With each passing day I got sicker and sicker until I couldn’t eat or drink anything for fear of throwing it back up; partly due to morning sickness and partly due to the stress that the nightmares placed on my body. They came back with vengeance as I began stressing about the future and the baby. Before I’d gotten at least a few hours’ sleep most nights but now I was haunted by memories and plagued by fatigue.
It had been three weeks since I’d discovered I was pregnant, three weeks since I’d talked to anyone but my fathers; I didn’t want them to find out. Eventually I knew that they would though and I would be alienated further.
There was a knock on my door and it opened to reveal two very worried wolves. “Eve you need to see the pack doctor; you’re not well.”
I went to protest but Ace scooped me up, blanket and all, before carrying me out the door and through the pack house, down to the medical wing in the basement. He laid me on the bed as the pack doctor walked in with a small smile. “It’s good to see you again Eve; I just wish that it could be under better circumstances.”
I nodded but honestly I didn’t care; he’d been kind to me when I was a teenager but not overly so. He hadn’t really cared before and I doubt he did now. The next hour was filled with me being questioned, poked and prodded. He drew blood, weighed me, measured my blood pressure, got a urine sample, went over my medical history, did countless ultrasounds and physical and an internal pelvic exam.
By the end I was stroppy and tired, I had a picture of my baby though from the ultrasounds and it was both unsettling and amazing to think that there was a life inside me.
The doctor put me on a drip because I was severely dehydrated and ordered that I eat saline crackers; all under his watchful eye.
“Do you want to come have a movie night with us?” Hansel asked as the extracted the drip. I’d been sitting in the medical wing for several hours and it had grown dark outside from what I could tell.
“What movies are you watching?” I asked, slowly sitting up.
Ace smiled as dad listed the movies and surprise, surprise, it was action movie night. I absentmindedly rubbed my dog tags as I walked behind them slowly. We stopped at the kitchen and they gathered bags of food before we headed towards the cinema.
Inside there were around twenty people; many whom I recognised. These were the men and women who helped the pack function; the high rankers.
Jenna sat in the back with Klaus, snuggled up under a blanket with him. Davy sat with Elliot, Jenna’s daughter and the twins, Caine and Alex. They were all grown up; the boys were beginning to fill out and I’m sure that they would’ve been much taller than me if they stood. The boys were a mix between Klaus and Jenna, but Elliot looked exactly like her mother, but with Klaus’s green eyes.
I spotted Ivan, the head enforcer, and his mate Shelby among the others as my dad’s took a couch off to the side. I stood by the door, watching as they all joked around with each other and got settled for the movies. They were all so happy and such a tight family unit.
I felt eyes on me and I met Jenna’s gaze. Looking around the room once again I shook my head and backed out, closing the door behind me.
I didn’t belong.
I felt better after the doctor’s appointment and I was too cooped up here. It was a fairly warm night so I slipped into a pair of borrowed swimmers from Jenna and jumped in the pool, heated to be at just the right temperature that it wasn’t a shock to my system.
I was completely alone as I rested against the pool ledge and stared out into the blackened forest, the pool lights casting a glow on my arms as I relaxed. I guess that everyone else was inside with their friends and family.
I swam laps in the big pool for what felt like hours; until my limbs grew so tired they felt like they were filled with lead and my eyes drooped heavily.
I climbed out and a towel was wrapped around me. I looked up to see Jeremy; a wolf who’d given me hell when I was a teenager. In my shock I took a step backwards from him and with a splash, fell right back into the pool with a gasp.
I felt water fill my lungs as I sank to the bottom of the deep pool. My training kicked in and I bent my knees and propelled myself to the surface as someone grabbed my arm and hauled me out of the pool. I bent over and coughed up the water as he stood beside me.
“What do you want?” I asked coldly, scooping the towel up from the ground and wrapping it around myself, covering my body from his gaze. “Was it not enough that you made my life hell as a teenager? You felt the need to come back for more?” I asked angrily
He hung his head and I knew that he was ashamed. “I found my mate; she was human and she was bullied just like you. She found out how I treated you and was disgusted; she rejected me. I realised what I did was wrong and I wanted to apologise.”
