I can't hide it anymore. My butterfly is kicking and moving around now. Hux hasn't said a word to me about her yet. I'm starting to get nervous. She's due in a month. I can feel the anxiety he has when he actresses my belly and I don't know how to feel about it.
I've been avoiding the pack so far, but now my clothes don't fit. Hux wants me to eat at the pack house with him tonight. He wants to show me off, but I feel ashamed. Why would he want to show off his mate while she's pregnant with anther mans child? I feel disposable and low.
I try my best to feel confident in my sweater that is starting to ride up over my tummy. I have a skirt in today too. It flows down to my ankles, covering my skinny calves. My back has been aching, but being mated this past month has really helped my body. I don't have to worry that I won't be around for my little butterfly now.
Hux has all but moved me into his cabin, so he doesn't have to go far to find me.
A kiss is in my temple, an arm around my waist. My butterfly kicks at his hand that is now covering my belly. I feel him tense for a moment. I feel his anxiety seep from his mind and into mine before disappearing with a smile pointed my way.
"You look beautiful."
"I'm nervous." I'm pouting, giving him my dad eyes, anything to stay home and keep my butterfly a secret still.
"I won't leave your side." But that's only slightly reassuring.
He holds my hand in the chilly air as we walk towards the pack house. Winter is upon us. "You should start wearing a coat." He's worrying.
"It's fine. It's not a long walk and I have you. My personal furnace." I grin at him, trying to lighten my mood. It doesn't help and my smile is gone when I spot Nox on the back porch, helping with the barbecue.
I try to turn, to back peddle, but Hux is there, he's holding me to him so I can't run away. I don't want to face this. I don't want to see the pitiful stares.
I can already feel the eyes of pack members. They are staring at my stomach. They feel like lasers cutting into my skin and bones, leaving me helpless to do anything about it.
Nox is staring at me knowingly. It feels like all the others. "Beatrix." He's nodding at me, nodding at Hux. They've made up recently I know.
"That yours?" I'm surprised by the question and I think he's talking about my neck, about my mark.
Hux knows him better. Hux knows what he's really asking and I'm speechless at his response.
"Yea. She's mine." His hand is on my bump, claiming my butterfly as his own in front of our pack members.
No one looks surprised. I guess with the timing it could seem like my butterfly was his. He showed up the day it happened. Maybe they think he's abusing me too? Maybe that's why they are giving me dirty looks, or are they giving him dirty looks? I don't know anymore and I'm crying. My hormones are shot.
Huxley is pulling me into his arms and I can't get close enough with my bump in he way. I lean my head into his shoulder and let it all out.
He lied for me. He accepted a baby that's not even his for me. I feel awful about myself. I feel awful for letting this happen, for making him do this for me.
"She's mine. Our Mariposa." He's whispering this in my ear, trying to implant this into my mind. Why does he seem so sure now when just before we left he was tensing up at her kicks?
'My sweet Honey Bee. You think I don't accept this baby after I took you for my own?' His voice is in my head.
"You... You never said.."
'I'm sorry I mislead you by not saying anything honey, but I'm not nervous because of the baby's origins. I'm nervous because I don't know what kind of father I will be. I'm nervous because I don't know how I'm going to raise this little girl. I don't know the first thing about children.'
I feel waves and waves of relief crashing over me like a tsunami, destroying all the doubt in its path.
"I don't know anything either. We can figure it out together." I whisper in his ear. Nox is looking at us oddly as Hux caresses every bare inch of my skin, soothing me, caring for me.
I remind myself that even if Nox does know this baby isn't Huxley's, he wouldn't say a word otherwise. He wants us to be happy. He wants his pack members not to suffer.
I let Hux pull me into the dining room. I let him sit me down to his left and feed me like always. I let all the pack see my mark as I tilt in to take bite after bite and I smile.
We don't stay long, but Hux makes sure everyone knows the child I'm carrying is 'his', that I'm his. I don't feel so low anymore. I feel a little proud to be his mate.
We are in bed now and Hux is tracing patterns on my belly. Mariposa is kicking hard, following his movements.
"Mariposa huh? Not little butterfly?" He's been in my thoughts.
"Just trying it out a little." My cheeks are heated and he's scooting down to bend over my side.
"Hi Posy." He's rubbing my stomach all over and Mariposa is flailing around inside me, kicking me in the rib. I flinch at how strong she is already. "You okay Bee?"
"Yea. Her Acrobats just get a little uncomfortable sometimes." He's smiling at me, full of joy. "I don't think she likes her nickname tho. I named her after a butterfly, not a bunch of flowers."
"You don't like that Posy?" He's kissing my stomach and laughing at my facial expression.
He's crawling back up to spoon me, pulling me against him so that we're touching everywhere.
"Do you really want this?" I have to ask.
"Yes. I want to be the only father she ever knows. I don't want you to have to go it alone baby. I couldn't stand it. I hated watching you so sick and feeling so helpless. I hated being away from you. I promise to stay. I promise I won't leave you. Okay?" I'm nodding my head, drifting tiredly.
He's so wonderful and I let him hold me all night as our feelings bubble and twine together. I know he's telling the truth now. He has no doubt leaking from a single pore. I don't know how I would go on without him a second time, but I don't have to know because he's here now.
I'm touching my mark, my fingertips caressing it, pressing it into my skin even though I know it's not going anywhere. I just want to hold it to me, to treasure it, to treasure him.
YOU ARE READING
Broken Bonds
Werewolf(Book 2) Beatrix is sick. She's sick of herself. She's sick of what she's done. She's sick of missing him. She's sick of wishing he would come back. And now he is. But he doesn't want her and she doesn't blame him, after all, how could she mis...
