48. Secrets
Lucy
I heard Matt leave as I sank onto the couch and closed my eyes. I didn’t even want to imagine what he’d said to her, but I couldn’t help but feel relieved that he had really left.
Was it really that easy? What had she said to him. Yvonne hummed.
“How do you feel?” She asked.
I shook my head. I was cold. Everything felt jittery with fear like I was just waiting for them to pack me up and take me to the auction house or that people were going to come to the house and take me away like before.
“I believe I told you to rest,” Yvonne said. “Though you did a good job putting your foot down. You’ll have plenty of time to practice telling them no, I’m sure.”
“I don’t know…”
Yvonne chuckled. “Trust me, they could use it. I take great pleasure in telling them no at every opportunity.”
I laughed a little. She offered me another cup of tea. I took it, sighing at the way it warmed my hands. I drank and curled up on the couch.
“I… dropped the books.”
She smiled and waved her hand through the air. The books appeared on the table.
“These?”
I nodded, shocked. “H-How did you do that?”
She winked. “Secrets. If you think I’m impressive, you should see my sister.”
I licked my lips.”Can all… witches do that? Supernatural adjacent people do that?”
She chuckled. “Mostly witches, and I guess witch adjacents.”
Then, she pulled a potion bottle off a shelf and set it between us. Then, she put another one beside it. The first was red. The second was blue. I looked at the two of them and then up at her face.
“Would you like to pick up the conversation from earlier?”
My stomach jolted. I felt nauseous all over again, but I didn’t feel so overwhelmed. Matt wouldn’t come in here. This room was safe, and I could trust Yvonne.
“It doesn’t have to be a long one. I just want you to know your options. You have time.”
I licked my lips and looked between the two bottles. “Which bottle…”
I couldn’t even finish the words because I was so afraid of even thinking about it.
“I’m not telling you that just yet. And no, you can’t take them both. You’d die. Tell me why you’re most afraid.”
I set my jaw and clasped my hands together. “I don’t want to die.”
“Are you saying that because of what they’d told you about being only half werewolf?”
I shook my head. “There was… a girl at my school. She was… pregnant.”
Her eyes widened. “At… your middle school?”
I shook my head. “Her sister was in high school. She was eighteen. I just remember her being at school one day and then being out for weeks… When she came back, she told me that she died and… and her parents were keeping the baby.”
Yvonne nodded. “I see. Is there anything else?”
I looked at her. “The world is… cruel. I don’t want to be responsible for bringing someone else into it.”
Yvonne nodded. “I’m glad you have answers. Some people, a lot of people don’t… but I’m concerned about your answers.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“You have said anything about how it would affect you.”
I looked down and lifted a shoulder. “I’m… here. I guess they’d expect me to take care of it, but I don’t know anything about babies. They have a nanny, so… I guess she’d have to teach me.”
“If you could even stand to hold it,” Yvonne said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Some women give birth and can’t stand to hold their child,” Yvonne said. “Sometimes it doesn’t even matter if they wanted the child or not… In your case, I think it’s much more likely that you’ll experience that, especially under these circumstances.”
I shook my head. “I would… probably just do what I thought I had to do to survive.”
Yvonne nodded. “Likely. Do you want to know the truth now or later?”
“Later… Maybe never.” I shivered. “I… I don’t want to think about it.”
I didn’t want to feed the sense of guilt that was growing in me.
She nodded. “The blue potion will make sure you’re not pregnant today, but it won’t protect you if you find you can’t say no… You’ll have to take another one at that time. The red will protect you from pregnancies no matter what happens for five years.”
My jaw trembled. “A-And if I’m pregnant?”
She smiled. “We’ll have to work around it.”
“C-Can you do that?”
“I can,” she said. “It’s your—”
I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed the red one, opened it, and drank it in one gulp.
I gasped and shuddered as it washed down my throat. It felt warm but not uncomfortable. It tasted a bit sweet too. The heat pooled in my stomach and then spread out. I set the bottle down as it started to fade.
“N-Now w-what happens?”
“Now, I tell you to get some sleep.”
My jaw trembled. “Will I… Was---Am I?”
“No,” she said, smiling. “You weren’t.”
I deflated with relief. The sense of guilt that was haunting the back of my mind seemed to deflate. It was one thing to never get pregnant, but I couldn’t blame the child for existing. My stomach churned as I glanced at the blue potion. She took it away and carried it back to the shelf.
“You’ll be tired for a few days, but you’re completely protected.”
“They said that… werewolves can only have kids with their mates.”
She scoffed. “Not true. Honestly, it’s like they thought of the most ridiculous things to tell you.”
I swallowed. “Do you… think they were lying to me?”
She chuckled. “I think they believe it. It’s why they’ve lived the way they have. They have no concept of human birth control and how easy it is not to get pregnant. If they don’t have illegitimate children, it’s because the women they’ve been sleeping with didn’t want children either. The supernatural world, especially shifters, are so very behind.”
I shuddered. “I… Thank you.”
Yvonne nodded. “I understand that it is hard to say no. You’re so scared, and you’re used to doing what you have to in order to survive but know that there are options. There are always options. Don’t take everything they say at face value. They’re a little better than children. All shifters are.”
I licked my lips. “They said that werewolves have a virus? Is that true?”
She sighed and pulled down some other books. “I would ask what the hell they’ve been doing all this time, but I know better than most what sort of myths run the shifter society.”
She pulled another. “It’s why I went into medicine… The short answer is sort of.”
I frowned as she turned around with the books and set the books in front of me.
“It’s not a virus in the medical sense. It’s a magic that can change the person affected by it, but it is not like the flu.”
I nodded. “What’s the difference?”
“One, half-breeds as they call them, is a ridiculous term. Either you are, or you aren’t,” she smiled. “The only difference between werewolves born of two werewolf parents and not is how strong the gene manifests.”
I frowned, thinking back to eight grade biology. “It’s like… blue eyes?”
She smiled. “The way genes are inherited? Yes. Just like that. Did you like biology when you were in school?”
I shook my head. “I can’t say I liked any of the subjects.”
She nodded. “Have you thought about maybe finding out what you might like? Five years not having to worry about children is a lot of time… Never mind when you choose to take the potion again. People have built whole companies and new lives in less time.”
I sat back and bit my lip. “What else is out there? I didn’t… get a chance to learn much about anything beyond doctors… lawyers? I could be a driver.”
She smiled. “IF that’s what you wanted, but there are so many other things you could be too.”
I relaxed, listening to her talk about all the other things that I could be. More than a luna with children, more than dead on the child birthing table, or even more than being an escort like Tina. For the first time in my life, I was actually really hopeful for the future.
I just had to get away from here.
“Do you think… if I could pay them back, they’d leave me alone?”
Her eyes widened at the question then she smiled. “That’s a way to go about it, but I think you could also just leave.”
“Is it really that easy?”
She smiled. “Nothing worthwhile is easy, Lucy… But I can’t think of anything more worthwhile than the freedom to choose.”
I smiled at her. “Neither can I.”
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
