I lie on our bed staring at the ceiling while Mason lies next to me and rubs circles around my stomach. After we talked earlier and Mason reassured me that everything is going to be fine, we came upstairs to lie down on the bed. Mason said he didn't have to go back today unless something big happened around the borders, so he's all mine for the rest of the day.
I turn and watch him as he moves his body so he can rest his head against my belly. His face is towards me, so I watch as he smiles and starts whispering sweet things to our baby. I raise one of my hands and start running my fingers through his thick hair. He smiles up at me and kisses my belly before moving so he's beside me on his side. I turn my head to the side and smile at him. God, I love this guy. He rests his head on his bent arm and reaches up to trace my cheekbones with his finger.
"We should set up a time to go see the pack doctor soon," he says, breaking the silence. "We can find out how far along you are and just make sure everything is okay. I'm sure he'll want to check on your leg again as well. I know how glad you are to be off those crutches." I nod my head knowing I won't have to handle that because Mason will most likely take care of it for us. I yawn and lean further into my pillow. "Why don't you take a nap?" he asks as he moves closer and starts playing with the ends of my hair. I settle into his side and relax.
"Will you stay with me?" I ask as I lean my forehead against his chest.
"I will. Now get some sleep, I know you're tired. I guess now we know why your emotions have been all over the place these last couple of months or so. I hear pregnancy will do that to you," he says as he kisses me gently. I smile and just nod in agreement. "I don't think I'll get tired of saying that. My beautiful mate is pregnant with our first child, and I couldn't be happier."
"Me either," I whisper as I close my eyes and allow sleep to start to overtake me. I feel Mason move around and get off of the bed. I open my eyes and see why he's getting up when he just said he would stay with me while I slept. "Mason?" I ask looking at him. He smiles and flips the switch to turn the light off before coming back towards the bed. He climbs back in beside me and covered both of us with the comforter. His warmth and scent surround me as he pulls me back into his arms.
"I said I would stay, so I figured I could use a little nap too." He digs his phone and keys out of his pockets and tosses them on the bedside table. "Okay, baby girl. Close your eyes and let's rest."
I close my eyes once again and snuggle in closer to him, using his body to heat me up more while I sleep. In the arms of my mate, it doesn't take long at all for me to fall asleep.
***
I shoot up out of the bed and run towards the bathroom. I don't know what it was that is causing me to throw up this time, but it's awful. I hate getting sick almost more than anything else on this planet. It's painful, it's disgusting, and it always seems to come at the worst times.
Just as I lift the lid off the toilet everything in my stomach starts to come up. I feel someone come into the room and grab ahold of my hair to keep it out of the way. I know it's Mason and I feel awful that he's having to see me like this. I try to tell him to go away but another wave of nausea hits me before I can get anything out.
"Just get it out, baby," he soothes softly as he rubs up and down my back. "You'll feel better once you're done." After another two minutes of this torture, I'm able to sit back and rest my back against the side of the bathtub. "Feel better?" Mason asks as he kneels beside me on the floor.
"Well, yes in a way that whatever was upsetting my stomach is now out of there, but no because I absolutely hate throwing up like that. I always have and now I'm going to have to deal with doing this on a pretty regular basis during the beginning of this pregnancy."
"Well, think on the positive side. You are going through this now and we'll be parents soon. And you won't have to do it as long seeing as pregnancies are shorter for werewolves than they are for humans. Not to mention our pup has an extremely strong bloodline so it may grow really fast."
"That doesn't make throwing up at random times throughout the day any better for me, Mason," I groan as I lean my head against his shoulder. Realizing I'm leaning on him after I just emptied my stomach again encourages me to stand up. After getting to my feet, I move over to the sink so I can rinse my mouth out and brush my teeth. "What time is it?" I ask as I squirt some toothpaste onto the brush.
"It's almost five in the afternoon," he says as he sat on the toilet seat and watches me brush my teeth. I glance over at him before looking at my reflection in the mirror. I look a lot better than I did this morning. Maybe I just needed to get some sleep… and maybe I just needed my mate to be by my side after finding out we have a pup on the way. "Do you need anything? I could try to make you something to eat or whatever you need." The thought of Mason trying to make us something to eat is kind of scary. He's already told me on numerous occasions that he can't cook to save his life, so I have no idea what he would come up with to feed me or if it would even be edible.
"I'll cook in a little while. We can have an early dinner or something like that." I shrug as I rinse my toothbrush and put it back where it goes. I turn around and look at my mate as I lean against the counter. "I love you, you know that?" He smiles at me and moves forward to wrap his arms around my waist. "I don't know what I would have done if you weren't okay with having kids so early. I… I'm just really happy you're okay with all of this."
