SIENNA’S POV:
Six weeks gone in a blink. My stomach is rounding out and my appetite is a disaster. One minute it is peanut butter and jelly drenched in chocolate syrup; the next, it is potato chip crumbs on mint chocolate chip ice cream. Pickles dunked in yogurt are the worst part.
My body doesn't keep secrets. The polished med student look is gone; now I am just a weepy, hormonal mess waddling around. The hospital smells like bleach and old pennies all the time. It’s just too sterile. Usually, that scent is fine, but today it makes my throat tighten and my stomach flip.
I sit in this cold exam room and stare at the blank monitor. The door opens then clicks shut behind me, and I jump. I need answers, but I really just want to run until my lungs burn.
"Okay, Sienna," Dr. Lucas says, taking a seat next to the exam bed. "Just breathe..."
"Okay," I say. My voice is thin.
"Don't be scared. I've got you..."
I nod and turn toward the screen. I trust him. He’s a family friend. I pull my scrub top up and slide my pants down. The gel is freezing that he applies, a sharp shock against my skin.
The machine hums to life. He moves the wand, his blue eyes locked on the screen.
Static flickers, then clears. There they are. My little secrets. The very thing I’m hiding from Dr. Greyson. Three tiny shapes wriggling like little shrimp.
"Oh, Sienna! Look at our little pups..." Jinx says in my head. "They are going to be sooo... Oh, name them, please?"
"Micah, Jared and Aaron?" I say it out loud. I slap my hand over my mouth. Stupid me again. My chest feels tight.
Dr. Lucas heard me (of course). His professional face breaks into a grin. Those aren't random names. Micah is Patrick’s grandfather’s name on his mom’s side of the family. Jared is his father's middle name. Aaron is his own middle name.
"Well... Micah, Jared and Aaron sound perfect..." Dr. Lucas says. He looks at me. "Yep! These little ones are here to stay," pointing to the screen. "Hey! They kinda look like those names, huh?" He sounds amused. "Three princes; little Rightfield-Greyson babies."
Jinx is losing it in my head.
"I love that!" she purrs. Rightfield-Greyson. It sends a chill down my spine.
"Hey, don't go quiet on me now..." Dr. Lucas teases with a snort. Then laughs.
"Please don't tell him? Or your wives. And definitely not..." I mumble. Nolan would tell the whole pack. The whole hive would know by the end of the damn day. "Don't even tell my dad... or Marcus. Marcus is a hard..." (hell no!)
He looks at me with a steady expression. He knows this is a mess.
"Okay, pinky swear?" he asks, holding out his finger.
I hook my pinky with his and we shake.
— ♡ ♡ ♡ —
Another week passes in a blur. I am back in the same cold exam room. Anne Marie is somewhere in my head, barely connected to our mind-link but still there; I ignore her. I have my own mess to handle.
I lie flat on my back while Lucas starts the ultrasound. My brain feels like it is overheating. I am actually pregnant with another woman's husband's kids. Damnit.
"We have to tell him..." Jinx says in my head.
How do I tell Dr. Greyson? His life is already a disaster. One sweaty night is all it took. I spent years chasing him, picking a career just to be near him, and this is the result.
I look at the screen. Those tiny shapes are wriggling. My chest feels tight, like a band is squeezing my ribs.
"Lucas," I mutter, "They are his sons. What if he gets mad… and doesn’t want…"
"Can't promise how he'll react..." Lucas cuts me off. He looks at my face. "But Pat might lose his mind. You matter too much to him. That part I know..."
My stomach feels like I ate bad seafood. The room is loud with the thump, thump, thump of three hearts. They are alive and loud.
Lucas taps the screen. "Three little tadpoles..."
He’s grinning, but his eyes are sharp. He wants me to tell him. But Elizabeth is their Superior Luna. A queen they all love. Patrick is the Superior Alpha King; he runs the whole region and a hospital. Who the hell am I? Some Blue Moon princess from a pack that never got sworn to the hive. The pack politics will chew me up.
