Eventually they had decided that Cin would go with Thad and Dem, and Ben would go with Alec and Hal. Aster had the sneaking suspicion that if Ben had gone in Thad and Dem’s group, then he may have met with a fist or two, whether Randall was there or not. Right before they had left, Alec had received a text from the woman who now stood in front of her.

Vivienne.

Alec had brought Vivienne to the island for a consultation with Aster before his group left. She’d drawn the eyes of all the men, even Alec, who never usually saw anyone other than Ellie. Her curvaceous body, combined with hair that was neither red nor brown and her mismatched eyes that were rimmed in thick black lashes, made her seem exotic, and Aster could understand why the men looked. Hell, she looked. The gorgeous woman now stood in front of her with a white doctor’s coat on and a medical bag propped open beside her.

For a moment, Aster wished Ellie was still in the room with them, but the thought of calling her in from the hallway seemed odd. They didn’t know each other that well, and she didn’t know what the doctor was going to do, so she kept her mouth shut. The thought of doing this alone was terrifying, but she reminded herself that she had a sister and two mothers, and they all loved her. The thought calmed her, but not as much as she wanted.

Brushing a wavy lock out of her face and tucking the short strand behind her ear, Vivienne said, “So you’re pregnant, hum? And my mother sent a potion for you to figure out who the father is? Did it work?” Her voice was melodic and soft. She was the most soothing doctor Aster had ever met.

Aster had been nodding along with the questions until the last one. “How would I know?” The question came out more tempestuous then she’d intended.

Vivienne crossed her arms and settled her weight back on one leg. The posture made her look younger and more headstrong. “Of course Mother didn’t tell you how you’d know,” she muttered before continuing. “You should have seen a single face toward the end. The one who is the father should have risen above the rest.”

“Then I think it did, yes.”

“Good. Now, let’s talk about your family history and abilities, and then we can decide how to proceed.” She pulled a notebook, a sleek black tablet, and a weird object out of her bag, along with a number of syringes and a cuff for checking blood pressure, before sanitizing her hands and snapping on some sterile gloves. “I’m going to do a quick blood draw, if that’s okay with you? It will check for a number of different things, including your hemoglobin levels.”

Aster nodded her consent, feeling slightly dizzy at how quickly everything was happening now. She looked at the little packages. Everything was wrapped up in its own paper and plastic container, keeping the germs out but making it all look scarier than it was.

“Can you go over your lineage for me?”

Aster explained about being adopted and who her birth parents and grandparents were while the needle pricked into her skin. She glanced down and saw the ruby liquid filling the syringe. A wave of nausea rolled over her, and she tried to breathe through it.

“What are your abilities?” Vivienne asked as she changed the syringe.

Aster wondered how much blood she was going to take, as her right arm currently felt completely drained. “I have visions and can astral project, but that’s pretty much it.”

The other woman made a noncommittal noise that sounded vaguely interested. “Do you know anything about the father? His lineage? Abilities?”

“Um, he’s one of the siren brothers. I know he can fly, teleport, and has some control over the weather surrounding him, but that’s about it.”

Dark auburn hair bobbed in front of her as she had Aster hold a cotton ball over the wound and taped it down. The blood pressure cuff came next on the opposite arm, and Aster was a little worried about the number. It wasn’t like life had been easy recently.

“If you’re okay with it, I would like to perform an ultrasound. It’ll help give me an idea of how far along you are.”

Nodding once more, Aster was beginning to feel like a bobble-head doll. She lay back on the couch at Vivienne’s gentle instruction, while the woman pulled up her T-shirt and unbuttoned her jeans. She didn’t pull them down, just moved the flaps out of the way.

The weird object was then plugged into the USB port on the tablet, and after a few taps, Vivienne spread some cold goo on her belly, before putting the object down and running it over her skin. The wide end moved lower and lower on her belly. Finally, it seemed to begin circling a small area.

“Would you like to see?” she asked, her mismatched blue and brown eyes glancing at Aster.

“Please.” The word was a whisper and barely made it past her lips.

Her heart fluttered inside her chest, and she briefly wondered what the doctor thought of all of this. It didn’t matter to her, but she wondered what a supernatural doctor dealt with on a day-to-day basis. What other kinds of creepy crawlies and magical beings were out there that she treated? The question almost blurted out, but then Vivienne turned the tablet so they could both see it.

The screen was filled with a grainy black and white image with a black avocado shape in the middle, and another dark shadowy area off to the right. She pointed at the shadowy area. “That’s your bladder, and this”—she pointed to the avocado—“is your gestation sac.” She moved the wand, and the avocado turned into a grapefruit, but there was something in the middle. “This is your baby.”

There was a little peanut-shaped object in the middle of the gestation sac. Aster’s breath caught, and her eyes went wide.

The doctor tapped a button on the side of the screen and then tapped a box on the screen itself. All of a sudden, a heartbeat filled the room. It was a soft rushing sound with a wonderfully steady beat. Without warning, tears trailed down her cheeks as reality finally set in.

She was having a baby.