Page 14

Sully

With shaking hands, I hid the positive pregnancy test. I had to decide what to do about the mess I found myself in.

I had a fated mate who didn’t want me. An arranged mating partner who also didn’t want me. In parts of the town, I was still a laughing stock. All over an event the police and probably the mayor’s office knew actually happened, but they hid the truth from everyone, possibly at the risk of the town and certainly harming poor Malik. Shifting sickness was a terrible disease with horrible side effects.

Oh, then there was me, being a twenty-two-year-old recent college graduate who lived with his parents in their house, working at their hotel. What would they do when they found out about me being pregnant with a stranger’s baby? It didn’t matter that he was my fated mate if he didn’t want me, did it? What kind of alpha would accept me with another’s child?

Mentally, I scoffed. These days people had blended families all the time. I wasn’t ruined because I had a kid on the way. The mating with Orson was sunk, anyway. This would just give him a decent excuse to leave with his chosen partner. In a few years, once my baby was older, I could try again for a mate.

How could I have a baby alone? Again, I chided myself. Who said I was alone? My parents would be upset, sure. Things might be difficult between us for a time. Did I really believe they’d let me go it alone?

Even if they did, I had my brother and my sister. They wouldn’t see me out on the street. I could count on their love and support.

Then there was Trisha. She was a little older than me. We’d met working at Rosie’s and hit it off. My best friend was child free by choice, still I knew she’d help me when I needed her. Trisha would be the best damn auntie who’d ever auntied.

Feeling better about the situation, I got into bed. I was utterly exhausted despite my earlier nap. Having a heat always took it out of me, which is part of the reason I’d been taking suppressants, though I’d forgotten to take them a couple times, oops. I was glad my heat cycle had waited to start until I was away at college because having one alone in Haenvale would have been miserable. Trisha’s aunt had helped me through my first one by using a service. The alpha chosen for me was fairly inexperienced himself, which strangely, set me at ease. We’d fumbled through the entire thing and laughed about it after. We were still friends.

Things weren’t all that bad. At least I knew I had a fated mate. I might not know his name, and maybe I’d been rejected, but he’d left me with this little gift.

In my bed, I cradled my stomach tenderly. I would keep this baby, even if having an abortion, or giving it up for adoption, might be easier in the long term. It didn’t matter to me that I might be doing this without my alpha, or that I was pretty young to be a parent. I wanted this baby.

Strange, because the idea of having a baby with Orson had been a big no. I’d scoffed at the idea of starting a family this young.

This, though, was my choice. No one else knew. No one could influence how I felt. Besides, this was the one part of my fated mate I could have.

My thoughts spun as I lay in bed, willing my brain to switch off so I could get some more rest. Memories of my mate flowed through my mind, while I wondered if I should tell Trisha about the baby. She would be so mad about my mate rejecting me if she knew. Maybe it was better to have her support in getting him to change his mind first. I’d tell her before the tell-tale signs showed up. Same with my parents.

If I wanted to get my mate to choose me, he had to do it without the burden of a possibly unwanted baby. I’d figure him out, see if he was open to having more kids before I sprung my surprise on him.

When I woke late the next morning, I felt terrible. Mom took one look at me and told me to go back to bed. If I didn’t improve in a day or two, she would get a healer to visit me.

Calling in sick for work sucked. Kenneth was incredibly smug over the phone about me not being able to handle an upcoming mating and a job. Unfortunately for him, Dad was in the room when I made the call. Kenneth was now on incredibly thin ice. There was going to be an investigation about him when I made it back to work.

Trisha sent chicken noodle soup and a couple of Earth One movies she thought I’d like to keep me occupied while I was sick. It was an adaptation of a fae book series, because there weren’t enough fae movies in her opinion. The lead was a human girl called Jude, and the love interest was a prince called Cardan. We’d loved the books when they’d first come out and I’d bought her the trilogy when it was released as a movie.

