37. Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Violet
" W ake up, Little Warrior. We gotta make breakfast and go to the doctor,” the whispered words brought me out of my sleep, and I hummed in appreciation of the lips on my neck.
“I want to keep sleeping,” I pouted.
I kept having the same nice dream where I was just laying under the stars and enjoying the breeze.
“We can’t be late,” Chris whispered, continuing to kiss his way down. When I felt his teeth scraping against the skin, my eyes fluttered open with a moan. Chris pulled back and looked into my eyes, a smirk on his face. “Now that I have your attention...”
I glared at him.
“There’s a special place in hell for people who get pregnant women all hot and bothered, and then stop,” I accused.
Yeah, now that the shock wore off, I was using the pregnant card a lot. Sue me. He was over the moon and so was I.
He threw his head back at my words and laughed, before he bent and kissed my lips quickly.
“I’ll make it up to you however you want later.”
“Fine,” I grumbled.
“Will you choose me again today, baby?” he asked.
My annoyance ebbed. He was still asking every morning and, every morning, I felt more sure than ever of my answer.
“Always,” I answered.
“Good. Because I don’t know that I could ever give either of you up,” Chris answered, crawling backward a little to lay his head on my stomach.
“I won’t give you up either,” I promised.
I knew he was still worried about Cory’s reaction to the news, now, more than ever. While I was still a little nervous about it, I knew Cory would never deny me the person I loved.
“What’s Beethoven’s favorite fruit?” he asked from where he was.
I grinned. Goddess, I loved this man.
“What?”
“A ba-na-na-naaaa,” he said with a straight face.
That one took a second too long for me to understand, and I’d blame the early morning for my hesitation, but when I finally got it, I let out a full-body laugh that made him chuckle with me.
“I love that one!” I continued laughing, repeating the punch line again for effect, and starting the giggles all over again. I felt the love of my life kiss my stomach, before he gave a big sigh and sat up.
“Let’s go make breakfast.”
We changed and walked downstairs, where he pulled out eggs and other accompaniments for breakfast. As I scrambled some eggs in a bowl, I kept noticing small smiles appear on his face as he chopped up some ham and onions.
“You look excited,” I mentioned when another soft smile graced his face.
“Bells said you were going to get an ultrasound done today. Of course, I’m excited to see our pup.”
I had to look away before I started crying at how sweetly he answered me. Some days I wondered if I was dreaming, and I would wake up to find all of this was a figment of my imagination, and I was still in that room with Nickolas.
“You should go wake her up. Breakfast is almost ready,” I told him.
“Already sent her a text. She’s getting Adam ready.” When I started giggling, he blushed. “Don’t judge me. I don’t like being late to things,” he defended.
“You’re adorable,” I cooed.
We ate breakfast quickly and then headed to the hospital. As Chris got into the driver’s side and closed the door, he frowned and started sniffing. He turned his head toward the back and then smiled, nodding toward the back and grinning at me.
“What’s that look for?” Bells asked.
“Your scent’s changed,” he mentioned, and I leaned into the backseat to check. Sure enough, there was an added smell of coconut over her apple blossom scent. Bells paled but took a deep breath and looked out the window, lost in thought. I thought things were starting to feel real for her.
Half an hour later, we were sitting in the waiting room of the clinic. Bells was looking nervous and sad, and I could guess what was going through her mind, as she kept looking over at where I was cuddled into Chris. Despite her stubborn determination to let Cade live his life without her, she was sad and petrified of doing this alone.
“Hey, Bells?” I asked.
“What’s up?”
“I’m nervous. Can you and Adam go into the appointment with us, and I’ll go in with you? Tit for tat?”
The relief on her face was brief but significant before she patted my shoulder.
“Sounds like a deal. I’ll be right there with you.”
“Thanks, Bells.”
Chris gave my hand a little squeeze. We talked about this last night. I didn’t need her there per se, but I knew she was too proud to ask me to come in with her. I didn’t want her to go through all of this alone. This was a good way to ensure she felt supported and kept her pride intact.
