I sit quietly in the exam room, cringing at the overhead lights buzzing in my ears. The computer flickers, people walk outside, going on with their lives while I hang by a thread in turmoil that others couldn't even imagine. Holding pressure on the spot where they'd taken blood, it was never a good sign when doctors whispered with each other with such concerned expressions. 

My face reflects back at me in the gold shimmer of the cuff, I spot the dark rings under my eyes, my olive skin pale and clammy from using. I was still nauseous, a possible side effect of what was happening to me. My eyes travel to the window, did it ever stop raining in this city? The steady drizzle continued on outside while I attempted to comprehend what we'd gone through. It was becoming more and more unsafe to travel as if we'd somehow regressed back in time. 

What would we have done without Tomas and Rowan there as protection? Even then, they had been rendered almost useless and we'd been forced to rely on Fenrir to pull us out of the clutches of a cat gone wild. I might have preferred this be the problem of an enhancer, rather than the admittance that whatever entity wanted to come to our plain was free to do so. 

A demon? 

We'd seen imps, but nothing on par with demonic energy besides the wraiths. Pressing my palm to my forehead, I pull my legs up onto the exam table with a heavy sigh, leaning back against the chill of the wall in hopes of soothing the twist and turns in my stomach. We were supposed to fix the planet, how did it feel as though we were only making things worse?

The door opens and two women file in, Rowan joins them with a soft smile, I reach for her and she quickly comes to take me in a soft hug. Her body felt warm, soft in my arms, while she was bandaged, she didn't seem to be harboring any major injuries. I note her arm is wrapped down to her wrist, but it seemed as though taping lycan's up was the preferred method. Doctors were still baffled by the increased healing, it was unsatisfying to just let them go. 

"Are you alright?" I ask her quickly, looking her over, as she examines me all the same. 

"Yes, sore and bruised, but healing quickly. They just had to put my shoulder back in, mostly. I'll be all limited use for a few weeks." She glances at her arm before turning her attention to the doctors who seemed as though they'd asked her to be here. I glance back and forth between them, quickly putting my hand on my stomach. 

"Don't you dare tell me something's wrong-"

The woman holds up her hands with a cautious expression, Rowan touches my shoulder, they were afraid of me. They were only humans. 

"Well. Sir. It would appear that you are a man who is... erm.. pregnant?" she questions, looking at my paperwork as she cautiously sits in the chair. I can smell the ammunition, the other woman was carrying a gun, a security officer in disguise as a nurse. Rowan came to protect me, of this, I could assure myself. She must have smelt it, too. 

So it was true. The cuff had worked, I'm happy and horrified all at the same time. "It's hard to explain." I manage, earning a concerned glance as she flips through the pages. 

"I don't pretend to understand the inner workings of magic users or lycans, so I can accept that this is probably true. But, your progesterone, which is the hormone that helps to hold the pregnancy, is dangerously low. You're male, you're not meant to carry a child... so this is all going to be a major shock to your body. Your hemoglobin is low, I'm worried you have some sort of internal bleeding. I'd like to hook you up and keep you for testing. Sir, frankly, I'm concerned. Where a baby is even hiding in your body is.. not possible. You don't have a uterus."

"Magic users have their ways. I'd like to remind you His Majesty is not a stranger to the divine and also would appreciate you not treating him in such a discriminatory fashion." Rowan interjects sharply, "I'm his lawyer. I suggest you use an appropriate tone as you would with any expecting person and not unnecessarily scare him with bias." 

My lawyer? I glance up and Rowan offers me a small smile, giving me a gentle squeeze. A baby. I was pregnant? "Randy- I need to know he's okay before we do anything else."

The doctor glances at her security guard before looking back at me, "Mr.Mercer had to go in for emergency surgery. We.. retrieved a gun from his stomach, he also had a collapsed lung and some internal bleeding. Lycans are interesting... beings." She corrects herself, keeping from calling us creatures no doubt. "But he should be waking up, soon."

"You didn't even consult me," I demand, moving to stand but Rowan steadies me, insisting I sit. "Neither of us trust doctors and I'm sure you can now see why, you do whatever you like to us as if our wishes don't matter."

"It was life or death. I know some lycans are immortal but the gun had ruptured through the stomach, likely from the fight with David. The lung and chest cavity were filling with blood, he was barely alive when he came in and practically comatose. We saved his life." She shoots back sharply, "Considering he murdered someone, that's-" Pausing, she swallows hard and folds her hands in her lap. "The stories circulating your husband are quite startling. We are doing everything we can to not show bias."

Gritting my teeth, I push away from Rowan. "My husband was discriminated against, insulted, and attacked while simply trying to exercise. You have no right to draw any sort of conclusions from the media or any other witnesses who were only there to help the man who attacked us. My husband and I fought for magical rights in this country, we saved this planet, show some respect."

She was mortal, there was little I'd done for her other than make her life more difficult as magical beings didn't get any treatment before we came along. The government handled the majority of their issues, in specific facilities. Things were changing all over again and there was a major learning curve, I'd seen what Fenrir had done, I knew what else they would find and I wasn't blind to the disturbing nature of the god living inside my husband.

