Luminous

by Noelle Marie

  So that’s where they were going: to see Gabriela. Praise whatever deity was watching over her.

  “How many contractions would you say you’ve had?” Zane asked evenly. “And about how much time passes between them?”

  “I don’t know how many,” Katherine confessed, rubbing tiredly at her eyes before letting her hands drop back down to her sides, “but they began last night, I think, and are starting to come every five minutes or so.”

  Zane blinked. “Oh.”

  Katherine’s eyes immediately zeroed in on the man at the one syllable response. It was plain to see that while Zane’s mouth may have only uttered, “oh”, his eyes said “oh shit.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Markus demanded harshly, voicing Katherine’s own question aloud.

  Zane pressed his lips together. “Nothing... it’s just that theoretically, you could have that baby any minute.”

  Katherine’s heart stuttered to a halt inside her chest in reaction to Zane’s words before starting up again twice as fast. Markus seemed to take the news in a similar manner, staring in disbelief at Zane for a solid minute. Then, quite suddenly, his features hardened. He offered Zane a terse nod. “Well, let’s get her to the cabin then, and fast,” he declared, sounding determined.

  The two men seemed to communicate telepathically, and simultaneously come to the conclusion that Katherine could no longer ride safely on either of their backs.

  It was true. As soon as a contraction hit, she was liable to fall off.

  They turned towards her. “Can you walk?” Zane asked.

  Katherine frowned, but hesitantly nodded. “I think so-”

  But she couldn’t even finish the sentence before a sudden spasm of pain – which Katherine now knew was a contraction – caused her belly to tighten to the point of nearly unbearable agony. The pain was centered in her lower belly, but it radiated all the way up to her ribs and even down her thighs. She wrapped her arms around her stomach like that could somehow keep the baby inside her for longer.

  No sooner had the contraction ended, than was Markus scooping her up in his arms, forcing her head to rest against his burly chest as he held her to him. “I’ll carry her,” he informed Zane bluntly.

  “You can’t,” Katherine half-heartedly protested, but her voice was still a bit shaky from the contraction, and she knew it didn’t ring true. “You’ll freeze.”

  Although neither man had complained of being cold since transforming into their human forms, both of their lips had already turned blue, and Katherine could feel how freezing Markus’s fingers were even through the thick layers of her shirt and coat. Despite their bodies’ natural, built-in resistance to a large range of temperatures, werewolves weren’t made to function in such extremes for long periods of time – at least, not in their human forms.

  “I’ll be fine,” Markus said, brushing off her concern.

  Zane shook his head. “No, she’s right, Markus. The cabin is still six or seven miles south. You’ll get frostbite before we even get half-way there.” Wrinkles formed on his forehead as Zane fought to think of a solution. “But... I recall there being another vacant cabin that’s only a mile or two southeast from here.” His eyes met Markus’s. “I don’t think we have a choice; we have to take her there.”

  Katherine opened her mouth to protest that plan, too. After all, what about Gabriela? She needed the woman to help deliver her baby. Before she could point that out, though, Zane added, “When we get there, one of us can go get Gabriela.”

  Katherine didn’t like it, but then her belly tensed again. Her breath hitched, a pathetic little keen escaping her mouth as she tried to curl up into herself even cradled as she was in Markus’s arms.

  Despite any reservations she had, she didn’t know if they would get to any cabin at this rate, so she hurriedly nodded her agreement against Markus’s chest.

  Markus, who’d stiffened at Katherine’s obvious distress, held her even tighter to him. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

  Zane nodded, and shifting back into his wolf form, began leading the way to their destination. Human Markus wasn’t nearly as fast as wolf Zane or wolf Markus, especially with the extra weight in his arms – not that he showed a hint of strain as he carried her – but he set a respectable enough pace, and at least the ride was smoother than it had been before.

  Katherine burrowed her face into Markus’s shoulder. “Distract me,” she begged, voice muffled against his skin.

  He must have still heard her, though. “Glad to see you’re the same, bossy little thing as always,” he said, the tiniest hint of a smirk on his face.

