The WOLF Gene (WereGenes Book 4) Page 17

  Startling me, Nick planted a few fast, forceful kisses all over my face, then pulled away to look at me with his eyes just slightly pink and shiny. "As terrified as I am in hindsight, if that makes any sense at all, about you going out on that narrow steel beam, and as much as I wish you hadn't put yourself in such extreme danger like that, I understand why you did it because love was what was driving me today, too. Just pure love for you, this city, and everyone who lives here.

  “And now...after what you just said, I think I love you a thousand times more. You're everything I've always wanted in a woman, and I just want to spend the rest of my life with you and make you happy for the rest of my days." After planting a few kisses all over my face yet again, Nick continued. "As for your actions today, and what you did that probably saved Noah's life...I just want to tell you that you were beyond strong, and brave, and brilliant. You were phenomenal today."

  Thrilled with his praise, I smiled. "Thank you. And you were, too. You were absolutely phenomenal."

  Exiting the elevator, he smiled in return. "I felt the strongest today that I've ever felt in my entire life as a vampire, but what you did for me and Noah is something in a league all its own. That’s a fact."

  I smiled again. "Well, I am pretty proud of myself that I didn't faint at any point today, even though I have been in incredibly stressful situations before, sometimes just even if I forget to eat and my blood sugar gets too low. I guess I'm just getting tougher now or something. Maybe it's just...."

  The bright lights of the building lobby had suddenly seemed to dim, and my dizziness had returned in a pretty major way. In fact, everything was now spinning again.

  "Nick, I think I spoke too soon. I only had coffee for breakfast this morning, and now I just feel sort of like...it's just a funny dizziness that's making me feel...."

  I didn't get to fully express how it was making me feel because I'd suddenly passed out.

  When I came to, I had the feeling that at least an hour or two, maybe more, had passed. I was sitting up in a hospital bed, or at least more or less sitting up, with the head of the bed partially raised and with what felt like a thick stack of fluffy pillows behind my head. All around me, machines were beeping, and an IV line was in my left arm. On my right, Nick was sitting in a metal folding chair, holding my hand. His strong-jawed handsome face was a perfect picture of concern and love.

  "How do you feel?"

  I thought about the question for a moment or two before responding to him. "I feel good. I actually feel fine. I'm not dizzy at all anymore."

  Nick heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank God. You had me just a little bit worried for a minute. You went so pale, and you still are, just a touch. You don’t have roses in your cheeks like you usually do."

  "I really feel okay. I feel like I probably just need a good meal and a little more rest to get me fully back to normal. But first...I just thought of something. Earlier, you told me everyone is okay, but I didn't ask you how John and the Dormios fared. I'm hoping you'll tell me at least some of them are dead."

  "I'll tell you something better than that. Every last one of the Dormios is dead. Anton and John ...and it might sound strange, but the whole thing was so easy it was kind of anticlimactic. After taking out Anton and John, I even dispatched several other Dormios in less than a minute."

  "But...you've been fighting them for nearly a hundred years now. How was that possible that it was so easy to deal with them today?"

  Nick just looked at me briefly with an inexplicable twinkle in his dark gray eyes. "Believe it or not, you made it possible."

  I sat up a little straighter in bed, thoroughly confused. "What are you talking about? How? What do you mean?"

  With his beautiful dark gray eyes twinkling, Nick smiled. "You made it possible by giving me increased strength, Tiff. Well...you and our baby made it possible. You and our baby saved the day."

  *

  Just staring at Nick, absolutely incredulous, I couldn't respond right away. "What do you mean? What are you talking about that I and our baby saved the day? I’m not pregnant, and I know that for sure…so how can what you said be possible?"

  "It is possible, Tiff…and you are pregnant. You're pregnant with our baby."

  Again, a moment or two ticked by before I could respond, which I did with a funny little tremor in my voice. "Nick, I just don't understand why you're doing this to me, and saying these things to me if you really love me. I don't know why you'd...why you'd want to play some kind of a sick joke on me like this, or…whatever it is you’re doing to me. And I know that it has to be some sort of a sick joke, because I know for a fact that I’m not pregnant."

  With a huge lump rising in my throat, I couldn't continue.

  Shaking his head, Nick picked up my hand and kissed it, then looked at me and spoke in a voice thick with emotion. "I don't know why you'd ever think I'd want to, but I'd never play any kind of a sick joke on you. I'd never intentionally hurt you or lie to you. Ever, for any reason. I'm telling you the truth, Tiffany. You're pregnant. With my baby. Our baby. When you arrived here at the hospital, the doctor performed a series of routine tests, and one of them revealed that you're pregnant.”

  "But you don’t understand, Nick. I can't be pregnant. It’s absolutely impossible. See, I thought I was pregnant for just a few minutes this morning. I realized that I was a day late to start my period, and since this literally never happens to me, I just figured that I had to be pregnant…and I was so happy. But then, not even a few minutes later, I got my period."

  "Well, the doctor said that it appeared that you had maybe had a little spotting, but she said that's completely normal very early in pregnancy. The same with the dizziness and the fainting you experienced. Those things probably weren't just from what you went through on the beam and at the fight. Those things were probably because you’re pregnant."

