17. CHAPTER 17
“If it’s meant to be, it’ll be, baby just let it be.”
Everett
“I think I’m gonna be sick.” Christopher covers his mouth with a shaking hand.
“Maybe you need to take a pregnancy test, you’re having more symptoms than I am.”
It’s Christopher’s fault I’m currently staring at a plastic at-home pregnancy test in my dorm bathroom in the first place.
After two weeks since my heat and no indication pointing to a possible pregnancy, I never considered taking a test. The only thing I've been experiencing lately that could be considered a pregnancy symptom could also just be because my mate is fucking me so good that he’s zapping all of my energy, making me constantly tired and unnaturally hungry.
Christopher being the best friend that he is helpfully pointed out that I look like shit and I’m eating twice my body weight in cheese and nuts.
Then marched me to the pharmacy to get a test. “Better to just rule it out, if you aren't pregnant then you need to see a doctor Ev,” I’d rolled my eyes at him but went along with it.
A tiny part of me fluttered with a hope I thought had been extinguished when nothing changed.
Not my scent, not my body, nothing. I knew it was unlikely I would get pregnant during my first heat but I'd wanted it so badly, anyway.
“My best friend’s going to be a daddy, of course I feel nervous. I’m going to be an uncle, that's a lot of pressure” He beams. “Why are you so calm?”
“Well, I have nothing to worry about. If it’s positive, I’m going to be the happiest squirrel in the whole fucking world.” Syril agrees enthusiastically, back flipping in my mind. “And if it’s negative, I have baby-making with a very sexy bear shifter to look forward to.” I shrug.
“Ugh, stop it, I’m so jealous.” He sits next to me on the side of the bathtub and leans his head on my shoulder.
“I have an idea.” I put the test on the counter, screen down. “Let’s manifest a mate for you.” What better way to distract myself from clock watching? I swear, the five minutes you are told to wait is the longest hour of your life. So, why not spend the time getting my bestie’s forever mate?
“How does it work?”
“Picture him in your mind, describe his features out loud as if he was standing right in front of you, already yours. Tell me how he makes you feel.” I say with a confidence his expression lacks. “It worked for me, didn’t it?” I nudged his side. “Come on, try it, you know you want to.”
“Okay, let me think.” Closing his eyes, he takes a few deep breaths.
“My mate is strong and confident. He has a great sense of humor and loves making me laugh. He takes me on long walks in the woods, helps me in the kitchen, and knows which wine pairs perfectly with each dish. He loves me deeply and fucks me even deeper.”
“Oh my gods, that was awful.” I laugh at his words. “Tell me what he looks like.”
“He’s hot of course, dark, short hair but long enough on top to bury my fingers in it, and his eyes are the color of a summer sky. I’m going to make so much jewellery to drape over him.” He falls silent on a wistful sigh, eyes remaining closed as if he can actually visualise his mate in his mind.
Wait a minute… short dark hair, light blue eyes. Why does that seem familiar? Oh shit, Austin.
“Does he happen to be a wolf shifter?” I ask casually. Really, what are the chances I've already met my best friend's fated mate, that our mates would also be best friends? It's giving too good to be true.
“Hmmm, I’m not sure. He looks long and lean, yet strong. Maybe. I could see him as a wolf.”
I have to bite the inside of my cheek to stop the excited squeal that’s building in my throat.
I don’t want to say anything in case I’m wrong, and I certainly don’t want to get in the way of whatever fate has planned for their meeting.
Christopher deserves to have that moment of awe that shocks his system.
I just hope I can be there to witness it.
“You know, I have a feeling your mate will be the happiest wolf shifter on the planet.”
“Damn right he will.”
There's a slight tug on my Henline. Henry laughed when I called our mate bond my Henline, but I think it’s cute.
Focusing on him, I can feel Henry's jovial mood from earlier dip into something more akin to dread. I wonder what Austin is making my mate sit through. From what they have both told me, Henry is the brains and Austin the face of the bar. I can’t imagine what could possibly make my paperwork bae so despondent.
Chris’s phone alarm blares in the silence of the bathroom, echoing off each of the tiled walls, startling me and making me lose my balance, my ass slipping off the lip of the bathtub, dumping me unceremoniously to the bathroom floor.
“Time’s up,” Chris tells me, biting back a laugh
Instead of standing up, I just reach out my hand palm up for Chris to place the test down on it.
“The moment of truth.” I mutter, taking a deep breath and reminding myself that no matter the result, I have my mate. We would be moving in together soon. Positive or negative, everything will be fine.
Slowly turning the plastic stick in my fingers, a cacophony of emotions flooded my system, eyes widening and welling up, making it difficult to see. A lump forming in my throat cuts off any words I want to say, allowing only for a choked sob to escape my lips.
An unmistakable purple P stares back at me.
