Stolen Birthright Ch. 26-29

She bolted upright, her wolf forward. Her claws started to come out, and Melanie grabbed her from behind to keep her from striking out at what her wolf saw as competition for her mate's affections. "It's not that anymore, Olivia. We're over, I'm your brother's mate, I have no interest in him now." I waited until her eyes changed, showing her wolf had retreated. "Mark has been a friend to me my whole life. When I was in the hospital after I was raped, he came and helped me. I turned to him as he drove me back home because I was weak, angry and I wanted to feel something again. He helped me heal. I thought I loved him, but I didn't know love until I met your brother."

"You slept with him, though." She was still poised to attack, and I scooted back a little farther.

"Yes, until I met your brother. I had been told I was fully human now, that I couldn't find a mate, so I grabbed on to the one human I loved and trusted. Mark is a good man. He helped me to recover from the trauma, to move forward again. He's going to be a father to my babies, but he's not my mate. Craig is. Craig is the only one I want, and Mark is yours."

She reached out her hands for me, and I moved in and hugged her tight. "It's going to be all right, Olivia. He needs a little time." I gave her a squeeze. "Look at the bright side, he already knows about werewolves and the mating bond. He got dumped because of it."

She snickered. "What do I do?"

"You need to tell him your side of the story, he only knows mine and he reacts too emotionally to it because of what I went through." I took her phone and put his cell phone number in it. "Send him a text, let him know that you want to talk about it when he's ready." She did; she waited for him to respond but he didn't.

I wished I could go back to the trail car and kick his butt, but I knew he was working through things too. I sent him a text, telling him she was family to me and I had forgiven her for what she had done. Then we waited.

It was the most comfortable trip I've ever made, even though things were awkward. Moe and Theresa alternated driving, while we watched movies and played card games back in the dining room. The best part was being able to move around if you had to. Need the bathroom? Get up and go. Hungry? Grab something out of the fridge. We made sure to time the runs to long flat sections of road. We made one stop for gas, but Mark ran off to the bathrooms so Olivia didn't get to talk. Just before dinner we had arrived at the turnoff for the Johnson Pack.

Moe had linked with his Alphas as soon as we were within range, so I knew they had been updated on all the going ons, especially with Mark and Olivia. Introductions went quickly, as the Greens went back to their room. The girls stayed close to me, mostly because they were nervous about being around so many people. Aunt Remi welcomed them with hugs, and said she would give them a quick tour before dinner because Mark and I had something to do.

Doc waved us over to the clinic, and took me back to an exam room where he had me change into a gown. He and Mark came in a few minutes later. "All right, Ella, let's see how those babies are doing." I laid back on the table as he prepared the ultrasound machine. Mark and I were entranced by the images on the screen- we had talked earlier and decided we wanted to know the sex of the babies. We were on a "wiener hunt," so to speak.

The image moved around of the first baby, he was so much bigger than the last time! Doc adjusted the position until he had a dorsal shot, along his back while he was flashing a moon to the camera. I said "he" because the ol' twig and berries were clearly visible from this angle. "Baby one is most definitely a boy," Doc said.

He took some measurements, and then adjusted the machine until the second baby came into view. "Another boy," he said. "Most likely identical twins." Tears were flowing down my face as his little face came into view. Doc had clicked a few times to take photos, which were printing away underneath the screen. A few minutes more, then he turned the machine off. He wiped the gel off my belly and helped me sit up. "Everything looks good, Ella. Your boys are growing well, right where I expect werewolf babies to be at."

I looked at him in shock. "Werewolf babies? They aren't human?"

He shook his head, I could see Mark's disappointment out of the corner of my eye. "No, I'm pretty sure they aren't. Werewolf pregnancies advance quicker, the growth rate is higher. These two are too big for this stage of pregnancy to be fully human, even if they were single births. They are about a month farther along at your six month point than a human baby would be."

I closed my eyes and my fists clenched, then I relaxed. "So Mark isn't the father."

"I can't tell for sure," Doc said. "You're a unique case, Ella. Never before in our history has a female lost her wolf and gotten pregnant at the same time. I've been doing research, and it is inconclusive. It is possible you were fully human when you got pregnant, yet the eggs your body carried still had the werewolf genes. If that is the case, Mark could still be the father. It is also possible that you and your eggs were fully human, but the father was a werewolf. The only possibility I can throw out right now is your eggs were fully human and Mark is the father. The ultrasound shows that can't be the case."

"So how do I know?" I held onto Mark's hand, I was shaking.

He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Well, the simple way would be to wait until they are born and do a blood test. Or, we could do an amniocentesis, which is a procedure where I insert an instrument and take a sample of the amniotic fluid. I would then send that to the werewolf lab in Oregon, along with DNA samples of you and Mark here. The lab would be able to prove or disprove Mark as the father, and we know there is only one other option."

Mark looked over at me and kissed my forehead. "It's all right, Ella. I don't need to know." He put his hand on my belly. "I told you before, these babies are mine no matter what. I don't want you to risk them with a procedure that isn't needed." He looked over at Doc. "There are risks, right?"

"Yes, they are minimal but it does have a risk of early labor or fetal harm."

Mark patted my tummy again. "Think about it, Ella. You have two healthy werewolf babies in there. Nothing you learn from the test will change anything about how I feel about them. Would it change yours?"

I started bawling as his words settled in my mind; he really didn't care. He was such a good man, even if he did deserve a Gibbs slap for pushing Olivia away. I reached for him and he hugged me tight. "I don't want to know," I said. "Mark is their father."

Doc smiled as he collected the printouts. "Well, Dad, here are some baby pictures for your album. Now get out of here, dinner's about to start."