Chapter Twenty-Three

Scott

I sent Terrick inside to grab the test. If Dara or the other doctor saw me, they might offer to do an ultrasound right then and there. I didn’t trust my wolf to play nice. He wanted to head into the woods to be away from everyone who might touch his belly. If the green pixelated baby showed up, we’d eventually have to get the tests done, but I figured putting it off a few more days wouldn’t make much of a difference. He’d have to calm down and come around to the idea eventually.

Terrick was in and out of the clinic because Dara left a basket full of the tests on the desk of his receptionist/nurse. He came out with the test in hand and I grabbed it from him and shoved it into my pocket.

“Are we keeping it a secret?” he asked, arching a brow.

“Trying to,” I said.

“Are you afraid that they’ll hurt the baby?” he asked.

“Who?” I asked him.

“That’s what I’m asking.”

“My wolf is just a bit touchy today.”

“If you don’t feel safe that’s something we need to address.”

“Okay, maybe, but not on the front porch of the clinic, okay?” I hissed.

“Come on,” he reached out for my hand, “or would you prefer that I carry you?”

“Don’t,” I narrowed my eyes on him until he flashed me one of those smiles that always melted me.

It wasn’t that I felt unsafe. I didn’t feel hunted. I didn’t feel threatened. I just wasn’t ready for all the touching that came along with pregnancy. My wolf was ready to take fingers first and ask questions later.

“And we’ll get you a bloodshake once we’re inside,” Terrick said when we were almost back to the house.

“Yep. I’m a blood thirsty wolf,” I laughed.

“Mate, you sort of are,” he said, poking me in the butt cheek with a finger as I started up the porch steps.

I stopped and blinked at him. He was right. My wolf tilted his head to the side too before sitting on his haunches to consider what was said. Before we had the front door unlocked, he decided he wanted to bite Dara, not drink his blood. So, I was blood thirsty. He was just protecting his personal space.

I grabbed the test out of my pocket as soon as the front door was shut and locked. He followed on my heels down the hall and into our bedroom before I disappeared into the bathroom.

“Do you want me to wait out here?”

“Just give me a second,” I said, leaving the door ajar.

A minute later, I stared at the pregnancy test while Terrick set a timer on my phone. He leaned in the doorway watching me while I watched the test. His eyes on me made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

“It feels like you’re trying to look through me to see the baby,” I laughed, shaking off the feeling.

“He might be,” Terrick said.

I glanced at him to see his eyes glowing.

Terrick’s finger tapped three times against the doorway, and I glanced at him.

“That was him,” Terrick said.

“Him? Your hound?” I blinked.

“Yeah.”

“What does he want?” I asked, but he tapped three times again.

“I think that might be his answer.”

“What? Tap four times for yes?” I laughed.

“Is it a yes?” he asked.

I glanced down and the pixelated baby wrapped all snug in their green blanket stared back up at me.

“It’s a yes!” I shouted, my wolf morphing the yes into a howl.

Terrick threw his head back too, his howl deep and throaty, his eyes glowing brighter than before. I crashed into him, hugging him, as he leaned down for a kiss. His tongue darted between my lips and swept around my mouth. I pressed my weight against him, delighting in how strong he felt against my body. With his arms wrapped around me, I felt the safest I’d ever felt in my life.

***

Since we weren’t going out much, we hadn’t told anyone else our good news and somehow we both managed to keep it off all the links we were on. By that weekend we were still holding our silence when one of the Lost Fang Coven guards brought Salta for a visit. Terrick wanted to show her around town. He met her on the porch and they headed off to stop at Bad Wolf Cakes 2.0 first thing.

I lay on the sofa considering what I might bake while they were gone. As much as I wanted to get to know Salta better, I understood that she and Terrick had a lot to discuss. I wasn’t sure if he was going to tell her about sending their dad off to rest or not, but regardless of whether he told her or not, their lives had changed a lot.

