Page 390 of Hell Hath No Fury
But I wasn’t sure I was ready to have a baby.
And it looked like I needed to make a decision sooner rather than later.
CHAPTER TWO
I was staring at the small glass vial on the sink countertop in the master bathroom when I heard the door downstairs open. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply, tapping into my wolf’s abilities to smell Remy as he jogged up the stairs.
The scent of pine and earth filled my nostrils, but instead of the peaceful feeling it usually triggered, a cramp tugged sharply at my stomach and a wave of heat swept down my spine.
“Shit,” I hissed, my body folding over at the pain as I gripped the edge of the counter. Breathing through my nose, I tried to ride out the wave of pain that almost sent me to my knees.
“Babe.” Remy appeared behind me in the mirror, looking like he wanted to touch me. Those warm eyes that looked like melted chocolate were full of love and concern.
“Welcome home, honey,” I deadpanned, grimacing as the wave leveled out and left me panting.
He snorted and rolled his eyes before stepping closer. His chest brushed my back and it was all I could do not to arch into his touch with a purr. As it was, the arms he wrapped around my waist sent pulses of arousal straight to my core as wetness slicked my already damp folds.
“What can I do?” he murmured, his lips brushing the damp skin along the back of my neck.
I managed a strangled laugh. “Other than screw me into next week?”
His gaze heated, and my panties were officially unsalvageable. I squeezed my thighs together and could feel my arousal had seeped out to smear across the insides of my legs.
Kinda gross, but not uncommon for a heat cycle. At least my body would produce massive amounts of lubricant for the next several days of intense fucking it would need to curb the worst pains of my heat.
Most women were married by twenty-one. There was one woman to every four men in our species, and a heat cycle meant their best shot at getting pregnant—something that didn’t always happen, despite being in heat. And some women only had a single heat cycle their entire lives.
But, having a bonded mate, like I did, drastically increased my chances of getting pregnant to the point it was almost guaranteed.
Andthatwas a terrifying reality that I wasn’t sure I was ready to face.
I needed Remy.
Not just because I wanted him between my legs as much as possible undernormalcircumstances, but right now it was everything I could do not to tear the clothes from his body and straddle him until we were both breathless. But we needed to have a serious talk about our future.
Before I lost what little control of my brain I had left, I reached for the vial of clear liquid and held it up for him to see.
He paused, knowing what it was instantly. We didn’t keep things from each other, and we’d both known about the small gift Lulu had given me last year. The insanely powerful elemental had warned me years earlier that when I went into heat, I’d definitely be able to conceive. And because she was one of my closest friends now, she’d taken steps to give me a supernatural birth control that would work on my shifter genetics.
Remy didn’t even flinch as he met my eyes in the mirror. “Guess we need to talk about this, huh?”
I nodded, and turned to follow him into our bedroom. My eyes swept the space, taking in the empty areas where boxes had been before Mallory helped me push them into a guest room next door.
Or what could be a nursery, my wolf whispered, making it clear what side of the fence she was on when it came to getting pregnant.
Shaking my head to clear the thought, I looked around the room that was only furnished with a bed. That was all we’d had time to set up in here, but at least there was that. While I wasn’t entirely sure about the nesting thing, my wolf seemed happier once we’d moved the clutter of the boxes out of the room.
Remy sat on the edge of our bed and drew me between his open legs, his hands resting with easy familiarity on my hips. “Where’s your head at, babe?”
I ducked my head, not wanting this to just be amechoice, but to an extent, it was. It was my body that would potentially get pregnant.
“I don’t know if I want a baby right now,” I admitted even as my wolf rebelled at the idea. I felt like a failure and an asshole for saying it, but I just wasn’t sure I was ready.
Having a baby was what I wassupposedto want. And I did… but maybe not right now.
Remy nodded, zero condemnation in his eyes. “Okay.”
“Justokay?” I parroted, arching a brow.
