Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 606(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Fierce wasn’t ready to stop yet—wasn’t ready to give up. The Med Station was practically deserted except for a single nurse at the front who was nodding off. Everyone else was with their families for the human holiday of Christmas Eve—which wasn’t as big as the next day, Christmas—but was still important, from what Fierce could understand. Everywhere there were green trees with brightly colored ornaments on them and most of them had wrapped boxes under them as well.
They didn’t know which exam room Celia had been taken to when she’d asked for a female doctor, so he and Hold had been searching all of them methodically. This was the last one and he was certain there had to be some clue in it somewhere about why their female had bolted.
Suddenly, something pink in the waste disposal unit caught his eye.
“Hey—what’s this?” he demanded, reaching down to pick it out of the trash. It was a crumpled pink flower and wrapped around it was a thin strip of paper.
Unrolling it, Fierce read aloud,
“Celia Alvarez. Pregnant with one female fetus. DNA 100% human.”
“What? What did you say?” Hold was suddenly on his feet. He came across the room in one stride and snatched the paper from Fierce’s hand. He read it for himself and then looked up.
“Gods,” he whispered faintly. “She’s…”
“She’s fucking pregnant,” Fierce finished for him. The news hit him all at once and he stumbled and nearly fell. Hold caught him by the arm and held him up.
“Now we know,” he said grimly. “We know why she left us.”
“We do?” Fierce looked at his brother stupidly.
“Yes, we do. How many digs did you give her about ‘being pregnant with another male’s brat’? Or ‘being pregnant with a stupid human baby’?” Hold demanded, glaring at him.
“Fuck, I didn’t say that—did I?” Fierce put a hand to his head. Had he really been that stupid?
“Yes, you did!” Hold had a furious look on his face which was completely unlike him. “You two fought about it several times. So when Celia found out she was pregnant with Peter’s baby, she decided to go back to him because she thought we wouldn’t want to help her raise it!”
Fierce had a sinking feeling in his stomach.
“But…but I didn’t fucking mean it!” he protested. “I mean look—a daughter!” He shook the wilted pink flower in Hold’s face. “How many Twin Kindred ever get to raise a daughter—fucking none of us. We always have twin boys! We would love to have a daughter—she’d be our little princess!”
“You know that and I know that but thanks to you, Celia doesn’t know that!” Hold exclaimed. “She left us because she thinks we won’t want her if she’s pregnant with another male’s baby!”
“Fuck, you’re right!” Fierce wanted to punch himself in the face. “What an idiot I was!” he groaned, raking a hand through his hair. “No fucking wonder she left us!”
“We have to get her back,” Hold said. “Now that we know what the problem is, we have to find her and tell her how we really feel. How you really feel. You’d better get ready to grovel, Brother,” he added grimly.
“I’ll do it. I’ll go down on my knees to her,” Fierce swore. “Fucking anything to get her back! But where is she? We don’t even know where the Joining Ceremony is being held.”
“It’s going to be at St. Paul’s Cathedral in downtown Tampa,” a voice said from the door.
Both their heads jerked around and Fierce saw Kat standing in the doorway of the exam room.
“Hello, boys,” she said, smiling. “I just came by to find something I left here last night but I see you found something too.” She nodded at the wilted pink flower and the crumpled piece of paper which Fierce still had in his hand.
“We found it in the trash,” Hold told her. “And it seemed logical to conclude that Celia left us because of it—because she found out she was pregnant with Peter’s baby.”
“That’s exactly what happened,” Kat confirmed. “I know Liv couldn’t tell you anything because of doctor/patient confidentiality. Luckily, I am not a medical professional myself and I think a big mistake is being made here. You two need to go find Celia and tell her how you really feel.” She raised her eyebrows at them. “As long as how you really feel is that you’d be happy to help her raise the baby she’s carrying, even though it’s not yours.”
“We’d be more than happy,” Fierce assured her hoarsely. “This is all my fault—Celia thinks I can’t love her with another male’s baby in her belly.”
“Then you’d better go make sure she knows you can love her no matter what,” Kat told them. “Like I said—the ceremony is at St. Paul’s cathedral at noon. Which means…” She looked at the chronometer on her arm and shook her head. “You don’t have much time before she walks down the aisle and says ‘I do’ to Peter.”