“It shouldn’t,” he reassured, but I caught the flicker of fear in his eyes before he stashed it away. “You’re different. You’re a fox shifter. Which is why Sabine was so excited to study you when we first figured out what you are.”
My eyes were wide. “All werewolves are experiencing this?”
He nodded again. “Across the globe.”
“Wow. I had no idea.”
“That’s good. You weren’t supposed to know. No one’s supposed to know—”
“Because if your enemies find out, they’ll take advantage of it…”
“Yeah, and as you know, we wolves have plenty of enemies. If they found out...” He let his implication linger.
“They’d try to wipe out your entire race as fast as they could, so you wouldn’t have the chance to replace your numbers…”
“And I can’t let that happen, obviously.” He looked worried, and I knew our newfound trust was fragile.
I bit at my lip. Wolves had plenty of enemies. The supernatural community wasn’t known for its ability to get along. Vamps and witches were the sworn enemies of wolves. I was pretty sure vamps didn’t like anyone; they didn’t even really like other vampires.
Then there were the demons, the goblins, the trolls... the list went on and on. As a group, supes weren’t friendly types.
“And Calista? Does she know? Is that what all the deal is with her?” Okay, I’d put my detective hat on, but dammit I was having a kid with this guy. I needed to know what his baggage was. I also needed to close this Calista case so I could cash in, because kids were expensive, and I didn’t want to owe Mack twenty-five hundred dollars, on top of being put on suspension.
“Not really. It’s just a mess my father got us into, that I need to work out,” he replied, leaving it at that.
It was clear he wasn’t ready to tell me what was going on with the siren. I was curious by nature, and not pressing the issue was killing me, but if he was willing to talk about things other than her, I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity.
“Have you spoken with Sabine about my pregnancy?” I tried instead. “Is everything looking good so far? Or is it too early to tell?” This baby was sucking me dry. At this rate I’d be dead in a few months.
“Everything looks good with the baby.” Worry shadowed his handsome eyes. “But we’re worried about you. Neither Sabine nor I have ever heard of a wolf-fox pregnancy.”
He was worried about me. Again, I didn’t know what to say. He’d switched gears so quickly, from asshole to nice guy, and all it took was a pregnancy test.
“And my body isn’t reacting all that well.” That much was obvious. “I feel a little better after resting, though.”
He nodded with a knowing grin. “That’s because Sabine gave you a blood transfusion while you were passed out.”
“She what now?” Did he just say blood transfusion! “You should have asked me first. You can’t just go sticking needles in my arm without my permission. It’s a violation!” I scoured my arms, but the doc had poked me so many times over the last few days, that it was difficult to be sure there was an extra prick positioned over my vein.
“Evie…” he started, and the way my name rolled off his tongue made my stomach flop. Not fair, I was supposed to be mad. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that’s how you’d see it. I’d never do anything to make you feel violated.” His gaze was so fierce that I regretted my choice of words. “Sabine said you were in critical condition, that we needed to do something, or you and the baby would suffer. Since you were passed out, I told her to go ahead.”
When he said it like that, it didn’t sound so bad. “I do feel better,” I said by way of apology, because I wasn’t sure I could get over my anger so quickly. Getting a blood transfusion was a big deal, even if I had been unconscious at the time. “Whose blood was it?”
Supernatural blood was tricky; each race was only compatible with blood of the same species. He would’ve had to have witch’s blood on hand for me. I was in the middle of wondering what witch would trust him with her blood, because blood was used for dangerous spell work in the wrong hands, when I noticed how taken aback he was.
“It was my blood, obviously,” he growled. “You don’t actually think I’d let some other wolf put his blood into you when you’re carrying my child, do you?”
My eyes widened into saucers. “You pumped werewolf blood into my veins!” I roared again as panic gripped me. Was that even possible? I’d heard horror stories about blood mix-ups; the results were never good.
He winced at my anger. “Calm down. Sabine tested your blood for compatibility with mine first. They’re a match because of the baby. We think the baby needs my blood so it will stop taking from you.”
Never. Ever. Tell a woman to calm down. I did my best to gloss over that point, and went right to the comment about his blood helping me, and the baby. That’s what I was going to focus on. “Okay, well thank you. I guess,” I muttered.
Where the fuck were Cass and Molly? I needed to update them. Cass was going to shit bricks. Babies freaked him out, bad.
Brock stared at me for a few breaths before shaking his head. “I can’t believe it. You’re carrying my baby.” His expression was a mix of disbelief, excitement, and something else I couldn’t put my finger on, other than to know it wasfierce.
“Try me,” I said. “I can’t believe a whole load of shit at the moment.” As I started to think about everything, I closed my eyes, and fought the ridiculous urge to cry.
