Page 25 of Luna

I nodded, but I already knew that.

“And you haven’t had any contact with the fathers?”

I looked at my feet, shaming twisting my gut. “I don’t actually have their numbers. It was just a weekend fling. I was trying to be adventurous.”

“It’s okay, honey.” Doctor Lim touched my hand, before clearing her throat. “Sorry. You’re just…your perfume is very strong right now.”

“I didn’t know my perfume could be anything but sexual.” I kept staring at my feet, with a flush of embarrassment rising in my cheeks.

Coming alone had been hard but asking one of my sisters or cousins to come with me would have meant…telling them. There was absolutely no way they wouldn’t lecture me for hours. They would have had ideas, advice, concern, and I loved them for it. But it was hard enough to parse through my own feelings.

Trying to deal with their feelings on top of my own would have been impossible.

“You’re an unbonded omega.” Dr. Lim said briskly. “Your body is going through hormonal changes unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. I’ve never worked with a pregnant unbonded omega, but the literature tells us it’s dangerous. You need to be aware that your body will be stressed out, easier to upset and overwhelmed.”

“Right.” None of that was news to me. I fiddled with my hands. Almost done with the doctor’s appointment and then I could go play in my garden.

I was out of spaghetti sauce. I’d tried to conserve it, but it was the only thing I could eat without throwing up and, in the four days it had taken me to book the doctor’s appointment I’d eaten all of it.

Halos’s hoodie didn’t smell so strongly of his scent anymore either.

‘Stress’ wasn’t the half of it, but I didn’t want to admit that to Dr Lim. It felt like my entire body was an open wound, and any contact with people around me felt like they were poking and prodding at it, when all I wanted was to curl up in my nest.

“I know it’s hard, but it would be a good idea for you to contact the fathers. At the very least for your mental wellbeing.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

Yet another reason not to contact them. I wanted them; I’d wanted them before I knew we had had a baby together. Asking them to be with me just because of the baby would make them resent me over time.

I touched my stomach. It was still flat. I was only seven weeks along. I hadn’t bought any books on babies and pregnancies. I’d researched enough to know what foods to avoid, and that was it.

Joke was on me: apparently the baby had decided we were avoiding all foods.

Doctor Lim huffed, my real response seemingly obvious despite my apparent agreement. “Well, you’re stubborn. That’s good. And you came here, another good sign. Are you eating?”

“Spaghetti. Everything else comes up.”

The doctor nodded. “You’ll need to come to see me every two weeks.”

I looked up at that. “I thought it was once a month for the first two trimesters?”

“Unless it’s a high-risk pregnancy.” Doctor Lim arched an eyebrow. If my parents and aunts had lived long enough for me to remember them, I had the feeling they would have a similar expression as the doctor. “That means you come in every two weeks so I can monitor your weight, hormones, and stress levels.”

“Okay.”

She handed me a thick book, and several pamphlets. “Read these, and I want you to keep a diary of your symptoms. Your body knows what it needs, Luna.” The older doctor eyed me. “Ignore it at your own risk. Being unbonded means you don’t have an alpha’s bond to soothe you, a beta’s scent to reassure you. So your body will be looking for that while you’re pregnant.”

“Which is why everything feels like it’s at a ten?” I grimaced. “Every day at work feels like being in the middle of a three-ring circus.”

“You should take it easy.” Dr. Lim handed me a box. “Tell your family, sooner rather than later, and take a leave of absence.”

“But I like my job,” I stifled a whine. The thought of sitting around my cottage for the next eight months terrified me. At least when I was at the resort I had my family all around me.

“Lucky for you, there’s things you can do in your job that don’t involve subjecting yourself to a bunch of strange scents. Work in the fields and avoid crowds.”

“I can do that.” I looked down at the box that was filled with product samples. Diaper rash cream. Baby powder. Lotion.

Baby stuff. I was going to need all kinds of baby stuff. I needed to have a baby shower, and redo the spare bedroom in my cottage to be the nursery and…

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