thirteen
“Call your mother." Jessie breezed through the door, a whirlwind of commotion. "And don't bother getting up, I've got this all taken care of." Norah sat up and wiped her nose. She looked at over the back of the couch at Jessie whose hands were filled with containers from the local Chinese takeout place on the corner. Her best friend gave Norah an assessing glance before slamming the door shut with her hip.
"Seriously, call your mother. She's been texting me all day."
"You didn't tell her anything, did you? Does she know I’m here?” Norah didn’t wait for an answer. “I need a day or two more to get my head together. Mom has always been able to see right through me." Norah had too much on her mind to deal with her mother at this moment. The two had always been close, so close that her mother would only need about one minute to demise that Norah was in the midst of absolute and utter heartbreak.
Jessie walked across the room and set the containers on the table. "I told her where you were, but I didn't explain anything about Lukyan. I also didn't tell her you are about five months pregnant." Norah looked down at her blooming belly and then back at the Jessie. "Surely you didn't think I wouldn’t notice. I'm an OB/GYN for God's sake." She threw her hands up and rolled her eyes.
Norah could feel the blush rising on her face. What must Jessie think of her at this moment? Norah had always been the responsible one, the boring one. Jessie was the wild child. But here Norah was five months pregnant by a man she was not married to, whom she loved dearly, but who didn’t love her back. To make matters even more embarrassing, she had known him exactly one day longer than she had been pregnant.
"I didn't think you would notice. I’m not very big yet." Norah bit her bottom lip again.
"I noticed everything, Norah. I noticed that you’re pregnant, and I noticed that, at least to my practiced eye, you are about as many months pregnant as you've known Lukyan. If I didn't know my best friend better, and if I didn't know what a responsible and bright young lady she was, I would think that she got pregnant on that ski trip.” Norah winced. Jessie’s switch to third person speech meant she was frustrated. “But that's just crazy talk, isn't it?" Jessie stood with her hand on her hip and her head cocked to the side. Norah let out a nervous laugh, which made Jessie smile.
"That was a sound I was beginning to think I would never hear again. You have cried nonstop for two days. I'm glad you're laughing a bit now." Jessie pulled the plate from the cabinet and set them on the table. "Now get over here and eat something. You have to take care of that little green-eyed baby.” Norah raised an eyebrow. “What? I am allowed to remember a few things, aren’t I?” Norah smiled and took her place at the table.
The last thing Norah wanted was food, but Jessie was right, she needed to eat for the sake of the baby. She couldn't help but think what Lukyan would say to her if he knew that she had skipped several meals. He would probably list out a hundred reasons why the baby needed regularly scheduled nutrition. Then again, he might let that slide. He was, after all, the man that force fed her one cherry popsicle after another for the past five months. Not once had he chastised her for her inability to eat. Her wolf sighed, and Norah silently agreed with the beast. Lukyan may not have loved them, but her sure did a great job taking care of them.
Jessie served herself a few spoonfuls of orange chicken and passed the container across the table. Norah took out two small pieces of chicken, but after seeing Jessie's frown of disapproval she took out a few more placed them on her plate.
"And rice. That baby needs some carbs." Jessie muttered the words around her mouth full of chicken. Norah dutifully placed a few spoonfuls of the sticky rice on her plate. Her stomach let out an embarrassing growl. Perhaps she was hungrier than she thought. She carefully picked up a bite of chicken with her chopsticks and put it to her mouth. Her wolf thumped its tail. Yes, she had definitely gone too long without food.
"I wasn't kidding when I said for you to call your mother. She's worried about you.” Jessie swallowed the food and stabbed at another piece of chicken. “I'mworried about you." Norah heaved a sigh.
"Don't worry about me, I just needed to figure some things out."
"Figure what stuff out?" Jessie raised an eyebrow, a look that demanded an answer.
"I just need to figure out what to do about my relationship with Lukyan." Jessie’s eyebrow remained cocked. Norah licked her lips and continued, "I love him, Jessie, with all my heart. You were right before, when you said I didn't care for the other guys. I didn't. Lukyan is definitely not one of the other guys. I love him completely. There will never be another man for me."
"Then can you explain to me why you left him? You love him and are miserable without him. You have cried for two solid days. Did he get physical with you?" Norah shook her head no and wiped at the tears that had begun to flow once more.
“Not that, nothing like that.”
“Then what, Norah? What did he do that was so bad to make you leave the man of your dreams?”
"Because he doesn't love me. I asked him point-blank, and he couldn't say it. He acted like he wanted to, trying to say the words, but they wouldn't come out. I thought all along that the thing that would make me the happiest in this world was to get married and have a baby, and here I am mated and pregnant, and it feels so empty without love.” She sobbed around the words, no longer bothering to wipe away her tears.
"Mated?" Jessie’s brow cocked again. “What the hell is mated?”
"I am— We are kind of—" Norah was at a loss for words. She had never intentionally kept a secret from her best friend, not in all the years that they had known one another. Since the day they met as freshman in college, the two had been inseparable.
"Explain, Norah. What do you mean you are mated? Is that some sort of new age marriage thing?"
Slowly Norah released her bottom lip from her teeth. She took a deep breath before explaining. "It'snotnew age, but itissort of like a marriage. But—" Norah wasn't quite sure how to explain, "different."
"Different how?" Jessie would not stop until she got her answer. Norah looked across the table at her best friend and finally decided to just tell her the truth. There was no one on this earth that she trusted more than Jessie.
"Lukyan is a shifter. He can change his body from human to wolf and back to human, practically in the blink of an eye. During our mating ceremony he shifted into a wolf, and while in his wolf form, he bit me. Because I'm his fated mate I also turned into a shifter." Jessie burst out laughing.
"What the hell kind of story is that? You have a mate, not a boyfriend, who, by the way, is also a wolf? He bit you, and now you are a wolf? Come on, Norah, tell me what is really going on."
Latent anger rose in Norah’s stomach. She had told Jessie everything since the day they first met at freshman orientation in college.Everything.How dare her best friend not believe her about this? Norah knew it was far-fetched, but she had never lied before about anything. She knew that Lukyan had warned her sternly to guard the secret carefully, but she needed Jessie to really understand all of the changes and turmoil she had gone through in the past five months. In a moment of frustration, she stood up and took off her pajama top and slid the pajama bottoms down to the floor.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not a prude, Norah, but I'm not one for getting naked with my best friend at the dinner table." Norah snarled.
"I want to show you something. Don't scream." Norah moved to the center of the room and stood to face Jessie. Her eyes were locked on her friend in a defiant stare. Slowly, she closed her eyes and allowed the wolf to show herself. She could feel her wolf push her skin apart as she shed her human skin. Jessie sucked in a sharp breath. Norah silently willed her best friend to stay quiet. No one else could witness this. In only a matter of seconds, Norah's wolf sat in the middle of the floor licking her chops.