My finger shakes as I hit print. The machine whirrs and spits out grainy photos. Micah, Jared, Aaron; three blurry commas on paper. My lungs feel squeezed, like a cinder block is sitting on my chest.
Lucas wipes the gel off my stomach.
"Do the right thing, Cee." He says. "No more stalling..."
I nod. My throat is too tight to swallow. Patrick needs to know. I’ve gotta tell him.
My stomach twists. I can’t just go and say: "Hey, surprise, I’m pregnant."
Jinx snorts at my mental antics, she’s laying down on the ground of my psyche, crossing her paws like some Victorian purebred.
"Thanks, Lucas," I mutter and kiss his cheek.
"You’re gonna be just fine..." He nods at me. "I got you."
He has been a saint, holding my hand through every test. But those tiny bodies on the screen are what finally push me.
I think of Anne Marie. She is probably sweating through her Walker Industries exam right now. I walk toward the door, leaving for Patrick's office and my hands shake so hard I almost drop the photos.
"Breathe, Sienna," Jinx purrs. "Now let's go tell our mate..."
I grit my teeth and leave the room. I finally made it to the executive checkpoint, out of breath. Security waves me through. The elevator ride feels like a trip to Mt. Olympus. The doors open and I step into the hallway. The marble floors are so shiny I can see my terrified face. My pulse is spiking.
I round the corner and see it. The door is thick oak with a brass plaque. "Dr. Patrick Greyson, Senior MD, Founder, CEO, Superior Alpha King" is written in fancy font.
"Come in, Sienna," his voice says through the wood. Automatically knowing (somehow) I was there. Probably smelled me.
The office is all glass and city views. As soon as I walk in, the walls feel like they are closing in. He is there, looking at me like I am prey.
He always could read me. He is drinking in my panic.
"Well, well... Sienna," he drawls. His voice is deep and rough. "To what do I owe this visit...?"
I hold out the photos. My heart is hammering. Naeo is staring at me through his eyes. He looks like he just won a prize.
“I had an ultrasound today,” I blurt, my voice sounding thin. “Wanted to tell you face to face.”
“What? Why?” he asks, his brows furrowing. “I know you’ve been off lately. I can feel it. That’s what mates can sense...”
He reaches for the paper. He looks at it, then looks back at me. His gaze is heavy. The room goes quiet; the clock on the wall ticks like a hammer hitting a nail. He looks shocked, but there is a flicker of something else. He rubs his thumb over the grainy grey blurs on the page.
“Babies...?” he says, his voice low. “You’re pregnant, Cee-Cee?”
I nod, and a wave of nausea hits me. My stomach flips; I sway, feeling like I could just faint. Suddenly he is right there, moving wolf-fast. We land on the office couch; he has me tucked against his chest, on his lap. He presses his lips to my hair and breathes in. He smells like old cedar and fresh pine.
“Yeah. Triplets. They're yours,” I manage, my throat feeling tight. “Micah, Jared and Aaron...”
I look at him. His face is a blank wall. I probably shouldn't have told him; he likely didn't want this.
“Breathe, Sienna,” Jinx says in my head. “Give him a chance to process...”
He stays still. His blue eyes move from the photo to me and back again. Then he puts his hand on my stomach. The scrubs hide the bump, but his palm feels the curve.
The moment he touches me, a warmth spreads through my gut. Three little flickers respond. They know we are here. Mommy. Daddy.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” Jinx sighs, licking her own stomach in my mind. Her way of soothing our pups.
Something in him shifts. His eyes glow, but that professional mask is gone. He looks at me and actually smiles. The tight knot in my chest loosens a bit.
“This is... incredible,” he says, his voice sounding gravelly. “We’re having a family...”
I stare at him, wondering if this is actually happening.
“But, Dr. Greyson...”
“Just call me Patrick, my love,” he cuts me off. It is an order, not a request. He is still staring at the images of the three boys.
“Patrick...” I say, feeling guilty. “You have ‘a family’ already. A wife. Five sons. Twins...”
He pauses. His fingers stay on my belly; the paper crinkles in his hand. His expression changes, then goes flat.
The air feels thick, like when wool gets wet. His smile vanishes.
