Chapter 16 - Alpha and Omega

WARNING: This chapter contains strong language and content that some might find disturbing.

To be completely certain, Allanna took three more tests. They all came out the same – two pink vertical lines squinting up at her with the word ‘Pregnant’ flashing afterward.

There was no denying it – Allanna was pregnant. And she didn’t even know what she was pregnant with. She put her head in her hands to shield her face.

“What are you gonna do?” Cynthia wanted to know. “You can’t tell your dad, but eventually he’ll figure it out.”

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do. But I do know that I can’t do this alone. I need Xavier. He might know what this baby will be. His mother got pregnant with a werewolf, like I told you, and they even knew it was going to be a boy. Maybe he can tell.”

“Oh, what? You think he’ll read the fetus’s mind like Edward Cullen?”

“This is no time for jokes. But yeah, it’s a possibility.”

“I don’t mean to laugh, but…” Cynthia burst into loud guffaws. Allanna just rolled her eyes. She had too many unanswered questions and no one to ask them to. For instance, did vampires have an increased gestation rate? Or would it be the normal nine-month cycle? Or would it maybe even be the same gestation period as an actual wolf (although for her kind, it took nine months anyway)?

Plus, Allanna wouldn’t be able to transform while pregnant. Doing so would most likely kill the fetus since it was only designed to fit inside one body type. And, despite Cynthia’s suggestions, Allanna didn’t want to give up the baby. It was hers and Xavier’s, proof that it wasn’t impossible for two arch nemeses to fall in love.

Thinking of this brought up the most important question - would Allanna even be able to see Xavier again?

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Allanna spent the next couple of weeks in a state of perpetual loneliness, sickness, and hungriness. She still hadn’t told anyone other than Cynthia that she was pregnant with the enemy’s child, and she still hadn’t figured out what the baby might be. She was desperate for answers but had no way to get them.

She also couldn’t even transform to enjoy a good run at night due to being pregnant. This situation sucked, plain and simple. Plus, how was she going to tell her parents? Eventually they’d find out. Cynthia had offered to tell them with her, but Allanna knew that she had to inform them on her own.

Allanna rubbed her stomach, willing her mind to be telepathic like a vampire’s. If part of a vampire was inside her, perhaps she could develop some of the creature’s special abilities. Then maybe she’d have an idea of what she was dealing with and what to do. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

“What are you?” she asked her stomach with apprehension. “Will you be more of one species than the other? Or will you be something…terrible?”

Allanna’s greatest fear was that she’d give birth to an abomination, the result of a vampire breeding with a werewolf. Such a thing had never been heard of, at least not until Xavier’s mother and her lover, but she hadn’t carried that baby to term. She’d been killed before it was born. Allanna didn’t want that to happen to her.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. “Come in,” she called nonchalantly. The door creaked open and Allanna saw her mother standing there with worry in her eyes.

“Allanna,” she said.

“Mom, are you okay?”

“I should be asking you that question. You know I can sense when something’s wrong.”

Allanna sighed. Her mother might be more understanding than her father. Who else could she ask? Her mother had been through pregnancy; at the very least, she’d be able to offer some insight on that.

“What’s wrong?” Lupe asked as she sat down next to her daughter.

Allanna looked at her mother and confessed, “I’m scared.”

“I’ve never known you to be so scared of anything. What is it?”

“I...Mom, please don’t tell Dad. I have to tell him myself, when I’m ready. But…Mom, I’m…pregnant.”

Lupe unsuccessfully tried to stifle a gasp and Allanna lowered her head in shame. When she finally looked up, she saw that her mother was crying.

“It’s that thing’s, isn’t it?”

“Mom…”

“Allanna, I can’t believe you’d do this to yourself. To the pack. You know that’s forbidden.”

“Mom, that law isn’t written in stone. I love Xavier and he’s good to me.”

“You were supposed to be Ace’s mate. He’s good to you too, and he would be even better for you than that filthy leech!”

So much for her mother being more understanding.

“Mom,” Allanna pleaded, “I’m sorry. But don’t you see…”

“All I see is that you got kidnapped by a blood-sucker and you ended up falling in love with him for some stupid reason, and now you’re pregnant with his kid! Who knows what could be growing inside you? It’ll probably be some grotesque monster that both drinks blood and turns into a wolf! It’s a disgrace!”

Before Allanna could argue, her mother declared, “I’m telling your father.”

“Mom, just because he’s the alpha…”

“If you had listened to your father, the alpha, this wouldn’t have happened! We’ve always taught you never to lower yourself to the enemy’s standards, never let them take advantage of you, and what do you do? The exact opposite! I thought you outgrew that habit when you grew out of your teens!”

“Mom, we’re not all wolf. We’re half human too, so we don’t have to do exactly what Dad says. You’re just afraid to stand up to him!”

“That’s enough! I’m telling your father, and I’m also telling you something else – there’s no way you’ll bring that…thing into the world.”

Lupe stood up, spun on her heel, and stalked out the door, slamming it behind her. Allanna collapsed onto the sofa and began crying. So now her mother was completely against her, set on telling her father the secret she was trying desperately to keep for as long as she could, and now she was being threatened to have an involuntary abortion.

Now what was she going to do?

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Just as she’d suspected, Allanna’s father wasn’t happy when he learned that she was carrying a vampire’s child. He couldn’t comprehend why she fell in love with the enemy to begin with, much less allow herself to become knocked up by it.

Try as she might, Allanna couldn’t get Darius to understand why he should stop feuding with the vampires over something that happened centuries before they even existed. But her efforts were in vain. Darius wouldn’t listen, and now he was more determined than ever to take the fight to the vampires.

“That little fucker got you pregnant after kidnapping you to manipulate us to give up our territory, and he’s not getting away with it!” Darius declared in anger. “I’m gonna rip his throat out and feed it to him! I’m tired of being intimidated by those bastards, and they expect to get our land! This means war! I should have started the war after you were kidnapped, but now there’s no point in procrastinating. It’s time to give those filthy blood-suckers what they deserve.”

Allanna saw the crazed look in her father’s eyes and she knew there was no reasoning with him. She watched as he transformed himself into an intimidating black wolf, her mother and brother following suit (Raquel had to stay behind and take care of Lacey, but she was fully capable of handling that being raised as a werewolf). Darius went outside and howled a call for help. When the rest of the pack arrived, he reverted back to his human form for only a moment, long enough to discuss the tactics of the impending battle.

No one even cared that he was standing outside stark naked in the middle of the day. Then again, as werewolves, that wasn’t anything new.

When the meeting was over, Darius reverted to his wolf form and led the way toward the vampire territory of Duskwood. Allanna could do nothing but watch helplessly, unable to transform due to her condition.

She was now essentially the omega, the member of the pack who carried all the burdens and frustrations. If this pack had been in wolf form permanently, she’d be the last one to eat, and would be the one to go hungry if food was scarce. She’d turned against her pack and her actions were unforgiveable in the eyes of her former family. None of the pack even looked back at her as they marched toward their destination.

But just because she couldn’t transform didn’t mean that Allanna couldn’t do something to help Xavier. Luckily, Cynthia wasn’t in the crowd of battle-prone wolves. She was at work in Vegas, working the earlier shirt. That would give Allanna an opportunity. At least, she hoped it would.

Summoning up her courage and determination, Allanna made her way toward her father's junky lemon car, since Xavier had undoubtedly taken her Bug since it was nowhere to be found, and floored it. She had a mission tonight, and it could end up killing her. But she was determined to try.