  "Well...I still can't be pregnant. It just can’t be true.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because even though I trust you, and I have faith in us together, I just can’t believe that fate would see fit to give us our happily-ever-after so quickly. It just seems impossible. See, Nick, I’m just not the kind of person who gets what she wants in life easily. I didn’t get great parents. I didn’t get great foster parents…any of them.

  “Then, when I thought that I’d finally found my ‘forever family,’ my coven, it was all taken away from me. I lost everything when they were killed. I even tried killing myself because I was so distraught, but I couldn’t do it.

  “Instead, I decided to live my life in the best way possible to honor my coven. And for a while, I did. But then I got in the car accident and I lost my powers. A few years later, as you know, I was kidnapped by the government, which was terrifying, even though I’m kind of glad for it because it led me to you. But besides that, do you see what I’m saying? Bad things follow me around like a cloud. They have my whole life.

  “Before you, my only serious boyfriend turned out to be a murderous vampire who killed my coven without me ever even knowing. So, suffice it to say, I haven’t exactly been lucky in love, either. Or at least I wasn’t until I met you. So, do you see why I think that I just can’t be pregnant? Do you see why I think it’s just impossible? Fate just isn’t going to let me have true happiness this quickly, Nick. It just won’t.”

  He gave me a small, comforting sort of smile. “I would disagree. And as far as your life, I don’t think anyone would say that it hasn’t been hard. Fate has really been rough on you. I understand that. I also understand that losing your coven family probably changed you in some pretty profound ways. It probably made you think that you might be cursed in some way. All I can tell you about that is that you’re not.

  “Please believe me about this, Tiff. You’re not cursed. You’re meant to be happy. You’re meant to have love in your life, and you’re meant to have a family. This is why fate has seen fit to give you a break, I think. Whether you believe it yet or not, all that matters right now
is that you are actually pregnant, which is what surely gave me the strength to kill John, Anton, and some of the other Dormios, and help my men to kill all the rest.

  “Even more than that, you becoming pregnant has made all my dreams come true. Now we can be a family, Tiffany. Now we can spend the rest of our lives together and be happy together." Looking deeply into my eyes, Nick paused. "If you want that, that is."

  With tears welling in my eyes, and the lump in my throat becoming even bigger, I could only nod for a few moments. "Yes. That is what I want. More than anything. I can’t believe you even have to ask. I want you, Nick. I want happiness and a family with you. I want it all."

  Nick kissed my hand again, grinning. "Well, that is a good thing, because that's exactly what you're going to have. You’re going to have it all, and you’re going to be so happy. I promise you. As far as me, I intend to never let you down. I intend to be the best father to our baby, and the best husband to you that I can possibly be.

  “As far as the baby, the doctor did an ultrasound scan while you were still out, and she says that the baby looks just perfect. It’s tinier even than a grain of rice at this point, but just the right size and shape he's supposed to be at this stage. The doctor says he looks to be about three, maybe three-and-a-half weeks post-conception, which sounds just about exactly right to me."

  "'He?' Do you mean there's a test to tell the baby's sex this early on in pregnancy?"

  If there was, I’d never heard of it.

  Confirming my thinking, Nick shook his head. "Oh. No, there's not a test like that, but I guess I'm just thinking of him as a he already. I don't know why. I'd be equally as happy with a girl, but it’s just a feeling I have. I just think our baby is a boy."

  Suddenly overcome with emotion, I finally let my tears fall, covering my face with my free hand. "A baby. I just can't believe this, although maybe I’m finally starting to. Me. Pregnant. Us...actually having a baby. It just doesn't seem real…and it probably won’t for a while."

  With his eyes a little pink for the second time that day, yet twinkling with what appeared to be amusement, Nick pulled a small scrap of pale blue fabric from his pocket and handed it to me. "Here. Maybe this will help things seem real. It's a tiny newborn cap one of the nurses gave to me. And in a little under eight months, we'll be placing it on our tiny newborn son's head. Can you believe that? The nurse called it a ‘countdown cap.’"

  Nick's words just made me cry harder than I already was, although with tears of absolute joy, pressing the pale blue cap to my cheek. I still couldn’t entirely believe that my life was changing for the better, and so quickly, but I was starting to. I was going to have a baby with Nick, and I was starting to feel like all my dreams of family and happiness were finally coming true.

  Several hours later, after I'd had a hearty meal and had been examined by the doctor once again, Nick reentered the room and took his spot in the chair by my bedside. "I've been a little too busy to do much of anything besides patrol lately, let alone moving, but by the time you come home tomorrow, I plan to have all your things moved up to our apartment. And by the way, I said our apartment because I'd love for you to move into mine right away if you want to."

  "I do. I’d love that."

  "Well, then, I'll have your things moved in overnight while you're sleeping, and while I'm shopping for your presents."

  I stifled a chuckle. "What presents? You just told me today that I'm soon going to have the greatest gifts imaginable...a baby and a family with you. What makes you think I’d need any additional presents?”

