The next morning Ann saw very few people in the corridors as she made her way to the room that Bartholomew had set aside for use for the portrait today. Maeve had already been insufferable today, waking her early on with her insistent chatter and asking whether or not she should shower and bemoaned the fact that no one was around to rub fragrant oils into her coat. She didn't take kindly to Ann's suggestion that no one really liked the smell of wet dog anyway and had skulked back into the recesses of Ann's mind with a petulant face. As she entered the room and saw Bartholomew helping the artist set up the backdrop and props, she wanted to turn around and walk straight back out. She had no idea how they did it, but they had managed to somehow create Maeve's vision perfectly, right down to the crimson silk and crown. Ann winced as Maeve rattled around her head excitedly, practically clawing at her eyes in her excitement to shift. "Ah! You Highness! What do you think?" Barth
Ann stiffened and froze as Maeve's words sank in. "What do you mean 'confirm our pups'?" She breathed, practically holding her breath as the realization of what Maeve had said began to sink in. 'You heard me.' Maeve grumbled, 'Now hurry up and finish getting dressed, I don't want to miss this just because you're too dense to see what everyone has been telling you for the past few days and the mere possibility of baking these little buns after all the pounding you've received is somehow shocking to you.' she finished snarkily as she paced restlessly inside Ann's head, stretching the phantom aches out of her muscles that remained from sitting for too long. Ann dressed in a numb silence before mumbling her thanks and swiftly leaving the room with hasty excuses. By the look that Bartholomew had on his face, he knew something was troubling her, but he didn't press for information, and for that, Ann was grateful. She knew that she should have prepared for this possibility, but it
Ann sat on a secluded bench surrounded by climbing fragrant flowers in the garden near Bartholomew's office, struggling to pull herself out of the stunned silence she had found herself in.. Pregnant. Three pups?! Adam would be over the moon, although she wasn't sure his enthusiasm was going to top Maeve's. "See? I told you! Wow! Three pups! They're going to be the most beautiful pups you've ever seen! And strong too! We can take them for runs in the forest as soon as they shift and... I wonder when they'll shift! With both parents being Alpha's perhaps it will happen even sooner! Ann do you think…" Ann listened numbly to Maeve's chatter. She had given up trying to answer her excited yapping and quite honestly, the constant noise was giving her a headache. Although that could also be the result of the mounting stress that she was finding herself under daily. Emily had sent her away from her office with a prescription for supplements to ensure the babies grew well and she did
"Sit. Eat." Allen demanded as Ann glowered at him furiously. "Shouldn't that be, 'Sit and eat, your Highness'?" Lexi sniggered as Ann shot her a glare that told her in no uncertain terms to shut up. Allen sighed and ran his hands through his hair, clearly a little stressed. "Look, if I don't make sure you eat, Adam is going to kill me… not to mention his wolf… and I quite like having my head attached to my shoulders thank you very much," Allen explained, "Does he even know yet?" "Well, I've hardly had time to tell him yet…" Ann replied weakly as Allen raised a questioning eyebrow at her. "So you had time to throw a text to Lexi and not Adam?" "Listen, there's not a lot he can do from all the way over there is there? Besides, I don't want to distract him if he's in the middle of something. And I would much rather he hear this face to face rather than by text or phone call." Ann snapped. Allen narrowed his eyes at her before turning and walking slowly over to the omega b
Aoife straightened the bedsheets on Ann's bed for what seemed like the millionth time that day, and sat down heavily in the armchair at the side of her bed. The room still held that sterile smell of disinfectant that seemed to invade your senses and overwhelm you the longer you stayed there. Aoife had tried everything that she could think of to try and make it at least smell a little more homely, but to no avail. The constant beep and whirring of the multitude of machines that were hooked up to Ann's eerily still body gave the room a depressing atmosphere, the only thing that made any of them feel better, was that Ann was no longer hooked up to the ventilator that had kept her alive for the past week. It was a tense moment when the tube was removed, as they waited for her to take her first breath on her own and the weight of the tension in the air was almost unbearable. As soon as the first raspy intake of air was heard, the relief that everyone felt was palpable. She still s
TW: Non-con S/A, death. A sound from somewhere in the darkness of her bedroom woke Aoife with a start. Her heart raced as she lay frozen in her bed, wondering if she had simply dreamed the noise, or if there truly was someone in the room with her. She had always been a light sleeper and it had never bothered her before, being used to Felix's gentle snoring waking her occasionally, but this? This was different. The faintest sound of some sort of material moving against itself pricked at her ears as she turned her head towards the sound. As soon as she did so a dark chuckle seemed to cut through the darkness a little too close to her head for her liking. She opened her mouth to cry out, but a hand clamped down over it before she could even take a breath. "Hello Ann…" the voice murmured chillingly as Aoife froze. Whoever this was clearly had the wrong room if they were under the impression that she was Ann. "I must say, I'm surprised to see you recovered this well so soon.
Lexi focused intently on the screen of her phone as she picked idly at the snacks that Aoife had left for her. Honestly, if it wasn't for her and Allen keeping her sanity intact after this had happened to Ann, she didn't know what she would have done. She had already been forced to ask her father for help in the few hours that had followed Ann's poisoning when, for the first time since she was a child, her abilities had threatened to overwhelm her as both souls erupted in a helpless, yet furious, rage. If it hadn't been for Aoife's hasty dampening spellwork that had mitigated most of her magickal energy in the area around her, then the destruction could have been astronomical. As it was, the waiting room they had been ushered to had suddenly been in dire need of renovations, and Lexi had promised that she would foot the cost personally As much as she hated to admit it, she needed Greyson at her side as well as Allen. She was still angry with him for being so pigheaded but sh
Allen had finally managed to persuade Lexi to get some shut-eye while he was there and her head was resting on his lap as he kept watch over her best friend. He scrolled through his phone casually, checking through any notifications from the businesses and pack, and waiting for any messages from Adam. He didn't need to wait for very long though, as about 30 minutes after Lexi had fallen asleep, Adam burst through the doors with Felix in tow. They were both unshaven and dirty, clearly having dropped everything and sped back as soon as they had received the news. The commotion Adam made when he burst through the doors woke Lexi with a start and they both watched helplessly as a roar of grief and fury tore from Adam's chest as he took in the sight of his mate so vulnerable and unwell, reliant on all these machines to ensure that she was still safe. He dropped to his knees at Ann's bedside, reaching for her hand as silent sobs wracked his body and he rested his forehead on the