Accidental Surrogate

Ella

My hands fly to my mouth, covering it in an attempt to hide my shock, but it’s not enough – Cora can see my every emotion in my eyes and my body, which has gone still with shock. And as she takes me in, seeing that my own thoughts are trending towards her worst fears

That Roger is, indeed, not going to have an easy time with this that it could very well spell the end of their very new relationship, especially as he has not yet given her his mark – She bursts into tears, burying her face in her hands.

“Oh no!” I breathe, dropping my hands from my face and throwing my arms around her again. I’m so sorry, Cora! I didn’t mean it! It’s not that bad!”

“Yes it is!” she sobs. “He’s the only thing I want I know that now and he’s never going to be able to accept this –”

“Sure he is!” I assure her, hoping to hell that I’m right, but then I frown towards the door as if Roger is standing right on the other side of it. And I narrow my eyes, wondering if there’s somehow I can force him to go easy on her – maybe even to accept the baby as his own

But inwardly, my wolf turns around with anxiety. Not his baby, not for Roger, she says to me, pacing back and forth, he can’t feel that way about another man’s baby – his wolf will never accept it

And I scowl, knowing that my wolf is right somehow. She knows Roger well and has intuited that Roger is the kind of wolf who would feel his paternity on a very visceral level, who would need the blood link in order to feel connected to the child.

I know that it’s different with me – that adoption would be a very real possibility for me in the future, especially as I was myself an orphan. I understand it and could welcome a child not of my blood as my own. But Roger…

Passingly, I wonder where Sinclair falls along this line – I know that he treasures his biological connection to Rafe but would he –

Quickly, I dismiss the thought, turning my attention back to my poor sister, knowing that she needs my full attention right now. Slowly, I pull away from her and rub her back as she sobs. Then, as her cries start to lessen, I move my fingers to Cora’s wrists and pull her hands away from her face, making her look at me.

“Cora,” I whisper, shaking my head back and forth. “No matter what happens, you know I support you. I’ve got your back. Yes?”

”

Trembling a little, clearly still devastated, Cora nods. But I hold her gaze, communicating as clearly to her as I can that we are going to find a way through this. To make this right. And I decide, suddenly, that I’ve got to get her talking – have to get her out of her grief spiral and onto a plan. It would be best if I could get her a bit angry, determined – but, well, we’ll see where it goes.

“Cora,” I say again, taking her face in my hands. “How did this happen?”

And she begins to tell me everything, about how Roger stopped calling her after we came back home and god, I could kill him for that – and then all about the night she spent with Hank after the baptism, about how good Hank has been to her, and kind, and patient, and how she decided that even though she felt so intensely about Roger…

“You thought he was never going to love you,” I murmur, and then I drop my head, cursing myself. Because I was the one who kept hammering that idea in her head – that they should be apart if they couldn’t agree on children. I’m the one who drove her into Hanks’s arms, resulting in… this.

“This is

shoulders. “It’s not. You were just trying to be there for me. And,” she laughs now, low and ironic. “And seriously, if it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine.

contraception? I’m a

risks,

my head up at that. “Seriously, Cora,” I say,

suddenly, burst out laughing. And it carries on, and on – and even though nothing about this is funny, not really, we can’t seem to hold ourselves together. As soon

says, bent over, clutching her cramping stomach and wiping

–

reply, my giggles still peeling from me. “I feel so horrible. It’s just so ridiculous, Cora – just the incredibly bad luck of it

come back to each other.

knows

hand and giving her a sad little smile. “What are you going to

Ella,” she sighs, holding my gaze steadily,

you going to…keep it?” I ask, and I watch as

mom. It was never on the table. And since Roger and I got together…it was even more of a non–issue.”

say, not wanting to push her on it.

—

We – we broke up. I did it, the day I went back to the clinic, after spending all that time at your house with Roger.” She looks up at me then, her expression grieved anew. “It was horrible. You know how stoic Hank is – he was so upset, but he was trying to

I say, squeezing her hand, We’re silent for a moment before I breech the topic I know that she really doesn’t want to address. But

her face in her hand. “He has been blowing up my phone. But once I found out I was pregnant – honestly, I just took a test on a whim because I

–

going to feel like a knife in his chest. After all,

him I was pregnant with someone else’s child, even if it was a mistake…

I reach out and put a hand on Cora’s shoulder, understanding

–

chirping cry as I stare at my sister he’s not

Cora and I both spin to look at it, our eyes wide

–

as I look to see

it’s just Sinclair, carrying a tray