Chapter 0414


    I rubbed my own forehead, the questions making my head ache. I could only imagine what Susie was


    going through.


    “You have to tell Mark,” I said, because that should be the starting point. Mark was half to me here,


    so he should carry half the burden of whatever happens


    next.


    “I agree,” Nichs said. “He will do the right thing.”


    Susie shook her head. “I’ll be such a bother to him.”


    A bother? “Susie, the man got you pregnant. If he thinks you are a bother…” He isn’t worth your time.


    “He wouldn’t think that,” Nichs said.


    “He’ll think I’m trapping him,” Susie said.


    That seemed unlikely. It took two to tango, after all. “Did you use a condom?” I asked.


    She shook her head. “I didn’t even think about it. We were so… And then…” She cried more. “I care


    about him so much. I’m going to lose him.”


    “You won’t,” I tried to say.


    But Susie was inconsble. She buried her face in her hands and cried so hard I didn’t know what to


    do but to gently reach out and wrap my arms around her.


    She sobbed into my shoulder then, totally soaking my shirt.


    I looked up at Nichs, but he seemed as lost as I did. What could we possibly say to a girl who was


    going through something like this? She was the one who would have to face the ridicule and the


    hardships.


    I knew what she would face. I had been there before myself. I still face those hardships every day when


    someone knew discovers about me and Elva.


    When Susie was feeling a little stronger, I would tell her the full truth of it. That,


    yes,


    it was hard as hell sometimes. There were plenty of days when I wanted to quit the whole world.


    But then Elva smiled at me and every hardship ever was worth it.


    Susie cried until she was absolutely exhausted. Then she asked to be alone for a


    while.


    ?15 BOPAIS


    “Of course,” I said, and together, Nichs and I moved to the edge of the room, all the way by the door.


    There Nichs spoke quietly, though furiously, “I can’t believe Mark was this careless. If he meant to


    bed Susie outside of wedlock, then he dam ned well should have used protection.”


    “Do you really think he’ll do the right thing?” I asked, soft as a pin drop.


    “Yes,” Nichs said. “If he doesn’t, he’s not the man I thought he was.”Property belongs to N?vel(D)r/ama.Org.


    “He’d have to give up his career, wouldn’t he?” I asked. Betas were supposed to remain fully loyal to


    their assigned masters. For a Beta to take a wife, to have a child, meant they werepromised.


    “I’ll speak to him,” Nichs said, which wasn’t an answer to my question. Maybe Nichs hated that


    rule too. Maybe someday, when he was king, he could change it. Susie’s pregnancy wouldn’tst that


    long, however.


    Mark would have to make a choice. And I prayed for Susie’s sake that he made the right one.


    “I’m going to buy him a box of condoms,” Nichs growled.


    A littlete for that, I thought, but let Nichs have his angry moment.


    Though… thinking on it…


    I couldn’t help but wonder…


    If we had sex out in that forest the night I had been half-wild and desperate for him inside of me, there


    was a good chance that I would be pregnant too.


    Would he still be this angry if he had lost himself to the moment, too? What if I had been the one to get


    pregnant? What would he have done then?