Chapter 121 - He Stole My Heart, I Stole His Child

Axel POV

Something feels off today, but I can’t put my finger on what it is. Bailey is her usually cheerful self, currently playing with Aly on the floor in the living room. She’s so pregnant now. The doctor said 4 weeks and it would be safe to deliver, and even suggested scheduling a c-section. Bailey said to wait until the date gets closer. We still don’t know when our son and my dad will be back with Thyra.

That’s another thing that feels a little off today. Usually, Bailey is always sighing and will randomly say that she misses him. She would walk past his room, staring at it for long periods of time. I can see the longing on her face every time she does it and I know she is wishing for him to return.

Today, though, I caught her staring in his room with a huge smile on her face. She even cleaned it yesterday with her mom. I came home to Bailey making his bed, Katherine vacuuming the floors, and Aly with a little duster in her hand saying she was a big helper.

When I asked what she was doing, she simply said that it was time to get it ready for him. If she knew when he was coming back, she would tell me, right? That would help me to not be so anxious all the time. I fucking hate leaving the house right now, but with the new kids in the Beta house and Courtney having her millionth son, needing Casey home with her, I’ve had to go to work more than I would like.

That’s another fucking thing making me anxious today. I have to go to the lumber camp closest to the mill and deal with an issue after the foreman got injured in an accident. Casey doesn’t know the business or how to deal with the complicated issues of running machinery, so he can’t do it, and Rick flew out to Seattle on an overnight trip to deal with a contract for the Alaska mines. Someone wanted to lease one of our more profitable plots for a few seasons and he needed to outline the terms in person.

Fuck, I don’t want to leave my mate today. Not with the anxious feeling that is overwhelming me. I feel like I just need to stay home with her. The need to lock her up in the clinic where nothing can happen to her keeps coming to me, but I already promised her I would stop doing that. I can't lock her up or threaten to tie her to the bed just to ease my own anxieties.

At least she hasn’t had an episode for 2 days now. They were getting really scary for a while there. She would look on the verge of death, like something was tearing her apart from the inside out for longer periods of time, and I could do nothing but watch and wait, holding her if I could until it passed, then hiding my stress and tears from her when they did. The last two days, though, there has been nothing. It’s like she’s back to normal. Katherine still mixes her that drink to keep her from getting sick around the clock, but other than that, Bailey is acting as she did when she was pregnant with Aly.

I watch from the kitchen for about 10 more minutes, sipping my coffee after our lunch as Bailey reads Aly a book about fairies she likes right now. I think it's called Thumbelina. I’ve watched the movie with her a thousand fucking times now and still can’t get on board with the singing frogs and little people living inside flowers. Cringy shit. I miss her Rapunzel phase. I could tolerate singing along with those songs in the car. I think Rapunzel was her favorite because of the horse. It was grumpy and named Maximus. Probably reminded her of my dad.

Aly, knowing the book by memory, takes it from Bailey at some point and starts telling her version of the story herself. It’s fucking adorable. I’m about to pull out my phone and take a picture, but before I can tear my eyes away from them to get my phone out of my back pocket to set it up, I see a weird look cross Bailey’s face that makes my anxiety levels rise.

She looks grieved. She is staring at our daughter with so much sorrow in her eyes that it scares me.

“Bailey?” I croaked out hoarsely, unable to hide the tension in my voice. She snaps out of whatever thought she was having, a radiant smile replacing her sorrowful expression.

“Yes?”

“What….. Um….,” I fight for something to say or ask. What was that look on her face? Did I imagine it? I’m not sure now. My anxiety and worry are reaching new peaks. Maybe I just imagined that look on her face. It's definitely not there anymore. She looks so happy and content, though a little confused right now.

She keeps telling me to trust her, promising me that I wouldn’t lose her, but why am I finding it so hard to trust those words right now?

“Are you okay?” she asks, her smile faltering.

“Fine!” I huffed out to prevent her from worrying. “I just, um, you looked like you might be hurting. I was worried.”

Her beautiful dimpled smile returns, and she tilts her head to the side and giggles. “I’m fine. No pain anywhere. You just worry too much.”

Fuck. Maybe I really did imagine it.

