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“I can imagine they would, considering their choices. But what about people who genuinely don’t know anything? They can’t all be actually guilty, right?”
“Do you think I would mete out our pack’s harshest punishment on a whim? Without concrete proof of guilt?” he’s oddly defensive; the sentencing must have been more traumatic for him than I thought.
“No, I think you’re too careful for that.” There’s no need for me to confess to my earlier misgivings about him. “But I think Amber was right. After this, there’s nowhere else to go. There’s no punishment that will top that one.”
“Perhaps it will deter someone from doing worse, next time,” Nathan says, though it sounds as if he doubts it.
“And if it doesn’t? And they do something even worse?” I wave my truncated arm around a little. “Like trying to kill your wife again?”
“There’s already a sentence for that,” he reminds me. “But you have a point.”
“Then, you’ll cancel this whole gross thing?” I ask hopefully.
“No.” He sighs deeply. “But I’ll reduce the sentence for all but a few. It will be clear that I can be merciful, if I wish to be.”
“And you won’t look weak,” I add.
“I know. I’m just repeating what Amber already proposed,” he muses. “If you both think I’m wrong, then I must be.”
Maybe I shouldn’t be so glad that Amber is gone.
“Come on,” Nathan says, gently nudging me to sit up. “Let’s get you into bed.”
Of course, if she were still around, Nathan wouldn’t be carrying me up to my room.
The pack’s medical center sends over a thrall first thing in the morning to draw my blood for a pregnancy test. First thing in the morning doesn’t sound so bad, except I went to sleep about three hours before that.
Luckily, once they get the blood out of me, I can stumble back upstairs and into Nathan’s warm, waiting embrace.
It’s the second time in our entire relationship that Nathan has slept in a bed with me and still been there the next morning. Even more of a landmark, he slept in bed with me without us having sex.
I leave my robe on a chair and wriggle under the duvet, curl up against Nathan’s side, and drift back to sleep.
When I wake up again, he’s gone. But it’s also almost noon and my phone is going berserk.
And it’s Nathan.
“They’re here with your results,” he says, his voice a mix of anxious and thrilled all at once. “We’re all in your office. We just need you.”
“I’m on my way.” I hop out of bed and find the fastest clothes I can put on, a t-shirt and jeans. On my way downstairs, I’m struck by a lightning bolt of fear. Nathan is so excited. He wants this to be true so badly. What if it’s not.
What if the whole change to my scent and taste thing is an indicator of a horrible disease?
What if Nathan is disappointed and I’m dying?
Every step is like I’m walking to the guillotine.
Xiao is waiting for me in the sitting room. She gives a quick bob of her head and a “Your Majesty” before she follows me out the door.
“Morning,” I say, and make a mental note to apologize for my distracted greeting later. I don’t want to be rude to the people who spend so much time serving us every day.
Nathan wasn’t kidding when he’d said “we’re all” waiting. Hannah is there with him, and Tara, as well as a thrall doctor I vaguely remember tending to me as I drifted in and out of consciousness after my amputation.
“Your Majesty,” everyone but Nathan says as I enter the room.
And Nathan says, over the top of them, “She’s here. What are the results?”
“Are you ready, Your Majesty?” the doctor asks me, clearly used to dealing with impatient mates.
“Yeah.” I cast a glance to Hannah, the only other person in the room who’s been through this part, at least, that I know of. “I think I am?”
I think I’m ready to hear the words that will change my life so completely, forever.
The doctor smiles. “Congratulations, Your Majesties. You’re awaiting the arrival of your royal heir.”
I’m off my feet and dizzy before I can register that Nathan has caught me up and swung me around. It’s so out of character for him to let down his guard and show real emotion in front of his subjects that Hannah, Tara, and Xiao are visibly startled.
“This is so exciting,” I babble once he sets me on my feet, though it’s bizarre that I’m so amped up about something I’ve never seriously considered before. I didn’t even know I wanted to be a mother. Then I remember the person missing from the room. “Oh my gosh, I have to go tell Clare.”
Hannah and Tara share a look that I don’t like.
“Not right now,” Nathan says.
