There was silence in the room for a long moment as I looked at my hands. "How many females in our Pack are beyond twenty-eight weeks, Doctor?"

"Two," I said. "Wendy and Joanne are both at thirty weeks. The other ten known pregnant women are between four and twenty-four weeks."

"What if you are wrong? What if the bleeding or fever is not the result of what happened to Laura?"

"Then I might terminate a viable pregnancy." Connie gasped, but I continued. "It's not what I want to do, but the health of the mother is my main concern here. Whatever this is, it comes on fast, in a matter...