by Maia Starr
Straightening, I poured in the detergent and softener and frowned. To think our very lives were at stake was frightening, but no, I needed to stop thinking about it all. This whole conflict made my head spin.
Shaking my head, I turned on the washer and turned around, then flinched when I saw Fallon standing in the doorway. I placed a hand over my heart and laughed nervously when Fallon’s eyes went wide at my shock. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to be scared by you, Fallon; I was just deep in thought is all.”
No matter my excuse, Fallon’s expression slackened, and he looked away, hurt. It was only then that I noticed he held his laundry basket in his arms.
He placed the basket down and ran off up the stairs. Swearing to myself, not knowing what I did wrong, I shuffled around the basket he’d placed in the doorway and jogged up the stairs. “Fallon! Wait.”
I expected him to slam shut his door and rock the whole house, but that didn’t happen. Instead, he barely closed it. When I reached it and stopped myself from barging in, I saw through the crack he had jumped on his bed and pulled the covers over himself. Sighing, I knocked on the door. “Can I come in, Fallon?”
He mumbled something under the covers I couldn’t hear.
“Uh...what did you say? Was that a yes?” I asked.
Popping his head up over the covers, Fallon rolled his eyes and nodded. “You can come in.”
Smiling gratefully, I stepped in and came over to sit on the edge of his bed, just inches from his leg. He watched me closely as if he were absorbing every tiny thing. It was amazing that I was only just now connecting the dots that his wide-eyed watching skills were his dragon shifter traits. A long time ago, knowing that might have freaked me out...but now, I just knew that Fallon was a scared young boy. It didn’t matter that he was a shifter. He had it worse than me right now.
“Fallon, why did you run away from me?”
Of course, it wouldn’t be easy. He simply watched me, drawing his legs up to his chest. He shook his head defiantly.
“Please, Fallon. Are you afraid of me or something? Did I do something to upset you?”
Shaking his head again, he turned his gaze on the window. “No.”
I reached forward to touch his arm, and his lips quivered. “Please. If there’s something I can help with, let me know. Believe me, being cooped up like this while dangerous men are on the prowl around the city can be stifling. I’m right there with you.”
“That’s not it, Mom!” Fallon said, and then immediately blanched.
My jaw dropped. He just called me mom!
Not sure what to say next, my head began to pound again, and I smiled awkwardly at Fallon, my cheeks heating up.
“Naomi…”
Jumping to my feet, I spun to see a curious Alec at the bedroom door. Fallon dove beneath his bed sheets once again. Alec leaned against the doorframe, eyes creased, watching me as I swayed in place. “Are you okay?”
“Uh, it’s nothing. I’m just...uh, well, I’ve got a headache...and I’m feeling a bit lightheaded.” And your son just called me Mom.
Alec straightened. “Naomi, that’s five consecutive days now that you’ve felt like that. You need to go see the doctor.”
“Oh, really, it’s no big deal…”
“Naomi.”
“Fine! But who’s going to stay and watch Fallon?” I said when I stepped into the hallway, my face bright red now..
Alec chewed on his lip, looking at Fallon’s form under the sheets. “I’ll stay. But I’ll have Amber go with you. You can take the car too...but she’ll drive. Make things easy on you.”
I nodded, my thoughts in a completely different place. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Fallon had mistakenly called me his mother.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Alec
I watched as Amber shuffled Naomi out the front door and to the car. Amber gave me a look before hopping into the driver’s seat. I had no idea what that look meant, but what I did know was that I was instantly on edge the moment Naomi stepped outside. As I watched them drive away, my inner dragon urged me to go after her and bring her home. I could have called a clan doctor to check on her...but it’s not like I had any medical equipment that she might need in my house.
Growling low to myself, I began to envision all the nasty things that could happen to Naomi while she was out on the town. Levi’s clan could have been hiding somewhere nearby, waiting for the moment I screwed up and let one of my people step out of my protection. Amber and Naomi could be pounced on any second now.
Before I could step outside, however, I pinched myself and shook my head. Naomi was in good enough hands. I trusted Amber, so I needed to let it go. It had been weeks since Levi had moved against my clan or me. Maybe he’d gotten cold feet the second he’d figured out he couldn’t just kidnap my son and get away with it?
Shaking my head, I trudged back inside. I needed to stay calm. Besides, Fallon needed me. I couldn’t let him out of my sight either. If only there were two of me, and then I could protect both of them at the same time.
All I could do was hope there was nothing seriously wrong with Naomi, and that she would get home quickly.
Stopping at the foot of the stairs, I stared up, wondering what my son could be up to. When I walked up to see how he was doing earlier, Naomi had been there to distract me, and Fallon had ducked under the covers as if he were afraid of something. Was he afraid of me for some reason? Had he told something to Naomi that he didn’t want me to hear? She had looked pretty shocked when I came in.
Tapping my fingers along the railing, I wrinkled my nose and began the climb up to the third floor. I was long overdue for a talk with him. I didn’t think I’d really talked with my son since Naomi came. It was almost like I became so engrossed with dealing with Levi that I foisted him off onto her.
