I never had to give a sure answer.
Before I could form a response, the elevator doors opened and we were suddenly bombarded with a far larger issue than the two women. I frowned, shielding my face as cameras began to go off in bright flashes. I was extremely confused about what was happening until Marco wrapped an arm around me, tucking me against his chest as Henry’s snarl filled the space and made me feel somewhat safer. I still kept my face down, his words about keeping my head down not completely blocking out the voices that seemed to fill the foyer that we spilled out into. Voices that were asking me invasive questions.
About what had happened with my mother and Jed.
My relationship with my mates.
Why I wasn’t in school anymore.
All of them felt almost rude, and I didn’t answer. As we seemed to make it through the crowd, a sudden surge of magic let me know that Atlas’s security team had shown up. I didn’t interact with them very often, couldn’t tell you what most of them looked like, but their energy was very familiar. Like most of the shifters I knew. I was nearly out of the heavy grouping of people when one of the questions stood out to me the most. It had me looking up and meeting the gaze of the reporter that seemed extremely eager and curious.
“Are you knocked up? Is that why the Morettis have taken you in—”
“I am going to fucking kill them.” Marco’s growl against my ear was dangerous, making me realize how worked up he was, as Henry leaned in and said something blunt and sharp to the man, making him pale. I looked up at Marco, confused in part by his question. I obviously knew what he meant by being ‘knocked up,’ but I didn’t get what they meant by ‘taken me in’? Why would me being pregnant change anything between my mates and I? Maybe it was because the man was human and he didn’t fully understand the situation at hand? I nibbled my lip, looking back at him one more time before we finally broke through the crowd, security forming a line behind us. I let out an exhale of relief as we made our way down the hall towards the restaurant.
Thank god.
“Atlas is livid,” Henry mumbled, looking down at his phone.
“Someone tipped them off,” Marco growled. “Probably the council.”
Would they really have done that? Why?
I tilted my head, suddenly wanting to know more than anything about the human reporter’s reasoning. “Why would me being pregnant mean you were ‘taking me in’? I don’t really understand what he was trying to get at.”
Henry shook his head and sighed. “Just ignore them, sweetheart. They were implying that you got pregnant from one of us and that’s why you are living with us.”
Oh.
I frowned and tilted my head. “Really? That's an odd way of thinking about it.”
Marco chuckled, his hand tightening on my waist as it slid down from my shoulder that he had been using to tuck me against him. “Humans are odd. Especially when it comes to mating. I suppose shifters have it far easier, in a sense.”
I let out a soft hum at his words because I didn’t disagree with him at all. Or maybe it wasn’t that shifters had it easier, but viewed things differently. I felt like often people complicated things, playing this game of back and forth with their emotions. Then again, I hadn’t had a lot of exposure to other relationships outside of my own and what I’d seen through the media. My brow dipped, once again thinking about that article about ‘playing games’ in reference to keeping someone interested in you. Somehow they didn’t sound nearly as fun as the one where I continued to tease my mates.
Honestly, I was excited to see someone in the Dreki realm about mating. Despite what Jordan had told me and I’d learned on my own, I felt like I didn’t have a massive knowledge base, and call me crazy, but I didn’t exactly trust my mother’s words.
I mean, I hadn’t even known it was unusual to not have my period.
Which meant I had no idea if I could have children to begin with. Although I’m positive magic changed and affected that somehow. Honestly, it hadn’t been a topic that had ever occurred or mattered to me until meeting my mates. But now that I had? There was a large part of me that wanted that.
I