Raised Mateless (On Hold)

Prologue

Emilee's reflection joined mine in the mirror beside me, "No shit he does! He'll be stoked when he finds out your pregnant. Duh."

My small smile turned into a full blown grin when I thought about a miniature Ryan running through the halls of our small, shitty apartment we were sure to own. I could see my soon-to-be-future flashing before my eyes, of Ryan gaining his rightful title of Alpha at twenty-one with me and little Ryan at his side, then onto possibly more children, and a giant colonial house with a white picket fence sitting out front. My hand unconsciously rested on my lower abdomen - the home of my little blessing.

"The only issue is going to be telling your father." Emilee mused, talking more to herself than me. "I mean you're turning sixteen in a month... Well it is November 21st today so I guess it's closer than a month but still." She lifted a hand to brush my fringed bangs from my eyes, and her eyes seemed to light up with mischief. "You could always go on Maury to tell them, and then maybe we could get you spot on 16 & Pregnant." Emilee's musical laugh filled the compact room, lifting my spirits.

"Em, really?" I chuckled out of exasperation. I was coming out of the initial shock of being pregnant at fifteen, and the nagging feeling it was stupid to mate with Ryan so early started to consume my mind.

'What are you talking about! You love Ryan, and you knew we had to. Ryan's nineteen now, and he needs a stable mate, even if we are younger. We are to be his, and now we have returned the favour with an offering of our own - his pup." My inner-wolf, Kai, purred, basking in the delight we were carrying our mate's child now.

I sighed in defeat, knowing Kalina was right. She was always right, and she never let me forget it. Kai was my Black Crescent pack name - our pack believes your wolf's name is your true name. She was a radiant ball of light inside me, the colour of rust and mocha. Kai was the other half of me; in my culture it's believed that your inner-wolf is your alter-ego, and in better words your natural half.

The sound of my phone ringing brought me back from my thoughts. I remembered I had my mental wall up, and that meant people would have to actually call me."Hello?"

"Harper! Baby, are you alright? Where are you?" Ryan's frantic voice blared through the phone, the worry in his voice almost pouring out from my cell phone.

I felt my lips tip up into a small smile at the sound of his voice. "I'm sorry, who is this?" I grinned at Emilee when I saw her roll her eyes at me, knowing I was just teasing him.

"Harper Jamie West, you listen good, if you don't tell me where you are right now I'll make sure you never leave your house again!" His growled threat hung lifeless between us, for we both knew he couldn't go through with it.

My body was shaking with need when I heard his growl. God, he could say anything to me and I wanted him. "Ryan, I'm pregnant."

I don't know why I said it. It just slipped out as I was lost in the daydream of him growling my name in lust as he slipped his shirt off. I wasn't thinking straight, and that was the result. The look on Emilee's face was priceless; she looked like I had just ruined her whole life.

"I wanted to see his face when you told him!" She cried, flinging her hands up in the air.

"Shush!" I playfully scowled at Emilee, and waited for Ryan's reply with hope. "Ryan..." I whispered into the phone, waiting.

"Harper, you're pregnant." The words floated through the phone, the shock of hearing those words from him caused my wolf to yip with delight.

I could picture the smile on his face, from the tone of his voice, which left a love-sick smile on my face as well. "Yes."

A screeching sound exploded from the receiver in my phone, and was followed by the life-shattering sound of at the shriek of metal meeting metal. I had to yank the phone from my ear from my sensitive hearing ringing from the sound. Every noise that came from my phone was one of destruction and death. The cackles from a fire were slowly filling the space in my mind, closing up any thoughts I had before.

"R-Ryan?" I couldn't help but sob his name in agony. Kai was clawing at my skin to escape for the sake of her mate, to run to him, to fix him, to do whatever he needed of her. But I couldn't let her.

I could hear the groan of a person and the sounds of scraping shards of metal getting closer and closer. "Harper, baby, I love you, okay?" Ryan's voice was strained, as he coughed against the mouthpiece. "I need you to remember that, and I'm so proud of you... Take care of our baby."

Then the line went dead.

Ryan's car accident was on November 21st, 2007. It will be five years since that faithful day in two months from now, and I count the days till the anniversary every year. My name is Harper West, I'll be turning twenty in three months and I have a four year old son - Dakota Ryan West. This is the story of how I raised my son mateless, and survived.