Chapter 15
For weeks, everything went perfectly. Lana’s life had never been better—even that first love with Ian hadn’t been this wonderful. This complete.
And the happier she was, the happier the entire streak seemed.
“It’s the magic of the Alpha Mate,” Roman said. “Nothing cements the bonds of a streak more.”
She laughed aloud. “Tell me that the next time you’re cranky because I’m with Jackson or Drake.”
Roman shrugged. “It’s good for all of us.”
Even Drake seemed to have come to terms with Lana splitting her time four ways. “I have to have time for myself,” she’d finally announced. “Otherwise, you three will wear me out.”
But they didn’t. Somehow, she still wanted them. All of them. All the time. Her decision to take time for herself was preemptive—but apparently unnecessary.
Maybe that was the magic of the Alpha Mate, too.
Then came the morning when she rolled off of Jackson and raced to the bathroom, where she’d vomited.
And kept vomiting all day long.
It occurred to her that she should have gotten her period over a week ago. She’d been so busy, the past several weeks had flown by.
“I haven’t been fertile,” she tells herself aloud. “I was nowhere near ovulating. So, the chances of me being fertile had to be pretty slim. I’ve probably missed my period because I’ve been so stressed. It’s happened before.” She is talking aloud, as she is hoping to convince herself. Deep down, though, she is not convinced.
She’s been sleeping with not one, but three tigers, all without birth control.
Like an idiot.
When the stomach bug didn’t go away the next day, she took a long stroll along the River Walk. Including a quick trip into a pharmacy.
Every morning for the rest of the week, Lana would wake up and take a pregnancy test. Every morning for the rest of the week, those pregnancy tests kept coming back negative.
Not that she didn’t want kittens. She did.
Just not yet.
She’d barely had time to get used to being an Alpha Mate.
Lana found more and more comfort in the fact that the tests were still coming back negative. In fact, she started to believe them.
The next Saturday morning, Lana woke up and started her new morning routine. She got out of bed and took another pregnancy test, then walked back into her bedroom to pick out her clothes for the day and get dressed while she waited for the results to show. At this point, she was pretty much certain it would come back negative.
She put on a comfortable, breezy, floral sun dress and walked back into the bathroom to look at the results of her test. The second line that told her that it was positive seemed to materialize in front of her eyes, so much so that she thought she was hallucinating for a moment. She didn’t believe it. There was no way, they were coming back negative. They had all come back negative.
Lana went to her suite’s tiny kitchenette and drank all the water she could stand. Then she wandered back into her bathroom. It only took her a few minutes to go through the rest of the pregnancy tests she had hidden under her sink, and every single one of them had a positive result. Seven tests sat on her counter, all sporting that faint second line. And all she could think about was how she was going to tell Roman. And Jackson. And Drake.
She stared in the mirror at her reflection. “Oh my God.”
Whose baby was this, anyway?
* * *
Okay. Step one: tell the father. Or fathers.
For the first time since she’d begun this whole Alpha Mate business, Lana was convinced that it was a terrible idea.
How could her baby have three fathers? That was insane.
And yet, she had to tell three men that she was pregnant. The whole idea terrified her.
Oddly enough, Drake was the easiest. He guessed almost as soon as he saw her.
“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
Lana stayed silent. She anxiously folded her arms, and put her head low.
“Come on. I know you are. It’s obvious. What’s the big deal?” Drake asked.
“I don’t know how Roman and Jackson are going to react.”
Drake laughed. “Come on, sweetheart. Let’s go tell them.”
They found Jackson in his suite. She sat down between Drake and Jackson on the sofa and took a deep breath.
“I’m pregnant,” she finally managed to say.
“You think?” Jackson asked facetiously, rustling her shoulder a little bit and kissing the top of her head. “How do you feel about it?”
“I’m terrified. I feel sick and angry and scared and sad. I’m so sad.” She lifted her gaze and looked him square in the eyes, tears rolling steadily down her cheeks. “Why am I so sad?”
He smiled sweetly at her and wiped a tear away from her cheek. “Because you’re pregnant, princess,” he offered before leaning in to kiss her gently. He laughed slightly as he pulled away. “What does Roman think?”
“He doesn’t know yet.” She flopped back, putting her head on his lap and her feet on Drake’s. The two men stroked her, their touch calming her.
“All right,” Jackson said, trying to organize his own thoughts. It wasn’t surprising in the least, but it was still a shock to his system. His own fears about how his wife had passed flared up, but he managed to keep that to himself. Regardless of what had happened in his past, he needed to keep it together in front of Lana right now. The four of them needed to figure this out together.
His hands gripped his knees tightly, a pensive look drawing his features together.
“What do we do?” Lana muttered quietly, staring off into the distance as Jackson slid his hand into hers.
“First we tell Roman,” Drake said. “Then we do…whatever you want to.”
“How are you two so calm right now?” Lana asked incredulously. They both seemed so composed next to her, so ready to deal with this.
“I’m not, Lana,” Drake answered.
“Me, either,” Jackson said. “Not really. I’m freaking out.”
She pondered for a second about what exactly was happening. This wasn’t real to her yet, this wasn’t actually happening to her. She sat up again. Her knee bounced impatiently as she gnawed on the inside of her lip, frustrated and scared. Panic settled in over her mind and fear clawed at the inside of her rib cage, threatening to tear her wide open.
“Okay. We should go tell Roman now,” Lana said, standing up to gather her things.
Together, they took the elevator from Jackson’s suite to the basement.
When they arrived at Roman’s door, he frowned. “What is it?” he asked, worried. “Have the Incas shown back up?”
“Nothing like that,” Drake assured him.
“But Lana has something to tell you,” Jackson said.
“Okay. Come in. Sit down.” He led them all into his central room.
Lana took a deep breath before she spoke. “I’m going to get right to the point. I found out today that I’m pregnant.”
Roman looked at her blankly for a long moment, wondering if maybe she was teasing him. She had a great poker face, and she was tough.
But when Lana scooted closer to him, leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder and looking straight and the patterned surface of his coffee table, he knew it was true.
Still, he had to ask. “Really?”
She nodded. “It’s true. I’m pregnant.”
And then he was laughing aloud, standing up and pulling her into his arms, swinging her around. “That’s wonderful, Lana.”
She laughed nervously. “You don’t care whose it is?”
A wide smile spread across his face. “I know whose it is.” One by one, he met their eyes. “This baby is ours. All of ours.”
And suddenly, Lana was crying, and so were all the men who loved her, and she was hugging all of them at the same time.