15.
Mia drove home quietly, her mind busy as she thought about the events of the night. What the hell had she been thinking going to Rhett’s cabin like this? Sure, she liked him, but she was vulnerable right now, wasn’t she? She had just been attacked. Why had she allowed this to happen?
She rested her hand lightly on her abdomen, wondering if what they had felt was true. Was it possible that she was with child now after that strange experience? And, if so, what was going to happen?
“How was your date, honey?” Mia’s mother asked when she came inside.
“Hey, mom. I didn’t expect you to wait up.”
“Oh, it’s no big deal. I just had a strange feeling tonight.”
“Yeah, you get those a lot. Isn’t that strange? Most people aren’t very intuitive at all. But here we are, a family of fairly intuitive women. I wonder how that happened.”
Mia’s mother sat thoughtfully for a moment before smiling and speaking. “You know, there are some strange stories that my grandmother used to tell. Things we just assumed were rumors. Strange rumors.”
“What kind of strange rumors?” Mia asked, immediately burning with curiosity.
“You have heard about the shifters out west, haven’t you?”
“The shapeshifters?” Mia asked. “Yeah, I have heard of them. I did a lot of research at one point, thinking maybe I would go and see what all that was about. Why?”
“Well, my grandmother liked to say that, at one point, we have an ancestor distantly related to the shapeshifters out west. But, like I said, that’s all just a strange rumor. A lot of people think that she was a little bit off the wall. She was frequently ill. Mentally. She used to think that people were after her or something. But there was never any evidence stating that was the case.”
Mia sat up straight. “She thought people were after her?”
Mia was certainly beginning to suspect something like that to be happening to her and her daughter. Or if not to her daughter, at least to her. It felt like a lot of strange things happening at once. Could that possibly be related? Or had she just inherited her great-great-grandmothers mental illness?
“Yes, she was very paranoid about that sort of thing. Always saying she saw things lurking in the shadows. Nobody else ever saw them. She even claims one of her best friends disappeared once. She thought they took her. Everyone else just thought she was insane. Poor Gram. Her shapeshifter blood made her such a target, so she thought.”
“So, you mean my potentially crazy grandmother believed that we had some sort of shapeshifter blood in our family?”
“She swore that was where she got her intuition from. And that it was passed down through generations. Before the shapeshifters out west even appeared. But they are one and the same. From the same stock. The same type of magic. And apparently, according to her, anyway, that is part of our ancestors. Most people took it with a grain of salt, considering her tendency toward paranoia.”
“That’s not very fair, though. Can you imagine how invalidating that must have been for her? What if it’s true?”
Mia’s mother shrugged mysteriously. “It could very well be true for all we know. Nobody can really know except the people who experienced it. Some of the stories my grandmother told me, my mother used to pish-posh and tell me not to listen. She made her mother out to sound like a crazy person. But I always thought she was one of the most sane and rational people I had ever known. So, in my mind, there is a part of me that fully believes what my grandmother told me. She was one of my favorite people. I wish you could have met her.”
“I’m sure I have had a chance to meet some of her best qualities through you. Everything lives on in love,” Mia said, hugging her mother as thoughts of shifter blood ran through her head. What did that mean? Why did she feel as if she had just gotten a missing piece of the puzzle?
When they pulled apart from the hug, Mia’s mother looked at her with a strange expression on her face. “You look different to me somehow,” she said, narrowing her eyes and focusing on Mia’s face. “Are you all right? Do you feel okay? Did something bad happen to you?”
Thoughts of the attacks flashed quickly in her mind, but more acutely, the very sudden and very real possibility of a pregnancy occurring became first and foremost in her thoughts. What had she been thinking? Was she ready to have another baby? Let alone with a man like Rhett?
But what was really wrong with Rhett, other than the fact that he seemed a little bit strange and oblivious at times? She had found herself feeling deeply for him, despite her best intentions not to. In fact, it had felt almost as if their meeting had been kismet, in a way.
Her hand went to her abdomen again, involuntarily, before she turned her eyes back to her mother. “Actually, it was quite a long night.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” her mother said, voice laced with concern. “What happened, honey?”
Mia sighed and led her mother to the couch in the living room. “You’re going to want to sit down for this.”
The conversation lasted long into the night and ended with Mia’s mother guessing at what was really bothering her, more than the attacks, more than the random incidences that seemed to be plaguing Mia and her daughter.
“Honey, on your date tonight, well, how do I put this…? There’s something different about you. And not just because of what you went through being attacked. I can tell there’s something different. Just like I could tell when you were pregnant with Jewel.”
“You’re right, mom. And there’s something really strange going on. And I have a feeling it has everything to do with my pregnancy and the man who made me this way. I just wish I knew what was going on and how to put all of the pieces together.”
“Well, the answers may be closer than you think,” Mia’s mother said, patting her knee gently. “Don’t give up hope. Everything is going to turn out the way it was meant to be. Just wait and see. Don’t worry about a thing. Everything is going to be fine.”
Mia sighed to herself. Her mother always managed to make her feel better about things. And although everything seemed kind of bleak at the moment, she couldn’t help but feel a small surge of optimism. She had hurried away after the encounter, ashamed of herself, embarrassed, but more than anything, concerned and confused about what had just happened.
It had been far more intense than anything else she had ever experienced before. How was it possible that she could be pregnant so immediately and so acutely aware of it? Even Rhett had seemed to have some strange awareness of what had just transpired, and they had held each other’s gaze for quite a few moments afterward before she finally realized what was going on and panicked.
She had dressed quickly and driven back to her mother’s house as quickly as she possibly could manage it. But that didn’t take away the reality. Nothing ever would.
But what was the reality? Maybe she was just like her grandmother. Paranoid and a little bit out there. Maybe everything that was going on was going on in her head. Maybe there was really nothing to worry about after all.
But no, that couldn’t be true. She had seen, firsthand, the way Rhett had dealt with the man who had come after her. And she had seen the person in the parking lot coming after Jewel. She wanted nothing to do with whatever it was that was going on. And she had a strange sense about it that all of these events were somehow connected in a way that she couldn’t fathom yet.
But she knew she didn’t like it. Not one single little bit. How was she ever going to reconcile with herself the fact that she was leaving her daughter in danger by ignoring the realities and assuming that everything was all in her head? She would rather be called crazy and have her daughter safe and sound, even if that meant nothing was really going on.
The thing about it was, she knew something was going on, but she didn’t know what. But somehow, when she had seen the dragon statue in the cabin that night, she had gotten the strangest impression that Rhett would know what to do. He would know how to help them.
Not only was he offering them his cabin for safekeeping, but perhaps, there was more to it than that. Something going on below the surface that only a select few people would truly be able to understand. She wanted to be one of those people. Somehow, that didn’t seem possible. But maybe if she saw Rhett again, he would be able to tell her more about what was going on and how she could keep herself and her daughter safe. And, the new addition.
She rested her hand on her abdomen. Somebody else on the way. Somebody with tremendous power and potential for good. She had a similar feeling with Jewel but nothing quite this extraordinary. She had to talk to Rhett. As soon as possible. Why had she hurried away this way? Well, at any rate, it was too late now. She would just have to get some sleep and try to figure everything out in the morning. There was nothing else left to it than that.