She’d also sent me a ton of texts sympathizing with me that I couldn’t head back out to the woods. Truthfully, I was a little wary of being rejected in front of my friend and Trisha had cases coming up she had to prepare for, so she was busy. I hoped I could see my mate one more time alone to give me a chance to convince him without the pressure of my bestie looming over us. She meant well but it was already so embarrassing to be rejected.

Her support was well meant, and I truly loved her. There were just some things a guy needed to do by himself, and finding his sexy mate was one of them.

A couple days of being at home and there was no improvement. An elf healer was called. They frowned a lot, used their magic to scan me, and ushered my parents out of the room.

“Do you know?” she asked.

Amethyst was the head of the clinical team at the local surgery. My parents really had pulled out all the stops to get me looked at. A home visit was even more special. I kind of felt bad about this preferential treatment, considering what I was hiding.

“About the baby? Yeah.”

“Who is the father? I assume it’s not Orson or he would be here and your parents would know. They didn’t mention it.”

“It’s a secret until I can tell the father.” I picked nervously at a thread on the blanket covering me. “It’s not Orson. I met my fated mate…”

“And you had heat sex with him?” She was so matter of fact.

“Yes.” I could feel the heat rising off my face.

“What aren’t you telling me, Sullivan? I need to know so I can treat you correctly.” She scrutinized my expression. “Nevermind. I shall guess. You were rejected, correct?”

“Yes,” I whispered.

“I’m sorry.” Clearly, she meant it. Her manner softened, expression sincere. “That must be difficult for you. It is part of why you are feeling ill. A sort of mourning for your bond. It will pass. A few more days and you should be fine.”

“What are you going to tell my parents?”

“That you are having a reaction to the heat suppressants you were on and need some rest. Everything else is yours to share when you are ready. I assume you know—“

“That I’ll start showing signs in about a month? Yeah.”

Unlike a quokka who carries a pregnancy for twenty-seven days and then holds the joey in their pouch for six months, I would be pregnant for around seven months, give or take. My parents would notice the changes in my scent and body around the month mark. The town might take a little longer with the inhibitor, I forgot if it hid the telltale scent, but I wouldn’t be able to hide a bump forever .

“Okay, good. Come to the clinic next week for a check up, alright?”

I told Amethyst I would, and she left soon after. My parents fussed over me a while longer until they had to go to the hotel. With me out, they had to cover, and my siblings wanted an update on me anyway.

Orson texted.

Orson

Are you well enough for a visitor? Your parents said I should keep you company while they are out. They are keen for us to plan another date. I could bring one of those coffees you like?

Sully

Please. Company would be nice.

My parents had left the door unlocked. Orson came straight up, following the directions I’d given him. The first sip of my drink was heavenly until I worried about the baby and caffeine. I shrugged it off. One coffee a day wouldn’t do much harm, would it? I put it on a mental list to check out later. I was so uninformed about pregnancy !

“You’re doing okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just need to rest up a bit.”

Orson took the chair near the bed my mom had facing the screen mounted on the wall. I was watching the movies Trisha had sent over for the third time. I let it play as background noise.

“Oh, I liked these books.”

“You did?” I stopped the movie, ready to restart it if he wanted.

“Yes. My parents thought they were silly. I’ve never watched the movies before. Baxter would—“

“Is that the omega you want to be with?”

“He is. Um… this is delicate. The coffee shop caused problems between us. He believes it would be best if we made our mating official, you and I, not me with him.”

“What?” I asked, horrified.

“He knows we have an agreement you are happy with because you are getting something out of it, too. He’s just jealous we don’t get to be open. He wanted me to make this real with you.”

“I met my fated mate!” I blurted out, unable to hold back. I felt sorry for Baxter. He needed to know I had a mate of my own.

“What?” Orson’s head whipped around so fast, I worried about him injuring himself.

