Once I washed my hands with soap and dried them properly, I left the bathroom to see Eros already seated at the table waiting for me. 

In front of him were several plates of raw meat and semi-cooked meat. 

I quickly sat myself down and picked up a knife and fork.

As my eyes swept over the heaping plates of red, my mouth immediately watered and I had to swallow repeatedly to keep myself from drooling all over myself.

Ever since Eros fed me raw meat back when we were in his den, I'd become rather addicted to the metallic and bloody taste accompanied by consuming the meat.

Before all this, I wasn't even a fan of eating raw sushi because it was too fishy for my tastes.

But now, I was all for it.

Sushi. Red meats. Anything raw was fine by me.

And although I tried to eat cooked food like I used to, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I used to. I could eat as much of it as I wanted but this feeling of emptiness—of missing something—never fully goes away.

And, as the days passed, I gradually started leaning towards eating food off of Eros' plate. Though I still ate veggies here and there, almost seventy to eighty percent of the food I ate was raw meat. Because of my change in appetite, Granny Ada started to replace most of my meals with raw meat while keeping in mind the other foods I had to eat to keep myself healthy.

All this raw meat was probably not very good for me, being that I was pregnant and all, but I couldn't control my strange cravings enough to deprive myself of it.

I remembered reading that pregnant women were prohibited from eating raw food, but Eros told me that my case was different since the babies weren't human, after all.

It's just strange how I went from being totally disgusted to totally addicted to eating raw meat.

Maybe it's the pups in my stomach that want it.

"There will be a gathering with all of the other Alphas and Cardinal Alphas this coming Friday to discuss the production of Ziron-e and the war," Eros casually informed after he wiped the corner of his lips with a napkin in a rather cultured way. 

My lips pursed.

Every time I saw Eros eat, I was always captivated by how well-mannered and perfectly refined his table manners were. He could eat bloody meat in such an impeccably precise way that I was always left feeling like a mongrel next to him.

Although most of my meal went in my mouth, there were times when the blood managed to find itself splattered on my cheeks and chin or all over the table. I actually looked pretty scary after every meal.

"I'm not very good at entertaining guests," I admitted regretfully.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it," Eros replied soothingly as I shoved a chunk of steak into my mouth and chewed. "You'll just have to mingle and talk to the other Alpha Females. Nothing too stressful."

"But Eros, I'm not good at mingling either! I'm one of those people who gets nervous and chokes on their own spit and either keels over in a dead faint or pukes all over themselves," I exclaimed rather exaggeratedly.

Eros chuckled and said, "You did great with the pack members at the induction ceremony. I'm sure you'll do well this time too."

"I'll try," I murmured, chucking a potato wedge into my mouth without much consideration and decided not to think too hard about it since Eros always kept his word.

If he said he would take care of it, never fail, he would.

After a slight pause to finish the meal, Eros asked, "Have you thought of names yet?" 

"Names?" My brows raised in question.

"For our pups," he continued, reaching over to wipe the droplet of blood that had dripped down my chin.

My eyes widened dramatically, and I couldn't help but be surprised at the implications in Eros' words.

"You want me to name our children?" I asked rather bewilderedly, surprised that Eros would even say that.

"I thought you would want to name them," he calmly stated.

"But I want your opinion on the names too since I haven't really thought about it. You know how I like to procrastinate till the last minute," I said truthfully. "And I don't even know how many names we would need."

Since this whole pregnancy, names had never really crossed my mind. I was too busy overthinking about other unnecessary things, like usual.

"We can come up with a couple of extra names just in case," he suggested, refilling my cup of water just before I picked up the cup.

"I was thinking to name all starting with an E since both of our names start with an E. But I don't think that's a very good idea," I stated rather dejectedly. "It'll be disastrous if we happen to have eight babies and all of them have to have names starting with an E."

Eros glanced over at me mysteriously, his blue eyes glinting brightly when he said, "I don't think that will work either."

My eyes narrowed, and my stomach seemed to do a flip because of his ominous words that sound like an affirmation of the coming future.

I wasn't going to have eight babies...was I?

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After lunch, Eros left to patrol the borders and check on the progress of some homes that were being built by the pack members. Since the whole Hunters incident, Eros had been really on it about patrolling and keeping his territory secured. 

There were nights when I woke up to go to the bathroom and found that he was missing from our bed just to go patrol the borders and check on the pack members. He's actually gotten kind of obsessive about it. And I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

But, if that's what he wanted to do, then I wasn't going to stop him.

