Page 13 of Of Wolves and Wives

We sit in silence for a moment before Rose lifts her eyes to meet mine. Tears glisten within them, pain and exhaustion staring back at me.

Without a word, I pull her to me, wrapping my arms around her as I hold against my chest. The tears come quickly, her body trembling as she lets it all out.

I’m not sure how best to comfort her, so instead, I remain quiet as I gently stroke the side of her head. I can’t help wishing Heath was here; he’d know what to say. Even Rykker would know better how to help her.

In silence, I hold her until her sobs grow softer and then altogether quiet as her body becomes limp in my arms.

“Rose,” I start, my voice catching in my throat. “Rose, I’m so sorry. You don’t deserve what’s happened to you. I promise that you’ll never go through anything like that again. I won’t allow it. Neither will Heath or Rykker.”

She pulls back, staring at me with reddened eyes. Wiping at her face, she takes a moment to pull herself together, and the sudden distance between us has me regretting ever opening my mouth. I like the feel of her in my arms, and I would do anything to have her back in them, where she belongs.

“How can I possibly believe that when everything terrible has already happened to me?” she asks, her voice hard. “Neither you, nor they, can promise me any such thing. No one can.”

I flinch at this, knowing there’s no way for me to answer her question.

She’s right. She never should have gone through any of it in the first place. We’ve already failed her as our mate. We allowed the prince to take her, to hurt her … on more than one occasion.

What reason does she have to believe we won’t fail her again?

“I—"

“I don’t even know how I’m going to survive the next nine months,” Rose interrupts, the words rushing from her. “How am I supposed to stay alive when we all the prince will do anything to get his claws on me again?”

“Wait. Why nine months?”

She blinks at me, a slight frown of impatience pulling at her lips.

“Because nine months is the length of a pregnancy.”

My eyes search her face for a moment before I realize that she’s talking about human pregnancies. It suddenly dawns on me that she probably knows nothing about shifter pregnancy, but why would she?

It’s not like humans are privy to shifter knowledge, and those that are rarely see beyond the walls of their captors. She knows nothing of this world that she’s been forced into, or how truly difficult this could be.

“Peirce?”

I shake my head as I realize that I’ve grown tense beside her, whatever pretense of tranquility I’d been trying to offer now draining from my body. The true weight of what’s happened suddenly settling on my shoulders all at once.

She shouldn’t be here.

I hate that she is. That she was dragged into this hell of a life to be torn apart by wolves.

“What is it, Pierce? What are you not telling me?” she pushes as my silence stretches.

“You won’t have to wait nine months, Rose,” I say with a sigh.

She watches me for a moment before snorting. There’s a flash of humor in her eyes that pains me more than it should.

She doesn’t believe me. Again, why would she? In her world, women carry babies for months and months. It’s all she’s ever known.

Until now.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m being serious,” I say, my voice coming out far sharper than I intend it to be. “Shifter pregnancies only last for about two months.”

Her eyes narrow on me for a long moment before suddenly widening, and I watch as relief flashes across her face … only to be replaced just as quickly by fear.

“Rose?”

---