It had been two weeks since the mating ceremony — two weeks since everything changed.

Sometimes Freya woke up in the middle of the night still half in disbelief, her hand resting on the small swell of her stomach. The news had come sooner than anyone expected. The elder nurse, Joanna, had confirmed it herself — Freya was pregnant. She had smiled weakly when Joanna told her, not out of surprise but out of a quiet, heavy acceptance. Somewhere deep inside, she had already known. The bond ...