VIVIANNA
Much of the day was spent working out whatever strategies we could, but ultimately, we decided that it would be better to move to the ranch.
Once we got there and started working with the wolves who were coming to help us, we would know what we were dealing with.
I wanted to work with them on the basics of fighting since they all were coming from different walks of life.
I wasn’t willing to put anyone in danger.
This left me with an odd situation though… I wasn’t willing to shift until I knew for certain what Maria meant when she said what she did. I pulled Neveah away from the others and asked her to join me in the backyard for some fresh air.
“What’s wrong?” Neveah asked in a low voice.
The night sky was bright with stars, but it didn’t match up to how they looked back on Kursar with the clear sky and low-light pollution.
Even so, it was still comforting that some things in the world never changed and could always be counted on to be there.
“Maria said something to me when giving me her loyalty and I don’t know what to do with that information.
Has she been known to predict someone being pregnant? ”
Neveah didn’t answer me right away, so I turned to face her, surprised by the look of excitement on her face.
“That is actually one of Maria’s specialties.
She always knew before anyone else did, even being able to tell the sex of the baby before ‘modern medicine’ could,” she added with finger quotes.
“If she told you, then I would listen. It’s not worth the risk of losing the baby.
I know your wolf won’t fight you on being unable to shift.
Her protective instincts will be just as high for the little gem growing. ”
“I can’t tell them. If my mates know, they won’t let me fight, and there is no way in hell I’m going to sit on the sidelines,” I growled, even the idea of it happening making me upset.
“How can I help?”
That simple question snapped me out of my spiraling thoughts. “What?”
“Viv, you didn’t bring me out here just to ask me that question. You already knew the answer. Now, tell me how I can help,” Neveah scolded, giving me a knowing look.
Running my hands through my hair, I started to pace, something I noticed I was doing a lot more after having been trapped in a room underground for weeks.
“I want to work with the recruits that come to us on the basics of fighting. I can easily handle the human aspect, but I need you to be my partner in this so I can show them how things translate when you’re a wolf. ”
“Wouldn’t Tristan be a better fit for that, since he is the dire wolf and trained from an early age to fight?”
“Ideally yes, but he would want to know why I won’t shift to fight with him, so I need you,” I explained.
“This way I can instruct about what you two are doing as they watch. If there are as many people coming as you say, then we need to do this on a large scale. Having three of us will help move things faster. Or that’s what I’m going to use as my reasoning. ”
“You’re a sly one, Viv.” Neveah grinned at me. “I’ll help you and keep your secret... for now. What I won’t do is lie for you if asked directly, or in the instance I think you might be endangering yourself. You can’t tell me that won’t happen—I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“Those are fair terms,” I answered with a sigh.
“The moment this battle is over and I have my daughter in my arms, I will tell them everything. But if things become too dangerous or I risk this new child’s life, the silence comes to an end.
If Hope wasn’t in the mix, I would absolutely step back and bide our time, but I won’t give up one child that I know is waiting for me to come get her, for a child I don’t know for sure exists. ”
Neveah looked me up and down, crossing her arms. “If Maria said it, then it exists. I bet my life on it, and so should you. Not that you need my opinion on this, but I might suggest getting a blood test done to see how what they gave you with the twins might affect further pregnancies. You might be looking at all your pups being grown in six to seven months if they changed your genetics again.”
That thought hadn’t even entered my brain.
For months they pumped me full of shit, trying to speed things along.
The chances of it causing a permanent effect wasn’t out of the question.
Thankfully, I think I might have a way to know that without testing with the records I have from the lab.
If they have all the information on me and the girls, it would give me a clue at least.
“Come on, we better get back inside. If you are growing a pup, your mates will also start showing signs before you know it,” Neveah said in passing.
“What does that mean?”
She just grinned and shook her head. “Oh no, this is going to be way more fun for you to figure out on your own, since you didn’t get to experience it before.”
“Not cool, Neveah. Here I thought we were becoming best friends,” I muttered.
“Oh, we are. This is just how I show my love.”
Before I could say anything further, Koit spotted us and raced over to wrap me up in a hug, shoving his face into my hair. “Babe, where did you go?”
“Just outside. We’ve been stuck in this house for so long I was forgetting what the real world looked like,” I teased.
“Well next time, make sure to tell one of us. Are you hungry? It’s about time we make dinner and Maria brought steaks for us to cook. Did you see a grill in the backyard?”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the barrage of questions that he was throwing my way, reminding me what he was like before we were separated.
This carefree version of my mate was what I hoped to see come back once we could find a new normal for our family.
I could just picture what it would be like watching him with Hope and the trouble they would get into.
“Steak sounds amazing,” I answered, giving him a quick kiss. “As for the grill, I didn’t look, so you’ll have to do some investigating of your own.”
“Oh, does this mean we could do it together, so we could sneak away from the others, and I could investigate more about you?” Koit asked, wagging his brows at me.
I burst out laughing as I shoved him away, heading back into the living room, where the others were. My laughter ended when I got a swat on the ass, making me yelp and glare over my shoulder. “Keep that up and all exploration is canceled for the foreseeable future.”
