Cherishing Destiny (A Dangerous Destiny) (23 page)

He was mildly aroused in a pleasant way, but Sara was his
sister, even if they weren’t blood related, and Aurora was a Vampire, a married
Vampire to boot.  That brought his thoughts back around to Lily.  He felt
guilty and a little dirty by what happened between them.  He didn’t love her,
and he didn’t want to be her mate.  He was positive she felt the same way.  He
felt more for the married Vampire than the wolf he was now mated to.  It shamed
him, and he decided not to tell Sara and Aurora about Lily. 

Aurora stood up, and the soapy water sluiced off of her
beautiful body, making Ryan twitch again and letting him forget altogether
about Lily.  Aurora dried herself wrapped a towel around her and returned the
favor of a gentle scrubbing to Sara.  Ryan was actually dozing when suddenly both
women were standing in front of him, smelling wonderful and looking very hot. 

“Your turn,” Aurora said.  Sara was nodding and pinching
her nose.

“Wow, okay.  I can take a hint,” he laughed, stood up and
dropped the shirt that was tied around his waist, right there in front of both
women. 

Aurora just took his hand and dragged him to the bath. 
Sara sat down by the fire to brush out and dry her hair.  The bath water was milky
with soap and suds, but it smelled fantastic and was certainly a lot cleaner
than Ryan was, so he hopped in the used bath water without objections.  Aurora
poured clean water over his head from a bucket she’d left warming by the fire
earlier.  She lathered his hair, which was growing out, his spikes looked less
spiky and more wild.

“I could cut it for you,” she said as she rinsed the soap
out, combing her fingers through it to look at the length. 

“Sure,” he said. “I could use a cut.”

“And a shave,” Sara added from the fireplace. 

“I did bring a razor in my pack.”

“I saw scissors in the first aid kit we found in the packs
we took.”  Aurora looked distracted after she said that and Ryan knew she was
still bothered by the men they killed. 

He finished washing while she dug through the packs for the
razor and scissors.  He even packed a can of shaving cream, which she found too. 

He dried off and wrapped a towel around his waist.  He sat
on a stool by the fire and Aurora moved around him in a circle as she worked on
his hair.  By the time she was finished, it was nearly dry, and his usual
spikes were back.  She ran her fingers through them, arranging them a little. 
“Sexy,” she said. “But don’t get a big head about it.  You still need a
shave.” 

As she was shaving Ryan’s neck just under his chin, she worked
slowly because she was watching the artery pulsing in his throat.  She was
fascinated, and it was making her Vampire eyes glow and her own heat rise. 
Ryan could feel the change in her, and even though he knew she wouldn’t hurt
him, he shifted a little.  His head was leaning back against her belly, and her
hands were at his throat.  She made the last stroke of the razor and ran her
hands up his jaw to feel the smooth skin.  Ryan closed his shifted eyes and
opened his senses to her touch.  He could feel her soft hands caressing his face
and smell the lavender from the soap they all shared.  His head was pillowed on
her soft, flat belly, and he could hear her heart beating so rapidly under her
skin.

His eyes flew open, and he spun around so fast on the stool
that he startled Aurora, who had been mesmerized by the moment too. 

“What are you doing?” She took a step back. 

He reached out and grasped her hips, pulling her back
toward him.  “Aurora, come closer.”  She resisted a little. “Trust me,” he
said.

She was a little nervous, but she stepped into him as he
laid his freshly shaved cheek against the cloth of the towel covering her flat belly.  
He closed his eyes and held her close.

Sara was looking at the scene suspiciously. She and Aurora
exchanged confused looks. 

Ryan opened his eyes and tilted his head up to look at
Aurora.  “Baby,” he said.

“I really don’t like being called Baby,” She said.  She
heard him call Sara Baby all the time, and she had never actually liked that pet
name.

“No,” he said. “Baby. You are going to have a baby.”

“What are you saying?” She was confused and starting to get
upset.

