by R. E. Butler
He was sure there was nothing better on earth than his mate’s cries of pleasure in his ears, the sweet taste of her arousal, and her awe-filled smile.
Chapter 13
Late Friday morning, Sydney took a shift with Orion watching the firepit. While she sat on a blanket with her back against a wide tree, Orion poked at the flaming contents of the pit with a long-handled tool, making sure that what needed to burn would continue to do so until it was nothing but ash.
He lay the tool down on the dirt near the pit and brushed ash from his hands onto his jeans before joining her. He sat next to her and put his arm around her, drawing her into the already familiar warmth of his body. They didn’t say anything, and they didn’t really need to. At least not here, in this place. The day before, they’d touched her in ways that had eclipsed the first time they’d been with her in the cabin, each of her mates drawing her body to higher and higher plateaus of pleasure until she was hoarse from crying out and her body ached in new and amazing ways.
She’d had boyfriends in high school, but she’d never let anything go further physically than kissing. On the full moon, when her wolf wanted to have sex, she’d always chosen to go hunting the entire night, wearing her beast out. It worked for the most part, but she had always wondered if she was missing something. She doubted, though, that any of the young males in her pack would have held even a tiny candle to the pleasure that her mates brought to her.
A few hours later, they left Mason at the pit so they could go back to the house and get ready for work. Orion suggested she stay home from work and relax, but she didn’t want to just be sitting around by herself brooding. Even though she wasn’t big into the whole workout lifestyle, she enjoyed being at the gym. Sterling was always fixing something, replacing something, or building something. Crux had several clients that he met with a few times each week, and she was glad that none of them were women. And Orion, with his pretty blue-green eyes, would sneak peeks at her when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. But he was so handsome it was hard not to notice everything he did.
While they were at work on Friday, Nyte and his clan cleaned the den and made repairs, replacing the door and the furniture in the main room that had been destroyed during the struggle. When they got home from work that night, she went right down into the den and stood in the center of the main room where the male that had tormented her had died.
“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” Orion asked as he and his brothers joined her.
She leaned into him and his strong arms surrounded her. “I was just making sure there aren’t any ghosts from my past down here.”
Crux asked, “And?”
She smiled. “It’s entirely ghost-free.”
When she was drying off after her morning shower on Sunday, she reached up to put her towel back on the rack and felt a twinge in her side. She pressed her hand to her side with a sharp exhale, bending over slightly and waiting for the pain to pass. As the pain passed, she remembered that she’d felt a similar pain before she shifted.
She took in a sharp breath and her mind began to race. Darting into the master bedroom, she found the smart phone that Orion had purchased for her and opened up the calendar program. She’d always kept careful watch over her monthly cycle, using a natural birth control that her former mate had never known about to prevent pregnancy. When Katharine told her that he was planning to force her to have a child, she hadn’t thought there was any way to overcome the birth control that had worked so well for so many years. But she was late. Definitely.
She sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the calendar. She had no idea how to tell when she was ovulating or what the symptoms were for early pregnancy.
Her first thought was to go to her mates and tell them that she thought she might be pregnant, going only on two slight pains and the lateness of her period. Fear ratcheted through her spine. She didn’t think she could look into their eyes and tell them that she might be pregnant when she didn’t know for sure who the father might be.
Her fingers trembled as she called Alyssa. She knew she was taking the coward’s way, but she didn’t think she could face them with so little information. Alyssa was happy for a visit, and Sydney dressed and went to find the guys, telling them that she was going over to see Alyssa for a while. After declining company for the walk, she headed out the back door and followed the path to the big house.
Alyssa was standing on the back porch in a white and purple sundress and sandals. After a warm hug, Alyssa looked at her appraisingly and said, “Let’s go talk upstairs.”
She led her up to a large bedroom with a huge bed against one wall and matching dark wood furniture. The door shut softly behind them; Alyssa gestured to the bed and Sydney sat down. Joining her, Alyssa rubbed a hand over her belly and asked, “What’s up, Syd?”
Swallowing, Sydney asked, “Can you take me to a doctor?”
Alyssa looked at her in surprise. “Are you sick?”
She fiddled with the hem of her top for a moment before answering. “No. I think I’m pregnant.”
“Oh! I’m so happy for you!”
Alyssa hugged Sydney, but she didn’t have the desire to return the hug in celebration. Not until she knew for sure just whose baby she was carrying.
Alyssa stiffened and released her, gripping her shoulders. “You’re asking me to take you to a doctor because you haven’t told your guys yet. What’s going on?”
Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry.
She sat on the edge of the bed and chewed on her lip. “I don’t know for sure whose baby it is.”
Alyssa let out a slow breath.
Sydney continued, “I’m late and I thought maybe a doctor could give me an idea of the timing. I was only with the guys that first night.”
Alyssa put her arm around Sydney. “I totally understand. I’ll talk to my OB and get an appointment for you this week.”
“You won’t tell anyone, will you?”
Alyssa frowned, but then shook her head. “It’s not my secret to tell. But they’re crazy about you, Syd. Regardless of who fathered your child, they’d want to be with you and take care of you and the baby.”
