The Fifth Moon's Lovers (The Fifth Moon's Tales Book 3)

by Monica La Porta

  Her son had projected the same sequence of frantic emotions a few times, and her brain kept translating them into that sentence.

  The medicus talked again, interrupting Valentine.

  Only Papa.

  “Now—” Mirella remembered to say when the next ripping pain tore her from the inside out.

  The large form of the medicus towered over her. “Getting closer.” He patted her arm. “How would you like a soothing bath?”

  Only Papa.

  Her son’s voice was getting louder and louder in her mind.

  “Yes.” Mirella thought she had answered Balenus’s question, but she wasn’t sure until Valentine gathered her in his strong embrace and brought her to the bathroom, then gently lowered her into the warm water.

  The scent of red lavender permeated the air and Valentine’s hands massaged her scalp, then her neck, her shoulders, her back, her arms, then he resumed the soothing motion from her head down.

  Papa

  Papa

  Papa!

  Mirella felt her son’s frustration. “Baby’s calling you,” she whispered to Valentine when he leaned closer to caress her hair out of the way.

  His hand stilled, and he frowned. “I can’t hear him.”

  Another strong cramp seized her body, and she automatically reached for Valentine’s arm, grabbing fabric and flesh and holding tight until the wave of pain ebbed and left her breathless.

  During the fleeting moment when she wasn’t in agony, clarity of mind plagued her, reminding her of her reality. She wouldn’t survive to see her baby. The physical torture she was enduring was nothing compared to the anguish of her shattered heart. All the love, all the beautiful moments shared with Valentine would be no more soon. Darkness engulfed her, stealing her breath, pressing against her chest, grinding her hopes to a bleeding pulp. There wouldn’t a happily ever after for her. A sob escaped her mouth.

  “She’s cold.” She heard Valentine say as he raised her from the tub and dried her with a soft towel.

  Mama, good.

  Only Papa.

  A stronger spasm hit her while Valentine was carrying her to their bed. The contraction felt like a slashing knife, and for a moment she was lost in a black void that sucked her in, deeper and deeper.

  “Mirella!” Valentine called, pulling her back to him.

  She opened her eyes and stared into his hazel ones.

  He was so beautiful; she liked everything about him. His straight nose. His full lips. His masculine jaw, forever dusted with a dark-blond shadow no matter how many times he shaved his beard. His strength. His temper. His tenderness.

  Spasms controlled her body. One after the other. She couldn’t tell time any longer and didn’t know how long passed between her contractions. Fatigue and pain soon consumed her thoughts entirely, and she fought to remain conscious, desperate to keep her connection with Valentine as long as possible, afraid that if she let go, she would forever lose him. Struggling, she focused on the warmth of his arms around her. His lips gently brushing her tears away. His warmth enveloping her like a blanket.

  His voice that could be hard and yet was soft for her, only for her, calling, “Come back to me.”

  How long had passed since the grotto? They had made love. She remembered that. Her heart swelled as the recent images played in her mind.

  Life could be heartbreakingly beautiful.

  Her body contracted once again. She gathered all her strength in one final sentence.

  “I love you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Kitten!” Valentine hugged her tight, raising her head.

  Mirella collapsed in his arms after her last contraction seized her. Her “I love you” was the softest of whispers, and yet it had pierced his ears louder than a scream.

  A soft knock startled him.

  From the door, Aldo said, “Master Lobo, Master Martelli and the High Lord are back.”

  “Did they bring the equipment?” Valentine asked.

  “As you ordered,” Gabriel’s voice echoed from outside. “But—”

  “Come in.” Valentine didn’t want anyone inside the bedroom, but he wouldn’t leave Mirella alone.

  Heavy-booted steps announced the large Solarian alongside the vampire, but Dragon and Gabriel stopped at the door without entering, their eyes lingering for a moment on Mirella.

  “The High Priest has followed us. He will be here soon,” Gabriel said.

  Valentine wasn’t surprised; he had expected as much from the clergyman. He turned toward Aldo. “Where is my head guard?”

  “He went to Adris, but he should be coming back any moment now,” the majordomo said.

