Page 44 of Betrayed Pregnant Mate

What? I’d sent, which made him smile.

Nothing, he sent back.

Now, Maisie and Rosa come hurrying back into the room, laughing together at something. When they see me sitting there, they break out into laughter again.

“What?” I ask over the sound of it.

“Nothing,” Rosa wheezes, “Maisie just said she bet you were an expert pee-er, since you did all that travel nursing.”

“I’ve thought about doing that,” Maisie says, on a sigh. “I just don’t think there’s that kind of need for a paranormal nurse, and I forget about human stuff so easily.”

I stare at her, remembering the entire situation. What she just said is the kind of sentence I can expect to hear for the rest of my life if I stay in Rosecreek.

When I think about it again, I shake my head—I am not staying in Rosecreek. No matter how much I love the people here, no matter how the lake makes my heart flutter in the mornings, just as the sun is coming up, sparkling on the waves. It doesn’t matter.

This is not my life.

“Well,” Rosa says, pulling out a chair at her station. “I cannot wait to poke around in your blood work and take a look at what’s going on there. I think the analysis should be done—”

She looks up at the screen, its light shining over her face, and stops midsentence at whatever she sees there. Maisie, curious, walks over as well, leaning down to take a look. Whatever she sees has her standing up and putting her hands to her mouth, glancing at me.

“Do you know?” she breathes, and my heart starts to race.

“Know what?” I ask, already feeling lightheaded.

“Veronica,” Rosa says, her voice a whisper. “It’s just—”

Unable to take it any longer, I walk over to the screen, turning it so I can look at it. My eyes scan over the figures hungrily—everything looks good. I’m healthy—cholesterol within the recommended zones—”

I stop when I see it, my eyes zooming in on the number, my heart absolutely hammering in my chest. I let go of the screen and take a zombie-like step backward, hands up, palms out, shaking my head.

“Veronica—” Maisie says, but I turn on my heel and sprint out of the room, shaking my head all the way. It can’t be true. It can’t.

I’m so pre-occupied walking out of the compound that I slam into someone, hard, and when I look up, I see it’s Rafael, holding his head and wincing. The sight of him still sets off alarm bells in my head, but I’ve grown somewhat used to his face, so a mixture of panic and familiarity takes over me when I look at him.

“Oh, hey,” he says, “sorry, Aris asked me to meet him at the compound, said it was this way? Is this the right way?”

“Yes,” I say, gesturing to the building. “You can go through the door right inside, if he’s with you or given you clearance.’

“Hey,” Rafael says, dipping his head down to meet my eyes. Despite my experience with him, being so afraid that he was my stalker for so long, I can’t deny the feeling I get that we’re the same, like he said. “Is something wrong? What were you doing in there?”

“I was—Maisie and Rosa have been poking around, doing some tests on me,” I breathe, trying to seem normal. I need to go somewhere, be alone to process my thoughts, but the entire town is buzzing with tourists right now. Even the street outside Percy’s apartment is full, and humans are wandering in and out to buy baked goods.

Did I just refer to people as humans.

“Well,” Rafael says, taking my arm and guiding us away from the sidewalk so a throng of tourists can push past us. “I’m glad I caught you, actually.”

I blink at him, waiting for the shoe to drop, for this to be the moment he puts a bag over my head and drags me out of there, like an actual stalker would.

“There’s more to this…situation, but I didn’t tell you everything the other night, in front of Percy, because I didn’t know how much you wanted him to know.”

“That’s rich, coming from you,” I say, referencing the fact that I thought he was my stalker for so long.

“Not because you don’t trust him, or that you trust him less than me,” Rafael says, glancing around us furtively, “but because he’s a shifter.”

“So are you.”

“Yes, but I’m a shifter with a little bit of vampire in me,” he says, “and that means I can understand your situation better.”

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