Dr. Cyrus scoffed as she shook her head. "Ceres isn't invincible, Wolfgang," she chided. "Pregnant or not, she's as vulnerable as the rest of us."
I hung my head, guilt washing over me and leaving a sour taste in my mouth. "I know," I whispered. She was right. One of these days, luck would run out.
"Don't make us lose both of you," she said in a soft voice. "Believe it or not, this pack has a lot of hope for the future because the two of you will be at the helm."
While it felt good to hear that, it also reminded me that I was stupid to let her leave the apartment like that. She should have stayed home with Selena. I made myself a promise that I would never let this happen again, and I knew Ceres would fight me on it every step of the way.
Not that I had a choice.
I called my father while I waited for Ceres to come to. Before I could update him, he informed me that Riley had returned with our two captives.
"So, how is she?" Dad asked.
I sighed. "Still out of it," I told him. "Dr. Cyrus is running a few tests to see why she isn't healing like a normal Lycan—or even a normal Ceres."
"What does that mean?" Dad asked.
I stared at my mate for a moment. "Dad… what happens when two Lycans mate for a second time?" I asked.
"What?"
I took in a deep breath. "Well," I huffed, "when Brenda attacked the house the other night, she cast some sort of spell on Ceres that wiped her memory of the last two years. She didn't know where she was or even who I was. We tossed around a few ideas until Sophia suggested that she and I mate again to see if it would work, considering how much mating can heal when a Lycan is injured at the time.
"So, we did it," I continued. "We had to try. I needed Ceres at her full potential when we went to meet Brenda at the old mill and get Mira back. We couldn't think of anything else. It worked. Spell broken. But since this wasn't the first time we mated, I couldn't be sure if she would be pregnant right away or not like she was the first time…."
"Mon Dieu," Dad sighed. "Okay." He cleared his throat. "There's a reason we emphasize that any time Lycans mate, there is a child. Most never mate a second time, because once is enough and certainly gets the intended job done. You know this. Knowing that, yes. Ceres is pregnant again. You also need to consider the other changes that come along with mating."
"You mean like getting stronger?" I asked.
"In essence," he replied. "However, you two already did that. You took two buckets, combined them, and then separated them again. You basically took red and blue, poured out purple, put the purple back in and poured purple back out. You may be more balanced now than you were before, which may hurt you more than it helps. I believe Ceres is already showing this."
"How so?"
"You said that she wasn't healing the way she used to," he said. "When she was pregnant before, didn't she heal faster?"
I thought back and tried to remember a time when she was hurt while she was pregnant. Nothing came to mind. "I'm not sure," I confessed. "I don't think she ever had a reason to heal until after…." I couldn't say it. "After."
"Hmm…" He was silent for a moment. "Okay. Has anything else happened since you mated?"
I immediately thought of last night. I considered dismissing it, but Ceres had a point. Getting it out in the open now, not later, was probably the best idea. "She had a dream about Abigail last night," I said. "She said that, in her dream, Abigail wasn't dead. That she'd never died."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that somehow, Ceres didn't kill her in the forest that day."
"Is this one of the things that she knows?" he asked. I didn't have to ask for clarification.
"I'm not sure," I replied. "I think we both want to deny the possibility that it could be true. I mean, if it is, then this is only the start of what has the potential to be a brutal battle. We've already lost four-fifths of our pack. We can't afford to lose anyone else."
"True," Dad agreed. "We'll keep an eye out anyway."
"Thanks."
"Back to what you asked. There are very few records of Lycans mating twice, but I know we have some here. I don't know much more than you do, because it isn't something I thought I'd have to investigate. Give me some time and I'll have information for you."
"Anything helps," I said.
"Alright," Dad replied. I heard the smile in his voice. "Take care of her. She's carrying the future of our pack."
I nodded, my eyes on the beautiful woman by my side. "I will," I vowed.
I ended the call before I crawled onto the table with her. I curled up around her as her eyes finally fluttered open. She looked at me but couldn't seem to focus on anything.
