Chapter 15: Concealing Pregnancy

 

Briar looked at the sheet for a long time.

Pregnant.

Finally. She had wanted this for so long. She had prayed for it in the cold in front of the east window and she had thought about it lying on the bathroom floo.

She was smiling before she knew she was smiling.

Then she looked at Liam.

His face was not smiling. His face was doing something careful and controlled and very, very serious, and she watched it and felt her own expression start to change.

"Liam," she said. "Why do you look like that."

He pulled his chair closer.

He waited until the doctor left the room. Then he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and told her everything.

If Killian found out about the pregnancy, he would bring her back. He would keep her comfortable until the baby came. And then he would use the prophecy, take the child, and reject her. That was what two children meant. That was why the prophecy existed.

Briar listened.

She listened all the way through without interrupting, which was not something she usually managed, and when he finished she sat with it for a moment and felt the thing that had been warm in her chest five minutes ago turn into something much more complicated and much more painful.

"He would keep my baby," she said. Her voice came out very small. "And just. Send me away."

"Yes."

"That's not." She stopped. "That's not fair. That's not right. That's my baby too."

"I know," Liam said.

"I've been wanting this baby for three years and now I have it and I still lose?" Her eyes were burning. "That's not fair, Liam. That is really not fair."

"No," he said. "It isn't."

She pressed her hand flat against her stomach. Four weeks. There was nothing to feel yet.

"Okay," she said finally. "Tell me what to do."

Liam blinked. "Okay?"

"I said okay. Tell me what I have to do." She wiped her face with the back of her hand. "I'm not giving my baby to him. So tell me."

The door opened and Mabel came in fast, her orange hair still damp, a paper bag from the all-night pharmacy hanging from her wrist. She looked at Briar's face and then at Liam's face and went very still.

"Tell me," she said.

"She's pregnant," Liam said.

Mabel sat down hard on the end of the bed. "What."

"Four weeks."

"Four." Mabel looked at Briar. "Briar. That prophecy. The two children. If Killian finds out"

"I know," Briar said. "Liam already told me."

"This baby cannot stay here! This is the worst possible timing! You cannot let him find out, you cannot let him use this against you, you have to"

"Mabel." Briar looked at her steadily. "I know. We're figuring it out."

Mabel stared at her for a moment. Then she pressed her hand over her mouth and nodded and sat very still and looked like she was fighting several emotions at once.

The problem, Liam explained, was the scent.

Pregnant wolves produced a specific smell in the first trimester, something that registered immediately to any wolf with a functional nose. Killian, as Alpha, had a sharper sense than most. It could not be hidden by normal means.

Liam's family pharmaceutical company produced short-acting suppressants for medical use. They would cover the first eight weeks. After that the concentration of hormones was too high and only a witch's compound would work.

Once the pregnancy was stable and masked, Briar could file with the Wolf Council.

"File what?" Briar said.

"A rejection petition." Liam explained the difference between regular bonds and Alpha bonds. Regular bonded wolves could reject each other. Luna and Alpha bonds were different. A Luna who wanted to leave had to submit to the Council and have a senior committee member preside over the formal dissolution.

"But I can do it," Briar said. "I can actually reject him."

"Yes."

"Officially. In front of people."

"Yes."

Briar sat with that for a moment. Something in her face did something she did not entirely show on the outside.

"All right," she said. "Get the suppressant."

Liam made a call.

What arrived first was not the suppressant.

Briar heard the footsteps in the corridor and felt her whole body go tight under the blanket before the door even opened.

Killian walked in.

He looked at the IV line in Briar's arm, at Mabel standing by the window, at Liam getting to his feet. His jaw was set and his eyes were cold and they moved to Briar last and stayed there.

"You're coming home," he said.

"Killian, she's not well enough to"

"I wasn't talking to you." He crossed the room and reached for the IV line and pulled the needle free in one motion. Briar hissed and grabbed her arm.

"That HURT!" she said. "That really hurt, why would you do that!"

"You ran," he said. "You ran without telling anyone, you put yourself in danger, you have not understood what you did wrong and now you are lying in a clinic because you cannot make a single sensible decision on your own."

"I ran because you locked me up with Mary for a MONTH!" Briar said. Her voice cracked up at the end. "A whole month! You didn't come once! You didn't ask once! You didn't even check if I was okay! And I was NOT okay, Killian, I was really not okay!"

