Did Anyone Notice Something Weird About Anna?

[Allison]

This topic is going to be spoileriffic, so please don’t read further if you haven’t finished Dead Heat yet.


So here goes.I think Anna's pregnant.

Before anyone jumps at me, I have read the entire book. I understand that Charles and Anna have decided to adopt, which would presumably lay the issue of a pregnancy to rest, but I just can’t ignore some of the odd things that seemed to jump out at me while I was reading. Here's what I noticed:

1) Anna’s slow change to confront the tree fae. A big deal is made about this change being especially slow and difficult, but I don’t think they ever explain why, and it never comes up again. To me this seemed like a hint that maybe her body is rejecting the change because of a certain passenger.

2) Anna only shifts once in this book, which strikes me as unusual. I know Charles is the one who shifts more and is more comfortable with being a wolf, but I feel like Anna usually shifts more.

3) Anna seems to feel a lot of things in her stomach. I’m thinking specifically of when she feels something weird in her stomach when she sees Justin, and again, later, when she sees Charles. I know this could be chalked up to just really strong emotion, but it sort of reminded me of how babies kick when the mother is upset, or when they hear their parents.

Some people might argue that a pregnancy is impossible because they’re werewolves, but I don’t remember reading that werewolves couldn’t be impregnated, just that they can’t give birth (with the implication that werewolf mothers could lose the baby during a shift and die themselves). However, since Charles is a very special case who can shift at will and Anna is an omega perhaps there’s a situation where the baby can shift with Anna? (Which is what she was arguing)

[Allison]

Followup comment:


Some people might also argue that since Charles doesn’t want a baby at the start of the book, the couple would be using protection. That would make sense if they were human, but they’re werewolves and subject to different rules.

I actually think being werewolves would make birth control harder, not easier, as the werewolf healing would reverse any sort of sterilization, and probably override any hormonal fix (like pills, nuvaring, etc) and would give them immunity to STDs. I mean, hell, werewolves can't even get drunk.

So if they’re monogamous and can’t get pregnant (or believe they can’t get pregnant) and can’t catch STDs then I think there’s a decent chance that mated werewolf couples would not use any form of protection, since there’s not a whole lot to protect against.

However, even if they were using protection, their only reliable method would be condoms, which have a lot of operator errors and a history of failure.

[Lisa]

Interesting thoughts. I wondered the same thing as I was reading. I had some thoughts in less depth than your follow up comment, but let it go after I finished the book.

Sadly, it will be a very long wait before we know anything more.

[Moonlight]

Anna is not pregnant. Per the rules of her universe, female werewolves miscarry when the change between their forms. So if she was pregnant before the change, she would not be after. Werewolves can get pregnant, they just miscarry when they change. Werewolves who don't change often enough go mad and either die or have to be killed to protect those around them.

Human women can get pregnant by their male werewolf partners but they miscarry the werewolf babies. The human children, like Jesse (Adam's daughter with his first wife who was human), can survive.

[Haniccol]

But I thought werewolves only miscarried sometime in the second trimester? I think i remember reading that at one point...

[Haniccol]

Never mind. I found the passage in Moon Called and they miscarry at the first full moon, when they change.

[Lisa]

You have to wonder though when the world is full of magic. Think of Charles's clothes...

[Nikolai]

Because of Charles' magic, the rules could be different for Anna, if she is pregnant.