Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Alpha’s Pregnant Bride Chapter 18

Skye

Bright purple and blue billowed on the edge of the sky while I set up a blanket on the ground with Laurencia and Jada. Both of my besties flew right to the ground once the blanket was set and prepared our plates for dinner. Egg sandwiches, sliced apples with peanut butter, fried chicken, and pickles were on the menu. Laurencia wasn't complaining about the pregnancy diet at all since it meant she could eat to her heart's content and not feel judged.

Whatever the case, I was happy to share food with my best friends. It had been a long week of announcing the news of my pregnancy, setting a date for the ritual, and then figuring out what the heck I was going to do with my life if I wasn't going to continue going to night school. Jada rubbed my upper back. "Hey, you here?"

"I'm as here as I can be." I grinned. "I'm trying. I'm just frazzled."

She nodded. "I call it baby brain. You get used to forgetting things-like where you're sitting and what you're doing."

"Gee, sounds like a great excuse to just do nothing."

"That's what I do."

The three of us laughed.

That was the nice part about spending more time with them. I could be myself and make jokes the whole time. Troy appreciated my humor plenty, but I got the impression that he was more business oriented lately. He wanted to get things done-like have our ritual and make me his officially.

I touched the mark on my shoulder.

Jada nudged me playfully. "So, what are we going to do?"

"I figured we could have the ceremony right here," I said, gesturing around. "We're in between both pack lands. It's the perfect neutral ground. I figure that pays respects to both alphas."

"Do you feel drawn to honor them both?"

I squinted at my plate while tracing one of the chicken wings. "Yeah, actually, I sort of do. Is that normal?"

"I get the same feeling from time to time. Usually, it's when they're both in the same room."

I shook my head. "This is just nuts."

"It's shifter nuts," Laurencia joked. "But we are a distinct species. There are a lot of things we still dont know about ourselves."

"Well, if new things would stop happening, maybe we could keep up," Jada said with a chuckle. "Not that I'm complaining. I find it all fascinating enough."

I hummed while taking a bite of my chicken wing. Barbecue tasted tangy on my tongue and inspired me to smile, reminding me of the simpler pleasures in life. Like food and friends. I set my plate down and reached for a napkin. "I'm curious about Troy and Myrna." "Is that still bothering you?" Jada asked gently.

"No, it's something else," I replied. "Did I tell you we found Myrna sleepwalking last week out near the cornfield?"

Jada and Laurencia wore twin looks of concern.

"Yeah, she said she was looking for something."

Jada tapped her chin. "Change tends to do that to people. We've all experienced it after the war ended. Sometimes, I still wake up in the middle of the night expecting screams." "Sometimes, I still hear them," Laurencia admitted with a defeated expression. "I just say my mantras and light incense to help with that. But I don't go out looking for those things." I shrugged. "I don't think she's looking for screams. I think she said it was like losing a necklace. She gets this feeling that something is missing from her."

"I have to imagine that's part of losing a whole pack," Jada explained. "Isaiah and I have talked about that a lot. He's hid it well over the past couple of months, but he gets a similar feeling."

That was a normal reaction to trauma. I knew that much. I had spoken to Dr. Windsor during my latest pregnancy checkup about what was going on. She said a huge loss like that can make people feel empty-even when they have everything they could ever want. It made my heart ache to think two of my pack members were suffering in the dark of the night. I wanted to do something about it. I just didn't know what yet.

I lifted one half of my egg salad sandwich. "Does Isaiah ever go out to the woods because of it?"

Jada reflected for a few brief seconds. "I don't think so. We've gone running in the middle of the night, if that's what you mean."

I sank. "No, that's not what I mean."

"What's going on, Skye?" Laurencia asked from behind her sandwich. She took a massive bite and chewed it thoroughly while waiting for me to respond.

The truth of it was that I had no idea what was going on. It was just a mess of feelings. Between Myrna visiting more often and Troy talking more freely about his sense of loss, I couldn't determine who was feeling what. Just that the whole house was experiencing something on a massive scale that felt odd.

I set my sandwich down. I was losing my appetite too fast. "I don't know. But I'm getting the feeling just like them. I keep looking out at the fields and expecting people to just be there."

"You have been taking a lot of time off from the field manager position," Jada observed. "Do you think it's because you expect to see people working? It's probably during the usual business hours too." "That's probably what it is."

But it wasn't that. At all. And I knew deep down it wasn't that.

