Delih sat on the hospital bed, her hands resting on her stomach as she stared bnkly at the wall. Her thoughts were a tangled mess of confusion, fear, and disbelief. How could this have happened? Her body, her mind—everything felt so out of control. Her mother and grandmother had left, returning home to break the news to the family, leaving her alone with her thoughts, and the silence was suffocating.

  There was a gentle knock on the door, pulling Delih from her thoughts. She looked up as a nurse she didn’t recognize entered the room, smiling softly.

  “Hi there,” the nurse greeted, her tone cautious as she approached the bed. “Are you feeling better? I hope it’s okay if I speak with you for a moment.”

  Delih’s eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion, but she nodded, allowing the woman to continue.

  “I heard about your, um… three-week pregnancy,” the nurse began, her voice careful but curious. “And I understand you might be feeling a bit overwhelmed. I can’t expin why it’s happening, but I want to help.”

  Delih’s heart skipped a beat. ‘How could she possibly know about that?’ Panic quickly gripped her. She swallowed hard, thinking about her family’s reputation, how this news could destroy everything they’d built. “What do you mean you heard?” Delih asked, her voice sharp, defensive. “Who told you? How did this get out already?”

  The nurse raised her hands, trying to calm her. “No one told me,” she said, her smile reassuring. “In fact, no one has spread this news at all. I overheard them talking about it.”

  Delih felt her stomach twist, the anxiety tightening in her chest. “Why were you eavesdropping? How much did you hear?” Her words came out harsher than she intended, but she couldn’t help it. The pressure of it all was getting to her.

  The nurse’s smile didn’t waver as she expined, “I wasn’t eavesdropping, not intentionally. You see… I’m a werewolf.”

  Delih blinked, staring at the woman in disbelief. “You’re a what?”

  “A werewolf,” the nurse repeated calmly. “One of our more advanced traits is that we can hear things from a distance, through walls even. I didn’t mean to listen in, but I couldn’t help it.”

  Delih stared at her, speechless, before a sudden, disbelieving ugh bubbled up from her throat. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, her voice incredulous. “Werewolves? You’re seriously telling me you’re a werewolf? Are you crazy?”

  But the nurse only smirked, as if amused by Delih’s reaction. “It sounds unbelievable, I know. But think about it—by chance, did you meet someone mysterious? Maybe a man, had a wild night, and now you’re pregnant? No idea how it happened?”

  Delih froze, the words sinking in. She felt a chill creep up her spine. “Not… a man,” she finally replied, her voice barely above a whisper. “A woman.”

  The nurse’s expression didn’t change. “A woman?” she echoed, her eyes curious now. “Interesting.” She paused for a moment, then asked, “Was she… different in any way? Something about her that felt… unusual?”

  Delih’s thoughts raced back to Lyra—the way she moved, the way she’d looked at her, and that mark she left on her neck. The overwhelming power she exuded. She swallowed hard, the image of Lyra’s golden eyes burning into her memory. “Yeah,” she muttered. “She was… different.”

  The nurse’s smirk deepened. “I thought so,” she said softly. “You might want to brace yourself, Delih. That wasn’t just any woman. You’ve been marked.”

  “Marked?” she repeated, her heart pounding. “What does that even mean?”

  “It means,” the nurse expined gently, “that whoever—or whatever—she was, you’re bound to her now. You carry part of her inside you.” She gnced meaningfully at Delih’s stomach. “And it’s not just a baby.”

  Delih felt the weight of the nurse’s words hit her like a ton of bricks. This wasn’t a dream. This wasn’t a hallucination. Something far more terrifying was happening, and she was at the centre of it. “What do you mean... not just a baby?”

  The nurse took a step closer, her voice soft yet firm. “Werewolves and other supernatural creatures—they’re real, Delih. They exist among humans, hiding in pin sight. They can appear just as human as you or me, but underneath, they carry ancient powers.”

