KEISHA’S POV
I sat there for a long mont and said nothing.
Dr. Fenn didn’t rush . She sat across her desk with her hands folded and waited.
The room was very quiet except for the low hum of sothing electrical sowhere in the building and my own breathing which I was working to keep even.
The cabin.
My mind kept going back to the cabin.
The heat had co out of nowhere. One mont I was sitting in Nadia’s family cabin trying not to break down, and the next mont my body had stopped being mine. I rembered thinking it was wrong. I rembered Diane going frantic. I rembered the way it had escalated so fast there had been no thinking.
I had thought it was a natural heat. Just badly tid.
It wasn’t natural.
Soone had fed sothing. Put sothing in my water or my food or sothing I had touched at that cabin and stood sowhere far away and watched it work.
Suddenly, everything that had happened in the last few months that led to being here looked different.
I pressed both hands flat on my knees and took a deep breath.
Who had access to the cabin?
Nadia had offered it. Had insisted on it even. But Nadia hadn’t done this— I knew that the way I knew my own na. Nadia would never.
So who had known I would be there? Who had known enough about oga biology to source a synthetic heat accelerant? Who had the ans, the motive and the patience to plan sothing this specific?
Osric?
Or whoever was pulling Osric’s strings.
"Keisha." Dr. Fenn’s voice was careful. "Take your ti."
I looked up at her. "Soone put it in sothing I consud." I said and my voice ca out flat and even. "At the cabin where I stayed when I ca. That’s when the heat started. Soone knew I would be there and they planned it."
Dr. Fenn looked at steadily. "That’s what I suspected." She said. "The concentration in your bloodwork wasn’t residual. It was too much to be. Soone knew what they were doing."
"How would soone even get that?" I asked. "A synthetic heat accelerant. That’s not sothing you find at a market."
"No." She confird. "It would require either a dical background or very specific connections." She paused. "Or both."
My mind trailed back to Vanessa and Osric. Then back at the man who was hovering around my window.
"Can it be traced?" I asked. "The compound. Can you identify where it ca from?"
"Potentially." She nodded. "If we had access to the source. The specific formulation can sotis be linked to a manufacturer or a supply chain if you know where to look." She looked at . "But that’s beyond what I can do from here. That would need soone with more resources."
I didn’t have that power. But I knew who did— Dane and Callum.
I needed to tell them.
I had been putting it off and building reasons why today wasn’t the right day and now I was sitting here with a confird pregnancy and evidence of deliberate drugging and suddenly, the conversation couldn’t wait any longer.
"What do I do now?" I asked. "About the pregnancy. Given the accelerant."
"The accelerant itself shouldn’t affect the pregnancy at this stage." Dr. Fenn said. "It’s a one ti compound. It doesn’t persist in the system beyond a few weeks and you’re well past that now." She opened a drawer and pulled out a small folder. "What matters now is your health and the baby’s health." She slid the folder across the desk. "Prenatal vitamins. I want you taking these every day starting today." She pulled out a small card. "Co back next week for a scan. We need to confirm dates and check everything is developing properly."
I took the folder and the card.
"Keep stress low." She smiled.
I looked at her without saying anything.
"I know." She said. "I know that’s not simple given what you’ve just told . But physiologically it matters. Eat properly. Sleep properly. Don’t run around chasing intruders at midnight." She looked at with an expression that said she sohow knew about that. "The pack talks." She added simply.
"Right." I nodded.
"Is there anything else you want to ask ?" She said.
I thought about the question that had been sitting in the back of my mind.
"The father." I said carefully. "If there were — more than one possibility. During the heat." I held her gaze. "Is there a way to determine—"
"Paternity?" She offered.
"Yes." I nodded.
She was quiet for a mont. "After the birth." She said carefully. "There are tests. It’s not sothing we can determine with certainty before then." She paused. "Is that sothing you need to know?"
It had to be one of them. It couldn’t be both. Could it?
"I don’t know yet." I said honestly.
She nodded. "Co back next week." She said. "And Keisha." She waited until I looked at her. "Everything you’ve told today stays in this room. You have my word."
"Thank you." I gave her a small smile.
I stood, picked up the folder and the card and looked at them in my hands for a mont.
Prenatal vitamins and a scan appointnt. The most normal objects in the world sitting in my hands in the middle of the most complicated situation I had ever been in.
I thanked Dr. Fenn again and walked out into the corridor.
The reception area was busy now, a few more people having arrived while I was inside. I moved through it and out into the cold afternoon where I stood outside the clinic entrance and took a breath.
Pregnant.
Synthetic heat accelerant.
Soone had done this deliberately and I still didn’t know who and I was standing outside a clinic with prenatal vitamins in my hand and a scan appointnt card.
How long would I keep this a secret from the pack?
I tucked the folder inside my coat so it wasn’t visible.
And started walking back toward the estate.
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