My head spins rapidly in confusion as I walk through the winding halls. The walls seem to be getting tighter and tighter by the second; as if they are caving in on me. My throat shrinks, making it harder to breath. This feeling of suffocation is becoming more and more common, and I'm hating every second of it.

I just can't stop thinking about Greyson's reaction.

Will he be mad? Will he freak out on me?

How am I going to handle this?

How will Damien handle this? He is obviously going to be furious...

I groan in pain as the thoughts mush together into a huge blur in my head. A pressure rises throughout my mind, the beginning of a headache it seems. The thoughts are racing so fast, I can barely think of a coherent sentence. Scenario after scenario scramble and project in my mind. Fear races through me, since no scene I conjured up has a happy ending.

Wait.

I pause my thoughts. Taking a deep breath in and letting it out.

I'm jumping to conclusions here. There's still a fifty percent chance that I'm not pregnant. I could just be sick. Plus, the pain from my mark burning could be causing my nausea. Theoretically, I could be overreacting; no, they could be overreacting.

I take another deep breath in and slowly let it out.

What should I do?

Who do I have to turn to about this stuff when Rina's not here...?

Then my mind goes someplace that I wasn't expecting: but would she be willing to listen to me? Would she be willing to help me? I mean we don't get along but at this point I don't have many options. It seems as if this is the only place I have left to go.

My feet carry me on my way to my new and odd destination. In the next few minutes I'm confronted with a neon leg that flashes up and down in a gaudy and bright pink hallway. It makes my stomach churn uncomfortably, but thankfully I appeared to have thrown up everything in my belly earlier this morning. I sigh and take a step towards the curtains blocking the doorway. When I do a very familiar and annoyingly frizzy-red head comes flaunting through the door.

She practically runs into me, but I stealthily back up in time. She freezes as she sees my face. I can tell she's in conflict with herself. She really wants to say something rude and mean to me, but everyone was at the mating ceremony, she's holding back for the sake of me being the soon-to-be Alpha's mate.

"How can I help you?" she manages to force out of her mouth in a polite-enough tone.

"I'm looking for Catalina." I state, peeking around the frizzy-haired women and into the club with flashing strobe lights. The curtain is still swaying behind her so I can see glimpses of the inside. No Catalina to be seen so far.

"She's busy."

"Oh really?" I ask her, "Mind if I wait for her in the back then?"

The woman's eye twitches in annoyance. I can tell she wants me to leave. She's making it obvious that I'm 'disturbing' the peace. Yet, I don't care. I need someone to talk to damn it, and I'm not leaving until I get what I want.

"She may be a while, I don't believe it would be in your best interest to wait." She snickers at me.

"Clever response. But I really need to see her right away. Damien asked me to come here and fetch her myself. Unless, you want me to tell Damien that you turned me away. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to come down here himself and deal with you."

Her eyes widen in fear. I can practically see her playing the scene out in her head. "Damien... Damien asked you to bring one of our girls to him? And you're okay with that?"

"Damien and I have a rather... open relationship. And when he wants one of your girls, who am I to tell him no? After all, even as his mate I don't receive any mercy, so I wonder what he will do to you when he finds out you're standing in his way?" I tap my finger to my chin and pretend like I'm thinking adamantly about the situation.

"I... I will go get Catalina right away!" she stampers.

"Perfect! I will be in the dressing room, Damien wanted her to wear a specific outfit!" I holler.

"Yes ma'am!" The red haired lady shouts as she flees further into the club.

I shudder at myself, for using Damien as an intimidation tactic to get what I wanted, but hey, what else could I do to get what I wanted in so little time?

I wander back towards the dressing room. There I find a bunch of girls getting ready. They're throwing on sparkling eyeshadow, glitter for their bodies, the darkest eyeliner, and the largest fake eyelashes I ever did see. The clothes have gotten more gaudy and sluttier than the last time I was here, but there are still a fair amount of girls wearing gypsy outfits.

I waltz over to the long mirror where girls are getting ready. I entertain myself by looking at all the different types of makeup that are scattered around on the long countertop below the mirror. They have so much of it. There's even bronzer, contouring, and coverup. It's amazing what the power of makeup can do.

