by Lacey Thorn
Darby’s gaze jerked to Gideon as he entered the room, wheeling in a machine.
“What exactly is that?” she asked.
“We’re going to take a look at your uterus through ultrasound and make sure everything looks healthy for a pregnancy,” Diane stated. “I still find it all fascinating. For human pregnancies, the baby’s heart starts beating at around six weeks and most mothers hear it for the first time around eight weeks. But these guys are so different. They grow so quickly. By eight weeks, you’ll be over halfway through your pregnancy. Our best guess is you’ll be full term around the thirteen-week mark. Though it could err a week on either side.”
“That was my guess, too,” Darby admitted.
Calloway walked over and took Darby’s hand in his. He felt her joy and fear tumbling through her. He understood. He hadn’t planned on her getting pregnant. Not yet. He was sure she hadn’t either. But they didn’t have a say in it. There was no such thing as birth control for them, no way to control what nature dictated. They’d just mated, and here they were, about to be parents in three months. Life was crazy.
“While Gideon sets this up, I want to ask you a few questions. It’s going to be really intrusive, and I’m sorry for that. You’re only the third pregnant female we’ve had in the pride. Abby and I had different issues during our pregnancies. Hers were more physical, while mine wreaked havoc on my emotions. I’m trying to keep track, develop a foundation to start from as others start conceiving,” Diane said.
“What is it you want to know?” Darby asked.
“Anything you can tell me,” Diane admitted.
“Well, I practically attacked him last night. One moment, his cougar was licking me, the next I was on fire and desperate to have him.”
“His cougar licked you?” the professor asked. “Where?”
“At the side of her throat, on her shoulder,” Calloway said.
“Was it on the mark?” the professor asked.
Darby nodded.
The professor turned and made some notations in a notebook he had on the counter. “I want to take a blood sample real quick and compare it to the ones we took from you the other day, Darby. The animal most likely has a higher concentration of the genetic material that begins the changes in human mates. That one harmless swipe of your cougar’s tongue could have been the catalyst to launch her into ovulation.”
“That quickly?” Calloway questioned.
“I’ve learned anything is possible when it comes to shifters,” the professor answered as he took Darby’s arm and went about withdrawing a few vials of blood. “If possible, it would help if I could take a swab of your cougar’s cheek. Compare that to the swab I took of you in human form. I imagine it will support my hypothesis.” He finished with Darby, put a bandage over the needle mark and gathered up the vials and his papers. “I’ll run this and check back with you in a bit.”
“I never thought of that,” Calloway admitted, turning to Darby.
She shrugged. “What’s done is done. We both knew there would be no controlling when I got pregnant. I’m sure this is a lot sooner than either of us thought. I know it is for me.”
“Me, too,” he replied.
“And none of that matters. What matters is I’m pregnant, and we want to make sure our little one is as healthy as can be.” Darby turned to Gideon. “Do your check to make sure everything’s good with me. It should be. I’ve never had any problems with my ovaries or uterus or anything that I know of.”
“You’ll be surprised how far along your baby is just a few hours after conception. Another day or two, and we’ll be able to pick up a heartbeat,” Gideon told them.
“I’ll look forward to that,” Calloway said, locking gazes with his mate.
“Zane knew immediately that I’d conceived,” Diane said. “Hell, every shifter in the house could tell just from the change in my scent.”
“I knew when I awoke this morning,” Calloway stated. “It wasn’t subtle at all.”
Darby lay back on the table. “You know we’ll be back in a few days to see if you can find a heartbeat. This is all so amazing. I’m not sure whether to be terrified of how quickly this baby will grow or to jump up and down with excitement that I won’t have to wait nine months before I get to hold him or her.”
“Be excited,” Diane advised. “Focus on the joy.”
“I’ll be able to document a shifter pregnancy in a way no other watcher has, or at least, not one willing to share it,” Darby enthused, making Calloway chuckle. Of course, his mate would think about writing every moment down. It was one of the things he loved about her.
