Balin's brows rose, he slid a questioning glance at Con. Con came away from the wall, staring at her more intently.
"I take it this doesn't have anything to do with it taking us so long to get here,” Balin said slowly.
"I
told
you what it had to do with, you asshole!” Danika snapped. “Don't play dumb with me! You damned well know what you did!"
"Three,” Balin said, the beginnings of a smile twitching his lips.
Con stared at him a long moment and chuckled. “
That's
why she was still fertile!” His chest swelled. He turned to grin at Danika, noted that she didn't seem especially pleased and sobered instantly.
"You're saying...?” Dakota broke off, grinning.
Danika uttered a growl, snatched a pillow off the couch, and clocked him on the side of the head with it. Jolting to her feet, she stalked from the room and into her bedroom, slamming the door.
Balin, Con, and Dakota exchanged a grin, considered it a moment, and scowled at one another.
"Three?” Jared asked. “That's what she meant? She's got three in the oven?"
Balin shrugged, surveyed the living room, and finally moved to the couch Danika had vacated, settling on it with relief. It had been a long fucking drive, and he was exhausted. The adrenaline rush at Danika's news competed with his weariness, though, and it took an effort to relax even a little.
Con stretched to relieve some of his stiffness and dropped onto the opposite end of the couch, stroking his face thoughtfully. “The question is, who nailed her,” he said musingly. “Could've been one of us. Could've been all of us."
"Well it sure as fuck wasn't me or Xavier!” Jared growled.
Dakota sent him a provoking grin before he turned to scowl at Balin and Con. “I'm figuring their mine."
"Figure all you fucking want!” Con snarled. “That don't make it so!"
"We won't know for certain until they get here,” Balin said tightly, shoving up from the couch and looking around before he wandered out of the living room. Hearing the rattle of kitchen ware, Con followed him.
"You cooking?” he asked a little hopefully as he settled at the bar to watch.
Balin slid a cold glare at him. “What the fuck would give you that idea?"
"Don't be more of an ass than you can help, Chevalier,” Dakota growled as he entered the kitchen. “If you're cooking anyway, you can just as easily throw something on for everybody."
Danika stormed into the kitchen. “Get out of my kitchen! NOW!"
The men, who'd all gathered hopefully, exchanged glances, shrugged, and filed out again.
Slightly mollified when they didn't challenge her, Danika stared at the food Balin had dragged out of her refrigerator for a few moments, feeling the beginnings of guilt. They'd looked exhausted and hungry.
She didn't suppose it would hurt to feed them before she cut their throats. Maybe she could find some rat poison while she was looking for ingredients?
Apparently the thought of poison occurred to them. They stared at the omelets she slapped on her table a little while later and sniffed it suspiciously. “I'm saving the rat poison for the next meal,” she said sourly, flopping down in her own chair and picking up her fork. “I decided you might notice the taste in the eggs."
She left them to take care of clean up when she'd finished, feeling weariness dragging at her once she finally had something hot and filling in her stomach. Ignoring her unwanted guests, she went to her room, curled up on her bed, and went to sleep.
She roused when the bed dipped a little later, sitting up sleepily to see who'd climbed into her bed with her. Balin, freshly showered and shaved and without a stitch of clothes on, studied her warily for a moment and finally pulled her back down, curling around her.
"Don't try anything,” she muttered irritably.
There was amusement in his voice. “It hadn't occurred to me,” he murmured.
"What is that stabbing me in the butt, then?"
"He's just happy to see you,” he said in a shaky voice, nuzzling his face along the side of her neck. “He'll behave—especially with the threat of beheading hanging over him."
She sighed, shifting to get more comfortable.
His hand drifted to her belly. “Are you really so unhappy, baby?"
Danika swallowed a little convulsively. “I don't know. I haven't had time to consider it. I've been too busy puking my guts out every five minutes and being scared shitless."
His arms tightened around her. “I'm assuming you went to a doctor or you wouldn't know ... as much as you do. You can't go back to him. I'll find a wolfen to attend you."
"A doctor?” she asked doubtfully.
"We have them,” he said, coldness creeping into his voice.
"Try not to be a jerk about it!” she snapped. “I don't know a fucking thing about any of you."
He uttered an irritated breath. “You're right. That wasn't fair to you. Go to sleep. You need your rest."
* * * *
Danika couldn't say that her resentment was fading fast, but she did discover that it was oddly comforting to have the guys around, even if she was still thoroughly pissed off with them. By day three, she'd tumbled to the fact that they had every intention of camping out at her place indefinitely.
