Talons

Chapter 67: The Insult

Robin’s POV

B told Luke that I’m pregnant, and no matter how much I deny it, he has insisted that we go to the pack clinic to confirm. I don’t want to see his disappointed reaction when he finds out I’m not; it's happened once already, and it was terrible to watch him struggle to process that the changes in my body were only because I spend less time in the gym.

The both of us are sitting in the waiting room, and I swear Luke’s anxiety is driving mine through the roof. I know what he is thinking, and it has nothing to do with a baby. He is struggling to determine if B lied to him for not trusting her over the omega. 

If that is the case, what she has done is unforgivable, especially since she knows how badly my mate wants his own family. Everyone thinks he is of traitor blood, but the night we marked one another, he told me the truth.

Luke is the illegitimate child of his old pack's alpha. To make a long story short, his father had gotten his mother pregnant during her heat, and to cover up for his mistake, he asked his beta to mark the woman in his stead.

It’s well known that she-wolves cannot conceive until after their first heat, but even then, it's near impossible for unmated wolves, but if a male and female are together during a heat, regardless of their mated status, the chances rise exponentially.

I have only gone into heat once, and it didn’t happen then, despite the fact that Luke and I made no effort to stop it. I can’t see it happening during a night of makeup s*x that he and I had after I cried out the entire truth about my sisters fight to him.

“Luke hun, please stop pacing. We both know that B has been a rogue for a long time, I’m not sure why you took her words seriously.” My mate rubs at his face roughly and sits down.

“Yes, but I love her. I love her as if she were my own sister and if she-” Luke’s statement is cut off as the clinic nurse comes back into the room. She doesn’t look happy, and my heart sinks for my mate.

“Betas,” she says as she hands my mate the paper in her hands and leaves. I found the interaction both rude and annoying and my eyes did not miss the way the nurse looked at my mate.

“Luke, I’m Sor-,” I start to say, but my mate presses an urgent kiss against my lips; one that gets my blood flowing and I’m immediately aroused.

“Thank you so much,” Luke whispers into my face, and I frown because I think he is happy we aren’t having pups. It's weird because at first, I was afraid to disappoint Raven, but now I’m hurt by the look of relief on his face. 

Luke picks me up and practically sprints to the packhouse. I'm so confused that I just remain quiet. Maybe the paper the nurse gave him said that I will go into another heat soon and he wants to get an early start?

I’m shocked to see most of my family gathered at the packhouse, and when Luke puts me down, my mother runs to me, hugging me and rubbing my back affectionately.

“What’s going on?” I ask, and my mate grabs his forehead after putting a giggling and laughing B down. He had been spinning her around in excitement, and she was obviously dizzy.

“Sorry hun, I should have shown you the results,” he says, and he places his hands on my shoulders to look me in the eye. “We are having a baby.” My eyes go wide and then snap to Raven who is crying, but she doesn’t look upset.

“You better get pregnant again when I have my baby.” I laugh at my sister and pull her into a hug that I know she needs. I tell her that I will gladly get pregnant with her when she meets her mate, and she wipes away her tears with a genuine smile. “I guess I'll get to be the sexy aunt for now.” I chuckle, and then I remember B. 

I approach, asking her how she knew when even I didn’t know; hell, my mate didn’t know, so I know my scent hasn’t changed yet, and even if it did, B has no sense of smell.

“How did you know?” I ask, and my sister hands me the jar of jelly looking stuff and I shy away from it. It almost made me vomit, and I don’t want to smell it again. She then hands the container to Luke who sniffs it and looks at me in confusion.

“You usually like the smell of oranges,” he says, and just thinking about it makes me gag. Luke looks at my sister and pulls her into another hug, completely overwhelmed with happiness, and I laugh at him. When he releases her, he goes to pull my very uncomfortable looking brother into his embrace. Lark has never done well with our intimacy, and a pregnancy is likely too vivid for him.

B rests her hand on my belly, and I jokingly repeat the phrase she said to me in the hospital. Come to think of it, I had my first heat directly after that night.

