Chapter Sixty-Four

Chapter Sixty-Four
Anika lasted exactly thirty-six more hours before she took the test.

Not because she was ready.

Because Lizzy had started looking at her with increasingly aggressive clinical concern every time she skipped coffee halfway through drinking it.

The bathroom tucked behind the grooming room was barely bigger than a supply closet.

That was the point.

It sat far enough back in the kennel wing that no one wandered past unless they had a reason to be there, hidden behind shelves of shampoo bottles, stacked towels, and bins of grooming tools.

Private.

Or as private as Fenrir ever got.

Anika stood at the sink staring at the pregnancy test in her shaking hand while Lizzy sat cross-legged on the closed toilet lid watching her with increasingly obvious concern.

“You’re making this way too intense,” Lizzy muttered.

Anika laughed once under her breath.

“I’m literally taking a pregnancy test while hiding in a kennel bathroom inside a heavily armed compound run by the head of the Russian mafia.”

Lizzy considered that.

“…Okay, fair.”

The room fell quiet again.

Too quiet.

Outside the door, muffled barking echoed faintly through the corridor. Somewhere farther down the kennel wing, someone laughed.

Normal sounds.

Normal morning.

Meanwhile Anika felt like her entire body had narrowed down into one sharp, suspended point.

Lizzy softened slightly. “You don’t have to panic before there’s something to panic about.”

“That feels medically inaccurate.”

“Emotionally then.”

Anika exhaled shakily and looked down at the test again.

Still processing.

Still loading.

Still—

Two lines.

Her breath caught.

For a second she genuinely thought her brain had misread it.

Then her stomach dropped.

Positive.

“Oh,” she whispered.

Lizzy straightened immediately. “What?”

Anika looked up slowly.

Wide-eyed.

Almost disbelieving.

Positive.

Lizzy blinked once.

Then twice.

“Oh my God.”

Anika laughed sharply under her breath, somewhere between terror and disbelief. “I know.”

“Oh my God.”

“I KNOW.”

Lizzy shot to her feet. “You’re pregnant.”

Hearing it out loud hit differently.

Real.

Solid.

Not theory anymore.

Anika stared back down at the test as her hand drifted instinctively toward her stomach.

Tiny.

Impossible.

Real anyway.

For one strange second emotion crashed into her so hard she couldn’t sort through it fast enough.

Fear.

Wonder.

Love.

Panic.

Hope.

“Oh my God,” Lizzy repeated, quieter this time.

Anika swallowed hard.

Then, unexpectedly, tears burned behind her eyes.

That startled her more than the test had.

Lizzy saw it instantly.

“Hey,” she said softly.

Anika shook her head once like she could physically force herself back under control.

“This is bad timing.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s bad.”

“You don’t know that.”

Lizzy stared at her for a beat. “Anika.”

But the fear was unraveling now that it had somewhere to go.

“I’m dating the head of the fucking Russian mafia,” Anika whispered harshly. “We’re not married. His entire life is violence and weapons and people trying to kill him. The Bratva literally trafficked women before he took over—”

“He stopped that.”

“I know.”

But her voice broke anyway.

Because knowing something intellectually and surviving trauma emotionally were not the same thing.

“My mother was trafficked, Lizzy.” The words came quieter now. Rawer. “Everything about my life was built around making sure no one could ever own me like that. No one could ever trap me.”

Lizzy’s expression softened immediately.

“And now you’re scared this changes that.”

Anika laughed weakly. “Pregnancy is kind of the definition of vulnerable.”

“You think Nikolai would ever make you powerless?”

“No,” she answered instantly.

That wasn’t the fear.

And they both knew it.

Anika pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes briefly.

“I know who he is,” she whispered. “I know what he’s capable of. I know what people around him are capable of. I know what this world does to families.”

The room quieted again.

Then Lizzy crossed the small space between them and leaned against the sink beside her.

“Okay,” she said gently. “Then let’s separate fear from reality for a second.”

Anika looked at her.

“Is Nikolai dangerous?”

“Yes.”

“Would he hurt you?”

“Never.”

“Would he hurt this baby?”

Anika’s chest tightened painfully.

“No.”

Lizzy nodded once. “Then this isn’t fear of him.”

No.

It wasn’t.

It was fear of loving something enough to lose it.

Fear of finally building something permanent in a world built on violence.

Anika stared down at the test again.

Positive.

Tiny little lines capable of detonating her entire life.

“I haven’t even told him yet and I already feel different,” she admitted quietly.

Lizzy smiled faintly. “Yeah. That’s usually how this works.”

Anika huffed a watery laugh.

“He’s going to completely lose his mind.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

That actually made her laugh for real.

Lizzy grinned. “Like clinically. Catastrophically. Possessive Russian warlord levels of emotional collapse.”

“That’s not helping.”

“It’s a little helping.”

Anika shook her head, still laughing weakly through the panic.

Then her face sobered again.

“What if I’m not enough for this?”

Lizzy looked genuinely offended.

“Ani... You built a protection dog empire from scratch, run tactical operations better than half the men here, and emotionally domesticated a Bratva king. I think you can handle motherhood.”

“That feels aggressively supportive.”

“You’re welcome.”

The laugh that escaped her this time cracked slightly in the middle.

Lizzy’s expression gentled immediately.

“You don’t have to tell him today,” she said softly.

Anika nodded slowly.

Because she didn’t want this moment touched yet.

Not by fear.

Not by the outside world.

Just one minute where it belonged only to her.

Carefully, she slid the test back into its box and tucked it beneath a folded towel inside the cabinet under the sink.

Hidden.

Safe.

For now.

A knock sounded suddenly at the bathroom door.

Both women froze.

Nikolai’s voice came through the wood a second later.

“Anika?”

Lizzy’s eyes widened instantly.

“Oh my God,” she mouthed silently.

Anika shot her a murderous look.

“Yeah?” she called back, only slightly strained.

A pause.

Then:

“Why are you hiding in the kennel bathroom?”

Lizzy doubled over trying not to laugh.

Anika closed her eyes briefly.

Because of course he somehow already knew exactly where she was.