“There we are. Two healthy children,” said the doctor, pointing to the jellybean shaped blobs on the monitor. Hazel felt a strange sort of despair. Her first pregnancy should be a magical time, but she could hardly make herself look at the picture or listen to the doctor. She was the worst sort of sell-out, giving her first-born children away for a book contract. Every instinct she possessed screamed in protest. She wanted to love them, and knew she could not.
It had been a surprise, the first time the doctor had said there were twins, though she’d been warned it was a possibility with the medications she’d been given to ensure conception. The fact that there were two children only added an extra sharpness to her agony. A fantasy had briefly seized her; perhaps they could each keep one child. But no, that would be too cruel. Everything about this was cruel.
The rest of the appointment was a blur, and she came out into the waiting room shaking with the effort of holding herself together. He was there, Mr. Val Dragomir, looking out of place as usual, dwarfing the chair and intimidating the other women in the room with his scowl. Even though she hadn’t liked going in there alone, she was glad he let her at least have that much privacy.
Since the day she’d agreed to this insane proposition, they had barely spoken, though he had dutifully come to every appointment, even all the ones at that high-end fertility clinic where the artificial insemination had been done. His behavior was very professional, making it all the more dehumanizing. She wasn't a person, but a machine he had bought to assemble a product for him. That was what her life had come to.
He looked up expectantly when she approached, but his brow furrowed when he saw her expression. “Is something wrong?” he asked, immediately getting to his feet. Drat his perceptiveness.
“Fine,” she said, her voice shaking. It was all she could do to shove the folder with the pictures and paperwork into his hands before fleeing from the room. Thankfully, he didn’t follow. She walked about two blocks before slumping on a bench on the edge of a little playground. At this time of the day, it was empty, which was a small mercy; she wouldn’t have to see the children playing and imagine that in a few years, her own might be there.
Little beings full of life and potential that she would never know. But there was no going back, was there? She had signed the contract. Besides, it wasn’t as if she wanted to have his children. She told herself that, though she couldn’t help but remember the look of stunned concern on his face a moment ago. And even before that, he’d been awkward, almost apologetic, as if he’d realized that his earlier behavior was out of line.
But he hadn’t apologized, she reminded herself. The concern was for the children, his heirs, not for her. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Thirty-two more weeks. Surely, she could survive that long, and she had written quite a bit since quitting her job, even if everything felt hollow and empty.
***************************
He was not at the three-month appointment. Instead, a pretty and petite young blond who introduced herself as Val’s assistant, Anka, had come to take his place. “Mr. Dragomir had some urgent business out of town today,” she said, her cheerful voice familiar. Hazel realized she had been the woman who had first called about this ridiculous ‘job.’ Part of her, a little seed of bitterness somewhere deep inside, wondered if she was Val’s type. Hazel didn't know where the thought had come from or why it would matter, so she put it out of her mind.
“He seems to believe you will be more comfortable if he isn’t here,” Anka continued. Hazel wasn’t sure what to say to that. It wasn’t as if she enjoyed his presence, but at the same time, she felt a flicker of anger in her chest. He was the one who wanted this, not her. The least he could do was show up.
But everything was fine, as usual. The babies were healthy and growing well, though it would be another month at least before the doctor would be able to tell their genders. Soon, the doctor said, she would be able to feel them move. Hazel swallowed at the thought. Until now, she’d tried her best not to think about it. It was easier to pretend that there weren’t two lives growing inside her.
She’d barely had any symptoms, and she wasn’t yet showing. The only person in her life that knew was Cassie. She hadn’t even told her parents, knowing they would disapprove. Soon there would be no way to deny it, and Hazel wasn’t sure she’d be able to cope. But it wasn’t as if she could tell him that, so she would just have to deal with her unruly emotions herself. A pint of ice cream was a good place to start, she decided as she went back into the waiting room.