Snarling at myself, I realized I was failing him. I needed to do so much better.
Finding myself outside of Fallon’s room, I noted that this was the first time his door hadn’t been completely shut. I was so used to knocking every time I came in that I absently rapped my knuckle against the air. When I realized Fallon had looked up and seen me knock on nothing but air, I scowled. “You didn’t see that.”
“I did.”
Just hearing his voice was enough to help melt away some of the stress that had been hanging over me, so I could finally smile. “Hey, kid, do you mind if we talk?”
Fallon nodded sullenly, rising from his crumpled spot and pushing his back up against the bed frame. I came in and pulled over a soccer-themed ottoman that was tucked into one corner of his room and sat on it. I thought for a moment that my sheer weight would break the tiny thing in half, but luckily, it managed to hold me.
“So...it’s been a while since we’ve sat down to talk, huh?” I said, staring into my son’s eyes. He stared back, skepticism all over his gaze. I didn’t blame him for being suspicious. “Look, I just wanted to talk to you about what’s been happening. It’s been a wild month, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s crazy,” he said, pinching the comforter with his fingers over and over again.
“There’s a lot that’s been going on. A lot that’s been grabbing my attention. Is there...is there anything you’re confused or worried about?”
Fallon seemed to think for a minute, looking up at the ceiling as if all the answers would be written up there. That minute stretched on, and before I knew it, I was starting to get a bit impatient. I had to remind myself that Fallon was still a kid. He was still in elementary school, and he wouldn’t think about anything the same way I would. It was frustrating watching him try to form the words but I knew I just had to wait.
“I don’t know what will happen after,” was all he said. He wouldn’t look at me.
Confused, I cocked my head. “What do you mean? We know what will happen after this conflict is over with. We’ll go back to the way things were.”
He shook his head but wouldn’t talk again. I chewed on my lip in frustrat
ion and leaned forward. “Come on, Fallon. Use your words. What exactly are you talking about?”
He frowned now and looked away. “Where will Naomi go?”
“You’re...worried about her?”
He nodded. “Where will she go?”
“I don’t understand.”
He looked at me, tears in his eyes. “She said she hated shifters. She hates us! She’s just like Mom, but she isn’t like Mom. She’s nice, but she wants to leave. Why? Where will she go after us? To where mom went?”
I went rigid. Raw emotion clawed at my gut. I couldn’t quite tell whether it was sorrow, guilt, happiness, or some weird mixture of the three. My inner dragon didn’t know what to do either. Fallon was genuinely concerned about Naomi. He thought of her like Sandra...except nicer. He thinks of her as his mother, then.
Clenching my fists and then unclenching them, I rose to my feet and stepped forward. I touched his shoulder and then pulled him into me. Hugging him was like a release of all my fears. It felt so good just to hold him and know that he was still alive and had people he cared about.
No matter how Naomi felt, she was a part of this family now. She was like a mother to Fallon, and like a lover to me. She could easily be my partner, my mate. And I knew I didn’t have any other choice.
I had already told myself I could claim her, but now I knew I wasn’t the only one who would be able to bear seeing her leave us.
If Naomi left as Sandra did, it would probably break Fallon.
And me? Well, my inner dragon would take over, and I’d probably go insane.
Naomi was the key to keeping my family alive.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Naomi
At the doctor’s office, I was put through several tests. At first, I thought these were simply to figure out what was causing my headaches, but it quickly became evident that the doctor was thinking it might have been something else. She wouldn’t tell me what her suspicious were just yet, because she didn’t want to alarm me, but that only made me worry more.
I didn’t need something else on top of the stress of being in the middle of a San Francisco dragon shifter war. There was already too much to think about rather than some subtle disease I was catching.
Once the testing was over with, the doctor asked me to wait in the lobby while she figured out what the heck was going on. So I nervously sat out there, waiting to be brought back in, Amber at my side, trying to calm me down.
“Try not to think about it too hard, okay?” she said. “If you let all that worry infect your brain, it’ll explode into a myriad of pieces, you know. You’ll go insane.” When I glared at her, she peered closer, squinting her eyes. “Well...your head already does look like it’s expanding. You’ll have a watermelon shaped head soon, packed with all that stress.”
I wanted to slap her, but lucky for her, I reined myself in. “My head is normal size, thank you very much.”
“Then how do you explain all the headaches and lightheadedness?”
Before now, I’d barely talked to the woman. It’s not like I went out of my way to not speak to her or anything; it’s just that we were always in different rooms, going about different business. It’s not even like I was scared of her being a shifter since she saved my life after all.
Ignoring her, I peered around the room, eyeing a couple of men on the other side of the room talking all hush-hush. More than once, the two men eyed us, smirking and winking. It could have been normal flirting, even if it was already weird to be flirted with at a doctor’s office, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling they worked for Alec’s rival.
I looked to Amber for support and saw her watching the men back with an icy stare. “Don’t worry,” she whispered to me, “they don’t smell like shifters to me. I think they’re just regular pervy men who can’t stop themselves from making eyes at everything with legs.”
Nodding, I smiled at her. “I take it you get those looks pretty often too?”
