The water in the drainage canal did not just run cold; it ran with the weight of the mountain behind it.
Elena kept her right hand flattened over her abdomen, where a strange, heavy furnace was burning through the chill. She didn't understand it yet, not fully. She didn't know that three tiny, royal hearts were beating in unison deep within her pelvic bowl. Because of the specialized, numbing suppressants Julian had brewed into her tea every night for six months, the embryos had remained in a compact, incredibly dense metabolic state deep within her tummy. Her abdomen remained flat, showing no outward sign of life, and the heavy herbal elements had completely masked the biological shift, rendering the pregnancy entirely invisible to even the sharpest werewolf nose.
Julian had no idea. Li