“Everything all right?” Anka asked with a smile. Hazel nodded. At least this time there hadn’t been an ultrasound to make her emotional. She handed the other woman the relevant paperwork. “Would you like to go out for lunch?” Anka asked, and Hazel couldn’t help but blink in surprise at the question. “I know this must seem like it’s completely out of the blue, but I admit, I’m curious about you. My cousin isn’t usually so impulsive.”
“You’re his cousin?” she managed to say. Her earlier jealousy, however misplaced, was also unneeded, it seemed. Anka nodded.
“More than half of the people at the firm are family. But Val and I have always been close. We’re close in age, and we’re both only children, which is a bit unusual…” she trailed off, perhaps feeling she’d said too much.
“So, what about lunch?” Hazel’s feelings towards Val aside, Anka’s friendly and straightforward demeanor was encouraging.
“Actually, that sounds like a great idea. I’m starving, and I could use some time out of the house.” Besides the doctor’s appointments and a few dinners with Cassie, Hazel had spent most of the last month sitting at home in front of her computer.
They ate in a charming Italian bistro around the corner, the kind of place you wouldn’t look twice at unless you knew it was there. All of the staff seemed to know Anka and treated her like an old friend. Hazel wondered, laughing at herself all the while, if the Dragomir family was actually some sort of crime syndicate. It would explain how adamant Val had been about his anonymity. But that kind of thing didn’t happen in real life, did it? Anyway, Anka seemed too bright and open to be involved in anything sinister.
After Hazel had stuffed herself on a heaping plate of seafood linguine, she sat back in her chair, and Anka sighed, setting down her glass of wine. Hazel missed wine. “There was something I wanted to talk to you about. I know things have been… tense between you and Val. He’s not normally like that.”
Hazel’s mood started to sour. She didn't want a lecture about Val Dragomir’s good qualities. “What are you, his public relations manager?” she groused, crossing her arms over her chest and wincing as she pressed too hard on her breasts, which had been uncomfortably tender of late. She knew she was lucky she hadn’t had any worse side effects so far.
Anka laughed. “No, though he could use one sometimes. I know he acted like a jerk when he asked you to agree to this stupid plan, and I think he regrets it now. But he’s sure you hate him, and since he figures it’s deserved, he’s decided to keep his distance.”
“I don’t understand. I thought he wanted this to be a business arrangement. Even if I did hate him, why would he care?”
“Besides the fact that it makes this situation even more uncomfortable?” Anka answered with arched eyebrows. “I don’t think this whole business arrangement thing is actually what he wanted. He just convinced himself it was the best he could do. He’s been strange ever since his mother died. She had a long battle with cancer while he was in high school, and finally passed away just before his graduation. His father was a wreck for years afterward, and Val… has not been in any sort of relationship since. Take from that what you will.”
Hazel frowned. On the one hand, it had to have happened at least ten years ago, so she felt it was strange that he hadn’t recovered. But she’d never lost a parent. She wasn’t even terribly close to hers; they lived halfway across the country and saw her once a year at best, but even so, she could imagine that watching one of them waste away for years would have a profound effect on her psyche.
“He hasn’t been with anyone since he was a teenager?” That part was difficult to believe. She couldn’t imagine that he hadn’t had plenty of offers.
“He’s had a few one-night stands. But he absolutely refuses to get involved with anyone, and his father has been nagging him to settle down and continue the family line, so to speak. They had a conversation about it just a few minutes before you met.
“Caught between outside pressure and his own internal struggle, he ran into you at a vulnerable moment. I think he was attracted to you, but he didn’t know what to do with that. So, his brain cooked up this whole… baby scheme, and it all seemed very logical to him, until you made your displeasure clear,” Anka said with a wry laugh. “You should have seen his face after you left. He drank half a bottle of whiskey and scowled at the wall for hours.”
It made too much sense, yet Hazel didn’t feel quite ready to forgive him. After all, she was still pregnant with his children, much against her better judgement, and he was avoiding her. “I’d feel more sympathetic if he’d bothered to apologize. Or speak more than five words to me at once,” she said. “There was nearly a month between that and when we actually did the insemination. He could have said something.”