  Katherine huffed, but secretly reveled in the familiar teasing. “And I’m pleased to see you’re the same loud-mouthed prick you’ve always been.”

  He laughed at that, sticking his nose into her hair, and Katherine realized he was still eagerly taking in her scent, even as a human. She grimaced, recalling Gerard’s crude attempt to cover her natural scent with his. She frowned, shifting uncomfortably in Markus’s arms as paranoia suddenly took hold of her. “Do I smell bad?” she asked quietly, keeping her voice carefully void of emotion.

  Markus must not have consciously realized he was still inhaling her scent, because he jerked his nose out of her hair at the question, not quite embarrassed – Markus and embarrassment didn’t equate – but close. “No,” he said after a moment, “you still smell like you under all the sweat and grime. Hell, that might even make your scent more potent. I mean, the smell of smoke is clinging to your clothes, and there’s another foreign scent overlaying yours for some reason...”

  Katherine stiffened at the confirmation that she smelled like Gerard, trying to keep her expression blank, but unable to stop tears from filling her eyes.

  Markus paused, a sudden frown pulling at the corners of his mouth as he took in the suspicious sheen. “Katherine,” he demanded, voice as sharp as she’d ever heard it, “what happened? What did that bastard do to you?”

  Katherine bit her bottom lip, her teeth digging into tender flesh. “I don’t want to talk about it right now.” She hoped the “or ever” was implied as she once again attempted to hide her face in Markus’s shoulder.

  “But, princess-”

  “No, Markus!” she snapped, peeking up at him. “You know, you’re not very good at this whole distracting thing.”

  He raised an eyebrow, but let the subject drop, picking up his pace when Zane yipped at them to keep moving from where he waited, nearly thirty feet ahead of them. “Well, at least I know where you get your attitude from now,” Markus said as he walked, breaking the tense silence that threatened to descend upon them. “You’re nearly as impossible as your sister.”

  Katherine frowned. “My sister?”

  Before she got an answer out of him, however, another contraction took hold of her, and the breath was sucked from her body. Markus tucked his head over hers – his own way of offering comfort, Katherine supposed – as she rode it out. When the pain eased enough for Katherine to speak, she took a moment to compose herself before demanding, “When did you talk to my sister?”

  Markus shrugged. “After you disappeared, we wanted to make sure we covered all our bases.”

  Katherine bristled. “What? You thought I’d just pay an impromptu visit to my parents without telling anyone?” she demanded incredulously. It hurt to think they thought she was capable of something so thoughtless.

  “We didn’t know what to think, Katherine,” he snapped back. “We searched the entirety of Haven Falls and couldn’t find hide nor hair of you! We were terrified! I was terrified. Bastian was... there are no words to describe the state he was in.”

  And just like that, the guilt that she’d been unconsciously harboring since she was snatched nearly two weeks ago swelled in her chest, overflowing in the form of tears from her eyes. “Well, I’m sorry, okay?” she yelled. “It’s not like I meant for this to happen!”

  Hot tears plugged her throat, and Katherine jerk
ed her hood over her head, once again hiding her face in Markus’s shoulder.

  “Hey, no. Don’t be sorry. I know it’s not your fault; that isn’t what I meant, okay?” When Katherine ignored him, Markus sighed, and in a blatant effort to make her laugh, added, “Please don’t tell Bastian I made you cry within an hour of us getting you back.”

  It worked. Katherine released an involuntary snort, slapping his chest. “Jerk,” she muttered.

  “You know it,” he agreed. Then after a moment added, “We never really thought you would just leave. We only wanted to make sure to cover all of our bases.”

  Katherine sniffled, nodding. “I guess that makes sense,” she acknowledged. She desperately wanted to ask after Bastian – Markus’s comment about the state he was in reminded her starkly of her dream wolf – but she was afraid of the answer she’d get if she did. “So how is Sam?” she asked instead.

