Chapter 247

Gently, I knocked on Susie’s door. It was already partially opened. When I knocked, the door pushed farther inward. Susie was resting in bed. Nicholas was standing beside the bed, speaking with her. I had just watched the doctor leave before I knocked.

Susie saw me and waved me closer. As I followed her direction, I noticed she was visibly upset. Her face was red and splotchy. There were tear stains down her cheeks. She was still crying.

“I’ll speak again with the doctor,” Nicholas said, and after a quick concerned glance at me rushed to chase after the doctor. At that pace, he’d catch her in the hallway.

With him gone, I took his place at Susie’s side. With her crying like she was, it still felt too far, so I stepped closer until I was leaning on the bed.

“I’ll speak with Bridget again,” I said. “I’ll absolutely insist that she change our parts. Susie, I’m so sorry that I didn’t fight harder. I never should have made you go up there.”

Susie shook her head.

When she didn’t speak, I continued, “I promise that we’ll find a way to protect you from your stage fright. I’ll beg Bridget if I have to. Surely she’ll be able to see reason now.”

“Piper…”

“I’m serious, Susie. I’ll do whatever it takes –”

“I’m not upset about the play anymore,” Susie said.

I cut off my words. I closed my open mouth. Gave it some thought. Then opened it again. “Are you okay?”

Oh God, she wasn’t sick or something, was she? She was my oldest friend here, and one of the dearest. If something happened to her, I didn’t know what I would do. But, surely, she would be okay. The best doctors in the kingdom were here attending to the royal family.

If Susie needed medical care, she was in the right place.

“Piper,” Susie said. Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “I’m pregnant.”

I stared at her.

My thoughts fizzled into static white noise.

I had known that Susie and Mark had been intimate, but… pregnant? They weren’t married. They weren’t even officially a couple. Susie was here, supposedly, to be trying to win the heart of one of the princes. I wasn’t even sure she’d ever been alone with Joyce!

Now she was pregnant!

“What did Mark say?” I asked.

More tears spilled down her cheeks, this time with a sob.

Oh, no. That bastard. Mark had always seemed like an upstanding guy, but if he had dared to hurt Susie, I would never forgive him.

“He didn’t…” I started, unsure how to ask what I wanted to. What could have Mark said that would make Susie this upset? Had he broken things off? Had he wanted to terminate the baby?

“He doesn’t know,” Susie said through her cries.

Oh. Oh, thank God. I placed my hand to my chest to steady my out of control, furious heartbeat. I’d been half-ready to chase Mark down and punch him myself. I have a wolf now. He would have felt it.

Discovering that he didn’t know yet was an absolute relief. I had so few friends, I couldn’t really afford to lose any.

Before I could finish processing any of this, Nicholas returned through the door. He crossed the room in a few large strides and joined us by standing again at Susie’s side.

“Okay, the doctor will keep this quiet for now, but soon you will have to make a decision about what to do, Susie,” Nicholas said.

A decision? What an understatement. She’d have to make several life-altering decisions in very quick succession.

Questions like: Are you keeping the baby? How will you tell Mark? Will you and Mark make your relationship public? Will you voluntarily drop from the competition or will you wait until you have to leave? How will you tell your parents?

I rubbed my own forehead, the questions making my head ache. I could only imagine what Susie was going through.

“You have to tell Mark,” I said, because that should be the starting point. Mark was half to blame here, so he should carry half the burden of whatever happens next.

“I agree,” Nicholas said. “He will do the right thing.”

Susie shook her head. “I’ll be such a bother to him.”

A bother? “Susie, the man got you pregnant. If he thinks you are a bother…” He isn’t worth your time.

“He wouldn’t think that,” Nicholas said.

“He’ll think I’m trapping him,” Susie said.

That seemed unlikely. It took two to tango, after all. “Did you use a condom?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I didn’t even think about it. We were so… And then…” She cried more. “I care about him so much. I’m going to lose him.”

“You won’t,” I tried to say.

But Susie was inconsolable. She buried her face in her hands and cried so hard I didn’t know what to do but to gently reach out and wrap my arms around her.

She sobbed into my shoulder then, totally soaking my shirt.

I looked up at Nicholas, but he seemed as lost as I did. What could we possibly say to a girl who was going through something like this? She was the one who would have to face the ridicule and the hardships.

I knew what she would face. I had been there before myself. I still face those hardships every day when someone knew discovers about me and Elva.

When Susie was feeling a little stronger, I would tell her the full truth of it. That, yes, it was hard as hell sometimes. There were plenty of days when I wanted to quit the whole world.

But then Elva smiled at me and every hardship ever was worth it.

Susie cried until she was absolutely exhausted. Then she asked to be alone for a while.

“Of course,” I said, and together, Nicholas and I moved to the edge of the room, all the way by the door.

There Nicholas spoke quietly, though furiously, “I can’t believe Mark was this careless. If he meant to bed Susie outside of wedlock, then he damned well should have used protection.”

“Do you really think he’ll do the right thing?” I asked, soft as a pin drop.

“Yes,” Nicholas said. “If he doesn’t, he’s not the man I thought he was.”

“He’d have to give up his career, wouldn’t he?” I asked. Betas were supposed to remain fully loyal to their assigned masters. For a Beta to take a wife, to have a child, meant they were compromised.

“I’ll speak to him,” Nicholas said, which wasn’t an answer to my question. Maybe Nicholas hated that rule too. Maybe someday, when he was king, he could change it. Susie’s pregnancy wouldn’t last that long, however.

Mark would have to make a choice. And I prayed for Susie’s sake that he made the right one.

“I’m going to buy him a box of condoms,” Nicholas growled.

A little late for that, I thought, but let Nicholas have his angry moment.

Though… thinking on it…

I couldn’t help but wonder…

If we had sex out in that forest the night I had been half-wild and desperate for him inside of me, there was a good chance that I would be pregnant too.

Would he still be this angry if he had lost himself to the moment, too?

What if I had been the one to get pregnant? What would he have done then?