Page 78 of The Wolf's Surrogate

When I motioned for them to step forward, they looked hesitant. They held on to each other, a lot like how Anita hung on to me. As the applause died down, Anita released my hand, tentatively closing the gap between her and the two people who gave her to a foster care home in New York about twenty years ago.

Anita trembled. “Mom? Dad?”

The couple nodded in unison. Anita glanced back at me with fresh tears brewing in her eyes. She rested one hand over her heart and one over her stomach.

I nodded to Fred. “He’s good at tracking people. We were able to confirm their identities by your descriptions from memory once they were located.”

“But how did you—?” She turned to her parents. “Where were you?”

Her mother reached for Anita. The two women clasped each other tightly as her mother explained, “We were in Charlotte. We took the ghost train as soon as Fred contacted us.”

“Ghost train?” Anita asked. “Oh, whatever. Tell me about it later.”

Her father stepped forward to embrace the two women. I stood aside for a while, watching the three hug each other for the first time in many years. Finally, my family was together in one place.

Finally, my family was complete.

Chapter 24 - Anita

It was hard to believe that two weeks ago, my parents had watched my mate propose to me in the park. Thankfully, they were already involved with the supernatural world as civil rights activists. Their work during the vampire-wolf wars was monumental in the rehabilitation of ties between vampires and wolves.

Their work continued to this day, taking them to many places around the country. Since they were in Charlotte, North Carolina, they were close enough to stick around for the wedding planning. So many years were missed. We had a lot of catching up to do, and they had a lot of stories to tell.

Like how they managed to afford what was called aghost train.

I held Liam’s hand as I relaxed on the medical table with my feet propped up in metal stirrups. A hospital gown thinner than a sheet of paper covered my body and reminded me of the procedure that had been done over a month ago.

“Did you know about ghost trains?” I asked while we waited for Patricia. “I mean, I didn’t think unicorns were a thing.”

Liam shrugged. “It sounds like a recent development. I’ll have to look into it.”

“So, it’s not a train. It’s a carriage pulled by a unicorn.” I did my best to quote my mother. “That’s so strange.”

“Unicorns have all sorts of magical abilities. I’ve never encountered them myself, so I didn’t think there were that many in this dimensional plane.”

My lips flattened into a tight line. “There’s multiple dimensions?”

“Yeah, where do you think the fae come from?”

“Please, don’t forget I grew up sheltered.”

He laughed, raising my knuckles to his lips to kiss my skin. “I’ll try not to break your brain too much.”

I grinned. “Break my back out later instead.”

As he stammered over a response, a knock came from the door and Patricia walked in moments later. She cheerfully sanitized her hands and pulled an intimidating machine over to the medical table.

She noticed my worry and patted my free hand. “Don’t be afraid of this old thing. It’s just an ultrasound machine.” She held up a wand, applying what looked like a condom to it. “Don’t be afraid of this thing either. We just have to do an intravaginal ultrasound to see your development at this early stage.”

I let my head fall back. Sheesh, at this point, I had faced my abusive ex-boyfriend and avoided getting shot. I could probably handle anything that came my way, including this foreign ultrasound.

“You’ll feel my hand first—now some pressure—just relax.”

I clutched Liam’s hand. He was probably getting tired of that, right? But when I looked up at him, all I saw was love in his eyes. Strange sounds came from the machine, and then a picture came up on the monitor.

It was grainy and dark at first with odd shapes moving in pixelated circles. I stared at the screen as my heart raced, searching for a sign of life.

And then, I saw it. The peanut-shaped object wiggling on the screen. I knew in my heart that was my baby.

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