Chapter Five
1099 Words
Chapter Five
A few weeks later, Theo finally found a young woman who was recently pregnant with a wolf’s baby. She was the wife of a relative of a member of the pack and had agreed to meet with Hayden and Eliza. So far, Eliza hadn’t had any more ‘day hauntings’ as she had come to call them. She was just tired from the weird dreams that still plagued her sleep, and a little sick, which she associated with the pregnancy.
Eliza repeatedly brushed her hair in front of the mirror, trying to figure out what to retrieve from the closet to wear.
“What on earth are you doing?” Hayden sat at the edge of the bed, watching her rush around the room like her hair was on fire.
“I don’t know what to wear,” she said as she rummaged through the drawers.
“I think what you have on is fine. We aren’t going anywhere special.” He pushed himself off the edge of the bed and pulled Eliza down onto the bed. “We’re just meeting someone for lunch to get some answers about what an interspecies pregnancy is like. It isn’t that big of a deal, nothing to dress up for.” He brushed her hair from her face and kissed her forehead.
“But that’s just it. What do you wear to meet someone who is about to tell you whether or not your pregnancy is normal? And who is to say that my pregnancy will be normal at all? Human pregnancies are all different from each other, so why wouldn’t it be the same in this case? I am a human carrying a wolf’s baby. You would think that naturally there would be some differences. What if this is all for nothing?”
Hayden sighed. “Listen, what you are wearing is fine. Your hair is perfect and you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. As for the other stuff, we aren’t going to know until we meet with her.”
>>
They pulled up outside of the restaurant at two o’clock. Eliza was wringing her hands and taking deep breaths trying to calm herself down.
“Everything will be fine.” Hayden smiled at her and pulled her from the car. The hostess showed them where their table was and they sat down and ordered a drink.
Shortly after the drinks arrived, a tall beautiful woman walked into the restaurant. She had long red hair and was dressed in jeans and a tight-fitting sweater. The hostess led her to the table. Eliza and Hayden both stood to greet her. She gave a sweet toothy smile and sat down.
“It is really nice to meet you. My name is Alyssa.” She ordered a sweet tea from the hostess and smiled again. “Theo tells me that you are expecting. Congratulations!”
Eliza couldn’t help but smile at her. She was so sweet and genuine.
“Thank you very much,” Eliza and Hayden said together as Hayden laced his fingers through Eliza’s.
“We do have a few questions,” Hayden said as he raised his glass of orange juice to his lips.
“Yes, I expected you would. Theo gave me a little bit of background. He basically just said you’d like to know about the pregnancy and what to expect?”
Eliza nodded. “Yes, exactly.”
Alyssa took a long drink of her sweet tea. “Well, it is just like a human pregnancy for the most part. I carried for nine months and experienced all the same symptoms. The cravings are a little different though, I would suppose. You will definitely be craving mostly red meat. Even if it isn’t your style now, rare always hits the spot the best.”
Eliza cringed.
“Don’t worry. Like I said, you will be craving it so badly that you will think it’s delicious. Secondly, the baby will be a lot more active and the heartrate will be double that of a human baby. Other than that, everything is the same as a human pregnancy. I’ve been told that the pregnancies are slightly more painful, just because of how active the baby is. But it’s nothing unbearable,” Alyssa added when she saw the worried look on Eliza’s face.
“Tell me about the symptoms you had in early pregnancy and such.” Eliza took a sip of her water.
Alyssa gave her a puzzled look. “Like I said, there isn’t anything different about the pregnancy symptoms other than the craving of raw meat.”
Eliza shot a terrified look at Hayden. “So you didn’t have any extreme dizziness, severe headaches, visions?”
Hayden gauged her reaction carefully for his next question. “Did you ever have severe bouts of paranoia?”
“No. Nothing like that.” Alyssa looked back to Hayden. “What happened exactly?”
Hayden looked to Eliza for permission to tell Alyssa what had happened. Eliza nodded and squeezed his hand.
“Well, Eliza has been having strange dreams like someone is watching her life from the outside. And there was one time when she had a very vivid dream and woke up in the drive-through at McDonalds,” Hayden explained.
Alyssa’s eyes were wide with what seemed like terror. But she immediately relaxed and Eliza put it off as shock or just disbelief. “Well, that is odd.” She lowered her head. “I would hire a midwife from the pack, seeing as how it is a little bit difficult to explain to regular doctors why your baby’s heart rate is double the norm. If you guys want, I can talk to the midwife I had. She was absolutely amazing. As long as you don’t mind having an extra person living with you.” Alyssa shrugged.
Eliza and Hayden’s heads both shot upward.
“Really?” Eliza burst out. “That would be so amazing!”
“She is a very old member of my husband’s pack. She has been around a very long time. I will tell her how to get a hold of you.” Alyssa finished her sweet tea and slowly stood. “I really hope that everything turns out okay and that it is just something that is happening because of the hormones. I mean, just because it didn’t happen to me doesn’t mean it isn’t normal. Regular human pregnancies differ vastly and there is nothing complicated going on there.” She let out a little chuckle to try and ease Eliza’s worries.
Eliza and Hayden stood with her and Alyssa gave her a friendly hug and smiled. “I’m sure everything will be fine. Congratulations again.” She turned and left the restaurant.
“Well, that didn’t exactly go the way we wanted.” Hayden gently pulled Eliza close.
“No, it most certainly did not. But at least she knows someone who might be able to help,” Eliza said optimistically, but she couldn’t help but worry that maybe Melissa and Naomi might not have been so far off with the prophecy after all.
- Writer
