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I stop in the middle of the tunnel leading to the main cave entrance.

“Hey, are you alright?” she asks, walking up behind me.

“I’m good, just need to clear my head.” I go to walk off again, but her voice stops me.

“Thank you.”

This time, I turn to look at her. Her curls are in two French braids that hang over her shoulders. Her face is bare of makeup. Those light brown eyes looking up at me with a hint of affection.

“For what?” I ask.

She looks down at the ground before lifting her gaze back to meet my eyes. “For standing up for me.”

My wolf urges me to go to her. To grab her in my arms and tell her how special she was. But I hold back. She’s not ready.

“You’re my mate. I’ll always defend you.”

She stills, and her gaze drops to the ground. “Yeah. Of course.”

She turns away and heads back to the cave with the others. I stand there for a second wondering what the hell did I say wrong.

chapter thirty-one

Heat

Michaela

The buzz of excitement around me is grating on my nerves. Today, all the female pack members gathered in the dining hall for Liz’s baby shower.

Gender neutral onesies, blankets, and crib bedding surround my bestie. She had a mountain of reusable diapers behind her, four baby bags, three baby swings, a stroller, a crib, and so much more. This little girl needed nothing else.

Right now, we were playing one of those baby shower games where we had to guess the gender and weight of the baby. Me, Rue, and Phaedra oversaw the event.

“I can’t believe everyone thinks I’m having a boy,” Liz laughs.

“You’re carrying the same way I carried Torak,” Phaedra says. “It’s going to be a big boy.”

The female wolves all laugh. Well, all except Nadia. She has been giving me the stank eye since she got here. I also noticed she’s been looking at Liz a little funny as well.

“My bestie is the only one that believes I’m having a girl.”

I smile when all the wolves turn to me.

“Why do you think it’s a girl?” Rue asks, chomping on another meatball. The way these wolves go through protein is insane.

I shrug, “I just have this feeling.” I lie.

“Now we’re going to trust the leeches’ feeling?” A soft voice says amongst the crowd. I didn’t have to look to see who it came from. I knew it was Nadia.

“Nadia,” Liz says, rubbing her rounded eight-month pregnant belly. “I understand your issue with vampires, but never let me hear you calling my best friend a leech or any other derogatory names. Do you understand?”

The room is silent. You could hear a pin drop. Everyone watches Nadia.

The she-wolf glares at Liz. I didn’t like the look, so I slip into her head using the pack’s connection.

“This stupid human bitch thinks she can tell me what to do? She, nor that bloodsucking leech deserve to be here. If it were up to me, I would...”

“What?”I question?