What do you want?”

  Melanie snorted at the hostile questions. “Yeah, because I’m the one who’s hovering.”

  Sophie pursed her lips. “I asked what you were doing here.”

  The girl rolled her eyes, holding up the spool of thread she held in one hand and gesturing vaguely at the gaping hole near the bottom of her shirt with the other. “Not all of us can afford to buy new clothes whenever the urge strikes us.”

  It was quiet for a long moment as Sophie stared down the girl before finally seeming to accept the explanation. She huffed. “Whatever. Just... go.” She gestured vaguely towards the front of the store.

  Melanie’s eyes flashed with annoyance at the order, her bottom lip curling into an ugly sneer. “Gladly,” she muttered before slinking away.

  Katherine tried to catch the girl’s eyes as she walked by, wanting to thank her for her earlier interference, but not willing to offer the words under Sophie’s watchful gaze.

  She could only hope that Melanie would see the gratefulness shining in her eyes.

  But she didn’t look up, and Katherine’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

  She felt badly about the way Sophie had treated the girl who she’d once considered a friend, but could hardly blame the blonde for her enmity either. After all, Katherine hadn’t been the only one injured due to Melanie’s actions nearly a year ago.

  Sophie sighed, the loud exhale forcing Katherine’s attention to focus back on the blonde in question. “Honestly, I can’t let you
out of my sight for two minutes, can I?”

  Katherine raised a pointed eyebrow. “Really?” she demanded.

  Sophie’s mouth dipped to form a frown. “I sounded a lot like my brother just then, didn’t I?”

  “Yup,” Katherine agreed, popping the ‘p’.

  The blonde winced. “Sorry.”

  Katherine shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess. I get it.” And she did. The fact that she was pregnant seemed to bring out everyone’s protective urges even more intensely than usual. Even her own, as she’d just experienced a few minutes ago.

  But that didn’t make her pack’s “hovering”, as Melanie had put it, any less annoying.

  “Anyway,” Katherine said, turning her attention back to the swatches of fabric before her, “I don’t suppose you have any idea how to go about making a quilt?”

  Sophie hadn’t had any more of a clue than Katherine did. But that didn’t stop her from conferring with the store owner before purchasing every instructional manual the shop had stocked as well as more fabric, batting, thread, needles, thimbles, and pins than Katherine knew what to do with.

  She’d been teased mercilessly – mostly by Markus – when she’d come back to the house with the pile of supplies nearly a week ago. Apparently, the instinct to make her baby something warm for winter was both “adorable” and “hilariously out of character.”

  She’d been quick to inform him that he was being an “asshole”, which was “completely in character”, and then to spite him – as well as the rest of her pack, who seemed equally, if less vocally, amused by her sudden interest in quilting – she’d let the materials sit untouched in a haphazard heap on her bedroom floor since she’d bought them.

  Besides, she had a hard time focusing on the page upon page of directions when her mind was so preoccupied with the confrontation, if it could be called that, she’d had with the women in the store she’d purchased the materials from.

  Katherine couldn’t help it, though; their words had gotten to her. The damn things had sunken their claws into her brain and refused to release. In particular, it was the comments about how small she was.

  Worry nagged at her as their words rebounded in her head.

  “You’re such a skinny, little thing for someone who should be heavy with child by now.”

  “I find it hard to believe that there’s a baby in you at all!”

  Which was probably why she was standing in front of the bathroom mirror for what had to have been the fifth time that day, the bottom of her shirt pulled up and tugged under her chin as she examined her belly from every possible angle in the reflective surface.

  If she stared at it from the side long enough, she could swear there was a little swell present just under her belly button. Still, for someone who was supposedly close to half way through her pregnancy, Katherine couldn’t help but think that she was rather small.

  What if something was wrong?

  Before her concern could completely spiral out of control, the bathroom door swung open and Bastian walked into the room. He shot her a bemused look on his way to the toilet. “What are you doing?”

  Feeling the tell-tale heat of a blush creeping up her neck, Katherine hastily pulled down her shirt. “Nothing,” she grouched, the words coming out more hostile-sounding than she wanted. Then she swiftly exited the room so Bastian could relieve himself in private.

  As soon as she got to the bedroom, Katherine flopped down onto the bed, pulling the covers up to her nose. When Bastian wandered into the room a minute later, he had a frown etched onto his face. Katherine’s belly did a guilty little flip at the sight of it, and she quickly averted her eyes.

  Bastian stripped down to his boxers and crawled into bed. He wasted no time in pulling Katherine into his arms, wrapping them around her in a warm embrace before burying his face into the crook of her neck, pressing his nose against the sensitive skin there and inhaling.

  “Are you feeling alright?” he asked softly a second later, pulling back enough that his warm breath tickled her cheek.

  “I’m fine,” she attempted to assure him. “Just, you know... pregnant.” It was amazing what she could all get away with blaming on her fluctuating hormones.

