"Virginia," Wolf yelped with concern. "What is it?" He rolled her over to face him and looked into her eyes for a clue. What he saw brought a pang of fear to his heart. "Are you all right, my love?" he asked. Virginia couldn't answer. Her face contorted in pain and she drew her legs up, trying to curl into a ball. Wolf waited for the pain to pass as he stroked her forehead. Suddenly it dawned on him. "Is it time, Virginia? Is it the baby?" he asked as he bolted upright in bed.

"I don't know," she managed between gritted teeth. "It hurts so bad. What do I do? This wasn't supposed to happen here. I'm not due for a few more weeks yet."

This story is actually a double fanfiction; that is a fanfiction inspired by the characters and situations in a fanfiction, in this case, Mary Anne Gruen's The House of Red. Debbie starts off after The House of Red ends, taking up with the characters created by Mary Anne, however the story, like all fanfiction, is wholly Debbie's own; this is not the sequel Mary Anne would have written. That doesn't make it any less interesting, however.

Warning: You'll hate what happens in the first two chapters of this book, so much that you may want to chuck your shoe right through your computer screen. Don't. Keep reading. Remember, the Nine Kingdoms is a fantasy-land: All is never as simple as it appears...