ten
Norah sat down on the bed and looked around the room. Her MacBook air sat open on the desk in the corner. She had quite a bit of work to do, but she ignored it. She was simply too ill, physically and emotionally, to manage client files today. She laid back on the soft pillows scattered at the head of the bed and stared at the ceiling. Lukyan almost said he loved her. She was sure that was what he was going to say before he stopped himself. Why?
Norah had thought that he was possibly one of those guys for whomI love youwas just too difficult to utter, but then he confused her when he said it so easily to their unborn child. Norah felt a stab of pain. She was ashamed of herself for being jealous of their child, a child that deserved the love from Lukyan as much, if not more than she did. But, she wanted it for herself, too.
He had held her hand the entire way home. By the time they reached the gated entrance to the estate, her tears and dried, but his hand remained on hers, gently stroking against her knuckles.
"I can call into work today if you want me to stay home. You seem like you might need me." The look he gave her practically implored her to say yes. She was torn. On the one hand, she desperately wanted him to stay and comfort her; on the other hand, she couldn't bear to be around him any longer. It was a Catch 22 moment. There was nothing she wanted more than him in her life, but she couldn't stand to be near without his love.
Norah shook her head and wiped her now dry eyes. "No, it's okay. You have a lot of work to do. I will need you around the house when the baby gets here."
A gentle scratch at her door pulled her from her memories. She partially sat up. “Come in." A disheveled Cate stuck her head through the crack of the door.
“Can I come in?" Cate flashed a pretty smile. Norah waved her in.
"Lukyan called. He asked that I check on you. Are you doing okay?" Cate sat down on the edge of the bed and gave Norah's shoulders a friendly pat. The two had become quite close in the past five months. Cate wasn’t quite as open or outrageous as Jessie, but she was a pretty good stand-in for the best friend that Norah hadn’t seen for months.
"I know you've been feeling really badly lately. I wish that you were having a decent pregnancy. My first pregnancy with Peter — so easy. I felt great the entire time. This one—" she pointed to her belly — "has been an entirely different story." She rolled her eyes for effect.
Despite her nausea, Norah snorted. "What, it's not normal to walk around in a bathrobe because your pregnant body urges you to shift into wolf form every five minutes? You do realize your weird pregnancy craving is to be a wolf, right?" Cate laughed. Where Norah had suffered the first five months of her pregnancy with debilitating morning sickness, Cate had experienced pregnancy in a totally new way. Early on, she had stopped wearing normal clothing and had taken to walking around the estate in a robe because she could not stop herself from shifting at the most random time. Dimitris, ever worried that someone would try to harm his mate, or as most referred to her, the Wolf Queen, had asked his entire security crew to also wear robes. If Cate shifted unexpectedly, they needed to shift as well. Cate had a simple desire to run in her wolf form on a regular basis, and her security needed to be near her at all times.
Wearing the robe was an absolute source of shame for Mylo, for whom Alek had purchased a silky flowered kimono. It was one of the few moments in Norah's pregnancy that gave her joy. Walking through the house and finding Mylo in his short red robe dotted with big white flowers was a sight to behold. He was such a dignified man in such an undignified outfit. She giggled at the thought.
Cate sat up and looked frantically around the room. "Oh no, Norah, I'm getting the feeling again.” She rubbed her belly as if coaxing the growing baby to let her rest for a while.
“Why don’t you come for a run with me? I don’t think you will feel as queasy in your wolf form, and I don’t think I can stay here much longer. I have to let this little wolf out on a regular basis or else she will just pop right out at the most inopportune of times."
Norah waved off the suggestion "Cate, I am just too nauseous. I don't think my body can handle both the sickness and the pain of transition. I can’t do it."
Cate stood and looked at her friend. "Norah, you will feel much better if you let your wolf out to play. I think that is part of your problem. You’ve been keeping her inside too much. I know that sounds ridiculous coming from me, I've only been a shifter or for a few short months, but I think it's true. I think you should allow yourself to transition and let your wolf take over. You will feel much better." Cate tilted her head to one side and gave Norah a thoughtful look. "And I'm not just talking about your morning sickness. There's something sad about you, Norah. This should be the happiest time in your life. You just found your fated mate and you are bringing a new baby into the world. I think you would not be so sad if you let your wolf take over for a bit and stop being human for a few minutes."