“I know,” he says, sounding rough. “I know that I...”
Why did he just act like this was a new beginning for us? I lean in and cover his hand with mine. His skin is warm.
“Then why?” I ask, my voice breaking. “Why me?”
Patrick looks at me like I’m a problem he’s trying to solve. He rubs my knuckles.
“Sienna,” he says, and his pupils widen. “It's not just because you're beautiful... though Goddess knows you are. It's... you. The way you understand me. The way you...”
“Oh, Cee-Cee,” Jinx purrs, sounding like a mourning animal. “He doesn't love Elizabeth. Not like this. You feel it, don't you?”
I do. It feels like a ship wreck waiting to happen.
Patrick lets out a sharp breath; he looks like he is fighting for control.
"That night we mated, weeks ago, I thought I'd died and the Moon Goddess took me," he says. "But I woke up... and I was still here. You were still here. Now you're carrying my children. 'Our' children."
"But your wife..." I say, looking at the floor. He grips my chin and pulls my gaze up.
"What about her?" he asks. "I love her, yes. But it's not the same..."
"Don't push him," Jinx warns in my head. "He is his father’s first born. An automatic heir to the throne of the hive. The crown’s heavy enough."
Patrick tightens his grip on my hand as he picks up the ultrasound images again.
"I won’t lie to you, Sienna. What we have? It’s been real since the day you were born. Elizabeth... that was politics. An arranged marriage before the 'Great Exodus' because heirs don't get..."
He stops. Five sons. Thousands of years of marriage. Now two young twins with her. None of it was because he wanted her. My stomach feels like it's twisting into a knot.
I've spent years watching him; how much of himself he gave to me. Same way Marcus did with Anne Marie. I guess we just ended up (fated) with these two men, later than we expected.
"Oh, Patrick. I'm... I'm sorry," I say, tears leaking down my face.
"Shhh... don't be, love," he says against my neck. His breath smells like coffee. "Remember the oracle?"
My thoughts are a mess. Why bring her up now? I nod. The oracle is an ancient shifter from the old world who never gets things wrong. A Blue Mooner. A legend. It turns out she was family all along. Anne Marie and I never knew until we were older because she always looked different when she was working as the seer.
"Sienna," Patrick says, his voice thick with that faint British lilt. "Before we got here, she told me I'd find my fated mate on Earth. That it's not Elizabeth, my children's mother. That she'd..."
He trails off. He slips his fingers from mine and presses them against my stomach, right where the bump is starting to show.
"Patrick..." I try to speak.
"Five more kids for me. Ours: triplets, then twins. They'll be the key to our..."
He doesn’t finish, his eyes are locked on mine. They are ocean-blue and dead serious. Goosebumps prickle down my arms.
The oracle is our pack’s seer. A different breed than the rest of the Blue Mooners. Stronger. That knowing thing is in their veins, passed down. No one ever doubts her. She doesn't lie; can't lie. That's the thing about being the Moon Goddess's actual descendant. Literal bloodline stuff. She has this ability to shift how she looks, maybe even into the Goddess herself. I don't know how deep that trick goes.
Her family tree stretches back to the ancient days when Gaia walked Isadora in skin and bones before becoming... well, what she is now. Ghost? Goddess? Both?
And like every seer in her lineage, she has power the rest of the Blue Moon pack can't touch. The Moon Goddess baked that right into their DNA; into my family's blood. That's why we rule. We just "know" things. And if you're brave enough to ask, she'll tell you your fate.
Patrick's gaze goes distant, like he is reliving whatever vision she burned into his head.
"These kids... the triplets, especially the twins... they're how we survive," he says softly. He brushes my knuckles with his thumb as he stares at the images of Micah, Jared, and Aaron.
He is holding something back. What is it?
"Oh, Cee-Cee! Our pups are special," Jinx growls inside me. "Need to talk to the Moon Goddess."
Then she is gone. Just like that. She vanishes from my head.
"Jinx...?" I say into the silence.
Our wolves chat with Gaia all the time. But mine? She never dipped out like this before. Leaving me alone in the dark.