"What other girls?" the beast roared.

"I didn't mean it like that. I meant, 'my other girls' as in Jill and Lissa."

Her eyes bulged; I mentally smacked myself. When was I going to learn that pregnant women were seriously over-sensitive to EVERYTHING?

"Not like that," I tried to say but it was too late. A wisp of fire just barely missed my pant's leg. "Jeez, Sare! Will you just put away your blazing fingers and freaking sensitive feelings and wait for me to get out what my mouth obviously doesn't want me to say right?"

She glared at me with a glare that might even give Rose a run for her money. "Talk," she growled.

"Lissa, Jill, and Rose are my very first priority here. There's no reason to lie about it. They're my girls and I love them all."

"You love them, but you don't love the woman who is carrying your child!" she screeched.

"I never said that. I love them because of all that we've been through. When Rose's boyfriend died in a Stirgoi attack, we were all there for her. When Lissa and I were going through crazy spirit stuff, they were there for us. After the school battle. After Belikov was turned. After my aunt was murdered. After Rose was death row and escaped, and after Christian's aunt was the culprit. And when I left I'd bet you good money that they'd pulled together. That's how we are, Sare, and if you can't deal with that, I can arrange for a plane to pick you up within the hour."

Her mouth gaped open, but I didn't wait for her to say anything. I slammed the door behind me and headed to my old hangout- the bar.

I never actually made it there, however. About halfway there I ran into Ambrose. I'd secretly been hoping that he'd gotten fired or had gone to settle down with one of his many women. Except my mother, that is. It was awkward at first. We said hey and were quiet, each staring at the other. As if wondering if this was a good idea or not.

"I'd heard you were back," he said finally.

"Yep. For once the rumors are true."

"So you did get Rose pregnant and Belikov isgoing to kill you?" he said shocked.

"What? No! No to the heck no."

He breathed again. "I knew you were smarter than that. I mean, you versus Belikov? No competition."

"Yeah, well, Rose must've thought the same thing," I said, not thinking. Great. Now I sounded like the guy with a pregnant girlfriend whose also drooling over some other guy's girl. Sicko to the extreme.

But Ambrose didn't care. He knew what everyone else knew: Rose and I broke up. She started dating Belikov and I left. End of story.

Or, at least, it was. Now I was back, and causing trouble again.

Ambrose and I moved on pretty quick only for me to be stopped by...

Nathaniel Ivashkov (a.k.a-MY DAD!)

He'd definitely invested in wrinkles and gray hairs since last I'd seen him. Usually he got his hair colored before this much started to show, I thought.

"Hey," I said.

"Is that all you have to say after two years of God-knows-what-kind-of-behavior? Oh, no, wait. Everyone in Court knows what kind of behavior!"

"Yep. Still the bitter, old man I remember," I said smiling and walking past him.

"Adrian!"

"What?" I turned, so needing a drink.

"What do you mean 'what'? What do you intend to do about this?" he demanded.

"Intend to do about what?" I asked stupidly.

"The baby," he hissed.

"Nothing. Sarah's having the baby and after that...well, something's been arranged."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means," I snapped. "that something's been arranged."

He threw his hands up in exasperation. I started walking away again.

"What about her parents?" he called.

"Taken care of," I yelled back.

ROSE

"Has anyone seen Adrian?" I asked after the food was delivered to Lissa's room.

Everyone shook their heads no, and the guys went back to slurping their Chinese food while making crazy hilarious faces.

"When did you last see him?" Jill asked, putting her plate down.

"This morning around eleven, I guess."

"But we broke after breakfast at nine," Lissa said confused.

"Yeah, and Adrian and I decided to hang out in my room."

They both leaned forward, and Dimitri instantly tensed. "What'd you talk about?" Jill asked eager for gossip.

"About everything. You guys, his school experience, Sarah-"

"You talked about her?" Jill squeaked. Lissa giggled. Both guys rolled their eyes, apparently more into this conversation than originally thought. Huh.

"Why not?" I asked, picking at my noodles and smiling.

"Well, it's not exactly something a guy brings up when talking to his ex after two years of nothing," Christian said.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, c'mon, we so weren't even thinking about that. We were just talking like we used to. It was pretty nice. Like high school."