“I agree. He’s been a complete idiot. I didn’t mean you ought to excuse his bad behavior,” Anka said. “I suppose I just wanted to know what you thought. He’s been unusually quiet the past few weeks, and he asked me to go to this appointment at the last minute. I thought maybe he’d tried to speak to you, but it seems that isn’t the case.”
“No,” Hazel said, but then she sighed. “I had a bit of a meltdown at the last appointment. He might have wanted to talk, but I wasn’t in any shape to listen. This has all been so… overwhelming. Although,” she added with another frown, “I know he has my cell phone number. He could have called.”
Anka nodded. “If you’re willing to speak to him, I’ll try to prod him into contacting you when he gets back into town. Not that you’re obligated,” she added. “I just think it’s a shame that he’s decided to take this route instead of trying to have a real relationship, and I think you two would get along well.”
The stubborn part of Hazel wanted to refuse. He’d been an ass, treated her like a commodity that could be bought, and he deserved her anger. But at the same time, she was already having his children, and somehow, she felt that if they could even be friends, it might make the whole thing easier to bear. “I’m open to hearing what he has to say,” she said.
“It’s a start,” Anka said, grinning. They parted ways a little while later, and Hazel had to admit that she felt better. Even if Val never did get his head together, at least she felt she had an ally in Anka.
The May sun was hot and bright as Hazel made her way to the subway station. She still wasn’t terribly familiar with this part of town, but it seemed like a nice area, clean and full of trendy shops and restaurants. However, when she turned the next corner, she found herself in a narrow alley with a dead end. “I could have sworn it was this way,” she muttered to herself before turning back.
It only took a few seconds for her to notice the SUV following slowly behind her, black and unmarked, with tinted windows, and her earlier thoughts about the mafia resurfaced. She swallowed and walked more quickly, suddenly frightened as she realized that there was no one around, this early in the afternoon. Everyone was still at work.
The car continued to follow, and she turned a corner, her heart racing, and ran right into two large men, dressed all in black. Her first thought was that they reminded her a bit of Val, only without the underlying current of intelligence and humor.
“Come with us, and don’t make a fuss, and we won’t have to hurt you,” said one of the men, whose dark hair was shorn close to his skull. In hindsight, she knew she should have run. But she was shaking with fear, and the scream that issued from her mouth sounded weak even to her ears.
The other man shook his head, and she tried to back up, until feeling another pair of arms wrap around her, pulling her back into the dark of the SUV. Now she really did yell and struggle, but there were too many of them. A few seconds later, she was bound, gagged, and tossed into the cargo area. The car started to move. Her eyes filled with tears.
“Tell the Alpha we got her, no problems. No one saw us,” said one man, his voice a harsh growl.
“He might still track us by scent,” said another. “We can’t afford to let our guard down.” None of it sounded real to Hazel. What was an Alpha? Who could track by scent?
“I heard he was out of town,” replied the first. “By the time he gets back, we’ll be so far away he’ll never find us.” Were they talking about Val? That was the only thing that made any sense. Of course, on top of everything else, he’d be some sort of criminal, she thought, wriggling against her bonds. But it was no use. They were cruelly tight.
Anka and, by extension, Val, were the only ones who’d know where she’d been today. They might be her only hope. The thought made her feel ill, and she closed her eyes to fight the sob crawling up her throat. Crying would do her no good now.
***************************
Val fidgeted, turning his phone over and over in his hands. He should have gone to the appointment, he knew. He wasn’t usually the sort of person who ran away from his problems, but Hazel unnerved him. Every time he saw her, he was struck by a pang of deep regret for his decision to undertake this arrangement. Anka had been right; if he’d had any sense, what he would have done was ask for her number. Something he’d never thought before.
