Chapter Twenty-One

Scott

I wasn’t sure how the rest of our matingmoon would go with everything feeling so up in the air. I was almost certain that we figured out enough that there was no way Frost would drag Terrick off into the pit. He hadn’t been a monster. He hadn’t meant to hurt anyone’s feelings. He was just lost, and I knew all too well how that felt. Sometimes around my family I felt lost – like the one sheep who always escaped the herding dogs and found a way to get himself stuck in a fence.

I cooked breakfast while Terrick had a lie in. I wasn’t up for making anything fancy like the waffles from yesterday. I made bacon, eggs, and toast and secretly waited for the smell of something to send me running to the bathroom. I had sent Dara a quick text after looking up his phone number in the village directory asking what I needed to do to get some of the morning sickness gummies. I could’ve asked my parents, but I didn’t want to get their hopes up, just in case.

After breakfast, Terrick washed dishes and I took a shower. I lost track of minutes staring into the mirror trying to find the baby lost inside my belly. I might’ve stayed there all day if Terrick hadn’t opened the door because he missed me. He hadn’t said much during breakfast and I wasn’t sure what to say to him at all. The full moon would circle back around before we knew it and his dad was leaving then. If we were lucky, only his dad was leaving then.

“Not even the ultrasound machine could pick up a baby inside you right now, mate,” he said, his eyes a light with a faint blue glow.

“I know,” I smiled at him. “We didn’t even talk about babies before --- everything.”

“I’m so—”

“Don’t be,” I shook my head. “Unless, that is, you didn’t want to start a family.”

My heart pounded in my chest hard enough to rattle my ribs until he answered a few seconds later.

“I do. If –If I’m around for you and the baby that is,” he said, choosing his words carefully.

“You will be. I’m sorry, I know maybe we need to prepare for both outcomes, but I can’t imagine a world where Frost takes you from me. Besides, I think the hound would put up a fight. There are so many signs that you guys are merging. I mean you knotted me the other night.”

He opened his mouth and shut it.

I stood akimbo waiting for him to say something.

“What?” I finally asked when he didn’t say anything.

“I’m trying to figure out if I should give you an emotionally supportive answer or say if you keep it up, I’ll do it again.”

I didn’t leave Terrick much time to think about what he should say. I was sure there wasn’t much anyone could say to assure either of us until the full moon had come to pass and he was still here holding me in his arms. So, instead of waiting around for him to decide what came next. I dropped to my knees still as naked as I was in the shower. The dark tiles were cool against my knees, but I didn’t mind as I yanked down his sweatpants to reveal his already half-hard dick.

“I think your dick knows the answer,” I laughed, taking him in my hand to stroke.

Terrick growled and I squeezed him harder. His dick came to full, hard life inside my fist. I reveled in the warmth radiating from his body as I slid my still shower-damp hand up and down his shaft. After I wiped away the first drop of precum I took him in my mouth. I pressed my tongue against the head of his cock, wiggling it until his strong hands found my shoulders for balance. Then I slid my mouth down, taking as much of him inside me as I could. I lost myself to his heavy breathing and his fingers digging into my shoulders as I sucked on him. The salty taste of his flesh filled my senses and for a while the world was right side up again. I held onto his balls, rolling them from finger to finger, until they finally drew up tight and heavy to his body. His pleasure rained down onto me over our mating link as his warm sticky seed exploded into my mouth. I swallowed down his pleasure and didn’t stop trying for more until every last drop had gone out of him.

***

Despite the urgency that crept more into the room with us each day as the time of the full moon inched its way back to being full and pregnant, our matingmoon moved at a slow, lazy pace. We spent a lot of our days talking in circles about our childhoods and our hopes and dreams for our own children. The first weekend we were together, their mom kept Salta home. I braced for Terrick’s frustration when he hung up the call, but he wasn’t mad.

“She’s right. We need the time together,” he said.

“Because we only meet once. Not because our time is limited,” I reminded him.

“Both,” he said, and I shook my head.