“You up?” Blithe’s voice played into my thoughts over our family link.

For a second, I panicked afraid our secret would leak out before we were ready for it to.

“I’m up. Just laying around for a bit, I think. Terrick is out with Salta.”

“I know I just saw them leave. I’m almost to your house.”

“Is everything okay?” I asked him.

“Yeah. Just thought you could use some company while they were out. Maybe tell me what I was so dense about over the years.”

I grinned. I wanted to tease him that maybe he was still too dense to get it, but I didn’t want to cut everyone out of my life. Maybe meeting Cord and becoming a father made Blithe grow up enough to see what had been happening for years. I’d give him one more chance. Hell, I’d probably give him lots of chances over the years, but one more chance for this and then I’d give up on discussing magic with him forever.

My wolf sighed as I was forced to get my lazy butt up off the sofa and answer the door. Blithe had little bags under his eyes and he yawned as he said hello.

“Should you even be out of the house?” I teased, stepping back for him to come inside.

“Probably not,” he laughed, stifling another yawn. “The kittens decided to mew back and forth all night, because Delilah discovered she had a tail.”

“Big news for them!” I laughed. “Do you want me to put some coffee on?”

“Would you mind?”

“Come on,” I said, motioning for him to follow me into the kitchen.

I put the coffee on and poured us some orange juice while we waited.

“Unless you’d prefer a bloodshake?” I asked.

“No, just had one, but thanks,” he shook his head as I slid the glass of juice in front of him and rounded the table to sit down on the other side.

“I think a dead man told me to wait for you here,” Blithe said.

I blinked. We all heard about the sticky notes that Duke and Blithe received from Liam on the day Blithe met Cord. Still, I wasn’t sure what Syre’s dead, but still sort of around sire, had to do with me, but since I always accused everyone else of not listening, I leaned in to hear what he had to say.

“I left not just to bring Rex and Del here,” he said.

“I know. Dakota and I had been waiting a while for you to go off to the coven south of here,” I nodded.

“I was going to, but then I met Cord and priorities changed,” he said.

“Understandably so. I haven’t really baked since I met Terrick. We’ve been a bit busy.”

“He said the one I was waiting on would come here and I was looking for someone who knew more about vampyric magic than I did.”

“Oh,” I laughed. “So a ghost told you off.”

“Not in so many words,” Blithe grinned and shook his head, “and apparently the correct term for him would be spirit.”

“Gotcha,” I nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Blithe watched me as I sank back into my chair. I wasn’t sure I knew some big secret he didn’t know. He used his blood in his magic just as much as I did, if not more. Probably more because he worked on smaller projects while I put more energy into large baking projects that covered more ground with less blood.

“I think you might be disappointed in what I have to say about it all,” I shrugged. “It’s nothing groundbreaking. We are the magic, Blithe. Whatever makes us vampires and makes us need blood also makes us magic. Well, sort of. It makes us alchemists in a way. We take in blood that wasn’t ours to begin with and then we can turn that energy or literal blood into anything we want. We’ve used it for hearth magic and for battle and everything else over the years depending on which group we descend from. Where or who the blood comes from can have an effect on the magic. The bloodshakes work but live blood will make stronger magic. Some groups believed taking blood against the will of the donor made it stronger, but I don’t think so. Not for the sort of magic we do anyway.

“Traditionally the omegas have done the magic. Back in the day, I think the traditional system was to feed from the Alpha of the pair or maybe just an Alpha in general, an Alpha vampire would be best. Anyway, I’m going in circles. We’d feed from the Alpha – whichever one – and then do our magic. I’m not saying my magic is stronger than yours, that’s just the way it was done before. I think it was probably most likely done that way by true-mates. In that way their magics were combined. You’ve done it all along. I use it in my baking. That’s why I can’t make vegan recipes. My blood may be freely given to the recipe but it still comes from an animal.”