"Hey," I said as I reached out to caress her cheek.
She smiled at me. "Hi," she whispered. "What happened?"
"I was hoping you could tell me that," I said. "I got there as Anica punched you and you fell unconscious. We got her. She's back in the basement."
Ceres nodded. "Good. And Mandy?"
For some reason, I felt I should have recognized that name. "The Witch?" I asked. She nodded. "Also in the basement.
"Good," she repeated. She sighed. "She's one of the Witches from Brenda's coven back in New York," she explained. "The one who married my ex." Well, that explained why I should have recognized the name. "If she gets back to New York, she'll bring more Witches."
"What happens if she doesn't get back to New York?"
"Probably more Witches anyway."
"On the bright side, we're a tenacious bunch around here," I said with a half smile and weak chuckle. She echoed my laugh. "I think we'll survive."
She nodded. "So, what's the story?" she asked. She winced as she tried to move and adjust the way she lay on the table. Her eyebrows came together in confusion before she lifted her hand. Her eyes widened when she saw the cast. She slowly sat up before she looked back at me in shock. "Am I?" she whispered.
I sat up. "Dr. Cyrus thinks so," I said. "Dad does too. We're waiting on test results."
"It's too soon to tell," Ceres argued, shaking her head.
"You'd think that," Dr. Cyrus said as she entered the room with a knock. "Lucky for me, Lycan hormones react different, and faster, than human hormones. We can tell you're pregnant about four days sooner than humans. It's confirmed," she said as she passed Ceres the test results. "You're expecting. No more dangerous stunts, alright? I don't want any of us to go through that again."
Ceres scoffed. She'd held onto a lot of bitterness when it came to Dr. Cyrus since she was the one who had to tell us that the baby died.
Dr. Cyrus glared daggers at Ceres with her sharp eyes. "Just because it wasn't me on that table doesn't mean the news wasn't hard to handle," she snapped. "It was even harder to deliver. You're family, Ceres," she said. "Believe it or not, I care about both of you."
Ceres blinked at her. "You do?" she asked.
Dr. Cyrus shook her head. "Young lady, why do you think I do this job?" she asked. "The pay is almost insignificant, and I spend most of my time patching up my friends or delivering babies. I do not do this job simply because I enjoy the work," she confessed. "I do it because it's what I'm good at and it allows me to care for the people of this pack. I ensure the next generation lives to see its first full moon and the last one sees its next. If I did not care about every single person in this pack, I'd have left years ago. Now, sit up."
I helped Ceres sit and Dr. Cyrus gave her a once-over. She bandaged a few wounds that hadn't healed as she expected before telling us to set up an appointment for a few weeks out with Bree. Once we promised we would, she let us go.
Back at the apartment, we could hear loud laughter from inside. I opened the door, unsure of what would be waiting for us. I was relieved when I saw Rodney, Amanda, Declan, and Daphne with Riley and Selena gathered around the coffee table. Ceres and I entered the apartment and closed the door, gathering everyone's attention whether we wanted it or not.
"Hey!" I said with a grin. I put my arm ar
ound Ceres's shoulders as we walked toward them. I looked at her before I glanced at the group. She nodded. I grinned as I looked at everyone again. "It worked!" I said.
"What worked?" Daphne asked.
Ceres smiled. "Raise your hand if you're pregnant," she said as she raised her hand. She had a tentative grin on her face while she waited for Selena and Daphne to respond.
Selena gasped. "Really?" she asked. "It worked?"
"Dr. Cyrus just confirmed it," Ceres replied.
"Hasn't it only been three days?" Daphne asked, shocked that we had the answer so soon.
I nodded. "Turns out it's a hell of a lot easier to tell if a Lycan is pregnant than it is to know if a human is," I said before I went to the dining room to grab chairs for Ceres and me to sit in. Before I could get to the chairs, Declan and Rodney jumped off the couch. I gestured to Ceres that she should take the couch.