“Why are you so certain?” I asked him. “Your memories are back. You know who you are. You’ve seen your shadow side. You’ve done what the magic wanted.”

“I haven’t trusted the universe in a long time, mate,” he sighed, leaning back into the sofa.

“Well, trust me then,” I said, sliding onto his lap and resting my hands on his shoulders. “Trust me to trust the universe. Even Liam thinks you’ve done enough. Hell, even Blithe thinks so and too much is never enough for that man.”

“If I leave, don’t follow me. If I have to go, I need to know you’ll find a way to live without me. Go to my mother. Take care of Salta if nothing else. Go home to your parents or join the Temple of Juda or do whatever you have to. If I have to go, I need to know you’ll be okay.”

“I’d survive,” I said, choosing my words carefully, “but it’s not going to come to that.”

“I hope not. I want to show you so many things in the world and I want to be further inside your world too. I want to see our kid grow up and I want to see Salta grow into herself. I want to live long enough so the childish part of me doesn’t resent my mother’s other mates. I want all those things, but those things aren’t promised. Not to me. Not to us. Not to anyone.”

I blinked hard so that I didn’t cry. He was right. Not all of us stopped to think about that every day, but he was right.

“Oh, mate,” he cradled my face in his hands, “don’t cry. I think you’re right. I just don’t want to leave anything unsaid in case Frost tricks us in the end.”

I buried my face in the crook of his neck and breathed in his scent. Our scents had slowly morphed to smell more like each other – to smell taken and bonded. I breathed him in until everything inside of me relaxed and my wolf’s tail wagged.

“We should go for a run,” I said, leaning back. “Some fresh air will do us both some good.”

“Ummm… I don’t have running shoes and I’m pretty sure I’d need them to keep up with a wolf who has the zoomies,” Terrick laughed.

“Ummm…” I copied his speech pattern. “You have four running paws?”

“I don’t think he comes out like your wolf does.”

“Well, I think he does, because when I first met you, you were a big ol’ hound,” I smirked.

“Yeah, but then he went away. Well, sort of.”

“Alpha, you’ve knotted me twice now. That hound hasn’t gone anywhere except into his inner sanctum inside your soul.”

“Even if I could shift, everyone would screech in horror. No one wants to see a pit hound running around the village.”

“Well, screw them. A pit hound lives here now,” I crossed my arms.

“Do we live here?” he asked.

“For now, at least. Quit trying to change the subject.”

“I’m not. I think it’s an important question. We’re probably going to have a kid soon. We have to figure out where they’re going to live.”

“Do you want to live here?” I asked him.

“I think it might be nice. It’s close-ish to the coven. You have a brother and lots of cousins here. It’s remote enough that we shouldn’t see too much trouble. Mom didn’t cut me off from my father’s money. We could buy this house or a house here.”

I laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Terrick asked, furrowing his brows.

“They won’t take our money.”

“Other vampires live here,” Terrick’s expression slowly morphed to offended.

“I meant we can live here, but Bobby and Liam aren’t charging people to do that. If you can only buy your way into the group, it’s a social club, not a pack,” I explained. “And you miss out on a lot of good people who just can’t afford to buy their way into your life.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way before,” he said.

“I know, but you have a canine now. You’ll want a pack even if they annoy you sometimes. So, let’s get you shifted. We’ll go on a run and then maybe stop in and see if Duke and Syre’s egg has hatched. Then we’ll talk to Bobby and Liam if you feel up to it. I’m not so sure I want to go back to Mage Street any more than you want to go back to your coven. I miss people, but I think I need a slow down. I think I need to be in a place where I can focus on my life, our life, and what we want to do with that. I don’t want to walk around a town full of people shooting me pitying glances because they saw her video.”

“I’d eat them,” Terrick said, smelling one hundred percent truthful.

“Well, I’d rather you wait until we’re back in bed and eat me,” I teased.

“Me too, but needs must,” he smirked.

“Okay, we can romp again, but then we’re going for a run. That big ol’ hound of yours surely needs some exercise.”

“Bribing me with the one person I can’t resist, huh?” he said but was already pulling my shirt off over my head.