Darkmoon (#5) (The Cain Chronicles)

by Reine, SM

  She wasn’t in pain anymore. She didn’t feel anything more than an occasional, gentle squeezing in her abdomen.

  But she definitely was not okay.

  She turned the mug around in her hands and watched the tea swirl. “Where did Abel go?”

  “I think he was scared of the idea that you might go into labor.” The doctor sounded far too amused by the idea. “He’s probably hiding out in the fields, if he’s like most nervous fathers-to-be. Men.”

  “What were you doing that triggered contractions this time?” Gwyn asked.

  Rylie blushed as she thought about Abel’s hand between her legs, and the way that their beasts had lunged for each other, like they were starving after months without contact. All Rylie could manage to squeak out was a few babbling, incoherent words, and then she spared herself from having to speak by taking a sip of her tea.

  “Rylie,” Stephanie said in a stern, you better not lie to me kind of voice.

  She swallowed hard. Her entire face must have been red. “I was helping Abel try to transform into a wolf.” Rylie took another sip.

  “Did you have sex with him?”

  She sprayed her mouthful of tea across the table.

  Gwyn grabbed a towel and mopped it up. Her motions were slower than they used to be, and much jerkier, like she had to think hard to move at all. She couldn’t pass for living anymore.

  Rylie wiped off her chin before replying. “No.” But at Stephanie’s hard look, she added, “We might have been getting a little…physical.”

  Gwyn gave a rattling sighed. “Oh, pumpkin.”

  “I’ll need to take a look at your cervix,” Stephanie decided. “If it seems like you’re dilated too far, I’m going to have to forbid all sexual activity until you give birth. That includes orgasms, for the record.”

  “I didn’t—I wasn’t—”

  “Merely by virtue of having twins, you’re much more likely to go into preterm labor,” Stephanie went on, ignoring her. “I’m not sure that you understand the gravity of the situation, so I’m going to spell this out very clearly for you: it is very likely that you will not be able to sustain this pregnancy for a full nine months. Our goal is to get you to seven months, or thirty-two weeks. A pregnancy becomes potentially viable sooner than that, but we’ll consider that the safe point. You cannot do anything—anything—that puts you at risk until that time.”

  Rylie swallowed hard. “What’s going to happen if I have them preterm?”

  “Normally, I would tell you to expect a lengthy stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. But since your children are unlikely to be human, I suspect they’ll be stronger than that.” She spread her hands wide. “I’ve never heard of a werewolf newborn before. Your guess is as good as mine. Regardless, we don’t know anything, and we have to be careful. You’re officially on bed rest.”

  “Bed rest?”

  “You can’t do anything for the pack on the next moon. I mean it, Rylie. You’ve been calming all of the wolves’ transformations for the past few weeks despite my admonitions, so I think you might be deaf, but you have to hear me now. Stay away from the pack. The strain of it is too much for you.”

  “But…”

  “Babe,” Gwyn said softly. “She’s right.”

  Rylie dropped her head into her hands.

  No sex. No taking care of her pack. No physical activity at all.

  Being pregnant was definitely much, much worse than being a werewolf.

  She suddenly remembered what Brianna had told her on the way to town. “Is there a chance that only one of the twins might not be a werewolf?”

  Stephanie thought for a moment. “Yes, I suppose it’s possible that one of them could be human. Seth is a kopis—a legendary hunter of demons. That’s hereditary. And kopides are immune to the werewolf curse. They can’t contract lycanthropy any more than they can contract hepatitis.”

  “How do you know that?” Rylie asked.

  “Seth isn’t the first kopis I’ve been around, trust me,” she said. “In fact, James is an aspis, bound to a kopis. He would be able to tell you even more, if you’re curious, but…it doesn’t really matter, in this case.” Stephanie dismissed the subject with a wave of her hand. “My point is, if the fetuses were fathered by Seth—”

  “Babies,” Rylie said.

  The doctor didn’t even miss a beat. “If the babies were fathered by Seth, and one of them is male, it will be very likely to be like him: a kopis. Which means that you may not be pregnant with a litter of puppies after all.”