That was when they noticed the cast on Ceres's arm.
"What happened?" Selena demanded. She reached up and turned Ceres's face from side to side, noticing the bruises there as well. "You look like you got hit by a truck."
"No, just an Anica," Ceres replied. "Well, Anica and a two-story tumble out the front of Alan's house."
"Wait, what?" I demanded, staring at Ceres in utter disbelief.
She gave me a guilty smile. "Did I not mention that?" she asked.
I shook my head. "What the hell happened?" I demanded, putting a little more alpha into the words than I'd intended.
She glared at me. She hated when I tried to alpha her. The tension between us made an unnatural silence fall over the room. I think even the electronics stopped buzzing. She wouldn't speak unless I pulled back and she could get away with it.
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. I let it out to a slow count of ten before I looked at her again. "What happened?" I asked, much more calmly than before.
Ceres glanced at everyone before she looked at her cast. "Mandy and I were in one of the upstairs bedrooms," she explained. "She did that thing all Witches love to do where she just talked and thought I wouldn't notice that she was stalling for time. So, I tackled her… through the window."
"Wow," Selena whispered.
"How could you?" I snapped. I shouldn't have. I knew that even as the words flew out of my mouth, but Dr. Cyrus chastising me earlier was the only thing I could think about. "Did you even listen to me when I told you that I thought you might be pregnant?" I asked. "What part of that means tackle someone through a second story window?"
She glared at me again. "For starters, I didn't plan on us going through the window," she said. "I tackled her, she was standing in front of the window, we went through it. Secondly, you could have stopped me from going this morning, but we were both more concerned about finding Anica than we were about anything else. I can pretty much guarantee that neither of us was thinking that I might be pregnant when we dashed out the door with the keys. This isn't just on me."
I watched everyone's eyes dart between us, wondering what would happen next. Ceres hung her head and ran her hands through her hair as I rubbed my eyes. She was right. We were both wrong. We both put our baby at risk by not stopping to think before we rushed out to hunt the traitor. She looked at me and I saw the tears in her eyes. She was terrified of what she might have done. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Me too," I replied before I stood up. I walked to our bedroom without another word. Ceres followed me. I knew she would. She slipped into the bedroom before the door closed behind me. Even with that barrier, I knew everyone in the living room would be able to hear us if they tried hard enough.
Perks of being Lycan.
I turned and pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her and holding her tight. I was terrified of losing her. Terrified of losing our baby again. Terrified of what it would mean in the pack if we weren't more careful.
"What?" she asked. "Wolfie?"
"I can't lose you," I whispered.
She pulled away enough so that she could meet my eyes. I didn't let her go any farther. "What are you talking about?" she asked.
"I'm sorry," I said, trying to keep my voice low enough so that we would maintain our privacy. "It's something Dr. Cyrus said while she was examining you."
"What did she say?"
I cleared my throat. "She reminded me that we are all this pack has left," I told her. "The fact that she had to tell me that you're vulnerable made me realize that I think of you as this invincible goddess in my head and I can't believe that I let myself forget that you can get hurt," I confessed.
She blinked at me. "What?" she asked. "But—you're always telling me to stay behind," she said. "You always want to keep me inside this little bubble of protection. You never forget that."
I nodded. "Today I did," I said. "I let you go through that door this morning instead of making you stay behind with Selena. I shouldn't have let you leave."
"I would have gone with or without your permission," she said, pulling away from me. "I'm your mate, Wolfgang." Her tone and use of my full first name told me just how upset she was. "I'm not a porcelain doll that you can put on a shelf and walk away from. I'm the only person in this pack that you can't bully into doing exactly what you want them to—excluding your parents, the Neuri, and Richard."
I winced. That last stung because it reminded me that the other Guardians were dead on my watch.
"I'm not trying to hurt you," she said, reading into my emotions as easily as she did her own. "I'm just reminding you that I can actually take care of myself. I'm not helpless."
