Brawn - Laurann Dohner [76]
“Are you still there?”
Becca realized she’d drifted in her thoughts. “Yes. Do you think the baby is growing faster than normal? Is it possible? Just answer me that because that’s all I can figure and I’m worried.”
“Are you more than four months along?”
“No.”
“Good.” Trisha hesitated. “Don’t you want to know the sex of the baby? If you let me see you I could bring a portable ultrasound machine and tell you the sex.”
“That’s just mean. You know I’d love to know that but I can’t risk it. If you aren’t going to answer me, I need to go.”
“Wait! How are you feeling? Are you healthy? Any unusual symptoms or anything? I’m assuming you haven’t seen a doctor?”
“You know I can’t risk that. I’m tired a lot but I read that’s normal. My appetite is great. I haven’t thrown up in weeks and am past the morning sickness stage. I have to go. Thanks for talking to me.”
“You have to call me more often. At least once every few days. You’re alone. Something could go wrong. Please?” The doctor sounded panicked.
“I’ll call you once a week.”
“Do you promise? I am worried about you. You don’t know everything and I can’t tell you over a phone.”
“Tell me what?” Becca’s heart pounded with fear. What did the doctor know that she wasn’t saying?
“Just call me and we’ll keep talking.”
“I have to go.” Becca hung up.
* * * * *
Trisha hung up and put her house phone to her ear. She’d called Justice when she’d picked up her cell with the woman and let him overhear the conversation on speaker phone.
“Did you recognize her voice? You deal with most of the humans we come in contact with.”
Justice sighed. “No. I didn’t recognize it but the accent is fake. She slipped a few times. Maybe she’s lying about the pregnancy.”
“No. She knows too much. She said she felt the baby move for the first time. She’s between eight and ten weeks along. That’s when we feel movement. That’s good. Thank God. I was terrified we wouldn’t have any time to find her before the baby was due. She is about halfway through her pregnancy, Justice. I delivered my son at twenty weeks. She doesn’t know New Species babies grow and develop faster. We have to find her fast. My husband is canine. Feline pregnancies could go faster and I’m assuming he was feline, considering she didn’t mention the penis swelling during sex that is common with canines. Hot sperm is more noticeable with felines. We won’t know until the first feline mixed baby is born how long their pregnancies last.”
“Let me… Hang on. Tiger just walked in.”
Tiger chuckled. “We got a trace. We know about where the call came from. I have good news and bad news.”
“What’s to report?” Justice hit speaker phone. “Can you hear us, Trisha?”
“I can,” she stated. “What’s the bad news first?”
“It looks like this woman is probably the real deal. The call was traced to an area near Reservation. She must live out there, which means she probably did come in contact with our people.”
“That’s good news,” Trisha agreed.
“Not when we have a human pregnant by one of us and we didn’t know about it. It’s bad until we have her here and secure.” Tiger took a breath. “The good news is that it’s a remote area. We’ll send teams out and look for her. There aren’t that many cabins out there if she’s really living in one. It might take a few days to go to all of them but it shouldn’t take more than three days. We’ll find her soon.”
Justice sounded relieved. “That’s great.”
“Yes. Will she be showing, Trisha?” Tiger moved closer to the phone.
“She says she is and she felt the baby move which should put her between eight and ten weeks. You’ll definitely see a rounded stomach from the baby. She will smell faintly like Species too, up close. I did. The further along she gets the more she will carry that scent and the stronger it will get.”
“Justice, if you don’t mind, I’d like to head this one. May I