  Mirella cried softly in Valentine’s arms. Her eyes were moving fast under her eyelids, and her mouth was quivering as if she was talking, but no sound could be heard. “Don’t let the High Priest in,” he said, looking from Gabriel to Dragon, and then to Aldo.

  Visibly bristled by Valentine’s request, Balenus stood. “You can’t—”

  Valentine’s wolf roared, its anger filling the room.

  Dragon positioned himself inside the doorframe, barring anyone’s entrance.

  Gabriel nodded, then after a moment of hesitation asked, “Where do you want the equipment?”

  “Here.” Valentine pointed his chin to the large area between the bed and the fireplace. “Aldo, have the furniture moved.”

  Within five minutes, the bedroom was invaded by a storm of servants who rearranged the room and placed the equipment in place of the sofas and coffee tables facing the fireplace. Led by Balenus, they positioned a high bed with stirrups in the middle of the area, and a transparent crib close by. The crib was attached to a machine by copper pipes, and it hummed, its soft covering raising and lowering as if it was breathing. A square box on wheels was pushed at the other side of the bed, while a rectangular piece of equipment was dragged behind its frame. Transparent tubes connected the machines to a central generator, and the bedroom was soon illuminated by the white and blue lights emanated by screens and dials covering every surface. While all arguing had ceased, whirring and clicking took the place of words when a satisfied Balenus dismissed the servants.

  “Do you need anything else?” Dragon asked, talking to Valentine.

  “Look for Martali,” he said to the Solarian. Then he turned to Gabriel. “Tell Mama Bee I want her here.”

  “There’s no need to call the midwife,” Balenus interjected, but seeing Valentine’s stormy expression raised his hands to the side in surrender.

  As both Dragon and Gabriel left, the medicus addressed Valentine again. “Take her to the high bed where I can examine her.”

  A noisy commotion ensued in the antechamber.

  “Aldo, take a look,” Valentine said as he transported Mirella over to the high bed.

  A moment later, Aldo’s angry voice could be heard above others. “You can’t enter the master bedroom!” he said.

  Valentine turned his gaze to the door as it was pushed open.

  The stately figure of the High Priest filled the frame. “You forget yourself—” he spat over his shoulder at Aldo.

  “I am a servant of House Lobo and only answer to its master.” Aldo walked in, outrage written all over his face.

  “And it’s my sacred duty to witness the birth of House Lobo’s heir,” the High Priest proclaimed, then reached Balenus who was standing by the high bed.

  “Get out.” Valentine’s growl prevented the High Priest from stepping any closer to Mirella.

  “I am the High Priest!” the man said, shocked. “You are the one who shouldn’t be here.”

  “You can’t stop him from witnessing—” Balenus started.

  Valentine’s wolf howled, fangs lengthening inside Valentine’s mouth, hair standing up on his skin. He felt his limbs stretch. Both the medicus and the clergyman paled.

  “Out,” Valentine repeated, his voice more animal than human.

  When the man didn’t move, but stood frozen by Balenus,
Valentine advanced. For every step Valentine took, the High Priest backed, retracing toward the door, until he was outside the bedroom.

  “I must be with the Blessed Bride. It’s my duty!” It was a feeble attempt, but the High Priest tried to reenter the room, only to have the door slammed in his face.

  When Valentine turned, he saw one of the ancillae pass a syringe to Balenus. The moment the medicus lowered the needle to Mirella’s belly, Valentine’s wolf went crazy in his head, forcing the loudest bellow yet out of his mouth. Both the ancillae cowered to the corner, but after the first moment of surprise, the medicus resumed his action and made to press the plunger.

  Led by his wolf’s rage, Valentine lunged at Balenus and slapped the syringe away before the medicus could depress the content.

  “What is it?” Panting, Valentine pointed at the smashed syringe on the floor.

  A blue, viscous liquid bloomed among the shards of glass.

  “She’s barely conscious and can’t push. I need to operate, or we’ll lose both your bride and your son,” Balenus answered.

  Valentine’s wolf roared louder. “You are lying,” he said, and his wolf calmed.

  Balenus moved toward his bag by one of the machines. “There’s no time. Your son is ready to be born but won’t survive if you don’t let me do my job.”

