Page 47 of Betrayed Pregnant Mate

“He did not scream like that,” Linnea says, shaking her head. She’s working on a dress for Araya, stitching it by hand in her armchair.

“Yes, he did,” I insist, putting my fist to my mouth, trying to be quiet so I don’t wake the kids.

“Oh, I’m sure he did,” Rosa says, coming into the room and handing me a mug of tea. I take it, my heart filling. Apparently, we were in the woods a lot longer than we thought, because it was dark when we pulled up outside Aris’s house, where the gnome would be staying until the morning when a magical creatures representative would come to rehome it.

When we pulled up, there was a message from the lead vampire waiting for Aris—him agreeing to the meeting. Aris had looked both pleased and troubled at once. It brought the mood down, at least until I got the opportunity to tell the story to the girls, who were crying with laughter by the time I got to the end.

“It wasn’t that loud,” Bigby says, collapsing onto the couch, and throwing his arms up over the back. He pats the cushion next to him, and Rosa rolls her eyes, settling in beside him cozily.

The sight of it makes me miss Veronica and makes me think about what Bigby and Aris said about apologizing and compromising with her. I would be willing to go to any lengths—honestly, as much as it would hurt, I’d be willing to leave Rosecreek behind and follow her from place to place if it meant not losing her.

“I miss laughing like this,” Linnea says, looking up from her needlework. “It’s good to have you back, Percy.”

I swallow and look down at my lap.

“What?” Linnea says, instantly attuned to my discomfort.

“Oh, nothing,” I say, my throat growing thick as I look around the circle. Aris walks in, handing Bigby a glass of whiskey. I look back to my tea—I’ve been trying to drink less, afraid that I might be wasting my life away—but right now, I wish I was having what they’re having. “Sorry,” I say, glancing up at her.

“Dude,” Bigby says, his voice rough. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just—” I say, taking a stuttering breath, “you guys don’t have to say stuff you don’t mean.”

“What?” Aris says, his brow furrowing.

“You know, like—how you’re glad I’m back, or whatever. The stuff about missing me.”

“Percy,” Linnea says, her eyes wide. “Of course we missed you.”

“I know what I did,” I say, trying to keep my voice even. “I don’t need you to pretend like it doesn’t matter.”

“Of course, it matters,” Bigby says, getting to his feet and coming to stand near me, where I’m balancing on the arm of the couch. “It’s not what you did, man—it’s what happened to you.”

“Percy,” Aris says, “what the hell are you talking about right now?”

“I’m just—I’m the bad apple of the group,” I say, dismayed when a single tear slips down my face. I hadn’t meant to do this now, hadn’t meant to burden them even further. “I know I probably bring shame to this pack, even with how powerful and influential it is, or whatever. I just want you to know that you don’t have to pretend for my sake that it’s not true.”

“You are the best shifter in this fucking pack,” someone says, and I look up to see Rosa, her eyes blazing. “I didn’t even know you before they brought you into that cell. And the first thing you did the second you gained lucidity? You told me to take the suffering from someone else.”

“We named our son after you, Percy because he had the brightest smile and the kindest face,” Linnea says.

“I named my son after you because you were one of my best friends,” Aris says, “and losing you was one of the hardest things I’d ever gone through. It helped to make me strong, and I wanted nothing more than for my son to be able to carry some of that strength.

“We missed you, man,” Bigby says, his normally loud voice so quiet and low in front of me. The tears are streaming down my face now, but fortunately, nobody comments on it. I return my gaze to my tea, setting it down on the coffee table and folding my hands in my lap. A moment later, something collides with me, and I realize it’s Linnea hugging me tightly. Rosa joins in, putting her arms around me. After a moment, I feel Bigby, and then finally Aris, join the group, and we’re all standing in the Cadell’s living room, hugging tightly.

“If you tell anyone I participated in this,” Aris says when we pull away. “I will lie.”

Chapter 23 - Veronica

I’m trying to breathe, but I can’t breathe. I’m trying to think, but that’s not working, either. I might be having a panic attack. I try to think about what the guidance was in nursing school, how to help someone having a panic attack, but I can’t remember, and trying to remember is just making me more anxious.

Anxious that I’m losing myself. I don’t know who I am anymore if I'm not a good nurse. That, if I’m pregnant, and I stay in Rosecreek because of that, I’ll be tying myself down in exactly the way I never wanted to.

At once, I can picture two futures stretched out in front of me—one in which I take my baby, and I keep working as a traveling nurse, as we’d be something like me and my dad, except I’d be more loving. I’d work hard to get all the money we’d need, and when I got home from long shifts, we’d have short, intense moments of bonding to make up for the long, lazy weekends most of the kids and parents got to have together.

The other future is staying here, in Rosecreek, with Percy, watching him become the world’s most perfect dad, so understanding and kind and there. Our kid would know how loved they were, would grow up surrounded by plenty of other kids, by Linnea’s and Rosa’s kids. They’d be born into a big family, the kind of family I’d always dreamed about having as a kid.

But if I’m technically a vampire, does that mean that my kid would also be technically a vampire? If I stayed here, would I be giving them a bad life?

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