J. Tyler: Black Moon

Mac stared at her, silent. Shit, shit.

“O-kay,” Melina drawled, brows raised. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Noah is coming in to take blood for a complete standard workup. Then you’re going into the restroom to pee in a cup. Then you’ll come back in here, sit down, and wait for me. Got it?”

She sighed. “Yes.”

“Good girl.”

Melina patted her knee and left. Soon after, Noah came in, swabbed the crook of her elbow, and took three vials of blood. When he was finished, he pressed a cotton ball over the injection site and topped it with a Band-Aid.

Giving her a smile, he pointed in the direction of the restroom. “Go do your thing.”

She absolutely hated peeing in a cup. It was a dicey proposition at best, aiming just right. But she managed and in short order was sitting back in the exam room.

Where the clock on the wall ticked by with unbearable sluggishness.

Ten long minutes passed. Mac was starting to fidget when Melina walked in carrying a sheaf of paper. Her friend closed the door and slowly turned to her. The serious expression on Melina’s face sent a bolt of terror all the way to her toes.

“What is it?” she gasped, gripping the edge of the table. “What’s wrong?”

“Mac, honey. We have to talk.”

“What? Am I sick?” Mac asked, her heart thumping painfully.

“Nothing like that.” Her friend blew out a breath and leaned her hip on the counter. “Mackenzie . . . you’re pregnant.”

The words blew through her like a hurricane. Left her gasping for breath. “What?”

“You heard me. Pregnant, knocked up—”

“Oh, God. But—but how?” Realizing how stupid that sounded, she flushed. “What I mean is, unmated shifters can’t get their females pregnant! Right?”

Melina’s voice was quiet, speculative. “A shifter, huh? Just who are we talking about here? I get that the father is none of my business, but I won’t share anything you choose to tell me.”

Mac paused, but just briefly. Even if their talk wasn’t confidential, she completely trusted that her friend wouldn’t say a word to anyone. “It’s Kalen,” she said hoarsely, searching Melina’s face for the slightest sign of censure. She found nothing but concern.

Instead, the other woman laid the paperwork on the counter and reached out, taking Mac’s hand. A surprising and welcome gesture. “That’s who I suspected, considering how weird you two are acting around each other. Honey, Kalen’s a Sorcerer first and foremost, and his black panther form is second. He’s never been fully human and that makes him very different from the others. Besides, there’s still so much we don’t know about shifters and how their individual circumstances come into play. We can’t take anything for granted.”

Her friend’s words struck a chord and she nodded. “Kalen said pretty much the same thing to me back when we were . . . together.”

“How long ago was that?”

“About a month. Not long after Aric was taken captive, on the night Kalen and I were attacked by that Sluagh. I don’t remember the exact date.”

“I can get it from Nick. He documents all incidents involving the Pack.”

“Oh, sure.” And their boss would know her secret soon if he didn’t already. Hard to keep much from a PreCog.

Melina fell silent for a few moments, consulting her notes, Mac’s test results and personal information, as well as a paper calendar like the ones sitting on the counter in every exam room. “Going just by the dates of your last cycle, I’m guessing you’re about four or five weeks along. We’ll know more as you progress. And since we know next to nothing about pregnancies resulting from shifters and humans mating, I’m going to want reports from your ob-gyn, copies of your sonograms, stuff like that.”

Mac’s hand went over her tummy. “What if the doctor can tell this baby is special somehow? Where in the hell are we going to find a paranormal-friendly ob-gyn who knows how to keep her mouth shut?”

“Nick will find the answer to that, too. One step at a time, all right?”

Mac’s head was spinning. Jesus, how her world had changed in the space of one morning. Kalen’s too, though he didn’t know it yet.

God, Kalen.

Who wanted nothing to do with Mac anymore.

Her eyes filled with scalding tears and she blinked rapidly, trying to stave them off. Her throat burned and she breathed through the grief that crushed her lungs. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Many women less prepared and much less capable than you have thought the same thing,” her friend said crisply. “You’re going to be just fine.”

A tear slipped free anyway. “Kalen’s going to flip. He’s already given me the big brush-off.”

“Tough shit,” Melina said, anger creeping into her tone. “He helped make the kid, so he can deal.”

Mac gave a watery laugh in spite of herself. “That simple, huh? Sure.”

Her friend scowled. “You honestly think he won’t take responsibility?”

“It’s not that. There’s something going on with him that has his head all twisted, and he won’t let me in.”

“Anything to do with the pendant he gave you?” Melina glanced questioningly at the silver disk and back to her friend’s face.

“I think it has everything to do with it,” she said, reaching to clasp the object. It was warm and comforting in her palm. “He gave this to me for protection.”

“Against what?”

“More like who .” Mac paused, clearing her throat. “Earlier, before I went in to tell them Sariel would probably survive, I might have eavesdropped outside the conference room door just a teensy bit.”

“So? They never tell us shit about their ops unless we’re patching them up or they have medical questions.” The other woman pulled a face. “We get answers however we can. Go on.”

“The one after Kalen is Sariel’s Unseelie father, Malik.”

“Is this the same being that encouraged Kalen to free Beryl?”

“They believe so. The bastard is trying to seduce Kalen to his side so he can use his power for whatever terrible reasons.”

“If Malik is so strong, why doesn’t he just go after Sariel himself? Use his son’s power to his advantage, or kill him outright?”

“I don’t know, but there must be a reason or he would’ve done it by now,” Mac speculated. “If Sariel knows, he hasn’t confided in me.”

“Same here.” The other woman shook her head. “But you’ve got more pressing worries. When are you going to tell Kalen about the baby?”

“You’re assuming I am.”

“Aren’t you?”

Looking away, she felt crushed. “I’m not sure. The jerk couldn’t get away from me fast enough after our one-night stand, so how do you think he’ll react to the news that he’s going to have a kid? He’ll either hightail it out of Wyoming like the whole Pack is out for his blood, or worse—he’ll feel obligated to be with me and take care of our child.”

“You don’t hold a very high opinion of your man.”

“Kalen is not my man,” she snapped. “He couldn’t have been more clear about that.”

“Well, now it’s not that simple, if it ever was.” Melina sighed and suddenly looked tired, showing an uncharacteristic crack in her usual armor. “Give him a chance to come around.”

The anger bled from Mac’s body, leaving her drained. Disheartened. “Maybe I will, eventually. But first I have to figure out how I feel about having his—our—child.”

“Good point.”

Melina shocked her again by closing the distance and pulling her into a warm, comforting embrace. That’s all it took for Mac’s tears to break free and flow. Her chest felt like it had cracked apart and was bleeding everywhere. The smaller, birdlike woman was, at this moment, the stronger of the two of them.