Chapter 10:

FOUR YEARS LATER—

Four LONG years later here I was at my graduation. I walked across the stage as my name was called and was handed my diploma. To think that all the heartache and trouble I had been through these past few years was for this piece of paper. I smiled and quickly walked back to my seat. I tossed my hat as our class was announced was met with a bunch of warm hugs. "Auntie Sky!" I crouched down to see my favorite niece Lily. She was such a moody little four year old. She gave Korin and Mel a run for their money. "Lee!" I pulled her into my arms and kissed her cheek. "Can I put your hat on?" She asked and grabbed it before I could answer. "Lily Lee! What did I tell you about that?" Mel chided while holding a sleeping Dakota, he was two years old. Yeah I know what you're thinking.

She said that she only wanted her kids two years apart so he arrived two short years after Lily. He also arrived the night Lucas and I got married. Yep to my surprise I had found her in the bathroom where our reception was being held in labor. Anyways, she and Korin had gotten married one year after we did. Lily giggled and played with the tassels on my cap. "Let's get some food I'm starving!" Charles whined. Jessie gave him the stink eye and her grinned cheekily.

Lily bounced eagerly on my hip sending shooting pain to my back. Before I could put her down Lucas took her from me. I thanked him with my eyes and kissed his lips. "I love you." He smiled and kissed my cheek before discreetly placing his hand on my stomach. "I love you two, so much." To the others it would only sound like he meant to say "too", but he meant that he loved the both of us, our little one and I. Yep, I was finally pregnant. I was only four months along and we hadn't told anyone yet.

I was showing a lot already, so I decided we would wait until someone eventually noticed. To bring attention to myself was not something I wanted. "Yeah let's go I'm hungry too." I announced as we all walked to our cars. Once we arrived at the dinner and we had all ordered the conversation flowed. Korin and I were talking about our parents retiring as we also talked about our grandfather. Billy was getting quite old as more time went by. I feared losing my only grandparent left. My father's parents had both died years back, when we were too young to remember them.

When the food arrived the only ones to continue talking were the women. All of the guys were too busy stuffing their entire plates down their throats. I slowly ate my pasta. By the time we got home I was exhausted. I pulled off my dress and tugged on some sweats. "Sky…." Lucas called from the bed. I climbed in next to him and snuggled up to his warmth. "You're so warm." I kissed his bare chest and sighed. "You know I love you." He whispered. "Yeah, I love you too. Why did you ask?" I laid my head next to his and looked into his eyes. They showed love and some fear. "What's wrong?" I stroked his cheek with my hand.

"I didn't want to worry you, but we've been trying to catch this vampire and haven't been successful. I, I mean we believe that it's making new vampires so it can fight us." I put my head down. Over the time we've grown up in La Push there weren't any major vampire problems to deal with, but I knew that this was going to turn into something big. "So…" I prompted. "We're going to need to fight them when the time comes and I just wanted to make sure that if something happens to me that you," He kissed me and then placed a hand on my stomach. "and the little one will be safe and taken care of." I could see it was hard for him to talk about this. "Sh…. It's fine. Don't talk like that, everything's going to be just fine." He wanted to say something more, but I smashed my lips against his with passion.

At first he didn't respond, but after a while he eagerly complied. I pulled away for a moment to catch my breath. "I'll tell everyone." I whispered breathlessly. "No, I know you don't want to. Just let them find out on their own." He kissed me again. "But really. How selfish am I being? You're really happy about this and I'm trying to keep it quiet. The whole pack probably already knows so, no I'll tell." He rested his forehead in the crook of my neck. "Baby, I haven't let anything slip." I smiled as he sucked on my neck. "Really?" He mumbled a "Yes". I had gotten pregnant around February when I had come home for Winter break, so I was due around late October, early November.

His hands trailed down to my hips where he played with the band of my sweats while he rolled me over onto my back so he could rest between my legs. I was getting really hot so I sat up and pulled my shirt over my head. "Mhnnn… they get bigger every time I see them." He nipped at my breasts with his teeth. I whimpered. "So, I never asked how our home-made porn helped." I giggled at his pained expression. He ripped my sweats down my legs before answering. "After a couple times of them being replayed I was just ready for you to come home. I think my cock was sick of my hand and needed your tight, wet pussy." I moaned. I loved it when he talked dirty to me. "Well I was ready for you to fill me up because my fingers just didn't reach as far as you do." I purred back to him. I pushed his sweats down with my feet.

"I need y-" I was suddenly cut off by the sound of howling. Almost bursting into tears, I buried my face in my pillow. Lucas quickly pulled on his cut-offs. "God damn it!" I pulled the covers over my naked body. "Sky…come on. I'm really sorry babe." He tried to pull down the covers, but I held them in place. "Baby I really need to go." He pleaded. Two more howls sounded. This was it. The vampire was here to fight my cousins, brother, husband, friends…family. Whoever was lost during the fight it would be painful for everyone. I pushed the covers back and pulled my shirt over my head. "I need you!" I screamed and clung to him. He kissed me softly and then knelt in front of me. His hands cradled my belly. "Tsida-wil, xw pa." He spoke to our child in our language saying, "Young one, in a little while." For the first time I felt the baby kick right where Lucas' hand was.

