Chapter 201
Kara
"No buts." I tried to smile, but it came out watery and wrong. "You've got ten years of being my dad to make up for. Can't do that if you don't heal first."
Something that might have been a laugh escaped him, turning into a cough halfway through. "When did you get so bossy?"
"When I had to raise myself for a decade," I said before I could stop myself. The words came out sharper than I'd intended, edged with bitterness I hadn't realized I was carrying.
Connor's face crumpled. "Kara—"
"I said later." But I squeezed his hand, trying to soften the blow. "I'm not—I'm not trying to hurt you. I just... I can't do this right now. Can't do the whole tearful reunion and explanation thing. I'm too tired and too scared and too—" My voice broke. "Too afraid that if I close my eyes, you'll disappear again."
"We won't." Celeste's voice made me jump. Her eyes were open now, fixed on me with an intensity that made my breath catch. "We won't disappear, baby. Never again. I swear it."
"You can't promise that." The words came out flat, emotionless. Some distant part of me recognized that I was going into shock, that the adrenaline crash was hitting me hard. "Diana's still out there. The Court is still out there. You can't promise—"
"Then we'll promise this," Asher said, his Alpha voice cutting through my spiraling panic. "We won't let anyone take you again. We won't let Diana or the Court or anyone else touch you or your parents. That's a promise we can keep."
I turned to look at him, this Alpha who'd once been my worst tormentor and was now willing to declare war on an ancient organization for my sake. His face was set in lines of absolute determination, and through our bond I felt the steel core of his conviction.
He means it, I realized. They all mean it. They'd burn the world down before they'd let me be taken again.
The thought should have terrified me. Should have made me recoil from the possessive intensity of their devotion.
Instead, it made me feel safe.
"Okay," I whispered, so quietly I wasn't sure anyone heard. "Okay."
Celeste's hand tightened weakly around mine. "These are your mates?" Her eyes tracked to the three Alphas positioned around me like a living shield. "All three of them?"
"Triplets," I confirmed, my voice steadier now. "They share the mate bond with me. It's... complicated."
"Complicated," she echoed, and something that might have been a smile flickered across her exhausted face. "Our daughter has three Alpha mates. Connor, did you hear that? Our baby has three Alphas."
Connor managed a weak laugh. "I heard. And they look like they want to murder anyone who looks at her wrong, so that's... that's good. That's what she needs."
"We'll protect her," Blake said, his voice carrying an edge of challenge. Like he expected my parents to object, to tell him he wasn't good enough, that none of them were. "With our lives if necessary."
"I can see that." Celeste's eyes drifted to where Blake's hand rested possessively on my shoulder, to the way Cole hovered close enough to catch me if I fell, to Asher's protective stance blocking the door. "And the baby?"
The question hung in the air like a grenade with the pin pulled. I felt my Alphas tense, felt their combined anxiety spike through our bond.
This is it, I thought. The moment where they either accept this or reject it. Accept me or—
"I'm pregnant," I said, lifting my chin in defiance of fears I couldn't quite name. " It's theirs. All three of them. And before you say anything, I'm keeping it. Them. Whatever. I'm keeping this baby."
The silence that followed felt like it lasted a year.
Then Connor started laughing. It was a broken, painful sound that turned into a cough halfway through, but it was laughter. "Our baby girl," he wheezed, "is having a baby of her own. With three Alphas. Jesus Christ, Celeste, we missed everything."
"Not everything," I said fiercely, surprised by the vehemence in my own voice. "You're here now. You'll be here for this baby. For everything that comes next. You have to be."
Because I can't do this alone, I didn't say. Because I'm eighteen and pregnant and mated to three Alphas who I'm still not entirely sure won't wake up one day and remember they used to hate me. Because I'm terrified and I need my parents even though they abandoned me and I don't know how to reconcile those two truths.
Celeste was crying openly now, tears streaming down her hollow cheeks. "We don't deserve—after what we put you through—"
"You were trapped in snake bodies for ten years," I interrupted, my voice harder than I'd intended. The bitterness I'd been trying to suppress came flooding out, ten years of abandonment crystallizing into sharp-edged words. "You were tortured and imprisoned and forced to watch your own lives be stolen. Whatever you think you deserve, I think you've paid enough. More than enough."
Unlike me, I thought but didn't say. Unlike me, who got to grow up in a mansion with food and shelter and education, even if I had to earn it with blood and tears and endless labor.
The guilt of that thought made me nauseous. How could I compare my suffering to theirs? They'd been conscious prisoners in animal bodies for a decade. I'd just been... unwanted. Unloved. Used.
Just, my wolf snarled. As if that's somehow less.
"Kara—" Connor started, but I shook my head.
"No. I'm done with guilt and blame and 'what ifs.'" The words came out steadier than I felt, like I was reading from a script someone else had written. "You're alive. I'm alive. We have a chance to actually be a family, and I'm not wasting it on apologies for things that are already done."
Liar, whispered a voice in the back of my head. You're going to spend years unpacking this. Years trying to reconcile the parents who loved you with the parents who left you. Years wondering if they really had a choice or if they just took the easy way out.
But that was future-Kara's problem. Present-Kara just needed to get through the next five minutes without falling apart.
Through our bond, I felt my Alphas' surprise at my vehemence, their pride in my strength. Blake's hand found my shoulder, squeezing gently, and I leaned back into his solid warmth.
They're proud of you, my wolf preened. Our mates think we're strong.
Our mates are delusional, I sent back, but there was no heat in it.
The nurse cleared her throat pointedly. "Ms. Sterling really does need to be examined. The pregnancy, the stress she's been under—we need to make sure everything's okay."