"There is nothing that I want more than for you to be happy. Even if I wasn't ready to be a dad, I would have made myself ready for you. Not that that is necessary because I already love our little one so much. I've wanted a family with you since you ran into me in the woods." He looks down and caresses my belly with one of his hands. "What do you think it is?" I shrug and close my eyes and sigh. I still feel sleepy, but I don't want to actually go to sleep.
"Will you come watch TV with me?" I ask him, smiling slightly. The two of us never really just sit down and watch shows together. He's always busy with pack stuff… or we're busy doing something else. I just want a nice evening to ourselves where we can relax and just be together. The look on his face almost answers my question on its own. For a guy who doesn't really like watching TV, he sure has a lot of televisions around the house. "Please, Mason?" I reach up and wrap my hands around the back of his neck. "I just want us to have a nice quiet evening together. We never get time to just sit around and watch TV or anything like that."
He closes his eyes and sighs. I smile knowing that I've won him over. "Okay, we'll watch a movie… but it better not be some sappy love story with a plot line that isn't realistic."
"So no romantic comedies or chick flicks got it?" I say as I kiss his lips quickly before grabbing his hand and dragging him back towards the bed. He chuckles behind me but lets me pull him anyway. I climb on the bed and stare at him as he watches me. "What?" I ask as I smile.
"I just love you so much. You know I would do anything to make you happy right?" he asks, moving so he's now standing right beside the bed. I get up on my knees and hug him tight. I love how he'll just randomly say such sweet things like that. It's like he doesn't even realize he's doing it half the time, it just happens. "I will do whatever it takes to keep the two of you safe."
"I know you will, and I love you all the more for that. But tonight, I want to pretend that we don't have a war at our doorstep and just focus on us. I don't want to think about my old pack or the fact that my best friend is miserable because his mate is missing still, or anything other than you, me, and our baby." He nods his head and kisses my lips softly. What starts out as a sweet gesture, quickly heats up as he lowers his hands and cups my bottom as our mouths move against each other in perfect unison.
I moan into his mouth as he pushes himself even closer to me. I can feel his arousal through his pants, and I know that if I don't stop this now we'll never get to watch any movies. My wolf wants nothing more than to continue what we're doing now, and what'll happen afterward if I don't stop, but I really just want a nice quiet night. I manage to detach our lips. Our breath mingles together between us as we both try to catch our breath. Mason groans and tries to kiss me again, but I turn my head just in time so he only got my cheek. My wolf softly growls at me and pushes me to attach our lips once again, but I push her to the back of my mind and ignore her for now.
"I want you," he growls against my cheek. I giggle at his behavior, causing him to growl again. He goes in to kiss me again but I move my head further away and shake my head at him. "Alaina," he groans as he tries again. My wolf yips and urges me to let him but I don't. After about three times of trying to connect our lips again, he finally sighs and just rests his forehead against my shoulder. I smile softly and run my fingers up and down his arms as he hugs me close to his chest.
"I promise I will make this up to you some other time, but right now I just want us to lay down together and watch some movies. I'm sorry," I apologize. I want to mate with him, I always want to mate with him… but I'm just tired right now. My pregnancy isn't even that far and it's already taking a toll on my body. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like when I'm swollen all over the place and heavy with child. My wolf complains about how I'm turning out mate down, but I block her out and pull him onto the bed with me. He lies down on his side of the bed and covers us both up with the comforter. I scoot closer to him and rest my head on his chest and I wrap one of my arms around his waist. I love being able to hold him. He reaches down and runs his fingers along the span of my back.
"I'm going to hold you to that, you know?" I nod my head and smile against his chest, not minding that at all. "What do you want to watch? And if you say Grey's Anatomy again then I will go down to my office and start working," he threatens. I sit up and look down at him with a scold on my face.
"I don't see why you don't like Grey's!" I exclaim as I throw my head back and scoff. "It's enticing and addictive, and I love watching it! You just don't ever want to actually give it a try, you always find something else to do when you see me watching it." I pout slightly as I look over at him. He growls and takes my bottom lip between his teeth and tugs lightly. I pull away and shake my head.
"I just don't care to watch a bunch of humans running around a hospital sleeping with everyone and getting all junked out on an opportunity to cut someone open."
"You'd like it if you just gave it a chance. The earlier seasons especially, it does fall off as the seasons go." I smirk at him. He rolls his eyes at me and turns the television on and starts looking through the guide. "Let's watch something scary then," I suggest as I relax back into his side. He opens our Netflix account and starts looking through the horror section.
