Guardians Of The Shifters (22 page)

“I just might.”

He shook his head. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to have a meeting.”

“And will you be coming back from that meeting?”

I looked away from him. “I just don’t know Caleb. If I don’t, I want you to hold down the fort. The house is yours to do with what you wish. I only ask one thing.”

“What’s that?” His voice shook.

“Make sure our people don’t go after their people anymore.”

“You’re that sure you might not be coming back?”

I clasped him on the shoulder. “I’m tired of everything Caleb. If I’m going out, I’m going out with one last
hurrah
and I’m taking one of them with me and I don’t care which one it is.”

He nodded his head in understanding. “See you on the other side old friend.”

I smiled at him. “See you on the other side.”

I waited until Caleb was back in the house before I set out on my last mission and I didn’t know whether or not if I was coming back from it.

                                   Chapter 12: CORA

I woke up on a soft fluffy bed with light streaming through the windows and for a minute I didn’t know where I was. I looked around at the now familiar surroundings of Caden’s place at the safe haven. I crawled my way out of the bed and made my way towards the living room with my hands sliding along the smooth surface of the wall. Caden was banging around in the kitchen, throwing things on the counter.

There was a wooden tray with handles sitting on the table. There were fruits, veggies and small sandwiches already placed on it with a half a glass or orange juice. I stood by the table with my elbows resting on the back of a chair as I leaned forward. I wondered how long it would take him to notice that I was standing there, watching him.

A few minutes later, he stopped what he was doing and slowly turned to face me. A slow, half smile spread across his face and I couldn’t help but to return his smile with one of my own. He walked over to me and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms around me.

Slowly the events of last night came to me and only two words stuck out,
you’re
pregnant
. My groan sounded muffled because my face was buried in his chest. How could this happen? I mean, I know how it happened, it’s just that, I thought we were careful. Thinking back to that first time, of course, the shower. That was a month ago. Oh god, oh god. I pulled back slightly and Caden saw my freaked out expression.

“What’s wrong?”

My face blanched. “I’m pregnant.”

He smiled again. “Yes.”

“Are you sure?” I stumbled over my words.

“Yes I’m sure.”

“But how do you know?”

“Cora, I-.”

He saw the mortified look on my face and pulled me back into his arms, resting his chin on the top of my head. We swayed back and forth for a little bit until my stomach let out the loudest growl I’ve ever heard. Yeah, that’s not embarrassing or anything. Caden chuckled and retracted his arms from around me.

“Come on, sit down. I was going to bring this to the room, but since you’re awake, here you go.”

He set the tray in front of me. He didn’t have to tell me to eat because I was already digging in.

“We shifters.” He began. “Can sense when their partners are close to their cycle or when they’re pregnant. I don’t know how it works. I think it’s because we spend so much time around each other, that our lives are intertwined.” He sat in thought for a minute while I finished the fruit. “My mother once told me that when I find the person I’m destined to be with, that I’ll instantly know.” He looked at me. “We were fated long before you were born. You are my soulmate. But if you want, we have a clinic here and we can get a test done, just to be sure. They’ll keep it on the down low.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

“Okay, finish eating and after you wash up, we’ll go.”

I ate three more small sandwiches and jumped up from the chair and ran to the bathroom to clean up. Caden was standing by the window looking out it, deep in thought when I came back out. He looked over at me and smiled half-heartedly as he reached out his hand to take mine.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that he’s hoping that we are going to have a baby. Hand in hand, we walked out the door and into a warm, brightly lit day. A few people milled about, waving when they saw us and a few
hay’s
and
welcome back
were thrown at us.

We waved back, too nervous to say anything, well I was nervous anyway, not sure about him.

When I pictured the clinic, I expected to see a big white building with big windows and flower pots sitting on the window sills and sliding glass doors. Nope, the clinic was a double wide, brown house with flowers planted under small square windows and a regular brown door that you have to open.

I must have walked past this place over a hundred times, thinking it was a type of storage building the last time I was here. There was no sign indicating what this building was. The inside was a little chilly for my taste.

The only few things on the light brown walls were tacky, black and white pictures of the woods and a big round clock. Would it hurt them to add a little color to the place? Caden and I stepped up to a desk that held a lamp, printer and a way out dated computer. The woman looked up from the book she was reading.

“Can I help-Oh my god…Caden!”

“Hello Carol.”

“It’s been so long.”

“Yes it has.”

They went on and on and I just stood off to the side like what the fuck. Wait, was that a hint of pink to her cheeks? Was she blushing? How the hell do they know each other? A million thoughts raced through my head and none of them were good.

The fire stirred within me and I tried my best to keep a lid on it. I need to find a way to keep control of my hybrid side, especially if it’s going to rear its ugly head at the first taste of jealousy. I concentrated hard on my breathing and for a few seconds, that’s all I could hear, was the air sawing in and out of me.

I snapped myself to focus at the light touch of Caden’s hand on my shoulder. It took me a minute to realize that he was talking to me. I mentally shook myself.

“I’m sorry, but what did you say?”

He looked at me with concern. “I asked if you were ready.”

“Oh, yeah…ready as I’ll ever be.”

My voice didn’t sound convincing, even to my own ears. I followed Caden and Carol past the waiting room, down the hall and into a room on the left. There was an uncomfortable looking bed with a type of paper laid over it.

