Wolf Bargain (Wolfish 3)

“Well, the rules are there for a reason, you know. It’s not all vapid showcase. There is a method to the ceremony.”

“There isn’t a rule about intercourse in the midst of turning,” Marlowe says, his cheeks blushing even as he says it. His eyes briefly flicker over to mine for a moment before he continues. “We made sure.”

The doctor dismisses his comment entirely as he continues on with his explanation.

“There are no rules that apply to her pregnancy now. It could be that her body is an unstable blend of both wolf and human, stuck in its pre-shifted form since she was pregnant before her first shift occurred. Her body won’t allow her to shift while she’s pregnant, as much as it desperately needs to. Therefore, her pregnancy has been hastened. Think of it as a sense of evolutionary flexibility. Her wolf nature and her human nature are working together for the survival of both her and her pregnancy. It’s actually quite a marvelous thing, albeit an abomination.”

“Careful,” Rory says with a snarl.

“And then, of course, it could just be that her body was already going through an accelerated change at the time of conception, and that same acceleration has leaked over into her pregnancy,” he adds before Rory has the chance to strangle him. “Either way, her pregnancy is using one month, instead of three, for each trimester. My guess is that she’ll give birth within a month’s time.”

A month’s time.

My throat suddenly feels like it’s swelling shut.

I’m going to be a mother in less than a month. Even after everything that’s happened—from falling in love with Rory, Marlowe, and Kaleb, to finding out they’re werewolves, to being turning into one myself—somehow this is the least believable of them all.

“Is that why she’s so big?” Kaleb asks, his eyes once again flickering over to me.

I look back down at my own swollen body, and to be honest, I can’t blame him. I swear my belly grows larger with each passing second. Even with the accelerated pregnancy, I still feel like I look bigger than most women I’ve seen at full term.

I don’t know how I’ve not noticed it before.

But then again, I do.

Between the blinding pain of being poisoned, the two failed shifts, and the dark veil that’s made the time blur … I haven’t exactly been lucid these last weeks.

“You really are fortunate, since she won’t be able to conceive again.”

Rory once again looks like he’s about to punch the old man in the face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The doctor spits out a laugh. “Only that you’re in luck. She’s not having a baby …”

Rory steps forward, his face pale. My own mind flashes with visions of my earlier fear. Of monsters.

And then the doctor finishes. “She’s having three.”

Rory freezes in his tracks. We all do.

I thought I’d never see the boys look more shocked than they did when I first found out I was pregnant. I was wrong.

When I look up at them now, their faces looked every bit as shocked as I feel.

“Three?”

I look up at Lydia next. This is why her mouth dropped open earlier.

She hands me the picture of the ultrasound in her hands and I take it from her fingers. Rory and Marlowe immediately rush to my side and all four of us stare at the little black and white image I now hold.

There, on the small square of film paper, are three blurry but still very identifiable babies. I feel the tears start to roll over my cheekbones as all three of them press their heads to mine and hold me.

I’m overwhelmed.

We have much more than even a single baby to protect, we have a whole little pack. Our own pack.

That single afternoon of blissful love-making in the enclave of the forest, gifted us with three healthy, and extremely reliant pups. They haven’t even been born yet, but they’ve already survived being poisoned. Now they just have to survive through to their birth—and me along with them.

I am so happy, but also so scared and freaked out that I feel like a bombshell of mixed emotions.