Chapter 5: Pregnancy Test

When I got inside my house, Brennan charged over to me, a huge smile on his face.

“Hey!” he exclaimed; his eyes glowing. “I’m working on this project for school, and wondered if you might help?”

“I’m so sorry,” I told him, setting my hands on his shoulders. He noticed how wet and dirty I was and decided to circumvent before he could ask. “Fell in a muddy puddle while running, trying to beat the rain. I’ve got to take a shower. Let's regroup later, and then I’ll be all ears for you, okay?”

Brennan, a little disappointed but still understanding, nodded and murmured, “I hope you’re okay.”

Clenching my purse with the pregnancy test inside, I dashed up the stairs to my room, hoping, too, I was okay.

So much flooded through my head, from Damien enjoying our drunken kiss, to meeting the sexy Jasper in the alley, to me being terrified to even take the pregnancy test.

Once I had an answer, there was no going back.

I stripped out of my wet clothes and made my way to the bathroom when my phone buzzed with a text from Jasper. I facepalmed, feeling terrible I’d been outside flirting with Damien, and hadn’t even asked Jasper about his arm.

From Jasper’s text, he didn’t seem too concerned, though.

His text read, “Hey lovely, hope you got home okay.”

I glanced over at my vanity mirror next to my folded-out futon, and set a hand on my flat stomach, trying to envision what it would look like with a baby bump, but what held my attention was my naked body in the mirror. My breasts had swelled, now pleasantly rounded, but my hips also had a curve to them. Lovely, like Jasper said.

I bit my lip and wished Jasper was here with me and we were about to share another night together.

My attraction to Jasper and Damien had been magnetic, and I needed so badly to be with a powerful man who would take care of me.

Oh Goddess, was I in my werewolf heat?

I shook myself of those thoughts, then answered Jasper.

“I’m home safe and sound!” I told him. I forced myself to chill out with the emojis. I didn’t want to seem too crazy to him. “Thanks for checking on me. And thanks for saving me. I was really worried back there until you came along. You were just amazing.”

Jasper responded immediately, and when the little dots appeared beside his name on the screen, my heart fluttered.

I waited to see his reply, but a new ping came in.

It was Damien.

“Hey,” he said, and immediately sent me another message. “Sorry for dipping like that. I know you got attacked before and were rescued by Mr. Muscles. How are you feeling? Do you need anything? I’m always here for you, Adele.”

I sighed and waved a hand to my face. I grew more and more anxious as the texts came in.

Next, Jasper said, “I could get used to you calling me amazing. Let me do something else amazing and let me buy you dinner this week. When are you free?”

I licked my lips and grinned at Jasper’s message. He made me feel safe.

I threw my phone on the bed, went into my bathroom, and ran the shower. I needed to clear my head to deal with both of them. The steam relaxed me. I took a deep breath, then used the pregnancy test.

Steam continued to rise as I paced back and forth on the bathroom tile, waiting for the line to appear. I stepped into the shower to distract myself from the test and lathered my hair and body with soap. I constantly pulled back the shower curtain to glance at the space where I was kind of hoping the line would appear and kind of hoping it wouldn’t.

A drop of shampoo hit my eye.

I winced, shut the curtain, returned to the shower and returned to my racing thoughts.

On one hand, if I was pregnant, I had no idea what my next step in life would even be. It would have gone completely against what the doctors said. Would be capable of carrying a child full term? On the other, nothing would change. I would still be undesirable, and my body would still be broken.

I heard my phone beeping in my bedroom, so I finished up in the shower, wrapped towels around me, and ran into the bedroom to answer it.

“Hello?” I asked nervously.

“It’s me,” Damien said. “I just needed to know you were alright.”

I giggled, grateful he was caring about me. But my smile quickly faded into a grimace. If he was the father, his mother would kill me. She knew Damien was Alpha material from the day he was born, and an Alpha couldn’t be with a mate who couldn’t get pregnant.

But if by some miracle he was the father, then his mother would still find a reason to hate me. She would hate any woman who took her son away from her.

“Adele,” Damien said with concern in his voice, “I asked if you were alright, and then you disappeared on me.”

I forced a laugh and said, “I’m sorry, Damien! I just hopped out of the shower.”

I don’t know what compelled me to say what I said next, maybe the heat running through me, maybe nothing but desire, but I added, “So I’m just standing here naked, talking to you.”

Damien exhaled sharply, and I could tell I got the rise out of him I’d wanted.

“You don’t have to be standing there alone, think about me while you’re naked,” he said in a hush. He whispered the same way he used to whenever we fooled around at his house.

“You mean, like how you can’t stop thinking about our kiss?”

Just to tease him further, I said, “I’m still wet, Damien. Let me dry off, and we’ll talk.”

Damien laughed and said, “Call me soon, then.”

We hung up and I noticed the time on my phone’s screen.

Enough time had passed for me to face the music, so all of Jasper’s unanswered texts would have to wait.

I approached the test I’d left on the bathroom sink. With a shaking hand, I checked it.

Just what I thought.

There was a baby inside me.

A chill hit me and I went right back into the shower to warm up, to feel something beyond the coldness in my bones. I don’t know how long I sat curled up in the base of the shower, letting the hot water run over my head and pool around my rose-colored toenails. Eventually, the water ran cold, and even after it did, I didn’t get out until I started sniffling, and the water was completely frigid.

I changed into a cream-colored long-sleeved sweater and a pair of pink flannel pajama pants. I paced my room while rubbing my hair dry. What else was there to do except tell my father, and try to get some advice?

My mind moved a mile a minute, and I was still getting texts.

Damien’s text read, “About to take a shower, too. I’m naked and still thinking about our kiss. Let me know if you need anything this month. More snacks, more drinks. Another kiss.”

I was flattered, though I was mostly guilty over Damien’s text. Jasper’s next text didn’t make me feel any better.

“I know a great Italian restaurant,” Jasper wrote. “It’s right on the water, and they make the bread in-house.”

My legs trembled and my breath hitched over my actions at the party. Now I had two guys chasing me, and I wanted them both, but only one of them was the father. My head spun, so I cupped my hands under the faucet of the bathroom sink and sucked up a few gulps of water.

I tossed the pregnancy test deep into the trash, then covered it with toilet paper, tissues, and even tossed away used makeup brushes I no longer needed.

Anything to hide my shame and confusion.

I gulped, and closed my bedroom door behind me. Dad was in his study down the hall. The light peeked from under the door frame.

I knocked nervously.

“Yes?” he said, his voice wise yet rough. “Come in.”

The door squeaked as I opened it, and Dad looked up at me from his desk. His big hands were filing papers, and he had his ink and quill out, probably writing important documents.

Dad’s chestnut hair parted in the middle, kind of like Dakota’s, but his hair only reached his burly shoulders. Dad’s cobalt blue eyes glinted from behind his glasses.

He gave me a little smile, but I got the impression I was bothering him. Ever since I was fifteen and he had new kids to a new mother, I’ve always felt like I was bothering him.

“Well,” he said, giving his head a small shake. “What is it, Adele? I’m very busy.”

I tucked my hands behind my back and played with the button on my sleeve. I rubbed my lips together and felt like my hammering heart might explode from my chest.

“Dad, I’ve got something to tell you.”