"Yeah, for some weird reason it's just that feeling that I keep having," Lissa confessed. "Like I wasn't elected Queen. Like it was all just a crazy dream and when I wake up I'll be super late for class." She smiled.

"Or being late for a training session," I smiled, looking at Dimitri, who kissed my cheek.

"Or ditching class, having the most detentions in school records, just so you could get the window seat," Christian said, thinking of the attic where he and Lissa had met and had made their Spot. She smiled at the memory.

"What about you, Jill? What's you're favorite high school moment?" I asked as Dimitri snaked his arms around my waist.

"Meeting you and Dimitri that day," she smiled. "I look back on it all the time and think, 'Man, I was such a loser.'"

"What's changed?" Christian teased. She smacked his shoulder pretty good.

"Careful, Ozera," I warned. "You trained a pretty good fighter. Nowadays, I think she could take you." The younger girl beamed, and he shrugged.

"I did do a pretty good job, didn't I?" he said. It earned him a hard punch to the shoulder. "Ow!"

After dinner, Dimitri had to go talk to Hans about a rearrangement in his schedule and I headed back to the room alone. I was exhausted and flopped down on my bed. I didn't want to move until ever ended.

Knock, knock!

I groaned and sloppily got off the bed. Adrian was at the door.

"Hey," I said. "Missed you at dinner, Lazy."

"I'm sorry, Rosie," he slurred. I frowned.

"Are you drunk?" I asked.

He sputtered. "Rosiee...why do you have two heads?" He cackled.

"Yeah, you're drunk," I concluded. "C'mon. Go sit on the couch while I get you some water." He stumbled a little and I had to catch him. I led him to the couch and practically threw him on it. I got a glass of water and a damp rag. And, after hesitating, I grabbed the small trashcan. There was no way that Dimitri and me were going to smell Adrian's vomit for the rest of our time in this room. Because, frankly, it'd be awhile.

"Rosie, you're back!" he rejoiced loudly.

"Shh, Adrian. Here, drink this," I said, handing him the water. He guzzled it down in no time. "Wipe this on your face," I told him as I went to get more water.

I came back and took the rag back because he needed both hands to hold the glass. I started pushing back his hair and wiping his forehead. He finished the second glass, but when I got up to get more, he grabbed hold of my hand.

"No more. I'll live from here out," he whispered, obviously worn out.

I sat back down and started back with the rag. He just watched me.

"It's been awhile since I did stuff like this," he said, breaking the silence.

"Stuff like what?"

"Getting drunk, even smoking."

I'd thought I'd smelled clovers on him.

"Really? I thought-"

"You thought I kept up my old ways?" he guessed. I nodded. "As much as I might've wanted to, I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Because of Sarah."

"Sarah?"

"Yeah, my dictator," he scoffed.

"Explain."

"Well, you know that 'perfect girl' my parents wanted for me? One that'd keep me in line? Keep me out of trouble?" I nodded. "Well, apparently, I found her. At first, I just wanted to go out with someone. Anyone. Someone to get my mind off...things." Things meaning me, I thought and I could tell he thought it, too.

"Anyway, she was in my class and she came up to me and asked me out. At the moment I didn't care if she'd had ten eyes, I'd just needed an out. So I said yes. At the end of the night, though, she wasn't the person I'd thought I'd needed so I'd ditched her at a party. The next day she found me and totally went off on me. Loudly. So I felt bad and took to dinner." My eyebrows shot up. He glared as if he was actually offended.

"Anyway, I somehow ended up taking her to another party. After that, I didn't see her. Three weeks pass and she's on my doorstep, telling me she's pregnant."

It was quite a story, to say the least. "Wow" couldn't even touch it.

"I'm sorry," I said. His eyebrows shot up. It was one of those phrases that I tried to stay far away from. "For making you feel like you needed an out in the first place."

"Oh, Rose," he groaned, sitting up. "Rose," he said seriously. "This thing- me, Sarah, and the baby? It's no where near your fault."

"But if I'd just told you, you wouldn't even have left and-"

"Rose, stop," he ordered.

"But, Adrian-"

I didn't get to finish. BECAUSE HE KISSED ME!

And that's when Dimitri decided to come back