“Mr. Samsa your wife is suffering from something I can’t describe. I’ve never seen this before. I think she should go to a hospital in San Francisco. There are none close enough that can handle her particular problem.”
“What problem are you talking about?”
Harper sat calm looking at the young doctor in his temporary office. The doctor’s forehead furrowed. He took of his glasses from his nose and cleaned them with a tissue from a nearby box of Kleenex, and then he place his glasses on the desk. He glanced up at Harper and let out a large breath. How could he explain this?
Harper notices him for the first time. He’s just a little older than him.
“How old were you when you graduated from high school?”
“Well I entered college when I was sixteen.” The doctor watched at Harper as if he deserved an answer. I graduated high school very early and went on to college. If you’re asking how old I am, I’m twenty two. But I assure you Mr. Samsa I know my stuff. And Mrs. Samsa is in grave danger if she doesn’t get the right attention.”
“I would hope you know something about medicine because I asked Michael to send me the best and he sent you. However, he didn’t tell me you were this young.”
“What does my age have to do with your wife needing care away from here,” Liam said picking up his glasses and placing them on his face. “Emily doesn’t appear to be well, Mr. Samsa. I’ve been here a week and she’s not getting better.” Harper didn’t like for Liam to refer to her by her first name. It appeared all too personal for him.
It was bad enough that Liam had to examine her and him being such a young man.
“I asked her about your wedding night.”
Harper sat forward and glanced at the doctor, “Liam, I think you’re getting too personal. I’m a patient man but you’re overstepping your bounds.”
“But I’m her physician and she asked me to stay on to see that her pregnancy and labor goes easy and I agreed.”
“What did Emily tell you?”
“Only that after the marriage was consummated she could feel the movement of babies the next day. And that’s impossible, I said to her. But I checked her and the way they are developing she will give birth in two months.” Liam took off his glasses again and placed them on the desk as if they were a weight his face didn’t want to accept, and he glanced up at Harper over his eyeglasses. “I’ve examined her and she’s pregnant just as she said.”
“Have you noticed that she’s unusually large for a woman who’s pregnant for only a week?”
“She’s pregnant? She should have told me,” Harper said with a broad smile.
“Yes, did you hear me? She needs to go to a hospital because something is happening to here that’s impossible for me to understand. I would need more help. I want my colleagues to examine her.”
“I can’t allow you to do that. She stays here. My hospital will be ready next week. You can take care of her there. Have your people flown out here if necessary.”
“I can’t do that. They can’t leave their patients to come here. Where will they stay?”
“Then find a way or you do it alone, but offer them anything they want. I have to talk to my wife. Harper smiled as he strode from his library he had given temporary access to Liam. He reached the stairs and bounding up to the second floor, he ran to their bedroom.
Opening the door, he found Emily walking around. “Why are you up?” He strode to her and passed his hand over her stomach.
“I feel great. I ate enough this morning to feed a whale. But I had this craving for raw meat. Can I have that next time?”
“I would have to ask the doctor,” Harper said absentminded. All he thought about was that Emily was pregnant and how happy he is.
“He seems to think that he has to protect me from something. I tried to tell him I’m OK and there’s nothing wrong with me. Angela said that I’m fine.”
“Angela isn’t a doctor,” Harper said with a raised eyebrow.
“I know. That’s what Liam said when I told him about Angela and how being married to a werewolf...”
“You told him I was a werewolf?” Harper’s eyes grew large and he paced around the room.
“Yes. What was wrong with that?”
“It’s the same reason I didn’t tell you. He must think you’re mad and that I’m keeping you against your will.”
“How could he think something like that? Can’t he see how happy we are together?”
“It doesn’t matter to him. All he sees is that I’m preventing you from going to his hospital in San Francisco for some reason. I think he’s in love with you.”
“That’s just ridiculous.” She touched Harper’s unshaved face raking her fingers through his dark soft light beard.
“What’s ridiculous about that? I fell in love with you when I saw you walking down that stairs at Elisabeth’s home.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She said smiling at Harper.
“I was afraid you would reject me. I was afraid you thought I wanted you for one thing only and not someone I could love.” Emily reached and hugged Harper. She kissed him and he rubbed her stomach.
“Is it too soon to have movement? I feel a leg and arm,” Harper said laughing. “He kicked me.” Then he placed his ear to her belly. “I hear their heart beats.”
“Liam said that he heard three heartbeats,” Emily said.
“Triplets. We’re going to have triplets.” He picked up Emily and danced with her around the room and then he stopped in the middle of the twirl. His face took on a gloomy expression. He stared at Emily as if he didn’t see her.
Harper placed her feet down on the floor and then he took her hands and brought her to a chair where he sat. He pulled her down on his lap. “Emily. I don’t know what to say but Liam can’t be allowed to tell anyone that I’m a werewolf or that Angela and the rest are shifters.”
“But what can you do? He knows already. Well not really because he said he didn’t believe in werewolves,” Emily said watching warily at Harper.
“I can’t let him leave here,” Harper said staring into Emily’s eyes.
“What do you mean he can’t leave here? You wouldn’t...” Her hand flew to her mouth. “No Harper. We can’t start a life by killing an innocent man.”
“No. I wouldn’t kill him. But there must be a way to keep his silence. But I haven’t thought about it yet.”
“I should speak to him. Maybe he would see we’re happy and we’re going to have a family. If you could demonstrate how you can shift. Then he would know.”
“I’ll let you try to convince him first, but I can’t promise you anything if he tries to come between our happiness.” She held Harper’s face. “We can’t be happy if you kill him. You’re not that kind of man.”
“I’m not a man, Emily. You have to understand that. I’m a werewolf and I kill.”
“But you kill not for the sake of killing. You’ve done it because it was necessary. Because you were threatened and because you were trying to protect me. There is a difference you know.”
“I thought when I came here I wouldn’t have to kill my kind. I thought I would be at peace, but now I’m threatened with losing you.”
“You will never lose me, Harper. I’ll just tell Liam that I’m not going to any hospital. I’m staying with my husband.” Emily rose from Harper’s lap. She kissed him and felt his rise through her gown. “None of that. Only a few more months,” she cautioned.
“And we will work on another litter of pups,” Harper said.
“They’re babies,” Emily said scolding Harper. “You see them as werewolves I see them as human.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Harper said standing, “I have my family and that’s all that’s important. Did Liam say whether they were males or females?”
“Does it matter?”
“No. Not really but...”
“He won’t be able to tell until you get the equipment he ordered for the hospital. Ask him to stay, Harper. We need him.”
“He’s a very young man. We can’t expect him to live out here with no females to occupy his time.”
“I wonder if Angela can introduce him to one of her were-cat friends,” Emily said with a sly smile.
“We can’t do that? Can we?” Harper said matching her grin.
“Well it would keep him occupied and he could stay until the babies were born,” Emily said leaning to kiss Harper.
“It might work. Do you think Angela would help us out?”
“She can always say no,” Emily said smiling broadly because she thought that was the answer to her problems. Find Liam someone to keep him interested and prevent Harper from being jealous of Liam which could prove fatal.
When Harper left his bedroom, Michael was calling him on the phone.