"Good. Now, I'm going to go get your chart. In the meantime, take off your pants and put this gown around your waist. When I return, we'll do an ultrasound." Doc doesn't wait for me to say anything, not that I would be opposed to seeing an ultrasound at all. I just can't believe that we're at that point already to see something substantial.
I scoot off of the examination table and begin to unbutton the capri pants from around my waist. "What are you doing?" Thorne's voice interrupts all thought and motion on my end as I look into his eyes.
"Didn't you hear Doc? He told me to take my pants off." I was so confused why he was questioning me. Did I hear the doctor wrong? I can't imagine how my face is pinched together as question after question flits through my mind.
"I know that. But I mean, you're just going to take them off with me here?" I can't help but smirk at Thorne's bashfulness. Here, the big bad alpha, who has already seen me naked before is blushing because I'm taking my pants off? He makes it seem so scandalous, that I can't help but laugh.
"Yes. Thorne, it doesn't matter to me if you see me without my pants now. I mean you saw me shift for crying out loud." Thorne chuckles with me, but he's not looking at me. I lift his chin so that my eyes can find his and his amber orbs don't disappoint to give me the confidence to speak what had been on my heart for a week now. "Actually, I was thinking. If you're comfortable with it, maybe you can mark me someday soon." I bite my lip awaiting a response, however Thorne is the master of hiding his emotions when he wants to, and he definitely stands stoic now.
"Is this because of Vanessa's proposition? How did you even hear about it?" Thorne looks angry, not at me, at whoever he thinks may have wronged him. But considering I have no idea what he's talking about, I couldn't be sure who that person was.
My brows pound together in confusion since I had no idea Vanessa was going to come up in this conversation. "Thorne, I don't even know what you're talking about. I was only thinking of the fact that since I have to wait until the baby is born to officially join the pack, it would be nice to at least be connected to you via the mind link. It gets lonely in my head sometimes."
Thorne loosened the pants from around my waist and helped me step out of them when they fell to the floor. For the second time today, Thorne picks me up and sets me back on the examination table. Only, instead of backing away from me, he steps into my slightly open legs and presses his palms into the table, caging me in. My hands feel awkward sitting in my lap, so they automatically raise to grab a hold of his massive arms by his biceps. I want to lean back, but Thorne's torso leans forward until I can feel his breath feather my ear with every exhale.
"For the record, I thought you wanted to wait until the baby was born for both my mark and joining the pack."
"I-I did. But what if Doc says I need to be on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy? I only talk to you at night, and Lydia during the day. We're too far away for me to connect with my brother. It would just be nice to use the mind link with someone, is all." The ceremony to join the pack was definitely something that had to wait until I had our pup, since it involved shifting. However, once Thorne marked me, I'd be able to talk to him throughout the day using the mind link and I wouldn't feel so isolated.
Plus, more often than not, most mated pairs marked each other during sex. And judging by the way Thorne's eyes are constricting, he knows I am asking for more than just his mark. These pregnancy hormones are making me hot and bothered, and Thorne is definitely someone I would love to be hot and bothered with. Even now, I wanted to scoot closer to him so that I'd be completely at his mercy. If only the door was barricaded so that Doc wouldn't walk in.
"And if he says, you don't have to stay on bed rest? What then?" Thorne's voice was low and husky, and it thrilled me to know that he was affected in some way to our discussion. Maybe even open to it. I definitely hoped so.
"I'm still ready." I took a moment to wet my lips and clear my throat so that I sounded sure in my decision. "Thorne, I want to bear your mark, as your mate." Thorne's lips come crashing on mine as a throaty growl of approval rumbles from his chest. The oddly good combination of peppermint and coffee linger on his breathe as our tongues tangle against the other. After all of the heartache I had with Julien, Thorne feels like home. We were right for each other.
A third throat clearing from the hallway has us pulling away from each other too soon, and we turn our heads in sync to see Doc standing at the door. "Sorry. I knocked, but you must not have heard me." Doc has his head down, but I catch the smirk that teases his lips as he moves deeper into the room and towards his equipment.
"Let's see what we can today. Shall we?" Doc grabs the gown that I was supposed to place around my waist and lays it across my lap. "Luna Kairi, if you could please scoot back and lay down? That's good." I do as he says, and Thorne and I watch as Doc turns on the ultrasound machine and pulls out a tube of jelly. "This is going to be a little cold, sorry."
Doc squeezes a liberal amount on my baby bump and saying that the gel was just a little cold, was an understatement. I feel a slight pressure from the scanner as Doc presses slightly on my belly. I anxiously look at the screen, waiting to see my little nugget, but so far all I can make out with clarity is static. I'm just about to be bummed when Doc speaks up.
"Ahh there he is. Look!" Doc's hand stops moving the wand around and uses his other hand to point to the monitor. "There's the head." As soon as he points out the head, I can make out the tiny body amongst the static. Thorne's hand slipped into mine as we watched Doc manipulate the wand so that we could see the frontal view. This was truly something amazing! I felt extremely blessed to be a shifter in this moment. Human mothers had to wait four to five months to see what I can in just a month and a half.
