I have so much stress its crazy...

Thank you Baloo18, leteverythingsparkle, NoMoreTears, and whiteanddark for the reviews. It doesn't seem like much, but when you spend a min of 6-10 hours a week studying it means the world.

Somehow Alcide had managed to get Carla dressed, showered, and for the second time in the past few days changed her bedding. She slowly walked around her room and scrunched her face when she sat down her body still extremely sore. He was glad she took her time because it gave him time to think of what he was going to say. The only thing he wanted was to be able to explain to her what had happened and not get her upset.

Carla had chosen a pink pajama set; the pants were long and covered her feet. Whereas the tank top she was wearing was too tight, and allowed him to see her breasts through the fabric. He was sure she didn't know, because only moments before she was covering her body with a skillful hand. She settled down on her bed, her legs folded and back hunched. He took this as a sign she was ready for their conversation. He sat down on the bed carefully, trying to ignore her gaze.

"Do you remember anything last night?" he asked, he could clearly remember most of the events. The worst being when he first inhaled her sent, and how his body moved on auto pilot. He could then clearly recall how he approached her and how she allowed him to mount her. From there he could remember a few other things but there was huge gaps in time where he couldn't remember anything, but scents and feelings.

"I remember bits and pieces." For Carla it all happened too fast, and the more she thought about it the more she remembered. She had decided hours ago to stop thinking about it, because remembering the sharp sting between her legs and his hands held firmly on her hips was embarrassing enough, but they way she felt when he was there with her in the woods was worse. The strong feeling of want and need for Alcide at the time was unbearable, now made her feel horrible. The person who was in the woods with Alcide that night was not really her, but some animal trapped inside of her. If she were in her right mind she would have never of wanted this.

"Normally sometime after female weres get their first period, they start to release a pheromone that lets males know they are ready to mate. They will only release this pheromone once a year, and when males smell this they go crazy. It doesn't help that when this happens that the female is just as crazy, so what usually happens is males will fight over the female. This is why normally they keep females away from the pack when it's their…time." He watched Carla swallow harshly, she didn't know any of this but it explained a lot to her. It explained to her why she was so desperate some nights to go across the street to see Alcide, and it explained to her why sometimes in prior years she disappeared into the night searching for something.

"Usually it's planned, when two people want to be mates, but …" It was almost as if her brain put the final pieces into a puzzle. Her eyes went wide for a second and she felt herself sway and her stomach felt queasy.

"Oh god, are you trying to tell me we mated?" Her face was stuck between confusion and horror, she was screaming at herself for this not to be true and for it not to have happened. She didn't even know what this meant. She knew there was something different between them, she could feel it, it was almost as if she were lighter around him. Then there was the tug in her pelvic, the need and want of Alcide inside her. The very thought made her red. She had never thought like that about any man in her entire life.

Alcide clenched his jaw, but when she muttered out 'oh my god', he knew she understood his answer. Her mind reeled with information, most of which wasn't complete. She couldn't make the connections in her head that she wanted to, and it was starting to become very over whelming. She was almost on the verge of tears so she leaned her head back to stop them from escaping and to open her air way.

"What does this even mean?" She whimpered, her eyes were beginning to look glassy and she was trying to convince herself not to cry. She told herself that Alcide didn't want to see her cry, and that she looked ugly when the fat tears rolled down her face but it wasn't working. Her body needed her to deal with the current stress she was under and allowing herself not to would be more damaging if she held it in like she wanted to.

"Well it means a lot of things. We are connected, partners, among other things. We will feel the need to be with each other, take care of, and protect each other." Alcide knew there was more to it than that, but for now that's all she needed to know. She didn't need to know how highly respected it was for two people to mate, and how his family would boast with pride when they found out.

"Can it be undone?" She asked, running her fingers under her eyes. Alcide could feel his chest tighten, he expected her to ask something along those lines, and he knew she wouldn't like the answer.

"One of us has to die." Carla nodded her head, he felt horrible that she was stuck with him for the rest of her life. He was not the best mate a girl could have; he was after all at times still stuck on Debbie because he truly believed at one point that Debbie was his soul mate. She could go separate ways with him, but she would always feel empty if he wasn't around. This is why werewolves didn't usually mate, unless they were completely serious. He himself had only met a handful of mates in his life time that were completely happy. His grandparents were one of them.

"I guess it could have been worse, it could have been someone I didn't know…or JD." She said, she tried to laugh but there was nothing about this situation that was funny to her. Alcide flinched, he wasn't sure how she had known JD but she was right that she could have gotten a horrible mate. She could have gotten a man who would beat her or one who didn't care about her feelings at all. He had after all seen it, but things were about to get a lot more complicated for Carla and himself, but he promised himself that he would be there for her if she needed it or not.

Like his mother always said, "It takes two to tango."

"Carla." He said softly catching her blue eyes with his, "When two wolfs mate, unless there is something biologically wrong with one or both of the wolves, a pup is always produced." The words tasted funny in his mouth, and the buildup of saliva proved it. It was like when you ate something too sweet, and you tried to swallow it as much as possible to rid yourself of the taste.

Her face was pale, and he was sure for a moment that she was going to faint. If anything she was hoping that he would jump off the bed and yell that it was a joke and she had fallen for it. But it didn't happen.

"What?" she cried, she must have miss heard him. She could feel the panic start to build in her chest, this couldn't be right. She couldn't be in this situation right now.

"Carla, you are probably pregnant."

Carla very carefully asked Alcide to leave. He completely understood because he had sprung a lot on her, he had assured her that if she needed him that she could call him at any time and left his cell number on her fridge. It was difficult for him to leave, and he could feel his inner wolf fight it but some how he managed to scoot out the door. Both the dogs were sad to see him go, but he had a feeling they would see a lot more of him.