Gideon grabbed a towel and handed it to Darby. “I’ll need you to pull up your shirt and tuck this in your pants then pull them down just far enough so your belly is exposed. Then I’ll squirt this gel on you, and we’ll use the wand to take a look.”
Darby went to lift her shirt, and a rumbling growl rose from Calloway’s chest. He did his best to hold it in, but the thought of another man seeing so much of his mate, touching her flesh, drove him insane.
“It’s okay,” Darby admonished him. “Gideon isn’t going to hurt me.”
That wasn’t his concern. It didn’t even help to remember that he liked Gideon or that the other male was happily mated. As Darby took the towel and tucked it in her waistband in preparation of following the rest of Gideon’s directive, Calloway was afraid he’d lose it.
“Look, I understand how you’re feeling,” Gideon told him. “I’d be the same way if it were Vic. I won’t actually be touching Darby though. I’ll use the bottle to squirt the gel and spread it where we need it. Then it will be the wand touching her. I won’t touch her,” he reiterated. “If it’s still too much though, we can have Diane do it.”
“Gideon is better at this than I am,” Diane admitted. “He ran all the ultrasounds on me when I was pregnant with Amala. Zane was tense at first, too, but he trusts Gideon. I know you do, as well, Calloway.”
“Calloway.” There was a pleading quality to his mate’s voice as she held her hand out to him. “If Gideon is better, then I want him to do this. No offense, Diane.”
“None taken,” she offered with a smile.
Calloway took the towel from Darby’s fingers and adjusted her pants for the procedure. He grasped his mate’s hand and stood as close to her as he could get without joining her on the table.
“Go ahead,” he told the other man and watched like a hawk as Gideon applied the gel just as he’d explained. He set down the bottle when he was satisfied and picked up the wand.
“Here we go,” Gideon said, turning the screen so they could all see it as he ran the wand over Darby’s stomach. “We might see the gestational sac this early. Diane’s showed up fairly quickly. Yes, there it is.”
The screen revealed what appeared to be black dots to Calloway.
“The black spots?” he asked.
“Yes, I…” Diane stopped talking, and she and Gideon exchanged a look.
“What?” Calloway demanded.
“Is something wrong?” Darby asked, obviously picking up on Calloway’s unease.
“No,” Diane assured them. “It’s just… I can’t be a hundred percent sure yet, but I think…we’re looking at twins.”
“Twins?” Darby sounded shell shocked, which certainly matched how he felt. He couldn’t feel his fingers, and he was pretty sure the room had suddenly filled with a surge of those little black dots. Was the air heavy? He wasn’t sure he was breathing.
“Calloway?” Darby’s voice was far away. When had she gotten up and moved?
“Sit!”
Gideon’s hard hand hit Calloway’s shoulder, forcing him to obey the command as Gideon pressed him onto a stool.
“Head between your legs.” Gideon began pushing between Calloway’s shoulders again.
“What the hell!” Calloway exploded. “I don’t need to put my head down there. Just give me a minute.”
“Calloway?” Darby’s voice was soft a
nd full of caution.
He met her gaze, trying to lock onto everything reflected there. Was she okay? Of course, she wasn’t okay. They’d been mated a matter of days, and she was pregnant. Possibly with multiple kids. Christ! He wouldn’t blame her if she hated him.
“Calloway, it’s going to be okay.”
Now, she was trying to comfort him when it should be the other way around. He stood and moved back over to where Darby lay. She inched over, patting the table beside her. He leaned in, not facing the screen, cupping her jaw instead. His expression must have shown her how he felt. Once again, it was his mate who sought to soothe him.
“I know we didn’t plan on this, but we both knew it was out of our control.”
He nodded as if on cue.
“But, apparently, we’re having a baby. Two babies.”
They both glanced back at the screen and Diane.
Diane nodded. “It certainly appears to be two sacs. We’ll take another peek in a few days just to be sure.”