  Delih’s heart raced as she listened, her mind struggling to keep up with what the nurse was telling her. “The woman you met, the one you were with... I’m almost certain she was a werewolf. And the baby inside you? It’s proof of that bond.”

  The words hit Delih hard, making her stomach lurch. “How can you know that?” she asked, her voice trembling.

  The nurse smiled, but it wasn’t a comforting one. It was a knowing, almost resigned smile. “Because I can smell it,” she said, tapping her nose. “I can sense when one of my kind is near, and that baby growing inside you? It’s a werewolf. One of us—but not from my pack.”

  Delih’s hands instinctively went to her stomach, her thoughts a whirlwind. ‘A werewolf baby?’ She didn’t know whether to ugh or cry.

  “You’ll give birth in six months,” the nurse continued. “Werewolf pregnancies are different—much shorter than human ones. And if the woman you were with is of an alpha bloodline, well... then yes, she can get anyone pregnant. Even a human female.”

  Delih felt the room spin around her. The idea of Lyra being able to impregnate her, to leave her with a child that was part-werewolf, was almost too much to take in. But the pieces began to fit together, and the realisation that Lyra wasn’t just some mysterious woman but something far more powerful... it all made sense. The strange connection they had shared, the way Lyra had marked her—it wasn’t just a fleeting night of passion. It was something deeper, something supernatural.

  Delih opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, the nurse took a step back. Her form began to shimmer, her body shifting and reshaping. Delih watched in wide-eyed shock as the nurse shifted into a rge brown wolf, standing on all fours, its golden eyes locked onto hers. The wolf exhaled softly, its fur rippling as it padded toward Delih before shifting back into its human form once more.

  “Believe me now?” the nurse asked with a raised brow.

  Tears welled up in her eyes. All of the doubt, the confusion, the fear, it came crashing down on her. She hadn’t been hallucinating. Lyra was real. Her night with her, the mark, the baby… it was all real. “So, I wasn’t imagining it,” she whispered, her voice shaking.

  The nurse gave her a sympathetic smile. “No, you weren’t. She’s real, Delih. And so is that bond. She’s marked you in a way that no human could.”

  Delih’s tears finally spilled over as she cried. She wasn’t just pregnant—she was carrying a werewolf’s child. And the woman she had fallen for was not just a fleeting memory. Lyra was out there, somewhere, and now she knew for certain that their encounter had been anything but a dream.

  Delih sat back on the hospital bed, her mind swirling with the nurse’s words. The tears that had threatened to break her earlier were now flowing freely, but this time, they were not from confusion or despair; they were tears of unexpected joy. She didn’t fully understand why she felt this way, but the thought of being bonded to Lyra, of carrying her child, gave her a sense of purpose she hadn’t felt in so long.

  ‘No more drugs, no more alcohol,’ she made up her mind. Her hand rested protectively on her stomach as she felt strength welling up inside her. She wasn’t just living for herself anymore. There was a life growing within her, a part of Lyra, a part of that night that had changed everything. This was more than just a fling, more than just a wild weekend. It was the start of something bigger, something she never expected to want so much.

  The nurse’s parting words echoed in her mind: “If by the time the child is ten years old, or if your family rejects you, go to the werewolf council. They will protect you and help you find her.”

  Her smile grew as she thought about Lyra’s promise before she left. “I’ll be back for you if I survive.” Delih didn’t know when, but she knew in her heart that Lyra would return. And when she did, she would find a stronger, more determined Delih waiting for her. No longer aimless, no longer lost.

  Wiping her tears, Delih made a silent vow: she would be the best mother any werewolf child could ever have. She would protect this baby, nurture it, and raise it with love. And when Lyra finally returned, they would be a family.

  With a soft sigh, Delih y back on the bed, her hand still resting on her stomach. She could feel the changes happening already, and for the first time in a long time, she felt at peace. A new chapter of her life was beginning, and she was ready to face it. No matter what came next.