He wasn't surprised that Carla disappeared off the face of the planet for the next week. He kept a careful eye on her, he had noted that she left for work, came home, and let the dogs out. But that was all he ever really saw of her, he wanted nothing more than to walk across the street and see if she was okay, but he knew she needed time.

When his phone buzzed and he flipped it open, a single message was displayed on his screen and it made his heart jump in his chest. "Come over, please." He had just been microwaving a bowl of food, he realized there was really no time for him to eat it so he just hit the stop button on the device.

Alcide felt like slipping on his shoes was one of the longest moments in his life, it was worse than the time he had to wait in the principal's office for his father to pick him up after he had been in a fight on the school yard. The feeling was even worse when he realized it was raining out and that Carla was on her porch waiting for him. He would have loved to have taken his time but the rain forced him to run across the road. The steps creaked as his heavy feet walked up to her, he could feel her blue eyes on him. He hated the feeling of not knowing how to act around her, it made him feel vulnerable.

"Hey." He said running his hand through his hair, trying to get it as dry as possible. His shoulders were soaked, and so where his pant cuffs. He was sure he looked like a mess but when he watched Carla smile at him he knew his appearance was okay with her.

"Hey." Her response was soft, an almost whisper, it got his tongue all caught up in his mouth. He tried to compose himself and it was then he noticed a white bag in her lap. It had a pharmacy logo on the side that he could barely read, and he knew there could only be one thing in the bag.

"I don't think I can do it on my own." She said softly, she had noticed how his eyes bore into the bag and it made her stomach lurch. She never went to the doctors to see if she could or could not have children because she never had a need to. But there was something that nagged at her that she needed to see the results herself, to make what was happening to her a reality, because so far the only thing that had happened between them seemed to be words.

A deep sigh came from Alcide and he rubbed his face, trying to clear his mind and prepare himself for what he was going to have to deal with in a few moments. He nodded his head in agreement and watched her stand up. Before he knew it they were both sitting at a messy kitchen table, coffee's in their hands as they waited for three different tests sitting on the back of the toilet to tell them what they were pretty sure they already knew.

"So what are we going to do if I am, you know pregnant." The words were foreign to her, she had never planned on having children, and she didn't know the first thing about them, let alone giving birth. She was a police officer, not a nurse. Alcide's hand stopped scratching Bruce's head, and he rested it on the table his hand tired from the constant affection that the dog seemed to need.

"What do you want?" She asked, he hadn't realized he hadn't even answered her first question and she was nervously sitting at the table waiting for him to answer. She was nervously chewing her lip and looking at Lucy who was licking a bit of floor beside Carla's feet.

"Honestly? " He asked, he waited for Carla to nod her head before he continued. "If you are pregnant, I want us to have this baby." The word 'us', sounded so strange coming from his mouth, he of course wanted children but had put it off for a long time because of Debbie, and now that he had the chance he was going to take it. He was even willing to take the baby if Carla didn't want it.

"What about you?" he took a large gulp of the hot searing liquid, and ignored the painful burning down his throat. Carla tapped her fingers on the table for a few seconds as she thought she knew what she wanted but it was so strange to share it with a man she barely knew.

"Honestly?" she smiled using the same words he had earlier, "I've never had a family, I've never known what it was like to come home to someone who, needed you, or even just wanted you." She was silent for a moment, tilting her head as she thought; he dared not to interrupt her.

"I think, I would like to have that, the feeling like I have family even if it's just a tiny, screaming, crying, and pooping all the time." Alcide couldn't help but laugh at her expression. She had her face scrunched up in almost distaste but there was a smile deep down hidden underneath it all. He was surprised, that she would be happy to have a baby.

"I just don't want to be alone anymore." Then just like that they were both back to sitting in awkward silence. He had never thought of a baby like that before, a way to not be alone, and he guessed it was part of the reason why he suddenly wanted this child so bad.

"Be my girlfriend." He suddenly blurted out, he hadn't been watching Carla and he hadn't seen her take a sip of coffee, she spat the scolding liquid across the table and started to choke. He couldn't help himself and he started to blabber on.

"If it works out then the kid gets two parents in the same home, and not this half the weekend at my house then yours. But if it doesn't, it means we tried right?" He could feel himself starting to come up with stupider things to say and he knew he was only seconds away from saying it.

"Okay um but let's try the girlfriend thing first before we share a mortgage, lover boy." Carla spat shaking her hands to get the coffee off her. The table shifted when Lucy leaned up against it to lick the drops of coffee off the floor.

"I think we should check the results." Carla announced softly standing up from the table, Alcide following at her heals. It wasn't until she got to the door of the downstairs bathroom did she stop. He was confused for a brief moment before she turned and looked at him.

"I can't do it, I can't look…will you?" She chewed her bottom lip and shamefully looked away from him. She could shoot a gun, and she could take down a man twice her size, but she could not look at her own pregnancy test.

Slipping his warm hand against her face, she drew her attention back to him. Nodding his head, and gently kissing her forehead. He ignored that she almost melted into him, and quickly pulled away from her.

She couldn't look and she held her breath as Alcide fiddled around in the bathroom. She ignored the thought that popped up in her head that he was handling her pee. He came back out of the bathroom a few seconds later holding the little white stick in his hand.

He didn't look impressed, but at the same time he didn't look unimpressed. His eyes were glued to the stick; her stomach was twisting with anticipation until he looked up at her a crooked smile on his face.

"Congratulations, you're going to be a Mommy."

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