It was almost ironic now. Her job was her life, and she always thought she would feel unfulfilled if she wasn’t a detective. But right now, it didn’t seem to matter. She felt empty and hollow, and so broken, but she just didn’t know how to fix it.
Her stomach growled. Apparently, her body thought food was the best way to fill her emptiness. And to think she’d just had lunch. God, she would get fat if she kept eating this way. Her hand went down to her stomach. Dad would have to roll her out of—
“Oh. No.” She sat up so fast, a wave of dizziness passed over her. It couldn’t be. They had been careful. Except those last couple of times at the ranch. All it takes is one time, her high school health teacher had said. But surely, it was too early for her to be showing signs of pregnancy?
Hopping to her feet, she began to pace. Only one way to find out. She grabbed her coat and put her shoes on, then went to the pharmacy around the corner. Thank God her dad was at the restaurant, because then he didn’t see her zipping up the stairs with a bag full of pregnancy tests.
She tried reading the instructions or figuring out what the day of conception could be and when her next period would be, but she just got so confused that she bought a bunch of them.
She ran straight to the bathroom, not wanting to wait much longer to take the tests. She took all five brands. And each one of them had the same results.
Pregnant.
A calmness came over her. Frankly, she thought she’d freak out more at the news. She was having a baby. Lucas’s and hers. A million thoughts ran through her mind. Would it be a boy or a girl? What name should she pick? Would it look like her or him? Maybe a dark-haired little boy with blue and green eyes.
Tears prickled at her eyes—whether they were sad or happy tears, she wasn’t sure. Maybe neither, and this was just her being hormonal. Oh, God, she was going to have a baby. Her hand crept down to her stomach. Still flat, but it was incredible to think there was life growing inside her.
She fell back on the bed. Lucas. She wanted to get over him as soon as possible, and the only way to do that was to never see him again. But now she would be forever linked to this man who despised her. He had to know about the baby, of course. That was the right thing to do. But would he even want to see her?
There was still time yet. For now, she couldn’t stay in her old bedroom and mope all day. There was so much to do and plan, and she certainly had no plans of getting fired. It was time to rejoin the world, for her baby’s sake.
Sofia went back to work that following Monday, determined to get her life back to normal. A week had passed, and so far, so good. Well, as normal as she could, anyway, in her condition. She must have only been two weeks along when she took the tests. Maybe there was something in Lucas’s Lycan biology that made the pregnancy easier to detect. Not that her baby was going to be Lycan. But still, it shared 50 percent of Lucas’s DNA. All the more reason to tell him.
But the thought of approaching him right now made her stomach clench. For one thing, she wouldn’t be able to stop from bawling. She had tried earlier that week. Gathering up as much of her courage as she could, she drove down to Fenrir to wait for him to come out. And when he did … she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing at her first glance at Lucas. It was funny, she almost didn’t recognize him. The dark stubble he didn’t shave off in Shenandoah had grown into a full-grown beard. His eyebrows slashed together in what seemed like a permanent scowl. Her heart leapt out and felt like it had been broken again. There was no way she was going to approach him, not when she couldn’t control her emotions. When she told him about the baby, she wanted to be calm and business-like. They were adults, and they could deal with this like grown-ups.
“You feeling okay?” Sharpe asked as he stared at her from his desk. They were now officially partners, and she was happy about that. He was a good detective, and she knew she could learn a lot from him.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She grabbed a protein bar from her desk drawer. God, she was always so hungry. Dad was right about eating him out of house and home; she still went home to Queens because she didn’t want to be alone, plus she wasn’t sure what the state of her apartment was after the Lycans cleaned it up. She didn’t get any angry phone calls from her super, so it must be okay.
“I need to check on a source.” Sharpe stood up and put his coat on. “Wanna come along?”
“Nah, I need to finish up some stuff.”
“If you need to talk—”
“I know,” she said in an impatient voice. “Sorry.” She didn’t mean to snap at him, it just came out. She was tired. So fucking tired of her life being in chaos. “Go on, you don’t want to keep your source waiting.”
The hours crawled by, and Sharpe hadn’t returned. She didn’t really notice, seeing as she was busy with her own workload. She was getting ready to leave for a late lunch when the phone rang. With an annoyed grunt, she picked it up. “Selinofoto.”
“Is this Detective Selinofoto?”
“Yes, this is she. Who is this?”
“I … I can’t tell you.” The woman on the other line sounded scared. “But I have a tip for you.”
“Ma’am, we have a tip line for things