I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to go to this stupid job. What if I didn’t imagine it?

“Hey, what do you think about coming to the lumber camp with me? It’s a bit of a drive, but it could be like a road trip. We could eat somewhere on our way back?”

“Aww, I’d love to, but mom and I already promised to see my grandma today. She is making us dinner at her house.” She giggles, “That really means Dusty is cooking us dinner while she stands near and bosses him around. Chris and Dusty are a godsend when it comes to grandma. They handle her so well.”

I groaned. “Could you reschedule? Maybe do it tomorrow?”

She presses her lips together and shakes her head. “She’s making a pot roast. I’m sure she has already started. I don’t want to make her feel bad.”

Fuck. “Well, what if I just stayed home today instead?”

“Axel,” she laughed humorlessly, shaking her head, “what is wrong with you? You have a pack to run. You can’t skip work every day to hang out with me. I’ll be fine. Mom will be with me all day.”

“I will,” Katherine says, walking into the living room after getting a shower. She took a brief nap, which was very uncharacteristic for her. She seems to be worrying about something lately too, but I've caught her talking to Antonio a few times. She is probably just tired from dealing with his shit. I know I am. He was calling me daily to ask about her. He stopped doing it 4 days ago, thank the goddess.

She smiles at Bailey, then moves into the kitchen to get herself coffee laced with the blood she needs for the day. “You know she is safe with me.”

“I know,” I groan, “I just hate leaving.”

“Daddy go work?” Aly tilts her little head at me.

“I guess so,” I grumbled, walking over to crouch next to them.

“Aly hep-per wiff daddy?”

Bailey and I both chuckle at her innocent question.

“No, baby. Daddy has to work far away where there are no cookies or friends to play with. Wouldn’t you rather go to Grandma Lucy’s with me and Kiki?”

Aly has started calling Katherine 'Kiki' instead of Grandma Katherine. She loved the special nickname so much and that’s what Bailey is calling her to Aly now.

Aly thinks deeply, tilting her face to the side as she weighs her options, the edges of her tantrum still showing as she contemplates what to do.

“Aly get cookies?” she asks Bailey.

“Lots of cookies,” Bailey smiles, playfully nuzzling her nose into Aly’s neck and making her giggle.

“Yay, cookies!” She cheers. I’m a little sad she didn’t fight more to go with me. I was beat by fucking cookies.

“I can stop and buy-”

“Stop it,” Bailey cuts me off, sending me her adorable disapproving look. “You can’t work on a job site with a baby, Axel.”

I huffed, “I could try.”

“Nope. Go to work.” She runs her hand up my chest and grips the side of my neck, pulling me towards her for a kiss.

The kiss was innocent enough at first, but as her mouth moved with mine, I could almost taste her desperation for me on her lips. What started as a light peck deepened to a heated act of passion; one that had my heart racing and embarrassing moans leaving both of us.

“What was that?” I whisper breathlessly when she pulls away from me, resting her head on mine as she pants for air.

She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. It’s not her usual teasing grin. It almost seems….mournful. My heart plummets in my chest, my anxiety building once again. What the fuck is going on with her?

“I miss sex,” she ends up saying. I fucking do too, but I’m not fucking mourning over it. Is this just her pregnancy hormones? Fucking hell, this is driving me crazy.

Aly had wiggled away from us while we were kissing, going to Katherine in the kitchen, thankfully giving us a little bit of privacy. “That’s it? Bailey, I feel like something is wrong with you today. It makes me not want to leave at all.”

She smiles sadly, running a hand on my cheek and tracing my bottom lip with her thumb. “I’m just ready for my son to be home,” she confesses. “I’m fine. Everything is going to be fine.”

Fuck, I don’t know. I just don’t know what the fuck to think.

“I’ll try to hurry back,” is what I end up telling her.

“I know you will,” she grins, rubbing my lip a few more times and then leaning forward to kiss me again.

I helped her to her feet. How she got on the ground as pregnant as she is, I don’t know. She probably slid down from the couch. I said bye to both my girls, even offering a hug to Katherine, and as I was leaving out the door, Bailey yelled after me, “I love you, Axel. So much.”

