Under the moonlight with a shifter

Twenty One

Uriah was at Petunia's side when the healer came to check her status for lack of better terms he deemed to be witchcraft. Because she was Source, they tended to heal quicker than normal humans but they weren't immortal. They still died and aged but they weren't susceptible to human diseases and they were quite a bit stronger than most. They had removed the bandages and it seemed that most of her physical wounds had healed.

The healer was an older woman, robust and reminded him of a typical midwife. She cleaned and dressed the wounds and made an incantation as she proceeded to heal Petunia for about ten minutes. It wasn't until she watched him that he had noticed she stopped and they stared each other in almost awkward silence.

He heard a moan and then Petunia's eyes had opened as she looked to the ceiling for a few minutes, no one in the room making a sound as she stared and then made a gasp right before she flew from the bed in a sitting position. Tears immediately streamed down her face as Judie moved to hold her. "Shh...you're safe now." She told her daughter as her IV'ed hand came around to touch her mother's arm that cradled her.

"I...there...oh god." She whispered as the tears fell and then she made another sound as she looked to the healer, "The baby. How is the baby?" She asked and Uriah wasn't sure he heard right but his enhanced hearing didn't miss a beat.

The healer smiled as she said, "Baby is okay. Healthy as a horse."

His head was trying to register when their eyes connected and confusion played on her face as he opened his mouth. "What are you-" she said at the same time as he asked, "Baby?"

The room stopped and they just stared at each other and he wasn't sure what to say. She didn't look pregnant and he was almost afraid to even ask if it was his. It had been months when they had first mated and he didn't know how he could handle the news if the baby wasn't his. They were still mates and a surge of jealousy ripped through him like a slap in the face and he tried to control the anger and newfound emotion. She looked away from him as she asked her mom, "How long have I been out?"

"We need to talk." Uriah said not appreciating her dismissing him the way she just did and he wasn't planning on budging. "Why? For what reason?" Petunia retorted back quickly and he knew she must resent him for everything that has happened to her so far. "We can do this in front of everyone or you give me the time of day." He said challenging her and he knew the way her shoulders fell she would be giving him what he was asking for.

When the others had exited the room, he took a seat on the chair that accompanied her bed as he leaned forward putting his elbows onto his knees and then rubbed his hands across his face before he looked at her. "Is it mine?" He asked and the way her nostrils flared and her brows furrowed he felt like an asshole for even asking.

"Whose exactly do you think it is?" She asked angrily and he was sure she could've hurt him at that moment if she wanted to, he would let her. "Well we haven't exactly seen each other in the past few months. I just need to ask." He stated and she rolled her eyes at him as she took a sip of a concoction. Uriah didn't remember her ever being a spitfire and he wasn't sure if he disliked it or if it turned him on. Whatever dictated that they were mates somehow seem like there was a connection between them and he wondered how it was that the Source had it right yet so wrong. He didn't believe in fate and if there was one, she was a bitch.

He saw something in her and felt it as if she had said it out loud so he chose his words carefully. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you." He told her and he watched her eyes gloss over and her bottom lip and chin quiver. What she had gone through had her scared and she was reliving it as her hand came down to her stomach. "Have you been having dreams...like of us. Together?" She asked him and he felt dumbfounded as he wasn't sure if he wanted to answer or let her know that he had.

"I was told that it was possible that those dreams weren't dreams...rather me teleporting to you. So that we-" she paused and licked her lips as she looked away for a few seconds. "I don't know how it happened but I didn't control it. Hell I still don't know how it happens. It comes and goes." She told him and he looked at her in shock. This was why he never mingled with anyone outside his clan and they paired him with a fucking Witch, who didn't have powers but now she did and she's been teleporting herself into his dreams like a damn Succubus.

He narrowed his eyes at her as he said, "You teleport...but how. I just dream of that place by the water, how am I there?" He asked her, not wrapping his head around the Witchery of it all. She shook her head as she said, "I might be able to teleport others as well."

Uriah looked at her and everything clicked. It was bottom line that she was a Witch and they had always been conniving. Except he couldn't see Petunia like that and at the end of the day, she WAS his mate and she was pregnant with his child. "For what it is worth, that Warlock would have to go through me if he wants to get to you both." He told her and she looked at him with an eyebrow raised. "Whether you like it or not, we are mates and until you give birth to my child, I'm staying around and that means here until the Warlock is dead." He threatened and she made a sound of confusion as she said, "I don't need you just because you think you need to do something about being my baby daddy."

Uriah narrowed his eyes at her as he watched her anew with a different view. She was attractive and he knew that was one of the reasons he immediately felt desire towards her. Except the fact that they were mates intensified everything, and she just looked so tired, his sense of duty came to the forefront. He was not his father and he would stick around for her and the baby. "Why aren't you giving me a chance?" He asked her as he blew out a breath.

She retorted just as quickly with a sharp curt to her voice as she replied, "Just like you did after we mated?"

He deserved that, he knew it. He never gave her a chance to work it through and used her to gain his Jaguar. She should be hurt and she shouldn't trust him, but he needed to prove to her that he could protect them. If it meant he needed to stay and watch over her with her hostile parents, and possible coven, then he would. He needed to make things right by her and the baby before he lost both. And to do that, he needed to take out this Rogue Warlock.