by Lauren Dane
“She was what?” Jack yelled and Kari started crying. She felt like crap and he was upset and she hadn’t wanted him to know and now he had to know everything and she didn’t know how she’d explain it.
“I’ll explain later. Please.” She pressed her face into Phillip’s neck, breathing in his scent.
Phillip laid her down on her bed and went to get a washcloth from the bathroom. Elaine rushed in, followed by Andreas and Laurent.
“What the fuck is going on? Why didn’t anyone tell me that Kari had been poisoned?” Jack demanded of them.
“I’ll explain it all when we are sure she’s okay.” Elaine calmly but quickly moved him aside. “Kari, what’s wrong?”
“I just felt very dizzy and nauseated. I threw up in the bushes. Phillip ran over and carried me back here. I’m feeling better now that I’m still. I don’t have cramps like I did before. I just feel tired and nauseated.”
“Have you felt this way at all before?” Elaine asked, using an ear thermometer to gauge her temperature.
“I felt butterflies yesterday but I thought it was because of the wedding. I’ve been tired, but again, I thought it was because of the wedding and recovering from the poisoning.”
“Your temperature is normal. You’re not showing any of the signs from before.”
“All of her food’s been tasted,” Andreas said and Kari turned a narrowed eye at him. He returned the look without guilt.
“What? I told you I didn’t want that.”
“I did it anyway. In the kitchens so no one knew but Anna, Gregory, Sean, Phillip and me.”
“Bastard,” she said, although she was relieved that she probably hadn’t been poisoned. She burst into tears. “How could you lie to me?”
Andreas quickly came to her side and pulled her into his arms, looking confused. Kari was not a woman given to tears like that. Being pissed off, sure. Yelling, hell yes, but not tears for no real reason.
“Kari...well, nevermind.” Elaine turned to everyone else. “I’d like to talk with Kari alone please. You can all wait outside.” She ushered them all out over Andreas’s strident protests and Jack’s glowering insistence that someone tell him what was going on.
Once they were alone, Elaine turned back to Kari. “How long have you felt moody?”
“My whole life?” She snorted and Elaine laughed. “I don’t know, about three or four days.”
“Coinciding with the tiredness and the nausea?”
“Yeah. What, do you think I’m pregnant?” Kari snorted with amusement.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I do,” Elaine said and pulled out a needle stick and a test paper from her medical bag.
Kari sat up. “What? I’ve only been having sex with Andreas for a little over a week. Before that I hadn’t had intercourse for a month. I had a period in between.”
“Kari, werewolves have a different physiology. Our pregnancies mature very quickly. We have four-month gestations. You’d start feeling the symptoms of morning sickness within two days of fertilization of the egg. Tell me, where were you in your cycle before this last week? Count from after the poisoning, because I think if you had been pregnant that would have caused a miscarriage.”
“Um, I had my period a few days before Michael bit me.”
“Twenty-eight-day cycle?”
“Yes. Oh my god, I ovulated this last week.”
“Let me take some blood from you. We can’t just pee on a stick like human women can. About ten years ago, a test strip for human-wolf growth hormones was developed. The werewolf version of the home pregnancy test.” Efficiently, she used the needle stick and pressed Kari’s finger to the test paper.
Elaine smiled as the paper turned bright blue. “Kari, you’re pregnant. You’re bearing the next generation of Alphas for Cherchez.” She grabbed the bleeding finger, cleaned it again with an alcohol swab and put a Band-Aid on it.
“Oh my god! I’m pregnant?” Kari lay there, stunned.
Elaine looked at her and sat down next to her on the bed. “Yes. Are you okay with that? I mean, I know you started out on shaky ground about the whole idea.”
“I am. I really am. I mean, I know what condoms are. I’m a big girl. I knew this might happen, although not this soon. I was human not too long ago, this is all new to me.” Kari smiled, tears flowing again. “I’m going to have a baby in four months? It’ll be a baby right, not a puppy?”
