After he hung up, he sat on the edge of the bed. “The doctor will be here in thirty minutes.”


    “Thirty minutes,” I repeated. “That’s a long time. We could do a lot of things in thirty minutes.”


    “E.”


    “What? I’m just saying. We’re alone. The baby won’t care if we-<b>” </b>


    “You inhaled toxic fumes. You need to rest.”


    I huffed and turned away from him. “You’re no fun.”


    Dr. Evelyn arrived exactly thirty minutester. While Alexander waited in the hall, she took my vitals, listened to the baby’s heartbeat, and asked me a series of questions about how I was feeling.


    “Everything looks normal,” she said when she was finished, packing up her stethoscope. “The paint fumes might have made you a little dizzy, but you and the baby are perfectly healthy.”


    By now, I had sobered up. Humiliation had quickly burned through my earlier high, although I still felt a strange pull toward where Alexander was standing on the other side of the door. It felt like the mate bond


    was stronger. More… potent.


    “Evelyn,” I said, keeping my voice low, “I feel… strange. It doesn’t feel like the paint fumes anymore, but…”


    I bit my lip, unsure of how to finish withoutpletely embarrassing myself.


    In short, I felt fucking horny.


    Evelyn seemed to understand right away. Perhaps it was the flush in my cheeks or the way I was squirming ufortably on the bed like I wanted to leap up and run out of the room.


    “Ah. The full moon is in three days, you know,<i>” </i>she pointed out.


    I felt my stomach drop. I’d been so focused on nursery preparations and whatever was happening


    between Alexander and me that I’dpletely forgotten about the lunar cycle.


    “Pregnant wolves can be more sensitive to the full moon’s effects,” the doctor exined. “Especially first- tíme mothers. You might experience heightened emotions, restlessness, increased… needs.”


    “What can I…” I cleared my throat, suddenly feeling bashful. “What can I do about it?”


    Dr. Evelyn’s face softened. “Physical intimacy with your mate can help regte the hormonal changes. It’s perfectly safe for the baby, and it will make the full moon much easier for you to handle.”


    So she was saying I needed to have sex. With Alexander.


    Thest time we’d been together like that felt like a lifetime ago, even though it had only been a couple of


    weeks. Everything had changed since then. We’d reached some new level in our rtionship, but we were still dancing around each other<b>, </b>still figuring out what we meant <i>to </i>each other.


    And if I was beingpletely honest with myself, I’d been thinking about him in that way more and moretely. When I watched him paint those little animals on the nursery wall. When he carried me to bed tonight. When heughed at my terrible jokes while we were assembling baby furniture.


    My body still remembered what it felt like to be with him. The way his hands felt on my skin. The way he looked at me, however briefly, like I was the woman he truly wanted.


    But would he even want that with me now? He’d said he was trying to trust me, but that was different from actually trusting me. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that somewhere in the back of his mind, he still wondered if I was working for my father.


    “You should do something nice,” my wolf suddenly chimed in, reading my thoughts. “Something to see


    how he feels.”


    I bit my lip as I watched the doctor finish packing up her things and leave. “Like what?”


    “A… date?”


    A date. The very idea felt absurd.


    And yet… it was what every mated pair did during the full moon. A night of closeness, of intimacy, a way to reconnect and feel the full extent of the mate bond.


    It was something we had never done in our five years of marriage. I hadn’t even thought about it since the very beginning, before I had quickly learned that Alexander had no interest in being a real couple


    with me.


    But things were different now, weren’t they? I was expecting his child. We’d had sex twice. Heughed at my jokes and carried me and stayed by my side when I needed him. He’d given me the benefit of the


    doubt.


    He had marked me.


    Maybe a date wasn’t such a bad idea. But what to do?


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!