Three: Stasis

Lucien's pov 

The rest of the day was spent in a total wreck. At night I could barely sleep. I moved from the couch to the cold floor then to the bed but my body just wouldn't stay still.

So by morning, I got ready to see Dr. Vaughn and when I stepped out of the house, I caught sight of a SUV parked across the street.

 Theo Crane was sitting in it, watching me and I felt my hands begin to shake. Not from the heat. The heat had burned out hours ago and left something worse behind. A hollow ache in my bones and the constant burn of the mark under my hoodie.

I shouldn’t have gone to him. This was the right time to call my uncle Caspian or anyone else but I just couldn't. I crossed the street anyway and the window rolled down when I got close. His face was in shadow but I knew it was him. 

"Get in," he ordered. So I did. 

We didn’t talk on the drive. Twenty minutes of silence and the sound of the wipers and the smell of him filling the car. He smelled like cedar and rain and something sweet underneath it that made my stomach turn. 

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at our destination. Sterling Private Clinic was empty at 3am. Dr. Vaughn was waiting in the lobby with a clipboard and the kind of smile that meant he’d already read my file.

"Lucien, Good morning.” He greeted. “Your next appointment isn't until next month.”

“There's a problem.” I said and he understood immediately.

“Come with me." He turned and walked. I followed so did Theo followed too, two steps behind me like a guard dog he wasn’t supposed to be.

The exam room was too bright. The paper on the bed crinkled when I sat down and the smell of the sterile environment made me nauseous.

"Strip to the waist," Dr. Vaughn said, pulling on gloves. "And the jacket. I need to see the gland." I hesitated. 

Theo was still in the room, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Dr. Vaughn noticed. "Mr. Crane, you can stay. This involves you."

Heat crawled up my neck. "It doesn’t."

"Heat, mark, collapse." Dr. Vaughn ticked them off. "You called him and he answered. I’d say it involves him." 

I took off the hoodie then Theo’s jacket. It still smelled like him and I hated that I noticed.

Dr. Vaughn’s eyes went straight to my neck. "Fascinating," he murmured. He stepped in closer with a penlight. "Temporary mark which means a thirty day bond and the gland is inflamed."

"Can we just do the tests?" 

"We are." He was already squirting gel onto the ultrasound wand. "Lie back." I did and the wand was cold on my stomach while the monitor flickered to life.

Dr. Vaughn hummed while he moved it. "Bloodwork’s in and the estrogen’s elevated. Ah ha, Progesterone, oxytocin and the scent glands are active. Your pheromones have completely shifted, Lucien."

"English," I said, staring at the ceiling.

"I am speaking English." He clicked something. The image changed. "And this is the part I’m most interested in."

An image flicker appeared on the screen. I frowned. "What is that?"

Dr. Vaughn looked up at me and he was smiling. "There's a heartbeat," he said. "You’re pregnant, Lucien."

The room went quiet except for the beeping. I stared at him in disbelief, trying to make sense of what he'd just said.

Pregnant? H…how? That was impossible!

"No," I said.

"Yes." He nodded like I’d agreed. "You underwent a second differentiation yesterday at 8:42pm, during the incident on floor forty. You’re not Alpha anymore."

I sat up and the room spun. "That’s not possible. Sterlings don’t—"

"It is possible." He cut me off gently, still smiling. "It’s rare, but it happens. Severe trauma plus a bond trigger can force differentiation in adulthood. Your body chose Omega. Most likely to support the pregnancy."

"There is no pregnancy." My voice came out thin. "I’m on suppression tea. I’ve been on it for three years."

"Ah." Dr. Vaughn’s eyes lit up. "The tea. That explains a great deal." He turned the monitor toward me. Charts and dates filled the screen.

"Biologically you’re fourteen weeks along," he said. "But chronologically this pregnancy is approximately twenty-two months old." 

I couldn’t breathe. 

"What?" Theo said from the corner. It was the first time he’d spoken since we got here.

Dr. Vaughn gestured at the screen like a professor. "Suppression tea doesn’t terminate a pregnancy. It puts it in stasis and pauses it. Your body, believing itself to be Alpha, hid it. Tonight the stasis broke because the differentiation triggered it. The bond likely triggered it so everything activated at once."

22 months....Red moon….Two years ago?

Theo.

I looked at him and he was pale. His jaw was tight and his eyes were fixed on the floor like he couldn’t look at me.

"Did you know?" I whispered.

He shook his head once. "No."

Dr. Vaughn was still talking. "This is remarkable, Lucien. Do you understand what this means? You’ve been carrying to term while suppressed. The baby is viable and healthy. But we’ll need to monitor—"

"Get out."

Dr. Vaughn stopped. "Excuse me?"

"Get out!"

"Lucien, I think you should sit and—"

"Out." I yelled and he scurried out, 

still clutching his clipboard like it could protect him from what he’d just said.

The door shut and it was just me, Theo and the sound of the heartbeat on the monitor. I couldn’t look at the screen. I couldn’t look at him. 

Omega. Pregnant. Twenty-two months.

"Sterlings don’t break," I said quietly. 

"I know," Theo answered.

"You don’t know anything."

"I know I left you." The words hit harder than anything Dr. Vaughn had said. I stood up and my legs shook but I made them work. I grabbed the jacket off the chair. His jacket.

"I need to go."

"Lucien—"

I walked out, past Dr. Vaughn was already on his phone, probably calling a medical journal and into the parking lot. It was raining and I could smell myself now. Sweet and wrong and nothing like me. Omega. 

22 months and they’d been there the whole time.