Elaine laughed. “I asked that same thing! Yes, a baby. Our young can’t transform until they hit puberty. They do mature at a much quicker rate, though. Your baby will be walking by six months, for instance.”
“Oh my goodness. How about prenatal care? Who do I see for that?”
“I’m it. Don’t worry. I’ve done it several times before. I delivered Josh and Julia, as a matter of fact. I can come here for a lot of it but you’ll have to come to Seattle to see me at the hospital for other things. The ultrasound, for instance. If you have a good pregnancy, there’s no reason you can’t deliver here at home. Our births are notoriously easy and fast. It’s a big plus, quick gestation and quick deliveries. Still hurts like hell, but it’s much less than a mother birthing a human baby deals with.”
Andreas began pounding on the door, demanding to know what was happening.
Elaine went toward the door. “He’s a handsome one but I don’t envy you having to deal with him.”
Kari laughed. “Yeah. He’s worth it but still a pain in the ass.”
“I’d wager he’ll be hard to manage while you’re pregnant.”
Kari heaved a sigh. “Yeah. Well.”
Laughing, Elaine stopped and made a note to herself. “I’ll get you some special prenatal vitamins. You’ll have to eat even more than you do now. We can talk more about it later. Shall I tell them?”
“No. I want to tell Andreas first. Privately. Tell everyone else to wait downstairs. I’ll have to explain it all to my brother. Oh god, won’t that be fun.” She rolled her eyes. “Just a minute!” she yelled to Andreas, who stopped pounding.
Elaine nodded and opened the door. “Just you, Andreas. Everyone else downstairs,” Elaine ordered as she closed the door behind Andreas.
“Baby? Are you okay?” He rushed to her, pulling her into his arms.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” she said, waiting for him to catch it.
“What is it? ‘We’?”
“I’m pregnant.”
“You’re what?” The biggest grin she’d ever seen broke out over his face and he howled so loud she had to cover her ears. He picked her up and danced her around the room until she begged him to put her down.
“I’m nauseated enough as it is, don’t spin me.” Chastened, he carefully put her down.
“Oh thank you,” he said, kissing her cheeks, her lips.
“Thank you? For what?”
“For being okay and not poisoned. For bearing our child, the future king.” He beamed. “We have to tell everyone.” He rushed toward the door.
“Wait!” she ordered and he stopped. “I have to tell Jack everything now. He knows about the poisoning. He’ll know it’s impossible for a woman to be showing symptoms just a few days after conception, especially after being poisoned. He’s planning on moving out here. He’ll have to be told anyway, so let’s do it now.
“But like me, he’ll need proof. So why don’t we go down there? Explain it all and then you’ll need to shift to show him. Or Skye or Phillip. Sean and Emma left, right? No more humans here now?”
He sighed, clearly impatient and wanting to shout the news to all and sundry. “Okay. You’re right.” He started to pick her up.
“What are you doing?” She slapped his hands away and stood up on her own.
“You need to rest. I’ll take care of you. You don’t have to lift a finger until our son arrives.”
“Could be a daughter and that would be just as good. I don’t want any of this pro-boy nonsense around me. I’m already annoyed with this whole emphasis on having a son, as if daughters don�
�t matter. Our children will be just as loved and important if they’re female.”
Werewolf culture was already class-bound, which caused all sorts of negative situations. There was no way Kari would raise a child whose worth was measured by what was between their thighs.
He kneeled down and nuzzled her stomach. “Of course. A daughter bearing your beautiful eyes and curls will be heavenly.”
“Fine, you pass. And I’m pregnant, not dying. I can do my own walking, thank you very much. Elaine said that I’d need to eat more and that I could even have the baby here if the pregnancy went okay. I don’t need to be treated like an invalid.”
They walked downstairs and everyone who was left had gathered in the great room looking nervous. Except for Jack, who looked furious as well as upset.
“I’m fine. Before I say anything else, I need to talk to Jack for a second.” She went to sit next to her brother, pushing Skye bodily out of the way. He’d started to nuzzle into her side before Andreas went over, picked him up and took his place. Disgruntled, Skye settled in at her feet. Jack raised his eyebrows at that.
