The Alpha's Baby(53)

Yet even as her stomach rumbled, she hesitated before going down to the kitchen. She'd had a pretty big altercation with her parents last night, and it was still on her mind. Well, she had to go downstairs eventually. It wasn't like she could stay up in her room and starve to death, not with being pregnant and everything. Plus, if she were to be honest, she didn't mind arguing if she got bacon out of it. After all, bacon was, well, bacon.

That was the final thought that caused her to jump out of bed. Self-confidence was all well and good, but bacon was the ultimate motivator. She headed down the stairs and into the kitchen. When she walked through the door, she saw her dad frying bacon while her mom placed a ham-and-cheese omelet on a plate. Emmy raised an eyebrow. Her mom wasn't the type of woman to let her family starve, but she didn't normally whip up a spread like this for breakfast unless it was a holiday or she was trying to cushion the blow before delivering bad news. Emmy hadn't seen her mom make a breakfast like this since her uncle, Raphe, had choked on a chicken bone in the middle of a fast-food parking lot.

"Hey, guys." She timidly entered the kitchen.

"You're awake." Her mom whirled around, cheesy spatula in hand. "I was hoping the smells would lure you down."

"It always worked like a charm when you were younger," her dad said.

The smell of food was the only way to raise a teenagedaughter from the dead in time for school. "Well, yeah."

Awkward silence fell. She wrung her hands, uncertain.

"About last night…" Emmy chewed her bottom lip.

Her mom sighed. "Yes, we wanted to talk to you about last night, didn't we, Doug?"

Her mom elbowed her dad in the ribs.

Rubbing his side, her dad nodded. "Ahem. Yes."

"Neither of us approve of what you did." Her mom gave her a stern look. "Babies should be conceived after marriage."

"And even then, it's better to wait a long time before you conceive anything," her dad said. "In fact, I think a marriage works just as well if you never consummate it."

"Doug…" Her mom's eyes narrowed.

"Oh, all right. I'm sorry." The man grunted. "I guess I always saw you as my innocent little girl. The fact that this happened has shaken me."

"I'm sorry." She hung her head in shame.

"Well, you should be." Her dad was gruff.

As Emmy's heart ached, she sighed. Finally, her dad's eyes softened.

"I guess you're going to have to deal with the consequences of your actions without me yelling at you." Her dad's mustache twitched. "But where's the man who did this to you? It takes two to tango, if you catch my drift."

Oh, she caught his drift and more. Her cheeks reddened. "He's…"

He's a monstrous beast who can rip me to shreds.

"Well?" Even her mom looked intrigued now.

"Doesn't he want to be involved?" Her dad groaned. "That immature, selfish bastard."

"He wants to be involved." Why did she feel the urge to protect Sebastian? "He's been very attentive."

Something strange happened then—her heart ached for Sebastian. After all, she knew he cared about the baby. On top of that, it was obvious how much he liked her. For the first time, she realized that she missed him. And not just a little. She missed him a lot. But how could she trust him knowing what he was? The thought was almost too much to handle.

"If he's being attentive, then why isn't he here?" her dad asked. "A man should take responsibility for his actions. It's not like a woman is asexual and can impregnate herself."

Her mom glared at him. "Doug, knock it off."

"Well, he wanted to marry me," she admitted. "He's trying to take responsibility."

"What?" Her mom's eyes brightened. "You're engaged?"

She'd considered herself unattached ever since she'd found out what he was. "No, we aren't engaged anymore. We're too different. I don't think it's going to work out."

"But you're pregnant." Her dad said this as if it made all the difference.

"Isn't it better to be alone than to stay with someone who could be bad for the baby?" She could just imagine a werewolf staring down her child. Yet her baby would be a werewolf, too, wouldn't it? That meant Sebastian may need to be around, even if he was…special.

Wait, no. Shit, shit, shit.

Completely unaware that her skillet had started to smolder, her mom's eyes widened. "Is he unfit to raise a child?"

Emmy shrugged. "The thing is, I don't know. He could be a good dad."

Her dad looked disgusted. "What do you mean, you don't know? If something is unclear, then you go and talk it out. That's the way it is."