Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 132

With a deep breath, Adriam moves forward with my evaluation, I pass Xaiver back to Steffan. The poor child was so used to it by now, though something felt like a shock to my system the minute he left my grasp. An instinct that made me want to clutch him impossibly close. Fidgeting uncomfortably, I lift my shirt as Adriam connects the device to his phone, taps a few quick buttons, and slathers the cold cream over my stomach. 

"How far along would you be? 9 weeks?" He looks at me cautiously, as if he was already preparing for the worst. "Any bleeding? Obviously, this hasn't stopped you from being active..."

"It was my fault," I tell him with a sigh. 

"Your body doesn't care whose fault it is, we are in uncharted territory." My French doctor had stepped out of my family circle and into his role as my care provider. 

"No bleeding," I tell him quietly, watching his phone screen as he searches only to suggest we go into the living space to lie down on the couch to allow him to see better. My heart pounds, Steffan holds my hand as he sits on the floor beside me, and Adriam kneels, focusing on the screen in silence. 

"It'd be easier with an actual machine, this isn't the most high-tech piece of equipment." Adriam mumurs, only to sigh in relief as the little dot appears. I hear the gentle reverberation, a pounding heartbeat that makes me inhale sharply as I quickly wipe at my eyes. "Don't get excited yet, we have 30 more weeks to go."

Grumbling to himself over the logistics of using a hand-held machine, I can only focus on the flickering of the tiny heart. Steffan seems just as moved as I am, "What a world we live in." He marvels, making me smile with an airy sigh. "Congrats, Nic. I'm so happy for you."

He was really the first one to have said something like that, to treat it like it was more than a curse. 

As Adriam takes measurements and curses, fighting with the small screen on the phone, I can only focus on reality. I was going to be a parent to a child of my own blood, sired by the love of my life, but born out of the most unusual circumstances. 

It'd be easy to dwell on the things I'm sure my husband focused on, if Fenrir's genes were mixed in and if the pairing of the three 'types' would somehow infect this child as well. Were we praying for white hair? Would this baby be a magic user or a lycan? What if they were mortal? 

My heart rate starts to climb and Steffan runs a hand through my hair, catching my eyes with his own. "It's going to be alright,b nm" he reassures me. 

Adriam glances back and forth between the two of us before turning off his phone to sit cross-legged. "Of course, it is, why wouldn't it be? Yes, we must be prepared for the worst but we can also be thankful for what has been given to us here. How Verando managed to get a man pregnant... well, I suppose he is quite fertile. Regardless, sit up, let me look at your cuff."

Slipping his finger under the rim, Adriam runs the digit the length of the cuff's connection with my arm, plucking at the material and twisting my arm from side to side as he attempts to rotate it. "It's been welded to your skin. This isn't coming off."

With a sigh of relief, I notice that he's not thrilled about it. 

"This came with a contract."

"I know," I tell him, standing from the couch, holding out my hands to gather Xaiver as the boy starts to stir. "We've talked about this all before, Adam. It is what it is." My words are final, I'd gotten the info I'd wanted and that was that this baby was still alive. Even after all the abuse, my body had taken the last two months, this child was still managing to possibly even thrive. 

"Before you run from me, I need to take more blood. We've got to continue to monitor your levels, your body has to maintain a certain amount of hormone to maintain this pregnancy, I wouldn't be surprised if it made you emotional or caused tenderness. Though, I truly don't imagine your body will try and produce milk-"