Chapter 9 · Zaia ER Alone While Pregnant

The cramping started at lunch.

Zaia was in a client presentation—Silverfang's revised packaging, her third trimester belly hidden beneath a loose blazer—when the pain hit like a fist beneath her ribs. She gripped the edge of the conference table. Priya's voice faded to static.

"Ms. Ashford?" Elena Torres leaned forward. "Are you all right?"

"Fine." The word came out strangled. "Just—need a moment."

She made it to the bathroom before the second wave doubled her over. Not morning sickness. Not bond pain. Something deeper, territorial, her wolf snarling in alarm.

*The pups. Something's wrong with the pups.*

Zaia called her doctor from the stall. The nurse said come in. Zaia said she couldn't—the clinic was an hour away, she had a meeting, she had—

"Ma'am, if you're having contractions at thirty-two weeks, you need an emergency room. Now."

Contractions.

Zaia's vision narrowed. She texted Priya: *Family emergency. Handle the meeting.*

She drove herself.

The ER waiting room was full of humans with broken bones and fevers and the ordinary catastrophes of a world that didn't know werewolves existed. Zaia checked in as Zoe Ashford. She didn't mention the twins. She didn't mention the Alpha who'd cast her out.