Now he’d be lucky if he could manage to have a civil relationship with her, and it chafed his instincts. He’d been attracted to her from the first, and now that she was carrying his children, it was magnified tenfold. He could smell the new life within her, the most intoxicating perfume, and his body screamed at him to enfold her, to protect and pamper and cherish. Someone, he thought grouchily, ought to have warned me about that. He was sure his father knew and was now taking perverse joy in his son’s discomfort.
At the last appointment, it had been difficult for Val to keep himself from touching her, even in a small way, especially when she’d appeared in the waiting room looking so bereft. Of course, she hadn’t wanted his comfort, and everything did seem to be fine. He still had the feeling it had been his fault, and so he’d eventually decided it was better if he wasn’t there at all. Anka had called him a coward. He had been angry, mostly because he knew she was right.
The phone rang, and he fumbled to answer. “Val! Thank the goddess,” Anka said, her voice breathless and shaking.
“What’s going on?” His heart was already pounding. Anka had been with Hazel. Something must have gone wrong. He'd read that miscarriages were more common in the first trimester, and he didn't know how to feel. Those were his children, but he was so angry at himself for even coming up with this plan…
“The appointment was fine, so I took Hazel out to lunch, but after we left the restaurant I had a bad feeling, so I went after her. I heard a scream, and I smell unfamiliar wolves. She's not answering her phone.”
He was cold and hot all at once, his own inner wolf surging to the surface. Only years of practice kept the change at bay.
“Keep tracking the scent, but stay out of sight. I'll gather a team and be there as soon as I can.” His other business could wait; Hazel’s safety was most important. He had hoped that insisting on secrecy would keep her from being involved in the darker side of werewolf society, but since that had failed, he would do everything in his power to make sure she wasn't harmed.
“Yes, alright,” Anka said, and her phone disconnected. He dialed his father first.
**********************
The car drove for hours, the sky getting darker and darker. All of her captors were silent; Hazel had learned not to attract their attention. She'd thought she might be able to reach the inner latch of the back door if she wriggled up to it, but she was rewarded for her trouble with one of the men stomping down on her hand with his heavy boot. It throbbed with every beat of her heart, and she was sure something was broken. She drifted, numb with exhaustion, trying not to think about what these people might do to her.
The car stopped, jerking her back to awareness. “Make her walk,” said a new voice, harsh but strangely youthful, and they cut the rope around her ankles and yanked her stumbling along, the nerves in her feet prickling painfully. It was dark, but she could see the lights glowing from the windows of a little cabin before she was ushered inside it. They unbound her hands and let her go to the bathroom, though not alone, which was humiliating enough to make her angry, and then they took the gag off.
“Why are you doing this?! What do you want?” she asked, her voice cracking through her dry throat. A new man approached… Man was being generous; he couldn’t have been more than eighteen, with lank, sandy hair and a fiercely angry expression.
“It’s none of your business, bitch. Just eat and drink without making a fuss, or you won’t get anything.” She was thirsty, and even hungry, despite her fear, so she devoured the sandwich and the bottle of water without saying anything more. She doubted there was anyone nearby to help her in any case.
There had been no other lights visible to her in the few moments between the car and the house, just dark forest. The pain in her hand was constant, but she had a feeling that mentioning it wouldn’t help matters. Once she had eaten, they led her to a room in the back, barely large enough to contain the twin bed inside it. Her hands were bound again and one ankle was cuffed to the bed frame. There would be no getting away.
The door closed behind her captors, plunging her into darkness. “Now, we wait. You sent them the message with our terms?” said the voice of the young leader. Hazel felt a flicker of relief. If they were holding her for ransom, they probably wouldn't kill her. Unless Val refused to abide by their terms. A chill ran down her spine at the thought. She wanted to believe that he was not the kind of man who would throw her life away on principle, but how much did she really know about Val Dragomir?
Even with these worries chasing themselves around her skull, the combination of darkness and exhaustion eventually claimed her, but her dreams were unpleasant, full of screams that no one heard and traps she couldn't escape.