Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“Park in the garage!” I ordered him as I pointed toward the door that I had open and waiting for him. Thankfully he did as I told him to without me needing to tell him more than once.
I ran into the garage after him, shut the door, and then ran down the slanted drive until I got to the bottom. Griffin had parked as close to the elevator as he could without taking much time at all. Good, that was the perfect place.
I grabbed the pushcart that I had brought with me and ran to the back of his truck. He pressed the button to open the back door and was at my side before it had finished raising. That was good, he was taking this as seriously as I was now. The bad thing about that though, was that he thought that there was a reason to take this seriously and that meant that something was wrong with Riviana.
We didn’t speak, we just loaded the boxes that he had put all the equipment into on the cart and started for the royal tower. This was fine with me, I just wanted to know what was wrong and to know if Joaquin was going to kill me. I also wanted to know what was wrong with Riviana and how I could help her.
Dammit! This was breaking my heart and my soul. Why did this have to keep happening to her? Riviana was such a nice person.
In no time at all, we were exiting the elevator directly into Riviana’s room. She was still laying there, motionless and unchanged, on her bed.
“Over here. Let’s set it all up right next to her bed.” Griffin was starting to steer the cart into position.
I helped him unload the boxes that we had stacked up on the cart but after that he was on his own. I didn’t know how to work that shit so all I could do was get him a power strip and an extension cord so that he could plug it all up where he needed it.
I did recognize a lot of the stuff that he had brought with him. There was a cardiac monitor, an IV pole and pump, an ultrasound, and a couple other things that I didn’t know the name or function of just yet.
I watched as he started to pull the blankets away from Riviana and cut away her shirt.
“HEY!” I yelled at him.
“What?” He jumped and took a step away from her.
“Why the hell did you cut her shirt open? We could have removed it normally.”
“Well, I’m a doctor, that is normal for me to do.” He acted like there was nothing wrong with what he had done.
“Well, you’re not at the hospital, and those were the Goddess Queen’s clothes you just destroyed. Next time, we will remove them without cutting them up.” I just glared at him and went to remove the scraps of the shirt away from Riviana.
“Fine.” He shrugged and just started to hook up the cardiac monitor to Riviana.
After that, he grabbed the ultrasound machine and pulled it closer to the bed.
“Why do you need an ultrasound? Do you think that she got injured somehow?”
“So, even you don’t know?” He looked at me in surprise.
“What are you talking about?” I was even more confused now.
“Riviana is pregnant.” He said it so matter-of-factly that I was too shocked to even deny it for a moment. It was only when he started to put the blue gel on her belly that I found my voice.
“No, that’s impossible. She can’t be. We would know. Joaquin would know. All of us that are with her every single day would know.” He had to be wrong.
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you, but the blood work tells a different tale. It tells me that she is indeed pregnant, and not just recently either.”
Griffin stopped looking at me or even speaking to me. He just flipped the ultrasound screen toward him and pressed the wand to Riviana’s belly. I did not expect him to find something. I did not expect to see anything on that screen. And I definitely did not expect to hear the heartbeats that were coming from the ultrasound.
Yes, I said heartbeats. It sounded like there was more than one. I couldn’t help myself. Being that I had been through this situation with Heather four times now, once with twins, I was drawn to the monitor to see what was going on.
“Just as I suspected.” I looked at him and then a little closer to Riviana. I hadn’t noticed at all, but her belly was already starting to change. Actually, it had changed a lot. How had none of us noticed that she was pregnant? How did Joaquin not know it?
I think that lies in the fact that Riviana has been so tired that she only smelled like exhaustion, and she’s been so tired that she’s just been losing weight like crazy. Her clothes were getting looser on her so the belly was hidden. This is insane.
“Wh..what do you see?” I asked Griffin as I walked right up behind him. “H..h..how far along is she?”
“My initial guess right now is about seven to eight weeks since conception.”
“Damn. That actually lines up with Joaquin’s date night after his birthday.” I shook my head. So, sh..she’s about a third of the way done?” I knew from plenty of experience that the average shifter pregnancy was about twenty-six to twenty-seven weeks long. None of them were really set in stone, but that was the average length.
“I don’t think she will get anywhere close to her due date, which I am going to tentatively put somewhere between January the fifth and January the twelfth.”
“Why won’t she make it to the due date?” Uh oh, did I need to start worrying already? What was going to happen to Riviana? What was going to happen to the baby?
“She’s carrying multiples, so she will undoubtedly deliver early. I think it’s about time you called Joaquin. I have some more work to do, but it’s time that he comes home and finds out what is going on.”
I knew this moment was coming. I knew that I had to call him. But I wasn’t looking forward to it. I wanted to put it off for just another moment or two. I needed to ask Griffin just one more question. He had been a little too evasive a moment ago.
“Griffin? How many babies is Riviana carrying at the moment?”
“Three.”
Holy shit! Joaquin is going to blow a fucking gasket when he hears that.. He is going to rush home and will insist on being as overly protective as he was the last two times.
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