Chapter 27 27
Sunlight flooded through the kitchen windows as I sat at my mother’s huge wooden table, attempting to eat a breakfast my mutinous stomach wanted no part of. The bacon that had always made my mouth water now made me feel nauseous, and the sight of eggs alone sent my stomach into an infamous downward spin.
"Not hungry this morning, Luna?" said Marie, the head cook for the pack, her elderly face creased with worry.
“Oh, just feel out of sorts lately,” I said, with an half-assed attempt to casually push the plate away.
But Marie’s knowing glance said she was not fooled. Nor were the other pack mates, who’d been giving me those intensifying looks of hope for weeks now.
They were all waiting. Hoping. Searching for indication that their Alpha's mate was indeed carrying the next generation.
“Perhaps some tea might go down easier?” Marie suggested kindly. “I have a special mix to do something about … sensitive conditions.”
Heat flooded my cheeks. "That's not necessary—"
“No, of course not.” she agreed hurriedly, though the mischievous grin that danced over her lips said something all together different. “I’ll just leave some by your bed, in case you change your mind.”
I fled the kitchen before any of the others could make helpful comments about my "condiction" and I made it all for the garden. A breath of fresh air, cool and clear even on that hot summer morning, after the stifling food smells within.
But even here I could not escape the transformations occurring in my body. My boobs were sore, my feelings even more raw than normal and the weariness I had been feeling for days now felt like it was doubling by the hour.
I was pregnant. I’d known it, on a level that cut to the bone, even if I hadn’t mustered the courage to confirm it officially.
"Luna Lena?"
When I looked up Marcus, one of Lucien’s loyal guards, was walking over with great reluctance.
"The Alpha had me come to accompany you on your morning walk," he said, tone carefully flat.
"Escort me?" I frowned. "Since when have I required a chaperon in my own garden?”
"Since yesterday, Luna. New security measures." His discomfort was obvious. “I am not to be out of your vision while you are outside.”
A cold rush washed over me at the implication of that statement. Something had happened. Something serious enough to make Lucien tighten security around me in particular.
"What's going on, Marcus? What went on yesterday that I am ignorant of?”
"That's for the Alpha, Luna. I'm just following orders."
But the circumvention in his voice was telling enough for me. Lucien was keeping things from me once more, deciding what I needed to do for my safety on his own.
“All right,” I said, forcing a cheerful tone. "Then you may accompany me to locate my mate. I would like to ask him some questions.”
Three days later, Lucien called to say that we would be attending a meeting of allied packs at the Moonstone land. It was my first big public appearance as his mate, and no one missed the point.
“If you feel too crappy, you don’t have to go,” he said as I battled yet another round of morning sickness.
“Don’t worry about me,” I lied, patting my gown back into place with hands that trembled a bit. “Just worried about meeting so many new people.”
But the reality was more nuanced. The nausea, the fatigue, the fact that certain smells made me wretch — it was all getting more difficult to conceal. And at a party full of werewolves with heightened senses, hiding could be difficult.
The Moonstone pack house was a thing of beauty, made of local granite and timber that glowed in the afternoon sun, seven wolves from six territories lined its walls talking, creating a low hum throughout the grounds.
“And don't forget," Lucien muttered as we neared the largest clump of males, "You're more than my mate in this place. You're a symbol. A pointer that being from the old blood lines is strong enough to attract a capable mate.”
“No pressure at all,” I muttered
The next few hours went by in a whirlwind of introductions and guarded political talk. I smiled till my cheeks hurt, chatted politely about pack territories that I’d yet to lay eyes on and projected the silent strength these people wanted from their Alpha’s mate.
But as I listened, it was the whispered conversations that I wasn’t supposed to hear that struck me most.
"The prophecy refers to her by name," I heard one old woman saying to another, as they stood beside my chair. “Golden hair, brown eyes, she was born under the blood moon. It has to be her."