We eventually settle for watching Dead Silence. I have seen it a couple of times before, but it's been a while since the last time I watched it. Mason has never seen it so there's that… and the fact that he complains about just about every other suggestion I gave him. After I explain the plot to him he says he will watch this one, but he's getting to choose the next movie. We settle in and watch the movie in silence. Even though I know what's going to happen, I still jump every now and then when Mary Shaw pops up on the screen or the dummy does something. What can I say? That thing is freaky! Mason chuckles and squeezes my waist every time, but he keeps his comments to himself. Smart man.
About halfway through the movie, Mason's phone starts to ring on the table. We both glance over at it, but no one makes a move to answer it. I turn back to the movie, but I can feel Mason glance at me as his phone starts ringing again. I sigh, so much for our quiet night. "Go ahead and answer it," I say as I move off of him so he can reach for the phone. I sit up and keep my eyes focused on the movie even though I'm not really watching it anymore.
"I'm sorry, baby, but it could be important," he apologizes as he grabs his phone and looks at the screen. I just nod my head and continue to watch the movie. "Alaina, I'm sorry. Just pause the movie and we'll finish it when I get off the phone." I hit pause, but I don't turn to look at him. "Hello?" he asks as he answers the call. I guess I was stupid to think we could actually go an entire day without being interrupted by pack business. We're about to go to war, the Alphas of the pack can't just check out, even for one day.
I look over at him only to see his relaxed and playful mood from earlier is now gone and replaced by a very serious look. That can't be good. I fur my eyebrows in question at him but he just shakes his head and sits up straighter. "Who is it?" I whisper. He mouths "Ace" in reply before focusing on the call. Why is Ace calling the house? Mason had talked to him a while back about helping out if anything happened, but nothing's happened so the two of them haven't talked in a while. If they're talking now, it can only mean one thing.
"What do you mean? How do you know that, Ace?" Mason growls out causing my eyes to widen and stare at him. I try to listen to the conversation on the other side, but Mason cups the phone in his hand so I can't make out what's being said. I sigh and move so I'm sitting on my knees. If something's going on, I think I had a right to know. I am Luna of this pack and if it has anything to do with Dylan planning something then I should be able to hear it. "Where the fuck does he get off in this shit?!" he yells causing me to jump slightly at the sudden outburst. His eyes soften when he notices my reaction. Fear creeps into every part of my body as I stare at my mate. Whatever this phone call is about, it's enough to piss Mason off which scares me. "Hang on, Ace. Alaina, are you hungry?" he asks. I know this is his way of trying to get me out of the room, so I just nod my head stiffly and stand up from the bed.
"Is spaghetti okay with you?" I ask as I make my way towards the door. He answers a quick yes before focusing back on the call. I make my way downstairs, stopping by Brandon's room to see what he's doing. He's lying across the bed watching TV. "Are you hungry?" I ask him with a small smile. He glances over at me and smiles softly.
"I'm starving!" he says as he climbs off the bed and starts heading down the stairs with me. I can tell he was trying to act like he's okay, most likely for my sake, but I know he's far from that. The bags under his eyes are proof enough that he's having a really hard time dealing with Mary being gone. "Where's the Alpha? I would have figured he wouldn't let you get too far away from him after the news y'all found out today." I cast a sideways glance at him and sigh.
"Ace called while we were watching a movie. It seemed really important, so Mason practically told me to leave the room so he could talk privately by bringing up that we needed to eat. I don't know how long he'll be on the phone, so I figured we could hang out for a little while." I smile sadly at my friend. "I know these last two months have been hard on you, and I feel selfish for feeling this way, but I can't help it… I just miss you. We haven't had much time to just talk about things." Brandon looks away from me and I can see the pain in his eyes. "You do know that you can talk to me about anything, right? I will listen to you while you say whatever you need to say. I just want you to know I'm here for you, Brandon. I may not understand what you're going through right now, but you're not alone here."
"I know, Alaina, and you have no idea how much that means to me. I know I'm a mess. I'm miserable not knowing where Mary is, but there isn't anything that can be done about it until the trackers pick up on her scent again, or at least find another lead. I want nothing more than to just go find her, but I can't leave you here alone. I just have to trust that the Alpha will find a way to bring her home to me." I nod my head and try to smile at him. He smiles back, but it's obvious that both of our smiles are fake.
We make small talk as I move around the kitchen and start cooking. I'm laughing when Mason walks into the kitchen with a serious look on his face. He looks at Brandon and then at me and frowns. "Is everything alright?" I ask as I stop laughing and watch him. He glances at Brandon and shakes his head. My stomach drops and it feels as if all the breath in my body is stolen from me.
"I just got off the phone with Ace," he speaks to Brandon more than me. "He knows where Mary is." My eyes widen at this new information.
