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I leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling. “At least they’re both okay.”

Dr. Coughran moved the wand again, his brow furrowing slightly as he studied the screen. "Actually, Danny, I need to take another look at something." He adjusted the angle, his expression growing more intent. "There's another shadow here that I initially thought was just..."

He trailed off, moving the wand to a different position. The sound of heartbeats filled the room again, but this time I could swear I heard something that sounded like an echo.

"Oh my," Dr. Coughran said softly.

"Oh my what?" I demanded, panic creeping into my voice. "Oh my good, or oh my we're all going to die?"

"Oh my, you're having triplets," he said, his voice filled with wonder. "Three distinct heartbeats, three separate fetuses. All sharing the same gestational sac."

The room went completely silent except for the rapid thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump echoing from the machine. I stared at the screen in horror, trying to process what he'd just said.

"Three," I repeated numbly. "As in, one more than two?"

"That's typically how math works, yes," Dr. Coughran confirmed gently.

I turned to look at Bayer, whose face had gone completely white. His mouth opened and closed several times without any sound coming out.

"I can't have three babies," I said, my voice rising to a near-shriek. "I can't even have one baby! This is insane!"

"Danny, breathe," Bayer said, though his own voice sounded strained.

"Breathe?" I stared at him incredulously. "There are three heartbeats in there, Bayer. Three! My body is going to explode. I'm going to be the size of a small planet. I'll never walk again. I'll be permanently horizontal!"

Dr. Coughran cleared his throat diplomatically. "Actually, shifter pregnancies with multiples are quite manageable. The gestation period is shorter—"

"How much shorter?" I interrupted.

"For male bears, typically six to seven months for multiples," he explained. "But you are human and even though your body will adapt, I doubt if we can even get you to six. The cubs will be smaller at birth but develop quickly. At this stage of a human pregnancy, the gestational sac wouldn't even have developed."

"Four months," I whispered, doing rapid mental calculations. "That means I'm already...what, a week along?" I shook my head. “Not even that.”

“Timewise, I’m sure you are correct, but development-wise, this is completely normal for you.” He caught my expression. "Shifter pregnancies move faster," Dr. Coughran explained. "After one week you’re already what in a human female would be at six. What would be six weeks for a human is closer to three months for you. Your babies are right on schedule."

I stared at the screen in wonder, my earlier panic replaced by awe. "They're so small."

"About the size of a plum right now," the doctor said. "But growing rapidly. Let me take some measurements..."

He moved the wand around my abdomen, taking pictures and measurements while explaining what he was seeing. The cubs—our cubs—looked like tiny beans with rapidly beating hearts.

"Now, about the bleeding," Dr. Coughran continued, his tone becoming more clinical. "It appears to be coming from the developing birth canal. Your body is essentially creating new anatomy to accommodate delivery."

“But that didn’t happen to Emery, bleeding that is,” I pointed out. Plus, it sounded yucky.

"It's actually quite remarkable," he assured me. "The hormonal changes are triggering tissue development that shouldn't be happening at this stage. I can only assume it’s because we have a multiple birth and it’s triggering advanced development. I would also say it was likely Emery had shifter genes already in his DNA. This is completely different. Your body is developing something completely new.”

He clicked off the machine and promised to send the pictures to my email, then wiped the gel off me and stood up. “Now,” I could mentally hear him waggling a finger, “will Simeon be on hand?”

Bayer gave a determined nod, but honestly, with everything happening, how he was supposed to guarantee that I had no idea.

“Good.” He turned to me. “Small nutritional meals as often as you can. I’ll send you the link for the nutritional shakes I think you should start now, along with the vitamins you need to be on, but absolutely no stress. Mild exercise and gentle walks are good for you and the babies.”

“Damn,” I whispered. “I was entering a cartwheel competition next week.”

He smirked. “You might feel like you have, with three newborns.”

He glanced at Bayer. “Walk me out; I have some prenatal vitamins in my car.”