“Salonen, Violet?” One of the nurses called out.
We all stood up and she didn’t say anything when she noticed four people following her. I saw her holding Bells’ folder and remembered we had back-to-back appointments. This might be a little trickier.
“Can we have our appointments together? She’s my sister.” I pointed to the file in her hands, and Bells gave her a little wave.
“I think that’ll work if you both consent. The doctor might even appreciate not having to run around between rooms,” the nurse chuckled.
“I consent,” I said, with Chris nodding by my side.
“Samesies,” Bells added.
“Alright then, have a seat and I’ll let the doctor know.”
“Thank you!”
The doctor came in a went through the routine questions for both of us. He made us pee in a cup, weighed us and took some blood to send to the lab. He explained how our bodies would change and all that boring stuff. I think he was even relieved to only have to say things to both of us once, instead of individually. He gave us prescriptions for prenatal pills, and then took us into the ultrasound room.
“Did you guys want to do this with everyone in the room, too?”
“If that’s okay?” Bells asked nervously, and I nodded.
“Of course, who wants to go first?”
“Violet does,” Bells volunteered me. I shot her a little glare but stepped forward. The doctor gave me a gown and closed the curtain.
I changed and sat on the examination table, though I was confused as to why I needed one. I was wearing leggings and a sweater. When the doctor came back in, he placed a blanket over my legs and then asked me to put my feet in the stirrups. My heart started racing when I saw the wand probe he attached to the cord, and closed my legs immediately, panic starting to set in.
“I-I thought you were going to use the image thingy on my stomach?” I asked, my voice higher than it usually was.
“It’s too early to see much with that one. If your estimates are accurate, we need to use the wand.” He took a look at the look of panic in my voice and asked, “Is that a problem?”
“Umm,” I stopped being able to speak as the panic took my voice.
“Can we get a female doctor or nurse to perform the exam?” Chris asked from his position at my side. “She’s uncomfortable with men touching her. Last year, she was a victim of sexual assault.”
“Oh, of course. Do you need me to step out completely?” the doctor asked, immediately taking a step back to give me room to breathe.
I swallowed the knot in my throat and focused on Chris’ supportive presence beside me to calm down.
“No. I jus—I don’t want you down there,” I answered, then weakly, I added, “Sorry.”
“No need to apologize at all. We’ll get you taken care of however you need. Let me get a nurse.”
“Thank you,” I whispered as I felt a single tear fall.
Chris wiped the tear from my eye and kissed my forehead, taking my hand to help me relax.
The doctor walked in with a female nurse, who took the doctor’s position at my feet. The doctor kept a safe distance away, near the monitor, and provided instructions to the nurse. I still tensed when she began to insert the probe, though.
‘I’m right here. I’ve got you. Say the word and this all ends.’
‘But I want to see our pup,’ I answered back, taking slow breaths and trying to relax.
The nurse was thankfully very patient, and stopped any time I started to panic, asking me to let her know when I was okay to continue. Eventually, I was able to relax enough for her to put the wand in place; it was all worth it to see the image appear on the monitor.
“So, it looks like you’re right on the money with your guess, Violet. The baby is about six weeks along. Everything looks normal from here. The lab work will tell us more about its health. Do you want us to try to find the heartbeat?”
I was confused as to why he was asking the question, when Chris asked for me.
“What does that involve?”
“Well, she would have to move the wand around to see if she can pick up the heartbeat,” he answered.
I bit my lip. I wanted to hear the heartbeat, but I didn’t know if I could handle that.
“We can hear it at a later time,” Chris answered for me, squeezing my hand.
‘Bu—’
‘We’re werewolves, Little Warrior. We’ll be able to hear it in another week or so,’ he reminded me.
‘Right. Thank you,’ I answered.