I shook my head and snorted as he looked up. “Good; now you know what rejection feels like.” I had no sympathy for him; karma had bitten him on the ass big time. “I stopped caring about you people a long time ago but I accept your apology; now get lost.” It was true; I stopped caring about the people and accepted that I didn’t belong with them but it still hurt that I’d been treated that way. In a way I was glad though; it had pushed me to do things that had helped others and made me a better, stronger person. When I joined the military I’d found where I belonged and I’d found people who cared about me; my team. Sure it hurt that I hadn’t had friends as I grew up and wasn’t included but I’d had parents who loved me and I guess that’s what really matters.
I had a quick shower and then curled up on a chair looking out the window, staring out at the forest and mountains, the clear starry night sky. It was beautiful at night in the Alps.
I heard a quiet knock on my door and Jenna’s voice reached my ears. “Eve are you alright?”
Was I alright?
I’d been tortured for weeks by terrorists, forced to take leave from my team and my career by the Medical Board because I was psychologically unfit for duty and then I got knocked up by my best friend; a man who was currently off somewhere killing people no doubt.
“No.” I whispered. “I’m not ok.”
I heard her light footsteps as she approached me and dropped down to look me in the eyes. “What’s wrong Eve? You know you can tell me anything.”
Jenna had been my mum growing up and even when she had her own children, she was always there for me. I guess seeing the love in her eyes made the floodgates burst as big tears dripped down my cheeks.
Jenna scooped me up and cuddled me to her chest as I sobbed. I hadn’t cried for years and it felt wrong; I had learnt to push back my emotions, be as cold as stone. Everything was just so overwhelming and I didn’t feel like I could handle it right now. She let me cry for until I got a hold of myself and pulled away, wiping my eyes and blowing my nose on a tissue.
My eyes and nose would be red but apart from that there would be no signs I’d been crying. “What’s wrong Eve?” Jenna asked again.
I stared at the opposite wall blankly. “I’m pregnant.”
I heard a sharp intake of breath and I turned to look at her shocked face. There was total and utter silence until Jenna spoke again. “When did this happen? With who? Did you use protection?”
I felt numb now and tired, very tired. “I’m two months pregnant with my best friend’s baby. I was told I was infertile so we didn’t use protection.”
“I’m going to be a grandmother.” She paused for a second and her mouth fell open. “Holy shit I’m going to be a grandmother; I’m too young to be a grandmother!”
“Jenna you’re nearly fifty.” I reminded her. It was weird saying that because she only looked like she was in her early twenties; the perks of immortality I guess. My dad, Hansel was only a few months old than Jenna and just as youthful, but Ace was well over three hundred years old.
She groaned and buried her head in her hands. “Don’t remind me; it feels like yesterday I ran away and met Klaus.” We all knew the story of how our alpha couple met; on Jenna’s eighteenth birthday she ran from the pack house. She got far before she began her first shift and that was when she met Klaus. After that no one really knows much else about them save for the fact that he’d been a rouge and he and Jenna had been separated for a while before he was taken and tortured by a man named Feugo. Jenna got him out of there and now over thirty years later they’re happily mated, running the pack with an iron fist and have three children; soon to be four, or five if they’re twins again.
“If you don’t mind Jenna, I’d like to be alone.” I said quietly. She left with no protest and I sat on the bed, pulling a single photo out of my duffel bag. It was a photo of everyone in my team after a mission. We were all covered in grime, our clothes were ripped and our bodies battered but we all crowded around each other, smiling and passing around beers. Many still had weapons strapped to them, Kevlar vests half undone; we were a sight to behold.
I felt a faint smile slip onto my face as my eyes traced the photo; those men were my family.
Twenty comments (excluding my own and multiples) for an immediate update; otherwise the next update will be in 3-4 days.