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That one line was like a mantra, chasing away all the inner demons that I had formed over the past year. She finally stepped back and let out a demanding whinny. That was all he needed to step back and start stripping, changing into his form. Riven let out a growl of greeting followed by El’s strange chittering noises.
Any other time, it would make me laugh, but right now, it felt like the best offer of camaraderie a girl could ask for. Zath swooped down and landed on the antelope’s horns for a moment before flying off to land on my back. They were welcoming Lance to the group and it meant everything to me. And to him. For the first time since we’d reconnected, I could feel only happiness in the bond.
Juggling four different bonds was hard. I was used to Zath’s emotions randomly coming through and when Lance and I were together we were happy enough that ours was open wide. But now I had four layers of emotions to untangle. Yet I could easily feel which emotion belonged to which mate. We were made for this and it just felt right.
It was strange to be at peace with the thought of mates. Now that I had all four of them, there was no chance in hell I was going to let Lacey, Stanley, the competition, or all the time we lost, tear us apart. We still had a day to go and I had a feeling that us skipping the banquet was not going to go unnoticed.
Most likely we’d come back to a million notifications on our phones. But at this point, they couldn’t disqualify us for missing something. The competition was done and they’d effectively shut us out from winning anything for days. We had the worst scores for whatever reason Stanley had for hating us, but I didn’t care.
Even my horse no longer cared about winning. She had her mates by her side. She was ready to protect them and what we’d formed, and so was I. I knew it was going to be a fresh battle the moment we stepped back into that hotel.
And we were ready for it.
ChapterFifteen
Nyla
It was so strange to wake up surrounded by all of my mates. I’d been so used to my independence that it almost sent me into a panic until I woke up fully. Zath and I might have snuck into each other’s beds, but in the morning, we’d always go back to our own spaces. But after meeting our soul-bonded animals, it was almost as if something settled between us, a bridge was formed and we could finally stop holding ourselves back.
Riven and El were touching me almost constantly, Zath was relaxed and happy, and even Lance joined us. Nothing escalated beyond passing out when we got back to the room. We spent the evening together, running in the field then grabbing food and eating at the park. It was as if we were subconsciously refusing to go back to the hotel until we absolutely had to.
It was our pocket of peace, mates finding a balance of sorts, and none of us were eager to break that moment.
But now that we’d eaten breakfast and gone our separate ways to get ready, the need to be with them was almost unbearable.
I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Today, we’d be networking, so I’d gone for a pantsuit with a pop of color. It was professional but stood out among the others. I wasn’t going for the all-black boring professionalism too many follow. Not only were we bar owners, but this was not the corporate world. I needed that happy medium. The connections we made here could potentially boost our business and I wasn’t going to pass that up just to avoid confrontation from Lacey or Stanley.
“Hey, I brought coffee. I wasn’t sure if you were feeling mocha or caramel but I got them both.” Zath walked up holding out the two coffee cups for me. But the moment the scent hit my nose my stomach rolled fiercely. I put my hand over my mouth and turned, running to the bathroom and slamming the door shut. My stomach was empty since I’d just woken up, so I could only dry heave. Out of nowhere, I felt like garbage. This did not bode well for the day ahead.
A knock on the door had me groaning. “Um… what the fuck just happened?” Zath called out but I didn’t have an answer for him. “Are you okay?”
I opened my mouth to answer then snapped it shut as reality hit me.
No. I was not okay.
Fuck, I should have started my period four weeks ago! With life and the preparations for the competition, I didn’t even realize it had passed.
It wasn’t like I went into this bonding thing without backup, I had an implant, it should have handled anything, right?
There’s always a chance. That was the one thing that women proved time and time again.
“Oh, God, not now, not when everything is settling into place, there’s no way,” I babbled out before calling for my mate. He pushed open the door as panic started to claw its way up my throat, making it hard to breathe or speak.
How would we raise a baby? Our hours, shifts, everything was joined.
But Zath and I weren’t alone anymore.
Would they stick around, though?
We were barely a bonded group. Nothing would make someone run quite like a baby.
“Oh, God, what the fuck are we going to do?” I couldn’t help it, the words fell out, repeating them over and over to the point of insanity. I was so lost to it that I didn’t even hear him come closer until he was crouched down in front of me, putting his hands on the side of my face, forcing me to look up.
“Nyla, sweetheart, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
I looked up into my best friend and lover’s eyes. In there, was all the reassurance I needed to push the panic down enough to speak.
“I need a pregnancy test.”
