by Juniper Hart
“Ah, and that is likely very true, my dear,” Jett said. “That is why I am telling you to get away from him. I will offer you a very generous allowance, but you must leave Paris, never to return, and you must leave Cruz alone. You will not contact him, you will not sneak around to see him.”
“You can’t buy me off,” Sage snorted, jumping up again. A wave of dizziness flashed through her. “My child deserves a father. What you are proposing is cruel, not only to the baby, but to your own son!” Spots began to dance before her eyes, and a wooziness sickened her, causing her to fall backward.
Dammit, he drugged me again! she thought furiously, opening her mouth to scream. Nothing came out, and a set of strong hands pushed her gently onto the seat.
“I suspected you might say something like that,” Jett replied amicably. “So, I will offer you something to sweeten the deal. I am going to make you an offer you cannot refuse.”
A knife pressed firmly against Sage’s swollen stomach, and one of the bodyguards leered down at her with crooked teeth. Fear spilled through her body, and she struggled to wriggle away, but she was too weak. Sage gargled as she began to lose consciousness.
“You will leave Paris and never contact Cruz again,” Jett snarled, “or I will kill your bastard while you watch. Do you understand me?”
Although blackness closed in around Sage’s head, she found herself nodding.
“Do not think you can attempt to contact my son through any means, because I will know. I own Cruz, and I have eyes everywhere. Be smart, my dear, and think about what is more important. The life of your child, or a rendezvous with a man who is getting married in two days?”
Married? Sage thought in horror. He’s getting married? Why didn’t he tell me that?
“Oh!” Jett laughed. “I can tell by your face you didn’t know about his fiancée. Yes, she is a good girl from a good family. Her children will be true to the bloodline and ensure our pack continues strongly and without the taint of your genes.”
Sage succumbed to the sweeping darkness, tears slipping down her cheeks as she fell into unconsciousness. When she woke, she was back in New York City.
“Mama, I do not understand. Why am I required to return home tomorrow? I just got home from the United States.” Cruz sighed heavily into the phone, wishing his mother was not monopolizing his minimal time with Sage.
“I know, Cruz, but there are last-minute plans to be made for the wedding.”
Cruz cleared his throat, walking through Sage’s flat. She was not home, and he was bothered by that fact for some reason he could not quite understand. It wasn’t as though she answered to him, and she could certainly take care of herself. Still, Cruz couldn’t shake the unsettled sense he was feeling in his gut.
“Mama, I am not marrying Kalyn. I thought I made that very clear already.” There was a long silence. Guilt touched Cruz. He didn’t want to put his mother in the middle of it, but he couldn’t live the lie anymore. “Mama, I know you are disappointed, but I am in love with someone else. I… We are going to have a baby.”
“I know,” she told him quietly, and Cruz felt the hairs on his arms stand up.
“What?” he asked, laughing in disbelief.
“I know,” Ara said again, her voice flat.
“How did you know?” he whispered. If his mother knew, that meant that his father did, too. Terror flashed through him as he realized the implications of Jett having that knowledge.
“You must trust me and come home tomorrow, Cruz. The girl is gone. You have no choice but to marry Kalyn.”
“What do you mean, the girl is gone!” Cruz screamed. “What did he do?”
“Nothing, son, nothing. She is safe, but she has been warned not to contact you. If you try to find her, Cruz, you will be putting her in great danger. You know that. You know what your father is capable of.”
Cruz sank onto the sofa and stared at the ceiling. He has won again. There is no way out of this. I am forever trapped in this life as a puppet, run by a power-hungry giant.
“Cruz, are you there?”
“Yes, Mama. I will be home tomorrow.”
“I am sending a private jet for you,” Ara told him.
“I can fly commercial.”
“I have already sent it out. Your father’s orders.”
Dayna stroked Sage’s hair as she sobbed.
“I should have known it would turn out like this!” she wailed. “How else could it have gone? What stupid dream was I living in?”