  Unfortunately, Bastian wasn’t letting the excuse fly this time.

  “You don’t sound fine,” he disagreed, pulling back even further and forcing Katherine to meet his eyes. “Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours.”

  “It’s nothing,” Katherine insisted, hoping she sounded convincing. “I was just thinking about how much it’ll suck to not be able to transform tomorrow.” It wasn’t a lie exactly. The next night the full moon was due to rise, and the fact that she couldn’t physically access the more animalistic part of herself caused her greater strife than she ever thought it would.

  Bastian loosened his grip on her so that he could run a hand through her hair, pushing the dark strands that had fallen into her eyes behind an ear. “You won’t even have to leave the house,” he assured, “and I’ll be right outside all night, keeping watch.”

  Katherine nodded her understanding. “Right.”

  “Hey,” he said more firmly, sweeping his thumb over the apple of one of her cheeks. “I would never let anything happen to you. I’d gladly protect you with my last breath if I had to.”

  Katherine felt her insides turn to mush at the proclamation. Even if she was pretty certain that she’d never survive something happening to Bastian and simply follow him into the unknown of death, there was no need to point that out to him.

  “I know,” she allowed. “Thank you.”

  Bastian allowed his hand to wander lower after that, brushing over her shoulder and the side of her breast – there was nothing sexual about the action, it was just reverent – before hovering uncertainly over her belly. “May I?” he asked quietly.

  Despite her lack of baby bump, Bastian liked to touch her there. She suspected it was his way of bonding with his unborn child. Katherine thought it was unbelievably sweet.

  “Of course.”

  Bastian hadn’t been cradling the underside of her belly for more than a minute when she felt it – a sort of fluttering in her stomach.

  Katherine froze. “Did you...?”

  Did you feel that?

  Bastian’s voice sounded completely lax when he answered. “Did I what?”

  Katherine wasn’t sure what it was that made her lie. Maybe it was the fear that the miniscule movement she felt was her imagination. Maybe it was shock. Either way, when she finally managed to force her tongue and lips to work together to form words, it was to spit out, “Nothing. Never mind.”

  But then she felt it again – a tiny quiver of movement right under where Bastian’s hand lay – and Katherine knew that it wasn’t nothing. It was just that the movement was so tiny that it couldn’t be felt from the outside. Only the inside.

  It was their baby.

  Katherine’s entire body warmed as something that felt distinctly like pride threatened to overwhelm her, and she wondered if it was what all new mothers felt when they sensed their baby move for the first time.

  “I love you,” she choked out, emotion thick in her voice.

  If Bastian noticed her strange behavior, he didn’t comment on it. “I love you, too.”

  And as Katherine lay there, experiencing her child move inside her for the first time, she could acknowledge that while many things about pregnancy sucked, maybe not absolutely everything did.

  ...Perhaps, though, she wouldn’t have been quite so content if she’d known that while she would get to experience the feeling of their baby move in her womb many more times in the upcoming months, Bastian never would.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The night of the full moon passed without incident. Well, as long as one didn’t consider Bastian snapping off the back door’s sliding lock in his efforts to get to Katherine once he’d transformed an incident. Apparently, Bastian the wolf was even more protective of his pregnant mate than Bastian the
man.

  His sudden presence came as a bit of a surprise to Katherine because she knew that whenever she shifted into her wolf form, she absolutely loathed being indoors. The walls were confining and made her feel suffocated. Apparently, however, the walls only seemed to bother Bastian when they separated him from her. Katherine wasn’t about to complain. It turned out to be one of the best nights of sleep she’d gotten in a long time. She spent it curled up next to Bastian in front of the fireplace in their bedroom, her face buried in the dark fur of his thick coat.

  The next month – and the next full moon – passed without spectacle as well.

  Before Katherine knew it, November had arrived and with it, snow. The white stuff fell to the ground inches at a time and formed massive piles. That, along with the ice, made the terrain particularly hard to travel for Katherine. Mostly because she couldn’t step foot out the front door without someone from her pack immediately springing up behind her, prepared to catch her if she lost her footing on the slick forest floor.

  It was as irritating as it was endearing.

  They did it, of course, because Katherine was pregnant – heavily pregnant. By Gabriela’s calculations, she was about four months along give or take a week. Katherine’s appetite had increased infinitely the past month. And so had her waistband.

  While the sudden weight gain had inspired Sophie to wax poetry about how “cute” her belly was, Katherine couldn’t help but feel like she resembled a whale. She wondered how most “normal” women did this for nine whole months – though, she supposed the weight they put on was spread out over more time. They probably didn’t feel like they fell asleep one day and woke up to discover they’d somehow consumed a twenty-pound beach ball in their sleep. A beach ball that liked to sit on their bladder all day long, causing them to waddle around like a penguin and pee constantly.