Mated By Fate by Christa Wick

Chapter Twenty-Five

Lana visitedEsme the morning after the ceremony and all the mornings after that for the two weeks the witch remained cloistered inside her home.

Esme allowed only Lana, Oscar, and the sick to visit her, just as she left only for emergency healings no one else could handle. Not that she took satisfaction in Coop having to haul his annoyed ass to her doorstep for a piercing headache Camille couldn’t cure, but she needed some semblance of control, at least over where and how she did what was asked of her.

At the end of the third week, Lana followed her morning visit with one in the evening. She carried a binder of fabric. Her green eyes twinkled, her entire body framed with a soft aura of witch light.

Closing the door behind Lana, Esme tossed a dish towel over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at the latent turned fledgling witch. Going to the kitchen, she started readying some tea.

"What's got you so over the moon that you're glowing?" She turned to the sink in time to see Lana lift her shoulders.

“Am I glowing?”

Even with the ten feet of distance between them, Esme detected the blush of subterfuge across her friend's creamy cheeks. She quirked a brow up, her gaze narrowing just so she could watch Lana squirm with guilt. "Must I put a truth spell on you?"

Another blush, hotter than the first, and Lana swiveled in her chair. Shaking her head, she opened the sample book. "You're going to finish making my tea, witch, and then help me decide on colors for the nursery. With all the insanity around the clan, I've carved out space and Seth is making a crib, but there is no fabric, no fresh paint…I need colors!"

"Huh," Esme snorted. "Let's see, how about brown, green and...oh, yeah, more brown."

A scowl marred Lana's pretty face. "It's not going to look like a hole in the ground!"

"Even as infants, shifters are very instinct-driven," Esme cautioned. "Tala's mother tried a traditional human nursery and Camille's ears are probably still ringing from trying to cure that case of colic. All the fussing stopped the day the den was restored."

Bringing the tea tray to the kitchen table, Esme sat across from Lana and took the swatches from her. "But it doesn't mean the nursery has to be ugly. You can put some coppers and silvers in, some gold and pewter."

Looking up, Esme saw worry pinch at Lana's brow. "What's wrong, bestie?"

Lana rubbed nervously at her stomach. Her witch glow had died out and her cheeks were hot pink once more. "When he comes out…"

Esme tilted her head, nostrils flaring in search of Lana's scent. As a latent, her sense of smell was far removed from a wolf's, but a dozen times better than any human's. Even so, she couldn't detect enough of the baby's smell within Lana's signature to tell the cub’s gender. "He?"

Lana nodded, smiling. "Seth thinks so. He gets all growly and rubs himself over me, says it's because of another male's scent." Her gaze turned serious again, her voice dropping an octave as she finished her question. "What will the baby look like?"

Esme relaxed in her chair. "Like every other baby you've ever seen in your life, maybe just a little leaner. He probably won't shift until he's between six and seven years old."

Lana finished adding sugar and cream to her tea. Blowing on it, she took a little sip. "What do you mean by probably?"

"Assuming he's alpha like Seth," Esme explained. She had arranged the front of the binder with a rainbow of browns, greens, dark aqua and teal, rust and metals. The smile on Lana's face when Esme passed the binder back eased a little more of the last few months' weight from Esme's shoulders. It was near impossible to feel sorry for herself when her friend was across from her beaming joy. "If he's a beta, it might be as late as nine. I only know of one who shifted before six…assuming everyone has guessed his age correctly."

She trailed off, hoping Lana wouldn't ask which wolf she was talking about. Lana looked up from the fabric, understanding glowing in her eyes. She took another sip of tea, her expression and the energy buzzing around her telling Esme the question about the baby and the nursery were just two of the reasons she had stopped by for a second visit that day.

"Don't keep me waiting all evening," Esme teased.

Lana spent a few more seconds chewing at her bottom lip before she sucked a big breath in and released it, the news spilling from her with the expelled air. "I'm not the only one pregnant!"

Esme nodded. "I had hoped your pregnancy would trigger something in the she-wol—"

She stopped talking when Lana vigorously shook her head, the raven black hair flying around her shoulders. Lana stopped abruptly and looked away. Her mouth puckered, dancing in some kind of internal debate before she turned back to Esme and captured her friend's gaze.

"The ones I know seem to have gotten pregnant on the night of the ceremony and I think there are a couple more pregnant, but…" She gave a little flick of her nose, indicating it wasn't something she would be able to smell and no announcements had been made.

