Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 297(@200wpm)___ 238(@250wpm)___ 198(@300wpm)
“We’ll figure it out,” he says, voice all gravel. “If there’s a way, we’ll find it.”
The nurse types some more, prints out a grainy picture, hands it to me. I take it because I can’t think what else to do. It’s almost nothing—a blur, a shape. I stare anyway and something inside me changes.
“Do you want to know your options?” the nurse says. She’s careful, professional. Her face is kind.
I swallow, nod.
She launches into the spiel—I can keep it, but I don’t have to. There’s time to decide, there are safe ways, there are counselors.
“What about DNA?”
The words come out as a hoarse whisper and Kael flinches, but he doesn’t say anything. Her eyes widen for a second, then she glances sideways at Kael, then back to me. “If you want, there are tests we can do during the pregnancy to determine paternity,” she says.
My mouth is a desert. “How early can you tell?”
“There are noninvasive prenatal tests as early as nine weeks. We take a blood sample from you and from the potential fathers. It’s very accurate. Would you like information about that?”
I nod again, holding the ultrasound photo, my fingers numb.
She says someone will be in to talk about it and leaves. Just like that, the room is empty except for Kael and the ticking of the blood pressure machine. I can’t stand the silence so I fill it.
“I didn’t know,” I whisper. “I don’t know what to do.”
He reaches out to me, big fingers curling around mine. “You don’t have to do anything yet. Or ever, if you don’t want to.”
I want to say it’s not about want.
“If it’s yours?” I manage to grind out.
His eyes flash. “You know I want you, Sable. That baby is part of that.”
He isn’t saying if it’s his, or if it’s not. He is simply saying if it’s part of me, it’s part of him.
“What if it’s Gage’s baby, Kael? That’s going to be a problem, you know it will. He won’t just walk away.”
“Wouldn’t expect him to,” Kael mutters. “We’ll cross that road when we come to it. For now, let’s just wrap our minds around this, yeah?”
He releases me and steps back. “I gotta run, I’ll be back later.”
Then just like that, he’s gone.
He leaves and I know it’s because he is struggling with what he just heard. I don’t blame him, but it hurts all the same.
I stare down at the picture, and I cry.
God dammit.
I can’t lose him when I just got him.
I can’t.
One Month Later
Kael’s mouth on my throat, his hands everywhere, his chest flattening me into the tile—this is what I crave more than oxygen. New life has bloomed in my body, and so has a rabid, impossible hunger for him, for his heat, for the way he looks at me when I laugh. The ache for him is so sharp I catch myself gripping the tile, arching into him, begging for more.
We fuck in the shower, lips burning, water pounding, my body aching for him. He takes me against the wall, slow and careful, thumbs gentle on my jaw, tracing kisses along my neck that taste like promise. He came back to me, even when I was sure he wouldn’t, and since then, things have been fucking perfect. I have never been loved in the way he loves me.
I crave it.
He spent a few days acting incredibly distant when he found out about the baby. Then, one night, he came to my door and said nothing, just pressed his mouth to mine and held me so tight I felt my ribcage protest. He told me that no matter what, no matter who the baby belonged to, I was his and so was the baby and he would never turn his back on us.
In the month since, he has been there every step of the way. He has helped me through morning sickness and fed me chocolate when I cry. Nia and Mera have been amazing, pampering me and setting up a room at the clubhouse that is all mine. Kael lets me have my room, with my pink comforters and fluffy pillows.
I love him.
I love everything about this world he lives in.
We lost seven men between both clubs that day, but Zane survived. I think about the first time I saw Zane after it all, a Frankenstein's monster of staples and stitches, laughing like every breath was his last and his best. He told me we had matching scars now, but his was far cooler.
Zane is a fucking warrior.
Now here we are, fucking in the shower, before we go to the appointment that will change everything. The one that will determine who this baby belongs to. I know Kael has said he doesn’t care, but if he hears the words that the baby belongs to Gage, will that change?