Amber rolled her eyes. “You have no idea how many men have tried to date me. There’s been plenty of shifters who’ve attempted to claim me, but they weren’t what I was looking for.”
“And what kind of man are you looking for?”
Amber grinned, turning to face me. “One that’s genuine and friendly, and not so high maintenance. I want a partner that will go out of his way to help me too and get me gifts. Obviously, I would do the same. Basically, I just want a guy that I can have fun with, you know?”
I laughed. Talking with Amber was beginning to take a bit of my stress away. “I know what you mean.”
“What about you? Oh, wait, do I even have to ask?”
I blinked at her. “What do you mean?”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on...you and Alec? It’s pretty obvious.”
My cheeks became pink as embarrassment flooded my system. “What? No, no, no. That’s not...I just work for him, that’s all!” She continued to stare at me, her lips curling up into a smile. I couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of my mouth. “I mean...he’s good-looking. And before I found out he was a shifter, I did imagine what it would be like...being with him.”
Amber leaned over, inspecting me now. “You’ve slept with him before, right?”
I frowned. “That’s none of your business.”
She nodded along, chuckling. “Ah, so just once, huh?”
“What are you, a psychic?”
Just then, the doctor strode out into the lobby, a clipboard in her hand, glancing around until she saw me. She beckoned me forward, and so Amber and I followed her into a consulting room just around the corner.
“So, I’ve got some news for you,” the doctor said, her eyes locking with mine. “I’ll just get it out of the way, but congratulations, you’re pregnant.”
I nearly jumped out of my seat. But instead, I twitched and leaned forward, my voice louder than I had meant it to be. “Excuse me? Wait, what? Is this some kind of joke?”
“Not at all,” she said. “I’ve run the standard urine and blood tests. I’ve double-checked too. You’re going to have a child.”
Amber’s eyes went wide next to me as she crossed her arms and stiffened. My jaw dropped, and I nearly fell out of my chair. Righting myself and gripping the table, I shook my head fervently. “No, that can’t be right. I’m not supposed to be able to get pregnant. I’m barren.”
The doctor shrugged. “It’s always possible that diagnosis could be wrong. Whoever you went to previously clearly wasn’t doing their job correctly.”
I wanted to scream.
Before I could argue further, Amber took me by the arm and smiled at the doctor. “Thank you for all the help. Where do we pay?”
The doctor held up a hand, smiling. “First visit is always free here. Think of it as an incentive to come back. I’ll be expecting to see you again down the road, okay?”
Amber nodded for me and then dragged me out of the room and into the lobby, pulling me past the two men who leered at us and out into the hallway.
We stood out there, waiting for another woman to pass us by, when Amber leaned in close. “How do you plan on telling Alec?”
I imagined Alec’s anger at the fact that I had gotten pregnant. We’d only slept together once so far. Would Alec even want another kid? Especially now? He already had too much on his plate to worry about. Besides, I was just his nanny, and he wasn’t the only man I’d had sex with in the past few months. There was Ken too.
I shook my head. “Are you joking? I can’t tell him! He wouldn’t be happy.”
“Naomi—”
“No! Amber, listen to me. I’m not even sure if the baby is Alec’s. It could be another guy’s...and if that’s the case, I don’t think Alec would forgive me.”
Amber looked like she wanted to argue, but instead, she sighed. “Fine. It’s your baby, your life. I’ll keep the secret for you for now...but at some point, you’re going to need to tell him. You understand me?”
I nodded.
“Good
, then let’s hurry home already. I bet you’re gonna start getting really hungry.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alec
When Naomi walked in, she looked like death.
Well, maybe that was an extreme way to say she looked more stressed and worried than usual, but everyone was already always on edge. The pained look she threw my way as she walked in was something else, something serious. Or at least that’s what my gut told me.
I had been chilling on the couch with Fallon, trying to watch some of his favorite cartoons while I patiently waited for her to come back. I was going to claim her the moment she did, but it looked like that would have to wait for the time being.
“Hey,” I said. “Are you okay? How did the doctor’s visit go?”
Naomi stopped at the foot of the stairs and stared at me, hesitating. It took a moment for her usual bright smile to reappear. “Oh, it was nothing new. Just mild stomach flu. I was told to get plenty of rest!”
“Oh, great, well listen, I wanted to talk—”
“Sorry! I think my stomach is getting a bit restless. I’m a bit nauseous,” she said, cutting me off and holding her stomach. “I’m gonna run to the bathroom upstairs, okay? Can we talk later?”
“Sure, go on then.”
And so she did, hurrying up the stairs as if sneaking in something secret with her, something that, like Fallon, she didn’t want to share with me. I was beginning to get a bit frustrated with how our communication was lacking.
Amber came in next, frowning, tossing the keys to the Dodge Charger my way. Amber had always been bad at hiding her emotions, and she didn’t look happy as she walked over to the kitchen and sat on one of the stools set up at the kitchen counter.
I exchanged a curious look with Fallon and then got up to walk over to her. I walked around the counter and bent down to look at her. “And? How did the doctor’s visit go?”