Science doesn’t lie.
My heart is heavy, my body tense, my breath short. I think on some deep, cellular level I knew the truth.
There was still that slim chance that I could have been wrong.
But I wasn’t wrong.
“Hey,” he says carefully. I look up from my microscope. “You okay? You’ve been locked in here all day.”
I shake my head, the words stuck in my throat.
Auryn is pregnant.
I want to say them. I need to tell her, to tell him, to—
“Worried about the mission?” Gage presses, and my breathing comes in fast because suddenly as I look at my alpha, I feel like I can breathe. Like no matter what, he’ll make sure everything is okay. He’ll make sure Auryn is okay.
He’ll make sureI’mokay.
And all at once the words fall out of my mouth.
“Auryn is pregnant.”
Chapter 41
Gage
“Sh-she’s what?”
Olly swallows audibly. “Pregnant.”
“And you’re certain?”
He nods. “One hundred percent. I’ve rerun the tests a half dozen times, and it’s the same every time.”
Auryn’s pregnant. Our ome–ouralpha. Pregnant.
She’s pregnant.
I want to respond, to give Olly some much-needed reassurance. I’m sure he’s freaking out just as much as I am right now, but I’m in charge; I’ve got to make sure everyone else is okay before I can allow myself the leisure of losing my shit.
I’m in charge. “Well, have you told her yet?”
Olly’s face turns bright red. “No.”
Crap. That means I’ve gotta break the news to her. “Well, she’s going to be disappointed that she’s going to miss tonight’s raid. If we didn’t need all available hands on deck, I’d suggest you stay here to keep her company.”
“But Gage, she–”
“Yeah, I know, but we can barely spare Auryn. We can’t spare you, too.”
“No, Gage, that’s not what I was trying to say.” He stands up straighter and takes a deep breath. “Auryn won’t stay. You know this as well as I do.”
Well now he’s just being silly. “We’re not taking a pregnant woman on such a dangerous mission. Guns blasting, a dozen knotless alphas waiting to gut us, Sneed … We can’t bring her. It’s as simple as that.”
“She’s an alpha in her own right, Gage. She deserves the chance to get her revenge, just like Em does.”
What the hell is going on? First he says Auryn’s pregnant, then Olly is … standing up to me? I don’t get it. “Olivander, it’s too risky.”
