Chapter 219

Randy’s POV

I continued my pacing, running my hand across the back of my desk chair on the way by. Part of me wanted to shove it into the desk and watch everything fly apart, but I resisted the temptation to lose my temper.

My thoughts had come back to the danger they’d put Helen in. What were they thinking? Justin and Helen had a full two months of unchaperoned sex while Justin was in a lethal lycan form. She still had unknown side effects from having absorbed a half-demon’s power.

Those two could sugarcoat her sex with the Huntsman any way they wanted, but it didn’t change the fact that we had no idea what the long-range effects were going to be. I just hoped the doctor who was coming this evening was smart enough to double-check everything and put those two in line with reality.

As Beta, I could really use to relax about everything with this pregnancy so that I could focus on all of the other work that had piled up.

The intercom on my desk crackled. “Beta Randy?” our receptionist said.

“Yes?”

“You asked to see the doctor before she visited the king to vet her. She’s arrived.”

“Perfect. Send her in.”

I hastily moved the stacks of paper from the top of my desk to underneath, where they wouldn’t be seen. There was no need to look like a complete basket case. If I was going to grill this woman about whether or not she was capable, then I had better look capable too.

A minute later, someone tapped on the door. I took one last glance around my office. Everything gleamed: rich woods, brown carpet, and leather—professional, capable, worthy of questioning this woman. Perfect.

I hurried to the door and opened it, brushing my jacket straight as I did. “Come on in,” I invited her.

I caught her eyes, taking a quick glance around the room and then a scan of me from head to toe. Thank goodness I had put in the effort to look professional. Ready or not, she was already judging me.

On her way past, I caught a whiff of her. She smelled like warm vanilla and honey in a way that made my mouth water. This reaction started my brain turning. Maybe I was judging her, too.

Dr. Emily Peterson was tall but not taller than me, slender and shapely. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties, respectably old enough to know what she was doing as a doctor and young enough to still be quite attractive.

My heart slammed against my ribs, pushed there by my wolf. In the next moment, her scent fully registered, beating against my brain and turning into mush. I could barely think of what I’d wanted to say to her. What the hell was going on with me?

My wolf clamped his teeth around my heart and shook it. “That’s our mate,” he whispered to me.

The bottom of my stomach dropped out, and I moved around to the back of the chair, gripping the edge of the seat back.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I whispered to my wolf. “This is not the time or the place.”

“What was that?” Dr. Peterson asked, looking at me curiously.

“Oh, just keeping track of details. Please, have a seat,” I said, waving my hand at the chair across the desk from me.

“Have I done something wrong?” she asked, sitting down. “I thought I was here to see Luna Helen. But you feel you need to vet me?”

“We’ll get you to see Helen, but I have some concerns that I would like to address with you in private before seeing her. It’s true I intend to vet you, but it really comes down to something simple. I need to know you’ve savvy enough to see through Justin and Helen’s bullshit optimism.”

She chuckled. “Optimism is bull?”

“Not all optimism. But those two have a way of being blind to reality. Making sure they don’t hurt themselves is sometimes a full-time job for me. And still, they tend not to heed good advice, blazing ahead and ignoring the danger. I need to know you’re strong enough to deal with that.”

I pulled my chair out, sitting across from her and meeting her eye. My wolf howled to get closer or to stop talking about anything other than his insistence that she was the one for us. But I slapped him back down, ordering him to shut up.

“I realize that once you’ve talked with Helen that the whole doctor-patient confidentiality thing keeps you from discussing some of this stuff with me,” I explained. “So I thought before she’s even your patient that maybe I would lay a few things out, so you understand where they’re coming from and so that you understand exactly what you’re getting into.”

She nodded. “Should I take notes?”

“Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea,” I said.

She pulled out her phone and set it on my desk, opening up a dictation app.

I took the opportunity to stuff my hands under my butt because inside me. My wolf was back and itching to halt this discussion and talk to her about whether or not she felt the same as I did.

I took a deep breath and dove into the story behind all of my apprehensions. I explained to Dr. Peterson about the unusual history of the multi-colored coat pack and how they gained power. And I told her about lycans and how Beowulf gained power from his mate. I outlined the brutal early relationship that the two of them had, the risks of the two of them conceiving in the first place, the damage that could have been done to Helen by having sex with the Huntsman, and the possibility of contamination for the baby.

“No, we don’t think those last two are particularly worrisome,” I reiterated. “But I just needed to make sure that you understood all of this before you walked in there. I don’t want either of them to downplay the seriousness of any of these things. And I know that they have been treating this whole conceiving a lycan pup thing very glibly.”

She nodded and turned off the dictation on her phone. That is quite the back story, and I’m glad that you took the time to share your concerns with me. I’m not sure that I’ve got the answers to all of those questions that you have. But now that you’ve brought them up, I’m thinking that perhaps I might want to take on a partner in the case of her pregnancy.”

“A partner? Who?” I asked, cocking my head.

She laughed, packing up the last of her things. “No one you need to worry about, I assure you.” She gave me a reassuring smile. “I understand, as King Justin’s beta, that you take your role of protecting them very seriously. And I would let you thoroughly vet anyone that I brought on to assist with her pregnancy. But I was thinking that it might be beneficial to have a witch practitioner with me, someone who can monitor any of those magical side effects but who’s also a specialist in obstetrics.”

“That might actually be wise. I like that idea,” I agreed. “I would certainly feel better knowing that we might have overcompensated rather than finding out that we missed a problem later on.

“I fully agree.” She stood. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to be late.”