Page 13 of Pregnant Wolf's Mate

Holding her breath, Macie did as she was asked and closed her eyes tightly shut. Maybe if she thought about it hard enough, she would wake up from this nightmare. Instead, she opened her eyes again to find Malia had her hands hovering just over Macie’s abdomen. And as she watched, the witch closed her eyes and started to chant.

Though she heard the words clearly, Macie couldn’t have repeated them or even said what it was that she was saying. It was some form of an ancient language, perhaps Latin or maybe even some kind of witchy language that humans didn’t know about.

As she chanted, Macie started to feel an odd sensation of tingling in her lower abdomen, a sense that the witch was reaching deep inside her to learn the truth. Though it was not painful, it was uncomfortable, and the sudden urge to protect herself caused her fingernail beds to itch, as though her wolf was trying to spring forth to protect her.

She gripped tightly to the edges of the bed, determined not to move until she had the truth. She wouldn’t let her wolf get in the way of this, not after she had been so stubborn about coming out previously.

When Malia finally opened her eyes again and lowered her hands back to her sides, Macie immediately didn’t like the look on her face. “I do believe that congratulations are in order.”

“Then…then I am pregnant?” Macie stammered and as soon as Malia started to nod, “But that’s impossible!”

Malia cocked her head at Macie and sighed. “Macie, you may be young, but I know that you are not stupid. You know it’s not impossible for a young wolf such as yourself to get pregnant if you aren’t careful.”

Sitting bolt upright on the bed, Macie snapped, “But it only happened once! It didn’t even mean anything.”

Macie wasn’t sure what was worse, the truth or the sympathetic look that had spread across Malia’s face at her words. The witch smiled sadly and said, “Once is all it takes for some people.”

Macie gritted her teeth and slammed her eyes closed all over again. She couldn’t bear to see the look on Malia’s face. Then, just as quickly she blurted, “Is there something you can do?”

The witch looked almost as startled as Macie felt at her words, though it was clear that she had understood the meaning.

“You mean not to keep the pregnancy?”

Macie flinched away from the words but steeled herself just as fast. There was no way she could keep this pup. She wasn’t even out of university yet, not even a fully-fledged wolf. Not even with a mate. What kind of life would her pup have if it were brought into a world with her as its mother?

None of that bore thinking about, and so Macie shook her head. “No, I don’t mean to keep it.”

There is no way I can have a McCormack baby! The words screamed over and over in her mind, and she was just barely able to stop herself from saying them out loud.

Malia took a half-step away from the bed and looked Macie squarely in the eye. For just a second she thought that the witch was going to scold her or accuse her of something terrible. She gritted her teeth, preparing for it. But then the witch sighed and shook her head, as if she knew better than to tell another woman what she could and couldn’t do with her body.

“There are things that can be done, but you should take a few days first,” Malia said, her voice firm, and it was clear to Macie that even if she begged the woman to do something about it immediately, she would refuse. Besides, Macie wasn’t quite ready for that just yet, not after the shock of finding out. “Just remember, you do only have a few days. Werewolves gestate around thirty percent faster than humans, and it can be quite difficult the further along you are.”

At that, Macie shivered. “I may be young, but I’m not an idiot.”

Again, there was a sympathetic look on Malia’s face and Macie gulped, unable to stop from thinking that in just six short months, she might have a pup to take care of. It made her feel even more sick than before. She was little more than a pup herself.

“You may also wish to consider telling the father before you go making any rash decisions,” Malia advised, and Macie’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t even thought of telling him. There was no way she could do that. He would never believe her, or worse, he might try to get her to keep it.

“I’ll think about it,” Macie sighed, pushing herself off the bed and slipping her feet back into her boots, even though deep down she had no intention of doing so. “What do I owe you?”

She reached into her jacket pocket for a little cash, but Malia shook her head and waved the notes away. “Don’t worry about it. Pregnancy tests are free here.”

Macie wasn’t sure that was true or not, but she was relieved of it. She wasn’t exactly wealthy, whether her parents were or not, if they learned that she had managed to get herself pregnant on top of humiliating them in front of the entire pack, she was as good as banished from Silverdale. And if that happened, she would need all of the cash she could get her hands on.

Struggling to breathe, Macie quickly said goodbye to the witch with a promise to return once she had made her decision, and then she hurried from the apothecary, careful not to bump into anyone who might take to questioning her on why she was even there in the first place.

Chapter 8 - Ray

Though his wolf needed to run, his human side needed it just as much and so Ray had taken to running at least once a day to keep his werewolf temper issues in check. He was just returning from one such run, sweating from the effort he had put into it, when he heard the Silverdale Manor sirens blaring from a distance.

That isn’t a good sign, he thought, gulping down the breathless sensation in his throat. He didn’t have time to be slow right now. Whatever had caused the sirens to go off, it couldn’t be good for any of them.

And so he began to run. Though he knew it would have been much better if he had been in werewolf form, he didn’t have the time to strip off right now and shift. All that mattered was getting back to the manor and finding out what was going on. Ever since the demon wolves had attacked, the entire community had been on high alert for anything else that might go wrong. Things had been quiet for months. Maybe now was the time when they would make up for all of that.

The closer he drew to the gates of the Silverdale Manor, the louder the sirens became until they were painful even to his human ears. Flinching against the sound, he gritted his teeth and continued on, ignoring the cold sweat that ran down his back.

The scene that greeted him was even more concerning than the sirens themselves. Everywhere, his packmates were swarming. Whether in wolf form or human form, they were all out and about, all over the lawns and dashing out of the building itself, looking as though they were preparing for some kind of attack.

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