"You're a doctor. Do your job. Run your tests, but I want to see my husband afterward. Rowan... Randy-"

"Tomas is with him. It's alright. I believe it was mentioned he often gets very tired after Fenrir comes out, he hasn't even been out of surgery for 30 minutes, I imagine he won't wake up any time soon." She reassures me, helping me up to lead me down the hall to another room for testing. 

The amount of blood they take from my body is what I find more concerning as if they were trying to bleed me dry. Doctors file in, crowding around as they go over my tests and prod my body to find where I was bleeding from on the inside. With an ultrasound, they cover my stomach in lube and in the dark room, trace over every single one of my organs. 

I shiver at the cracks in my bones, the way the lycan sits under the surface so that my body can shift is less interesting to me and more unsettling. Finally, they locate the space and the pocket of blood surrounding it, my 'sudo' uterus as it were. The room falls quiet, it was too early for a heartbeat but there was definitely a space there and the tiniest blip on the inside. Too quickly is the dot gone, for they were sifting through the bleeding with worried expressions. 

"Your body could be rejecting the baby." One male doctor says with a frown. "it's not meant to carry-"

The woman shakes her head, frowning as well. "From my limited resources, and looking at your chart, I'd say your body is simply over-taxed. You are a changed magic user correct? It says you are not a born lycan, so that means you were turned. Before you were a... err.. solomonari? A sorcerer? Your body is now adjusting to two things, and then this third one is a foreign body. I'd say the bleeding is symptomatic of the body trying its best to cope."

"Besides the fact that you lack a lot of the hormones to maintain a... pregnancy." The man retorts, giving the woman a hard look. 

"Then give him the hormones," Rowan demands, her voice gentle but firm. 

"Hormones meant for women?" The male grumbles before the female doctor excuses him. 

"There will be side effects, emotional sensitivity, breast sensitivity, possible weight gain.. typical pregnancy symptoms. But... at this point.. if you wish to maintain the pregnancy then this is what you must do. For now, it will be a pill. If you can get your levels up with the pill, then we can proceed that way but if not, then we'll have to move to daily injections." 

My eyes focus on the screen, wishing for the return of the dot as the light flicks back on. I'd wanted this for so long, since I'd been told that Rowan existed, that she could have told me they'd have to lock me in a cage and I would have agreed. "Whatever it takes." I murmur as she wipes the gel off my abdomen. 

"You'll need to stay for a few days to monitor the bleeding, and to test your levels. But after that, I'll just need to see you once a week. I'd say this is high risk but I think we are beyond that, this is unknown. The 'sudo uterus' is not attached to anything. I'd suggest the moment the fetus is viable, we remove it but... I'll leave that up to you. Assuming you want to keep-"

"I'm keeping it." I snap, sharply. Making her almost flinch, she nods once, exhaling shakily to move to get a wheelchair. 

"If you want to sit in this, I'll take you to Mr.Mercer. No magic, no shifting, limit your activity and get plenty of rest upon dismissal." She reminds me as I slide into the chair, sighing at the lecture as Rowan pushes me down the hallway and we enter into the dimly lit room. It would appear he had just as many doctors as I did, the x-rays that dotted the walls make me shudder as I spy the repair made in the government facility. 

The metal plate was dented, but not enough to make them want to replace it unless it caused him pain. 

He was covered in tubes, pale, hooked up to more machines than I was comfortable with as I slide out of the chair and rush over to his bedside. Tomas steps away, guarding me against any doctor who might try and stop me. His body was cool to the touch, disturbing as I'd never felt the man cold, I slip my hand into his as I glance up at the attending surgeon. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Well, lycans are very resilient. Mostly, we are looking at the number of broken bones he has healed from. It's kind of a marvel, he's got as much metal as he does bone in some places." The man says, plucking his gloves off. "He's already starting to heal, we've given him a blood transfusion, he'd lost a lot of blood. This chain though-"

I prevent him from touching it, a low growl rumbling in my throat. "He needs to keep it on."

"It's damaging the skin." He retorts shortly, frowning. "It's slowing down the healing."

"It stays on. It can't come off. No opioids either, he was an addict, he wouldn't want it." I tell them, sighing as I run my hand through my hair. "I'm disappointed at how little we were consulted on any of this. Is this how you treat your human patients?"

"My human patients would be dead, Mr.Mercer. You are extremely lucky your husband lived, so yes.. I wish I could treat my human patients this way. If humans were this hardy, I'd save so many more lives. We didn't have time to consult you, he hardly had a pulse when he came in."

They couldn't know that Fenrir was draining him, that he probably would have healed on his own though the idea of a rupture was terrifying. I trusted others so little compared to Adriam, I'd have to call him and give him the details. It was a thought I never thought I'd have, considering how little me and Adriam got along. 