“No, you couldn’t have known,” Dayna murmured with uncharacteristic tenderness. “And that bastard should have told you he was getting married.”
“Yeah. That would have gone over really well,” Sage sniffled. “I would have been over the moon to hear that.” Dayna sighed and dropped her head closer to Sage’s.
“You will be okay. You had intended to do this alone, anyway. You and Bean will be fine. I am here for you.” Sage wiped her face with her palms and sat up.
“You’re right,” she agreed, even though the heaviness in her heart weighed her down. “I can’t sit here wallowing. I have to think of Bean.” In the background, Dayna’s television was playing the news, and Sage stared blankly at the screen.
He deserves to know I did not just leave with our child, she thought. He needs to know that his father is a monster who has no qualms about threatening the life of his own grandchild.
But Sage knew that Cruz was aware of this already. He had known all along how this would play out. And he was getting married. There had never been a future for them. Cruz had recognized that even before Sage had had a clue. She had to go on with her life as if he had never existed. She owed that to herself and to her baby.
“Sage! Are you seeing this?”
She looked at Dayna, who pointed at the television set. The dark-haired beauty grabbed the remote control and turned up the volume.
“—search and rescue teams have not found any survivors. They continue to scour the wreckage in the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Italy. According to flight logs, he was the only passenger onboard, along with the pilot and a one-person flight crew.”
Sage looked at Dayna, her eyebrow arched.
“Who crashed?” she asked dully. She figured Dayna was trying to distract her from her self-pity, but it wasn’t working.
Why do I give a shit about some celebrity plane crash? she almost yelled at her best friend, only to be stopped by Dayna’s pale face.
“They are saying it was Cruz, Sage,” she whispered. “It looks like Cruz was on that plane.”
17
It was Christmas Eve, and Sage had forced herself to join her father and Angelique for dinner. She was already regretting the decision as her father’s new wife criticized her appearance.
“Just because you are pregnant does not mean you should let yourself go,” she told Sage. Sage scowled at the bottled blonde.
What the hell does she know about being pregnant? She has no kids of her own.
“Daddy, I am not feeling well,” Sage announced. “The kid is coming any day, and I think I should go home. I’d feel better being closer to the hospital.”
“I’ll drive you home, honey,” David offered, but Sage shook her head. He was already seven beers in and going strong. Bear or not, she wasn’t risking a car accident with this guy.
“No,” she replied. “I’ll take the train.” She knew the ride would help to clear her head. Or at least, that was her hope.
Over the past months, she had found a small apartment near Central Park. Jett’s money had continued to come through, but every time Sage made a withdrawal, she felt sick to her stomach. None of the bodies from the plane crash had been recovered, and slowly, hope that Cruz would ever be found began to fade away.
She huddled against the bitter December cold and made her way through New Jersey toward home. Bean was unusually restless, and Sage knew that the baby was gearing up to be born. New Year’s Eve was her bet. Her child would be born on New Year’s
Eve, and they would start the new year fresh.
She rubbed the child to soothe its ninja kicks and closed her eyes, allowing the flashbacks to wash over her as they always did, the lull of the train hypnotizing her. She could see Cruz’s face clearly in each image: dinner at Kavari, making love in every room in Paris, the selfie they had taken at the Louvre, his face when he saw her pregnant belly, and the way he looked into her eyes. Would they have found a way, or would it have been slow torture? Their child would have grown up without a father, anyway. It was for the best. Now Cruz was not trapped in a life he had not wanted, and Sage’s baby was safe.
It did not diminish the pain.
She stepped off the train at her stop and made her way toward her apartment, barely noticing the bite in the air.
It’s just you and me, kid, she told Bean, pulling out her keys. Merry Christmas.
There was a homeless man in the hallway near her door, and Sage halted. It was odd to see a hobo inside the building. He was not bothering anybody, though, and it was cold outside. She sidestepped him, careful not to wake him, and he started, looking up at her with wild eyes. Sage’s heart began to thump.