“How accurate is that?” Calloway questioned. “It has to be way too soon to see anything.”
“In a human pregnancy, that would be true, but these little guys grow so much quicker,” Diane reminded them again. “I’ll admit, I wasn’t thinking about seeing anything at this point, but with the growth rate and short term of these pregnancies, it really doesn’t surprise me.”
“Can you two give us a few minutes alone?” Darby asked, untucking the towel from her waistband and using it to wipe the gel off her stomach.
“Of course,” Diane answered, while Gideon wrapped the wand in tissue then wheeled the cart out of the room. “If it is twins, they’ll be the first ones we’ve had. I’ll want to monitor you closely, Darby. Make sure you have everything you need as soon as you need it. I’m not sure how much you know about carrying a shifter baby, but you’re going to need infusions of Calloway’s blood to help you support the increased growth rate of the baby. And with twins, it’ll probably a lot more than Abby or I needed.”
“I know,” Darby assured her. “I’m sure we can figure it all out later.”
“We’ll watch over you and make sure nothing goes wrong,” Diane hurried to assure them as Gideon motioned for her to follow him.
“I’m sure you will,” Darby agreed. “I have every faith in you.”
Diane gave them both a pat then hurried out, pulling the door shut behind her. Darby sat up completely and turned so her legs dangled off the side of the table. Calloway moved, meaning to step out of the way, but she grabbed him and he ended up standing between her sprawled thighs.
“Are you okay?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
“I’m not the one who almost passed out, Calloway.”
“I did not almost pass out!”
She giggled, peeked up at his face then laughed even harder. “Oh my God! You went so white. I thought you were going to keel over.”
“This is serious, Darby,” he warned, dropping his hands to grip her hips and pull her closer. “You’re human!” He was all but roaring at her, and her laughter disappeared. “Do you know what that means?”
“Yes—”
“It means you could die. That’s what it means. This baby will suck you dry, taking everything you have and demanding more and more and more. And that’s if there’s one. You might be carrying two.”
“I’m not going to die, Calloway.”
“Have you read about any human mates who’ve died during pregnancy or childbirth? Or were those conveniently left out of what you viewed?”
“I’m not going to die.”
“You can’t know that, Darby!”
“Who did you watch die?” Her voice was soft, husky. Her hands gentle as she cupped his face.
“I…” He swallowed, shook his head.
“Who?” she whispered again.
“Too many to count,” he finally answered. “That’s the point, Darby. Logically, I knew you’d get pregnant one day. I’ll admit I felt better once we were here and I knew they’d already seen two human women through pregnancies. But we were supposed to have longer.” He brushed her lips with his. “I’ve spent too much time watching you and not nearly enough having you. You’ve been mine for only days. I can’t lose you. It will destroy me.”
“You’re not going to. I have Diane and Gideon and something all those other women didn’t.”
“What?”
“You,” she shared. “I have you, Calloway Meyer, and no matter what happens, I know you won’t let anything happen to me.”
“Never,” he swore, gathering her close. He prayed it was a promise he could keep. He’d never been this afraid, not even when he’d been captured and held in the lab. There it had only been his life at risk. With Darby, it was his entire world.
Chapter Fourteen
“So you’re supposed to teach Tah how to give an alpha call?”
Darby glanced at Abby and wanted to groan. “Uh-huh.”
“But you don’t have any clue how he actually does that.”
“Right again,” Darby huffed.
It had been two days since Darby had awoken to discover she was pregnant. Calloway had spent the majority of the last forty-eight hours hovering over her. In fact, most of the people she’d met had hovered in one way or another. They made her feel fragile, which wasn’t a sensation she was used to. To top it off, she hadn’t heard back from the network of watchers about MQJ, who the rest of the pride thought was Madison Quinn Jensen, and Darby’s father hadn’t called. That was probably a good thing since she had no idea how to tell her father over the phone that she was pregnant with his grandkid, possibly grandkids.