"Alright Lucia, hurry up and tell me the purpose of this, because I know for a fact Damien would never send you down here to get a girl for him," a stern yet familiar tone barks from behind me.

I sigh in relief. "It's about damn time." I turn around on my heels to find Catalina in a blue gypsy outfit staring at me. She has one hand on her hip and the other relaxed by her side. Her blonde hair is loose and falling all around her. "It's nice to see you Catalina."

She rolls her eyes, "I suppose it's nice to see a familiar face every once in a while. Yet, you still haven't answered my question. What's really going on?"

I sigh and motion her towards me, "I can't yell it so come over here."

She raises a skeptical eyebrow at me, then shrugs. She steps closer to me, only about a foot away and whispers, "What is it?"

I take in a deep breath and slowly let it out. My eyes look up to meet hers. "I think I'm pregnant."

Her jaw drops to the floor and she screeches, "You think you're preg-" My hands fling up and cover her mouth immediately.

I frown angrily at her, "Hush! Keep you're damn voice down. I said think. It's not confirmed." She mumbles into my hand but I can't hear a word of it so I add, "I'm going to let go, but keep your voice down." She nods her head.

I release her mouth and she quickly start talking in a softer tone, "you actually think you're pregnant?" I nod. "With Damien's baby?" I shake my head. She hisses inwardly, "ouch... Does Damien know it isn't his baby?"

"Well first off, Damien doesn't know anything. But when he finds out he's going to know it's not his... if I even am pregnant."

"Well, let's find out." She states and turns around, walking somewhere.

"Um, what do you mean 'let's find out.' It's not that simple!" I shout at her as I follow her footsteps.

We reach a dresser. She opens the drawer and pulls something out of it, "Oh, it is that simple. We keep these in here in case one of the girl's thinks she's prego. You should take one."

She hands me the box which reads "Pregnancy Test" on it. My jaw drops, "well how the hell does this thing work?" I ask in amazement. I flip the box around in my hand.

"You pee on it."

"Pee on it?!" My voice screeches. Catalina sighs in anger.

She reaches out and grabs my wrist, "Just come with me."

-------------------------------------

I groan as my heart palpitates crazily in my chest. My mind races back to a few minutes ago when Catalina had me observing the test.

"What does a plus sign mean?" I asked her nervously.

"Damn girl..." She admitted, "it means you're pregnant..."

I run my fingers through my hair as I recall the scene over and over in my head. Are those tests even reliable? Does it even make sense? Probably not, right? I let out a deep, concerned breath because I know the tests are in fact reliable. So now what? I literally have no clue what to do. Catalina gave me terrible advice. She was trying to tell me to abort the baby! Like hell I would do that.

I swerve down another hall, as I do, I hear a small squeal. I look up to see a little girl running full throttle in my direction. Her black hair propelling behind her as she speeds right into my arms. I catch her so that way she doesn't slam too hard into my stomach. She giggles in excitement and looks up at me with sparkling dark eyes.

"Lucia I heard the news! I'm going to be an aunty! An aunty! Is it a boy a girl?" Milena asks me. My jaw drops as I realize she's heard that I'm pregnant.

"I'm not sure... We won't know until the day he or she is born." I tell her, my heart wildly bouncing around in my chest. This news is spreading like wildfire.

"Palmer's Mom wants to speak with you! She says she's really happy for you." Milena says as she glances down at my stomach. "You're tummy is looking a little bigger than normal!" She reaches out and touches my stomach with her small hands.

I glance down to look at it for the first time. My eyes widen a bit. I hadn't realized it, but my stomach is getting a bit larger. How quickly does this whole process work? I'm so confused about it all... My mom never really talked to me about her pregnant days or what to do... That reminds me.

"Milena, you said Trinity wanted to speak with me?"

The small girl nods her head up and down, "Yuppers. She said she wanted to congratulate you and speak to you about stuff."

"Do you know where she is? Think you could take me to her?" I ask politely.

"Of course!" She finally removes her hand from my stomach and grabs my hand. She pulls me down the hall and onto a small journey.