I froze, searching her face for some other meaning. Why did she add the ‘so much’? She looks cheerful and back to normal now, but I’m still anxious.

“I love you too, baby.”

I’m going to make this the quickest fucking trip I can.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bailey POV

When Axel is gone, his truck no longer in sight on the main road, I breathe a sigh of relief.

“I still think you should have told him, Bailey,” my mom shook her head disapprovingly.

“I can’t. They showed me what would happen if I did. He would go behind my back and try to get Xiomara to find a way to sacrifice himself so this wouldn’t happen.”

“We could stop him,” she offered.

“No,” I shook my head. “The only one who could have stopped him would be his dad, and Max isn’t here. Axel goes crazy at the thought of losing me. He wouldn’t have acted rationally at all and no one is strong enough to stop him.”

That was what the goddess had been warning me about the past few nights. Our bond is strong. Too strong. With the past, me leaving him and going back to Levi when I was pregnant, then with Taegan being kidnapped years ago, and the thoughts and worries of losing me to the curse, Axel gets a little crazy when those worries come back to him. He would instinctively choose any other option that risked losing me. If I tell him, he will go straight to Xiomara and make her work to find a way to take my place. He will order the warriors to keep me prisoner in the clinic. It just won't work.

I’ve gone over this a million times already. This is the only way to keep my pack and mate safe.

“I talked to Felix,” mom tells me, sighing heavily from the burden I placed on her, “They will be at the border waiting, and Tony will be here at midnight as promised.”

“Good,” I smiled at Aly as she snuggled to my mom’s side, sipping on her juice. Juice that we will be continually feeding her throughout the rest of the day, laced with my blood. This was my only apprehension with all of this, but I am going to trust my son and the goddess to do as they said. “What about Phoebe?” I asked her.

“Addison will bring her. They will meet us at the falls. Addison will be guarding the girls while we hold off the rest of them.”

“Did she tell Stephanie?” I didn’t want to tell her to lie to her mate, but I knew Stephanie would be in a blind frenzy with the rest of the pack to save me, and she would have been obligated to tell Axel what was going on.

“No. I told her this was to save you, Aly and Phoebe. I think she was apprehensive until I said this would save Phoebe too. She’s all in. She’s not telling her mate for the reasons you said. She said she knows Stephanie will forgive her in the end.”

I hope Stephanie forgives me as well. This is going to be the longest day of my life. I reached out for Aly and she came right to me, sipping away at her juice. I have been trying to get as many cuddles and love from her as I can. I held her tightly against me, smelling her baby curls and Axel's scent still lingering in them.

Please, Axel, forgive me. I'm doing this for you. For our pack. I pray when this is all over, you understand.

“We should get ready for grandma’s,” I told my mom.

“Yeah,” she sighed, “Let’s go.”

Mom is exhausted. She is the one that snuck into the lumber camp last night and sabotaged all the machines. Her time working at the mining camp when she was much younger was a huge help for her to get it done without anyone finding out. She said that Axel would have to be there late into the night getting everything working again.

It’s a critical time for the lumber yards, so procrastinating on these repairs could cost the pack millions. Axel couldn’t skip work today, no matter how much he wanted to. I was scared he was going to try and find a way out of going, but there wasn’t one. Not with Rick gone. Casey can do minor fixes, but he didn’t intern in the mining and lumber camps and do the mechanics schooling that the Alpha and Beta always do to be able to run all aspects of the pack businesses. Gammas are in charge of the warriors here, so he never needed to.

Axel was the only one who could go today.

When we get to my grandma’s, I urge mom to go take a nap while I hang out with my grandma and the boys cook. Dusty and Chris treat my grandma like their own grandmother now, so watching the banter between the three of them is always entertaining. Grandma and I sit and talk by her back porch sliding door so she can still see the warrior center. Her favorite pastime is still watching the warriors, and Aly helps Dusty make cookies.

I have to be careful about feeding Aly the juice in front of them. I’m sure they would be able to detect my blood in the mix. When mom wakes up from her nap, she makes the excuse of going to check on Max’s house, taking Aly with her to give her the juice she needs to drink then. She needs my blood in her entire system before tonight. Taegan said that was going to connect her to me.

