Chapter 37
Chapter 37: Unexpected.
Yara.
“Luna, may I speak with you privately?” one of the female warriors asks, coming up behind us.
“I can clean. I just need to know where everything is,” Noelle says eagerly.
“Stay with Savannah until I get back,” I tell her, then turn to the warrior.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know your name,” I say.
“I’m Eva, Luna.”
“Eva, come with me, let’s take you into a room so we can talk privately.”
I notice that she’s tentative, nervous, which makes me a bit nervous. I’m not sure why she’d be nervous,
unless she’s injured, and I missed it and she’s come to tell me.
When we get to the room, I gesture for her to sit and then I sit across from her.
“What can I help you with?” I ask her.
“I can’t shift,” she whispers, looking down at the floor.
I immediately go into doctor mode, thinking through all the reasons why someone can’t shift.
“Is your wolf silent?”
“No, Luna. She’s here.”
“Are you injured? Did I miss an injury? I don’t smell any infection on you,” I tell her.
She shakes her head, and a tear rolls down her cheek. “I think I’m pregnant.”
I reach out and take her hand. “I can do a very quick test to see if you are. If you’re not, then I’ll run some
other tests. If you are, then we’ll talk about what that means for you,” I tell her.
She nods, as more tears fall. “Give me one moment. I’ll be right back.”
I go to the storage room and find a specimen cup for Eva to pee into.
“Luna is everything okay?” Katie asks, walking in and looking at the cup. “Oh.”
Since Katie’s pregnant, she would know what this means. “Don’t say a word, Katie.”
“Of course not, Luna,” she says.
I go back to the room and tell Eva what I need, then send her to the bathroom. While I wait, Warren comes in.
“Hey, why are you still here? I thought you’d be headed to bed?”
“Laney and Noelle seem to think that we’re going to have an influx of she-wolves who are suffering from broken mate bonds. Bonds that were forced on them, you should know,” I tell him.
He growls at that, but pulls me into a hug. “You need sleep.”
“They need help, Warren. Don’t bother telling me that you were planning to sleep while Charlie is gone. You don’t have a Gamma, so there’s no one else to oversee the pack.”
“That doesn’t mean that you don’t need sleep, Yara.” He pulls back and looks behind me. “Eva, is everything okay?”
“She and I have some things to discuss, Warren. Why don’t you go introduce yourself to Noelle. She’s with Savannah,” I tell him, guessing that Eva doesn’t want to say anything to Warren yet.
Warren looks at her and then at me. “Okay. If you need anything, link me.”
“I will,” I say and he leans down to kiss me before turning to walk away.
I sigh, knowing that very soon he and I are going to have to have that talk about him marking me. When I turn, Eva is smiling.
“T’ve never seen our Alpha in love before. It makes him seem almost human. Not the fighting machine that I’m used to seeing.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty sweet,” I say, making her snort.
“That’s not a word I’ve ever heard used to describe our Alpha before.”
I gesture for her to return to the room, and I go test her urine.
When I walk back into the room, the nervous woman from before it back. “Well?” she asks.
“Definitely pregnant. I can do bloodwork to make absolutely sure…”
She begins shaking her head. “No, Karly, my wolf, said I was pregnant, but I didn’t want to believe it.”
“Okay, let’s talk about that while I examine you,” I say, pulling out a gown and having her sit on the table in the room.
I begin listening to her heart and lungs and then she explains that she and another warrior had become friendly, that they’ve been finding comfort in each other’s arms, but they aren’t mates.
“Have you talked about becoming mates?” I ask her, as I draw blood.
She may not need to confirm that she’s pregnant, but if she chooses to keep this baby, I want to know that both mom and baby are healthy.
“There hasn’t been a lot of time for that. At first it was just to burn off steam, you know? We were fighting all the time and we both just needed something good, something positive and pleasurable in our lives,” she says tearfully.
“There hasn’t been a lot of time for much of anything other than fighting lately,” I agree. “You know I have to pull you off warrior duty, right? No matter what you decide. Even if you decide you don’t want this baby…”
“I do. I…” she puts her hands over her belly, smiling a sweet, gentle smile. “I’m not sure how you can love someone that you only just realized is alive, but I do. I want this baby, even if it means raising him or her on my own.
I put my hands over hers. “You won’t be alone. You’ll have me and the pack. Even if you and the father decide not to become a mated pair, you still have support.”
“Thanks, Luna,” she says, hugging me.
“I’ll need to tell Warren, so he knows why I’m pulling you off duty and that it will be longer than normal, and I’ll want to see you as you start progressing in your pregnancy.”
She nods, smiling, her hands going back to her stomach. “I’ll have to talk to him anyway about needing some extra space. Warriors don’t usually like to have young babies keeping them awake in the few hours they have to sleep,” she says.
“You get dressed, and I’ll let him know.”
When I step out, I realize that this would become my norm if we weren’tina constantstate of war. Even with the battles, she-wolves are getting pregnant. Eva won’t be the only one. It makes sense that the pack finds comfort together.
Finding mates is nearly impossible, so finding comfort with friends or lovers is the next best thing.
I walk back to the waiting area, looking for Warren when Carson walks in.
“Luna. Hi.”
“Carson, can I help you with something?” I ask. After putting him on a 24-hour rest, he’d come back stronger than ever.
“I was wondering if…EVA!,” he says, looking over my shoulder. He brushes past me and walks quickly toward her.
“Are you okay? Are you ill? Is something wrong? I knew I heard you throwing up this morning. Did you see Luna Yara? What did she say?”
he asks in a rapid fire interrogation sort of way.
“What’s going on?” Warren asks quietly, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around me. I lean into him, needing his strength as we watch the two individuals.
“We’re about to find out if Carson is happy that he’s gotten Eva pregnant,” I say, just as softly.
“Pregnant? Damn, she’s a good warrior,” he says as Carson whoops and swings Eva around in a circle. Eva begins laughing and as the two of them walk out of the hospital, most likely to go mark each other, I wink at her.
Thank you,’ she mouths to me.
I nod and turn to look at Warren. I didn’t expect that he’d have the soft, gentle look that he gives me when it’s just the two of us.
“You’re incredible, do you know that?” he asks, stroking my cheek.
“All I did was tell her she was pregnant, and she wasn’t alone.”
“You do so much more than that. You give everyone here hope.”
He leans in, kissing me softly at first, then deepening the kiss. The hospital around me fades away and al
that’s left is Warren and the emotions that he’s stirring inside me.
It isn’t until we hear some of the warriors howling their return that I pull away.
“Time to get back to work.”
Warren growls softly. “Very soon, I’m going to finally finish what we keep starting.”