Sitting on our bed, I whipped out the cellphone Eros gave me and tried to remember Anira's phone number from memory.

Ever since she left the pack house, I hadn't heard anything from her. And it was making me wonder if she ever got home safely.

Although I knew that she was a strong woman who could take care of her own problems, I couldn't help but worry.

I should have tried to contact her earlier, but I was too caught up with everything that happened previously. I just hoped that she made it home.

After inputting her number into the phone, I hit the call button and waited for her to pick up. If she didn't pick up, I'd have to call my foster parents to see if they'd heard from her.

The first couple of rings continued until I was sent to her voicemail. I ended up calling her two more times, but no one answered. As the minutes passed, I got even more worried. 

After the fourth time trying to call her, I gave up and fell back onto the bed with a frustrated sigh. Just when I was about to call my foster parents, my phone lit up as Anira called me back.

"Hello?" Anira's voice came from the speaker as soon as I picked up. 

"Ani, it's me," I immediately said into the phone in case she decided to hang up before hearing me out. 

Anira was not a very patient person.

"Emi? Why in the hell are you calling me at three in the morning?" she asked with a raspy voice like she just woke up.

"What?" A bewildered look formed on my face as I pulled the phone down and checked the time to make sure that I wasn't hallucinating. "Three? It's only one in the afternoon here."

"I'm not in the country. I'm taking a little break," she exclaimed with a long sigh that I knew was accompanied by a roll of her pretty green eyes.

"How am I supposed to know that? It's not like I did it on purpose," I replied, picking at my cuticle while putting the call on speaker. "Wait. Are you on your honeymoon with Wyatt?"

I was sure that the wedding was going to be at the end of the year. Did I miss the wedding? 

"No. There's no honeymoon because there is no wedding," she adamantly concluded with this slight sniffle that sounded like she was trying to hold back her tears.

My brows quickly furrowed into a line.

"No wedding?" I repeated. "What do you mean no wedding?"

"The wedding has been canceled," she sniffled angrily.

My eyes narrowed as a dark thought made way into my head. "This doesn't have anything to do with Zanthos does it? Because I swear, I will come after him if he—"

"No, it doesn't. It has nothing to do with him..." 

There was an oddly long pause after that. Although I was tempted to say something else, I decided to wait for Anira to tell me what happened.

"...I have cancer again, Emi," Anira admitted rather solemnly. "They put a chemo port right under the skin by my collarbone. It looks disgusting, and I couldn't wear my off-shoulder wedding dress without looking like a zombie. So I had to call off the wedding. And you know what? I might just die this time."

Although she tried to hide her emotions with a cold toneless voice, I could hear the tremble in her words.

"So, what? You're just going to give up and die?" I asked with a gritted jaw to keep my emotions from coming out and making me bawl like a little child. Once the tears came out, it will be a crying fest for both me and Anira. And I didn't want to make it any more harder for Anira.

"I don't give up, Emi. I'm a fighter. Fighters don't fucking give up." Anira said with a strong conviction in her quivering voice. 

Out of everyone I know, Anira treasured her life too much to just lay down and die. She'd fight even if she only had one breath left.

How else did she get through all the chemotherapy and cancer?

If I were her, I didn't think I would last half as long.

"What did the doctors say?" I anxiously inquired.

"They said I only have 3 months left. And you know what I told them? I said that I'm going to live even longer than their grandchildren would," Anira exclaimed fiercely.

"I believe it," I retorted. "Well, I called to check on you and let you know that I'm going to give birth soon, probably to a litter of werewolves. If you want to come and visit me, you are more than welcome to...and if you don't, I don't really care." 

She chuckled into the phone at my lame attempt to cheer her up. 

"I'm going to come look at those 'pups' of yours. Don't you doubt it," Anira replied. 

"I'll be waiting then." I bid her my goodbyes and wished her good health before turning off the phone. 

Then, I sat there for nearly ten minutes to let her words sink in.

Even though I really wanted to go visit Anira, I doubted that Eros would let me leave the pack house with how overly pregnant I was.

The thought made the fake smile on my face wilted into this bittersweet expression full of sadness. I didn't even realize that I was crying from anger and how unfair life was.

But at this point, I could only pray that Anira was going to get through it like she always did.

She had to.

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A/N: I missed the date to update again. Sorry guys! I will try to make it up by spamming this week with another chapter or 2. Thank you for reading and supporting!