“But, maybe I can help?” Lulu offered. She waved a hand at my stomach. “May I?”
“Uh, sure,” I stammered, watching as she came closer.
She stepped over to me with a small smile before reaching out and lifting up my shirt. I jumped at the contact when she splayed her hand flat against my lower stomach and closed her eyes.
My wide eyes met Tate’s over her shoulder. This was beyond weird.
“You’re not pregnant,” Lulu announced, opening her eyes and stepping back, her hand falling to her side.
“I’m not?”
“How can you be sure?” Tate chimed in.
“I would be able to sense the soul of the baby even a few hours after conception,” she replied. “All I sense is you in there. No baby.”
Relief hit me fast and hard, but there was the bitter taste of regret and disappointment mixed in as well.
No, I didn’t want to have a baby right now, but it still made me sad for some inexplicable reason.
“That’s a good thing, right, Skye?” Tate pressed, clearly reading the conflicted look I was giving.
“Yeah,” I said quickly. Too quickly and too brightly. “It’s what I wanted to hear. Teenage pregnancy wasn’t high on my checklist of things to do before I went to college. It’s great news.”
That sounded forced even to my own ears.
Lulu frowned, the corners of her mouth tightening. “You’ll probably have another year before your first estrous cycle. If you want to get pregnant then, you probably will. Or, you know, use condoms if you don’t.”
That caught my attention. My head swung around. “What did you say?”
She gave me an encouraging smile. “Your body is about a year away from its first fertility cycle. Maybe a little less? It’s not an exact science.”
“You can tell when that’s going to happen?” Tate whispered, a mixture of astonishment and horror on her face.
Lulu looked mildly uncomfortable at the sudden attention. “Motherhood is the very essence of earth magic. It gives life. So, yes, I can tell when someone is pregnant or has the best chance to become so,” Lulu replied with a secret smile. “It’s a pretty nifty talent to have around this place.”
“That’s still … wow,” I murmured, a hand laying over my flat stomach on instinct. There might not be a baby now but there could be a year from now.
Holy crap, that was a dizzying thought.
Why could I suddenly picture a little boy running around with Remy’s eyes and smile?
I shook my head, trying to physically dislodge the illusion from my brain before it could take hold.
“Ultimately, it’s your choice when you get pregnant,” Lulu added, going back and sitting down again. Her lips pressed together thoughtfully. “You're a second gen, right?”
“A second what?” I asked, confused as hell.
“Second generation bonded mate,” she spelled out with a quirky grin. “Your parents were bonded and your mate’s parents were bonded?”
I nodded.
“So, you’re a second generation bonded pair.” She said it like we should know what that meant. “You and your mate can always use protection so you don’t get pregnant. It’s not a once or twice shot like it is for most women. Bonded mates have a few more chances, but second gens have significantly more fertility cycles. I know a second gen pair that has eight kids.”
“Eight?” Tate practically choked on the word. “That seems excessive.”
Okay, a baby I could handle, but an entire soccer team of them? That was too much. Way too freaking much, and my sudden worry must have shown on my face.
“Okay, it’s like this,” Lulu said with a chuckle as she leaned forward, “since each of you came from bonded parents, it means your bond is stronger. I’m guessing you guys have some extra bonus bonded perks? Like human telepathy or something? It varies from bond to bond.”
“Memories,” I muttered. “We can see and feel each others’ memories.”
But telepathy in human form sounded kind of cool, too.
Lulu nodded. “Yup. That happens.”
“And the aspects of our bond happened faster,” I commented, finally joining them in the sitting area. I toed off my shoes and pulled my legs up. “We were able to communicate immediately.”
“Totally normal,” Lulu told me with another encouraging nod. “Your bodies already kind of having a mating blueprint from being born to bonded parents. Like a gene they pass on.”
“Skye also could heal faster,” Tate mentioned. “She should have died last year from an accident, but she didn’t.”
“Also normal.” Lulu grinned. “You’ll live longer, too. Most shifters live until they’re a hundred or so. Bonded pairs usually get an average of twenty years beyond that, but second generations last almost a hundred and fifty years, give or take a decade. They also have an average of ten to fifteen fertility cycles in their lifetime.”
My jaw dropped open like it was on a hinge.
“Also good news? Your aging rate is different, so you’ll look like you’re twenty when you’re sixty.” Lulu tossed a wink at me. “So you’ll be hot, like, forever. Also makes it easier when you’re pushing out triplets when you’re fifty years old. That’s happened before.”
“So, Remy and I are … normal?” I whispered the last word, ignoring the idea of having kids when I was fifty.
Our bond had seemed abnormal to everyone else, especially Elias, who only seemed to want to study our connection.
“Elias made it seem like you two were something totally new,” Tate said, voicing my thoughts.
Lulu scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Like I said, that old man is clueless. Dimitri had a weird feeling about him from the start, so we kept things from him until we knew for sure. Guess Dima was right.”
Her features twisted into a scowl suddenly. “Don’t tell him I ever said that.”
“Elias was coming here to study Nikolai’s methods on helping shifters. Dimitri told me that you have a way to keep a shifter as a wolf for a month to help with that?” I asked her.
“Whoa. A whole month as a wolf? Isn’t that extreme?” Tate gave me an incredulous look.
“Kind of? Not really?” Lulu made a face and picked at a loose thread on her sweater. “I can give you the whole explanation, but honestly? Right now you both kind of look like I threw a toaster in your bathwater.” She made a face, scrunching up her nose in concern.
“That actually sums up how I’m feeling,” Tate admitted, blinking fast.
“Too much, too fast?” Lulu asked with a laugh, absently running a hand through her long hair. “Sorry. It’s just so normal for us. It’s been awhile since I had to explain this to anyone, and I forget that it can be overwhelming.”
“It’s definitely a lot to take in,” I said slowly, willing my brain to finish processing all of that information she had just dumped on us.
“I mean, I get it.” She made a face. “From what I’ve heard, American packs aren’t big on female empowerment or letting females set the tone, so it’s no wonder there’s barely any second gen pairs in your country.”