AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m feeling, uh, uncertain, I guess.” He reached behind her to his desk to pluck a Kleenex from the box. “I’m not trying to be insensitive or piss you off, but I need you to tell me this is mine.”
She narrowed her eyes slightly, pausing to blow her cute button nose. “It’s yours.”
Her words were like a blow to his gut, killing that last tiny shred of hope he’d been clingingto. He’d known. He’dalways known. Hearing the words out loud though, it was more jarring than he thought it would be.
He nodded, when what he wanted to do wasburyhis body under the covers and never come out. “I figured, I just, I guess I needed to hear it, you know?” He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Okay.I think maybe we just take a beat. Take a few days and absorb this, figure out where we want to go from here.”
“Like to keep the baby or not?” She was frowning again, in that way she had that made her appear confused and a little bit sad. “Do you want to be, I mean, will you be…” Her eyes welled up with tears again, spilling down her cheeks, one after the other.
“I’ll be here. No matter what you choose.” He meant that. He meant it with his whole heart. In a way, it was easier for him. He was always going to play a supporting role in this situation. She had to make the hard choices. Thechoices he wasn’t sure he’d ever have the courage or guts to make.
Chicks had it tough, and anyone who said otherwise was a fucking asshole. “Like I said, let’s take a few days, okay? Maybe you can talk through things with your family and—”
“Oh my god,my family.”
“I know.” The dread on her face made him chuckle in solidarity. “My family is going to flip the fuck out too.” Oddly enough, when he thought of his family’s reaction to the news, it wasn’t his mom and stepdadwhocame to mind. It was his pack. Hischosen family. He worried that Linc and Maddi would be disappointed in him. Hewondered if Molly would cry, and if Dom would pop him on the back of the head in that fatherly way he did to all the boys. Would Jace sigh in exasperation? WouldAxie ever be able to pick her jaw up off the floor?
“No, you don’t understand, my father. What we did was a sin and a child born out of wedlock is blasphemy. They’re going to disown me, or hide me in a basement until I give birth.” Callahan stood, pacing much like he’d done when Riley had first told him. “I can’t be pregnant. I can’t.”
“Okay, um, well, there are other options. I’ll help you. I’ll go with and take care of you, I’ll do whatever—”
“Didn’t you just hear what I said? My parents would disown me.”
“For having the baby? Or not having the baby? I’m confused here.”
“Both.” She wrung out her hands, clenching and unclenching her fists. “They’re going to make me have the baby. They’regoing to make me choose adoption.” Her hand went to her forehead, like her thoughts were coming so rapidly that she was having a hard time keeping up. “I’ll have to miss a year of school.I’ll fall behind. I have to move home. They’llhide me in the house, best-case scenario. Otherwise, they’ll send me off to my aunt. Shelives all the way down in Florida,but it’s far enough away that no one from the church would find out.”
“Stop.” Jasper stood, putting his hands on her hips to make her stand still. “Stop spiraling and slow down.” He moved his palms to her cheeks, making sure she was hearing him. “Your parents don’t get to tell you what to do, or whatnotto do. You’re eighteen. We’re legally adults, Callahan, they have no say in any of this.”
“But they’re my parents.”
“And we would be parents if…”Whoa.That was like a baseball bat to the gut to saythat out loud.He forged ahead, not wanting her to know his knees had gone weak. “We choose what happens next.”
Jasper wasn’t sure when he’d decided that Callahan’s parents could fuck the hell off. It was most likely somewhere around forcing adoption and locking her in a basement. Intentional or not, he and Callahan were a team. Theywere in this together. He’d be damned if he let anyone back her into a corner and force her to make a decision she wasn’t comfortable with.
“School is over.I live on campus.I have to go home for the summer.” She wriggled out of his grip and started her pacing again. “I guess I could hide it for a few months. I won’t show until next semester. Maybe I could get another semester of school in before I’d need to take time off.” She stopped, biting at her lip. “If we keep the baby. If I keep—”
“We.” Jasper vowed to be a good guy through this, and a good guy would sayweand he’d mean it. So that’s what was happening. “We.” Huh, the second time wasn’t nearly as terrifying. He found that hedidmean it.
“What do you want to do?”
He wanted none of this to be happening. It was selfish, and it made him feel sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to have a baby at nineteen with a girl,who,although amazing, wasn’t his true mate. She wouldn’t understand that, so he went with a safer answer. “I want to give you the space and time to decide whatyouwant to do. I’ll be here for whatever you choose. You want to have this baby, then I’ll help. We’ll take turns with class and school. We’llwork out a good schedule and make sure we both graduate. My family is going to lose their shit,but they’ll help us too.” They sure as hell wouldn’t try to lock anyone in a basement. “If you don’t want to do this—”
“Adoption?”
Jasper wasn’t locked in on how he felt about adoption. Would he be okay knowing their kid was out there, living somewhere else? Maybe they could have an open adoption, maybe they could get updates, to make sure it was okay? Shit. No.If it was a boy, they’d have to choose a shifter couple. They’d have to find someone who would know what was coming, would be able to teach them about shifter life and culture. His wolf metaphorically picked his head up again; he wasn’t thrilled with Jasper’s train of thought. He didn’t want the baby with someone else. Not that Jasper cared what hiswolfthought one way or another.
Would he need to tell Callahan what he really was? He’d cross that bridge when they came to it. Itdidn’t matter right now. All that mattered in the moment was making suresheknew no one could force her to do anything she wasn’t comfortable with.
“Sure. Ifyou want to choose adoption, then I’ll be right next to you the whole time. We’ll find a great couple, together.”
“I have to go home.” She looked at the bag he’d already packed to visit his pack, like his suitcase reminder her all over again. “I’ll have to lie to them, every day.”
“I’m guessing that’s also a sin? What do you think will shock them more? The pregnancy, or finding out you lost your virginity at church camp when you were seventeen?”
“Don’t make fun.”
“I’m not.” He was pointing out how ridiculous it was that a grown brilliant woman was so worried about disappointing mommy and daddy. His smirk fell when she started to cry all over again. Was this the shock of the news? Or were these already pregnancy hormones? He doubted she’d appreciate him asking.