Rolling waves of nausea washed over Norah. Cate was right, it wasn't just morning sickness that was bringing her down, it was her very human desire for Lukyan's love. Norah didn't believe that shifting into a wolf would answer her question, her wolf wanted love from Lukyan as much as she did. She looked up at her friend. Cate was still waiting. She seemed to believe that Norah would simply acquiesce to her wishes.Alphas!Funnily enough, Norah did want to do as her alpha female requested.
"You're right. I will probably feel a lot better if I can just be my wolf self for a little while." She stood up from the bed but had to steady herself on the nightstand. Her wolf may need to come out more often, but her human-self was still very much fighting the dizziness and nausea that followed her everywhere she went. "I’ll be down in just a minute. Wait for me.”
Cate’s wolf arrived at the little house first and stood on the porch. Norah’s wolf sprinted up the stairs behind her and immediately pawed at the door. The door was closed tight and would not budge without the use of an opposable thumb. Looking around, she ensured no one was looking before shifting back to her human form. She quickly grabbed the handle and shoved the door open. Ivan, Cate’s assigned security guard, was still in his wolf form and followed closely behind. Norah felt confident he had seen her naked body. The heat of embarrassment washed over her. She hid her body behind the door and stuck her head around the edge.
"Cate, shift out of your wolf and get in here. I want to shut the door." Cate’s wolf just looked at her. “Hurry up,” Norah urged, impatiently. Slowly the beast began to change and Cate's body emerged from the animal.
"Shit! I can never get my damn legs to shift. Stuck— every time." Norah peeked around the door. A naked Cate laid across the porch, struggling to free her legs from the wolf’s body.
"Hurry!" Norah was exasperated. Really, Cate had been a wolf shifter for four months longer than Norah. Shouldn't she be able to shift out of her wolf form by now? Especially after the practice she had gotten lately. Norah estimated she shifted into her wolf form five or six times a day.
“Help me, Norah. I can’t seem to master this.” Norah cast her gaze along the tree line. Ivan hadn’t come out yet. She knew he was there, but was staying back to give them some semblance of privacy. She clutched her arm across her breast and ran out the door to Cate. Bending, she put her hand on Cate’s back. “Just concentrate. You can do this.”
Cate took a steadying breath. "My legs do this every time."
“You just need to relax so you can be fully human. Breathe through it.” Norah forced her voice to maintain a soft and soothing tone.
Cate took another breath and suddenly her legs were human once again. She stood nonchalantly and walked in the door as if nothing ever happened. She turned when she got inside the threshold and looked at Norah, still crouched on the porch. “Are you coming?” Norah rolled her eyes and followed Cate through the door.
Just as Cate suspected, the shift from human to wolf had helped Norah's morning sickness. For the first time in months, she was feeling rather good, or as good as one can feel with a broken heart. She looked around the room. The front door opened into a small, cozy kitchen which was connected to a comfortable living room that ran the length of the house. Norah thought it an odd entrance to the home but said nothing.
“Where's the robe?" Norah opened the pantry and was disappointed to find it filled with canned food and boxes of cookies, rather than something to cover her body.
"Honestly, Norah, I don't keep robes in the kitchen.” Cate gave an exaggerated eye roll, “They are upstairs where civilized people keeps robes.” Cate led the way through the house and up the stairs to a bedroom that was far larger than Norah had imagined for the little cottage. The house was settled just on the northern edge of the estate. According to Cate, Dimitris had bought the home about five years ago when the previous owners put it up for sale. Norah knew this was Cate’s daily destination. She often ran here from the estate house and relaxed for a while before her wolf urged her to go for another run.
When it became clear that Cate’s need to be in wolf form was unlikely to subside, Dimitris had stocked the house with food and several robes so that Cate and whichever female accompanied her could lounge around without fear of being seen by their security team. Lukyan had also told her that Dimitris had also had new security cameras installed. One could never be too careful with the safety of the purported Wolf Queen.