Blithe blinked at me as if he lost the plot somewhere. I opened my mouth to start over, to try to explain it in a different way, but he finally nodded.

“And the baking?” he asked.

“I just use the blood, intention, follow some astrological movements, and use herbology too. I think we were meant to use our blood. Those of us with magic anyway. I call it the blood cycle in my notes. We take in the blood of others in whatever form, and we transmute it into something useful – usually for someone else. It’s our place in the magical ecosystem. For a long time, the shifter community said we just took and took, but I think that was a lot of political stuff or they didn’t understand what we can actually do. Hell, maybe some of us lost track of what we could actually do. We’re here to make things better and no one can tell me differently. Sure, blood magic like all magics can be used for negative results, but that’s a personal choice. What we do – your runes, my baking and other hearth-y things, that’s what we were meant to do. In a society that works because it’s equitable we play a vital role. With enough time and the right supplies and intentions I don’t think there are very many limits on what we can do. Then when you add in the fact we have genetics going back to Frost and Juda, I think we have even more magic than the average vampire. It all plays together.”

“Dude, you should write a book,” Blithe laughed.

“Dakota says that too, but I’m not sure anyone would want to read it. Who would even publish it?” I shook my head.

“Irwin. He’s a wolf here. He writes and publishes mostly stories that have been forgotten. He fictionalizes dead folks to try to bring their stories to life. He has a printing press and everything. I’m sure he’d print it if you’d write it.”

“I may have to put it off for a while,” I said, purposefully not looking down at my belly where my eyes wanted to go.

“Until after the next moon?” Blithe arched a brow.

“Sorta,” I shrugged.

“Do you think there’s something else we need to do to save Terrick?” he asked, leaning forward in his seat.

“No,” I shook my head. “I think we have that worked out. I think if Liam’s right he just had to figure out what set him on the wrong path and we think---” I took a deep breath.

This wasn’t exactly my story to tell, was it? Except Terrick was my true-mate and my fate was all wound up in his.

“He sees spirits,” I said, remembering not to say ghost. “His dad’s been around since he died but he’s not the problem. He has a problem that needs solved, but the problem was the enemies his mother slew followed him around and it made him crunchy.”

“None of them have shown up here, have they?” Blithe’s eyes shifted to that of his wolf as he looked around.

“Only his dad as far as I know,” I admitted, “but I think we met all the requirements to make Frost’s spell go the way we need it to.”

“Is there something else going on? Just the new mate stuff?” Blithe asked, worry creasing his brow.

I opened my mouth to tell him, but stopped short. Telling one of my relatives would be like telling everyone. Still, if Blithe wanted to turn over a new leaf maybe I should give him a chance.

“Can you keep something to yourself?” I asked him.

“Of course,” he nodded.

“I’m pregnant. We just had the test three days ago. I haven’t been to the clinic because my wolf hasn’t relaxed about it yet. He threatens to bite anyone who touches his belly.”

Blithe’s eyes lit up and I let out a long, relieved sigh. Some secret part of me feared he’d overreact to the news. It wasn’t exactly the ideal time to be pregnant with Terrick’s fate hanging in the air.

“That’s great news!” Blithe grinned. “And a good reason to put off writing a book. Get all the sleep you can now. I know everyone says that, but really do it. All the sleep. Sleep until you go into labor because one day the kid will discover its tail and mew about it all night.”

“My poor brother,” I chuckled. “Do you want to take a nap on the sofa?”

“Would you mind?”

“Not at all,” I grinned. “I’m going to bake something today. I’m happy. That’s always a good time to bake. It’s where my good mood cakes come from.”

“Don’t use too much blood, brother,” he yawned. “You’re feeding for at least two now.”

“I’ll be careful. I know my limits. I’m not even considering multiples yet.”

“Runs in the family,” Blithe smirked.

“You just want me to be miserable with you,” I laughed.

“Maybe,” he yawned and headed off to the living room to take a nap.