"He?" I ask, but soon I don't even need Doc to answer. "That's definitely not his hand," I chuckle along with the others in the room with me. I am seriously beyond fascinated with seeing the little bundle that I'm creating inside of me. I can't wait to meet this precious little guy. I idly wonder if he's going to look like the little baby that I held in my dream two weeks ago.
Thorne's grip tightens on mine just a bit as we look on as Doc began taking measurements of the pup. I can't help but wonder how bittersweet this moment must be for him. Here he is celebrating a created life of a child that isn't his when he missed out on moments like this for his own child. I don't doubt for a second that Thorne isn't genuinely happy for me. Really, for us, since he always says that he'll adopt him as his own. It just doesn't negate the fact that he should have been there for MJ.
"You're progressing quite nicely, my dear. Compared to our human counterparts, you look to be about five months, almost bordering 6 months pregnant. Judging by these initial measurements, you're going to have a big baby." Doc chuckled to himself and continued to look around my womb with the ultrasound.
"Alright, there you go." Doc hands me a bunch of tissues to clean the blue goo from my skin. Another machine that he had turned on whirls to a stop and Doc is now handing Thorne several small sheets of paper. He holds one up and I see they're sonogram pics. "Now I know there were some questions regarding bed rest. I don't think it's necessary for you to go back on bed rest. Just don't do anything too strenuous and try to keep your stress levels down. Alpha Thorne, I also want you to stop carrying her around. While it's cute, her center of balance is thrown off with the extra body weight, which in turn can throw you off. As long as she's capable, please let her walk. If you don't think she's capable, I can sign out a wheelchair."
"A wheelchair won't be necessary Doc. I'll walk." I narrow my eyes at Thorne while he holds his hands up in surrender. He sticks his tongue out at me and reactionary, I throw the gown that was draped over my lap. "That will be all Doc." I try to say with dignity since I just exposed my entire body from the waist down. Doc has the decency to look away, while Thorne is staring. Even after I cross my legs from view, he still staring.
"Well if you need anything, I'll be in my office." Doc
wastes no time getting out of the exam room, almost walking into the wall in the attempt to get out of the door. I don't blame him. If I was dressed, I'd be running out right behind him.
'You shouldn't do that to him. Or to me," I scold Thorne even though the admonishment does nothing for him. Thorne just stands there with that sexy smirk I've come to love while I hurriedly wiped the remaining jelly from my torso and then grab my pants.
"And what is it that I shouldn't be doing? Hmm?" There was a playful tone to his demeanor. The familiarity that I feel with him is comfortable and in the two weeks that he's kept me here...I just feel so grateful that he came up with this plan to get me here. So many times, Natasha would complain that I wasn't fun or silly enough. But I never understood what it was she wanted me to do. I've always had so many duties thrust upon me from a young age. Granted some of it, I took on myself. I always had the weight of the world on my shoulder, at least that's how it felt.
However, with Thorne, I could see myself letting go and being carefree. And, not only did it come easy, I wanted to be the easygoing girl that could care for him and play with him. We've already proven on more than one occasion that we could fight side by side. I just want to be there for him with everything that he went through.
"You're embarrassing him."
"Trust me. Everyone around here is happy to see me with you. Hell, they're just happy that I'm happy." I smile, partly because I'm happy knowing that he's happy with me; but mainly because I finally had my pants back on. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Thorne leads me out of the clinic, the both of us waving goodbye to Doc and the two nurses that help him in there. "I have something to ask you."
We're only just outside of the clinic, but we're walking back towards the pack house. A slew of kids are running around in the humid air, many just escaping the heat by swimming in the pool. The swaying trees provide some much-needed cover from the sun, but the heat still feels oppressive. Heck, I am ready to jump into the pool with the kids.
"You mentioned before that you would help raise MJ if he was mine, does that still stand?"
My eyebrows furrowed together. This was the question he wanted to ask me? Of course, I'd help him. It's not as though his existence was MJ's fault. Without a doubt, I answered, "Yes."
"Would it be a problem for you if Vanessa and the kids joined the pack? I know the situation isn't ideal, but I want you to know that I'll always choose you over her." Thorne brings his hand up to cup my face and I can't help but lean into his palm and inhale his scent that I've come to find so much solace in.
"Thorne, I really hope I never have to make you choose between us." The hand that is on my cheek moves towards the back of my neck and Thorne brings me closer to him so that his lips are just above my forehead.
A gentle but promising kiss lingers at the top of my head, a slight pressure from Thorne's lips. "I don't know what I did to find you, let alone deserve you."
"Thorne, are the results in? Is MJ your son?" I ask, but Thorne only shakes his head.
"Doc won't know for a few more days. I've just spending some time with him and like you, I can't get over how much he looks like me. He's a smart kid too. Part of me wants him to be mine, but then I worry how you would feel if I claimed MJ as mine. And then I don't know what to do."