  “Seemed fine as far as I could tell, though she wasn’t too thrilled to learn you were keeping the fact that she was about to become Auntie Sam from her.”

  Katherine stiffened. “Markus!” she exclaimed, voice just this side of shrill. “You told them-?”

  “Yup,” he confirmed, sounding amused.

  An angry flush licked at her cheeks. “How could you do that?” she demanded. Katherine knew it was a silly thing to be upset about considering their current circumstances, but Markus didn’t have to sound so irritatingly proud of himself for informing her family of her “condition”.

  For his part, Markus frowned when it became apparent she really was distraught. “I’m sorry, alright? I slipped up when I was talking to your mom. She’s... something else.”

  “Oh God,” Katherine muttered, covering her eyes. She could only imagine Elaine’s response to Markus of all people telling her that she was about to become a grandma.

  “That was my reaction to talking to the woman. Who are you? I thought Bastian was the name of Katherine’s boyfriend,” he mocked in a high-pitched voice. “She hasn’t gotten herself caught up in some depraved sort of orgy, has she? Is she on drugs?”

  Katherine was horrified. “And you decided to add that I was pregnant to the conversation?” she asked incredulously.

  “It was more of an interrogation,” Markus pointed out. “And like I said, it was an accident. Apparently, you haven’t called her in a while,” he said, raising his eyebrows.

  Katherine winced. She had been putting off calling her parents before she was kidnapped because she didn’t know how to tell them she was pregnant. “Luckily” for her, Markus had now taken care of that.

  “Anyway, your mom was accusing me of purposefully keeping you from the phone, convinced that you had been manipulated into joining some kind of sexual cult – or something like that, anyhow, her tangents are hard to understand when she gets going. That’s when I said something along the lines of: Hey, don’t take your pissiness out on me, lady, I’m not the one who knocked your daughter up.”

  Katherine gaped. “Markus!”

  “What? I was flustered! Anyway, the news must have given her a mini-heart attack because the next thing I know, she hands the phone off to your sister who casually informs me she’s going to chop off my dick and make me eat it.”

  Katherine blinked.

  “Apparently, she also knows about a dozen different places to hide a dead body.” The man sounded strangely admiring.

  “Why was she threatening to kill you?” Katherine asked. She was a bit perturbed by the seemingly protective reaction. She didn’t have a bad relationship with her sister so much as a stilted one. And it hadn’t exactly improved since Sam’s ex-husband had tried to force himself on her, either.

  “I’m sure she heard your mother hysterically going on about an orgy-filled sexual cult, and that you were pregnant, and put two and two together and got forty-seven. Anyway, by the time I had managed to clear up that I wasn’t your baby daddy, and that your mother’s imaginary scenarios were just that: imaginary, she was insisting you come home.” He frowned. “That’s when I had to explain the reason I was calling in the first place. I told them that you had disappeared. They were upset, of course, but didn’t quite understand the urgency of the situation. You had run away from home – from them – before, after all, and were just fine.” Markus shrugged. “So with Bastian’s permission, I told them about werewolves.”

  Katherine’s eyes widened. “You did what?”

  Every time she thought she got her footing in her conversation with Markus, he ripped the rug out from under her.

  Markus snorted. “Don’t act like you didn’t already tell your dad.” He shrugged. “Anyway, they didn’t believe me. Not until your dad got home to confirm, anyhow. They made me wait on the line for over an hour.”

  Katherine pressed her lips together. Of course, Markus would focus on that of all things. “How’d they take it?”

  “Surprisingly well compared to the pregnancy announcement, though I think that Sam, specifically, is still skeptical. Either way, they made it clear that they plan to move to Haven Falls as soon as possible.”

  Katherine stiffened. There were some non-werewolves in Haven Falls, of course, but it wasn’t like they had much choice in their living arrangements. They were family members of changed wolves, and their knowledge of the supernatural made it too much of a liability to let them stay elsewhere. “What? But why would they-? I mean, I can’t ask them to do that!”