  “I’m going to bite the next person who makes a dog joke.”

  Stephanie gave a pinched smile as she stood. “Then good luck finding someone else willing to perform supernatural obstetrics. More tea?”

  Rylie held up her mug, and the doctor poured hot water into it from the teapot.

  “When will we know?” Gwyn asked.

  “About the paternity? Soon. I had to send additional blood samples from Seth and Abel. They’re having a challenging time differentiating between them.”

  No matter how soon the test results came, it wouldn’t be soon enough.

  Rylie heard the front door open and shut. A moment later, Seth and James entered the room.

  “Where have you been?” Stephanie asked, her voice sharpening.

  James took one look at the doctor sitting with Rylie and said, “We’ll have to talk about it later, I think.”

  Seth dropped to his knees beside Rylie and put a hand on her knee. She still had a little mud smeared down her shin.

  “What’s going on here?” he asked. “Are you okay?”

  She stared at the table. “I think I should go back to bed.”

  Nobody spoke as Rylie dumped the rest of her tea in the sink, set the mug on the counter, and headed down the hall. Brody was next to the bathroom door, but he wasn’t sleeping. His eyes reflected the dim light from the kitchen as he tracked her motion across the room.

  “Rylie, wait.”

  She stopped with her hand on Gwyn’s door. Seth had followed her into the hall. “What?” Rylie asked, keeping her voice down so that she wouldn’t wake anyone up.

  “I think James and I have a way to protect you,” Seth said. “You, the babies, the pack—everyone.”

  Seth probably wouldn’t hide from me when I go into labor, she thought, and then she immediately felt guilty for it. “That’s great.”

  Seth stepped over Brody and took her hand. The familiar smell of leather and gunpowder followed him, even though she knew that he wasn’t armed at the moment. He searched her face, and she wondered if he could see the guilt etched in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Rylie,” Seth said. “I’m sorry for everything.”

  She bit her bottom lip. “I’m sorry, too. Can we…can we talk?”

  He nodded and followed her into Gwyn’s room. Rylie eyed the bed with its rumpled red sheets and couldn’t bring herself to sit down. Stephanie had ordered bed rest. She suspected that meant she was going to be sick of sitting down very soon.

  “Today, James took me to this place called a Haven,” he began, but she grabbed his hand to stop him.

  “I kissed Abel again.”

  That cut him off quickly. A look of hurt flashed over his features. “Why?”

  “Because the wolves wanted it,” she said, but it felt like a lie, and she shook her head as soon as she spoke. “No…because I wanted it.”

  Seth looked like he had been gutted.

  “Oh.”

  Now that Rylie had started talking, she couldn’t stop. “I don’t think the things that I want can be separated from the things the wolf wants. I love you, and I…” She took a deep breath. “I think I love Abel, too, in a totally different way.”

  He captured her face between his hands. “I told you that I’m not going to let werewolf urges get between us. And I also told you that I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you. I still mean that.” It still made her heart give a little jump to hear him talk like that. “I know that Abel might
be the father, and I don’t care. Not as long as you still want to be with me.”

  “I do, Seth,” she whispered, and her vision blurred. “I do want to be with you. But…”

  “You don’t want to make the tough decisions,” Seth said. “I get that.” He released her and stepped back. “As long as you want me, I’m going to be here. But only as long as you want me.” He gave a pointed look to her hand—the hand that wasn’t wearing a ring. “Don’t hide behind the babies as an excuse not to make your own choices, Rylie.”

  The tears that had been threatening to escape finally spilled down her cheeks, drawing hot lines to her chin.

  Seth wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I can’t believe you kissed him again,” he said, so softly that she wasn’t sure she was meant to hear it. He raised his voice. “We’ll talk about Haven in the morning.”

  He left.

  Rylie sank to the bed, buried her face in Gwyn’s pillow, and cried.

