Chapter 70
Chapter
Seventy
My eyes opened, and I frowned. I woke up on my own. Kayla wasn’t crying, and Marcus was still sleeping next to me. His arm was pinning me to the bed, but I wasn’t tucked into him. Maybe that was why.
His scent had saturated the room, and normally, I could sink myself into it. Today, I didn’t feel like it. Slithering out from under his arm, I replaced my body with a pillow.
Quickly, I checked on Kayla, who thankfully had been sleeping much better through the night. It was 6:15 am, so when I stepped out of the bedroom the house was quiet. Creeping down the stairs, avoiding the squeaky one, I rounded the corner and headed down the hall.
Slowly, I opened and closed the front door behind me. It was cool, but it felt crisp and bright. Taking a deep breath, I still tried to be quiet as I stepped onto the gravel of the driveway.
Reaching up, I stretched my arms and legs a little. If I could sneak in a run this early, I wouldn’t need to worry about everyone trying to come with me. Sometimes I loved it, but I also needed some alone time. I’m sure they would understand, but I didn’t really want them to take it the wrong way.
I let out a breath before closing my eyes.
It was easy to summon the image of my wolf form.
Lately, it had been feeling so fluid. Being able to shift and run so much was a dream come true.
One of these days, I wanted to do it without my crystals, but I worried someone outside the family would catch my scent.
I would do it when we moved to the new house.
Opening my eyes, I stared at the sky for a long time. Slowly, panic took over. My chest heaved. Slamming shut our bond before Marcus could feel it, I tried forcing myself to shift again.
My wolf stubbornly put on the skids. They were refusing. I brought my hand up and partially shifted it. Ears? Perfectly fine. I shifted my tail, and it popped out from between my shorts and shirt. Closing my eyes again, I tried putting it all together, letting my body slide onto all fours.
Nothing shifted. Nothing moved. I just stood there, looking down at my hands.
I’d shifted a few weeks ago. There wasn’t an issue.
Marcus and I actually did a lap around the new lair’s territory together.
We were still dealing with the mess from Ebony and Queen.
We were waiting for confirmation from the Council about Dylan.
I hadn’t gone out and shifted lately. I’d run, just not as a wolf.
My wolf was still fairly fit. It was this useless form that continued to be the bane of my existence.
Spinning around, I raced up the stairs. Opening the door, I didn’t even step into the house. I just grabbed Candice’s car keys and my shoes that were off to the side. Slipping them on without lacing them, I jumped into her SUV. Turning on the car, I pulled out and down the long driveway.
There was a small road that ran along the edge of the lair, splitting off and running into the main road for the town the flight centered on. Eva was in the far corner of the entire territory. Nearly the opposite end.
She’d given me the address, but I had never actually been there.
Now, I followed the directions on the navigation through town and out into the forest on the other side.
It took me about thirty minutes to get there, going just over the speed limit.
The panic attack from earlier was simmering just beneath the surface.
Pulling down the road, I knew it was the right place the moment the house came into view.
Eva said that her house took on a very ‘cottage-core’ vibe.
Her words. Except her words were exactly how I would describe what I was seeing.
So much so that I was pretty sure her house was in the shape of a giant mushroom.
Vines grew up the walls, and moss covered the roof. The windows were round, and I was pretty sure I’d seen this entire house in a movie. All around there was an explosion of flowers, fruits, vegetables, trees, and color that almost felt like too much.
Getting out of the SUV, I would have shoved my hands in my pockets if my shorts had them. I walked around the overgrown path of handmade stepping stones, littered with gnome statuettes, and up to the giant round door. I raised my hands to knock, but the door opened before I could.
Eva was in a ‘Death to the Empire’ shirt and black leggings. Her hair was wild, but I was glad to see a cup of coffee in her hand. It meant I hadn’t woken her up. She raised her eyebrow, looking me over before stepping aside to allow me in.
My hands clasped together as I stepped in.
As she shut the door, I took in the cottage’s interior.
Her entire house looked as if it had been taken from a magazine.
There were more plants than I could count.
Everything underneath was dark wood or some kind of brightly colored accent piece.
I gave up trying to take everything in. It made me wonder if Eva was part earth-witch.
I opened my mouth, but she held up a finger.
My mouth shut as she motioned me to follow with the same finger.
Quietly, I padded after her, my head down.
We passed the dining room, the kitchen, and the living room.
She stepped into a sunroom, collapsing onto the couch.
Impressively, she didn’t spill a single drop of her coffee when she did.
I sat across from her, on the edge of the chair, staring down at my hands.
“Colton.”
My eyes rose to meet hers.
“It’s 6:45 in the morning.”
I nodded.
“Which means if you left the Alfords, it had to have been around six.”
I nodded again.
“Why in gods name are you up this early? I know why I am. My mate needed to have lunch made for work. But why are you?”
My hands tightened, with no space between my palms. “I wanted to go for a run. I woke up early, and everyone was still asleep. So I thought getting in a quiet run would be nice.”