  Markus frowned. “Katherine, you didn’t ask them... though, maybe you should have to begin with. You can’t make other people’s decisions for them, princess, even when you think they’ll make the wrong ones on their own. Your family loves you, and has apparently decided that any sacrifice they have to make to live in Haven Falls is worth it to have you in their lives.”

  Katherine played with the cuffs of her overly long coat sleeves at the gentle reprimand. It was weird hearing Markus of all people spouting wisdom at her. “You’re right, I guess,” she acknowledged, “but I still don’t understand why you had to be the one to tell them all this. Why not someone more sensitive?” Like Sophie or Caleb. Or better yet, why hadn’t Bastian, who they already knew of, at least, done it? Katherine chewed on her bottom lip, once again questioning the man’s state of mind at the time.

  “I can be sensitive,” Markus argued, ignorant of her inner dialogue and taking faux offense at the comment.

  Katherine rolled her eyes. “Right.”

  As soon as the sarcastic word escaped her mouth, another contraction hit. Katherine released an involuntary cry, looping her arms around Markus’s neck and digging her nails into his skin as the pain in her lower belly increased to nearly unbearable levels.

  “Shh, you’re okay,” Markus muttered into her hair. “We’re almost there. Just relax.”

  As the pain slowly tapered off, she was tempted to tell him to “just relax”. “Isn’t there any good news you can tell me?” she said instead. “Surely you can think of something that will distract me, but not, you know, make me want to stab someone.”

  Markus was quiet for an extended period, and if she wasn’t so sore, Katherine would have offered a sardonic laugh at the fact that it took him so long to think of something good that had happened since she’d been taken.

  “That pregnant lady!” he blurted after nearly two minutes had passed.

  Katherine’s brow scrunched in confusion. The last she had checked, she was the only pregnant lady around. “What?” she asked.

  “That lady you picked at that silly baby shower game you women like to play,” he explained, and she could only assume Sophie had told him about the event. “Apparently, she’s expecting.”

  Katherine raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “Really?”

  “Yeah. Naturally, everyone’s happiness at the news was muted considering your disappearance, but there’s that.” He smirked. “Of course, now the entire town is just that much more convinced you’re some sort of fertility goddess.”

  Katherine groaned. “Great,” s
he deadpanned, then stiffened when another contraction shot through her belly. She held her breath, taken off guard by how fast it had come on – only three minutes had passed since the last one – and struggled not to whimper through it.

  As the pain once again eased, Katherine found herself grateful for the unspoken agreement she had with Markus that he wouldn’t say anything about the pathetic noises she made in the midst of a contraction, if she refrained from commenting on his violent shivering or the permanent goosebumps on his arms.

  She prayed for both their sakes that they would reach this mysterious cabin soon.

  Markus let her recover before picking up the conversation where they’d left it off. “That lady – Charlotte, I think her name is – isn’t the only one newly pregnant, either. Rip’s mate, Priscilla, found out she was expecting the day after you disappeared.”

  A flicker of delight warmed Katherine at the news, followed almost immediately by concern. She was happy enough for Priscilla, but with a mate like Rip, well... “Really? That’s... great?”

  Markus snorted at the blatant uncertainty in her voice. “You’d be the only person who thinks so. That idiot isn’t fit to raise anyone.” It was clear enough that he was talking about Rip. Katherine often forgot that, in blood, at least, Markus and Rip were brothers. “I guess it hardly matters, though. Bastian banished them.”

  Katherine blinked at the offhanded statement. “What?”

  “Well, he banished Rip,” Markus clarified, “but Priscilla chose to leave with him.”

  Katherine shook her head in dismay. “Why would she-?”

  Markus’s stern expression stopped her question in its tracks. “Remember what I said about letting people make their own choices, good or bad?”

  Katherine frowned, but swallowed her displeasure. “Your dad allowed this?” she asked instead.

  Katherine vividly recalled the man defending Rip when he’d cornered her in the girls’ locker room over a year ago.

  Markus snorted. “Not even he approves of his son threatening the head alpha’s pregnant mate.”