Page 3 of Fated to the Warrior Wolf

What I wanted didn’t matter at all right now. I was a bystander, utterly useless after the point of conception except to do whatever she wanted.

And what she didn’t want was me.

I took a step back, then another, as the awful truth sank in much more quickly than all the bombs before it.

She might have been carrying my baby, but she still wanted fuck all to do with me.

TWO

Leigh

Oh my Goddess.

If you can hear me up there, help me now.

I could hear their footsteps, walking down the hall and bursting into a flat-out sprint before hitting the doors. The sound of Gael slamming it open hard enough to crack a doorframe made me flinch, even as I still clung to the toilet bowl.

That couldn’t have gone worse. So much for taking my time and telling Gael when the time was right. When I knew a tiny bit more than“So, uhm, I’m knocked up and sick as a dog.”

I didn’t even get to tell him, let alone couch the news so he didn’t hate me. Hate Petal.

The name is official now,I thought as I looked down at my perfectly flat stomach. Petal was perfect, just like my baby girl was perfect.

And I’d protect her, even from her father if I had to. But Goddess, I didn’t want to have to. We were both adults, and once he got over the shock, he might not be happy, but surely he’d be… present? Willing to co-parent?

I bit my bottom lip and stood on shaky legs. Those were allproblems for later. Right now I needed a toothbrush to deal with the scuzz that was happening on my teeth.

Halfway through my second round of brushing, Shay appeared at my side like an apparition, silent and a little spooky if you weren’t expecting her.

“Everything okay? I heard the door slam.”

“Leigh?” Brielle called, stepping in a second after Shay. She didn’t waste time asking about Gael and Reed’s hasty exit, though. She gasped as soon as she spotted the tin-soldier line of pregnancy tests. Three sets of double lines, leading to the final stick which read PREGNANT like a harbinger of doom.

No, not doom. Never doom. My hand dropped to my stomach, as if the touch could protect her from outside judgment.

Goddess, there was going to be a lot of that. This just didn’t happen, and people were going to talk, which I hated. I didn’t want her to grow up feeling different or defective.

I’d already lived that shit, and I wouldn’t accept it for my daughter.

“You’re pregnant?” Brielle slapped both hands over her mouth, rocking back on her heels as her eyes welled up. Shay was just staring, an incomprehensible look on her face.

I quickly spit out my toothpaste and rinsed so I could talk to them without sounding like a swamp monster.

“Looks like it,” I murmured, suddenly shy. They were my best friends, so I knew they’d stand by me, but?—

Two sets of arms flew around me so fast, they almost knocked me onto the toilet seat.

I broke, the contact I didn’t know I so desperately needed breaking through the protective wall I’d put up in front of the guys. Sobs, deep, jagged, ugly ones, burst out of my chest as I clutched them back.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Brielle soothed. “We’re here now, and nothing is going to happen to you or the baby.”

Shay was silent, her usual stoic self, but she stroked myback calmly, not pulling away as I soaked the shoulder of her black tank top with a torrent of emotion.

When the tears finally abated, I scrubbed at my achy, prickling eyes with vigor.

I held one of their hands in each of mine and finally let myself sink back to sit on the toilet seat.

“If Gael was rude to you…” Shay said, low and threatening.

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