"You threw boiling coffee on my"

"She told me to! She kept asking me to do it and she said horrible things about my mother and I just"

The doctor appeared in the doorway. "Sir, I need to inform you that this patient has a specific medical condition that requires"

"Liam." Briar said his name quietly but clearly.

Liam moved immediately, steering the doctor back into the corridor with a low, firm conversation that closed the door behind them.

Killian had Briar by the arm. She tried to pull free. He held on.

"Let go," she said.

"You're coming home."

"I said LET GO." She pulled harder this time, properly, with both hands, and glared up at him with an expression that surprised even her. "You do not get to just. You can't just show up and pull my IV out and grab me like I'm a bag you forgot somewhere! I am a person! I'm an actual person!"

Killian looked at her. Something moved through his face that she could not name.

Liam came back in without the doctor.

"If you take her," he said to Killian, very quietly, "you treat her right. She has been sick. She needs rest and proper food and she does not go back to Mary."

Killian turned and looked at Liam with an expression that dropped the temperature of the room by several degrees. "Watch yourself."

"I mean it," Liam said. He did not back up.

The two of them looked at each other. The silence went on long enough that Briar did not know what to do with her hands and eventually just pressed them together in her lap.

"I still have your birthday present," she said.

Both men looked at her.

"The tie clip," she said. "I bought it weeks ago and I never got to give it to you. I just." She looked at Killian's tie. Then she looked harder. "Is that. Is that the one I bought? Are you wearing it?"

A knock at the door.

A nurse leaned in, apologetic. "Mr. Vane? There's a woman at the front desk asking for you. She says it's urgent. Her name is Vivienne Thorne."

Something shifted in Killian's face. The locked, furious thing in it moved sideways for a moment, replaced by something else, something that made Briar's chest hurt in a way she was getting tired of feeling.

"I'll be back," he said to Briar. To Liam he said nothing.

He left.

Briar sat on the clinic bed and watched the door close and thought about the tie clip on his tie, the one she had bought with the last money she had, and how he had been wearing it this whole time without saying a word about it.

She did not know what that meant.

She was not sure she had the energy to figure it out tonight.

"I wasn't talking to you." He crossed the room and reached for the IV line and pulled the needle free in one motion. Briar hissed and grabbed her arm.

"That HURT!" she said. "That really hurt, why would you do that!"

"You ran," he said. "You ran without telling anyone, you put yourself in danger, you have not understood what you did wrong and now you are lying in a clinic because you cannot make a single sensible decision on your own."

"I ran because you locked me up with Mary for a MONTH!" Briar said. "A whole month! You didn't come once! You didn't ask once! You didn't even check if I was okay! And I was NOT okay, Killian, I was really not okay!"

"You threw boiling coffee on my"

"She told me to! She kept asking me to do it and she said horrible things about my mother and I just"

The doctor appeared in the doorway. "Sir, I need to inform you that this patient has a specific medical condition that requires"

Liam moved immediately, steering the doctor back into the corridor with a low, firm conversation that closed the door behind them.

Killian had Briar by the arm. She tried to pull free. He held on.

"Let go," she said.

"You're coming home."

"I said LET GO." She pulled harder this time. "You do not get to just. You can't just show up and pull my IV out and grab me like I'm a bag you forgot somewhere! I am a person! I'm an actual person!"

Killian looked at her. Something moved through his face that she could not name.

Liam came back in without the doctor.

"If you take her," he said to Killian, very quietly, "you treat her right. She has been sick. She needs rest and proper food and she does not go back to Mary."

Killian turned and looked at Liam with an expression that dropped the temperature of the room by several degrees. "Watch yourself."

"I mean it," Liam said. He did not back up.

The two of them looked at each other. Liam used mindlink to tell Briar to go home. Briar also thought that perhaps agreeing to go home would make everything simpler.

"I still have your birthday present," she said.

Both men looked at her.

"The tie clip," she said. "I bought it weeks ago and I never got to give it to you. I just." She looked at Killian's tie. Then she looked harder. "Is that. Is that the one I bought? Are you wearing it?"

A knock at the door.

A nurse leaned in, apologetic. "Mr. Vane? There's a woman at the front desk asking for you. She says it's urgent. Her name is Vivienne Thorne."

Something shifted in Killian's face, something that made Briar's chest hurt in a way she was getting tired of feeling.

"I'll be back," he said to Briar. To Liam he said nothing.

He left.