  FIFTEEN

  Missing in Action

  The next morning, Seth called together the entire pack so that he could tell them about the Haven. Once everyone was collected in the living room, they filled the sofas and half of the floor.

  He kept his explanation short, and he didn’t mention the warnings about magic or time. “But we can be safe there,” Seth concluded, standing in front of the fireplace so everyone could see him. “Nobody can reach us. Not the Union, or the Office of Preternatural Affairs, or…anyone else.”

  He scanned the pack’s watching faces. There were a lot of mixed emotions, but mostly disbelief.

  Seth caught Rylie glancing over at Abel again. They were sitting on opposite sides of the room, but he kept seeing them look at each other, as if they were having a silent conversation. Knowing that they had been kissing the night before made Seth want to choke his brother out, but he restrained himself. He wouldn’t do it—not while Rylie was in the room, anyway.

  “So? What do you all think?” he prompted.

  “Another Earth,” Trevin said, picking at his half-eaten burrito. “That’s…crazy. It’s crazy talk.”

  Kiara stood, making the pillow in her lap tumble to the floor. “It’s not just crazy; it’s a straight-up lie. You expect us to believe this?”

  Seth wasn’t surprised that someone accused him of that, but he was surprised that it wasn’t Levi. Where was that guy, anyway? Bekah was by the window with Gwyn and Brianna, but her brother was nowhere in sight.

  He raked a hand through his hair, trying to think of a way that he could convince the skeptics. “James showed it to me yesterday. I’ve been there.”

  “I have, too,” Brianna said, lifting her hand as if asking permission to speak in a classroom. “It’s everything Seth says, and more. Safe, quiet, beautiful. And there’s no moon.”

  “No moon?” Rylie asked, eyes wide.

  The pack whispered among themselves, too quietly for Seth to hear.

  One by one, everyone fell silent and turned to Rylie.

  It took her a moment to look away from Abel long enough to realize that the pack expected guidance. “I guess this is on me, huh?” she asked, twisting her hands together. “Scott once told me that werewolves weren’t meant to live in this world. He said we were made in a time when the wilderness was bigger and civilization was smaller. If we could go somewhere like that…”

  “Yeah, well, you see how much we can trust Scott,” Kiara said.

  “But in this case, he’s right. This Haven sounds like it would be perfect for werewolves. It won’t just keep us safe from the Union—it will keep the world safe from us. We could be free.” Her whole face was glowing with the idea of it. “I want to go. Who would come with me?”

  “I’d go,” Bekah said softly.

  Trevin took a big bite of his burrito and spoke with his cheek pouched by carne asada and beans. “Me too. Sounds cool.”

  Abel’s voice rose from the back of the room. His eyes had never left Rylie. “I go wherever you go.” Seth couldn’t think of the last time he had heard his brother speak so seriously. He considered punching Abel again, but only briefly.

  “Sounds perfect, babe,” Gwyn said. “When can we go?”

  Brianna lifted her hand awkwardly again. “We’ll have to finish the spell to resurrect you first. Magic doesn’t work right in the Haven. But as soon as that’s done, there’s no reason to wait around.”

  Seth nodded. “The sooner, the better. Everything with the OPA’s just going to keep getting worse. But we will need to pack supplies. There are cities in the Haven, but it’s a long walk. We should be prepared to be walking for at least a few days.”

  “That’s going to be a hell of a mess,” Abel said with a lopsided grin. “Let’s do it.”

  Seth caught up with Bekah after everyone dispersed. She walked fast, so she was already halfway to the gate before he managed to catch her attention. “Where’s Levi?” he asked when she turned.

  He hadn’t even realized that Abel was following him until he circled around the other side of Bekah, as if to prevent her from escaping. “I haven’t seen him in days,” Bekah said, glancing uneasily between the brothers. “He told me that he was going to go for a drive, but he never came back.”

  Abel snorted. “He probably ran away.”

  “I thought he might have gone back to Greenville, or wherever Tate’s tour went this time. Levi’s been really hung up on him lately. They’ve even been texting each other again.”

  “Sick,” Abel said.