On one side of the bed, there was a computer looking thing with a small screen and a bunch of knobs and buttons. A small built in table hung off the side with a type of gel sitting in what looked to be a warmer. Next to that, there was a thing that looked a lot like a hand held scanner, the kind that cashiers used at grocery stores.

“Alright Cora.” Came Carol’s high, pitched girly voice. “I’m going to need you to sit up on the table, lay back a lift your shirt up above your belly.”

I did as I was told. The bed/table was a lot more than just uncomfortable, but I couldn’t place a name for it. I looked everywhere but at the girl. I jumped a little when I felt something cold on my stomach.

“Sorry.” She said apologetically. “It’s cold at first.”

She picked up the scanner thing and sat it on my belly with a little bit of pressure and started moving it around.

“Let’s see what we have here.”

She moved it up, down and around each side before going back below my stomach. It was a few more minutes before she spoke.

“There it is.”

I looked at the screen and saw something that looked like a shape of a peanut, only bigger. She turned back to me smiling.

“That’s your baby. You’re about a month along.”

She tapped some buttons, zoomed in and tapped more buttons before printing out a black and white picture. She handed it to me and I took it with shaky fingers.

“Congratulations to you both.”

“Thank you.” Caden said with so much joy in his voice.

After she left, I just half laid and half sat there staring at the picture. What was I going to do? I’m not ready to be a mother.
You better buck up, because you’re going
to be one
, came a voice in the back of my mind. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry. The crying won out in the end. When Caden wrapped his arms around me, I clung to him like he was my life line.

                                     Chapter 13: CORA

I don’t know how long I sat there, crying and holding onto Caden. Eventually the tears stopped and I was able to look at him through puffy red eyes. He looked at me with so much love in his eyes, the tears threatened to fall yet again but this time, I was able to hold them back.

We left the clinic in silence, the picture was still clutched tightly in my hand but not enough to ruin it. Caden had his arm around my shoulders, holding me closely to him. I was thankful for that, he was my rock.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Kevin making his way towards us. I tried to hide the picture, but his keen eyes saw it before I was able too. His eyebrows flew up practically to his hairline and a smile broke out over his face.

“Does this mean I’m going to be a brother?”

I looked at him confused. “Brother?”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. Uncle.”

“That would be great.” Caden said. “Our baby would be lucky to have an uncle like you.”

Kevin smiled. “Hell’s yeah, I’ll spoil him/her rotten.”

I couldn’t help but to smile, Kevin’s smiles were always contagious. I held out the picture so he could get a better look at it. His smile got bigger, if that was even possible.

Together the three of us walked back to Caden’s place and I was a bit surprised to see Rex about ready to knock on the door. He turned around when he heard our feet scraping against the ground.

“Oh, there you are, I was just coming to find you.”

“What do you need cousin?” Caden asked.

“Your friend Kevin here, said there was something we need to talk about.”

“Is that so?” Caden turned his stare on Kevin.

Kevin looked away and started to whistle, acting all innocent. Caden cleared his throat and looked back at Rex.

“We need everyone gathered in the dining hall.”

“T-the dining hall?” I stammered.

“Yes love, it is the only place big enough to fit all of us.”

I think I paled a little bit. I haven’t been in the dining hall yet, not since I killed Cole there.

“Very well.” Said Rex.

“We will see everyone in twenty minutes.”

“Alright.” Rex stepped past us, stopped and looked at us over his shoulder. “By the way, I’m glad you guys are back.”

Yeah, we were back, but we weren’t sure for how long, well I wasn’t sure anyway and I couldn’t say the same for Caden. After we ate some food, we headed over to the dining hall. I fidgeted the whole way and kept getting odd side glances from Kevin. I didn’t say anything as we walked through the doors.

Everyone that lived here took up all of the tables and I noticed that there were more here than the last time. My eyes strayed away from the shifters and guardians and lingered on the spot that I took Cole’s life. I couldn’t look away. I remembered it as if it happened yesterday. The dagger sank into his flesh as if it was like butter. Shock was written all over his face and I don’t think he actually thought I’d do it.

Caden squeezed my shoulder as he walked to the front of the room and claimed everyone’s attention. He was about to dive into the reason why we were here until there was a commotion outside.

“What the hell?” I whispered as Kevin and I made our way towards the doors. We almost reached them when they were being kicked in. I let out a surprised gasp to see Ash standing there, surrounded by day light.

His eyes locked on me and he smiled. It wasn’t one of those I’m-happy-to-see-you smiles. It was one of those I’m-going-to-hurt-you-bad smiles and also kind of smug. He slowly backed away with his arms spread wide.

“We have a score to settle love.”

Kevin took a step forward but I grabbed him by the arm.

“I’ve got this.”

“Cora?”

“I’ll be fine.”

I looked over my shoulder to see Caden trying to elbow his way through the crowd of people that stood once they here the commotion. I gave him a small smile before turning back towards Ash and stepping outside.

                                     Chapter 14: ASH

I watched her make her way towards me and even though it’s been a couple days since I’ve last seen her, she still looks as beautiful as ever. To me, it looked like she was glowing, but that could just be the hybrid side of her.

My heart sputtered in my chest just looking at her. Now that I was here and looking at her, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do what I came here to do. I was expecting Caden or Kevin to come out here with her, but somehow, she managed to shut the doors and keep them closed.

I could hear people banging on the doors, calling her name and trying to get out. Her eyes darted around the square and my lips tipped up in a bigger smile.