a mom when I didn’t expect at all to be a mom.”
“But is this really so bad?” Riley questions. “I mean, didn’t you always want to have your own babies? I have to tell you, this whole time I was constantly forgetting that the baby you were carrying wasn’t yours.”
“I did too,” Bestla says with a rueful smile. “This wasn’t a normal surrogate transaction in any way. I looked this up and surrogates are usually mated females who’ve already birthed a few of their own babies and are willing to do one or two more times for a deserving being. The surrogate and the donor parents normally live very separate lives. It’s a very loving but a very professional transaction.”
“Well, I didn’t see Berg for six months,” I grumble.
“Yeah, but you were messaging him constantly. And he was actually there.”
“Don’t remind me. Also, he’s a stalker.”
Then they both grow quiet. I look at them, puzzled as to why they aren’t saying more. And then Riley changes the subject and questions me all about Perth and my life here. She’s super interested in this area as a future vacation site for her own family. Eventually I tell them both that I need a nap. They hug me goodbye and leave to go back to their hotel. We decide to meet up again for dinner.
I waddle back to my apartment and start toward my tiny bedroom and then pause. I hear conversation through the thin wall separating my apartment and the neighbor. This is odd, usually my mysterious neighbor is perfectly silent. And then the voices become more distinct and it sounds like…Bestla? No, how can that be? Is that Bestla’s voice I hear? And then there’s a reply that reminds me of…
I suck in a sharp breath and purse my lips. I open my front door, stomp around the corner of the building and bang my fist on the door of the neighboring apartment. “Open up!” I yell.
The voices grow quiet. I hear footsteps. And then the front door is thrown open and an enormous, shirtless Hyrrokin male with black horns, razor-sharp fangs and impossibly hard abs fills up the doorway.
“You?” I accuse. “How long have you been here?”
Bergelmir doesn’t answer. He just stares at me, his eyes filled with heat.
“Bestla!” I shriek. “What is going on?”
And then she’s there, pulling me inside and guiding me to a seat in the small front room. “Sit,” she coaxes. “Sit down, sweetheart. You look so upset.”
“Bestla?” I whimper. “How could you do this to me?”
“He’s my son,” she answers simply. Then she stands up straight. “And I’m leaving so you two can finally talk this out.”
“No!” I yell. “Don’t leave me alone with him.”
Bergelmir stands in the corner and at least has the decency to look ashamed.
Bestla bends down and kisses me on the cheek. “I’m leaving, but one last thing you need to know… I didn’t create that nursery, Bergelmir did. And you were right all along, he does have great taste.” And then she’s gone and I’m left alone with Berg, in his apartment.
I look around, processing again how close he’s been this whole time—In the apartment next door. “You’ve been here watching me this whole time?” I ask. This male is the master of quiet proximity. “Again?” I can’t believe how he did this to me, twice. He’d been in that attic for months, living in the same house as me and I had no idea. And now this.
He steps closer.
I jab a finger at him. “I told you I needed my space.”
“I gave you space.”
I clench my jaw and look away. Dammit, it’s true. I didn’t even know he was here, living next door and sharing a wall. He did give me the space I requested. “I also didn’t want to see you.”
“You didn’t see me.”
“You were watching me the whole time. You’ve been stalking me, twice. You have issues.”
“Of course I was, and I always will. You’re mine. You’re both mine.”
And then I place my hands over my swollen stomach and start crying again because I’m reminded that I’m pregnant with his baby, but it all happened in an antiseptic med lab after I signed a contract, and he’s not even my boyfriend.
Bergelmir walks up and sits next to me and puts his massive red arms around me. I rest my cheek against his wide bare chest and release all my pent-up emotions. I figure he deserves all my snot and tears.
“We’re having a baby,” I sniff.
“Yes, we