“I’m just worried about the future,” I mumbled. “I don’t know what the world’s going to look like when our baby arrives.”
Eric’s mouth turned into a line as he put his good arm tighter around me. “Matheson, no matter what the world looks like, you won’t have to face it alone. You have all of us. Don’t forget that.”
I nodded slowly. I appreciated his words even if they didn’t dull my sense of looming terror. I leaned against Eric, soaking up his warmth, trying to live in the moment and just enjoy his presence that I’d missed so dearly.
“Do you have a pregnancy test?” I asked after a quiet moment.
“Yes,” Eric said. “I had Tansy fetch one in preparation for the half moon.”
That’s right,I thought, remembering Mom’s suggestion.The rest of the packs still don’t really trust me yet. They don’t believe I’m pregnant, much less with all three of my mates. This could be my chance to prove them wrong.
I stood. “Where is it?”
Eric followed, brushing himself off. “You’re going to use it now?”
I nodded, and swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yes. I’m tired of sitting around and waiting. When the Half Moon Meeting comes, I’ll be ready.”
But I knew that wasn’t all. There was still a nagging part in the back of my mind that wonderedifI was truly pregnant in the first place. Every inch of my being screamed that yes, I was--but with my failure at learning magic and the prophecy’s apparent lack of fulfilment, what was I supposed to believe anymore?
Doing the test would put my mind at ease. I needed to know the truth. Was I really pregnant? And if I was, why wasn’t the prophecy fulfilled the way I thought it would be? Why was I still the only omega?
Why hadn’t I freed the shifters?
Not for the first time I wondered if we misunderstood the verse’s meaning somehow. It wasn’t like we had much to go on--just some dusty old book and the words of a friend.
“Matheson?”
Eric’s voice drew me out of my mind. He stood by the bathroom, leaning against the wall with a small thin box in his hand. I couldn’t believe that tiny item was the thing that was going to change everyone’s minds.
Or at least, I hoped it would.
I steadied my shaking hand and took the test from Eric.
“Ramsay should be here too,” I said, trying to keep the tremble out of my voice. “Where is he?”
“I’ll get him,” Eric promised.
I stood there alone in the hallway, staring at the small box in my hands. Why was I so nervous? I knew I was pregnant, knew it deep in my soul--this test was just a technicality to prove it to everyone else.
Maybe I was anxious because something I thought I knew for a fact could be proven wrong, and that possibility was difficult to accept.
I thought I knew I was pregnant for certain because of that spark of magic, but when I tried to use magic, it had gone nowhere. So how could I claim to know the truth?
When two of my mates crested the top of the stairs and smiled at me, it put my heart at ease.
I ran to Ramsay and wordlessly threw my arms around him. He cuddled me for a moment, letting me bury my face in his warm muscular chest as he stroked my hair.
“You’ll be all right,” Ramsay murmured. “Don’t you worry. Oh, c’mon, no need to cry.”
I nodded and pulled away with an anxious sniff. The longer I took to get this over with, the more frayed my nerves became. It didn’t help that only two of my three mates were here. If this baby belonged to all of them, all three needed to know.
Ramsay seemed to understand my thoughts. He gently lifted my chin. “Hey. Don’t worry about Colt. He doesn’t need some silly test to find out what he already knows.”
“Already knows?”
Ramsay nodded and gave me a soft grin. “Hell, he probably believes you’re pregnant with our baby more strongly than you do.”
I loosened up a bit and smiled back. Even if he wasn’t here to confirm it, that did sound like Colton.
