I stared at her from my position on the bathroom floor. “No. No way.”
“Really? Because you just told us you had a magical werewolf heat where you couldn’t think straight and were basically in bed for days.” She raised an eyebrow. “Did birth control even cross your mind during that?”
Shit. She had a point. We hadn’t been careful. We hadn’t been anything close to careful. The heat had taken over and neither of us had thought about consequences beyond the immediate desperate need.
“Oh my god,” I whispered.
Daphne appeared in the bathroom doorway holding her car keys. “We’re going to the pharmacy. Right now. All of us.”
They dragged me to the nearest CVS and bought every pregnancy test they had. Five different brands. Brought them back to my apartment. Made me drink three bottles of water and then take all the tests.
I sat on the bathroom floor and waited for the results while my friends crowded in the doorway watching me with concern.
Positive. Every single one.
Positive positive positive positive positive.
I was pregnant with a werewolf baby from another dimension whose father had rejected me publicly and sent me back to Earth.
My life was an absolute goddamn joke.
***
Four months went by in a blur of doctor’s appointments and morning sickness and trying to wrap my head around the reality of my situation.
The nausea that should’ve been called all-day sickness because it never stopped. My body changing in ways I wasn’t prepared for and didn’t know how to handle. Trying to come to terms with the fact that I was going to be a single mother to a half-werewolf child who might or might not have magical powers.
I was about five months pregnant now and my belly was definitely showing. Not hidden at all anymore. I’d had to buy an entire new wardrobe just to accommodate the bump. Loose dresses and flowy tops became my uniform when I worked in thebookstore because even though the bump was visible, at least the clothes were comfortable.
And standing on my feet all day while running the shop was getting difficult. My back ached constantly no matter how I positioned myself. My ankles swelled by mid-afternoon. I got tired so easily now that sometimes I had to sit down between customers just to catch my breath.
Maybe I needed to hire someone. Get some help so I wasn’t doing everything myself and could actually rest.
People didn’t ask me about Mal anymore. They’d learned better after the first few attempts ended with me either bursting into tears or snapping at them with enough venom to make them back away slowly. My friends had spread the word that the topic was completely off-limits and thankfully most people respected that boundary.
The shop was running fine. Actually better than fine considering I’d been gone for two months and my friends had kept everything going. The money was finally enough to live comfortably without constantly worrying about rent or bills or whether I could afford to fix the ancient plumbing. I could afford regular doctor’s appointments for the pregnancy. Could start saving for when the baby came and I’d need diapers and a crib and all the things babies apparently required.
Small mercies in the middle of a disaster.
I hadn’t spoken to Aurion since that first day back. Hadn’t seen him around even though I knew he was somewhere in the city watching me from a distance like he’d promised. But I’d heard rumors. Lots of rumors.
Stories about a mysterious wealthy man who’d appeared out of nowhere and started a real estate company. Someone who was buying up land across different towns and cities. Building apartment complexes and commercial developments. Making millions in just a few months through deals that seemed almost too good to be true.
The descriptions matched Aurion perfectly. Tall. Handsome. Accent that people couldn’t quite place. Unnaturally good at reading people and knowing exactly what they wanted. Throwing around money like it meant nothing because to him it probably didn’t.
I’d heard he’d opened an office in one of the nicer buildings downtown. That he had a fancy apartment somewhere with a view of Ryeville’s modest skyline. That he drove a sleek black car that probably cost more than my bookstore was worth.
The car thing surprised me. He’d learned to drive? In four months? A werewolf prince from another dimension had figured out Earth technology and transportation and apparently mastered it well enough to navigate traffic?
Damn. I was kind of amazed honestly. I’d left him alone for a few months and he’d built an entire business empire from scratch. Started a company. Hired employees. Became a local success story that people gossiped about at coffee shops.
He was already rich beyond measure. Why would he want to work more? What was the point of accumulating more wealth when you had literal pouches of gold and jewels worth millions?
I just didn’t get it.
Or maybe that was my exhaustion talking. Maybe I was just jealous that he had the energy to do anything productive while I could barely make it through the day without wanting to lay in bed and never speak to anyone again.
This pregnancy was rough. Rougher than I’d expected based on what I’d read online and in books. My doctor kept saying everything was progressing normally but nothing about this felt normal to me. The baby moved constantly. Kicked hard enough sometimes to literally take my breath away and make me gasp. And I swore I could feel something else underneath the normal pregnancy symptoms. Something that felt almost like static electricity buzzing under my skin.