She sighed. “This is going to sound completely outrageous, but please hold on until the end. I wasn’t attacked by a dog in Seattle, I was attacked by Michael.” She motioned toward Michael, who sat across the room. “Elaine checked me out of the hospital, drugged me and brought me here. They told me that I’d been attacked by a werewolf and that I was going to change into one at the full moon on that Saturday. Not only that but I was a Mate to their king, and as such, I’d be queen of their Pack.”
Jack’s brows rose with alarm but she waved at him to stay quiet.
She quickly sketched out the details of her attempted escape and of Skye changing. His eyes widened when she described the Ascension and the fight with Johanna. And as non-dramatically as she could, she filled him in on the poisoning, explaining the merits of werewolf biology.
She grabbed his hand and took in his pale face. He looked as if he wanted to run out the door.
“Kari, honey, why don’t you come with me? We can get you some help,” he said softly, eyes darting around the room. She could tell he was calculating his odds of getting her out of there alive if the big guys decided to try and stop him.
“I told Andreas that you wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it. You’re like me.”
“Kari, it’s safe for you to change. Perhaps seeing you do it would help Jack.” Elaine discreetly avoided mentioning the pregnancy.
“Jack, sit there please. I’m going to show you something amazing.” Jack just stared at her as she stood up and began to pull off her clothes.
“Kari, you’re in a room full of people!”
“Just give me a second,” she replied, pulling off her underwear and bra. Skye moved the coffee table back to give her space to change. She got down on all fours and closed her eyes. Letting her human self fall away, she freed her wolf to come to the surface, and when she looked up into Jack’s eyes she did it as a wolf.
“Oh holy crap,” Jack whispered, staring at her with his mouth open in shock.
She approached him, touched his hand with her cool nose and licked it. Hesitantly at first, he touched her head, running a hand through her fur, over her ear.
“It’s true. I thought werewolves walked on two legs and attacked people. Hell, I thought they were mythological.”
Andreas chuckled. “Only in the movies. We don’t attack people. We try to keep our runs in the safety of the wilderness. We don’t walk on two legs unless we’re in human form. And as you can see by your beautiful sister, we aren’t mythological.”
“Are you all werewolves then?” Jack looked around the room warily.
“Yes, everyone but you,” Andreas answered.
Jack glanced around, looking slightly panicked.
“No harm will come to you,” Andreas said.
Kari moved away from him, transforming back into her human form and getting dressed. “Bummer,” Skye said under his breath and Andreas sent him an annoyed glare.
She came back to sit next to her brother. “So I’m a werewolf. I’m sorry I worried you. It’s not like I could have explained it over the phone or anything.”
“Well, you’ve never done anything halfway. And I knew you were hiding something!” Jack said, satisfied that his intuition was right. Suddenly he stopped and narrowed his eyes at Andreas. “You told me you didn’t attack people but Kari said Michael attacked her.”
Andreas colored at that. “Yes, you’re right. Michael lost control. It wasn’t meant to happen that way. It’s not our custom to change people like that. I knew Kari was my Mate, that our biologies were meant to be mated, but I wanted to approach her in human form first. Michael knows he was wrong, and he was reprimanded. Kari has forgiven him. I hope you can too.”
“And the poisoner, what happened to him or her?”
“We haven’t caught them. We do know it was one of our Pack. We know it was administered through a pitcher of water left at Kari and Andreas’s bedside but the pitcher got washed before we knew she’d been poisoned. We’re on it. I swear to you we won’t fail Kari,” Phillip said.
“So...what’s wrong, then? Why are you sick?” Jack asked, turning back to face Kari.
“No, I’m not sick. I’m pregnant,” Kari said, smiling, and the entire room erupted into auditory chaos.
“Pregnant? This fast?”
“Apparently werewolf pregnancies only last four months and move quicker all the way around.” She smiled at him. “See, you coming out here would be even better now, Uncle Jack.”
