Page 48 of Possessive Mate

Elena nodded, gritting her teeth.

It was cold, but it wasn’t anything unbearable, and she half-relaxed as Layla started to move the doppler probe over her stomach, clearly searching for the baby. At first there seemed to be nothing but a sound of static. Then she heard a heartbeat, and her heart leapt into her throat.

“That’s your heartbeat,” Layla explained, and Elena’s heart sank into her gut. Then Layla moved the probe again and another heartbeat, one that sounded much faster, started to play through the speaker on the device.

“Wha—what’s that?” Elena asked, barely daring to believe.

“That is the sound of your baby’s heartbeat,” Layla told her, smiling with shiny eyes, as if she was holding back tears as much as Elena.

“R-really?” Elena gasped, but before she could get an answer, Layla started to scowl. The probe had moved slightly. Something sounded different. The heartbeat changed. How, Elena wasn’t sure, but it definitely had. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

Layla held up her index finger and said, “Just one second,” then she turned her face to the door with the beaded curtain and called, “Violet, if you aren’t too busy, could you come in here and listen to this for a second?”

“Layla, what is the matter?” Hanson demanded, sounding just as concerned as Elena now. His hand squeezed hers so tightly that it was almost painful. At least, it would have been if not for the fact she was squeezing just as tightly. She didn’t need to look to know that both of their knuckles were bone-white.

The she-wolf didn’t answer. Instead, she turned to Violet and said, “Would you give this a listen for me?”

Violet smirked in a way that made Elena cringe. She had always been wary of witches. They never really got on with werewolves. The two factions had very different views of the world, much like many supernaturals.

So in her most vulnerable state, Elena wasn’t sure she wanted a magic user anywhere near her. She just saved my life, she reminded herself, trying to keep her cool even though she felt an odd urge to bare her teeth at the witch.

“I think I already know what you’re asking,” Violet said, coming to the bedside. She took the doppler from Layla’s hand, listening for a moment before she moved it back to where Layla had been holding it before. “One, two, three.”

The witch’s counting was more than a little confusing.

“What do you mean, one, two, three?” Elena demanded. Her mind reeled over what she might mean, none of it good.

Violet and Layla looked at each other, and though both of their eyes glowed with excitement, Elena still couldn’t bring herself to believe that it was anything good. How could it possibly be, after all of the crappy stuff that had happened to her over the last two years? She’d lost her child, her mate, and in turn her pack, unable to stay under the power of an alpha who had killed her partner. What else could life possibly have left to throw at her?

“Both pups sound perfectly healthy to me,” Layla said, smirking at Elena in a way that made her heart race.

“Both pups?” Hanson gasped incredulously.

“B-both pups?” Elena repeated, astonished. Her eyes widened so far, they felt as if they were going to fall right out.

Time seemed to stop as she waited for a response. Her entire body grew numb with disbelief as she started to hear what Layla and the witch had been hearing.

“Congratulations, Elena, you are having twins,” Layla and Violet said at the same moment.

Elena felt a second wave of disbelief wash right over her. The way Hanson’s hand loosened in her own told her just how shocked he also was.

For a second, nobody spoke. Nobody so much as moved. The entire world felt as if it were holding its breath.

It didn’t seem to start again until Hanson broke the silence. “May we have a moment or two alone?”

As he spoke, he slipped an arm around Elena.

“Of course,” Layla said, and Violet silently slipped from the room, the doppler still in hand. Elena half wished she had left it. Not that she would have any idea how to use it herself.

Layla reached out and squeezed Elena’s shin comfortingly. “We’ll be just on the other side of the door if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” Hanson said, as if he was answering for her.

Elena stared after Layla until Hanson slipped onto the bed beside her and pulled her into his arms. It was only then that she realized she was crying. In fact, she wasn’t just crying, she was weeping. It was an uncontrollable torrent of emotion that poured from her eyes and nose and made her feel completely empty inside, empty save for the odd fluttering she felt in her abdomen now that she knew the truth.

She hadn’t lost her baby. In fact, she had two. How that could even be possible after so much horrid luck, she didn’t know.

“You are so beautiful, Elena,” Hanson said, wiping the tears from her face when her crying finally subsided.

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