Koit pouted at me for a moment before he flipped it to a grin.
With a wink, he slipped out the back door to look for the grill.
Shaking my head, I grabbed my tablet off the dining room table before snuggling in with Tristan where he sat in an armchair.
Even though he was reading over something, he immediately adjusted to help fit me in a comfortable place on his lap, kissing the top of my head. “Did Koit find you?”
“You know he did,” I stated, peering up at him. “He’s now looking for a grill to make dinner.”
“Koit thinks he’s going to do the grilling?” Rik demanded, not even pretending he hadn’t been eavesdropping. Raising a brow at him, I nodded. “Oh, like hell that’s gonna happen. There’s no way I’m going to let him destroy perfectly good meat.”
With that, Rik was up and storming through the house after his brother.
Chuckling to myself, I turned my attention to my tablet, pulling up the folder that held my information.
I hadn’t looked at it again since Bentley showed it to me in the lab, not wanting to remind myself how fucked up my life really was from the beginning.
Not being strong in genetics, having focused more on patient care, I didn’t know everything that I was reading, but I understood enough to put things together.
As Faulk told me, I had been created with a myriad of things that somehow ended up producing a living being.
It wasn’t a wonder why they couldn’t reproduce it again.
It seemed that so many things were blind luck.
What I really focused on was the structure of my DNA from them and flipped to the medical records from being pregnant.
Every day they seemed to run test after test, checking levels and how the medicine they were giving me was working with my body.
It did in fact speed up my cell production, which transferred to the girls as well, since our blood supply was the same.
Some levels had to be maintained through constant transfusions, and I could tell right away when they should have stopped them but didn’t.
Violet had been showing signs of not being able to keep up with the treatments, but Hope was thriving.
Seeing this, I had to fight back my anger and stay focused on the facts.
What was done was done and it wouldn’t give me back Violet.
Now knowing that she was Orion’s child, I wondered if the demi-god aspect of it had anything to do with why she didn’t respond well to the medical manipulation.
That was a rabbit hole for another day. What I needed to know was what things my body had adapted too.
It seems that I was still producing more cells, almost like I would picture something that couldn’t die, but I knew I’d been close to it after the fight with Vadik.
Would it have been different if it was done by something that wasn’t silver, or a half form that was toxic to me as a werewolf?
I didn’t really want to test that, but it seemed like it would be a logical result of this.
Did that mean I would live longer than a normal werewolf, who could make it to the ripe old age of four hundred if they weren’t killed?
Seeing that this new feature was sticking, even after they stopped the treatments, it stood to reason that this baby might grow just as fast as the girls did.
Since I had no idea if this revelation also meant I would continue to have twins, I was in big trouble.
I would have a child that is not even a year old by the time this next baby was born.
What would that mean for me and the guys?
There was so much that needed to be done in this world to make it safe for them to grow up and live their lives.
Overwhelmed, I closed my eyes and leaned back into Tristan’s chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
As if sensing that I needed some reassurance, he started to comb his fingers through my hair as he talked to Christian about us leaving tomorrow.
We need to tell them, don’t we?
I’m not a fan of keeping things from our mates, but let’s give it a little time, just to see if it’s true.
Lying to ourselves isn’t going to help either. We already know Maria is right. I don’t know how I know but I do, and after everything we’ve been through, it will hurt them so much for us to lie.
Alright, how do you suppose we have this conversation?
Once we leave here and get to the ranch. If they want me to be out of the fight, I’ll still see this through as far as I can take it.
While we are on the subject of our children...
Violet.
Yeah.
Opening my eyes, I sat up in Tristan’s lap. “We can’t leave tomorrow until we’ve given Violet her final rest.”
The room fell into silence as everyone focused on me with varying expressions. I felt the tug of my mate bonds to Koit and Rik, knowing that one of them had called them back to be part of this conversation. Moments later, they both walked in with grim expressions on their faces.
“Violet deserves to be put to rest where no one can get to her or use her for their twisted plans. I know it will set my heart at ease to know our little girl is safe until we can find out where home is for us all. She is already at a mortuary, so getting the deed done shouldn’t be hard.
They will keep her well looked after until we can reclaim her,” I explained, as my eyes rested on each of my mates while I spoke.
“Do any of you have an objection to this plan?”
No one spoke right away, but Orion cleared his throat and held my gaze.
“You’re right, our daughter has been a warrior and she doesn’t even know it.
We need to give her body the same respect that we would for the best of our kind, honoring the life she wasn’t able to live.
I believe it will also give us all closure and acceptance for the struggle we were not able to be there for. ”
“Christian, do you think this will be a problem to get done on short notice?” I asked.
“No, Dama, they will be honored to help you lay your little one to rest,” he answered, surreptitiously wiping a tear off his cheek.
“Could I also ask the favor of having all of you there with us?” I requested, giving them all a small smile. “Without all of your help, who knows if we would have been able to get her back as she is now.”
“It would be our honor,” Kate answered, gripping Christian’s hand. “We are family after all... right?”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” I agreed with a nod.