“Feeling okay?” Abby asked.
“Fine. Why?”
“You were rubbing your stomach,” Abby answered with a soft smile. “I think I spent most of my pregnancy with my hand resting in that same spot.”
“Did Tah…hover?”
Abby laughed. “Like a mother hen, but in his defense, we didn’t know anything about blood transfusions when I first learned I was pregnant. I was losing weight, listless and ready to pass out all the time. It wasn’t until Clara arrived that we knew it was because the baby required Tah’s blood. After that, everything was wonderful.”
“Calloway’s worried because we might be having twins.”
“Darby, we all are. Diane and I both had interesting pregnancies. Mine drained me physically, while Diane’s did a number on her emotions. God,” Abby added with a chuckle, “we were all ducking for cover until Amala was born.”
“She’s such a beautiful little girl,” Darby gushed. “Such a perfect combination of Diane and Zane.”
“Yes, while my little moppet looks just like her daddy.”
“Regan is definitely the spitting image of Tah,” Darby agreed.
“She is,” Abby agreed with a smile. “There’s nothing like it. Every moment of your pregnancy. Every ache. Every pain. It’s all worth it when you hold your baby in your arms.”
“Thanks, Abby.”
“You’re welcome. Now, let’s see if we can figure out how you’ll help Tah. What exactly did your dad tell you?”
“He told me to follow my instinct. That it’s always my best guide and to trust it.”
“Okay. So what does your instinct tell you?”
“That we’re all screwed if we’re counting on me,” Darby moaned.
Abby laughed. “We’ll figure it out. I’ve been telling Tah from the beginning that people will start showing up.”
“It’s part of the legend.”
They both said it in unison and grinned at each other. Darby felt as if she’d found a kindred spirit in Abby. She’d spent most of her life consumed with stories of shifters. Reading them, transcribing them, archiving them. It hadn’t exactly made her a popular kid in school. She’d spent a lot of her school years on the outside, doing exactly what she’d been trained to do. Watching. It was different here, with the pride. She was different. Still, she felt as i
f she belonged.
“Is there any part of the legend about how the first leader took in his spirit? How he called his people?” Abby asked.
“Not that I’ve ever seen,” Darby admitted. “I keep going through everything, over and over, and I just can’t come up with the magic answer.”
“Maybe, you’re over-thinking it,” Abby offered. “Why don’t you sit and read through the journals I laid out for you the other day, and I’ll see what magic I can discover on the web.” Abby flexed her fingers and wiggled them.
“Do you want me to access the database for you?”
“Not yet. You said you’ve gone over things again and again, and I’m guessing you mean those things.”
Darby nodded.
“Then let me see what I can find from my sources and those the professor has.”
“That sounds great. Thanks, Abby.”
“We’re in this together,” Abby stated. “Now, let’s figure out how to make my mate even more of an alpha.” She glanced toward the door and blinked. “Shit. Did I really say that?”
Darby giggled. “You did.”
“I better get to it before I change my mind then.” Abby turned and settled on a couch with a laptop then waved a hand toward the pile of journals sitting on an end table. “Pull up a seat and join me.”
Darby dropped into a chair and pulled the top journal into her lap. She and Abby worked in companionable silence for the rest of the afternoon. They were both absorbed when the door opened and Tah stood there, bare-chested with Regan cuddled against him. He didn’t say anything and, apparently, didn’t need to. Abby stood immediately, putting her computer aside and walking to her mate. Darby felt like a voyeur as he pulled her in, dipping his head to kiss her in a way that had Darby ready to fan herself. The whole time, he held Regan snuggled against his chest.
“Darby,” Tah acknowledged as soon as the kiss broke. “How are you feeling?”
“Good.” Her hand automatically flattened over her stomach.
“When do you see Diane again?” he asked.
“A few days,” Darby said, putting the journal she’d been reading on top of the pile and rising. “Is it dinnertime? I’m suddenly famished.”