Page 42 of Shifters' Fated Summer
“That’s the last thing I remember. How did I get here?”
“Cade and Luca found you and dealt with them. Luca carried you up here and then went with Cade to make sure they were gone. They’ll probably spend a few hours today making calls to be sure that none of the nearby packs accept them. We will make sure they’re far away.”
“Why would they be so mad at me?” My fingers ran along the cold pack on my neck.
Elowen sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Harper is, or was, the most powerful female in the pack. She expected Cade would eventually breed with her. Especially considering…” She trailed off. “I don’t know if that would have happened. Probably not. But from her perspective, you took her chance to have the Alpha’s pups.”
Did Cade sleep with her before?The question sat heavy on my chest, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask it.
Tears burned in my eyes and I squeezed them shut, pressing my open hand against the bridge of my nose until it subsided.
“Things were hard enough. I don’t know what their problem was. It was obvious Cade doesn’t want me.”
Her brows pinched. “Why do you say that?”
“He hates me. Even this morning, I woke up and Icould feel he wanted me but he rejected me. I could literally sense his disappointment through the stupid bond. That’s why I was walking back alone.”
Elowen rubbed her lips together, staring past me at the blank wall while she thought. “He won’t last long. There’s no fighting a fated bond. Try to not worry. I’m sure he will pull his head out of his ass, especially now that he can sense your emotions and knows you’re being honest.”
“I seriously doubt it.”
“Well, try to relax. You need rest to recover.” Nodding, she turned away.
“Hey, Elowen? There was something else.”
“Yeah?” She smiled sweetly.
“This is so embarrassing,” I said, burying my face in my hands. “Last night as wolves, I think Cade and I might have…” I couldn’t manage to finish the sentence.
“Fulfilled your bond?” Her smile widened. “Mated? Gone at it likebunnies?”
“Stop,” I said, my skin flushed so hot my cheeks stung.
She huffed a laugh. “Don’t worry. You can’t get pregnant outside of going into heat.”
“You mentioned something about heat, but I don’t really remember the details. I didn’t think it would apply to me. I’m sorry.”
“Well, I’ve got two pieces of good news for you and one - let’s call itneutralnews.”
I closed my eyes, trying to calm my heart rate. Elowen was so cheery about this, and, to me, it felt like the worldwas falling apart.
“First of all, you can’t get pregnant from whatever you two got up to last night. Secondly, even if you were in heat and got busy in your shifted form, it would still be a normal pregnancy, so don’t worry about that.”
“Okay, and the neutral news?”
“Now that you’ve got a mate, you’ll go into heat at some point. Probably about four to six months from now, but there’s no way to know for sure. But that happens and you can get pregnant, so unless you want a little Cade running around, we need to get you on birth control at the first sign of your heat.”
“Fantastic. How will I even know?”
“You’ll start to feel even more needy than right now and you’ll run a bit of a fever. You’ll feel heated, hence the term. Honestly, I don’t think that’s why it’s called that, but running hot is a sure sign it’s coming.”
I pressed the back of my head into the headboard, fighting the desire to bang it against the wood a few times. This entire situation was so frustrating. “This is not something I wanted to be dealing with right now.”
Elowen soothed me, her hand patting my shin under the blanket. “You don’t have to stress about it yet.” She cocked her head, watching me with eyes full of pity. “I promise it’ll be okay. And when the time comes, Cade will take care of you.”
“That’s the last thing he wants to do.”
“There’s no way that’s the case…” Elowen trailed off, her head swiveling to the door as it opened.
