st weeks, it drags a dark cloud back into the study. It sits over each one of us, the weight of it causing our shoulders to slump and the whites of our eyes to grow red with exhaustion.

When Rory repeats himself, that exhaustion has dragged his voice down even deeper.

“What else would you have us do, then? Marlowe?” He glances up at me then, his eyes boring into me until I’m forced to look up and meet them. “I mean, can you blame her for … for being the way she is lately?”

To my left, Kaleb squirms uncomfortably in his seat.

These last weeks have been especially difficult for him. He’s used to being able to make her smile, for a kiss and a joke to be able to break any tension.

Now, it just seems to give Sabrina a headache. Or ends in her staring off into a corner like I’ve found myself often doing myself … only her glances more of than not end up streaked with tears.

“Pregnancies are supposed to be happy,” I blurt out, my voice nearly breaking in the middle of it. I have to clear my throat. “And this, Sabrina, all of us … we’re not happy.”

Rory opens his mouth, but no sound comes. He sits like a fish gulping for water, drowning in his own air, until Romulus glances between the three of us and jumps to his rescue.

“I don’t have much to say in regard to the rest of this situation,” Romulus says, “but I can say this. Pregnancy is … complicated, even a normal one. Sabrina may just need time to adjust to these changes, but maybe you boys could just, I don’t know, help her along?”

All three of us stare at him with blank expressions.

It’s Kaleb who finally sits forward a bit, his knees bouncing with nervous energy. “Well?” he asks. “How are we supposed to do that?”

Romulus looks between us with a growing look of annoyance on his face. “Aren’t you three supposed to be more in tune with the human’s traditions?” he asks. “Isn’t there something the females do when they’re expecting? Like, a ritual or … or something.”

“Ritual?”

All four of us jump a little as Lydia appears in the doorway.

Me, Kaleb, and Rory all look a little guilty—but Romulus just looks relieved. Like he’s been rescued.

“Really? Boys.” Lydia shakes her head as she looks at the three of us. “But I should have thought of it myself. I know exactly what we need to do.”

We wait with bated breath as she sweeps into the room and joins us in her own seat at the table. One hand reaches out to brush away the charts and graphs, the other grabbing a blank paper and slapping it down on the table in its place.

I lean forward, my interest finally piqued for what feels like the first time in days.

“So?” I ask, unable to wait any longer. I’m even more impatient than Kaleb. “What’s the plan?”

“The plan,” Lydia says, “is to do what we should have done already. We’re going to throw Sabrina a baby shower.”

A baby shower.

I fall back in my seat a bit, expecting to feel myself deflate at her words. But I don’t.

The idea is simple, simple enough to be disappointing … but it’s not.

When I look back up at my brothers, I know they’re thinking the same thing. Maybe, after all the complicated bullshit we’ve been putting Sabrina through lately, maybe simple is what we need.

20

Sabrina

“Alright, time to get dressed,” Lydia says as she comes into my room on a late afternoon when the sun is lazily casting a purplish light through the window. A rainstorm is coming, and it makes me even more tired than I already am. I can feel it in my very bones.

I’ve lost track of the days now. All I know is that the next full moon hasn’t come yet. Or if it has, no one’s bothered to tell me.

“Dressed for what?” I ask, turning over as lazily as the sunshine.

I haven’t been out of this bed for any extended period of time in days. The passing of time for me has essentially turned into the chunking of hours between when the boys come to sit with me, reassuring me with empty words that everything is going to be okay before they once again leave to go help Romulus.

Tags: Eden Beck Wolfish Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net