Chapter 7
Mable
Ten weeks later
Maple
We are all in agreement, right? Doctors are evil?
D
Why are you at the doctor’s? Please don’t tell me you fell down the stairs again. I swear you need a keeper.
Maple
No one is up to that job.
J
Are you okay???
Maple
I’m fine! Well, I’m pretty sure I am. I’ve been feeling a little lightheaded, so I’m probably deficient in some vitamin and need to go get a blood test. It’s probably the stress of exams.
D
You eat like a toddler that has no self-restraint. Of course you’re deficient in vitamins.
Maple
I occasionally eat a salad.
D
Not good enough.
Maple
I even drank a smoothie the other day!
J
Maple girl, this is a battle you won’t win. D is our resident nutritionist. We all mourned the day he banned Pop-Tarts from our house.
Maple
He banned Pop-Tarts? What sort of a monster is he?
D
One that cares about the health and well-being of my pack mates.
Maple
This conversation is making me want Pop-Tarts. I think after I go to my appointment, I’m going to stop by the store and get some cinnamon sugar ones. They are the elite Pop-Tart.
J
They are indeed the best kind. Clearly you have good taste, Maple girl.
D
Do you have any idea what is in those things?
Maple
I don’t know, and I don’t care. If you start listing the ingredients, I’m going to block you and not speak to you for two weeks, because no one messes with the sanctity that is breakfast foods.
D
Breakfast foods are delicious. Pop-Tarts are not a breakfast food.
J
You see what we have to put up with?
Maple
You are a strong man, J. Unfortunately, I have to leave you with him, as it’s time for me to go and get stabbed.
J
Good luck, let us know how it goes!
D
Tell us as soon as you hear, we worry.
Stashing my phone in my pocket, I smiled to myself.
Chatting with Pack Pucked was a good way to pass the time while waiting for the nurse to come and get me.
The waiting room was pretty quiet. First thing on a Thursday morning was the quietest time, which was why I had called ahead and asked for an appointment.
Thankfully, they could fit me in immediately.
“Mable?” The receptionist called my name with a smile. “The nurse is ready for you.”
Getting up, I slung my bag over my shoulder, giving her a thankful smile before heading to the medical room.
It took almost three days for the blood test results to arrive. Sitting in my nest and reading the latest book on botany I had picked up, I was pulled out of a particularly riveting passage on micro-farming by the ringing of my phone.
“Hello, is this Mable?” a calm voice asked as I balanced the phone on my shoulder, still flicking through pages. “I’m Maria from the campus clinic, I’m calling in regards to your blood test results.”
“Oh, yes!” I said as I closed the book, standing up and wandering over to the windowsill where my crystal antrum was growing.
It needed a lot of water, so I grabbed my little spray bottle and started watering it as I spoke.
“I assume I’m deficient in something, so let me know what it is, and I will run down to the pharmacy and get myself some supplements. ”
The nurse was quiet for a moment. “Well, you’re not exactly deficient in anything…”
“Oh dear, is it worse?” I asked, my stomach dropping. Was I seriously sick and hadn’t even realized? I didn’t feel bad, just a touch lightheaded and very sleepy. But that could also be attributed to being a university student.
“No! It’s no serious illnesses,” the nurse rushed to say. “It’s only, on your intake form, you mentioned that you aren’t sexually active.”
“I’m not,” I said, confused. What did that have to do with me being sick?
“Mable, you’re pregnant.”
I stilled, spluttering as I tried to figure out an answer. “How? I haven’t had sex!”
“Well, you must have, Mable. Now, I understand some omegas don’t like to talk about their affairs, but we’ve confirmed the blood test.”
I shook my head, my mind going fuzzy.
“Pregnancy requires penises, and the last time I went near a penis was… oh crap. My heat…” I trailed off as realization hit me.
I wasn’t the new Virgin Mary; I was an idiot who got knocked up while in heat.
It had taken a moment for my brain to catch up, but I had been very sexually active during my heat.
The nurse was quiet for a moment before speaking very carefully. “Mable, I have to ask you this—were you taken advantage of?”
My eyes widened at her insinuation. Yes, there had been instances on campus when omegas had been taken advantage of, but what happened to me was nothing like that.
“Oh no! Not at all. If anything, I took advantage of an alpha—well, two—while I was in heat, and then I lost their numbers. When I filled out the form, I wasn’t even thinking about that, and I don’t usually date, so yeah… Now I’m pregnant. Crap.”
