There was a flurry of activity going on as Amanda and her guards arrived back at the clubhouse. Aspen stood out front, barking orders as men rushed around, boarding up windows and preparing for something that didn’t look like it was going to be very nice.
“What’s going on?” she asked as she rushed from the car toward him.
“We’ve received word that the Dire Wolves are on the move.”
“On the move for what?”
“I’ve not told you about some of the conversations I’ve been having lately. Seems the entire plan all this time was to kill us off, first by cursing us so we can’t reproduce and then waiting for our numbers to die down. They plan to pick us off now that we are older, and they are younger and stronger.”
“And they are coming now?”
“No. Not now, at least not as far as I’m aware. This is just phase one of precautions. All the windows will be heavily slatted to prevent any of them from just jumping through the glass panes. Other than that, you’ll hardly notice anything different. Everything else being done to prep for the inevitable will be very covert.”
“I see. I need to talk to you when you have a moment.”
“Something wrong?”
“No. I don’t think you’d call it anything wrong. More like unexpected.”
“Moose! Make sure these all get in place. I’ll be back out in a bit.”
“Got it,” Moose replied.
Aspen and Amanda walked into the building and made their way back to their room. He sat down with her on the edge of the bed and took her hands in his, looking down at her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong. At least, I don’t think you’ll find it wrong.”
“Just tell me what it is, Amanda.”
She could sense his impatience. He had a lot on his plate and not much time for being coy. For all his wonderful qualities, it was perhaps his one weakness. His inability to be patient for anything.
“I’m pregnant.”
“Aspens eyebrows shot up like a rocket. He looked at her, down at her belly, as if expecting it to already be round and ready to pop. His hand went to it as if he could somehow feel a brand-new baby.”
“That’s not possible. The curse. No one has had a baby for twenty-five years, no matter how hard they tried.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, but I still haven’t been feeling very well these past few days since I was sick the other morning, so I went to the doctor and he did tests. I don’t know how far along just yet, maybe only a few weeks. He referred me to an obstetrician named Dr. Chong.”
“Wow. I mean…. God. Wow! I don’t know what to say.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you speechless before.”
“A baby. We’re having a baby.”
“Yes, we are.”
“I’m so happy, baby. I’m so happy. We have to tell everyone,” he said, his face suddenly falling and growing somber.
“What is it?”
“We can’t tell everyone. We have to keep you safe. This is big. The Dire Wolves can’t know.”
“You think they would harm me?”
“Unfortunately. They would harm you and try to find a way to put the curse back in place. We’ll tell only those who need to know, and we’ll have to make arrangements for you when you start to show, so that no one who doesn’t need to see you does.”
“I can’t stay confined to quarters like some sort of war prisoner, Aspen!”
“No. Absolutely not. We’ll figure it out. You’ll be safe enough here for now, but we can’t risk anyone who might not have our best interests at heart tipping off the Dire Wolves.”
“You think there is still a rat in the pack?”
“I don’t know. I’m just not willing the risk finding out the hard way. I won’t lose you and I won’t lose our child.”
The smile spread across his face again as he placed his hand on her belly. She could tell that, despite the risks, he was happy.
“Come on, let’s go tell my uncle.”
Walking into the big office that sat at the corner of the club was not usual for Amanda. Despite being the President of the club, Aspen’s Uncle Aspen rarely came out of his private quarters, which adjoined the room where they held meetings. The first time she had met him, she had seen why. He was horribly scarred, with a single scratch extending down the right side of his face. Aspen had told her it went down the entire side that was hidden beneath his clothing.
She had never asked Aspen about his uncle’s age, but she guessed it to be in his early seventies. He was tall and broad. She could imagine that he had once been fierce, but now he was very much in need of protection from his pack. He maintained much of the business done by the club, but stayed out of the frays that might take place.
“I’ve good news, Uncle Aspen.”
“What’s that, son?” he said in his unusually deep, always somber tone.
He always called Aspen son, though he was not his father. Aspen’s father had died in the same attack in which his uncle was injured. It was not a far stretch of the imagination that he had obtained his substantial injuries trying to save him.
“The curse seems to have lifted. Amanda is pregnant.”
Aspen’s eyes narrowed and turned toward Amanda. He looked at her belly, almost causing her to laugh. Why did people do that when you were obviously not even showing yet?
“Is that so?”
“Yes. We’re going to have the first wolf pup in twenty-five years!”