Sliding the sheet back, I check on the two incisions, small slits stapled back together. One under his ribs and one on his side under his arm. The heavy scent of antiseptic and blood made my nose twitch, he didn't smell the same, my wolf whimpers in the back of my mind. Feeling sick from the scent, I sit back in my chair and cup my hand over my mouth to keep from vomiting, they wheel me away before I can argue and I proceed into my limited mobility over the next four days. 

In between testing, treatments, and forced rest, I spend as much time with Verando as possible. Tomas is his constant companion, reading to him and watching atrocious TV in hopes of coaxing him into waking up. But, our luck is minimal and my warlord continues to be non-responsive. In between visits, Ron comes to talk to me. 

The police were looking into David's death but at minimum, we were looking at a fine for public use of magic even if it was self-defense. The footage was fuzzy, with some obvious interference from the two entities, a demon and a god, crammed into the same room. But the first punch was thrown and that was obvious that it was David who retaliated. The use of deadly force was being questioned but the main concern was that 'David' was dead in the system. 

David, or the man we fought, had been killed in a car accident years ago. Or at least, that's how it had been documented. Ron informs me that he'd been given an order from an anonymous higher-up to drop the case and walk away from it, but David's family was raising hell that he was actually alive when all medical records had marked him as dead. They had even attended his funeral. 

Either David was a fake identity, and the man we fought was not who he said he was, or David truly was a captured experiment from the government and this went deeper than we'd imagined. The information made me even less willing to let Verando out of my site, Ron informed me it had been requested he hand Verando over but all requests for his detainment had been denied and Verando would continue to be a free man. 

Tucci called me shortly after the press release on David's identity and the attempt to arrest Verando, he had paid for any bail necessary to keep us from being bothered and assigned a lawyer to speak on our behalf. While it was true that Rowan had done a short stint in law school, this was beyond her pay grade and she was more than happy to step aside so she could devote her concern to me. 

Right now, it would seem the primary concern was the fact that a lycan had gone berserk and killed someone. Protests ravaged the streets, calling for justice for the damages to the gym, a demand for better laws, and the fear of what type of insurance and life-changing decisions humans should have to make to protect them from such outbursts. 

Outside the hospital, just like our hotel, the people chanted in the rain for justice while others chanted back a battle cry that Verando was just a victim in all of this. A man, a lycan, attacked by another mythical who wouldn't exist if the government was honest. There was a call for in-depth investigations into these cats, questions as to why they were swept under the rug, and why did it seem they were targeting the celebrity. 

There was demand from both sides, justice for and against my husband, and I found myself just wishing the gray-haired man would wake up for both of our sakes. 

I took shifts with Tomas and Rowan, for eventually I was discharged and it wasn't good for me to stay here so often either. The protestors were stressful and my wolf was on edge, making it hard for my body to relax. While it was emotional leaving, knowing he was asleep made it easier in that I wasn't leaving 'him'. I was allowing him to rest just as I was trying to heal. 

With every passing day, new little bits of this way of life began to surface and it killed me that he was missing them. 

On the 10th day, I curl up the chair beside his bed, watching whatever television show Tomas had left on. I wasn't tall enough to change the channel and digging around for the remote was more difficult with all the tubes surrounding Verando. I keep my hand resting entangled in his, drifting in and out of sleep as I lean against the bed railing. 

In the quiet of the room, I hear the heart monitor beginning to climb, flicking my gaze toward the machine with a frown as I sit up. "Randy? Randy, are you alright?"

With a grimace, his hand slips out of mine to grip his side, I quickly stop him and fold my fingers with his. "Baby please be still, you're almost healed but it'd be best to not touch it just yet."

"Bloody hell..." he manages, his voice rough, slowly peering at me through his lashes as I beam back at him. "I feel awful."

"You're gorgeous as ever," I assure him, carefully running my fingers through his hair, keeping my voice soft. "You never spat out that gun, it ruptured your stomach. You pierced a lung with one of your ribs."

Flinching, he doesn't try to get up, exhaling as he tries to gather his bearings. "Is that all?" he grumbles sarcastically, "Thought I felt something off when he kicked me. I bloody hate those damned cats..."

With a chuckle, I squeeze his hand, kissing his knuckles. "They do seem to give you a run for your money."

"I think I'm actually getting old... that or that one was a hell of a lot stronger than usual. I haven't gotten my ass kicked like that in a long time." Coughing, he groans, pinching his nose. "Was putting me down not an option?"

I growl low in my throat, "Never. You'll suffer with me as long as I can keep you. The cat was possessed by a demon, that agreed to help it in exchange for the use of its body, we assume. Fenrir pulled out its heart, it was made of hell rock."

"Are you alright?" Concern crosses his face, pushing past any explanation as he reaches for my cheek. I kiss his palm over and over, clutching his hand to my face with a shakey exhale. The sight of him was breaking my heart, pale, dark circles under his eyes, exhausted and in pain. Yet he was still worried for me, still wanting to make sure that I was going to be okay. 

"I'm going to be... they ran some tests, they want me to rest so that's what I've been doing while you've been out. It's early of course.. but they were able to confirm that the cuff is doing it's job. I'm... pregnant."