Trying to deny Lana's meaningful gaze, Esme closed her eyes. It was nothing more than coincidence if the female shifters really had conceived on the night of the ceremony. The events weren’t connected.

Esme shook her head. "Their bodies just needed a little time to catch up after they started scenting your pregnancy, Lana. That's all it is."

"What about you?" Lana asked softly. When Esme lifted a confused brow, Lana gestured at the witch's stomach. "Are you—you know—pregnant? I was told you weren't allowed to use a condom."

Lana finished with her eyes cast down, another hot blush burning across her cheeks, the same one that surfaced on the two other occasions she had tried to talk to Esme about the ceremony. Closing her eyes, Esme soaked in the energy leaking from Lana and knew her friend felt ashamed that the clan had demanded the ritual and even more ashamed that a part of her, the part that wanted to keep her baby safe, was glad they had done so.

Esme brushed a tear from her own cheek and made sure her voice was even before she answered. "Thankfully, I'm not pregnant."

Lana looked up, her shame transformed to a deep sadness. Esme reached across the table and wrapped her hands around Lana's.

"I am overjoyed that you are carrying Seth's child and that, when your baby is born, he'll have playmates to grow up with. But…"

Esme trailed off, thinking of how wrong everything would be if she were pregnant with Denver's child. Never mind Denver's claim to the child—the whole clan had a claim. Knowing Coop, he might deny her the right to raise the baby and she couldn't flee off the clan's lands and keep the child safe even now that she was free of her blood oath.

She shook her head, the very thought of being pregnant making her faint and cold.

Lana reversed the position of their hands until she was holding Esme's. Feeling how the fingers had turned to ice, she rubbed at them. Mindful of the fragile look on her friend's face, Lana kept her voice soft and gentle. "But what?"

"But you have Seth."

Lana turned Esme's left hand over and softly brushed her thumb along the heart line. One line, unchained, unbroken—one love her whole life through.

"And you have Denver," she whispered and then her voice grew stronger. "All you have to do is crook your little finger and he's here. Believe me."

Esme shook her head, the dark blonde curls bouncing in denial as she pulled her hands away and folded them in her lap. "It's not my palm you need to read, little sister. He hasn't been around the property at all."

"He's giving you room and time. He doesn't want you leaving the safety of the clan's lands after you threatened to do so." Another look flashed across Lana's face, guilt and worry mixing. "But he made sure Seth has you well guarded, and the wolves report to Denver, not Seth."

Another flash of pink rose on Lana's cheeks and Esme realized her friend had been eavesdropping on a private conversation. Only there was no eavesdropping around wolves. Seth would have known his mate was listening.

"Coop insisted you be watched, too," Lana continued. "Said it was Denver's head if you pulled a Gordon."

A shiver ran down Esme's spine as she remembered Gordon's betrayal and his death. The bolt of witch light she'd put through his head as he burned had been a mercy.

Still, why would Coop blame Denver for anything Esme did? She looked at her friend and asked just that question.

"Because Coop wanted to extract a new oath from you." Lana fingered a dark brown swatch of fabric, her gaze tracing the faint coppery threads woven into it. "I swear Denver was going to take Jack out, but Jack backed down. Said it was Denver's head if you betrayed us."

Catching the import of "us," Esme raised her hand from her lap and gave Lana's arm a little pat.

"I'd die first," she said and gave another soft pat. "And I'm not going anywhere, at least not anytime soon. Have to see that cub of yours born."

Lana's head bobbed. "Especially since you're his godmother."

The smile that had started to lift at the edges of Esme's mouth slammed flat. "Lana, honey, that honor is traditionally reserved for pack alphas or, since Seth is a pack alpha, to the clan alpha and his mate."

"Yeah, I've been told that." Lana crinkled her nose. "But it's all worked out. Jack said he was fine with it."

Esme wrinkled her eyebrows at that. "Coop said it was okay?"

Lana nodded, then started chewing at her bottom lip again. "He said it was almost as good as getting you to take a new blood oath."

Esme sighed and shook her head before a reluctant laugh escaped her. "The old bastard's right."

Circling the table, she bent down to give Lana a hug. "And I'd be honored to be your cub's godmother."

A sharp spike of joy crackled around Lana. She turned her head and planted a kiss on Esme's cheek.

"So tell me, witch, what are we going to do about my baby shower?"