Mia sighed. On a bright note, Doc Sharon wasn’t trying to kill her. “Wait a minute. You’re being very reasonable about this. Is there a chance everybody will be?”
Seth snorted, and Sharon scoffed. “Oh, hell no,” she muttered. “We’ve got some old-fashioned assholes in the pack. I mean, they have their place, and they’re decent, but no. Seth is facing enough of a challenge right now and can’t show any sort of weakness. Not that you’re a weakness.” She held out her hands and gulped. “You’re great, but I’m just saying.”
“I’ll figure it out,” Seth said quietly. “We’re going to meet on our property. I can keep Mia on the porch. Halfway through, she can get a phone call about the murders the FBI is trying to solve. I’ll excuse her.”
Mia’s ears heated. “Excuse me?”
“From the meeting. Proper Rogers world of order or whatever it’s called,” Seth said.
“Robert’s Rules of Order,” Mia corrected. Not that it mattered.
Seth looped his thumbs in his pockets. “I’m just trying to keep anybody from coming after you, and me from having to kill somebody in my own pack right off the bat here.”
Should it be frightening how easily he talked about killing?
Doc Sharon snorted. “Yeah, that’d be a bad start, dude.” Seth slowly turned to look at the woman. She paled. “Sorry. Forgot not to call you dude.” She rolled her eyes.
Mia shifted uncomfortably on the examination table, which was basically harder than a block of wood. Apparently, wolves didn’t get sick much. She was a logical woman who handled problems as they came. But she needed more information. “The question has to be asked, and I don’t want to ask it.”
“Then don’t,” Seth cut in.
Mia gave him a look. “What are the chances it’s true? You know, like the killer bee situation. What if this child is more animal than human or wolf shifter?” It didn’t matter to her because she was having this baby, but she wanted to know what problems might arise.
Doc Sharon shrugged. “I have no idea. It’s very rare, and as I said, the stories we have aren’t good. But I could reach out to a couple of my friends in other packs. People don’t know the healers correspond, but we coordinate when we get the opportunity. I’ll see what I can find out for you. You already spoke with Luna, obviously.”
“How did you know?” Seth asked.
“The killer bees,” Sharon revealed. “She is all about genetics and splicing and chromosomal pairs. It’s fascinating, really. I’ve never met anybody who’s that inquisitive about who we are or how we’re wolf shifters. She’s back home safely, I take it?”
Seth nodded. “Yeah, she’s fine. We’re keeping an eye on her through a couple of contacts to make sure she doesn’t face any repercussions from her kidnapping, but so far, so good.” He then refocused on the healer. “So, is the pregnancy why Mia hasn’t been feeling well?”
“I don’t know,” Doc Sharon said. “My guess is it’s a combination of the pregnancy, considering she was still human when it occurred, as well as being shot with silver right before the mating. I think it’s a bad combination. We won’t know for sure until the baby’s born, and then we’ll see. This is pretty much unprecedented if you add the two together.”
“Great,” Mia grumbled. “That just figures.”
“For now,” Doc Sharon said, “I would wait to announce the pregnancy for as long as you can, just so nobody questions when it occurred.”
Seth frowned. “Already on it. In order to do that, I need to keep Mia away from pack members as long as possible, just to be safe.” His frown deepened, cutting grooves between his sharp eyes.
“What?” Mia asked.
“Alice was the pack’s secretary, and she’s dead. I don’t have anybody to arrange meetings.” He reached for a phone in his pocket and pulled it out to shoot off a quick text.
Mia tried to lean closer but couldn’t see the screen. “What are you doing?”
“I’m creating a job position,” he said. “I need somebody to take care of pack business, and that’s everything from announcements to newsletters to warnings. We need that taken care of. I have an accountant who does all the taxes and the ledgers for the mine and pack, but Alice actually did a good job. It’s too bad she killed my father.”
Mia had absolutely no interest in working for the pack. She glanced at her watch. “I need to get to work, and then, apparently, we have an all-pack meeting at noon. So, let’s get going, Volk.”
She jumped off the table, and the room spun around her. Gasping, she clutched the table’s edge even as Seth came to her side, slipping an arm around her waist. “Darn it,” she muttered. She cast a worried look at Doc Sharon. “I’m not going to be able to hide my health issues, am I?”
Sharon sighed. “Not from a bunch of wolf shifters. I’d recommend you take a long vacation or head back to DC to handle a case, but…”
“I’m needed here.” Mia looked at the new Alpha. Seth needed her.
Sometimes, things were just that simple.
Chapter20
