The Baby Shift- Arizona Read online

  Will peered at Monica. “Well, I didn’t know until today that they were experimenting on me, so I couldn’t have told you any sooner.”

  “Not that bit, the bit about you being a werewolf! We’ve been together for two years! How could you have kept this from me?”

  Will looked away from her and toward the curtained windows at the front of the room. “I understand if you don’t want to be with me anymore because of this, but I promise I was going to tell you this week, Monica. I just… I was worried you wouldn’t want to be with me anymore once you knew what I was.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Monica said, pulling Will back to face her. “I don’t care about you being a wolf. I mean, yes, I would’ve liked to know sooner, but…” and here, she paused.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Will asked, concerned that she’d stopped mid-sentence and was now staring off into the distance. Suddenly, Monica jumped off the couch.

  “Oh my God. This explains all the fur and claws I kept finding when I was unpacking. Didn’t you say they’d rented this house to other employees of the research center?” Monica asked.

  Will nodded. “Yeah…that’s partly why we get a discount on rent. The university technically owns the house.”

  “Then they’ve been housing other werewolves here. Which means,” and here, she turned to look around her, noticing for the first time the odd shape of the lights on the ceiling, the small red light flicking on and off next to them, “that we’re being watched.”

  “Oh shit,” Will muttered. “What do we do?”

  Thankfully, Monica had already texted her sister Amelia, asking her to call her as soon as she could. Her phone rang as Will looked helplessly around their house, scouting out any other cameras or surveillance equipment that might be hiding somewhere. He couldn’t destroy them and risk alerting the university that something fishy was going on with one of their research subjects, but it was good to know where they were so they could avoid having important conversations near them.

  Monica went out to the backyard after Will signaled to her that it was the only truly safe place on the property, and switched to Spanish, the language she and her sister had grown up speaking and one she hoped that whoever was monitoring the surveillance cameras didn’t understand.

  Monica gave Amelia a brief rundown of her and Will’s predicament, choosing to leave in the part about Will being a werewolf. Amelia had interviewed a werewolf named Thomas a few years ago for a piece she was doing on the societal integration of mythical creatures for her university’s newspaper, so Monica knew Amelia wouldn’t freak out at the idea of a wolf in the family.

  “Shit, Mon, this is bad. I don’t know a ton about contract laws, but I do know about Eric Santos, the guy who’s running the lab Will is working for. He’s been in the news a lot lately for shady science experiments. The University of Maryland kicked him out a few years ago after he roped one of his students into being a test subject. Seems he’s still up to the same tricks. I wish you’d told me that’s where you guys were moving to, and who Will’s new boss was! I could’ve warned him off the job.”

  Monica got a little exasperated at this. “Well, hindsight’s 20/20, and the tarot cards said nothing about either of us being in danger, and you know they’ve never steered me wrong before. I thought the move would go off without a hitch. Fuck, Amelia, what do we do?”

  “Calm down,” Amelia said, her soothing voice doing exactly that for Monica. “The thing we need to focus on right now is getting you out of Phoenix to somewhere safe. You can stay in my apartment. I’m leaving for an interview in San Francisco tomorrow anyway, so the place will be free, and we look enough alike that people in the building will mistake me for you. So if Eric comes snooping, they won’t be able to say for sure that you’re there. Will is going to have to lay low until I get back, though.”

  Will had followed Monica to the backyard and had been leaning in close to her, his ear to the phone, so she didn’t have to relay everything Amelia had said to him. She simply looked to him, saw him nod that yes, he was okay not leaving Amelia’s apartment for a few days, and let Monica do the rest of the talking. Amelia arranged for a taxi van to pick them up in three hours and take them to a car rental place where they could rent a vehicle under a false name and drive to Los Angeles. “It’ll take most of the night to drive there, so be prepared. Bring plenty of food and take whatever back roads you can.”