  Nick grinned, taking my hand. "Come on. Every new mom-to-be needs presents. Not for any particular reason. Just because. Just to spoil you…which is something I hope you can get used to. It's going to happen a lot over the next several hundred years we spend together."

  I couldn’t deny that I liked the sound of that. I loved it actually. Being spoiled by Nick, almost into eternity, was something I was pretty sure I could get used to.

  A few weeks later, he and I had Dana and Noah over for dinner at our apartment. Dana and I had dinner anyway; our vampire men just sipped Scotch. Like Dana, I thought that this part was maybe the only drawback of being in a relationship with a vampire. I wanted to cook for Nick and share meals with him, although obviously, this wasn’t possible. However, this was just a very minor little thing, and if this was the worst drawback to being with a vampire, then it wasn’t a very big deal.

  After the meal, Nick thanked Noah for coming to his aid during the fight with Dormios, which he'd already done before, but this time he added that he wanted to extend an offer to thank him even further.

  Noah frowned, looking clearly confused. “Well, what do you mean? What’s the offer?”

  Nick soon asked Noah if he’d serve as best man at our wedding. I'd known he was going to do this, and I'd known that Noah would probably accept right away, which he did. Next, it was my turn, and I asked Dana if she’d like to serve as my matron of honor.

  Grinning, she said yes right away. “I’d be honored. Only if I can be called your ‘woman of honor,’ though. Something about ‘matron’ makes it sound as if I’m about fifty years older than I actually am.”

  We all laughed, and I agreed that we’d refer to Dana as my “woman of honor.”

  Later that evening, Dana popped open a bottle of champagne and a bottle of sparkling cider, which was for me. While she did this and filled everyone’s glasses, she was grinning but with misty eyes at the same time. And when she lifted her glass to Nick and me, her misty eyes began to overflow.

  “I just want to propose a toast to my two very dear friends. Tiff and Nick, I wish you many happy years together…hundreds, actually. May you always have love and light in your home, until the end of your days.”

  Dana’s misty eyes turned out to be contagious, and I had to make use of a napkin Nick handed me to dab my eyes with before I could even take a sip of my sparkling cider.

  Champagne flowed again that September when Nick and I were married in a gorgeous outdoor ceremony, among tall trees that were just beginning to turn gold with the arrival of autumn. At our reception, which was held at a ballroom that had been constructed specifically for the occasion, Nick and I danced until midnight, when he carried me off the dance floor, kissing me to the sound of wild cheers from the several hundred guests in attendance.

  That February, our baby was born, and just like Nick had thought it would be, it was a boy. To be specific, it was a healthy, screaming, seven-pound boy we named David Nicholas Alexander. I thought everything about him was absolutely perfect, from his tiny fingers and toes, to his round little belly, to his gorgeous gray eyes. Dark gray with flecks of light gray within them, they were exactly like his daddy's.

  When baby David was a few weeks old, Dana presented me with a gift for him, a pale-yellow blanket made of the softest brushed cotton I’d ever felt. Dana had sewn a pale blue fabric heart in the center, and inside the heart, just a single word had been embroidered. Family.

  As I ran a finger over the word with Nick by my side, I began sniffling, realizing that somehow, improbably, after the loss of my coven family, I once again had a real family of my own, complete with a husband and a precious baby that I adored. I even felt like I had a sister in Dana and a brother-in-law in Noah. I couldn’t have been any happier. Or at least I didn’t think I could be, anyway, because I didn’t know that in just five months, I was about to get even happier.

  One night while I was cleaning up after dinner, Nick came into the kitchen after having put baby David to bed. He had a little, secret sort of smile on his face, and I asked him what it was all about.

  “You look like you have some good news to share or something.”

  He said that he did. “I just got off the phone with one of my government contacts, and he says that the government has dropped all plans to every try to abduct you again. I guess they figure that even though you still have the were-gene, what they feared could come of it has already
come true, since we’ve already had a baby.

  “So now, they don’t feel like they have to continue perusing things. Of course, I think we’re always going to have to be on guard in case they ever have any thoughts of trying to take David, but from what my contact said, they have no plans to do that right now. So, I think we’re safe. Not only do we not have the Dormios to worry about anymore, but now the government isn’t going to be a problem for us, either. Meaning that our happily-ever-after has officially begun.”

  I agreed with him about our happily-ever-after; however, I wasn’t sure why a happily-ever-after should make anyone cry.

  When three years passed and I didn't become pregnant again, despite having lots of fun trying, Nick and I acknowledged that maybe because he was a vampire, it had probably been an incredibly lucky, fluky thing that I'd become pregnant even once. This didn’t come as a huge surprise to us, since some vampire men had difficulty getting their partners pregnant.

  Because of this, we decided that maybe it was time that I be transformed into a vampire myself so that we could spend centuries together, and not just the few decades or so of the rest of my natural human life. Also, by this point, I was the same age as Nick, or at least his age in terms of how old he'd been when he'd been turned into a vampire, and the prospect of me getting any older and having to spend several hundred years looking older than him just didn't appeal to me very much at all, for obvious reasons. I’d never wanted to look like his aging old mother or something, and I always wanted him to feel attracted to me.