Amanda froze in place. She was mortified.
“Wolf pup?” she repeated, looking at Aspen as if he had just slapped her.
He looked at her with a puzzled expression and then started laughing, as did his uncle.
“Relax kid,” Uncle Aspen roared between laughs. “It’s just a figure of speech among shifters. It won’t be an actual pup. It will be a baby just like any other from all appearances.”
“Oh, thank goodness,” she sighed, relieved.
“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you are safe,” Uncle Aspen added, walking over to hug her.
“Thank you. It’s going to be a long eight months or so.”
“Eight months?” he replied, looking confused.
“Yes. I’m only a few weeks or so along. I have to make an appointment with another doctor for some tests to confirm.”
“No. Don’t do that. We’ll have a doctor come in here.”
“What? Why?”
“First of all, you won’t be pregnant for eight months. A shifter birth cycle is only about twelve weeks. If the doctor said you are a few weeks pregnant, then you are barely pregnant at all. So, all their tests and calculations are going to be off with a baby that develops at three times the rate of a human. You’ve been sick, haven’t you?”
“Yes, for a few days.”
“Your body is reacting to the extreme changes taking place. Don’t worry, it will clear up just as quickly as it came about.”
“I’ll be glad for that.”
“Alright, you two get out of here. Go celebrate or something. I’ll get a doctor who knows how to deal with wolf pregnancies come in here as soon as I can get in touch with her and get her in.”
They thanked him and left, walking through the front room with broad smiles on their faces.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the accelerated pregnancy?” she asked him after they were alone again in their quarters.
“I didn’t know! I was just a teenager when our clan stopped having babies and haven’t been around any long enough to realize that even before then. Doesn’t give us much time to plan things, but maybe good in the sense that we don’t have to protect you for an excessively long time. I don’t think the Dire Wolves are quite ready to pounce on us just yet, so hopefully, the baby will be here long before I have to worry about any of that. Hell, if we’re lucky, we won’t be the only ones. This pack might actually grow again!”
“You are always just as much about this pack as you are about your own, aren’t you?”
“Of course. Some of these guys are my kin, but a lot of them are stray dogs that wandered in off their various paths a long time ago. They are all my brothers. I owe them a great debt of gratitude for all they have done for me.”
“And Mouse? She not a shifter. Just some random teenage runaway you scooped up off the street.”
“How did you find out about that?”
“She told me.”
“Everything?”
“Yes, everything. Why didn’t you tell me the whole truth? You let me think you just had a bad temper and hurt someone badly enough to go to prison for it.”
“It wasn’t really my story to tell, I don’t think. You should have seen her, Amanda. She was standing there, in the middle of an alley, shivering in the rain that was pouring down around us. I had ducked into it as a shortcut and almost hit her before I saw her there. So tiny and pitiful. She couldn’t even speak because her teeth were chattering so badly.”
“It was heroic what you did.”
“No. I’m no hero. No one would have left her in that alley, especially not when they were confronted with what that man had intended for her.”
“Maybe so, but they would have let her go to foster care or let her get sent back to her home. They wouldn’t have given years of their life to protect her. You didn’t have to do that.”
“You didn’t see her, Amanda. I brought her to the club. She was skin and bones and terrified. A young girl who was scared of her shadow. I’ve watched her grow up. Even when I was in prison, she wrote to me. She drew me pictures. I checked with the guys on their visits to make sure she was safe.”
“You’re going to be an amazing father. You’ve already been one to her.”
“I don’t see it that way. Just as you can’t see that you’ve become just as much a mother to her, even at her age, when she has only known you a relatively short time.”
“I think we are more friends than family.”
“No. I watched a quiet, reserved little girl happy to just exist, suddenly emerge into a beautiful young woman with a dream. We’ve been able to keep her here and protect her all these years, but we’ve done one thing wrong. We’ve not given her the freedom she deserved. You’ve given her a pair of wings to fly and escape her past. It’s something that I see she desperately needed. I wish I had realized it sooner, but I’m glad you have shown it to me now.”
“Did you see her work? She’s finished three rooms!”
“I’ve seen Moose’s room, but not the others. We’ll look at them tomorrow. Right now, we’ve got some celebrating to do.”
“Where will we go?”
“For right now? Back to the scene of the crime. Come here.”
Amanda giggled as he pulled her to him and then pushed her softly down onto the bed. Soon, they were once again lost in one another’s arms.