“That’s the exam. I’ll have the nurse remove the wand, and we’ll print some of these off for you. You can get cleaned up and dressed, and your sister changes,” the doctor explained, giving Bells a gown to change into. I nodded and sighed with relief when I sat back up on the chair to change. Chris stayed behind the curtain this time, helping me clean up.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Thank you for being here with me,” I whispered, looking up at him, and trying not to cry at how grateful I was that he became my voice when I couldn’t.
“They would have had to take me out of here unconscious to get me to leave,” he chuckled.
He leaned down and gave me a quick kiss, before he opened the curtain and allowed Bells to switch places with me.
“I guess you got lucky. No twins,” Bells winked at me when she opened the curtain again.
I rolled my eyes but was secretly relieved. I wanted this pup, and I would love both pups if I had twins, but I was much happier dealing with one at a time.
The doctor and the nurse came back in with a couple of sonogram pictures a few minutes later, and handed them to us. Chris took the pictures happily and stared down at them, while the nurse and the doctor took their positions back by the monitor, and I stood next to Bells, with Adam right next to me.
“I thought we’d just keep things the same for you, Miss Salonen. It’s a good teaching moment for my nurse.”
“Not a problem,” Bells answered. The nurse inserted the wand and Bells squirmed a little at the intrusion, making me feel a little better about my response.
“So, there’s your ba—Can you move it a little to the left?” the doctor instructed, and I started laughing when the new image showed up on the screen.
“That’s what you get for trying to scare me into thinking I was having twins,” I cackled to my sister, who was staring at the monitor with her mouth hanging wide open, her eyes the size of dinner plates.
Even Chris started chuckling behind me.
“Do twins run in your family?” the doctor asked, smiling at our exchange.
“She is a twin, and her twin, our brother, already had twins himself. She thought she was safe because of it.”
“That’s not how that works,” the doctor chuckled.
“Ha!” I continued to cackle.
“Shut it, Vi,” Bells grumbled, her eyes still frozen on the screen. “How far along am I?” she asked the doctor.
“Right, sorry. Got distracted. It looks like you’re about seven or eight weeks. Not much further than your sister. You can expect to give birth around the end of July, and your sister sometime in the middle of August.”
It was more like March for our pups, but neither of us corrected him. We could get more accurate due dates when we got home, so we could plan accordingly.
The doctor and nurse left when they were done with Bells, and I grew a little more serious. I approached her, and asked, “How are you doing?”
“Okay. A little freaked out, but... this could be my only chance to have more pups. They are siblings for Adam, so I’m happy it’s twins. I’ll figure out the rest as it comes.” She shrugged before she disappeared behind the curtain.
My heart broke for my sister, and the thought that she believed she would always be alone, but I kept my mouth shut on the subject of Cade.
“We’re here for you, too. Everyone will be. Those twins will have so many people wanting to take care of them, that you’ll be fighting to get them back home some days,” I assured her.
Bells opened the curtain and hugged me.
“Thank you... for pretending you needed me here with you,” she whispered in my ear.
“You’re my big sister. I’ll always need you.”
The ride back home was a little subdued, other than Adam, who was chatting away about the three pups. Bells and I gave him a copy of the sonograms, which appeared to make his week. He was talking about where he was going to hang them, and how he was going to teach the babies everything he knew about playing and sharing toys, and he was going to show them all of his favorite movies.
Chris stopped at a creamery on the way home, and bought an ice cream cake. We had it that night after dinner as a little celebration.
“So, I still think we should wait to tell them until we get there. There’s going to be so many questions that I just can’t deal with them over the phone.”
“I—” I started but stopped when Chris also started speaking.
“Sure. Whatever you think will be less stressful,” Chris agreed, surprising me.
I didn’t really care one way or the other. He was the one who didn’t want to spring the news on people.
“Thank you,” Bells finally relaxed, a hand on her stomach as she got lost in thought, while Adam watched cartoons on the couch.
When it was time for bed, Chris and I walked up to our room. I fed Coco and cleaned her cage, while letting her run around the room for a little while.
“It’s time, Violet. We need to release her before we leave.”
