Beaufort Creek Shifters (10 book series)
The Wolf’s Bullied Mate Chapter 18

Jada

My eyes must have been deceiving me. There was a gold ring sitting on my finger where I had never worn a ring in my life. Maybe there'd been a few times when I'd sat in my room by myself, trying to imagine how I would look as a married shifter. It wasn't something my parents pushed on me. They knew I was too independent for that nonsense.

But this was different. Isaiah was different. He was a man on the mend, one climbing out of a hell that he had been thrust into months ago. He fought every step of the way-and despite the fighting, the arguing, the jabbing, and the doubt, he was choosing me. Me, of all people-I was still shocked by the notion that he wanted to be anywhere near me after what had happened between us. I mean, it wasn't like we had cheated on each other. By all accounts, we hadn't actually done anything that dreadful. If it were a human relationship, it would have just been another spat.

Shifters, though, we were passionate about our relationships. I was a wolf who was loyal to a fault. I had a bad knack for meddling in people's lives when they gave me the opportunity to give them my opinion. Call me overprotective, but it just felt like the right thing to do when I was invited to do it.

Izzy didn't let me get away with that stuff. He stood up for his boundaries. He made sure I knew it was his decision to do whatever he wanted to do-and I knew I had to respect that while also respecting myself. Coffee wasn't a deal breaker by any means. It was just one of those things that gave me a broader perspective of his personality.

I could see now it was a bad example to use. While Isaiah held me loosely in his arms, I stared at the ring on my finger, trying to imagine what our mating ritual would look like.

"Shoot, this means we have to get back to Blake," I told him. "Would three weeks be okay with you?"

He snapped up from the ground. "Shit."

"What?"

"Shit, shit, shit..."

He gathered me from the floor, set me in a chair, and patted me down like he wasn't sure if I had any injuries or not from our little spill. "Are you alright, Izzy?"

"I have to run and do something."

"Right now? What is it?"

He patted my shoulders and kissed my forehead before racing toward the door. Which apparently he had never closed. "Don't wait up!"

"Wait, what do you mean don't-?"

But it was too late. The door was shut now. The condo reeked of excited sweat and amplified hormones. I felt like a teenager going through my second round of puberty as a shifter. Goodness, there wasn't anything worse than having to go through two distinct puberties, sometimes at the same dang time.

I'd taken it in stride, of course, but it was a messy business. I'd been a raging hormonal mess most of the time and sleeping during the other times. With how energetic Isaiah had just been, it was like I'd returned right back to those days. Not that I was complaining too much about it.

That just meant the sex would be great later.

I blushed even though there was no one around to hear my thoughts. My hand went right to my belly, rubbing circles toward my gut. Nausea had crept up on me at some point. It had also happened during Isaiah's captivating talk about how I had helped him change.

Or that was the impression I got. Everything had happened so fast. Did I hear him correctly?

Looking at the ring on my hand promised me that everything was real. He had proposed to me. He was going to mate with me. We were going to start a life together as a couple.

Well, if that was the case, why hadn't we made love on the kitchen floor? I'd accepted his proposal and all I got was a forehead kiss and some affectionate pats. He had to run and do something. What was the thing? Would anyone else be able to tell me? No, I couldn't go on thinking like a jealous girlfriend. I had to get myself together and drink some ginger tea, non-caffeinated before this nausea got the best of me.

I covered my mouth. Maybe I had thought too soon about everything that was supposed to happen from here on out. He still hadn't marked me. And I hadn't marked him. It wasn't exactly official until that happened. Right?

Up to the bathroom I ran while my stomach threatened to flip inside out. I ran right to the guest bathroom in the hallway where I bowed over the toilet and let my body do what it needed to do. Once it was done-it was brief, thank the gods for that-I flushed and washed my hands. I stared at my reflection, judging my pale appearance and my bony shoulders.

I hadn't ever judged my body like that. Not since I was a teen. I ran my fingers over my cheeks, wondering about whether I had shifted accidentally or not during that whole emotional display downstairs. Had Isaiah seen any fur? Well, if he had, he didn't mind and he didn't even point it out. Not like it mattered. He was a wolf like me.

A smirk crooked my lips as I bent forward to splash cold water on my face. As soon as I turned off the faucet and dried my skin with a hand towel, I stared at the tampons sitting on the shelf nearby. Tampons.

My eyebrows shot up. Oh, I'm getting my period, aren't I? That's why I'm so nauseous.

I sighed as I wandered toward the attic. I had a calendar up there I used exclusively to track my cycle. I didn't cycle like other shifters. Sometimes, I got a period twice in a month and then I'd go without one for three months. It was weird with the timing. But I tried to keep track of ovulation just in case.

My hand froze on the railing.

What if I'm pregnant?

I spun a bit as I pictured every single time I had banged Isaiah. Which had been plenty of times. None of those times involved protection. It wasn't like me to recklessly forget such a thing as condoms, but being with Isaiah, well, that made me forget a lot of things. It made me want to give myself entirely to him. It was possible I was pregnant. And if I was, would he be okay with that?

