Chapter Thirty

When we got back to the house, it was lit up with candles everywhere. Baer sat in the large chair in the front room with a grin on his face as we entered, and he lifted his arms out wide.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"It's better than sitting in the dark," Ayden said with a laugh. "How did you get them all lit so fast?"

"Rory has a better aim with her fire magic since school," I answered for Baer as I looked around the room for my cousin. "Speaking of, where is she?"

Baer nodded to the stairs. "Up there. She told me to send you up as soon as you got back."

I nodded and turned to go up the stairs, leaving the two men to their own discussions.

It had been an uneasy walk back in the dark. While it had annoyed me that Ayden managed to catch up with me before, the walk back through town made me glad he had.

The shadows were moving around every house we passed. Each empty building seemed to darken more as we moved by them before the next took on the darkness in its place. But I couldn't tell Ayden that. I couldn't risk him thinking I was just going crazy or telling Rory and having her become even more concerned for me.

Maybe I was going crazy. Maybe this realm just brought it out of me. It wasn't until we came here that I started experiencing all these voices and moving shadows that only I could see.

‘I can see them as well,'my wolf assured me. ‘You aren't alone.'

I swallowed a lump in my throat as I reached the top landing.

‘Then why does it feel like I am?'

"Sash? Is that you?" Rory called out from the larger bedroom we had found earlier.

"Yeah," I answered, wiping my eyes to be sure there were no tears before entering the room.

"Thank the gods," she gasped. "I've been waiting here nearly the whole time since you left. Please tell me you packed some pads or tampons. Anything really. I've got nothing and I need them."

I laughed as I slipped my bag from my back. "Yeah, I'm surprised you didn't though. You're usually so much more prepared than I am."

"Well, I didn't exactly think we would end up in a realm without a drug store to pop into and buy some," Rory countered, as she held out her hand for the pad.

"Well, lucky you, I have plenty," I paused and frowned as I looked back in my bag at the sanitary products. I began to count the days and run the numbers in my head, and my eyes slowly began to widen.

Rory hadn't noticed anything as I sat in a silent frenzy of disbelief and shock. I could hear her voice in the distance, but I couldn't quite make out what it was she was saying. My mind was far too busy trying to convince myself that I was wrong. That the math was off.

Stress. It could easily just be stress. After all, what was more stressful than a voice in your head that could yank you out of your body and into a realm of darkness and shadows?

‘No,'my wolf said with a yip of joy. ‘I can feel it. I hadn't noticed it before, but it's really there.'

I could feel her excitement as my hand subconsciously pressed against my stomach.

‘A pup,'my wolf howled cheerfully. ‘Our very own pup! We have to tell our mate! He will want to know!'

I drew back at the idea then and shook my head. There was no way I was going to tell Ayden. Not now. Not when we were so close to finishing this. He was already worried enough about me without him becoming protective of his unborn child.

"You okay?" Rory's voice finally broke through. "Cramps? You need a pad too? We usually start at the same time don't we?"

I stared at her and shook my head. I knew I couldn't tell Ayden. At least not until we were done here. I had told him we would discuss what to do with the mateship afterwards. This would just be a part of it. But I couldn't keep it all to myself without bursting. I had to tell someone. Why not tell the one person to whom I have always been able to share my biggest moment with?

"No," I said and reached for my backpack to pull out all of the products. "I won't need any of these actually, you can have them all."

Rory nearly dropped them as I pushed them into her arms excitedly. She glared at me for a moment with confusion before her own eyes widened.

"Wait, you don't mean?" she asked.

I nodded quickly, my hand still resting on my flat stomach as if I already could be showing. My cousin looked from my face to my hand, as if waiting for me to call it a joke and laugh at her. After the fourth back-and-forth glance, she seemed to have been convinced I would not do that and let out a shriek as she threw everything in her arms in the air before pulling me into a tight hug.

"Oh, my gosh! I can't believe it! How? I mean, I know how, but" she squealed again and hugged me tighter. "I am so excited for you, Sash! What did Ayden say when you told him?"

I shook my head. "Nothing, because I haven't told him. I literally just realized it right now with you."

Rory grinned and flipped her hair. "Well, I'm honored to be the first to know." She looked at me, then squealed again as she pulled me into yet another hug. When she finally released me, she grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the door. "Let's go tell him now! I want to see his face. He's going to be so excited."

"What?" I gasped and pulled my arm back. "Wait, no! Not yet, Rory!"

"What do you mean? Don't you want him to know? I would if I were you! I'd be leaping into Baer's arms right now declaring to the world that we finally did it!"

I frowned as I looked at her then, noting the hitch in her voice with the last few words she spoke.

"Rory? Are you okay?" I asked gently.

She nodded, though a few tears slipped past her lashes and trailed down her cheek.

"Of course I am, my cousin is going to have a baby. It's a cause for celebration. That's why we should be downstairs now telling the guys and making a toast or something."

She tried to pull me to the door again, but I pulled back once more.

"I'm not going to tell him yet," I said.

Rory wiped her tears from her cheek and frowned back at me. "What do you mean? Why not?"

"Because he'll make me go home," I said. "Then we will never catch Minerva and never end the darkness that could easily come after all of us if we don't stop them now."

"You don't know that," she said. "You're an alpha. Even your mom fought against the rogues when she was pregnant with you. It's not unheard of. Hell, Baer's mom is a witch and even she fought while pregnant with him. It's not uncommon."

"Yeah, but are you honestly going to tell me that Baer wouldn't rush you back home if you told him you were pregnant?" I said without fully thinking.

Rory's face fell, and a few more tears followed. She slowly walked around me and sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at me as I walked over to join her.

"Did I say something wrong?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, not really. It just feels different to me is all."

"What do you mean?"

More tears fell from her lids as she wiped them from her cheek.

"If I were to tell Baer I was pregnant, it wouldn't be for the first time, and you are right, he would rush me home. But not because he would think I suddenly couldn't fight."

"Rory," I gasped as it all began to click.

"I never told you; I never even told my parents."

"Why not?" I felt my eyes beginning to burn with my own tears. "When was this?"