  Fury mounted Valentine as his wolf barked, demanding he tear the medicus to pieces.

  “Don’t touch it.” Valentine reached the bag before the medicus and grabbed its handles. “What was inside the syringe?”

  “Sedative.”

  “Liar.” Valentine opened the satchel and found another vial with the same blue liquid. “If I shoot you with this, will you go to sleep?”

  Balenus eyed the vial, in his gaze fear. “Sure, but that would be a very stupid thing to do. I would be incapacitated to help, and that’s the only vial left. Your son needs it. No sense in risking his life to make a point.”

  Valentine’s wolf reared, ready to attack. Following his instinct, Valentine threw the second vial to the floor, then stomped on it with his boot.

  “You’ve just killed your son,” Balenus said, inching toward the door, followed by the ancillae.

  Valentine moved in front of the medicus. “You are not going anywhere.”

  “Let me pass.” Balenus looked over Valentine’s shoulder.

  A loud thump reverberated inside the bedroom, and a moment later the door slammed against the wall, letting in the room five of House Lobo’s guards.

  “Detain Doc Balenus,” Valentine ordered, reserving for later the lashing out his guards deserved for bursting in.

  But his men didn’t act on his command. Instead, they turned to Balenus. Valentine’s wolf barked, while the medicus’s expression transformed from strained to exultant.

  One of the guards stepped forward, then bowed to Balenus, bringing his right hand to his heart. “What are your orders, Leader?”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  At hearing the man’s words of betrayal, rage possessed Valentine.

  The horrifying truth unveiled before his eyes, punching him in the gut, but shock didn’t have time to enter his system. His wolf’s fury encompassed him first. His sight blurred into a red haze, and his ears rung with the rush of his burning blood.

  “You—” Valentine’s holler rattled the windows’ panes. He moved toward Balenus, but the faintest moan rose from the bed, immediately redirecting his focus.

  “Now,” Balenus whispered to the guard who had spoken.

  The man reached for the gun in his holster. His hand wasn’t stable, and the weapon trembled, changing aim at every shaky breath the man took.

  Fear for Mirella and their unborn child propelled his body as his wolf pawed at its mental cage. Snarling, Valentine attacked the guard. The man was on the ground before he could depress the trigger. Valentine’s fists broke flesh and bones.

  Balenus prompted the other guards forward. Two of the men moved toward Valentine, while the remaining two veered toward the bed.

  In a whirlwind of punches and kicks, Valentine kept the assailants and Balenus from coming near Mirella. They threatened his mate and would die for it.

  “Stop him!” the medicus shouted, his sight lingering on the bed before reaching inside one of his vest pockets from which he extracted a scalpel.

  The sight of the sharp knife in the medicus’s hand unhinged the wolf that finally broke free from Valentine’s mind, triggering his shifting. His humanity crumbled away like a long lost memory. In a gruesome display of cracking bones and snapping ligaments, Valentine’s body rearranged organs and limbs, while thick fur covered his skin. His vicious snarls silenced the guards’ terrified cries.

  “This can’t be—” Balenus stared in horror at the wolf. He paled, shaking his head as he retreated. “It can’t be happening.”

  Pacing in front of the bed, the wolf didn’t let anyone close. Valentine was fully conscious inside the beast, and he added his guidance to the wolf’s instincts. Balenus had removed himself from the front row and waited, shielded by the traitors who had formed a wall to protect him. Valentine didn’t dare leave Mirella’s side because the enemy surrounded him, and the moment he moved to attack Balenus, his men would have easy access to the bed.

  “It’s impossible,” the medicus kept repeating.

  Three more guards poured into the room, outnumbering the wolf, but the unfavorable odds didn’t deter the beast. Instead, the wolf slashed and growled, its claws finding the mark at every swipe of its powerful paws. A moment later, two men lay still, bleeding on the floor; a third pressed his hands against a slash in his stomach, his head dangling to the side; and the fourth and the fifth had suffered several deep cuts, their eyes closing as they exhaled their last breaths.

  “Shoot him! What are you waiting for?” Balenus spat from the other end of the room as two guards were being forced to step back toward the door.