“I’m saying you’re pregnant.  I can hear the baby’s heart
beat,” he was smiling his signature sparkling Ryan smile, and she wanted to slap
it from his face.

“This isn’t funny.”

“I’m not joking.”

“It’s not possible.”

“But it’s happened anyway.”

“Shut up and let me think!”  Aurora looked down at Ryan’s
smiling face and swooned. 

He caught her and pulled her into his lap to keep her from
hitting the floor.  He held her tight and stroked her hair.  He looked at Sara
for help, but she was only staring at them in shock.

“Aurora, wake up! Sara, help me!” he was trying to stand
with Aurora limp in his arms.

Sara snapped out of her stupor and rushed to help him.  He
got his arm under her legs and carried her to the pile of blankets and sleeping
bags they were using for a bed.  He laid her down and saw that she was
stirring. 

“She’s really pregnant?” Sara was astonished.  “You realize
that she is not technically alive and that she shouldn’t be able to get
pregnant. No Vampire has ever had a baby. It’s not even possible.”

I don’t know what to tell you.  She is pregnant.  I can
hear the baby.

“He’s right,” Aurora said propping herself up on her
elbows. “Now that he said it, I can listen and hear it for myself.  What is
happening to us?”

Ryan couldn’t help it, his smile was back.  He laid a hand
on Aurora’s abdomen and said, “I think it’s a miracle.”

∞∞∞

Eight weeks had passed since Alex left the trio at the
cabin.  The clouds and rain dampened their moods as much as the ground
outside.  The rain was starting to turn to snow sometimes at night, and they often
stayed in all day sitting around the fire.  Only Ryan ventured out much, mostly
to hunt.  He procrastinated returning to the settlement.  He didn’t want to face
Lily; he just couldn’t think about that right now.  He knew he should tell
Elvis and the L.T. about Aurora’s pregnancy, but he didn’t want to leave the
pregnant Vampire. Aurora and Sara had become the center of his world and he
liked the sense of family they shared. That didn’t keep them from going a
little stir crazy, and their activities to keep themselves entertained were
getting exceptionally creative.  Foot rubs and hair styling were big with Sara
and Aurora. Ryan always seemed to end up on the foot end of things as the women
brushed and braided each other’s hair. 

Aurora told stories of ages past.  It was amazing what she
remembered. 

“Tell us how you and Alex met,” Sara once requested.

Aurora looked uncomfortably down at her hands resting in
her lap.  “I don’t want to talk about that,” she said.  Sara never asked about
it again.

Aurora’s abdomen was still flat and smooth.  They figured
that she was still less than three months along since the only explanation
could be that something was altered in her after the Solar Storm.  Aurora knew
that she had conceived on the night of the Solar Storm because that was the
last time she made love to Alex.  Since then, they had been sleeping in groups
and had little time to themselves.  They had been more intimate with Sara than
each other.  She knew that it was because they had to feed on Sara, and the intimacy
was so often tied to the act of feeding, but she was missing Alex badly, no
matter how much she loved being with Sara.  Aurora desperately wanted to discuss
the baby situation with Alex.  She didn’t let on to the others that she was
actually kind of scared about the whole thing.  

Ryan worried about Aurora and the baby, and he was
constantly shifting so he could listen to the baby’s heart beat.  

“Stop doing that!” Aurora said one day as he sat quietly
listening a few feet away. “My senses are going crazy, and every time you do
that, you smell like a wolf den.”

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, but he continued to listen for
the baby when she slept or when he was further away from her but still close
enough to hear.

Aurora knew that he was doing this, but he was so genuinely
concerned that she couldn’t bring herself to scold him again. 

So, while Alex was meeting with Vampires in Syracuse, Ryan
was massaging Aurora’s feet and gazing thoughtfully into the fire. Her soft
voice was mesmerizing, but he wasn’t listening to her story, just the gentle murmur
of her tone. He was busy thinking.

He suddenly interrupted with, “I think you should see a
midwife, someone to make sure you and the baby are okay and tell you the things
you should be doing or not doing.”

