Page 229 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“You don’t mind, do you, Dad?” Chris asked.

“Nah. You two need privacy, anyway, not to be staying in your old room down the hall from us,” Gabriel reassured him.

“I want to stay there, too,” Bells told me, an apologetic look at Mom and Dad.

“It’s all good, Bells. It’s more fun in the pack house, than here with your old folks,” Dad chuckled.

‘We need a new dining room table on the alpha floor. Bells, Chris and Violet are going to be staying on the alpha floor for a while,’I mind-linked Jo.

‘Meli already ordered a new one. The current one was getting cramped, and we have new pups joining soon.’

‘Let’s bring one of the party ones in there temporarily. I finally got Chris to call me Cory, and I’m not chancing not having the room, and him going back to Alpha Cory, if he thinks we don’t want them there.’

‘Violet’s a fucking miracle worker,’Jo laughed.

Chris worked very closely with us because he was good at what he did, incredibly loyal and trustworthy. We’d tried every which way to get him to drop the formalities, at least when we were in private, but the man was stubborn as all get out.

‘So it seems,’I answered, eyeing what felt like a permanent smile on the ever-serious Chris, while Violet talked about her lack of morning sickness with Mom. I was happy she was being spared that. I wanted nothing but sunshine and rainbows for the rest of her life.

After dinner, we got Bells, Violet and Chris settled in the alpha suites Evie and Meli prepared yesterday, in case they said yes. Cade, his parents and Beta John had been staying here until a few weeks ago. We were still housing about a hundred of his pack members, but at least we didn’t feel like sardines anymore.

Chapter Forty-Two

Bellarose

Iwas starting to get worried. I was sleeping too much. I barely had more than an hour of energy during the day. I’d slept most of the two days I’d been at Crescent Moon. My body felt heavy and achy. Like I was deep underwater. Everything I did felt like a huge effort.

There was another thing that was worrying me. Coyo was very lethargic. She barely even bothered to lift her head when I tried to talk to her. I’d been telling everyone I was fine, but I was beginning to doubt my own words. I even asked Evie about her pregnancy with the twins. She said she would get tired, but nothing worse than having to take a nap halfway through the day.

My doctor’s appointment was today. So, was Chris and Violet’s, and they agreed to do them together again. I wanted to feel bad for intruding in their moment of joy that should have been private, but I was eternally grateful they were doing it,nonetheless. I knew they were trying their best to make sure I didn’t feel alone.

I still hadn’t heard from Cade, though now I knew where he’d move his pack grounds. There was a forest that had been government property about fifteen minutes away from here. A part of it even wrapped around Crescent Moon borders. Cory told me they’d given his pack the bid because he’d been displaced by the wildfires, and being werewolves themselves, it didn’t threaten to expose the supernatural world to humans.

Cade was so close and yet, I felt like he was an ocean away. His cold silence stung, especially knowing he was aware I was here.

A knock on the door made me swing my feet off the bed, and then I followed Chris and Violet to the hospital. Dr. Roswell, Evie’s mom, walked into the appointment room and smiled at us.

“I heard you guys want to do this together?” she asked.

“If that’s alright,” I answered. “We’re due like two weeks apart.”

“Of course, it’s alright. It saves me a spiel,” she giggled.

“That’s what the clinic doctor said,” Violet replied, laughing along with her.

“I’d imagine most doctors have their ‘what to expect when you’re expecting,’ memorized after the first two hundred times,” Dr. Roswell explained.

A nurse walked in and placed two trays of needles and blood collection tubes. Dr. Roswell took Violet’s blood, and the sight of it started making me queasy. When she inserted the needle into my arm, and I watched the blood being drawn, everything went black.

I woke up to find Dr. Roswell, Violet and Chris hovering over me.

“What happened?” I asked.

“You fainted,” Violet answered.

“Why?”

“Seeing the blood, I think. Your blood pressure tanked and your heartbeat is a little slower than I’d expect,” Dr. Roswell replied.

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