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
"Nice to see us all acting like grownups now… well… most of us..." Lexi smirked with a side glance towards Adam. He didn't bother responding and Allen shot a look towards Lexi, letting her know that she was pushing her luck. Felix cleared his throat awkwardly. "Aoife said that she had been having more fun with you two than she had since she had left home." He half smiled, "I don't know if I should be offended or happy that you two have been taking care of her so well." "You furballs will never understand how much a woman needs her girls." Lexi answered almost immediately with a little laugh, "When your hormones and caveman-like urges are through the roof, then we NEED each other. It's a sisterhood, furball." "I understand." Felix said with a small smile as he cocked his head, "Where is Aoife anyway? Did she return to our room?" "Oh we've been sharing shifts with Ann so she wasn't on her own. I take the night shift and Aoife does the day shift. She managed to persuade the
Allen stared at him in shock for a second as the furious figure of Felix soared through the air toward him. He just couldn't wrap his head around it. What the hell had happened in those few short minutes that he had been gone that would explain why he was covered in blood and why he was in such a murderous rage. He managed to sidestep Felix's initial assault, moving away from Ann's bedside and trying to defend himself as Adam snarled in fury at the violence that was occurring in such close quarters to his bedridden, vulnerable, and pregnant mate. Felix swung wildly at Allen and then at Adam as they tried to restrain him to find out exactly what was going on. "Felix calm down! What the hell happened?!" Adam roared as he dodged a wild punch from the clearly distraught Alpha in front of him. As much as Baldur wanted to meet his violence with violence, the cloying scent of blood that hung around Felix told him that something horrific must have happened. If it concerned Aoife, t