“What is a midwife going to do, advise me on a proper
diet?” she snorted. “You know I can only feed on human blood.  Even your blood
would do nothing for me.”

“Still, I think it would be beneficial to have the opinion
of someone with experience,” he said almost pleading. “The three of us know
exactly squat about having babies.”

“Besides, where are you going to find a midwife out here in
the sticks?”

He blushed, thinking about Lily. “I know where to find one,
but it means I have to leave for a couple of days.”

“Fine,” Aurora said. “If it will get you out of the cabin
for a couple of days and keep you from listening to my belly grow every five
minutes, I’m all for it.”  She immediately regretted being harsh with him.  He
was only concerned for her and the baby. 

Sara understood.  She smiled at Ryan and laid her hand
gently on his arm in a gesture of thanks and approval. 

He left the next day for the
Were
settlement.  He
dreaded facing Lily, but he couldn’t stay away forever, and he had already
missed her last moon cycle. He wanted to travel light and fast this time.  He
was more uncomfortable than ever about leaving Sara and Aurora alone.  He took
an empty pack to bring back a few things like soap and maybe some fruit or
veggies for Sara.  He stripped naked and put his clothes in the pack.  Out in
front of the cabin, in the cold rain, he shifted. 

Sara and Aurora stood in the doorway.  They watched as the
enormous, shaggy black wolf, grasped the strap of the pack in his massive
jaws.  He looked at them with his glowing eyes for a moment then turned and ran
off into the trees. 

As a scout, Ryan often travelled like this.  His long
strides and steady gait, that was not too strenuous, ate up ground at a
surprising pace.  As he estimated, he was able to reach the settlement in less
than a day.  He stopped during the last half mile or so before reaching the pack
and waited.  He stood like that with the pack at his feet for no more than a
couple of minutes before a hulking gray wolf approached him.  He knew that he
was recognized, but the wolf walked all the way to him and they sniffed at each
other nearly muzzle to muzzle.  Ryan recognized the wolf as one of the oldest
of the young sentries.  He thought he remembered that his name was Stephan. 

Stephan was about fifty or so, still young for a
Were
,
but considered a mature adult in prime breeding age. Ryan realized that it was
Stephan’s wife that had given him the bathtub on his last trip.  Stephan rubbed
his head against Ryan’s, sending him on his way.  Ryan picked up the pack and
continued in.  He thought about stopping at the L.T.’s first and telling him
about Aurora’s pregnancy, but instead he continued straight to Lily’s house. 

The green house was complete, and the muddy garden was no
more.  Lily herself was just emerging from the new structure.  She stopped in
her tracks at the sight of the shaggy black wolf in her yard.  Ryan shifted,
and Lily couldn’t help but let herself take in the full view of his nakedness. 
She blushed, and Ryan, who hadn’t given a thought to his nudity before
shifting, turned his back and dug into the pack for his pants, pulling them on
quickly.  Lily appreciated the rear view as well and blushed even more.  Ryan
pulled a t-shirt over his head as he walked toward her.  She pulled dirty
gloves from her hands as she waited for him to reach her with no expression on
her face except the remaining pink flush in her cheeks. 

Her eyes grew wide, and she started when he drew close to
her. 
He has Stephan’s scent all over him!
  For a moment she feared that
they had fought, superiority fights were not uncommon, but she realized the scent
was steady and not filled with adrenaline or hormones.  Just a greeting while
in wolf form she realized.  She relaxed a little.  Stephan was never far from
her thoughts.  She loved him hopelessly, but knew that he would never belong to
her.  He was married and faithful to his wife, even though Lily caught him
admiring her sometimes.  Now, she was mated to this grinning man/boy in front
of her.  She was determined not to marry him though, even if he had been more pleasant
to mate with than she expected him to be. 

“Ryan,” she said nodding at him.

“Hi, Lily.  How are you doing? I see you finished your
greenhouse.” Ryan was nervous.

“Yes.  No more drowned plants in my kitchen.”