Don’t Say This To Me
Don’t SayThis To Me
~Lyra~
Something’s wrong with the baby.
No. No. No. No. No.
That’s not something you just say. That’s not something you say like you’re commenting on the weather or asking if I’ve been nauseous.
b
You don’t press your stupid, gloved hand on my belly and say that something is wrong like it’s just a normal f*****g Tuesday.
What the f**k does that even mean? What is wrong? What do you feel? Why aren’t you saying anything? Why are you pressing and pausing and blinking like you didn’t just rip my entire chest open with five f*****g words?
And why is Damon so still?
I can’t look at him.
I can’t.
I didn’t even know how bad I wanted this until she said something might be wrong.
I didn’t know how much I loved the tiny thing growing inside me until I felt my entire body curl inward, like I could wrap around my stomach and keep it safe just by thinking hard enough. I’d do anything. I’d bleed out for this child. I’d die if it meant keeping it safe.
“What’s wrong with my baby?” I screamed again. I was full–on sobbing now, the ugly kind of sobbing, with snot and hiccups and the kind of shaking that makes your fingers twitch and your throat close.
The doctor had the audacity to glance at me like I was the problem.
Like my reaction was too much.
Like I wasn’t allowed to scream and cry and fall apart over my baby.
I tried to sit up straighter. I tried to hold still so she could check better, so she could say just kidding or oh wait, false alarm, but my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. I grabbed Damon’s wrist without even realizing it, squeezing so hard I felt my nails dig into his skin.
“Tell me,” I gasped, blinking so fast everything was a blur. “Please. Please just say it. Don’t pause. Don’t look at me like that. Just say what you felt. Say it fast. Say it all at once. Don’t stop. Don’t stop talking until you say it’s okay.”
I was rocking back and forth now, my whole body wrapped around my belly like I could will the baby to t safe if I just loved it hard enough.
I was eighteen. I didn’t know how to do any of this. I didn’t know how to be calm and patient and rational. I didn’t know how to be quiet when my heart was in my throat and the only thing I could hear was something is
wrong.
“It can’t be dead,” I whispered before I could stop myself. “Right? You would’ve said that. You would’ve said it
1/6
Don’t SayThis To Mo
if it was dead. You wouldn’t let me sit here and scream if it was dead. You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t Right?
Nobody answered.
That made it worse.
I looked up. Damon was staring at the doctor like he was two seconds away from tearing her f*****g throat out with his teeth. His jaw was clenched so tight I thought his teeth would crack. His arm under my grip was flexed, every muscle locked in place like he was holding himself back with everything he had.
And the doctor – she looked pale now. Like she realized this wasn’t just some clinical update. Like she realized she was sitting in the middle of a storm she couldn’t control.
“I’m not saying the baby is in danger,” she said slowly, cautiously, like she was choosing every word like it could explode. “I just need to perform a more detailed scan. What I felt… it could be nothing. It could also be a growth. Or a second heartbeat. Or an irregularity in the uterine lining. It’s not definitive.”
My mouth fell open.
“What?”
A second heartbeat?
A growth?
A f*****g irregularity?
That is not nothing! That is not a tiny little maybe!
“You’re gonna check,” I snapped, voice wild, desperate, half–choked. “You’re gonna f*****g check right now. You’re gonna do whatever scan, test, spell, witchcraft you need to do, and you’re gonna tell me exactly what’s inside me and why the f**k you said what you said. Because if this is just something you say to get off on the drama, I will scream so loud you’ll never work again.”
The doctor blinked. Damon didn’t even blink. He was too still. He was holding me now, both arms around me,
one hand spread wide over my belly like he was shielding it with his entire soul.
“You said second heartbeat,” he said suddenly, his voice low and shaking and dangerous. “Are you telling me
she might be having twins?”
I stopped breathing.
Twins?
What the f**k?
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
My brain couldn’t process that fast enough. I was still trying to understand the first baby. I was still trying to
understand pregnancy, mating, Alpha d**k, heat, and now you’re telling me there might be two?
Tears were streaming down my face but my brain was flying in fifty directions. I felt nauseous. I felt hot. I felt dizzy. I felt every possible emotion all at once.
