Chapter 61: JUST SOMETHING I ATE
KEISHA’S POV
I laughed but it came out nervous and slightly too high. I winced internally but it was already out there and everyone was still staring at me.
They were waiting for an answer. An answer I couldn’t give them.
"I’m fine." I said. "Sorry. Something I ate this morning, it’s been sitting badly all day." I waved my hand. "I’m fine."
Sera was half standing at her desk. "Are you sure? You look really pale."
"I’m sure." I assured her. "Sit down, I’m fine."
She sat slowly, still watching me.
I pulled my chair out, sat and picked up my fork and put a piece of something in my mouth.
I chewed it and kept my face completely neutral while my stomach considered the options and finally decided to go back to normal.
The office went slowly back to normal and everyone looked away from me finally.
I took a deep breath.
Nadia was sitting very still across from me but I didn’t look at her.
She still had that look on her face. Like she wanted to ask me the question that she had been keeping on her mind for a long time.
She was suspecting something.
Evelyn looked up from her desk. "Maybe you’re pregnant." She joked.
The room laughed and I laughed too even though it wasn’t funny.
Ha. Yes. Funny. Moving on.
My heart was doing something terrible in my chest.
My mind went back to the test I had to flush a while ago. Fuck.
I could have known by now.
I could have known two days ago and instead I was sitting in my office laughing at a joke that wasn’t a joke and pretending my hands weren’t slightly unsteady under the table.
What would even happen if I had confirmed? Obviously, I would have told Dane and Callum. But the thought scared me.
Maybe I didn’t talk about it much, but I was scared of being a mother. Scared that I would fail. I didn’t know how it was, and I was scared of bringing a child into a situation as messy as this.
Into a situation where I was mated to two men. Where the bond showed no signs of faltering. Where a relationship like that was forbidden.
I would never forgive myself if I brought a child to the world in that situation. Unless we found a way—
"Ignore Evelyn." Nadia said, cutting me off from my thoughts.
"I always do." Evelyn called from across the room.
"I wasn’t being rude." Nadia rolled her eyes.
"You were a little bit." Evelyn replied.
"I really wasn’t—"
"It’s fine." Evelyn said. "I know I’m an acquired taste."
I looked between them. "Are you two—"
"We’re fine." They said at the same time.
I almost actually laughed at that. Nadia looked faintly offended at the synchronisation and Evelyn looked quietly pleased about it.
"Okay." I said. "What were you saying about Vanessa and the architectural modernisation?"
Nadia’s expression shifted immediately back to aggrieved. "Right. So." She pointed her fork at me. "She asked me— very casually, like it was nothing, whether the pack had ever considered updating the main building’s exterior." She stared at me. "The building has been there for two hundred years."
"What did you say?" I tried to distract myself.
"I said there was a historical preservation charter that protected all original structures on the estate." Nadia said. "Also made up obviously."
"You can’t keep—"
"She’s taking note of everything she’s going to do when—" She paused.
When she becomes Luna.
Neither of us finished the sentence.
"She asked me something else." Nadia said. "About the Keisha girl as she called you."
I looked up. "Me?"
"She asked how long you’d lived on the estate." She nodded. "And then she asked how close you were to Dad. As a family friend."
I held her gaze, my heart thumping. "What did you say?"
"I said you’d grown up around the family and you were my best friend and Dad thought of you like a younger sister." She sighed.
I looked at my food.
"Was that okay?" Nadia asked. "What I said."
"Yes." I nodded. "That was fine. That was exactly right."
She nodded slowly. "Should I be worried?"
"No." I said. "Eat."
We ate and talked for a while, about random stuff.
After a while, she stood and gathered her bag, hugging me briefly over the desk.
"Call me tonight." She said.
"I will." I smiled.
She left.
I spent the next three hours working through the remaining communication logs. When I finally pushed back from my desk and looked at the clock it was later than I had realised.
I gathered my things and said goodnight to Evelyn who was the only one still at her desk. She waved without looking up from her screen and I walked home through the quiet pack grounds in the dark.
It didn’t really work.
I got home, changed into my sleep clothes and washed my face before I sat on the edge of my bed and thought— tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll get another kit and I’ll actually use it and then I’ll know.
I reached for my lamp and paused.
Something moved outside my window.
I went still and looked at the curtain.
Nothing.
I sat there quietly.
Suddenly, it moved again and I saw the outline clearly.
Someone was outside my window.
My heart launched into my throat.
I sat completely still on the edge of my bed and breathed and told myself it was fine, it was probably nothing, it was one of the patrol wolves passing close to the house.
I watched the outline carefully, looking at how the person moved slightly, still hovering beside the window. Like they were hesitating.
The bond was quiet. And that scared me. Because it meant it wasn’t Callum or Dane. It was someone else and I didn’t know what to do with that.
My heart lurched in my throat and I watched the person quietly.
The shadow shifted then stopped.
The person was looking in.