Werewolves' sense of smell is no joke. The boys would have picked up on it and that could have caused all kinds of issues.

We eat a late dinner when mom and Aly get back, then leave my grandma to rest, our visit exhausting her quite a bit.

The weight of what is to come starts pressing on me when we walk back to my house. Mom is already carrying Aly, but she ends up helping to support my weight too. When we get home, I plop down on the couch, rubbing my belly while my phone goes off in my pocket. I know it's going to be Axel.

This isn’t the normal curse pain. I would already be screaming if it was. I haven’t felt that in a few days. This is different. It’s like the full weight of the curse is starting to fall upon me. I feel the burden of generations before me, the responsibility to take the brunt of the consequences that led to a species being able to thrive for so long. This is the weight Rieka and her daughter took upon themselves to save their people. The burden on Rieka's daughters ended with their death. This makes me wonder how much Rieka has had to suffer throughout the centuries. Does she feel this infinite weight all the time?

The weight of carrying twins is nothing compared to the weight I’m feeling now. It hurts on an emotional level.

“Bailey,” mom whispered, crouching on the floor in front of me. “You need to answer that phone. If you don’t, he will come home too soon.”

I know. I know that if he comes home early, all will be for not. I will be consumed by the curse, he won't let our son do what needs to be done to bring me back, and Axel will never forgive me.

I take several deep, steadying breaths, trying to slow my heart rate and tame my emotions. When my phone is about to quit ringing for the third time, I’m finally ready to answer.

“Hello?” I tried to sound cheerful.

“What the fuck? Why didn’t you answer?” Axel growled, anxiety laced in his voice.

“Sorry. We just got back from grandma’s. I was having a hard time waddling so mom had to help carry me. I couldn’t get to my phone.”

“Shit,” he exhaled tiredly. “Fuck, Bailey. I thought the worst. You….you felt weird in the bond.”

“Nope,” I force a giggle, “Just tired. I think I’m going to wash up and go to bed. Grandma kept us later than I thought she would.”

“Hmm,” Axel still sounded apprehensive on the phone line. “Okay. I still have a few more hours here. Someone destroyed the internal structure of all the machines. We tried to find the mechanic responsible but couldn’t, and now are having to take them apart and rebuild them from fucking scratch. It may be really late, maybe even early morning, when I get back.”

I smiled weakly, still trying to fight the distress the curse was placing on me. “Be careful,” I whispered. “I’ll be here waiting.”

“Okay, baby,” he says, then someone yells at him in the background. “I love you,” he quickly tells me.

“I love you too. Bye, Axel.”

I leaned back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling with dread of what was to come. Dread for myself as well as my daughters. If this doesn’t go exactly as Taegan and the goddess instructed, my life is over, as well as the two babies inside me. Aly may survive for now, but both her and Phoebe will be doomed.

“I’m going to get Aly ready,” Mom tells me, getting up from the floor and rubbing my knee. She goes to fetch my daughter from her ball pit in the corner of the room, then takes her back to bathe and dress in warm layers since we will be outside for a while.

I look at the clock. 3 hours. 3 hours until my death.

The curse presses down on me more and more as the time draws closer. It’s suffocating, the weight of centuries of the women in my family dying to satisfy the acts of the first werewolves and the moon goddess herself. It’s like the pressure of drowning, unable to take a breath or find the surface as you fight for your life. It makes death seem like the only possible escape.

“Bailey?” I heard my mom’s voice through the fog of my pain. Her voice is quickly drowned out by an ear-piercing scream.

I struggle to open my eyes, to see where the scream is coming from, and then I realize it is coming from me.

The pressure inside me is tearing me apart, my very soul crumpling along with all my reason and control. My lungs are burning, my body on fire, the curse doing its job and consuming my essence and the life growing inside me.

It’s time. It won’t be too much longer. I bet Axel is already racing back home.

The fire breaks across my skin, cool arms sliding underneath me. I can distantly hear a muffled conversation, but making out the voices around me becomes impossible. I can’t focus on anything but the pain tearing me apart.

This is it. This is how everything is going to end, so it can start again.