“This is a lot to take in. You’re a millionaire, married and a werewolf who’s now bearing my niece or nephew. I can see I need to be around to keep you out of trouble,” he said into her ear.
Andreas strutted around like the king he was, the males clapping him on the back. Jade pushed her way past everyone and practically lunged at Kari. “Congratulations! A grandchild. Oh how I’ve waited for this day.”
Kari felt a twinge of sadness for Perri and Devon, whose chances at a biological child had been destroyed by a drunk driver two years before. However, Perri came and hugged her tightly. “I’m so happy for you. I’m gonna be an aunt!” she said happily.
Anna came out, ordering everyone out of her path, and handed Kari a big glass of milk. “Drink it now, there’s lots more where that came from.” She beamed.
“Damn,” the wolf who hated Kari mumbled at the announcement while smiling broadly.
Chapter Eleven
Kari walked out of the bathroom. “My robe is too small now.” She tossed aside the red wolf robe that Andreas had given her on her transformation eve.
Approaching her, Andreas ran his hands over her swollen belly and felt the baby kick. At three months along, the skin stretched tight around the life inside her.
They’d come to Seattle to get an ultrasound at Elaine’s office. They’d spent the night in Seattle, at the Four Seasons, so she wouldn’t have to get up early to drive into the city for their appointment.
It paid to have a talented clothing designer in the Pack. Drew kept her supplied with beautiful and colorful maternity clothing. She put on one of the dresses, a wrap that tied just under the bust.
“You’re beautiful, little wolf,” he growled and circled her.
“We don’t have time for that,” she warned him with a laugh but she loved the way he made her feel so beautiful and desired.
Ever since she’d started showing, Andreas couldn’t get enough of her. They were still having sex two and three times a day. Her pregnant body was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. She was his wife, bearing his child. It made him hard all over just thinking about it.
He laughed and dropped a kiss at the nape of her neck, running his tongue up to her ear. Moaning, she leaned her body back into his. “Stop it now, don’t tempt me! We only have twenty minutes to get there and we just had sex forty-five minutes ago. Over there, on the chaise by the window? Remember? I was on top? You’ll hav
e to wait until we get home tonight. Remember that Jack is coming over for dinner.”
Jack had just moved to Star Lake the month before. He was in the process of interviewing with the local Star Lake Police Department and also in North Bend. Whichever choice he made, she was just happy to have him around. Being so close again was good for both of them. Alyssa didn’t know what she was missing.
Andreas sighed dramatically and stepped back. “Okay, let’s get going. Phillip’s bringing the car around.”
Since she’d announced the pregnancy, they’d been even more vigilant with her. Phillip was with her twenty-four hours a day and she knew they still tasted her food and drinks. Phillip actually slept on a futon that they’d moved to the hallway outside of their bedroom door, trading shifts with Skye. Laurent was still next door but was moving out that morning because they were making his room into the nursery.
They arrived at Elaine’s office with no time to spare and when Kari’s name was called, Phillip started to wait in the hallway. But Kari thought a moment and reached out to touch his arm.
“Phillip, would you like to be in the room when Elaine does the ultrasound? You want to be there when we see the baby for the first time?”
Phillip blushed. “Are you serious? I’d love to. If that’s okay with you,” he asked Andreas.
“We’d love to share this with you.” Andreas never ceased to be amazed at how loving and giving Kari was. Phillip was like a brother to him and it touched him that she seemed to care about him as much as Andreas did.
After Kari changed into a short robe that opened in the front, Andreas helped her up onto the table, where she lay on her back. “This is warm,” Elaine warned and squirted goo on her belly. “Okay, let’s see our new baby. Just watch the screen.” She indicated the black-and-white monitor to their right.
“Oh there we go,” she said, running the Doppler device over Kari’s belly. Kari’s eyes filled with tears as she saw the tiny arms and legs of their child. “Do you want to know the gender?”
“Yes,” Kari said. She and Andreas had argued about it. He wanted to know and she didn’t. So that morning they’d ended up tossing a coin and he’d won.