“Cruz?” she whispered, and the man jumped to his feet. Sage shook her head. It wasn’t Cruz, of course, but as he rushed away, she could not help feeling that she knew the man. Her heart was racing, and she wondered if she was losing her mind.
It was never going to get any easier. No matter how much time went by, no matter how much she tried to let him go, things would never get easier. She would still see him everywhere, in every homeless person. Sighing guiltily, she unlocked the door to her apartment and let herself inside.
I didn’t mean to scare you off, buddy, she thought. You just look like someone I was very much in love with once.
Sage turned on the lights and sat at the kitchen table, breathing deeply. Suddenly, a stab of pain bolted through her stomach and into her crotch.
“Oh, come on, Bean, I just got home!” she cried, rising to her feet. She waited, but another contraction did not follow. She picked up her cell to call Dayna. Before she could dial, there was a knock at the door. “Great,” she breathed, stumbling toward the door as the baby wrestled inside her womb furiously. Sage peered out into the hall through the peephole, her brow furrowing. “Who is it?” she gasped through bouts of pain.
“Sage Aubin?” came the deep voice associated with the ambling giant outside.
“Yes?” she breathed. Suddenly, the pain in her gut subsided.
“Can you open the door, please? I have some information on your boyfriend, Cruz Reyes.”
Blood drained from her face, and without preamble, Sage threw open the door and gaped at the stranger in the hallway. Instantly, she realized her mistake. As if in slow motion, the giant advanced toward her, his crystalline blue eyes twisting into a myriad of bizarre colors.
“Do you know who I am?” he hissed, kicking the door closed behind him as Sage backed away from the threshold.
“No,” she rasped. “But if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get out.” She tried to keep her voice steady, but it was impossible in her fear. Slowly, her body began to shift into protection mode.
“Oh, that won’t save you,” the man said, closing the distance between them. There was a wild pounding on the door, and Sage heard her name screamed out, even though everything was happening at warp speed. “I’m Helios,” the man laughed, baring his teeth. “And since your lover is dead, I’ve come to claim you in his place.”
Sage’s body expanded, and as she morphed, another stab of pain drove into her gut.
“Get out!” she growled, gnashing at him. “I’m pregnant, you animal!”
“Even better,” the demon snarled, closing the distance between them as more noise ensued at the door.
“SAGE! SAGE!”
In her shifter haze, Sage thought she recognized the voice calling her, but she was in a battle for her child’s life and her own. She jumped back when Helios lunged at her, narrowly missing her neck as he moved, and she batted at him with an enraged paw.
“Feisty,” he chuckled, pouncing again. This time, he landed her on her back and straddled her from above. “I can see why he liked you.”
The door flew open, catching both of them by surprise. It still wasn’t enough to stop Helios from what he was doing, even as his eyes widened in shock. A cruel but happy smile curled onto his lips, matching Sage’s.
“Well,” he breathed. “I got my wish after all.” Without another word, he dropped his head and sank his long, pixilated fangs into her throat, and the poison from his bite instantly seeped into her. Then Helios jumped from her, leaving her with a view of the doorway.
Through blurring eyes, she saw the homeless man standing with another man…
“Cruz?” Sage gasped, but her voice was weak, and she was losing consciousness. Although death would find her in minutes, in that strange moment, she was happy.
“You killed my mate, Cruz Reyes, and now I’ve killed yours. Watch her die just as I watched Carina.” Helios’ voice faded away as life began to slip from Sage’s body, her frame shifting back into her pregnant, mortal form.
“SHE’S DYING!” she heard Cruz scream. “Help her!”
Cruz is alive, she thought as she drifted off into blackness. Did you see, Bean? Your papa came to say goodbye to us.
The flashing was incessant and fearsome, the ringing in her ears even worse. Sage raised a hand to wave it all away, but something was holding her hand down.
“Bean?” she mumbled. “Bean, is that you?” She heard her voice, but somehow, she couldn’t feel her lips moving.