“Your next,” I whisper, and my mother flicks my arm. B is seventeen, and she has plenty of time.

Rhea’s POV

I rest my hand on my sister's abs, amazed that there is a baby in there. I don’t know how far along she is, but if the pregnancy test detected the hormones, she’s at least past the nine-week mark. That means I could be holding my new little niece or nephew by the end of summer.

“You're next.” My mother flicks Robin, while I snort self-deprecatingly.

“Nobody wants to have children with a r*tard like me,” I say, and a forceful palm lands on my cheek. I look at my mother in shock, and then I realize what I had said. It had rolled off my tongue so fluently that I hadn’t even considered the words as they came out.

“Is that what you think?” My mother says in absolute disbelief, and I don’t want to lie to her.

“Mommy, we all know that I’m not-” I don’t get to finish my words because my mother grabs me and pulls me out of the Packhouse. “Mommy you're hurting me,” I cry, but she isn’t listening to me. My siblings scramble behind us, begging my mother to have leniency on me, and she finally lets me go.

“You and Raven better pack your bags, because you are both getting on the first flight out of here.”

Raven’s POV

True to her word, my mother put B and I on the first flight to Puerto Rico, where she says we will ‘learn our worth.’ I don’t even know how I got dragged into the mess that B made, but I know that Tucker was not happy with me leaving the country.

My mother didn’t buy us return flights, but I have enough money saved to buy one for myself. Still, I will at least stay for one week to humor the most ridiculous punishment my mother has ever handed out.

B and I step off the plane and we immediately start melting. I feel for B, who is wearing a black oversized t-shirt, but I know she will never take it off. I didn’t realize how low her self-esteem had gotten, and I feel bad that I didn’t encourage her more.

We hail a taxi, and thankfully the man speaks English, not that B would have a problem communicating, but I’m not in the mood to feel pathetic.

We pull up to a nightclub, and my sister and I look at one another, truly wondering what kind of stunt our mother is pulling. My sister confirms with the driver in Spanish, thinking he misunderstood, clearly annoying the man who showed us his GPS.

We get out of the cab, and stand like idiots in front of the building, unsure what to do, but our confusion is short-lived as I pick up the mixed scent of omegas and wolves. I don’t need to warn B, because she has already picked up on my body language.

We turn to see a group of girls approaching us from behind and, one of the girls stalks up to me, commenting on my outfit, which she has dubbed as 'bougie.'

“Try me and find out how bougie I am,” I say, not caring who the girl is or who I offend. The girl smirks at me before pretending to walk away, but before she fully turns, she throws a punch toward my face, and B catches her hand. 

“Don’t do that,” my sister warns, and the girl narrows her eyes.

“Mom’s waiting for you,” the girl says, and she actually walks away this time.

I nod at B, telling her to keep her guard up, but we don’t get too far before a woman who looks like a slightly older version of my mother with short hair comes out of the building across the street.

“What’s taking so long?” she asks, and the girls who had just been trying to appear vicious, scamper away like children. The woman is clearly my mother's sister. 

“Sorry mami. The flaquita (skinny girl) has anger issues.” I know what flaquita means and my mouth drops open. She isn’t exactly lying, I lost my temper because she insulted my appearance, but my aunt swats at her daughter, clearly understanding that the girl pushed my buttons first. She then looks up at us and opens her arms widely.

“Venga, venga,” (come, come) she says, gesturing for my sister and I to move closer, but neither of us approach. “It's me, Titi Beautiful.” B pulls out her phone and calls the number my mother gave us, and my aunt's phone rings. As if on cue we throw up our arms and hug her. “Wow, you two have trust issues.”

“Sorry titi, it's just that she tried to hit me.” I point at the girl who I now know is my cousin and she glares at me.

“Miracle,” my aunt says loudly, and my cousin approaches with the clear look of fear in her eyes.

“I was just joking,” she says, trying to defend herself. 

“No, you weren’t,” B says. “You said she was bougie.” My aunt glares at her daughter.

“What example are you showing your younger cousin? Raven is older than you by almost two years. Are you trying to embarrass your mother?”