Chapter Six
The next day Jackie woke to somebody pounding on her door. She cracked her eyes open, the salt from the tears she had cried herself to sleep with making her lashes stick together. For a moment she was disoriented, not sure exactly where or who she was. Then the events of the previous day came flooding back to her, and she dragged herself out of bed and threw on some clothes.
It was Myles at the door. He pushed into her apartment the moment she opened the door, despite her cry of protest, and began to pace the small space, shaking his head. His stubble had grown from the previous night and his hair was sticking up at all angles, like he'd been repeatedly running his hands through it and tugging at it.
"What is the meaning of this?"
Jackie shut the door, rubbing one of her scratchy, dried-out eyes. "What do you mean?"
"I mean this!" Myles yanked a sheet of paper out of his pocket and waved it around in the air.
"You mean my resignation?" Jackie was surprised at how cool and even her voice was. She had already made that decision, after all. Myles could rant and rave all he wanted, but she wasn't going to go back to work for him. Not when his reaction to her pregnancy was to make her abort.
Myles dropped the paper. "I refuse to accept this. You signed a contract. You can't just quit!"
Jackie folded her arms and glared at him. "I thought that was what you would want. Considering I won't do what you want."
The werewolf stopped his pacing. His brows knit and he stared at her. "What?"
"I am not getting an abortion," she snapped, fists clenching. "I might seem like a weak little girl to you, but I fight for what's important to me and I always knew I'd never do that. Other women have their choice, and that’s fine, but this is mine! I won't do it, and I don't care how much you threaten me or if you fire me—you can't fire me because I already resigned."
"Jackie—"
"Don't try to change my mind. I am going to have this baby. And you don't have to have anything to do with either of us again. I won't even ask for child support. I'll take care of this baby on my own. I'll find a way to do it!" Jackie could feel her face getting hotter as anger swirled through her. All her imagined conversations with him over the issue pressed against her brain until she couldn’t think straight. "I am not going to have an abortion, and there's nothing you can do to make me!"
"Make you?" Myles's jaw hung opened. His gray eyes were round, and his skin had paled a few shades. "Jackie, that is the last thing I want you to do."
Her arms fell to her side as surprise rippled through her. She had been so certain that was what he wanted, and yet what he said sounded so true. She bit her lip.
"But yesterday you said you would handle things. I thought that meant—"
"I meant the things in my appointment book." Myles's shoulders slumped. "Why would you think that I'd want that? Why would I try to force you to get an abortion? What kind of person do you think I am?"
Jackie's shoulders hunched. "I guess I don't really know you at all. I was panicked and I latched onto the only thing I could think of to fight against. I'm sorry."
Myles stepped forward, brushing her messy hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry, too. I guess sending you away yesterday wasn't the best course of action. But I really only wanted you to rest and have time to wrap your head around it before we talked about what to do."
"That's not the kind of thing that I do." Jackie managed a smile, though she felt embarrassed by her accusations and more than a little emotionally raw. "I need to figure things out right away, or I freak out over the smallest details and blow them up out of proportion."
Myles laughed. "Noted."
"So where do we go from here?"
"That is a good question. Mind if I have a seat?"
Jackie shook her head, and the two of them sat on the small couch. Myles seemed far too big for it and he perched uneasily on the edge, not looking at her. The air conditioning kicked in, filling the silence with a comfortable hum. It was a relief, giving Jackie time to think.
Now that she didn't have anything to fight, her lip started to tremble, but she clenched it between her teeth, determined not to cry again. What did she have to cry about? Myles wasn't going to make her do anything she didn't want to do. But she felt the tears coming anyway.
"You don't know how happy I was yesterday. I felt like a heel, being so happy when you were obviously in a state of shock." Myles attempted to smooth his hair down. "But when you said you were pregnant, I was happy. Happier than I have been in a long, long time. After you went home I thought you might want an abortion, and it destroyed me."
Jackie reached for his hand. "I don't."
"I know." He flashed a nervous smile at her. "Now. But yesterday I thought it might be a possibility. I decided that I would support you, no matter what you chose."
Jackie's eyes filled with tears. "Really?"
"Of course. I still will support you. Not just financially, either. Look, Jackie. I want to be a part of this baby's life. This isn't how I imagined getting my first child, and I know it's hard on you, but we can make it work. I know we can."
A great weight lifted off Jackie's shoulders and she found herself smiling. "I want that, too. A baby deserves to know both parents. Plus, since it's going to be half-werewolf, it needs somebody who understands and can explain that side of things. I have werewolf ancestry, but the whole shifting thing, and especially when it comes to society and the social aspects… I don't think I'm qualified."
Myles nodded.
"But I am going to raise him or her," Jackie quickly added. "I'm not going to give it up. And I'll take it for visits to your pack, but I'm living in the city."
"We can decide exactly how that will work later." Myles put a hand on her knee. "In the meantime… I would very much like it if we could start filling out the applications to be mated. Married, if you'd prefer to use that term."
Jackie's jaw dropped. That was the last thing she had expected to hear when he showed up at her door! They hadn't even known each other for four months, and he was talking marriage? Till death do us part? He couldn't love her yet. He just couldn't. Was he hoping that they would fall in love after they were mated for life? Or was this just because he wanted to show a unified front towards the members of his pack or something like that?
Whatever his reason, one thing was clear. He wouldn't be asking if she wasn't pregnant. She shook her head. "No.
Myles winced. He ran a hand through his hair. "At least come back to work. I want us to be friends if nothing else. There is nothing worse for a child than to love parents who don't even like each other. Besides, you're going to need to get a new apartment and stuff."
Jackie cast a glance around her tiny apartment. It was comfortable enough for one person, but there was nowhere for a playpen or crib or anything else a baby would need. And she had just started building up her savings again.
"I hope you know that I will be buying everything the baby needs, from cribs to booties," Myles continued. "When I said I am going to support you in this, I mean it. I don't want you or our child to want for anything."
Part of her thought she ought to argue. Refuse, be independent. But babies were expensive, and she needed the support right now. Jackie nodded gratefully. "I'll come back to work. But this isn't going to stay a secret, and so soon after the whole Kathy scandal—"
"I'll inform the PR department so they can handle it. You'll probably have your face on the tabloids for a while, but as long as we show a unified front I don't think things will get too bad."
Myles smiled at her, all the confidence returning to his expression. Jackie felt her tensions ease. Yes, it was going to be just fine. She smiled back.
"Good. Now, I'm going to go and shower, and we need to get to work. You're already half an hour late for your first appointment today."