  Monica hung up the phone feeling like ants were crawling in her veins. She was jumping with nervous energy, eager to escape from the house as soon as possible. First, however, they had to pack.

  It was impossible for her and Will to take everything they’d brought with them back to Los Angeles. As much as she was going to miss her collection of goddess figurines and her collection of Wiccan texts, Monica knew she could only take the essentials, so she packed up her clothes and yoga mat, grabbed her essential oils and toiletries, and bade a tearful farewell to the rest of her possessions.

  She started packing up the kitchen, packing as much non-perishable food as possible into reusable canvas bags as she could, while Will gathered up his own things. In just under two and a half hours, they were packed. “Let’s go sit while we wait for the van,” Monica said. Will nodded and collapsed onto the couch cushion next to her.

  “Do you think they’ll catch us before we leave?” Monica asked, eyeing the windows in front of them, the shades and blinds of which were pulled down. What if they were out there right now, waiting for her and Will to open the door so they could kidnap them?

  “I hope not,” Will whispered, turning to gather Monica against him. “I’m so sorry, Monica. This is all my fault. If I’d actually read that stupid contract, if I’d been honest with you from the start about who, what I was—if I’d done that, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe we’d be back home, safe in Boston.”

  Monica turned to look up at Will, her chin resting on his strong shoulder. “Don’t be silly. Neither of us could have predicted this. It’s a shitty situation, but we’re going to make it through together, okay? We’re going to make it through and find a city where you and I can both be safe and happy being exactly who we are, doing what we love. I promise we’ll find that.”

  They had time for a single, tender kiss before a knock sounded on the door, signaling that it was time to leave.

  Will

  Will was finally starting to breathe a bit easier, his heart rate slowing and the anxiety leaving his shoulders. The van was packed, the house was all locked up, and he and Monica were on their way to safety. In six hours, they’d be at Amelia’s apartment in Los Angeles, far away from the dangerous and dishonest team at the Mythical Creatures Research Center.

  He was helping their van driver with the two suitcases they had packed for the journey to Los Angeles when he felt something at his back, something that made all those warm, fuzzy, happy feelings that had begun to flood his body immediately retreat. Being a werewolf meant his senses were always a little more heightened than the average human male, and Will could tell there was someone standing to his left, someone large, perhaps even taller than him.

  When Will turned around, his fears were confirmed. He’d hoped, prayed to a god he didn’t believe in that his senses were incorrect, or he was just misinterpreting them. Perhaps it was an animal behind him, or one of their new neighbors to say hello. But it wasn’t either of those. When Will turned around, it was to see Eric, Harry, and the crony who had driven him to work the previous day. Eric had a knife at Monica’s throat, while his Harry and his crony was tying Monica’s hands behind her back.

  “Hello, William,” Eric said, his voice like silk as he pushed the blade of the knife imperceptibly harder into Monica’s throat. “I was so sorry to see that you’d vacated your chair earlier today. So sorry, because it’s forced me to do something I really didn’t want to have to do,” he said, looking down at Monica. Will could see the tears forming in Monica’s eyes and her chest rising and falling rapidly as she beg
an to hyperventilate from fear.

  Will was silent, though he knew that Eric wanted him to ask just what exactly he had forced him to do. Will suspected he knew, and he suspected it had to do with Monica and her safety. How the hell was he going to get them out of this? How was he going to protect Monica when there was a knife at her throat and a mad man at her back? Will had to make a decision, one that he knew Monica wouldn’t like. But it was necessary.

  “Eric, don’t hurt her. Please. Take me. I’ll go back to the research facility. I’ll be a good research subject, I’ll do whatever you want me to. You can keep me there night and day, for however long you want. Just please, please don’t hurt her.”

  Eric smiled, like he’d been expecting Will to say those exact words. He lowered the knife from Monica’s throat, though he kept his hold on her shoulders.

  “Excellent. I was so hoping you would come to your senses.” Eric turned to the large man behind him. “Jacob, tie him up.”

