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“How many?” the lady behind the counter asked, smiling. She set down the outdated sports magazine that she’d been lazily flipping through.
“Five.” Eleanor ignored the way the attendant looked at her. She knew she was being excessive, but it was either that or a full-blown panic attack. She tried not to think too much about anything. She was going to take the tests, and then she was going to react.
She returned to her car with the tests and rushed back home. Deep down, she knew. She knew deep in her heart. She and Blake had been making love unprotected for weeks, multiple times a day, and she wasn’t on the pill.
What was she expecting? What had they been expecting would happen? And so she knew. She didn’t want to think of how it made her feel. She couldn’t. Not until she was absolutely sure.
She shut her bedroom door and ran into the bathroom. A few minutes later, she sat on the toilet seat and stared at the five pregnancy test strips in front of her. Each of them had two bold lines on them.Fuck.
She was carrying a child—Blake’s child. At first, she was afraid and confused, but then the moments they had shared over the past couple of months went through her head and everything became terribly clear.
She loved him. She was in love with him. She didn’t know when it had happened. She couldn’t pick out a specific moment where it had happened, but the baby growing inside her was proof of that love.
She’d lived in denial of how she felt because she’d been waiting for what they had to end. She always thought that they would have to go their separate ways, and that limited just how much she was willing to allow herself to accept in their relationship.
A baby changed everything. While she hadn’t planned to get pregnant, and while a baby complicated everything, Eleanor was thrilled. She ran a hand over her belly and realized how badly her hands were shaking.
She was terrified. She was going to become a mother, something she hadn’t imagined would happen for a few years yet. A baby seemed like such a big development and the thought of one growing inside her scared her.
She had no idea how to tell Xander, but she could see him losing his mind when he found out. How could she explain to him? How could she make him see that something special had grown between her and Blake?
She didn’t care how he reacted to the news, she suddenly realized. The realization strengthened her and she smiled. She didn’t care what anyone else thought or felt. She didn’t give a rat’s ass. It didn’t matter to her.
She was in love with Blake, and they were having a baby together. That was all that mattered. Terrifying as it was, she was excited about going on this journey with Blake. He was her mate. Blake was her mate, and they were going to have a child together.
She took a deep, calming breath, discarded the used tests, and went down to the living room to wait for her husband. The father of her unborn child. She couldn’t wait to break the news to him. Her fear gave way and turned into excitement.
What was there to be afraid about? She was going to become a mother. It wasn’t like the world was ending.Right?
Chapter 18 - Blake
Blake’s vision was a red haze. He blinked awake, and felt dizzy with pain. A hot, white pain wrapped around his head and left him feeling like death. Slowly, he reached behind his head, and his hand came away sticky with blood.
He winced but probed the wound slowly. It was stitching together nicely, but it still hurt furiously. His vision felt funny, and as he touched his eye, a new pain blossomed in his head, threatening to knock him unconscious.
He shut his eyes again. His head was a mess. He didn’t know where he was or what had happened. He had an idea, but nothing made sense. And yet, it was the most rational explanation for why he was covered in his own blood.
Xander had attacked him. His memories returned. Painfully, but they returned. He’d come looking for Xander. Now that he thought about it, it didn’t seem like the wisest thing in the world to do.
And yet, the last thing he’d expected was for Xander to attack him. He remembered the blow that sent him flying through a window like a rag doll. A blow so ferocious it had bashed in his skull.
He tested his eye and it worked. He blinked it a few times, ignoring the searing pain that shot up to his brain. That was going to take a while to heal, he knew. He’d never been hit so hard in his life. He knew Xander had unbelievable strength, but damn.
Was he trying to kill me?
Maybe he was. Blake couldn’t blame him. He always knew that getting intimate with Eleanor was playing with fire. He’d done it anyway and now had to face the repercussions of his actions.
He sat up and looked around him. He lay naked on the graveled driveway outside the bar. Someone had shown compassion by throwing a blanket over him as he lay unconscious.What an angel, he thought sarcastically.
Rowan and Articus stood close by, watching him with identical looks of pity. Blake looked away, embarrassed. No, he wasn’t embarrassed. He was angry. He was furious. Maybe he was a bit embarrassed, if he was being honest, but he also burned with anger.
“Where is he?” he asked, addressing his question to no one in particular.
Rowan and Articus exchanged a look. They both had sweatsuits on. That’s right. They’d transformed as well. Too little too late, but they may have just saved his life as he lay unconscious in the dirt.
“He left a few minutes ago,” Rowan said. He looked around. “Well, this is one big mess.”
Blake stared murderously at him. “Oh? How do you figure? What gave it away?”