Experiencing loss on a grand scale put plenty of things in perspective. Grief like that could drive anybody insane.

My eyes went wide. Am I going insane? I tried to lift my sandwich again but ended up fumbling it and spilling the contents all over the place. Jada jumped in to help while Laurencia chuckled. I tried to play it off as I battled my confusion.

None of this actually made sense. The war was over. We weren't getting threatened or invaded. Our enemies weren't even alive anymore. Blake hadn't reported anything unusual-and neither had anybody else. The only oddities erupting around here were coming from inside my own house.

Was it Myrna and Claire? No, those women were blessings. They had been more than generous with their attention and care since they'd settled into the house near mine. Just because they were nearby when weird feelings arose didn't mean they were causing it. But it didn't mean they weren't causing it.

I could have made myself dizzy with how much my thoughts were spinning around in my head. And since Troy had been busy getting the farm together, I hadn't had a moment to stop him and talk to him about this stuff. We hadn't spoken much about the feelings other than acknowledging they were there.

Maybe that was what made it worse.

Jada patted my forearm. I forced a smile as she held up a cup of iced tea. "Thanks."

"Don't get too lost in those feelings."

"I'm not. I'm just-"

She was getting real good at shooting people that motherly look of hers. In its silence was a loudness that made me shut my mouth so fast that I got a cramp in my jaw.

Laurencia chuckled. "She's been giving me that look too."

Now it was Laurencia's turn to get the eyes of doom.

"Why don't I try?" I quipped. "Is this working?"

I furrowed my brows and tried to look grumpy, but I probably just looked like Troy when he was concentrating on his computer screen.

The attempt only drew an angrier version of the motherly look from Jada. Her eyes were practically on fire. "Come on, don't be mean to a preggo lady."

"But it's so funny."

Laurencia snorted and waved away my joke while trying not to spill her drink. Jada was pressed-and she couldn't determine which one of us to glare at first. Feeling so free to express myself made it easier to process all the ick I was feeling in the background. I'd thought those late nights of snacking and crying were over.

Apparently, they had just begun.

"It's like magic," Laurencia claimed. "It's practically its own spell."

"It's not magic," Jada argued, despite the hint of a smile on her lips. "It's pure power."

I huffed out of jest. "Yeah, if that helps you sleep at night, then that's fine."

"Don't argue with me."

"I'm not arguing. I'm just pointing out a fact."

Laurencia nodded emphatically. "Skye has a point."

Jada glowered at Laurencia. "Skye does not have a point. She has an attitude."

"Oh, somebody is touchy."

"You guys are going to make me shift," Jada warned, while trying to contain her chuckles. "I can't tell if I want to stuff my face with food or tear you two apart."

"Wait, pregnant women can shift?" Laurencia asked. "I thought they avoided it because it's stressful."

"In the early months, it's okay to do it like once a week to stay regular," Jada explained. "But when we get bigger, it tends to be a bit more complicated. Transforming the womb isn't the issue-it's transforming the contents of the womb."

"Wild," I sighed. "That's what I have to look forward to, huh? Grumpiness because I can't shift?"

Jada nodded with a tired expression. "Something like that."

"Well, that's just fun."

"You'll be alright. Nine months will fly right by."

I snickered. "Is that what helps you sleep at night?"

"Plus a million orgasms."

Laurencia busted a gut with her laugh. "That's definitely magic!"

I rolled my eyes to the heavens and beamed at the light shimmering all around us. It certainly did feel like magic was alive out here, sitting directly on the line that separated the pack lands. I could feel both my alphas emanating from each direction. Their combined power promised a new dawn, one free from the clutches of fighting.

No more bloodshed. No more tears. Troy often exuded these promises in every word he spoke and every kiss he granted me. Whenever he woke in the night in a cold sweat from the horrors he had witnessed firsthand, he whispered these promises. Never again, he would whisper.

And I agreed every time. I nodded my head and stroked his cheek. I assured him he wouldn't have to ever face those things in the future. It was nothing but puppies and diapers from here on out. With lots of kissing and plenty of laughter.

Change made people feel a lot things. Each one of us handled it differently. Maybe Myrna, Troy, and I were collectively feeling that change. It was manifesting as a strange paranoia more than words.

"Hey," Jada said as she squeezed my hand, "did the fog kidnap you again?"

I chuckled weakly. "Something like that."

Troy didn't propose.

