You’re carrying my baby. Those words shouldn’t have made desire flare to life inside me, but they did. He wasn’t asking me to get an abortion, or paying me off to raise the kid for eighteen years alone. No, he was holding my hand, two seconds away from asking me to move in with him. My, how the tables had turned.
He simply sat there, looking so happy that it was easy to imagine him a carefree boy, without all the weight and responsibility of being an alpha of a good-sized pack.
“You really are happy about this pregnancy, aren’t you?” I asked. I was still processing my shock, but he’d taken the news well.
“Of course I am! You might not know this, but werewolf pregnancies are rare. There’s no guarantee you’ll get to have a child when you’re one of us.”
“But… you have brothers!”
“I do, but things have changed since my mother conceived us. Something’s been happening to the wolf genes. It’s gotten increasingly difficult for female wolves to conceive, and when they do, more often than not the pregnancies result in miscarriages.” Sadness tugged at the edges of his face.
I frowned. “Could that happen to us? To me?” I hadn’t been sure I’d wanted this baby until the second he said ”miscarriage.” Now my heart was pumping like crazy, and I wanted to do everything possible to make sure this baby was safe.
“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 was fierce.
“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.
In an instant, he was hovering over me again. “What is it? Are you feeling all right?”
I blinked back tears. “I don’t feel like myself anymore, dammit. I’m a fox, which means Gran might have lied to me. Even if it was to protect me, she still lied. My body feels like it’s fucking falling apart, and now I’m apparently pregnant with your baby. Oh, and I obviously have no control over my emotions anymore, because this so isn’t me. I don’t cry at stupid shit. Not ever.”
A tear slid down my cheek as I sniffled, and I grew dangerously close to losing my shit—very wet and loudly—right in front of the alpha.
“And I still have to tell Cass that his bounty hunter partner is about to blow up into a balloon. How am I going to chase down Calista while I’m waddling around like a big fat whale? Or any of my other bounties?”
Brock just studied me for a few beats, during which I was sure he was wishing he’d gotten anyone but me pregnant. I tilted my head down so I could hide my face behind the sheet of black hair that slid forward.
I needed to get my gimpy ass over to Gran’s cabin, stat, where I could have the obvious breakdown I was having privately.
But then Brock gently tucked my hair behind my ear, tilting my chin so my eyes met his.
“I get that this is hard for you,” he offered. “But you’re not alone. Not anymore.”
I swallowed and choked on my spit. As I coughed and Brock reached for the glass of water, I internally rolled my eyes. Good one, Evie.
Once I calmed, he sent a weary glance at my belly, as if mere coughing posed a danger to the baby I was incubating. “I’ll help you figure things out,” he continued. “We’ll find out what the deal was with your parents. We’ll figure out what needs to happen to get you healthy and strong through the pregnancy, and beyond. I don’t care if I need to give you my blood every damn day, we’ll figure it out.”
I nodded, unable to say anything over the lump in my throat. Brock’s true colors were peeking through the tough alpha persona, and they were pretty great.
“Sabine is the best there is at what she does, and she already has a head start on all this pregnancy stuff.”
“And what about my job? I have to work. You can’t make me un-balloon. Once this baby grows, I’ll get huge.”
“You don’t need to work anymore. You can stay here with me. I’ll take care of everything.”
Uh... “That’s super sweet and all, but I can’t just be some kept woman. That’s not me. I’m a supernatural bounty hunter. I hunt things. It’s what I do. It’s who I am.”
I once clubbed a seven-foot tall troll over the head, and then let Cass take a selfie with him while he was unconscious. My life was dangerous and weird, and I liked it that way. I didn’t do boring. I wasn’t going to be some stay-at-home mom who cooked brownies every day. Not unless those brownies had some pot in them.
“Well, now you’re a mother too,” Brock said. “So…” He held his hands up in the air like that settled things.
So? That wasn’t an argument, though he obviously thought he had one. “So you just want me to climb into your bed like a good girl, and grow your baby?”
He growled and the sound sent shivers rippling through me. “You’re already in my bed.”
I was? But of course I was. A part of me realized it the moment I woke up—and liked it.
I moved to get out of his bed. “Then I should make my way to mine.” Only I wasn’t sure if I meant my bed in Gran’s cabin, or my bed in his house. I needed to assert my independence before this got even more out of control. When I tried to get up but swayed, his face softened.
He brought a gentle hand to my shoulders, holding me there. “Not now, Evie. Please.”
I searched his eyes and knew he didn’t say please like this often. His eyelid twitched as if it hurt him to say it.