Vivica had felt like it was one hard thing to accept him. It had taken her some time, but she’d managed. Now though, she was suddenly worried whether they would accept her. It was a horrible pain apparently, and she didn't know how to feel about it. It was one thing to accept him, but she had never considered that they would not accept her. It was a wild concept and Vivica was going to need a few moments to really understand the full scale of it.
It felt like the day was just full of new experiences and not all of them were good. She did not like Shane's father, almost immediately. She would be happy to never have to see him again.
The two men were still fighting and at some point, Vivica just left the room. She had no desire to sit and hear people talk about her like she wasn't even in the room and like she had no choice in anything. Vivica imagined that she didn't have much of a choice. She was human after all, lower than low according to Shane's dad. How was she supposed to focus on anything, knowing that he hated her so much? Vivica had really wanted the meeting to go well. She wanted to make a good first impression, but she couldn't change what she was. Vivica was human and there was nothing she could do about it. How funny it was that she suddenly wanted to change that. Even funnier that there was something else besides humans. So much had changed for her in the last few weeks, so much that it was hard to imagine.
***
“I'm sorry you had to hear that.”
Vivica shrugged. She was actually all the way outside, because no matter where she had gone in the house, it felt like she could still hear their booming voices shouting at each other. It was okay for a moment, but it went on for quite a while and the things that she was called, her people, not her in particular but just humans in general, was enough to make Vivica realize that it was impossible. How could they ever be together when obviously every one of his kind would look down on him for being with her? She couldn't even imagine that it was possible, but Vivica was realizing quickly that nothing was as it seemed. Being with Shane really was impossible.
“No, it’s okay. I guess your dad answered a lot of questions that I had about your people. First things first, they hate humans.”
“No, they don’t. Well, some do. The older ones do more than the ones my age. My father is from a time when his people were hunted. He grew up in fear. I grew up alone and without a pack, with humans. I can’t look at them as an enemy. I never mixed well with them, not like this… but I never saw them as my enemy either.”
“What is so wrong with the two of us mixing or whatever?”
“Dilution of the shifter blood, but that doesn’t really matter, half-bloods turn into shifters too. Very rarely will a human be born of the mix and when they do, it’s usually a special kind of human. It’s a win-win in my book.”
Vivica wasn’t too sure about how easily he was talking about everything. Like it was no big deal. It was a big deal to her. She didn’t understand why he was being so blasé about it. Then, her mind went to them and what they had already done. Did that mean?
Vivica shook her head at the thought. She wasn’t going to be able to move forward from that. It was too hard of a topic and the answers would probably not be the ones that she wanted to hear.
“Just ask, Vivica. You know that I can feel all of your emotions, but I don’t know the words for it. I want you to have your answers. I didn’t want my dad to start in with all of his drama, but I knew that it was a possibility. The older generations still believe in the old ways. They don’t want to listen to reason, see the proof, any of that. They have their way and that is all that matters to them. I am not the same. I do not subscribe to the idea that we are better or worse than the other one. We are different and that is all.”
Vivica was happy that he felt that away about the two of them, but she wasn’t quite sure if that alleviated the worry that was dying to come out. She needed assurances, but not the ones that he had given so far. She needed the reassurances about what she was doing with him and what the results could be. Vivica hadn’t even thought about children or how they would turn out. She hadn’t been thinking at all, but Shane had cleared it up whether they could have kids. She wanted to clear up what happened if they did, if she was already pregnant.
Vivica felt like she was going to swoon. It was hard for her to focus, knowing that it was something that could have already happened. Why hadn’t she thought of that before? What made her think that everything would be fine? She had every proof that it wasn’t going to be fine.
“Tell me, what is it?”
“It’s just, you’re talking about kids like it is no big deal and now I know that it can happen. Could have already happened…”
“It did.”
“What?”
Vivica really was going to faint at some point. There was no way that she was going to be able to say what was really on her mind. She was now full of the idea that she was pregnant, with a non-human baby. Vivica’s gaze started to get fuzzy, and she saw black. Yea, she was going to lose it.
Chapter 22
Shane
He was cursing her delicate senses and his idiotic need to tell her the truth. He could have wrapped it in sugar and made it more palatable, but instead he had just given her the bitter end and, of course, she hadn’t taken it well. It was a shame too, because things had been going so well for him. His father wasn’t helping matters, but he very rarely did, and Shane was determined that he wasn’t going to let it all bother him. It wasn’t like he couldn’t convince her later.
He took her to his bed and set her in it. That was where she belonged, with him, next to him. Shane wouldn’t have it any other way. He was convinced that she was a special human too, but he didn’t know how. She was still too delicate in his eyes. He was afraid something would happen to her in his ‘world’, and he wouldn’t be able to keep her safe. It was the worst thing that he could think of, and it haunted him all the time. Shane was constantly wondering how he was going keep Vivica safe. It was easier in the human world. He’d made enough money to cushion him from most of the rules and regulations of the time. All Shane had to do was keep her there with him, and everything would be fine.
After setting her in the bed, he waited a few moments and then left. She was going to be out for a while, like before he figured. He wanted to go yell at his dad, but there were other matters to take care of. He’d been sent a letter from the Montauk clan and Shane knew that it wasn’t going to be good news from them. They’d tried to get him to come back and share his wealth, but he hadn’t agreed to go with it. That meant that they weren’t going to be very happy with him, not when he wasn’t playing the games that they wanted him to play. Shane couldn’t be bothered. He had Vivica to think about and their baby that she would soon have. It was all Shane needed to worry about. The rest of it was just a waste of time and he skipped going to see his father. He was a waste of time too.
Vivica came to a while later and he had some dinner brought in for them. His dad might be at the dinner table, and he didn’t want to risk the two of them meeting again. Vivica didn’t need his father’s vicious opinions. They still hadn’t talked about their futures and what it meant to be his mate. She was worried about their kids, but she wasn’t worried about forever. That was something he didn’t quite understand.
“Shane, I am sorry that I seem to keep losing it. I don’t know what is wrong with me. You know, I’ve never done that before. Ever. And now, I’ve done it a couple of times and it’s like everything is going to change in my life now.”
“Well, at least you are sitting up now. We should get it all out and if you need to take a break, just tell me. I want to help you understand what is going on.”
Vivica nodded, but she looked so scared. Shane wasn’t sure what she was thinking about, but he tried not to worry about it. There wasn’t anything for him to say but the truth. Vivica found it hard to deal with the truth, or at least that’s what he had figured out so far.
“I know that the idea of children with me is a shock, but I hope that it isn’t because you don’t want them. We should have talked about it before, but I have never had my bear come out like that, not in the middle, so I wasn’t prepared. You were a virgin and it made it come out, I think. That was the night you conceived.”
