Page 58 of Knotting Autumn

“Well, you didn’t get me a ring, did you?” I said, raising my eyebrows, waiting for him to balk.

“Do you want a ring?” he asked, completely serious.

I gaped at him.“No, I’m kidding. Mostly.”

Shaking my head, I tried to focus on the matter at hand. “But yes, let’s do the marking-claiming-biting thing.”

“Do you need time to think about it and be sure?” Thorne asked.

“No. It’s Sawyer. I’m sure,” I said, squaring my shoulders. “If my feelings haven’t changed in the last decade, they won’t now.”

Shaking his head, Cole stomped away. His dissension stung, but I trusted Sawyer, and if it helped at all, I was willing to take this step with him.

“Okay, we’d better get fucking,” I said with a cheesy grin. My attempt to lighten the mood failed.

Sawyer’s eyes widened. “What about pregnancy? You didn’t use a condom back at our apartment.”

“Don’t worry about that,” I said, pressing my palm to his chest.

“What do you mean? I know you’re not on birth control.”

Scowling, I cleared my throat. “I can’t get pregnant. I don’t get a period. I went to an OB a few years ago, and she said that I’ve got to be infertile since I don’t… So, yeah, no babies for me.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Sawyer asked, hooking his fingers under my chin and lifting my face.

“It’s not the kind of thing you tell your male best friend,” I said sheepishly.

Thorne coughed. “You’re not infertile. You’re just part-werewolf. Now that you have a mate, you’ll eventually go into heat. That’s when you can get pregnant.”

Whipping around, I stared at him, my mouth hanging open.

“What are you talking about?”

“Are you sure? She’s only half werewolf, right?” Sawyer asked, his thumb stroking over my throat absently.

“If she doesn’t get human periods, then definitely.”

“Is someone going to explain? What’s heat?” My voice was a dry whisper. I couldn’t process the idea that I could get pregnant eventually. I’d believed otherwise for so long.

Sawyer answered my question. “It’s a breeding cycle. You’ll need to have sex a lot, and it’ll make me crazy, and Thorne too.”

“Need to? What do you mean, crazy?”

“It’s your natural cycle, and it’ll be okay,” Thorne said gently. “We will take care of you.”

My exhale hissed through my teeth. My forehead dropped to Sawyer’s shoulder, and I gently smacked my head against him a few times.

“This is too much. We barely started dating. Now you’re going to fucking bite me, and then apparently I’m going to have some sort of psycho-werewolf period at some point?”

“Not exactly. It’s estrus when you’re ovulating.”

Twisting, I scowled at Thorne. He was just trying to explain, but adding more information wasn’t helping with the overload.

“Look, I can’t fucking deal with one more thing. I can’t get pregnant right now, right?”

Sawyer nodded.

“Fine. We can talk about the heat thing later. One problem at a time. Let’s get the bond bite thing handled.” My voice shook, betraying my nerves.