As we are walking, Milena adds, "I didn't know you and Rissy were such good friends." I glance down at the small girl and cock an eyebrow curiously.

"Me and who?" I ask.

"Rissy, the girl you had sleep over in Damien's room last night! I didn't know you two were so close." She remarks.

I sigh. She must be referring to a service girl, since I was in Rina's room last night. Milena doesn't know how much of a jerk her older brother is and I really don't want to start any family drama. I suppose I should go along with it for Milena's sake. "Oh, Rissy. Yeah we get along. How did you know I had her sleep over?"

"Well, Palmer and I were playing hide and seek last night. I was hiding in the closet across from Damien's room. Palmer was 'it'. I kept the door open a crack and saw Rissy going into your room!"

"Oh, really!" Time to change the subject now... "Did Palmer ever find you?" I ask.

She giggles, "it took him over an hour." She laughs and continues to tell me the amount of times he passed her in the hallway.

Her stories tumble out of her brain, spilling into the air like a waterfall. I try to take it all in but it's difficult. I end up just giggling and nodding my head at her jumbled words. It doesn't take us long to reach the small conjoined kitchen that the higher ups are allowed to use. Trinity is always in here making meals and baking desserts. As Milena drags us in, to no surprise, we find Trinity at the countertop mixing up a batch of something sweet. I can smell the batter in the air. Maybe it's cupcakes?

"Lucia!" She cheers happily. Putting down her mixing spoon she wipes her hands on her apron and waltz over to me and Milena. "I heard the news, congratulations. You and Damien make such a cute pair, I can only imagine how adorable your baby is going to be!"

"Oh... Well thank you so much..." I give her a small smile.

She pauses at my reaction. She raises a skeptical eyebrow, "You don't seem all that thrilled. What's wrong? Did something happen to the baby already?"

Shit, she's catching on really fast. I need to shield my true emotions. So I let out an awkward laugh and scratch my head with my free hand, the other is still occupied by Milena. "It's not that I'm not thrilled I'm just very nervous. I didn't expect this to happen... so unexpectedly..."

Trinity sighs in relief, "You know, I felt the same way when I was pregnant with Palmer. It happens so quickly, and you barely have time to process it, then before you know it you have a screaming, whining baby in your care, and you're expected to know exactly what to do." Her words put horror into my brain. Not only am I going to have to take care of a baby, I'm going to have to continue to fend off Damien, figure out how to allow Greyson to spend time with the baby, and deal with raising the baby in this type of pack. Oh I pray I don't have a girl here... I don't want anyone going through what I went through, especially not a child of mine.

"You nailed all my fears," I laugh lightly. "I just feel inadequate. I feel too young and I don't think I'm going to be a good mother." This time, I let out a bit of honesty. Maybe Trinity really can give me good advice.

"Hmm... Well... you are young. I'll give you that. But there's just something about motherly instincts. They really kick in once you hold your child for the first time. I really don't think you have anything to worry about." She taps her finger on her chin as she ponders, "but, one thing that is important is vitamins and other prenatal substances. Have you been eating properly?"

"Um... sometimes."

"Sometimes just isn't enough Lucia! You need to be eating enough for two humans. Plus you need to be eating the right stuff, but I can definitely help you with that. How about I teach you some good recipes. Want to help me make dinner tonight? I can include ingredients that will really help you out."

I sigh internally. Cooking has never been my forte, but Trinity is right. I have to start learning these things if I'm going to be a Mom... "Sure, that would be great Trinity. Thank you so much."

She smiles politely, nods, and wanders over to a closet. She opens it up and pulls out an apron. She tosses it over to me. I catch it midair. "Here, put that on, you don't want to get your clothes all dirty."

I nod in agreement, letting go of Milena's hand. She complains for a moment and demands that she get an apron too. Trinity and I laugh as we agree to let her help out. Trinity grabs her an apron from the closet which is huge on the tiny girl. I smile as I put my head through the top of my apron and tie the strings behind my back. Trinity then leads Milena and me the rest of the way into the kitchen, she start explaining everything as she teaches the two of us how to cook our first real meal.