  Seth didn’t disagree, but that wasn’t what caught his attention. “Wait, go back. Greenville?”

  “Levi met him there a few weeks back. The whole promotional tour’s been crossing the country off and on for months to build support for H.R. 2076. They’re on the second leg of it now, I think.”

  The last time Seth had heard about Greenville, it hadn’t been in reference to any promotional tours. It had been because of a supernatural riot. That was awfully coincidental—a little too coincidental. “Has it been to San Francisco?” Bekah nodded. “Where else?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not following it as closely as Levi.”

  “What about Boise?” Seth asked. He had heard about riots there, too.

  She shook her head helplessly, so he pulled out his phone and started running a search. “What are you thinking?” she asked, twisting a honey-colored curl around her finger.

  Abel had already caught on. “Boise. San Francisco. Greenville.”

  There was a list of tour locations. Seth scrolled through it, and those three cities were there—and more. Bekah peeked over his shoulder. “So the tour is following the riots?”

  “No,” he said. “The riots are following the tour.”

  And Tate’s tour was going to stop in the nearby town in just over two weeks.

  Seth turned off his phone and squeezed it in his fist. If Tate’s tour was coming, then so would the OPA—and if his gut instinct was correct, an incident would follow. There weren’t any demon clubs in town. There wasn’t anything supernatural at all. Nothing except the werewolf ranch, which would be perfect for a high-profile raid.

  They had to be in the Haven before that happened.

  “What are we going to do about this?” Bekah asked.

  “Nothing,” Abel said. “Why should we do anything? We’re hightailing it out of this entire freaking dimension as soon as possible. I don’t give two flying shits if there’s a government conspiracy.”

  Seth had to agree—very reluctantly. “Our priority is getting the pack to safety. Now, we have a deadline.” He touched Bekah’s shoulder. “We don’t need to panic about Levi yet. He probably got distracted by Tate and lost track of the time.”

  “Probably.” She didn’t sound very convinced. “I was just planning to ask around town. It’s not a big place. If he’s around, someone will have seen him, and I want to bring him back before the next moon.” She patted Seth’s hand. “Be careful here.”

  Bekah broke into a run again. Like most werewolves, s
he could easily run fifty miles in a day. She didn’t need a car to get around.

  As soon as she was out of earshot, Abel said, “I bet you twenty bucks that Levi’s dead.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Hey, I’m not complaining.”

  Seth kept his mouth closed. If he tried to speak, something he would regret was sure to escape. Something that would lead to more fistfights.

  He started back for the house, and his brother followed him.

  “This Haven thing’s a good move,” Abel said without a hint of sarcasm. “You done good, bro.”

  Seth glanced at him. “Really?”

  But Abel wasn’t listening. He strolled alongside Seth with his eyes fixed on the orchard. “Whenever shit’s getting real, you’re the guy with the plan. You got the bodyguard for Rylie and you hooked us up with the Haven. If the pack survives, it won’t be ‘cause of me.” He rubbed a hand over his jaw. “You wouldn’t run off when she’s going into labor.”

  “I’m always going to protect Rylie.”

  “Guess you probably deserve her. I know she deserves you.” Abel shook his head as if to clear it. “I’ve got stuff to do. Don’t get yourself killed while I’m not watching your ass, okay?”

  Seth watched him walk away feeling stunned. After Rylie admitted that she had been getting too close to Abel, that wasn’t the way he had expected their next conversation to develop at all. He had been expecting—even anticipating—to get into a fight. An ugly, messy fight. But something had changed with Abel. Something big.

  And Seth had no idea what it meant.

  Time passed, although Levi wasn’t sure how much. He suspected that days and nights were slipping past him, because every time he opened his eyes, he saw something different: sometimes a medical facility, with his arms strapped to the bed; at other times, he saw the inside of an ambulance, or silver bars, or a blank ceiling. He thought he heard Tate’s voice fade in and out of his periphery. The moments of consciousness never lasted long.

  Levi finally woke up in a cage.