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Wouldn’t I know?

Wouldn’t there be signs?

I grabbed a scone for my mate and went in search of him. He was easy to find, his scent strong and nearby. Thrusting the confection at him probably wasn’t the best way to begin the conversation, but there I was doing exactly that. As he took his first bite, I ripped the bandage off.

“Karma thinks I’m pregnant.”

He dropped the scone, his face beaming, “You’re pregnant.” He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me tight as he twirled around.

“I said, Karma, thinks.” Which wasn’t the same as me being pregnant.

Dimitri kissed the top of my head and set me gently on the ground. “If she thinks you are, it means you are. But, if you don’t believe her, let’s go find out for sure.”

He took my hand and led me out of Animals with a quick, “We have things to do,” over his shoulder at Karma who was standing near the door like a spectator. He had us in the car and to the pharmacy in record time, insisting I take the test right there in the drugstore bathroom.

Karma being Karma, she was right, the line turning from one to two before I even set the test down to wait the full three minutes. I snapped a picture of it, sent it to my mate, and tossed the stick in the trash. I ran out to discover him right by the doorway, teary eyed.

“You okay?” I thought he was happy about this. Maybe I misread him.

“I’m better than. This is wonderful.”

I sagged into his arms.

“Aren’t you okay?” he whispered close to my ear.

“So very much.” He kissed me, kissed me deep enough that we had a couple people coughing for us to get our room. Oops.

It wasn’t till we got back to the car that I blurted out what I’d needed to say even before I found out about our baby. “We should go see if your den is a good match for us.”

I said it like one word, and Dimitri turned the car off and pivoted to face me.

“Say again? Slowly, this time, so I can digest it all.” He settled his hand on my knee.

“I don’t know if we should or shouldn’t be in your den, or if our life should be in Animals or even someplace else altogether, but I do know that part of you will always second guess your decision if you don’t at least check it out.” I ran out of air at the end of the long sentence and grabbed his hand.

“My life is with you.”

“Exactly, and that means it’s with me no matter the location. If we’re here, it’s me. If we’re in the city, it’s with me. If we’re at Animals. It’s with me, if we decide to take our animal forms and live in a cave, guess what? It’s with me.”

He didn’t say anything for a half a minute and when he did, I only loved him more. “But what if you being marked as rogue is an issue?”

“Then we don’t go or, if we are already there, we leave. It’s easy as that. But don’t we owe it to each other to at least look.”

The palm of his other hand settled on my cheek. “If we do this, we both have to agree. In the end, don’t say yes, because you think it’s what I want.”

“I’ll agree to that condition under two conditions. The first is that you don’t say no because you think it’s what I want you to say. And two, you kiss me now. Do we have an agreement?”

He answered with his lips on mine.

Chapter Fourteen

Dimitri

Finally, we had made the big decision. Animals was wonderful, and I’d have gladly stayed there forever, but our alpha had really made it clear that they needed someone in the beta position for the good of the den. Kendall deserved to retire, and as much as I loved the others who might get the position, they were either unsuitable for various reasons or already had busy lives it would be unfair to interrupt.

I sent a text to Alpha Bruno, asking how soon he needed me.

Lucky Karma and Warren were family and my cousin had grown up in a den and knew how these things worked. I also suspected he’d heard from Bruno because when I went in to speak to him, he told me that I didn’t need to give notice. “They need you back home, Cousin. I can’t say I’m not sorry to lose you, but I hope you’ll consider this your second home and visit as often as possible.”