I sighed, sitting down on the bed as I watched her foraging in her little toy.
“I know. Give me a little bit. We’ll release her soon. I promise.”
“End of the week?” Chris asked, pulling me into his lap as I continued to watch the little rabbit run around.
“Okay. That way Adam can spend some time with her and say goodbye, too,” I agreed, snuggling into him.
“It’s what’s best for her. She’s a wild animal. She would never be fully happy in a cage the rest of her life,” he whispered, trying to soothe my heartache.
“I know. It’s just hard. In a way, I feel like she helped me a lot. But, I don’t want her to be caged.”
“At least there’s no more predators in the woods right now. She’s got the run of the place all winter.”
“Yeah.”
T hree days later, Adam was saying goodbye to the rabbit, before Chris and I would take it into the forest. The poor boy was crying. He didn’t want Coco to go. He kept begging Bells to let him keep her, promising to take care of it himself, and doing chores to buy it food. He was bawling by the time Bells took him away, and so was I.
I almost caved, threw everything to the wind and decided to keep the rabbit, but Nenetl made a good point that stopped me from doing it. She reminded me she had essentially been caged for over a year now, and she would give anything to be able to feel the wind in her fur. I didn’t want to do that to another animal. It was one of the reasons why werewolves rarely kept pets. We were animals ourselves, and doing that to another living being felt wrong.
So, I forced myself to trudge into the woods through the sludge of half-melted snow, with the fluffy furball in my arms. We picked a spot with a few downed trees, hoping it would take refuge from the cold near them.
“Thank you for being my friend,” I whispered to her, kissing the top of her head before setting her down on the floor.
The rabbit’s ears flicked, her tiny nose up in the air as if smelling for something, and then it took off running. I sniffled as I watched it disappear, and Chris pulled me into his arms.
“It was the right thing,” he consoled me.
“I know. I shouldn’t have gotten attached.”
"You have a big heart, is all. Come on, let’s get you out of the cold.”
We turned around to leave, but stopped when we heard someone calling out.
“Wait!”
Chris tensed. We turned back around and he stepped protectively in front of me, when a woman in some sort of strange armor stepped back through the trees, huffing for breath.
“Oh, good. You’re still here,” she huffed, trying to catch her breath.
“Who the fuck are you?” Chris growled.
“I’m Vesta,” she explained, and waited for our response, as if it was supposed to make some sort of sense.
She sounded friendly enough, so I grabbed one of Chris’ arms and peeked around his giant form. Now that she wasn’t running, I could see her long auburn hair in a braid, and her brown friendly eyes. She was smiling at us as she caught her breath. Suddenly, she slapped a hand to her forehead, making Chris’ arm twitch and pull me back behind him.
“Sorry. Too many months of the easy life have me a little out of shape. You called me Coco.”
“What?” I squeaked, moving around Chris, who wrapped his arm around my waist and deposited me back behind him, with a warning grunt.
“Don’t worry, Chris. After everything she did for me, I would never hurt Violet, or your pup. Congratulations by the way.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Chris growled. “Who are you?”
“I’m a guardian,” she explained, making Chris tense further.
Bells gave us the rundown on the origin of the chupacabra and Uncle Helios’ theory.
“I’m not supposed to talk to anyone from this realm, but I felt you needed an explanation after everything that’s happened, and a warning.”
“A warning on what?” Chris asked.
“On what’s happening in your pack.”
“Crescent Moon?” I clarified.
“No, sorry. The pack that was here.”
‘Should I call Bells?’ I mind-linked Chris.
‘Not until I know she won’t attack. I can’t protect you both at the same time.’
“So, the reason why the chupacabra was never dealt with is because I had you in the cage?” I asked, peeking over Chris’ arm again.
“Yes. That night you found me was the night it escaped. I followed it through the portal to bring it back or kill it, but something went wrong, and I was alone. They are the easiest creatures to catch, so I hadn’t called for backup.”