  Jacob, as he was apparently called, walked over to Will, a terrifying grin on his face as he wound Will’s wrists with thick hemp rope. Will expected Eric to let Monica go, now that he had offered himself up for the taking, but to his surprise and dismay, Eric began to drag Monica toward a car Will hadn’t realized was parked just outside their house. The car had a University of Arizona logo emblazoned on its side, and already sitting in the back seat was Franny.

  Will grimaced. He’d thought Franny was safe from Eric’s wrath; after all, Eric didn’t concern himself with lowly lab techs. Franny had been so sure he wouldn’t even notice her temporary absence on the time sheet while she drove Will home. But apparently Eric’s attention reached much further than Will had expected. Now, he’d hurt and perhaps ruined the lives of two good women.

  Eric came back and threw Will in alongside Franny and Monica. Eric got in the driver’s seat while Harry walked to the backseat, a large syringe in his hands. “Don’t worry, kids. This won’t hurt a bit,” he said, right before he thrust the needle into Will’s arm.

  Monica

  Monica awoke to a sterile, white room. Looking around, she saw no equipment, no desks, no laboratory technicians or scientists milling about. It was only her, strapped to a chair, and, looking to her right, the woman named Franny who had helped Will escape. Franny caught her eye and gave her a raised eyebrow, as if to say, “Any idea what the hell is going on?” Monica shook her head.

  But then, the door to their left opened, and in walked Eric, two large men in lab coats, and Will. Monica sat up straighter as she saw Will, craning her neck to see what, if any, harm had been done to him.

  Will had a black eye and a bad gash across the right side of his face, and his neck looked bruised with finger marks; it looked like he’d been choked. His head was lolling against his chest, as though he didn’t have the strength to lift it up. Two puncture marks graced the side of his right arm, which was visible beneath the thin white hospital gown he was wearing. He looked terrible. What had they done to him?

  “Ah! I see you two girls are awake. Excellent. You can witness the next stage in our experiment with young William here,” Eric said, sitting Will down on a chair one of his men produced seemingly out of nowhere. Will sagged in the seat, like he didn’t have the energy to keep his body upright.

  “The experiment you’ve been doing on him against his will, you mean?” Monica asked, hatred clear in her voice. She’d never hated anyone before; it wasn’t zen, it wasn’t peaceful, but right now, she didn’t care if it sent her spiraling into the realm of hungry ghosts in her next life. She wanted to hurt Eric, hurt him in return for all the pain he’d caused Will.

  “Ah but Miss Grey, we’ve already been through this. William here signed up for this all on his own. The information was clearly in his employment contract, and it is not our fault if he didn’t read it. He is our test subject, to do with as we will.”

  “No he’s not! He’s still a human being! He has rights!” Monica yelled, truly irate. She strained against the belts that were keeping her in the uncomfortable steel chair. Beside her, Franny was quiet, her eyes wide with fear.

  Eric walked toward Monica, stopping in front of her chair and leaning close until their noses were nearly touching. “He is not a human being, you stupid girl. He’s a werewolf, the vermin of society, and he deserves everything we give him and more.”

  Eric then turned toward Will. Eric was just removing a large syringe full of violently orange liquid from his lab coat pocket when the door to the room opened and Amelia walked in.

  Monica balked. How the hell had her sister found them? Her surprise quickly turned to relief, however. If there was anyone who could help her out of a dangerous situation, it was Amelia.

  “Put that syringe down!” Amelia yelled, pointing at Eric.

  “Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my lab?” he asked, looking peeved. Monica looked at Will again and found his eyes were slightly brighter, his face more alert despite the drowsiness that seemed to be taking over him, bit by bit.

  “I’m Amelia Grey, a journalist for the L.A. Arts Newspaper, and if you don’t put that needle down, I’m going to expose every single wrong you’ve ever committed at this poor excuse for a laboratory.”

