Robin
I remember the first time I set foot on Henderson Supernatural Academy. The acceptance letter had been shocking because I didn’t even know I was capable of magic! They claimed they had done some digging and called me the Red Moon Witch, a powerful witch of legend who would one day bring all covens together.
When I spoke to my Grandmother, or Abuela as I called her, she said that they were right. I did have magic. Magic ran in our family, but I was a late bloomer. Whether I was the Red Moon Witch was not something she could say.
She encouraged me to go to the school and accept the offer. I did. Soon after joining, I was able to harness my magic for the first time, and it was the strangest thing! For so long, I thought I was a typical mortal, but not.
Magic seemed to come to me easily—more easily than I ever thought it would. I truly never thought it would come to me this easily.
Some of the other students weren’t very accepting, viewing me as a try-hard. When I met my best friend, Kathryn, she said they were just jealous assholes. I just had to ignore them. Kathryn Laurent was a half-witch and half-vampire who had been going to the school for over two years now.
We hit it right off, and I was blessed to have met her.
The other person I met was Victor Volkov, a werewolf at the school. He was the typical boy next door who was the star of the basketball team.
But as of three days ago, I regret ever meeting that guy.
I remembered it like it was yesterday. Or three days ago.
With a sigh, I turned and headed to my boyfriend’s dorm room. I heard his voice inside and lifted my hand to knock, but then I froze.
“Oh my god, Victor more!”
I paled.
Victor was… sleeping with someone?
I pushed open the door and saw my boyfriend lying on the bed. His sandy blond hair was sticking up in every direction his brown eyes full of pleasure.
But I wasn’t the one causing him this pleasure.
The woman bouncing on his lap was a stranger. She had cat-shaped ears that were out, her tail swishing back and forth.
In times of pleasure and fear, animal features could make themselves known.
I stood there for a while, in shock. It took some time for Victor to notice me, but when he did, he shoved the girl off his lap, causing her to hit the floor.
Could this be happening? I didn’t know if I could say that I was in love with Victor, but I enjoyed his company. Being around him was fun, and I could see myself caring for him more seriously one day.
“Fuck Robin, it isn’t what it looks like!”
This was always the dumbest excuse in the world. How the hell could he sit there after fucking another woman and say it wasn’t what it looks like? The man must be crazy because it was exactly what it looked like.
I almost wanted to bitterly joke about him falling into the cat shifter's dick first.
I blinked back tears. “Are you saying it doesn’t look like you were screwing some other woman?”
“I—”
“Fuck off, Victor,” I hissed, my anger growing. “The two of us are over.”
I spun around and left the room. Victor was shouting for me to stop, but I ignored him.
“Robin, please, just let me explain!” he yelled.
He sounded desperate, like he almost wanted to start crying or something. Why did he have any right to cry after what he did to me? I wanted to scream, run over to him, and punch him in the face, but no violence was going to do anything.
Or I could set him on fire. I was a witch, but that could get me kicked out of class. I didn’t want to be kicked out of class.
I heard him scramble after me, his footsteps heavy, but I refused to look back. Hope he remembered to at least put clothes on.
“Robin, I love you!” he shouted, his voice desperate now, cracking on the last word.
I reached for the door, my hand shaking as I turned the knob.
“You love me?” I laughed bitterly, the sound harsh. “If you loved me, Victor, you wouldn’t be on top of some other woman, would you?”
I could feel him getting closer, his breath sharp and panicked.
“Robin, don’t do this. I made a mistake. I swear it was a mistake.”
I flung the door open, stepping into the night air. “No, Victor. It wasn’t a mistake. It’s who you are.”
His voice cracked. “Please, don’t leave me. I—”
I slammed the door shut, cutting him off, and leaned against it for a second, gasping for breath.
He cheated on me with some cat shifter.
Then came more bad news.
My grandmother was sick. When I got the phone call, I was at my friend Kathryn’s house trying to nurse my broken heart.
The shrill ring of my phone shattered the quiet. I frowned at the unknown number but answered anyway. "Hello?"
"Miss Delgado?" The voice was calm, professional—too professional. "This is Dr. Lee. I’m calling about your grandmother."
My stomach twisted. "Is she okay?"
A brief pause. "I’m afraid her condition has worsened. The medication is no longer effective. If she doesn’t undergo surgery soon, the outcome will be..." She hesitated, her voice softening. "It will be fatal."
I bolted upright, the breath catching in my throat. "Surgery? How much—how much is it going to cost?"
"It’s a specialized procedure," she said gently. "I know it’s expensive, but we can discuss a payment plan if that would help."
My heart pounded in my ears. Expensive. Of course, it was. "I... I’ll figure something out. Can I call you back?"
"Of course," Dr. Lee said softly. "But please don’t wait too long. Time is critical."
"Thank you," I whispered before ending the call, my hand trembling as I set the phone down beside me.
I stared at the wall, my mind spinning. How was I supposed to come up with that kind of money? I barely had enough to cover textbooks, let alone life-saving surgery. My throat burned as I tried to swallow the panic rising inside me.
I couldn’t fix everything all at once. My grandma’s surgery, the mess with Victor, the endless pressure of life—I needed to take it one thing at a time.
I rolled over, staring at the ceiling, my heart still tight with worry but less suffocated.
I scoured the internet later that night, looking for a way I could make money. It got to the point where I wasn’t able to focus on anything other than the fact that I was going to have to come up with a lot of money. If I didn’t come up with this money, then my grandmother could die.
But then I came across something called surrogacy and egg donation. Egg donation paid well, but surrogacy paid even more.
I knew exactly what surrogacy was. It wasn’t something I ever considered, but the amount of money it would pay would be enough for me to pay for my grandmother’s surgery.
What more could I want?
When I talked to Kathryn, she suggested that I apply but consider other options too, because carrying a baby for someone was going to be a lot. I understand where she came from, but the money was too tempting.
So I bit the bullet and applied. What could it hurt?
It didn’t take too much effort to open up the questions, but some of the questions I had to ask made my cheeks burn.
Certainly, they didn’t need to know this much, did they?
For one, they asked about how much body hair I have. I hesitated but answered as best I could. It was hard to see how knowing how much body hair I had was important to a surrogacy application.
Then came another question that I understood was important, but also made me blush harder.
I wanted to know when my last sexual encounter was.
I… never had sex before. Even though Victor and I had made out several times, I still wanted to wait until I felt I was ready. Bitterly, I wondered if perhaps because I didn’t have sex with you, he decided he didn’t want to have sex with me.
Shaking my head, I shoved all thoughts of my ex-boyfriend out of my mind and decided to just answer the questionnaire as best I could.