Chris snorted at her words, and I thought he might be feeling a little annoyed with her saying it was simple to catch, when it took four of them to catch the thing.
“What happened, then?” I prompted since Chris was being grumbly.
“Usually, I transform into a rabbit. They love rabbits—I don’t know why they call them chupacabras. They should be called chupaconejos—anyway, I transformed, stepped through the portal, and ran around, so it could sniff me out and come running. I was supposed to transform back once it was nea—”
“Are you a bunny shifter?” I asked with a lot of curiosity, never having met one or known they existed.
“No. I don’t have an animal spirit. I simply use the magic given to me when I took the post.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. It’s the neatest perk of my job.”
“So, what went wrong?” Chris asked, trying to pull us back to the point.
“Right. I couldn’t transform back. There’s a spell over the entire pack grounds. I tried it in the cage several times. All magic is blocked.”
“What?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t transform back. I couldn’t pull on my magic.”
“How did you do it now, then?” Chris asked, suspicion dripping from his voice.
“Because, the portal is still open. I couldn’t close it until I stepped back through or I would have been stuck on this side. I’ve been in Violet’s room for the last few months.”
“OH. MY. GOD!” I squeaked, making Vesta and Chris look around for a threat, but I was too mortified to put them at ease.
“What’s wrong?” Chris asked me.
“She’s been in my room this whole time!” I squeaked, hoping the ground would swallow me whole.
“And?”
“She’s not a bunny, Chris!”
“I can see that.”
“She could hear us! Every time we...” I couldn’t say the words, but I didn’t have to, because a blush matching the one I could feel on my face, bloomed on Chris’ face.
Vesta laughed, cranking both of our blushes up a notch.
“Don’t worry, Violet. I went into my little sleeping hut and did my best to sing in my head to give you privacy.”
“Tragame, Tierra,” (Swallow me, Earth) I whimpered with embarrassment.
“So, you’ve been on this plane, stuck as a bunny because Violet tried to help you?” Chris asked, trying to change the subject that was making all of us uncomfortable.
“Correct,” Vesta answered.
“Sorry,” I replied weakly, burying my head in Chris’ arm, more out of continued embarrassment from the previous subject, than regret.
“Don’t be. If you hadn’t saved me, I would have died. I’m not as fast as a bunny.”
“Wait, so the portal is still open?” I asked, suddenly wondering if anything else had come through.
Chris seemed to have the same thought, because he pulled me behind him again.
“Yes, but no one’s been through it. As a guardian, I can sense when one of my charges leaves the plane. Not even the magic block would have stopped me from knowing that. The ability isn’t magic, it’s... it’s hard to explain. It’s a knowing, something that is there, from the moment I took my position.”
“So, we’re safe?” I asked.
“No. That’s what I’m telling you. There’s really powerful blood magic around your property that stops every other magic from being performed within its circle.”
“But, there’s no one here anymore except us and Hugh,” I answered. I didn’t know the man well, but he didn’t seem capable of doing what Vesta was saying.
“I don’t know who that is, but the magic user doesn’t have to be here at all times for that type of magic to remain. It’s a spell around the property, so it would remain even if they weren’t within it anymore.”
My phone began to ring, and I silenced it without looking at it.
“Can you tell us anything else?” I asked.
“Thank you. For everything you did for me. The likelihood of us ever meeting again is almost non-existent, so I can’t give you a boon as I wish I could, but I want to express to you how much your kindness has meant to me.” She turned to leave then stopped. “I know who you are. What’s coming and who hunts your family. I wish all of you well. I’ll do my best to keep the prisoners of my plane away from the fight, but you should know Tezcatlipoca doesn’t fight fair, and whispers of his plan to free anyone who follows him are already circling my plane.”
With that, she turned and walked away.
“We should tell Bells,” Chris said, looking down at me when Vesta was gone.
“Yeah.” I pulled out my phone as we headed back and I saw the missing call was from Bells and along with four other missed ones from her. I dialed her and she answered immediately. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“I can’t find Adam. I think he ran away.”