  Eric scoffed and went back to pointing the syringe at Will, but Amelia wouldn’t be ignored. She batted the syringe from his hands and, before Eric knew what was happening, had him in a headlock. Monica had always thought the kickboxing and karate classes her sister took for exercise were a bit violent, but now, she was glad Amelia spent her free time at the boxing gym and dojo. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to do what she did next, which was flip Eric over onto his back and hit the two men standing behind Will square in the throat, causing them to double over in pain.

  Amelia ran over to Monica and Franny and unbuckled them from their chairs, then she grabbed Will and, with Monica and Franny’s help, led him out to the car she had parked just outside the building. Within ten minutes they were on the highway, Monica driving while Amelia pressed “send” on the story she’d written about Eric for the L.A. Times, complete with a photo of him she’d snapped just before he noticed her presence in the laboratory.

  “He won’t be able to hurt you again, Will. He’ll be locked up within hours of this hitting the press,” Amelia said, looking in the backseat to where Will was leaning against Franny, half-asleep but smiling.

  “Thanks, Ami. Seriously, you just saved our lives.”

  “Don’t sweat it. What’s the point of being a journalist if I can’t use it to rescue my family and friends from the clutches of evil, prejudiced scientists?” Amelia said, giving Franny a wink.

  Monica dropped Franny off at her house. It was nearly time for her little girl to arrive back from school. “Keep in touch, okay?” Monica said, giving her a big hug as she stood on the sidewalk outside Franny’s house.

  “Absolutely. You, Will and your sister saved my life. Thank you,” she said, tears in her eyes as she turned toward her door.

  Monica, Amelia and Will spent the next five hours on the road, driving to Amelia’s apartment in L.A. They spent a few days there, then, when the university had shipped the rest of their possessions from Phoenix and Boston, they moved to Las Vegas where Will had been offered a job at a research facility that actually cared about his kind. He and Monica were finally able to cohabitate in peace.

  * * *

  Four years later….

  “God, yes, Will, keep going,” Monica said as she laid back on the soft pillow of their bed while Will licked his way around her clitoris. At seven months pregnant, it was getting harder and harder to have normal, penetrative sex, but thankfully she and Will had taken that in stride. Most days ended with him eating her out until she was begging for release, at which point he would finger her until she came, spectacularly screaming and thrashing on their bed with the world’s most pleasurable orgasm. She usually returned the favor using a combination of exceptional blow job skills and the heated essential oil sh
e’d crafted, which drove Will wild. But tonight, Will had told her that it was all about her, her pleasure, making her feel good.

  While his face was pressed between her thighs, his hands roamed her soft skin, tweaking her erect nipples, squeezing her butt and tinkling the insides of her thighs until she squealed in delight. Monica could feel herself getting close, the waves of pleasure beginning to build inside her. Her belly had grown so large that she couldn’t see Will’s head as it bobbed up and down, his tongue sliding in and out of her as it worked in tandem with his fingers, but Monica knew that if she could see him, he would be wearing a look of adorable concentration on his face. Will took pleasuring her very, very seriously.

  “Fuck, Will, I’m gonna come, I’m gonna…I’m gonna,” and then, Monica was there, the waves of pleasure crashing over her as pure, unadulterated bliss crested over her spine. Will placed soft, sweet kisses along her pelvis and up the rounded hill of her belly as he crawled toward her, lying down next to Monica and gathering her in his arms so her back was flush with his front.

  As she came down from her orgasm, Will rubbed slow circles on her gloriously round belly. “I can’t wait to see this baby, Mon,” he whispered in her ear, kissing her neck and nibbling softly at her lobe. Monica smiled to herself, because neither could she. It didn’t matter if it was human, wolf, or a combination of the two—as long as it was their baby, a little piece of her and Will together, she’d love it. They’d been through so much together in the last few years, and now she knew, without a doubt, that whatever life threw at them next, they could handle it. As long as they had each other, and the little baby growing inside her, they’d be absolutely fine.