Page 36 of Call Don't Fall

“Not really. She’s self-employed. She could take forever off. Don’t know much about her mate, but she could.”

“Grina hunting and gathering for food is not something I can imagine.”

“Why not? She’s a wolf too. I bet her mate could too.”

“Probably.”

“Are you too tired to drive?” he asked.

“Where do you want to go?” I shot the question back at him. “It’s raining pretty hard.”

“I want some ice cream. Even if it’s that less sweet kind.”

“I can do that but you’re staying here. It’s bad enough that I’m going to risk life and limb for ice cream. You aren’t risking our pup for it.”

“My big brave hunter,” he laughed and kissed me hard. “If you want the rest of that kiss you can have it when you get back from the store.”

Chapter Seventeen

Chasten

I stretched out on the sofa to catch up on Treg’s web comic. I only made it a few panels in before the quiet house and late hour lured me to sleep. I didn’t rise again until someone banged down the door as if they were the guardians of Hemlock Mountain and I was hiding a cannibal in my kitchen pantry.

“Huh?” I blinked and my wolf barked inside my thoughts.

Something about him was fuzzy as if he had been working to wake me up for some time. Instinctively, I reached out for Kirk, but nothing was there. Well, something was. Our mating link was always there but he wasn’t there. How was that even possible?

“Kirk? Alpha? Babe?” I called out through my grogginess.

“Answer the door!” Treg’s voice broke through the haze. “I swear to Frost and Juda and all their crazy children, Chas, I will knock down this door if you don’t answer it!”

“Huh?” I grunted again but this time managed to scramble off the sofa. “What the hell did I sleep through?”

“Chasten!” Treg hit the door again, slapping it with their palm.

“What?!” I wobbled toward the door.

I was just at the beginning of my second month but suddenly felt too pregnant. My belly wasn’t how it normally was. It was bigger now – more weight to carry alone. Too much weight to carry alone. Where was Kirk? He’d gone to get ice cream but that didn’t take this long---

My mind went blank and for a second my fingers couldn’t remember how to open the door.

“Treg!” I shouted, hitting the door back.

“What are you doing? Chasten! Open the door, friend. Are you okay?” Treg said, their voice trembling.

I opened my mouth to tell him I couldn’t get the door open when my fingers finally found the lock and turned it. A second later, I looked up at a shaky Treg dressed in their pajamas.

“What happened to him?” I asked, my heart dropping into my stomach. “I can’t feel him, Treg!”

“He’ll be okay,” Treg pulled me into a tight hug. “Everyone tried calling you and you didn’t answer!”

“So they called you?” I blinked at them.

“I was there when that car slid and smashed into the bed of his truck and ---”

“Treg?!”

“He’s okay. He’s alive. A broken pinky and the steering wheel smashed his leg up real bad when it crunched down. They had to sedate his wolf. I ran out because my favorite black marker dried up on me and --- it doesn’t matter,” they shook their head. “Anyway, I ran into him in the self-check out line and we chatted for a bit in the parking lot. A car hydroplaned out into him. Right into the bed of the truck and smashed the truck’s nose right into the pole.”

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