MATED TO SERIES COLLECTION

43. ARIANA: FIGHTING

"Why can't we go back to the way things were?" I asked Eva as I took a seat next to her on the couch.

She sighed, but answered without looking at me, "Because back then things were easier."

I nodded silently in agreement. Letting out a sigh of my own, I dropped my head onto her shoulder and closed my eyes.

"Where's Dad?" Eva asked.

"I haven't seen him."

We fell silent. I could hear Emeric moving around in the kitchen and the low buzz of the TV as Eva surfed through the channels. It was strange how peaceful it felt even though we knew that things could change at any moment.

Eva shifted, making me sit up. One glance at her face had me frowning. She switched off the TV and leaned forward to place the remote on the coffee table, before she turned to look at me again.

"I think Dad is wrong about you getting pregnant," she said, surprising me.

Colour flooded my cheeks as I blinked at her. "You were eavesdropping," I accused.

"I wasn't planning on it." She gave me a small smile. "I was going to leave but then Dad started shouting at you, so I stuck around to hear why he was angry at you."

I stared at her silently for a few minutes before I turned to face her. "What makes you so sure?"

"Lucas is human. A human male's sperm count is lower than a Lycan male's. Don't get me wrong, there might still be a chance of you falling pregnant considering the fact that you're basically as human as he is with your animal being dormant."

"How the heck do you know all that?"

Eva shrugged, but the small smile slipped from her lips. "I use to hang out with Doc Ali when I skipped school. Besides that, I've heard Grandma talking to Granddad David."

"More eavesdropping."

"It's not like that!" She glared at me. "They like to go for walks and it's not my fault if they don't check to make sure that they're alone before they start gossiping."

"Gossiping?" I giggled. "What could they possibly—"

"They talk about stuff Dad never told us about," she interrupted.

"Such as?" I enquired softly, unable to shake the curiosity.

Eva crossed her legs and reached out to take one of my hands. My eyes dropped. They last time we sat like this was a few days before the kidnapping. I blinked and glanced back up at her when she started speaking.

"I heard that Mom had a few miscarriages before she got pregnant with us. Grandma believed that it was because Mom was human the first few times she fell pregnant. When she got pregnant again, Dad had already changed her." She frowned. "It makes sense to me because I think that her human body was too weak to handle a Lycan pregnancy."

My eyes dropped to our hands again as I tried to take it all in. I knew that what she was telling me was logical, but I believed that she hadn't heard everything. On the other hand, Dad had mentioned the pain he and Mom went through earlier, had he been talking about the miscarriages?

But then again it kind of explained why Mom got so sad on certain dates.

"They talk about Uncle Ethan sometimes too," she said softly, making my eyes snap up to hers. "Granddad David stayed with Grandma so she wouldn't be along tomorrow. It's Uncle's death anniversary."

"I forgot," I whispered.

"Me too." Eva gave my hand a squeezed. "We've been too preoccupied."

Something was tugging at my mind, a memory, but before I could grasp onto it, it disappeared. I swallowed and shifted before I spoke again.