Eva hummed. “Yet you drive here instead.”
“I couldn’t shift.” My voice was barely a whisper.
She heard me, though. Sitting up from her relaxed position on the couch, she set her coffee to the side. Eva scooted a little closer.
“You wanna run that by me again, dear?”
“I tried. I tried shifting. I can partially shift, but I can’t fully shift.”
Eva blinked at me a few times. “Colton Alford, are you pregnant?”
Leaning my head down, my forehead touched my hands. “I can’t be. We were waiting. I am taking the potion every day. We were going to wait until Kayla was out of diapers.”
She snorted. “Fat chance Marcus would let you go that long.”
“Yeah, but not now…” I looked up at her, tears filling my eyes. “I can’t, Eva. We still haven’t dealt with Dylan yet. I need…I need closure.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Marcus wouldn’t let you within a hundred miles of that shifter if he could. He’s going to be so much more protective of you now.”
“Eva…”
Slapping her knees, Eva pushed up off the couch. “Well, there is only one way to figure out if you need to be freaking out. If there is anything to your worry.”
I swallowed, taking her hand and letting her help me up. “Checking?”
“Exactly.” She walked back into the house. “Did you perhaps skip a day of potions? Or accidentally forget to take a potion? Even if you didn’t have sex that day?”
“No. Not once.”
She hummed as I followed her up a winding staircase, vines wrapping around the railing. “What about the day you called me for the potions? You seemed flustered.”
“I…” My feet froze mid-step. “I called you and you brought them over the next day. I took one immediately.”
Eva let out a soft ah-ha. I quickly took the stairs after her. She stepped off the stairwell into an open living room space with massive windows on one side and doors lining the other. Opening the door along the wall, she waited for me to go inside.
“That would have been enough. You should know, with your bond and history with Marcus, even the tiniest slip-up might turn into something.”
“Yeah, but…”
She pointed to the bed, and I sat down. “No buts, Colton. When was that exactly? I don’t remember.”
“Um…I think on the twelfth. If that was a Monday. I do my hot springs trip every Monday, like we scheduled.”
“Last month? No. September?”
I shook my head. “August.”
Her rummaging around in the closet stopped for a moment, and she leaned back to look at me. “You’re kidding.”
“No.”
Eva came out of the closet before disappearing back into the house. She was gone for a minute before she came back with her usual bag she brought with her for checkups. Setting it down on the desk, she pulled out her ultrasound machine.
“Colon, that’s been almost three months. You haven’t had any symptoms?”
I tried to think over the past few weeks if I had anything that stood out. “No. I haven’t been sick. I chalked up how tired I was to getting Kayla on an actual sleep schedule. Mar is just as tired as I am after that. No aversions to food. Though I guess…” My voice trailed off, thinking.
“Colt.”
My body jumped. “Sorry. I’ve been eating more lately.”
“More than you normally do? Or more than you normally should?”
Chuckling, I nodded. “Both? I’ve been having seconds and then sneaking snacks lately. I stopped checking my weight when I hit one-thirty. I figured as long as I didn’t lose anymore weight, everyone would be happy.”
“We are. If that’s your only symptom though, it makes sense you didn’t realize it. The time your body stops being able to shift can vary from person to person. It can even vary from pregnancy to pregnancy. It’s mostly based on your hormones.”
“I knew early on with Kayla.” I laid down on the bed when Eva squeezed my shoulder. “I was a mess, though.”
She nodded, tapping my chest before setting her machine up next to me.
“You also weren’t mated, had severe PCDHS, and you weren’t in a safe place.
All of that has changed. Marcus’ pheromones have leveled you out and you’ve been managing your episodes.
Even with as much stress as you have, you’re still doing a lot better now. ”
Rolling up my shirt, Eva stared at my chest. “Are you still breastfeeding?”
I shook my head. “She doesn’t really want to? I still pump, but I’ve slowed down a lot. My production is finally slowing down as well. We are using what I have saved as a mix-in for her cereal, or if she needs a top-off before falling asleep.”
“Good boy. I’m glad it’s working well. If you want, I can help you bind your chest. At least for a while.”
Her hands moved down my body. It was slow, methodical, pressing into all my muscles. She pressed down on my stomach harder than the rest. I didn’t feel anything as she moved, but the way her lips pursed, she might have. Moving her fingers, she frowned.
“Is something wrong?”
Her hands came away for a moment, her eyes starting at my belly button. She brushed lightly over my stomach. Shaking her head, she pulled the machine closer and sat down on a chair.
“You’re showing already. Which…at fifteen weeks, is early for a male. You’re tucked into the back. I didn’t get to see where you were at this point with Kayla, but if the same size was on a female, I would have guessed you were closer to eighteen or nineteen weeks.”
My eyes widened. “But we didn’t…I didn’t…”
Eva smirked, smearing the gel on my skin. “It’s either that or multiples.”