"Neither were they," I said with a gruff voice. I looked at her and felt tears sting my eyes. "The four hundred people who died this week weren't helpless either. They were strong, independent, powerful people who were blindsided. Because of that, they're all dead. When I ask you to stay behind, it isn't because I think you're going to break." I took in a deep breath and held her face in my hands. "It's because I'm afraid that I will," I confessed.
She stared at me, not knowing what to say. She opened her mouth a couple of times to speak, but no words came out. She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "Okay," she whispered.
"Okay?"
She nodded. "I get it," she said. "I'm sorry."
I hugged her tight again and kissed the top of her head. "I love you," I said. "For some reason, that still terrifies me."
She nodded. "Me too," she whispered before she looked up at me. She gave me a smile before she reached up and scratched at the stubble on my cheeks. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd shaved. I closed my eyes and felt a smile form on my lips before I dipped my head down to kiss her. I savored that kiss. I pulled as much of her in as I could. Her scent enveloped me. Her arms wrapped around my neck. I wanted this moment to last forever.
I bit her bottom lip and tugged as I pulled away. "We can steal a few minutes, right?" I asked.
She chuckled. "I'm sure the front room full of people would notice."
I grinned. "As if I care," I said before I picked her up and plopped her onto the bed. She let out a high-pitched squeak of surprise and I decided that it was the most adorable sound she'd ever made. I crawled up over her and kissed every part of her I could reach. By the time I reached her mouth, she was already tugging my shirt over my head. If she wasn't going to give me a few minutes, I'd just have to take them myself.
Chapter 25 ~Ceres~
I rejoined the others after a shower. Amanda and the guys all had beers in their hands, including Wolfgang. Selena and Daphne each had iced tea. As I moved to sit down, Selena jumped up and ran for the bathroom. She slammed the door behind her, but we could all hear what was going on in there.
"I forgot that pregnancy could suck," I said with a chuckle.
Daphne smiled. "Just wait until you're eight months in and ready to burst," she said. "You think it's bad now? When I was pregnant with my last one, he nestled on my bladder so I always had to pee, and I was so big that I couldn't stand up on my own."
When Selena plopped down next to me on the couch, she curled up with her head on my shoulder. It didn't occur to either of us that I was still mad at her. I reached up and patted her head. "There, there," I said. She blew a raspberry at me, making me chuckle. "You okay, babe?" I asked.
She groaned. "Baby does not like tea," she mumbled.
"Do you need anything?" Riley asked from the doorway to the balcony. He stood up and pulled up his pants because they'd slipped while he was sitting.
"Ginger ale," Selena replied. "Lots."
"Coming right up," he promised before he stepped in and shut the door behind him. He leaned over and gave her a kiss before he left the apartment, keys in hand, to get her ginger ale.
I looked at my best friend. "Talk?" I asked.
She looked at me for a moment before she responded. "Course," she replied. We stood and walked out to the balcony, shutting the door behind us to give ourselves the illusion of privacy.
I leaned against the railing and watched her as she turned to face me. She was as beautiful as ever, even in leggings and an oversized hoodie. Her hair was in a ponytail and she wasn't wearing makeup. That was how I knew she felt exceptionally crappy. She always wore makeup.
"I wanted to apologize," I said.
Selena started to shake her head the moment I started speaking. "You don't have to apologize for anything," she said. "I would have been just as upset as you if our roles were reversed. You were already pregnant. You were already going to be a mom. Then, Mr. Supreme-o Jackass came along and ripped it away from you. You were finally excited about the baby," she said. "You were finally happy. And then… bam!" She smacked her fist against her palm for emphasis. "Gone. All of it. That's why I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to upset you. I knew it would. I didn't want to break your heart… but I did." Tears glistened in her eyes. She blinked to keep them at bay, but they still fell. She swore and swiped them away. "I'm the one who's sorry, Ceres," she whispered. "I couldn't stop it."
Vanilla Moon: Acrimony Page 24