"But is she strong enough?" the other replied. "Prophecies are one thing. Reality is another. If she’s the bridge between worlds indeed, she needs power that we haven’t had in generations.”
"The bridge between worlds." It was the kind of statement that made the hairs on my neck stand up. I'd heard versions of it before, always whispered when people thought I couldn't hear them.
Then later, during a lull in the formalities that allowed me to head out of the room for a visit to the restroom, I overheard another exchange that chilled me even further.
“King Jubril’s people have been spotted in three provinces this month,” a man’s voice said. “He’s positioning pieces for it to be something major.”
"You think he is going to attempt it?” another asked.
“The old texts say she's the key to everything. If he has power over her, then there is also the future of all supernatural creatures in his hands.”
I flattened myself to the wall, now realizing why Lucien had been so paranoid. It wasn’t just random threats we were up against—it was a someone powerful enough to wield agents across many kingdoms.
But the conversation that really scared me happened as we were leaving.
I was hiking up my wrap when I saw a figure, all too familiar, standing on the other side of the courtyard gazing at me. Ash. Standing in the shadowy alley of two buildings, my stepbrother stared at me like I was public enemy number one, his silver eyes alone making me shiver.
Our eyes locked, and he did not look away. Instead he took one step into the light, so that I could see his face clearly, before fading back out of sight.
He was here. Watching. Waiting for something.
We rode silently in the carriage, each lost in our own contemplation of what we had heard that evening. But the nausea I’d felt building all day finally hit me about halfway back to our turf.
"Pull the team up," I cried out through a hand held against my lips.
Lucien was out and assisting me to the ground before the wheels had even finished turning. I managed to get to the tree line and puked my guts out so hard I was shaking from exertion and also completely embarrassed.
“For how long has this been happening?” Lucien whispered into my ear as he pushed my hair back from face.
“A couple days," I fessed up, no longer feelin’ the need to lie. "Maybe longer."
His hand landed on my back, drawing soothing circles as I eased again. But when I rose to face him and look into his eyes at last, I read in them something that sent my heart whirling.
"You know," I said. It wasn't a question.
"I suspected." His voice was carefully controlled. "Your scent has been changing. Richer. More complex."
"When?"
“I saw differences starting a week ago. “But he wanted to wait until you could be the one to tell me.”
I gazed at his face, in an attempt to gauge what he thought. “And what do you think about that?”
For a second something raw and vulnerable flickered in his ancient eyes. "Terrified," he admitted. "Thrilled. Protective beyond all reason." His fingers found their way to my face, his thumbs stroking along the line of my cheekbones. "You're carrying my child, Lena. Our child."
"Are you happy?" “Please tell me,” I murmured, because I needed to hear the words.
“Happy hardly does it justice,” he said, drawing me to his chest. “But God help me, I’m also more scared than I’ve ever been in my life.”
"Why?"
“Because everything I had to lose, I now have.” His arms tightened around me. “You and the baby and the future we’re building together — it all hangs in the balance. And there are people who would tear it all down, simply because they want to cause me harm.”
I broke away so we could make eye contact. "The increased security. The guards. It isn’t just random, is it?”
His jaw tightened. "No. There's someone organizing hits on mated Alphas." Somebody with resources and patience and goals that are very specific.”
“And you think they’ll be after us.”
"I know they will." His voice carried absolute certainty. “The question is when, not if.”
My hand automatically went to my still-flat belly while I stood in the moonlight, feeling the heaviness of our circumstances falling on me like a wet cloak. And I no longer belonged to Lucien alone, but was destined to be the mother of a Lycan heir. A target for anyone who wished to strike at the fulcrum of his power.
But, looking up into his fierce, protective face, I also felt something else. Determination. Whatever it was going to be, we would both face it. Our child would come into a world that was dangerous, but it would also be a world belt that could never be broken.
"What do we do now?" I asked.
“Now we get ready,” he said, grimly. “And then pray that love is bigger than whatever hell is flying toward us.”