A goofy grin started in the corners of his mouth. “You’re pregnant? That’s what’s got you worked up?”
Aislinn didn’t say anything. But she dropped the block she’d erected in her head. Cullen felt the uncertainty. Mostly because she understood human pregnancy and human babies, but the idea of having lycan babies, a litter of lycan babies, was terrifying. Although she had gotten used to the fact that she had a learning curve in the pack environment, she didn’t feel like a baby was something a learning curve was allowable with.
Cullen stood up and moved around the table into her side of the booth. Aislinn could feel his happiness through their bond and it was helping a little. He put his arm around her and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her forehead and hugged her. “You will be an incredible mother,” he said though his smile. He didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t believe she was pregnant. Already.
Aislinn started to wonder if he was going to get up out of the booth and start dancing. It was hard to be scared and uncertain with that much happiness pouring into her mind from outside. She rolled her eyes at him when she looked up and saw the goofball grin had gotten impossibly wider. His eyes were sparkling and he was near laughing. “I’m glad you’re so happy,” she said trying to keep herself from smiling and then finally giving in.
Cullen suddenly frowned. “I don’t want you around Jenna.”
“It’ll be fine,” Aislinn said. “See now you’re gonna get more overprotective than you already are.”
Cullen growled.
“Don’t do that,” she snapped. “I can still do what I’m supposed to do for now. No one can even tell yet. Though in a week or so it’ll be pretty obvious,” she said mostly to herself. “If there was anyone left who doubted that we’d already mated they’ll all have those concerns put to rest now.”
Her sarcasm bit into him, but he wasn’t giving on this. “Jenna’s dangerous. If she decides she’s no longer cooperative for any reason while you’re alone with her then you’re dead.”
“Cullen I don’t see that as being as likely as you do. Brennus seems to be able to control her fairly well.”
“I don’t care. We’ll get the rest of the caoch that’s missing some other way.” Cullen pulled out his cell phone and started paging through the numbers for Cadifor’s name so that he call and cancel.
Aislinn grabbed the phone out of his hand and put it under the table. His eyes flashed dangerously at her. She smiled at him. “You wouldn’t dare,” she smiled sarcastically.
The waitress appeared with their food and was instantly frightened by the deadly staring match that was taking place. “Aislinn,” Cullen growled. “Give it back.”
“Or what?” Aislinn looked over at the concerned waitress. “It’s okay. Just leave the food,” she said sweetly to the girl.
The plates were dumped hurriedly on the table and the pretty waitress instantly disappeared. Aislinn watched her go. “Now see what you did? You scared her.”
Cullen looked like he might explode.
She sighed. “Please just stop it. What do you mean caoch missing?”
“We’re not going to do this. It isn’t a debate. I won’t have you in that kind of danger regardless of the situration. Now give me my phone back before this table ends up on the other side of the restaurant.”
“Liam would kill you,” Aislinn answered. But she put the phone down in front of him. She really didn’t want to make him this angry. She knew she woudn’t get anywhere with the situation if he was so pissed he wouldn’t listen to reason. “Cullen. I need you to try and understand that this is stupidly scary for me. I know you don’t really get why. But it is. It’s important that you let me do what would be normal so that I can pretend in my head that this isn’t as big a deal as it is. Please.”
Cullen took the phone and stared at her indecisively. He growled some more. He could feel how upset she was and how much she needed things to stay normal but his instincts told him to protect her. Putting her in a situation where he couldn’t get to her if he needed to and with someone as dangerous as Jenna was just stupid. “Aislinn,” he started.
“Please, Cullen.”
She heard a crunch and a strangled beep as the cell phone in his hand crunched. Cullen looked down at the phone. He was upset enough that he’d actually crushed the damn phone in his hand. He put it back down on the table to prevent himself from throwing it across the room. “Alright, how about a compromise? We’ll go and see what kind of mood Jenna’s in. You let me talk with her first and get a feel for how dangerous she is at the moment and then I’ll decide if I want to let you be this stupid.”
Aislinn glared at him. “I want to know why it’s so different now that I’m pregnant. When I took her to Brennus a month ago it was just as dangerous as it is now. I still would have ended up dead. If I weren’t pregnant now and took her to see Brennus I’d still be in danger. It’s not like this makes me incapable of something I was previously able to do. In essence the situation really hasn’t changed in any way other than an extra couple of lives are involved. And no one will know that other than you and I.”
Cullen fumed some more. He couldn’t argue with that. “I told you. Let me talk to Jenna first.”
“Fine. I’ll compromise. But don’t think I won’t argue with you if you decide in a way I don’t agree with tomorrow.”
“Fine,” he said back just as snottily.
The two of them sat there eating in silence. Aislinn hated that he was so angry. She sighed. “Cullen?”
“What now?”
She looked into his eyes and gave him a half-hearted smile. “I’m pregnant,” she said again trying to sound happy.
Cullen couldn’t help the pleasure that her saying that gave him. He smiled back, knowing she was trying to help.
***
Cullen recruited a number of betas to go with them. Keith, Sarah, Drake, Mack, and Makeda all sat and chatted in the great room as they waited for Cadifor to show up. There were omegas rushing around with decorations and trays and whatnot getting everything ready for the mating ceremony the next day.
“I’m telling you this is a bad idea,” Keith said. “Luck just hasn’t been with Cul making this official. I say we cage Jenna until after it’s over. I don’t care what she’s hiding that’s so important.”
“Or,” Mack suggested, “alternatively we could all take turns beating it out of her instead of giving the bitch what she wants.”
Drake smiled and nodded. “I’ll go with that.”
Keith shook his head. “That’d probably be harder to do than you think now that she’s a dire bitch.” He grinned. “But she was a dire bitch before she went through the trouble of making it physical as well as mental.”
There were some eye rolls as they listened to Keith’s little crack. Sarah watched Cullen and Aislinn reemerge from the room they had gone into so they could argue in private. “You were really reaching for that one Keith,” she said wondering who had won the argument. From the look on Cullen’s face Aislinn had won. Something was going on with those two.
Just then Cadifor walked through the front doors. There were a number of large lycans surrounding Jenna, who was cuffed and being marched in between them. Jenna looked like hell. She was wearing a plain gray sweat suit and sneakers. She didn’t have on any makeup and her blonde hair was pulled back into a messy ponytail. She didn’t look like the same person.
Keith couldn’t help himself. “Prison’s not been nice to Jeann,” he chuckled. His comment was answered with a wicked glare.
Makeda got up and walked across the room. Her hips swung with more emphasis than usual. She stepped up to Cadifor and slid her arms around him. “You’ve been missed,” she said in her deep sexy accent. Then she leaned in and kissed him. Most everyone ignored the display. Jenna sneared.