“She’s awake! Doctor, she’s awake!” Painfully, she tried to pry her lids apart, and when they finally opened, she found herself staring at Cruz.
“Is this where we go when we die?” she whispered, staring up at his face. “Did our baby make it?”
Relief and disbelief colored his face, which he buried against her chest.
“How is this happening?” he cried, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you’re alive. He bit you! He bit you both!”
Suddenly, Sage struggled to sit up as she looked at her stomach.
“MY BABY!” she screamed, realizing that she was no longer carrying the weight in her stomach. “Where’s Bean?”
“She’s fine,” Cruz rasped, kissing her face. “You went into early labor because of the demon bite, but Bean is fine. She’s healthy. She’s fine, I promise.”
Sage shook her head.
“You’re alive!” she breathed, trying to make sense of everything that was happening. “How? What?” He nodded and smiled through a sea of tears.
“It’s some kind of fluke or miracle,” he choked. “No bear has ever survived a demon bite.”
Someone cleared his throat from behind them, and Sage strained her neck to look. The same homeless man she had seen in her hallway stood there, seeming uncomfortable and embarrassed.
“I think I know why she was impervious to the demon bite, Cruz, and why you will be, too.”
Sage didn’t ask who the man was, since there were already far too many questions racing through her mind.
“What do you think?” Cruz demanded. “Because I was sure I’d lost both of them.”
“The aranium from the sword,” the stranger explained. “You’ve had it for so long. The particles must have fused to your DNA, creating some kind of antibody to the demon bite. I suspect that the baby carried the same antibody into Sage’s bloodstream.”
Sage was dumbfounded by the information, still too confused to make heads or tails of what she had just learned.
“Where is my baby?” she demanded again, managing to sit up this time with Cruz’s help. She was in an Enchanted hospital, and when she looked around the room, she saw a small cot. “Is that her?” she breathed, looking at Cruz. “May I hold her? Please?”
“Yes! Yes, of course.” He hurried to oblige her, placing the sweet-faced infant laden in pink into her arm
s and brushing the matted red hair out of her eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered, raising her head to meet Cruz’s eyes. “You’re here? And who is that?” Cruz stroked her cheek lovingly and nodded.
“I’m here,” he conceded. “And that…” He turned and smiled at the scraggly looking stranger. “That is my brother, Matin.”
18
Three Months Ago
The jet was waiting at the private airport in Paris, and Cruz slowly walked toward it as if he were facing his own execution. They had dodged one bullet, but as always, another one waited.
He would find a way to stop Jett. He couldn’t control him forever, or he would die. There must be some way to gain leverage on him, some way to have his father leave him in peace.
But as Cruz headed up the stairs and into the cabin, he knew his child would be an adult with children of his own before Jett Reyes was brought to his knees.
He would never watch his own child grow up, under the thumb of others. There was no escape from this. Cruz had to accept his fate. He would marry Kalyn and become the son the sheik wished him to be. He should have never dragged Sage into his sordid life. It was his fault he had not walked away from her, and now he had ruined her life and created insecurity for their child.
“Hello, brother.”
Cruz’s head whipped up, and he looked at his dead twin.
“You…” His voice caught, and he embraced Matin. “What are you doing here? How are you here?”
“Mama called and said you might need the kind of help she offered me.” Cruz stared at his brother uncomprehendingly. “Here,” Matin told him, tossing a parachute pack at him. “You’re going to need this.”
Present Day
Sage stared at him in disbelief.
“You staged your own deaths?” she choked. “And you didn’t call me? Again?”
“I couldn’t risk it, Sage,” Cruz told her tenderly. “I knew that my father would be skeptical about both of us dying, and he was probably watching you. I needed to make sure enough time had passed and you weren’t being watched. That’s why I had Matin come to see you first, to ensure you weren’t being followed. Trust me, I wanted to come to you as soon as I could, but he insisted I wait.”