“I need to do this first.”
Alyssa nodded silently and looked towards the window. “I came from a pack that treated unmated females like whores. If a female was single, she was expected to make herself available for any of the unmated males at any time, but especially during the full moon. When I decided I’d had enough of that life, I pulled up my roots and came here to Dalton to work at the gym. I thought that I didn’t deserve such amazing guys like Dante, Cairo, and Mason. I pushed them away even though I knew that there was more between us. I was ashamed of my past because I had let myself be treated like property because I didn’t care enough about myself to say no. But they didn’t care. They look at me and see their mate. They don’t see the endless string of my past lovers or the humiliation that I endured when I tried to start my life over in the pack before I felt like I had to leave. They just see me.”
Alyssa turned her head and her eyes were shining with unshed tears. “Whatever happened to you before you came here is in the past. If you feel like you can’t tell them what’s going on now because you’re worried about the outcome, I would encourage you to reconsider. They’re amazing guys and they’re not going to run because you may or may not be carrying a child from another male. Do you love them?”
Sydney’s heart clenched. “Yes.”
“Then you should trust them.”
“I do.” Sydney brushed at tears that she hadn’t realized had fallen. “But I want to do this on my own.”
Alyssa hugged her a little tighter and kissed her cheek. “I understand, and I’m glad that you could come to me. I’ll call my OB first thing tomorrow and get you an appointment.”
“Thanks for your help,” Sydney said, standing with Alyssa and walking towards the door.
“I’m glad to be here for you, Syd. I’m your friend and I hop
e that you think of me that way, too.”
Nodding, Sydney walked out to the back porch with Alyssa and hugged her once more before heading home.
The following morning, Alyssa called and asked Sydney if she’d like to have lunch on Tuesday at one, which was the code they’d agreed on when an appointment was made.
She didn’t like asking Alyssa to lie to her own mates for her, or deceiving her guys by not telling them what was going on in her mind, but she felt like she needed to do this on her own. She wouldn’t keep it from them for much longer.
* * * * *
The waiting room of the women’s clinic was done in pastels, with water-color pictures of flowers in gold frames on the walls. The sunny receptionist greeted them as Sydney signed in and then filled out the new patient forms. When the forms were completed, a nurse took them back into a room and gave Sydney a cup for a urine sample, pointing to a bathroom across the hall.
Sydney peed in the cup, placing the lid and tape on it and setting it inside a cubby over the toilet. Then she returned to the exam room and stripped completely, putting on the gown and climbing up onto the table. Alyssa had been happy to come into the exam room with her, at least for the start of things, and Sydney smiled at her.
The nurse came into the room, sat down at the counter and logged into the computer. “Have you ever been to an OB?” the nurse asked, as Sydney fiddled with the paper gown she wore.
“Yeah, when I was a teenager.”
She made a humming noise and typed on the computer. She asked a few cursory health questions and then said the doctor would be in to see her shortly.
“You’ll like Dr. Gershwin. She’s really funny and nice,” Alyssa said and then stood. “I’m going out into the waiting room. I’ll see you when you’re done.”
She smiled silently at her friend and watched the door shut. The almost silent snick of the door closing sounded like a gunshot in her ears. She was jumpy, and she felt like she was about to be choked to death by her past.
There was a double knock and then the door opened a few seconds later, a woman in her early thirties stepping inside and holding out her hand.
“I’m Dr. Gershwin. How are you today, Sydney?”
She didn’t want to start out their new doctor/patient relationship with bullshit, so she said what she was feeling. “Freaking out.”
The doctor paused as she was sitting down on a small wheeled stool, blinked and cocked her head to the side and then finished sitting down. “I appreciate your honesty. Alyssa wouldn’t tell me what was up, just that it was important you see me right away, so here we are. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on with you, and then we’ll go from there.”
There was only a heartbeat where Sydney felt like burying her head in the sand and pretending that she’d never thought of the ramifications of what might be growing inside her, if she was even pregnant, but that wasn’t an option. Weres had an extraordinary sense of smell, and it wouldn’t be too long before they would be able to tell that she was pregnant. If she was.
The sad, brutal story of her life flowed from her mouth. She spared no details, pulled no punches. Within the confines of this room, their conversation was sacred.
The doctor pursed her lips together and then reached for Sydney’s hand. “But you’re safe now?” the doctor asked.
“Very,” she nodded. Of that she was certain. She would always be safe within the house and the baro, but the question that remained on her mind, regardless of Alyssa’s assurances, was if she was carrying her former mate’s child, would they want anything to do with her?
“Good,” the doctor said, blowing out a relieved breath. She pulled a paper calendar from a drawer and handed it to her, instructing her to find the date of her last period.
The doctor looked at the date and then typed into her computer, letting Sydney hold the paper calendar. After what felt like an eternity, Dr. Gershwin said, “According to your last period, your conception days were most likely the fourth, fifth, and sixth of September. Did you have unprotected sex during those days?”
Her heart seized in her chest. The fourth was the night she had been rescued.
“I did.”
“With the one you’re afraid is the father?” she asked gently.