He seemed happy, but at the same time remorseful. He kissed the spot and looked up at me to murmur, "Nayeli." I felt the tears slip down my face. "I love you too." He smiled. We hugged and then he was gone. I cried myself to sleep. Just when I thought everything was going to turn out fine, my world could be potentially ruined. If Lucas didn't come back I didn't know how I would be able to raise our child alone. I mean he was the one who was supposed to tell them about our legends and that they could grow up to be protectors of our tribe. It would be hard.

I woke up in the morning to the phone ringing. "Hello?" I mumbled still half asleep. "Skylar, it's Mel. I know this is hard, but all the wolf girls are meeting at my house." I sat up and rubbed my eyes, which were still puffy from crying. "Okay, I'll meet you there. Do I need to bring anything, like food or something?" I heard her sigh. "No, I just need some extra help with the kids and didn't want to bother my mom. They keep asking where Korin went and when he's going to be back." I nodded. "Okay, I'll be there soon." We ended the call and I jumped in the shower.

I washed my hair with my vanilla bean shampoo and relaxed in the warm water. Once I was clean I dried my hair and dressed. I slipped on some navy blue cargo shorts and a cream v-neck shirt. As I ate some toast I felt some kicks in my lower abdomen. "I know I miss him too." I caressed my belly. The ride to Mel and Korin's house was short and there was already some wolf girls here due to the number on cars parked in the drive way.

When I walked in I was greeted by Lily. "Auntie Sky!" She grabbed one of my legs. "Hey Lee." I kissed her forehead and pulled her into my arms. I carried her into the kitchen where Mel, Jessie, Amanda—Colin's imprint, and Delany—Tommy's imprint were sitting in the kitchen. "Hey Skylar. Want some coffee?" Amanda offered. Coffee was a "no, no" for me. I raided Mel's fridge instead because that's what she and Korin did at my house when they came over.

Lily played with my hair while I pulled out some juice. "Hey Lee, how would you feel about going shopping with me?" I glanced at Mel who's eyebrows were raised. "You know if it's okay with Mommy." Lily pleaded with Mel, "Please Mommy! I'll be good." She giggled after she said that because everyone knew that she was really naughty and was never good. I only asked her because I needed to take my mind off Lucas and wanted to get some things for the baby.

"Fine, but I need to talk to Aunt Sky so why don't you go play?" Lily nodded and I placed her on her feet. She laughed and said, "Auntie Sky you are getting fat!" Mel spit the coffee she drinking out all over the kitchen. "Lily! Apologize to Aunt Sky right now. That was very rude."

Lily pouted. "But look Momma!" She placed her hand on my stomach the same time the baby kicked. "No Lily. Do it right now or you're in time out." Lily stood gaping at my stomach. "Her stomach's moving!" She shouted. Oh. Great! This isn't how I wanted them to find out. Mel looked bewildered. "What are you talking about Lily?" I leaned down and whispered to Lily that it was a baby moving in my tummy. She smiled. "It's a baby!" She screamed.

I laughed at Mel's face. "YOU'RE PREGNANT!" I nodded. "Oh my god! Why didn't you tell me? How far along are you?" She shot all the questions out at me. I sat down and told all of them the info. Tommy's imprint was a total bitch so her and Tommy were a perfect match, but I couldn't stand her. The minute she opened her mouth I knew it was going to be something snitty. "Gross how could you want that to happen to your body? You're going to get so big!"

I almost reached across the table and smacked her, but reigned myself in. Mel gave her quite a mouthful about love and that it'll eventually happen to her. I told Mel that I was going to go shopping with Lily and that we'd be back later. I loaded Lily's car seat in my Jeep and then we were heading to Port Angeles. When we arrived at the mall Lily was asleep so I carried her through the stores as I grabbed some cute gender friendly blankets and I found a bedding style that I loved. It was brown green and beige and had little elephants on it. We could use it if we had either a boy or girl and I thought it was cute.

Lily woke up on our way home so we stopped and got some pizza. "Hey Lee, what color do you think I should paint the baby's room?" She munched on her pizza and then blurted brown. "Why brown?" I asked her. "Because chocolate's brown and so is daddy." I smiled. "Brown sounds good to me." I dropped her off at Mel's house and kissed them goodbye. When I got home I wasn't tired so I went up to Lily's old room and placed the bags inside of it. It was hard to be here alone when I knew Lucas and Korin and all the other guys were out there fighting for our protection. I was honestly scared that Lucas wouldn't come home to me and the baby.

I was scared that I'd be alone for the rest of my life. He was my rock, my world and if anything happened to him it would kill me. I had to be strong for the baby and teach them all they needed to know. I cried myself to sleep and waited for the morning to come only to be disappointed when our men didn't come home. For the next month I got all the furniture we needed for the nursery and set all the bedding up after Khai's imprint, Sean, painted the walls a chocolaty brown. It looked great and everything was ready except I still had four months until the baby would be. I had tried to occupy my time wisely knowing what things would trigger me to think about Lucas, so I busied myself in photography. Alexis had been staying home full time because of Justin and James, so I helped with a few weddings and other festivals. I spent a lot of time with my mom and dad, knowing that they had been through the same sort of thing. Which meant I had to tell them I was pregnant. They were really happy for Lucas and I.

I prayed every night that Lucas would come home safely and soon. My doctor had advised me that we could find out the sex of the baby and I had by myself. I cried so hard once I knew. Lucas was going to be so happy. If only he could come home so I could tell him.