“We need a place to stay. The battle has only been ended for a week, and we’re all tired,” Vlad says.
“My boy, you don’t need to ask to stay here. This is your home. Come. Rest. Eat. Do whatever it is you please.”
“Thank you, Lord Wesley. We appreciate your kindness,” I say.
“Do you know who the father is?” Lord Wesley asks.
I look up at Vlad and his hand begins to run along my back.
“It’s obvious all of you are together, but if you don’t know who the father is then it means you haven’t seen a proper doctor,” Wesley says.
“That would be correct,” I say. “I haven’t yet.”
“Then that’s our first stop. Come on. There’s a great doctor on the corner of the main road that will take you immediately upon my request.”
We’re ushered down the main. All around us are people who are happy. In love. Ready to mate as they drag their soon-to-be conquests into rooms and down alleyways. It’s like this place hasn’t even been touched by the destruction we witnessed. The death we all partook in.
It’s like we’ve stepped into another reality, and it feels more like home than home does.
We enter the doctor’s office, and I’m taken back to see the doctor immediately. Everyone follows me back. Soon blood is being drawn, and I’m laying back on a bed. An ultrasound machine is pushed into the room. My hand is shaking, and all around me are my men as they try to steady my mind. Vlad is stroking my hand, and Sebastian is running his fingers through my hair. Toshi is massaging one foot, and Theo has the other. I feel cold. Exposed. Confined. I don’t like the small room, and I want to get out as fast as I can.
“Deep breaths. It’ll be over soon.”
I look up into Sebastian’s eyes, and I know. Even before the ultrasound is performed and the bloodwork comes back, I know this child is his. He reaches down and kisses me, pressing his fiery lips to mine.
And the child within my body jumps against the ultrasound wand.
“Well, I guess we know who the father is,” the doctor says. “Would you like to know the gender?”
“Please,” Theo says. “If that’s okay with Clarissa.”
I look up at
Theo, and he’s smiling at me. Toshi’s eyes are hooked to the ultrasound picture, and Vlad’s smile is broad. Despite it being Sebastian’s child growing within me, they’re all happy. Like they’re all looking at their own child.
My men.
Staring at a child they will help me raise.
“I would like to know,” I say. “Can I take a guess, though?”
“A mother’s intuition is always strongest,” the doctor says.
“It’s a girl, isn’t it?” I ask.
I can feel everyone’s hands clamp down onto my body. I know what this means. The small voice in my head. The prospect of carrying a girl. She’ll be able to mate. Breed. Expand the Primal races, no matter what race she gives birth to. The prophecy rolls around in my mind as the doctor moves the wand over my stomach, and tears spring to my eyes as that small voice pops into my mind.
“I love you.”
My breath catches in my throat as the small child presses against the ultrasound wand. Clear as day, in black and white on the screen, is the evidence of her gender. My little girl, rolling and tumbling safely within my body, is announcing her presence.
I’m not the woman of the prophecy.
She is.
“It’s a girl,” the doctor says. “Congratulations.”
Sebastian’s lips crash to mine before he pulls back. Vlad slips his tongue into my mouth before Toshi pulls him out of the way. Kiss after kiss is pressed against me. Against every part of me. The doctor is chuckling, and Lord Wesley is clapping outside in the hallway, and an elation I never thought I would experience again in my lifetime bubbles in my gut.