I've never asked him about that, I thought as I resumed my climb of the stairs. I went to the calendar on the small writing desk near the window and flipped through the past few weeks. Damn, I've definitely missed my period if my calculations are correct. It's hard to say, but I should have had one by now.

Certainly my brain wasn't that muddied by Isaiah's presence.

"He says he misses his family," I whispered. "Maybe he wouldn't mind starting one with me."

The topic had never actually come up. Especially since we had always been far more occupied with the practice of s*x rather than the possible result. I smacked my forehead as I flipped away from the calendar. How could I have been so distracted as to miss something so damn important?

My hand swept over my stomach again. The nausea had passed, though I felt something of an ache, a flipping feeling. I couldn't tell if it was panic or enthusiasm. Maybe both. It was fine if it was both.

I paused near the staircase. Am I okay with being pregnant?

There was a ring on my finger. Isaiah was off doing something or other. We were going to have our mating ritual in a few weeks as long as we spoke to Blake soon. Everything would be fine eventually. But how easily my relationship had nearly crumbled made me nervous.

If one little white lie had almost annihilated us, what would the news of a pregnancy do? I closed my eyes while leaning against the railing. Shoot, it was best not to get carried away with that type of thinking. Pregnancy or period, I would face it just as I faced everything else.

With the strength of my ancestors at my back and the support of the gods under my paws. Nothing could stop me from being confident.

Though maybe I was more nervous than I would have been about anything else.

When I opened my eyes, I descended to the second floor. I went to the first floor. I went back to the kitchen. The cabinet under the sink caught my attention. Under there had been a whole bunch of medical supplies that Isaiah probably kept on hand out of habit. One of them was a pregnancy test.

I could find out in a few minutes if I was that curious.

But do I want to know? Shoot, it was nonsense thinking otherwise. I wanted to know so I could prepare. As any good parent would. Would I really be a good parent?

I could already hear my mother talking in the back of my mind. Lucky for me, her voice had remained a welcome narrative in my head. Some folks around here didn't have it so easy with their parents. I came from a loving home where my parents barely had an argument, or a disagreement. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd heard them raise their voices. Perhaps it was never.

With my hand on my stomach, I collected the pink and white box from beneath the sink and retreated upstairs where I locked myself in the hallway bathroom. Normally I wouldn't lock the door. However, this moment called for true privacy. Nobody could know what I was doing. Not even Skye and Laurencia.

One, Skye would probably blab to somebody, and two, Laurencia would do her little chanting stuff that would probably just make me nervous all over again. It was best to pee on the stick, sit it on the counter, and get the dang thing over with. I was doing this my way. For the time being.

Until I needed help.

Anxiety riddled me with the shakes as I did my business over the stick and capped the end of it. As soon as it was on the counter, I counted the seconds off in my head. Years of managing the field and other tasks made me a whiz at keeping time. I could look at the sky and tell anybody what time it was right down to the minute. I had gotten that good with the passing seasons-which just made it all the funnier that I'd missed the rhythms of my own body.

But maybe that was the challenge of sharing my life with a mate. Particularly one as moody and passionate as Isaiah. I didn't exist by myself anymore. I existed in tandem with someone in a shared space. That meant our rhythm would be different together and separate. I had to prepare for that.

My heart raced as I counted the last of the seconds. Just another half minute would tell me whether or not I should go into full-blown panic mode. And if it was positive? Well, I wasn't sure exactly what would happen. Part of me wanted to run.

Then there was the part of me that wanted to be pregnant. Even if it was negative, this was still important to talk to Izzy about. When he'd talked about Elias's kid, he seemed like he was fond of the child. Maybe he had liked being an uncle. Maybe that would open him up to being a dad.

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

I could talk myself into maybes all day. I had to get this over with. I had to check the stick.

Two pink lines stared back at me. I cradled my gut as my knees wobbled, trying to figure out which end was going to end up over the toilet. As my mouth dried up, I stumbled toward the sink, catching myself on the counter so I could peer into the mirror once more. What I saw wasn't the woman I had known all my life. She was something new, something absolutely radiant.

She was crying with joy.

The door popped open downstairs. Shortly after came Isaiah's voice. "I'm home, my love!"

Gods, he sounded so excited about something. Was it the proposal? Had he just gone to tell Blake?

I gasped.

Oh gods, he has no idea that I'm pregnant!

I shoved the test into the trash can and fumbled with the lock on the door. Locked or unlocked? Which one did I want? Footsteps echoed on the staircase.

"Sugarplum?" Izzy called. "Darling, you up here? I smell mocha."

The way he drew out that word made me weak in the knees. Which didn't help. Not a bit. I was getting ready to drop when I finally yanked open the door and tripped into the hallway.

Isaiah caught me with a lustful grin. "Now, where were we?"

And then he kissed me. And I forgot about everything all over again.