“Okay, maybe I didn’t tell you everything over text. Thought it was best. The dingo I saw in the woods? Well, I went back. We talked. I, uh, kissed him and it told me that he’s my fated mate!”

“That’s… that’s great!”

Was it? He didn’t sound so sure. Maybe it was a vibe I was giving off.

“Meh, not so great. He denied it, wouldn’t tell me his name, and dropped me home without a backwards glance, but I’m close to cracking that hard exterior, y’know?”

Orson chuckled, his hands loosened on the armchair. “How so?”

I couldn’t tell him about the baby, but I could tell him about our wild night together.

“We had sex. More than once. I forgot to take my suppressants and it just sort of happened. Our chemistry is out of this world!”

Orson blushed. “There’s more to a relationship than compatibility in bed.”

“True but there was just this spark between us, y’know?”

“Yeah, I know. Why did he deny he was your fated? ”

“He said predators and prey can’t be together here. Didn’t make sense to me… now though… I’m wondering.”

“So you have a predator for a mate and he sees the town as it truly is.” He fixed me with a look. “This is why I can’t be with Baxter. My parents wouldn’t want me to have a Pallas cat for a mate.”

“Is Baxter your fated?”

Orson frowned. “I’m not sure.”

“How can’t you be sure?” the words were sort of rudely spoken. “Sorry, that was—“

“It’s fine. We’ve just never had our inhibitors off around each other. He’s worried he might do something to hurt me since he’s never been around a prey shifter without one. And the inhibitor affects our senses, it’s possible we could be missing the bond.”

“Oh, wow! I… Well, I never thought about it like that. I always thought when a mating was close to happening we would take off our inhibitors and then we’d know, y’know?” Orson nodded. “But if he’s a predator, then there’s a chance…”

“That he could attack me. You’ve had to have seen how few predator/prey matings happen in Haenvale. We don’t mix with each other much.” He sighed. “Baxter is from here. He’s never been anywhere else. Sully… you don’t see how badly predators are treated here. There’s few places they can be themselves, without magic stealing their animals.”

“Stealing their animals? What d’you mean?”

“They can’t shift with their inhibitors on. Baxter has to take his off first. There’s something in the ones they make for predators that stops them from shifting.”

“Seriously?” If I didn’t take mine off, it fell off after a shift, since it didn’t change size with me. I hadn’t realized at all that predators couldn’t shift with them on.

“Yeah. I didn’t notice until he pointed it out, but theirs are different from ours.”

“Really?”

“Next time take a closer look at how their inhibitor is made. Theirs are thicker, with more magic in them. It cuts them off from their animal senses.”

What the hell was going on in Haenvale?

After Orson left, without watching a movie with me, but with the crystal on him to watch it at home, I took a walk to the lake near my house.

The day was scorching and I planned for a dip to cool off now that my foot was all better. All traces were gone from that night, aside from the baby.

I still felt like crud. I hoped a little vitamin D would help with that. Not the D I wanted necessarily, I laughed at my thoughts, feeling a little unhinged from being cooped up so long.

There were decisions I had to make, and soon. Did I let this fledgling bond, because that’s what it was, I’d looked it up, fade away, or did I hunt my mate down?

Was I willing to give up on fate?

Hell no.

I’d take another day or two to sort my head out, then go find him.

At the water’s edge, I stripped off my t-shirt and cargo shorts, left my shoes next to my abandoned clothes and walked into the water in my smallest pair of swimming trunks. May as well show off my body while I still had a flat stomach!

Not that anyone was around to see anyway. Most of the tourists were probably at the beach, the residents of the town were split between nocturnal and daytime hours and probably had work if they were awake.

I had the lake to myself and the water was heavenly.

“Didn’t know they made trunks that small, or that quokkas could swim,” the most delightful rumbling voice said behind me.

Turning, I saw my mate, delicious chest on show, his wet, white briefs clinging sinfully to his hardening cock, wading in my direction, his gaze hot.

Maybe, just maybe, he was feeling this, too.