The One 75

THE ONE 75

Chapter 75: Kinsley’s Surprise Sophie When she calms, I look at her. “You’ve gotten more intimate and what?” I ask gently. The tears continue to fall as plucks imaginary lint off of her clothes. “Lucas thinks it’s because I’m m**y unable to handle our intimacy.” She looks up at me with pleading eyes. “That’s not it at all. I’m not disgusted by being with him. The first time, it was hard, yes. We both had to work to keep me in the moment and not flashing back to my marking day. But we’ve tried a couple more times and each time it’s gotten easier. But then, then he caught me throwing up and he thinks I’m not being honest with him. He thinks that it’s my disgust at being with him that’s making me sick. I told him it isn’t, but he thinks that even if I don’t think it, that subconsciously I don’t want to be with him,” she says, breaking down into **bs again. I pull her into another hug, holding her while she cries. “That’s not it at all. Truly Luna. Things have finally started to get better between us. Seeing you and Alpha together, I know that’s what I want, and I know that it’s up to me to give Lucas a chance to show me that I can trust him. But now….now he won’t touch me. He’s so worried that I hate his touch that he barely even holds me. I’d just gotten to the point where I wanted him to hold me and now he’ll barely touch me and if he does, it’s only for a few moments.” She continues sobbing as she tells me all of this, hiccupping through Her words and rubbing tears and s*t o**n my shirt as she cries. 01:15 Blade 15 Reypis 283 Moucher “Kinsley, when you say that you’ve been together, do you mean that you’ve had sex?” She nods against my chest. “And when you had sex, did he come inside you?” She nods again. “Kinsley, have you taken a pregnancy test?” I ask, pulling back to look at her. For me, this is simple, but I can see that the two of them are so twisted up over their mate bond that they can’t see this for

what it is. “It’s too soon, and it was only a few times,” she says. “No one has pups this quickly.” “Really?” I ask, giving her a look as I wipe the tears from her eyes. “You’re different. You’re Sophie Meyers, now Sophie Reynolds. It’s different for you.” “I don’t think so. Come on,” I say standing up and holding out my hand to her. “Where are we going?” “We’re going to see Dr. Felicity. If you’re not pregnant, she can still look you over and figure out what’s wrong. But if you are, she can let you know that pretty quickly.” “I don’t know…” “I will not allow you to be ill, Kinsley. I cannot run with this pack without you. You are too valuable to me and to this pack, and 11253 that doesn’t even begin to account for how much you mean to your mate. He’s so worried about you. Let’s at least let him know what’s going on with you. If nothing else, if you are sick with some bizarre wolf disease, then he’ll know it’s not in your mind, Kinsley. He’ll know this isn’t about him and the two of your can continue to work on your mate bond.” She nods, finally accepting my hand and together we walk to the pack hospital. “We need to see Dr. Felicity,” I say when we walk in. She’s walking by at that moment and looks around the corner. “Luna, is everything alright? Everyone is talking about your pup already. The pack is very excited,” she says. “Yes, I’m good, but I’d like you to take a look at Beta Kinsley for me.” “Sure, come on back.” When we get to the room, she turns and looks at Kinsley. “Tell me what’s going on,” she says. I continue to hold Kinsley’s hand as she tells the doctor about being sick in the mornings, how she feels better as the day goes on, and then goes on to tell her about Lucas’ fears that this is all in her head.

“Well, I don’t think it’s all in your head. Have you been more tired lately?” “Well, yes, but we’ve had so much going on.” “And how about food. Are certain foods that you usually like smelling bad to you?” she asks. Chapter 75 Kinsley’s Surprise “Yes! How did you know? Do you know what’s wrong with me?” she asks. Dr. Felicity smiles. “I’m pretty sure I know what’s going on, but I’ d like to take some blood and get some urine. Then I can confirm my suspicions and let you know for sure.” I stay with Kinsley while Dr. Felicity draws her blood and I wait while she gives her urine sample. Then, I hold Kinsley’s hand as we wait for Dr. Felicity to return. I can feel Kinsley getting more and more nervous the longer we wait. “It will be fine, Kinsley,” I tell her. When Dr. Felicity walks back into the room, she sits down and H**ks at Kinsley. “Well, Beta. It looks like you and our Luna are going to be having pups around the same time. You’re pregnant.” I watch as Kinsley’s mouth opens and closes several times before words come out. “You’re sure?” she whispers. “I’m positive. I’ll want you to start coming in for routine exams. You and your mate will most likely want to hear the heartbeat of your baby. We can do it now, but I’m sure Beta Lucas would want to be here as well,” Dr. Felicity says and Kinsley nods. “And depending on how far along you are, in the next week or two, we’ll be able to tell you if you’re having a boy or a girl.” Kinsley turns to look at me, then bursts into tears again. I reach out to hold her again and Dr. Felicity gives me a tissue for her along with some instructions for her to start following before Chapter 75 Kinsley’s Surprise her next visit. “Thank you, doctor,” I say. “Congratulations, Beta.” Kinsley pulls away from me and smiles at her. “Thank you.” © - All rights reserved.

“Ready to go tell your mate?” I ask her. She nods, choking out a laugh between her tears. “Yes. He’ll be so excited.” “Yes, he will,” I say, and we walk back to the packhouse quietly. I leave Kinsley to her thoughts, knowing that it must be overwhelming for her right now. When we get back to the packhouse, Lucas finds us almost immediately as if he’s been searching for Kinsley. “Kins! Oh, Luna, is everything okay? You’ve been crying, Kinsley?” he asks, and I understand exactly what Kinsley meant about him not wanting to touch her. I can see his hands twitch wanting to hold her and if it were Hunter, he’d have pulled me into his embrace the moment he saw my red- rimmed eyes, but Lucas is holding back. “Can we talk privately, Lucas?” Kinsley asks and I watch as he steels himself for what he must think is terrible news, probably that she really doesn’t want him touching her. “We’ll talk later, Kinsley,” I say, leaving them to their conversation. I’m headed to Hunter’s office when I hear Lucas’ howl of excitement Coming from across the packhouse. Hunter comes running out of his office. “What’s going on?” he Chapter 75 Kinsley’s Surpre asks as several pack members respond to Lucas’ howl. 12 Wochens “We should have a party tonight, Alpha. We have more than one pup to celebrate,” I say, wrapping my arms around his neck as he wraps his around my waist. “Lucas and Kinsley?” he asks excitedly. I nod and he lifts his head, howling almost as excitedly as he did when he found out about our pup earlier today.