I could sense that it was my turn to comfort the man before me. We often told each other our deepest concerns, usually while we were lying in bed at night. However, this was the first time we really truly talked about the implications of MJ actually being his firstborn son.
"I don't want you to worry about me Thorne. I worry about me enough for the both of us," I say, hoping to draw out a smile. His lips turn up ever so slightly, so I continue speaking. "If the results prove that MJ is yours, it won't matter that you weren't there for the first years of his life. That's on Vanessa, not you. She stole that time from you and MJ. But what will matter is how you respond to the results. And if he is yours, how you treat him going forward will all that little boy will need to know.
"Now for the sake of this discussion, my son is not biologically yours. MJ through your blood has a better claim to the alpha title than this pup." I pull Thorne's free hand up to my very pregnant belly and hold our hands together. "I've always been okay with that. I don't care about titles and bloodlines and such, as long as this baby is healthy. I'll support you in whatever you decide, Thorne."
"It sounds like we're definitely in this together." Thorne says before gasping. It would be almost amusing to hear a grown wolf gasp, except I knew what the reason was for his reaction. The little pup growing inside me, decided that was the moment to kick for the first time for him. Of course, it wasn't the first time for me, but it was definitely the first time someone else felt the shock. It is somewhat poetic that it was Thorne, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
After my doctor's appointment and our brief interlude, Thorne and I split up to go our separate ways. The promise to link up later hung in the air when we parted ways. A small smile was determined to stay on my lips afterwards as I walked to the office that I had yet to spend any time in. I couldn't believe that I could find myself happy in the situation I currently found myself in.
I think back to the night of my birthday, a night I had no idea would change the course of my life forever. I curse the insta-love that the bond created for me and Julien. It was something that worked for other moon-kissed pairs but obviously the bond wasn't enough for Julien. Try as I may, I couldn't even understand what Julien was thinking, let alone how to even begin to understand his love.
How the goddess thought Julien was perfect for me, was beyond me. Thorne was the obvious choice for me. The comfort level I felt for him was natural. The bond created a fake sense of security with Julian and me. I suppose other mated pairs it didn't matter to them. They welcomed the attraction that they felt. And for a spell, Julien and I got lost in the bond as well. But what I felt for Thorne felt infinitely more authentic than what I felt for Julien for those few brief hours.
I can't help but to smile brightly as my hands naturally find their way to the bump in my figure. I can't be mad for the short stint to insanity with Julien. This pup felt like everything I went through with Julien, the despair and drama, would be all worth it.
I'm confidently lost in my thoughts when I enter my office and sit behind my desk. I had given Lydia the day off, knowing I had my appointment, and since I wasn't sure what he was going to tell me, it seemed pointless to keep her on standby. But since I got a clean bill from Doc, I figured there was nothing wrong in getting ahead of the workload for tomorrow.
I just started up the laptop that was on my desk when there was a solid knock on the door.
"Come in," I call out and enter my password in the prompt.
"Luna Kairi, I wanted to talk with you. If that's okay with you." I recognized the sneer before I smelled her scent. Vanessa. I closed my eyes for just a second before standing at my desk to receive her.
Vanessa saunters into my office wearing leggings that look painted on and a sports bra that looks a size or two too small. It takes everything in my power to not to tarnish the position of being a Luna by laughing in her ridiculous face. I am not even sure how I was ever intimidated by the she-wolf before me, but that shit ended now.
"Vanessa, to what do I owe the pleasure?" I point out that she should sit at the chair before my desk, and I don't sit until she does. I lower the hood of my laptop and give her my full attention.
"Are you cozy in my office?" She tapped her nails against the arm of the chair. The noise was quickly becoming the most annoying sound in the world to me. Though I had a sneaking feeling that I would find the sound of her breathing annoying.
The amusement rolls off my lips as I chuckle at her assessment. "No. I wasn't aware you had an office here. I'll be sure to visit one day when I'm not busy with Luna duties."
It wasn't my snarkiest comment, but Vanessa was still shocked that I said
anything back to her at all. Maybe it was the two-year age difference that she thought she would be able to walk all over me, but I made a note to make sure that I had to end every encounter on top. I would never let her, or any other she-wolf get the best of me again.
"You know, I just got done seeing my mate. He seemed very receptive to me joining the pack with my son."
"First, sons, you have two. So, using one as a dangling pawn over Thorne isn't going to work. Don't forget that. Second, I know about you joining the pack because I encouraged him to consider adding you and even gave my support to what he decided. So, on that front, congratulations on your pending approval. And lastly, I was under the impression that your mate died. Do I have the wrong information? Is Marvin alive?" I look at her with my head cocked to the side in mock confusion. I can't help the smirk that tilts the corner of my mouth at her obvious outrage.
"Look, you little bitch," Vanessa stands up and slams her fist against the desk. "You're nothing but a kid that got knocked up by my true mate. I can already feel our bond becoming stronger with my proximity to him. You're on borrowed time here before I take my rightful spot beside Wesley."
The Rejection (Luna of the Pack Series) Page 18