Nixon

••• Thirty-One •••

"The pack truly adores you, you know," she states, meeting my gaze. "They see you are a sweet Luna and do care for this pack."

"And I do," I confirm, smiling. "I know being human may put me at a disadvantage to understand your traditions, but I think being human has helped because it's allowed me to see so much of your world," I add, hoping Cecil will spread the news to the pack about how I feel about them.

Within the next three hours I am back at my house, sitting on the side of the bed as I take in a deep breath. Spinning the ring around my finger, I sigh, looking to the window as I see the garden below. I slide my hands to my stomach, thinking of the child within me that will one day look out upon the pack I have seen today. I want this child to appreciate the pack that they were born into, to trust and respect them as the pack will for my child. A boy or a girl...I wonder which one. Names have barely crossed my mind, but I know that if this child will be a girl, I will want her name to be Genevieve. I like the sound of the name, the certain elegance it holds as a name. As for a boy? I have not picked because I do not want to think about the child being a boy. But this is a fifty-fifty chance. One or the other and soon I will find out.

My phone rings, only one person I know to be calling. Taking in a deep breath, I pick up my phone, agreeing to the call as I place the device to my ear.

"Hey," I greet, standing up from the side of the bed as I head to the balcony, taking a seat on the lounging chair.

"We're you fucking Gavin?! Is this why your number is in his phone?!"

"Taylor?"

"Were you fucking him?" She snaps, asking the question as my eyes widen. She has Gavin's phone, somehow having either found it or come across my contact since he died.

"No I was not," I answer, every word I speak true. "Gavin was helping me uncover things. This is why he had my number."

"Uncover things like some fetish you never knew you had?" Taylor asks, tone harsh as I roll my eyes.

"Taylor, I warned you that Gavin was in trouble, for you to talk some sense into him, and now he is gone," I inform, pinching the bridge of my nose.

I head her yelling to someone. Probably mom or dad. "You married that prick," Taylor hisses. "You married Nixon Maxwell and have shamed our family."

"There is now our," I snap, refuting her words. "We are broken, Taylor. Our family is shattered. Since when do you give a damn about mending relationships here?" I await her words, words that will cut like a knife as the silence present is causing fear to stir in my heart. "I told you Gavin was trouble...I even warned you that he was in trouble and you hung up and didn't do a thing."

Silence once again as I lean again the brick wall, facing the garden as I see Oliver's house, his room light on. I once was a guest in his house many times, laughing as my youth was just taking shape and I had a new chapter of life awaiting me. Yes, what I live now is also a new chapter, one where Nixon has become a central character to the plot even more than he ever did. The moment that our child arrives, another chapter will begin. But in my innocent youth, before I watched my world burn, I dreamt of college, of majoring in physics and moving to Colorado where I could meet new faces and make new memories.

"Where is he?"

Does Taylor not know that Gavin is dead? That he was shot and his body dragged out. Could I tell her that he is dead? Does she believe that he left her and has moved away? To Taylor, everyone abandons her eventually, that they leave her because of her madness. Do I tell a girl who believes that all people leave her that the man she was sexually involved with is dead by the hands of the man I call my husband? Or do I let her believe that yet another person has left her...