“Hey, I’m the one who’s knocked up. Just because you can’t add tequila to your soda doesn’t mean I can’t.
” Christopher tells me as he tips another few drops of the tequila that has been hovering at the back of my fridge since the last time he decided we needed to celebrate something.
I can’t even remember what that was. I just know that tequila has been judging me for leaving it to ferment in my fridge.
“There is no way that stuff is safe to drink, I’m not trying to stop you because I can’t join you, I’m trying to keep you alive to actually meet my baby.
” I shrug, taking my can of soda and sitting back down on my bed, reading the back of the pregnancy test box for what feels like the hundredth time.
Purple P means pregnant. Of course, there is always a chance of a false positive, which is why I haven’t run straight to Henry to tell him.
I don’t want to get his hopes up in case the blood tests come back, and it's negative.
Thankfully, the clinic had a cancellation for tomorrow morning, so I don’t have to wait too long to know for sure.
I keep absentmindedly laying my hand over my flat stomach, trying to ask Syril if it's true.
Surely my animal would know by now if we were pregnant, but he's been a little out of sorts recently, acting all kinds of crazy. There has been no sign that it’s because we are carrying our very first kits.
“What are we celebrating, guys?” Jack asks from the doorway as he watches Christopher topping up his drink with the fridge tequila. I dart a glance at my friend to make sure he doesn’t spill it all to Jack. As much as I like my roommate. I don’t want anybody else finding out before Henry.
“I sold a pretty expensive piece of jewellery, man, enough to cover rent for the next four months, and the guy wants to commission more. You wanna see the piece?” Chris asks, the lie spilling off his tongue so easily.
Well, I hope it's a lie and he hasn’t been sitting on that piece of good news this whole time.
I have to work to keep my face neutral and not give away how clueless I am when Chris fishes his phone out of his jeans pocket and proceeds to shove it in Jack's face.
“Cool right?” He asks with a wide, beaming smile.
That fucking asshole wasn’t lying. Now I feel like a shitty friend.
It's been all me, me, me today. I hadn’t even had a chance to ask Chris why he came over to see me after classes ended.
He had started in on how shitty I looked the second I opened the door.
“Very cool man, congratulations. So, have you met Everett's elusive mate yet?” Jack goes for nonchalant with that question, but it was just such a jarring detour in the conversation that it stops Chris in his tracks.
“Who? Henry? Umm, I haven’t met him in person, but I’ve chatted with him a few times, why?” Great question Chris. Maybe Jack will answer him honestly.
Far too many times over the last few weeks Jack has made off-handed comments about how unbelievable it is that I found my mate. How he's going to need to see some proof to believe manifesting actually works.
His off-the-cuff comments and strange questions have created a kind of tension between us that makes me glad I'm maybe a week away from being able to move out. If he hadn’t been acting so weird about the whole thing, I probably would have given him more of a heads up, but seeing as he is almost acting like he believes I'm making a whole mate thing up, I don't feel like I owe him any courtesy.
“Hmm interesting.” He mutters under his breath, but I catch it.
Then, louder and with obviously forced enthusiasm, adds “Mind if I join you guys? I’ve had a hell of a week and could use some cheering up.
” He crosses the room past Chris and me to drop onto his mattress, one hand stuffed into his backpack like he's searching for something.
Alarms bells blare in my mind. Jack has been acting out of character recently, ever since he found out about Henry and I.
Now he wants to chill and have a drink with us?
Something is absolutely off about this whole thing.
I have bad vibes, and Syril agrees, hissing at our roommate in my mind, while urging me to shift and run away. To reach out to Henry.
Chris not realising how out of sorts this behavior is for Jack is more than happy to grab another can of soda before tipping out half the contents and replacing it with tequila. I try to catch his eye as he steps closer, standing between my bed and Jack’s holding out a drink for him.
What happens next plays out in slow motion.
Even with Syril baring his tiny teeth at Jack and the feeling of wrongness gripping my core, I don’t see it coming.
Moving faster than I’ve ever seen from him.
Jack pulls his hand out of his backpack, a fine white substance falling between the gaps in his tightly clenched fingers.
I have no time to warn Chris or even to shield my own face before he raises his hand and blows the dust first into Chris’s face, then without hesitating, turns to me and repeats the motion.
I gasp on reflex, inhaling the chalk like powder. What the fuck was that? It tastes of chemicals and magic. My eyes widen as I watch Chris's limp body hitting the floor.
He’s drugged us.
Fuck, who have I been sharing a room with? I feel the color draining from my face as realization sets in. He’s trying to fucking kill us.
“What have you done?” I ask, my voice sounding slurred and distant to my own ears.
Jack's answering smile is nothing short of terrifying. Which is the last thing I see before darkness closes in around me and everything goes quiet.