The thought whacked me on the side of my head like a bouncy ball. The abruptness of it wasn't as harmful as the thought itself-the realization that Troy had never given me a ring or asked if I wanted to do the ritual with him. We had quietly come to an agreement during one of our romps.

But wasn't that enough? Could it ever be enough?

Use your words, I thought. Tell him about it.

I swallowed the lump in my throat while turning to Jada. She was asking me without asking me if I was okay. And I was nodding like I was okay.

Because I was generally okay.

The only strange thing happening inside me had to do with Myrna and Troy. Which didn't necessarily mean that it involved me. But it didn't not involve me either. because the feelings of my alpha-and my mate-would always be my feelings.

I knew it seemed silly, phrased that way, but it was true. It was something Jada could confirm as well as many others in our combined pack. People felt supernaturally drawn to obey the alpha. Betrayal was much more difficult to come by that way, but that didn't make it entirely impossible. Hence why these feelings were so important to me.

It meant I was fully connected to Troy-and to Myrna as well. Our lives were entwined in ways we couldn't undo. Which was neither here nor there at this point. My main focus was to try to determine what in the world had the three of us so worried. Was it the call of the unknown? Was it another enemy hiding in the shadows?

Laurencia held up a smudge stick. I nearly knocked it out of her hand while Jada cackled up a storm.

I groaned with frustration. "Why are you always clogging up my sinuses with that stuff?"

"It brought you back to earth, didn't it?" Laurencia created smoke circles by twirling the stick in the air. "You're still caught up about it. I can tell. This juniper and lavender mix should help clear up the confusion."

"I'm not confused, you nitwit," I argued. Smiling came naturally with my snapback. Because it was Laurencia, after all, and I couldn't be mad at her-or Jada for that matter. "I'm just, uh..."

Jada sighed, a few chuckles lingering as she said, "You're confused."

"I'm just tired. It's the pregnancy. Don't you get paranoid, Jada?"

"Sometimes."

I held up my hands as if presenting evidence to her. "See? It's just that. It's nothing else. And I'm not hung up about it."

"So you disappear in your head like that because there's some prime real estate?" Laurencia joked. "I get it. You're too good to keep us company."

I flung a chicken wing at her that she caught with her free hand. "Thanks. I was getting peckish with my plate empty."

"Maybe you're pregnant too."

She flushed. "It...usually takes having sex for that to happen. And I haven't been having s*x." Her shoulders bowed forward. "Much..."

Jada gasped. "Who is it? Do we know him?"

"Or her," I added.

"Them," Jada corrected. "Who's the person?"

"Nobody!" Laurencia sounded exasperated and the blush had worsened on her cheeks. "I'm not even looking at anybody." Her eyes flew behind me-back toward the houses that Wendell and Elias had built.

My eyebrows shot right into the atmosphere. "Oh my gods. You've been checking out Troy's cousin, haven't you?"

"Nope."

I smirked. "You sure?"

"Positive."

"Ah, so it's Wendell."

Her cheeks burned brighter than the midday sun. "Definitely not."

Jada and I traded knowing looks. Laurencia was the worst of us at lying. She could fib here and there over tiny things-I mean, absolutely miniscule stuff-but she had a few telling faces that we could read in just about every situation.

And considering her face was turning the same shade and intensity of a cayenne pepper, I had to wonder whether she would be the next match to be announced.

If Blake ever got around to it. He'd been busy with other things lately.

"You know, we should get back to the ritual planning," Laurencia said anxiously. "We've been sitting here eating without actually doing the planning and I think that-"

I pointed behind her. "Oh, there's Wendell now!"

She flipped around so fast that I thought her head would spin right off. Jada and I were reduced to tearful laughter while she huffed angrily and snapped her arms over her chest. The way I teetered over made me feel like a top-heavy tree getting lugged into a wood pile. I was ready to go down and stay down because I was dead exhausted from planning, feeling, and worrying.

Laughter helped. Friendship strengthened me. Regardless of the feelings circulating my home and who those feelings involved, I would always have this core group. Laurencia and Jada were like sisters to me. We were friends until the very end. And I hoped things wouldn't end for a very long time.

Once I got my chuckles under control and Laurencia had stopped pouting, the three of us dug into planning the mating ritual. She was right-we were running behind on it.

And while I focused on perfecting my mating bond ritual, loss buzzed at a low hum in the background, making me long for people and places that were totally unfamiliar to me.