"That's great news! If Ace knows where Mary is, then we can bring her home!" I exclaim as I smile at Mason. He doesn't smile back though. My smile resides the longer I look at him. "Mason? Isn't this good news?" I ask confused.
"That's the good news, but there is also bad news. Ace hasn't actually seen her… no one has because Dylan has her locked up somewhere in his territory." Brandon growls at this new information. "Apparently, Dylan has been making phone calls to the Alpha's around trying to get support for when he attacks. He called Ace, I guess not knowing that Ace and I are friends. Ace asked why he was doing this and what made him think he could beat our pack… Dylan told him that he had someone from our pack that we would be very interested in getting back." He glances at me. And it clicks.
"He knows that Brandon and I are friends so he's going to use Mary as leverage to get me to try to go back with him, isn't he?" I ask as tears well up in my eyes. Mason closes his eyes and nods his head. What am I supposed to do? We finally find Mary, only to find out she's been taken by the enemy. They are expecting a trade, and how can there not be one? I can't put myself above the pack and say that my life is more important than theirs. Mary is a part of my pack and I don't want to see any of them hurt. I don't know what to do.
"What are we going to do?" Brandon asks, speaking for the first time since Mason came downstairs. "I want my mate back, but Alaina is pregnant and we all know what they will do to her if a trade is made." He reaches up runs his hand through his hair and pulls on it slightly. Tears blur my vision as I stare at my mate and my best friend.
"There will be no trade!" Mason growls out as he glares at Brandon. I step forward and place a hand on Mason's arm, trying to calm him down. The last thing we need is for him to get into a fight. His glare turns to me, his eyes black. His wolf is partly in control right now. "Don't even start with me, Alaina. There will be no trade and that is all that will be said about it. I will not have you go back to them. They'll kill you and the baby and I will not risk losing either of you." He shakes my hand off his arm and takes a step away from me. My wolf whimpers at the rejection of our affections but decides to stay in the back of my mind. She knows as well as I do that Mason is pissed and is not to be pushed right now. But I will not stand by and let him just let Mary rot over there with those monsters.
"So Brandon has to lose his mate instead?" I ask, tears leaking from my eyes. Why does this have to happen? Why couldn't I have just found my mate before all of this happened with Robert and me? Or better yet, why couldn't my real dad still be alive? Everything would have been so much better if that were the case. None of this would be happening. "I will not let them kill her because of me. I will not be able to live with myself if that happens."
Mason steps forward and wraps me up in his embrace and kisses my head. "I didn't say we weren't going to get her back. I just said there will be no trade." He turns to Brandon. "I will get Mary back for you, Brandon. You are important to my mate, and she wants you to be happy and I know the only way for that to happen is to have your mate back. We just need to come up with a plan. Something solid that Dylan and Robert won't see coming. We have Ace's support and with his pack and ours, Blue Bloods shouldn't stand a chance."
"I just want her back," Brandon whispers as he puts his head in his hands and rests his elbows against the countertop. "What do you have in mind?" I look at Mason to see him deep in thought.
"Ace said that they were still trying to recruit more wolves before they attack, so we need to be prepared. Tomorrow, I'm going to call a meeting and we'll figure something out."
"Why not tonight?" I ask as I push away from him just enough to see his face clearly.
"Because I promised you that I would be with you tonight. We just found out we are going to be parents, Alaina. I want to spend the day with you and just enjoy this before things get hectic and crazy around here. After we come up with the plan, whatever it will be, we're going to have to train and get ready for battle. I want to reduce the lives we could lose as much as possible by being prepared. So we're just going to have tonight to ourselves and deal with everything tomorrow." I nod my head but don't say anything else.
The phone starts ringing and Mason sighs. "That's probably Roman. I tried calling him after I got off the phone with Ace, but he didn't answer. I'll be in my office while you cook, but after this phone call I'm all yours," he says as he kisses my head and answers the phone as he walks out of the kitchen. I look at Brandon to see him staring at me.
"I know you said you agreed with Mason, but I know you, Alaina. Whatever it is you are going to try to plan behind his back, don't do it. As much as I want Mary back, I can't let you put yourself in harm's way to achieve that. If you got hurt or lost the baby, or worse if you got killed trying to get my mate back for me, I wouldn't be able to even look at myself. I'm sure the Alpha wouldn't either. Just, for once, let him handle it his way. Please." There's something in his voice that has me nodding my head in agreement. I will let Mason handle this. He's the Alpha of this pack, and he's built this pack up to where it's one of the strongest. He can handle Dylan and his pack. My wolf growls lowly in agreement that our mate is strong and will take care of this pack the way he should.
"I'll let Mason handle it. I promise," I say as I turn to finish up dinner.