  After a moment of hesitation, one of the two men grabbed his gun and pointed it in the general direction of the bed, while the other guard aimed straight at the wolf. With an ear-splitting growl, the beast uncoiled and sprang into action, landing its front paws on the man who now trained his weapon at Mirella. The wolf’s maw descended upon his throat as the gun left his hand and skidded on the floor. At the same time, a gunshot was fired, and as the silver bullet hit the wolf, burning pain spread across its right flank. The wound didn’t slow the animal, but instead fueled its rage into a blind fury. A second shot echoed in the room, hitting the wolf just below the shoulder. The man didn’t get to fire his gun a third time. The wolf was on him before he could lower the trigger, and it broke his neck with a snarl.

  Having taken care of the threat, the wolf turned, only to find Balenus pointing a gun at Mirella’s belly.

  “Don’t move,” Balenus said. “Silver might not be enough to do you damage, but I wonder if an unborn werewolf baby can recover from a shot fired this close.”

  The wolf’s fangs dripped blood, and its eyes darted back and forth from Mirella to Balenus as it snarled low.

  A third wave of guards burst into the bedroom.

  “Shoot it!” Balenus ordered, but the men remained at the door, their eyes staring in horror at the ghastly tableaux.

  Martali emerged from behind the guards, followed by Dragon. At the sight of the wolf, shock registered on his face, but Martali assessed the situation and leveled his gun at Balenus, and his men immediately raised their weapons.

  “Martali, I’ve never been so happy to see you,” Balenus said.

  “Throw it away.” Martali pointed his chin at the medicus’s armed hand.

  “I’m trying to save the Blessed Bride from the wolf.” Balenus lowered the gun but didn’t release its hold as requested. “It went crazy and attacked everyone.”

  At Martali’s nod, Dragon moved at once and reached the bed as the wolf attacked Balenus, who had raised the gun again. The wolf pushed the medicus to the floor with its paws, going for the man’s jugular.<
br />
  “Don’t!” Dragon shouted. “What if Mirella needs him? He might be the only one who knows how to save her.”

  The wolf snarled its dissent, but with an audible snap closed its muzzle a few millimeters short of the man’s throat, then lowered its massive body over the medicus.

  Dragon had already removed the weapon from his hand and said to the wolf, “You can leave him to me now,” but the beast didn’t move from atop the medicus.

  “Master Lobo has gone insane with grief and shifted,” Balenus said with a choked voice. “You must let me go. The Blessed Bride isn’t responsive, and I fear for the infant.”

  The medicus’s words didn’t make an impression on Martali or Dragon, who ignored him.

  Instead, Dragon kneeled before the wolf. “Valentine, can you come back?”

  At the same time, Gabriel arrived, escorting Mama Bee into the room.

  “What the—” Gabriel looked around, his gaze pausing on the wolf. “Valentine?”

  The wolf lowered its head in a nod and followed Mama Bee’s progression into the room. Only when the midwife took her place by Mirella’s side did the beast relax its hold on the medicus.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Snarling, barking, shouting, crying, echoed all around Mirella, but the sounds reached her ears as if she were underwater.

  She had been teetering on the edge of consciousness for a long time. At some point, she thought she heard gunshots. She even imagined a big wolf pacing all around the bed. In between contractions, she slipped into a comatose slumber. Pain kept her hostage the rest of the time. Wave after wave of spasms possessed her body. Her lungs could barely pump air, making her breathing shallow. She was tired.

  Mama. Love. Me. You.

  Her baby had started talking again, but his voice sounded frail, and she worried about him. His little wolf appeared in her mind, and the puppy looked weak.

  Please, Goddess, give me enough strength to see this through.

  She prayed for nothing else. Her fate was sealed, she knew that, and her only desire was for her son to be born healthy.

  I love you, Baby.

  Stronger contractions ripped her apart, stealing what little sanity Mirella had left, and she spiraled deeper and deeper into a black nothingness. Then she was inside her mind, sharing a silvery meadow with her son’s wolf. White mist swirled low to the ground. Silence ruled the landscape, and Mirella, finally pain-free, breathed a sigh of relief. The puppy licked her face. She cradled the small animal close and caressed the soft fur. The action was soothing for both of them, and she rocked the wolf back and forth, singing a lullaby.