“What if one of them is sick?” I whispered, voice so small it didn’t sound like mine. “What if one is okay and
the other one isn’t? What if one dies? Will the other survive? What if–what if-”
Don’t Say This To Me
“What if I’m too young? What if my body can’t do it? What if I did something wrong already and I didn’t even know it? What if my stress is hurting them? What if screaming right now is making it worse? What if lose one? Or both? Or all of them? What if I wasn’t supposed to be pregnant yet and now the universe is like HAHA, b***h, good luck surviving this?”
“Lyra,” the doctor said.
“I need you to calm down, okay? I know you’re young. I know this is a lot to process. But please. Listen to me It’s not only the second heartbeat I feel.”
I stopped breathing.
No, no, no, no, no–don’t do this. Don’t say something that’s going to ruin my entire existence. My eyes were huge, my nails dug into Damon’s forearm so deep I felt the skin give a little. I didn’t blink. I didn’t breathe!
didn’t move.
The doctor took a breath and said the words I would never, ever forget for the rest of my entire life
“I feel four heartbeats.”
Four. She said four. Not one. Not two. FOUR.
My whole body went cold and hot at the same time. My stomach dropped so violently I thought I was going
to throw up all over the floor.
My brain couldn’t keep up. My mouth fell open and the only thing that came out was a high–pitched squeaky
sound like a baby bird being slapped.
“WHAT?!” I screamed, and I’m not even joking, it echoed. “What the f**k do you mean four?! Four?! What are you talking about? Four what? Four cells? Four flutters? Four mistakes? Because if you mean four babies, I swear to God, I will faint and die and haunt you for the rest of your medical career!”
The doctor blinked at me like I was a wild animal cornered in a cage.
I flung my hands in the air like I was conducting an orchestra of panic. “Are you saying there’s four babies inside me? Like right now? As we speak? Just casually hanging out in my uterus like it’s a group project?!”
She nodded.
She actually f*****g nodded.
“Oh my God,” I wailed, and I wasn’t being dramatic. I was being real. I grabbed Damon’s shirt, yanked him forward, and stared up at him with tears spilling from both eyes and my mouth fully trembling. “You did this. You. You put four pups in me. I swear to God Im gonna f*****g kill you Damon. You said you’d breed me, not
drown me in embryos!”
He didn’t even blink. He was still just holding me, his jaw tense, his arms flexing like he was preparing to catch me when I inevitably passed the f**k out.
I started pacing even though my legs were noodles.
“This is not normal! This is not what heat s*x is supposed to do! I was supposed to get dicked down, have one surprise baby, cry about it, and then fall in love! That’s the romance plot! Not quadruplets!”
“Lyra-” the doctor started.
“No. Shut up. I’m talking. I’m eighteen. I didn’t even finish my college applications. I still use Hello Kitty
Don’t SayThis To Me
stickers in my planner. My mom still thinks I’m a virgin. And now you’re telling me I’m going to be the mother of four?! At once?! Do you know what that does to a
****g?! I’ve seen documentaries!”
“I need you to take a deep breath-
”
“Do you want me to die? Is that what this is? Are you trying to kill me with information? Because it’s working!” I dropped back onto the bed and started hyperventilating dramatically.
“My belly is going to explode. I’m going to be round like a pumpkin. No, not a pumpkin. A hot air balloon. I’ll be on the news. ‘Local girl gives birth to four pups, cries herself into a coma.”
Damon finally moved. He knelt down in front of me and grabbed my face between his huge hands, and for one second, just one, I thought he was going to say something sweet.
He didn’t.
He growled.
“You’re going to carry them,” he said, his voice so low and deep I felt it in my spine. “You’re going to carry all of them. And I will protect you. I will protect every single heartbeat inside you. You hear me, Omega?”
I blinked rapidly, tears pouring out of me like I was a broken faucet. “I’m small,” I choked. “I’m five feet tall. I
don’t even know how to swaddle a baby, and no
I’m going to have four? What am I supposed to do? Stack
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Breed Me. Daddy Alpha