Accidental Surrogate

Ella

“I can’t wait any longer” I say, two hours, one shower, and three sandwiches later. I stand up in the tiny steel kitchen, accidentally scattering the bag of chips I was picking at all over the counter. Honestly, I wasn’t even eating because I was hungry. I was just trying to distract myself.

“Ella,” Sinclair sighs, reaching for my wrist.

“No!” I say, moving away from his grasp. “They’re being selfish! They know I’m dying to know!”

“Let them take their time!” Sinclair urges, standing up with me. I turn to glare at him and see him looking longingly at the hallway as well.

“See?” I say, pointing at him and narrowing my eyes. “You want to go too.”

Caught, he looks at me and grimaces a little. “Well, obviously I want to go talk to them, Ella,” he says, rolling his eyes. “He’s my brother as much as she’s your sister – I want to know as badly as you do –”

“Then let’s go!” I laugh, slapping my hand on the table and grinning down at the baby, who looks at me curiously. I laugh again at his expression and coo down at him. “Let’s go see your auntie and your Roger and your new cousin!”

“Ella,” Sinclair warns, stoic. “It’s not right. They’re entitled to their time alone!”

“Oh whatever,” I say, waving a hand to dismiss the Idea as I grabbing the half–empty bag of chips off the table. “She’s probably hungry. She’s a pregnant woman! She needs sustenance!”

And then, before he can stop me, I’m charging down the hall, determined to see my sister and learn everything.

“No, stop!” Sinclair calls half–heartedly behind me, and grin over my shoulder at him, because I know he could catch and stop me if he wanted to. I laugh then, hurrying towards the door to our room and reaching for it, thinking that my mate is just as nosy as I am – he just has more qualms about indulging in it.

rap lightly on the door before pushing it open. “Hello!” I sing, sweeping into the room, my heart swelling with happiness when I see Cora laying down on the bed, her head propped up against the pillows, her shirt pushed up a little and Roger pressing his ear low against her stomach.

she says, her face breaking out into a huge smile that

was when she arrived at the bunker. And as I cross to her I think,

まず

were attacked this morning – that I killed a man, ripped his

bedroom…

Roger sits up, likewise

say, letting myself sit down hard on the bed and doing my best to smile at them as Sinclair comes to the door. “It’s just been a…big day, hasn’t it?”

come in for a hug. Sinclair closes the door behind him and comes to my side, taking the baby from me before I move across the bed and allow Cora to wrap me in her arms, surrounding me

of the bed, the baby happily tucked against his arm. All right? he asks me, with a little concerned nudge

say, poking her with my elbow. “Cheer me up,

her bare flat stomach and giving a little shrug. “There’s nothing much to say yet, Ella,” she says. “I’m barely pregnant. If a woman came to me in this condition, just hardly having missed her period,

murmurs, definitive, returning his ear to her stomach. “This one’s strong! “How do you know?” she asks, laughing and casually brushing his hair away from his face. “Because,” he says, smug, “the child has

swats his head a little, making him

brother, curious. “Do you feel the bond,

drops a little, making my stomach twist. Cora likewise notices

she looks at Sinclair, blinking, remembering. “Yes,” she says softly. “I remember you talking about the bond.”

says to her, reassuring, but then he looks back at Sinclair. “But it feels….different to me,”

the important thing is that you feel it, yes?” I say eagerly, leaning forward, wanting it to be all right. Sinclair slides his hand over

it doesn’t have to be exactly like what I felt

very early on. And you said that you knew that Rafe was a boy from the very first

a sense of the baby’s sex?” I ask, leaning forward to stare at him,

link, for sure. But I’m getting…” he sighs and opens his eyes, looking over

hand on his brother’s shoulder, not concerned but wanting to support him.