so often against her, but they seemed to have formed a truce. Almost an alliance.
"We need to get you to the doctor," Sterling said softly. "Maybe it's nothing, but we can't be too safe."
Ella wasn't inclined to disagree with him, letting him take her hand to help her up off the bed. "I really think it's fine. You don't need to worry so much."
More hesitation. She sighed deeply. "Alright, I know there's something you're not telling me, so now would probably be a good time to get it out."
"We can talk about it later," Axel said gruffly.
Ella folded her arms and planted her heels on the floor. "I'm not going anywhere until we talk about it. It’s up to you."
Anger flashed in his gaze, and she knew he wanted to flip out like he usually would, but even Axel seemed to have an aversion to arguing with his pregnant mate. He looked over at Sterling. "Wanna talk some sense into her?"
Sterling ran a hand through his hair, and seemed to be considering it. "I guess it's as good a time as any. She deserves to know, especially if…"
"Especially if what?" Ella demanded, looking between them. Now she really was scared. Her mind was racing, but it didn't take long for her to realize what it had to be about. The very thing that they had been so secretive about ever since their return from the cabin. "This is about the feral thing, isn't it?"
The looks on both their faces were enough of an answer.
Ella swallowed hard, making sure she was ready to hear the answer to the question that had been burning in her mind for months. "I know I'm a feral, but I don't know what it means. There's nothing about it in any of the books on colony history. Not even the medical books."
"No," Sterling said thoughtfully. "There wouldn't be. Not in the ones at school, at any rate. It's a rather taboo subject, one the colony officials would prefer to pretend didn't exist."
And here Ella had hoped she was worrying for nothing, or at least overreacting. "What's wrong?" She touched her stomach again. "Is there something wrong with the baby?"
"There's no reason to believe that," Sterling said quickly. "All the tests and ultrasounds have been normal, and you certainly don't show signs of being a typical feral."
"Which would be?" Ella challenged.
Sterling grew hesitant, and Axel picked up where he left off. "Shifting into a hell beast that attacks people like a rabid dog, for one thing."
Sterling gave him a scolding look. "Could you not?"
"What?" Axel asked defensively, shrugging his shoulders. "It's the truth."
"You have to be kidding me.” Ella’s hope began to fade when she realized neither of them was going to admit it was a joke. "I'm… I shift into a house cat.”
Axel snorted. "Exactly. That's why, no matter what that stupid blood test says, it's bullshit. And there was no reason to get you all worked up over nothing. Over something that isn't even possible."
"He's right," Sterling agreed. "We kept it from you because the stigma of something like that getting out is… Well, you are already under enough stress. Especially since you got pregnant."
Ella swallowed hard. As annoyed as she was that they'd been keeping secrets from her, she couldn't deny the reasoning was valid. Of all the guesses she had about what it meant to be a feral, that certainly wasn't on the list.
"Does that mean my parents were?" Her voice broke as another possibility occurred to her. "They were… monsters?"
"Of course not," Sterling said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "And neither are you. This would hardly be the first time you've been discovered to be something anomalous. For all we know, it has something to do with being moonmarked. There's no need to bite off more trouble than we already have."
Ella nodded, but those words caused anxieties of their own. She knew what he meant. Her appointment to Empress as a stray was already controversial enough. The last thing she needed was anyone finding out she had the blood of a feral, too. It wasn't so much that she cared about the title, or being stripped of it, but what would that mean for the baby? For all of them?
"Come on," Axel said, opening the door. "We held up our part of the bargain, now it's time for you to hold up yours."
Ella sighed, following him out to the car. She was convinced it was nothing more than a normal twinge