Not that they were underfoot. They seemed occupied with their own business most of the time. She'd thought the first few times they disappeared that they were gone for good, but they were always back in the evening, bedding down on any available surface—the couch, the spare bedroom, her bed, or the floor.
Her bedroom was like a revolving door—every night someone else climbed into bed with her. She was a little pissed off that they were so damned easy to discourage from trying anything, but she supposed it was a little bit of a turn off to listen to her barfing every morning. True to his promise, Balin located a doctor for her. It necessitated driving one town over, but she was actually surprised he'd found a wolfen doctor even that close. Apparently, there were a lot more of them—wolfen—around than she'd realized.
She liked him at once. In the first place, he was old enough not to look like the ink on his license was still wet. In the second, he was blunt when they discussed her condition but seemed completely unconcerned, which made her feel like she needn't be.
The entire gang accompanied her. She was a little irritated about that, a little embarrassed about them crowding the waiting room, but, despite that, it made her feel like she wasn't going through it alone.
Not that they could do anything about the actual labor part of it! But still, it felt more like a shared burden. The nurse looked the men over when she came out to get Danika to take her to the back. “Who's the father?"
Danika felt her face turn fire engine red.
"One of us,” Dakota said promptly, stepping forward.
The woman lifted her brows. “It's going to be crowded,” she muttered, waving them in.
They waited outside while she was prepped for a sonogram. They entered hesitantly when called, looking uneasy and eager at the same time.
The doctor looked them over. “Nobody's going to get the news today,” he said tartly. “We're just going to have a look at them."
Everyone turned to study the screen expectantly as the strange noise filled the room. “What's that weird noise?” Danika asked uneasily.
"Heartbeats. Three."
"Just three?” Danika asked a little hopefully.
He grinned at her. “Just three."
She knew it was ridiculous to feel relieved, but she did. It wasn't
more
than three, and at that point that was something to get excited about.
She studied the screen with more interest, but she discovered she really couldn't tell that much about it. He pointed out first one and then another, pointed to hands and feet. She nodded in the appropriate spots, but she didn't know how he could tell anything about the image.
"Good, strong heartbeats, good development. I think we're in good shape. I don't see anything we need to worry about."
The six of them filed into the doctor's office when Danika had dressed and listened to his diagnosis and instructions. Discovering Danika was still suffering from bouts of nausea and vomiting, he gave her a different prescription to try and told her she'd have to come in for shots if that didn't do the trick. His primary concern at the moment was that she wasn't gaining weight.
Considering she'd been on the barf diet for a while, Danika wasn't actually that surprised, but she agreed to try his suggestion of staying in bed and eating salty crackers before she tried to get up in the morning.
"At this point, I think it's safe enough to continue with sexual relations—assuming, of course, that you feel up to it,” he concluded, spearing the men with a hard, chastening look. “Ordinarily, that wouldn't even be an issue until the late stages of pregnancy, but your situation is a little different. This is your first and a multiple birth. You should exercise caution—nothing too strenuous—and if you don't seem to have problems, do as you like."
He dismissed Danika. Feeling more than a little resentful that he'd sent her out to talk to them without her, Danika left his offices and went to sit in her truck, debating whether to wait for them or not.
"I don't know what the fuck is going on here,” Dr. Billings growled when Danika had left. “I'm not sure I want to know, but I'll tell you all straight out that she isn't up to calisthenics with all five of you. Never mind. I
do
want to know! What are five alphas doing with a human female?"
Balin eyed him coldly. “This affects you, how?"
"She's my patient!” Dr. Billings growled. “You called me to make sure she delivered her litter without any problems. I don't know how the fuck you managed to get a litter on her to start with, but I do know it's going to be a hell of a lot harder to bring this to a happy conclusion when the mother isn't wolfen!"
Balin paled, glanced at Dakota and Con, and finally settled in one of the chairs in front of the doctor's desk. “There's a problem?"
"Besides the obvious?” Dr. Billings demanded testily but then relented. “She seems strong and healthy. I couldn't find anything wrong with her or anything, at this point, to be concerned about. I wouldn't have lied to her about that. But there's no getting around the fact that she's beyond her prime breeding years and human to boot! There
could
be problems down the road.
"You either need to settle on who's the prime alpha or agree to behave yourselves. You can't be fighting over her and trying to outdo each other—in the bedroom. This wouldn't be a problem with a
normal
pack, but if this were a normal pack there wouldn't be any question about who'd fathered the litter. It being her first, it would be
the
alpha that sired them, and I could expect
him
, singular, to protect his pups by keeping the others off of her until she delivered them."