Sydney shook her head and felt something wet hit the top of her hand and realized she was crying. The doctor handed her a tissue and she blotted at her eyes.
“I always used natural birth control before, Queen Ann’s Lace.” She’d been able to gather it during the times that she was let outside and had never been questioned about it, for which she was grateful.
Her eyebrows went up. “I had heard that it worked on weres, but it definitely doesn’t work on humans. Tell me about the night that your mate drugged you.”
She closed her eyes, her happiness at the good news slipping away as she revisited the night she was willing to die rather than stay in that hell one night more. She remembered it as clearly as if it had just happened. The evil glint in his eyes. The sharp stab as the needle struck her. His crass humor and the threat that lingered in the air between them. He’d meant for her to suffer, and she would have if she’d stayed. That drugging had been so very different from the ones before, and she knew that it was because her guys were so willing to take care of her.
The doctor leaned back against the counter and said, “I’m not certain, so what I’m about to say is an educated guess. Since we don’t have the needle and it’s been so long since it happened, there’s really no way to know what he injected you with. But you mentioned that pains occurred after you were drugged. It sounds to me as if the drug he injected you with not only increased your libido, but probably amped up your ovulation. Since the natural birth control had stopped your ovulation, it most likely forced you to ovulate and possibly increased the number of eggs, which would explain the pains that you had. There are drugs out there that work that fast for weres — within hours really — that will cause the uterus to release eggs like there’s no tomorrow.”
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door and the nurse handed the doctor a sheet of paper.
“Your pregnancy test came back positive.”
Sydney let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding since the doctor had told her about the potential effects of the drug concoction her former mate had injected her with.
“Whatever you were injected with was strong enough to counteract the natural birth control and throw your body into ovulation. Whoever you had sex with that night was in the right place at the right time, so to speak.” She paused, but only briefly. “From your relief, I’m guessing that the one that drugged you is not the father.”
She shook her head. “The fourth was the night I was drugged and several hours later I had sex. But for several days before that, the one that drugged me hadn’t had sex with me.” She wondered now if he’d been abstaining because of the drug. Instead of taking out his aggressions in bed, he’d used his fists. Shivering, she tried not to think about how violent he would have been with her after restraining himself. She probably would have been lucky to be conscious the next day.
Dr. Gershwin examined her and then gave her a pamphlet about pregnancy. “You’re about four weeks along. I’d like you to come back in another four weeks and we’ll do the wand ultrasound. Your baby should be due around June twenty-fourth.”
Sydney shook her hand and sat by herself in the exam room for several minutes, letting her thoughts roam. It was the best news she’d heard since the relo group told her that she was going to be rescued. She was not carrying her former mate’s legacy, but the child of one her mates. The ones that had set her free and come to mean everything to her. She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand. She hadn’t been sleeping well the last two nights. Worry over her possible pregnancy, along with dreams of what she’d witnessed in the den, had left her exhausted in the daylight. Even the arms of her mates around her at night hadn’t stopped her from worrying over…everything. Now that s
he had good news, she knew her dreams would be sweeter and sleep would come back to her.
After she dressed, she stuffed the paper gown in the trash and gathered her purse, tucking the pamphlet inside. Alyssa was sitting in the waiting room, rubbing her large belly and reading something on her smartphone. Sydney smiled at her and then made an appointment with the receptionist for the following month.
“Well?” Alyssa asked, pushing herself up from the chair with a grunt.
“I’m pregnant. And it’s theirs…not his.”
Alyssa made a little girly squealing noise and hugged Sydney, and she didn’t hesitate to hug her back. “Thank you for being a friend to me. I wouldn’t want to be here by myself.”
“I’m glad I could be here for you.”
Alyssa’s Camaro roared to life and as they pulled out onto the street, she asked, “When are you going to tell them?”
“I don’t know. Soon. Before our mating on Saturday. Do you think they’ll be mad that I didn’t talk to them first?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t know them all that well since they’ve only lived here for a few months. But if it were my guys, I hate to say it, but they’d probably be a little upset that I didn’t want to confide in them. Or that I thought they couldn’t handle the situation. Men are funny about trust.”
Indeed.
But even if they were mad at her for keeping it from them, she knew that they wouldn’t stay mad for long. Not only did they love her, a feeling she most definitely returned in spades, but they were honorable and amazing, and would burst with joy at hearing the news.
Chapter 14
Sterling tightened the bolts on the bottom of the new office chair that he had picked out for Sydney. Although he really enjoyed it when she hung out with him during work, he knew that handing him tools wasn’t exactly the most stimulating job in the world. When they first came to work at the gym, the office that Orion claimed had been entirely empty. It was a new addition to the gym that Dante and his brothers had done to make room for the two clans to have offices to work in. Sterling had picked out a simple metal desk and filing cabinets, and Orion had brought an old, ratty desk chair that he’d used in college, and that was the extent of the furniture in the small space. Now that Sydney was staying with them and spending most of her working hours in the office, it was important to Sterling that she was comfortable. Along with Alyssa, the two women were dragging the gym into the twenty-first century by making all the files digital, which involved a lot of typing and shredding of old documents.