A chuckle came through the line. “Well, I think it’s best we get you some prenatal vitamins, but other than that, everything about you seems healthy.”
“That’s good… because I’m having a baby,” I said dumbly.
“Yes, you are.”
We booked an appointment for me to pick up some prenatal vitamins and said goodbye, leaving me sitting in my dorm, staring at the wall while trying to absorb what I had just learned.
I was pregnant.
In a few months, I will have a baby.
I loved babies. They were adorable, squishy, sweet and inquisitive. I knew that, more than anything, I wanted to have babies of my own one day, but I imagined they would happen a bit more in the future.
There was also the assumption that I would be having a baby with a pack, and I wouldn’t be on my own.
I knew it was possible to raise a child alone, though. My mother had done it, and I hadn’t turned out terribly. Even when she hadn’t completely understood what it meant to be an omega, she’d researched and did her best for me.
Sighing, I flopped down into my nest, grabbing my favorite pillow and clutching it to my chest.
First things first, I needed a nap. Then I could tackle the dramatic turn my life was about to take.
S
You’ve been quiet, what’s going on? Did you drop your phone in a watering can again?
Maple
That was one time!
D
One time too many.
I stared at the phone screen for a few moments.
I knew I had to tell them what was going on.
It wasn’t as if I could hide the fact that I was pregnant.
Actually, I probably could hide it, but I was an idiot and knew I would slip up eventually, and then they would be hurt that I had kept it from them.
Surely, me being pregnant wouldn’t change anything. It wasn’t as if I was in a relationship with these alphas.
Was I?
Maple
So, I heard back from the doctor’s office.
D
Are you okay?
Maple
Yep.
D
Tell me more? Do they know why you weren’t feeling good?
Maple
Turns out, I’m pregnant.
J
WHAT
S
How???
P
When?
Maple
If I have to tell you how, then you guys REALLY need to go look up some videos online…
D
I thought you weren’t dating anyone?
Maple
I’m not. In fact, I’m painfully single. I just happened to get a little help through my heat last time from a couple of complete strangers… and I accidentally got pregnant.
S
The guys are stepping up, right?
Maple
This is going to be very embarrassing to say, but I don’t even know the guys’ names or numbers, so I think I’m on my own here.
Well, I knew one of their names. Percy, but that wasn’t going to get me far. There were probably a hundred Percys on campus, and there was no way to know for sure if he was even a student at Avalon.
P
What can we do to help?
Maple
Nothing! Seriously, I’m just in shock and processing. I kinda forgot that I did the nasty during my heat and well… for a moment there, I thought I was the Virgin Mary and got VERY confused.
J
That sounds like some mental leap. The potential dads were THAT bad in the sack you forgot about them?
Maple
Not at all! I just… heats make everything blurry. It’s not the end of the world, though. I was raised by a single mother, and I can do it as well.
P
You shouldn’t have to do it alone, though.
Maple
I’m not upset about it, this is my own fault. I love kids, so this is wonderful news… just a little premature.
D
You need help?
Maple
I’m sure my mother will help, she’s done it all before. In fact, given her experience, I trust her advice much more than I would the advice of random alphas, even if I was dating them.
J
True, most men our age are somewhat clueless.
S
I would study SO hard, though. I bet there’s hundreds of books.
Maple
There is, I plan to buy some tonight and get reading.
D
How are you going to keep up with your studies?
Maple
D, my degree is in PLANTS. I think I can handle going part-time until the baby is a little older.
J
Hey, when I said you studied plants, you went on a big rant that it was more than that.
Maple
And it is.
Maple
I can say it, you can’t.
J
Think I’m going to need someone to explain the rules to me.
S
I think the rules are pretty simple. Whatever Maple girl says, goes.
P
I agree with that.
J
Well, you know who to hit up when you have 4 a.m. cravings?
Maple
That’s a kind offer, J, but I won’t be doing that.
J
Wasn’t talking about me, I was talking about D. That man is such a freaking insomniac that he is awake at all hours and will be readily available to be your snack bitch.
D
I don’t recall agreeing to this.
Maple
Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you. J is just being a butt.
J
Ass is the correct term, not butt! Do you ever curse?
Maple
When the occasion calls for it, but I have to watch my mouth, considering I’m about to become a mother.
D
Good girl.
I stared at those two words for longer than I wanted. They shouldn’t have that much power over me, but those two little words made me feel mushy to my core.