by Ariel Marie
But, as she watched the physician plug the machine into the wall, her conscious would not allow her to witness this miracle alone. She didn’t have any family that could share in the joy of seeing her little bean for the first time. Nicu had a part in creating the baby, and he should get the chance to experience it as well.
“What is it, dear?” Dr. Holinsky asked as he turned to her. The worry must have shown on her face.
“Would it be too much to ask for Nicu to be here with me?” She fidgeted with the sheet in her hand.
Would he even want to be here? They really didn’t know each other, but they obviously had a problem with keeping their hands off each other.
“Of course,” the doctor answered. He pulled the curtain back and spoke quietly to someone unseen. “They are getting him now.”
“Thank you,” she said softly, feeling somewhat comforted.
A minute later, the curtain moved and in walked Nicu. She patted the side of the bed next to her when he at first, stood by the wall. She needed someone to hold her hand. She didn’t know why she was so nervous. He didn’t hesitate as he sat next to her.
“Okay, I’m all set up now,” the doctor declared with a gentle smile. He pulled up a stool and sat on the side of the bed, next to the machine. “Let’s take a look at the baby.”
Dr. Holinsky helped Samara adjust her gown and the sheet to keep her decent for the exam. She jumped slightly at the coldness of the gel that he smeared on the lower part of her belly. Nicu’s eyes narrowed at the physician when she gasped.
“Cold,” she murmured with a nervous laugh, trying to explain. The physician placed the probe on her belly, ignoring the large vampire’s glare.
She gulped as she watched the monitor. She reached out and found Nicu’s large hand. He opened his and wrapped it around hers. She couldn’t help but be curious as to what he was feeling, so she opened her senses to him as the probe slid along the swell of her abdomen.
“Here we go,” Dr. Holinsky murmured, holding the probe still.
Tears clouded Samara’s vision as the tiny image of the baby came into sight. Its big head was beautiful. She squeezed Nicu’s hand as the sensation of pride came across the link between them. She glanced at Nicu and found him captivated by what was on the screen. She was too choked up to say anything.
“Well, this baby looks perfect.” Dr. Holinsky smiled at them.
Samara wiped the tears from her eyes so she could take a better look at her most perfect creation.
A baby!
She wished that Stefan were here with her. Throughout their lives, there was nothing they didn’t share with each other. Now that he was gone, she didn’t have anyone to share her life’s accomplishments or failures with. Her smile slowly faded at the thought, but she knew that Stefan would give her a swift kick to the ass if she became a Debbie Downer at his expense.
“You are further along than a human would be at this stage in your pregnancy, since you were impregnated by a vampire.” Dr. Holinsky stopped what he was doing to look at her. “Vampire pregnancies are not as long as humans. It looks like you are almost halfway through your pregnancy.”
“How much longer does she have to go?” Nicu asked.
“By the looks of this sonogram, I would say she has another four months to go.”
Samara did a quick calculation. That would mean her pregnancy would be seven months, and not the standard nine. That wouldn’t give her much time to get things in order and get prepared for its arrival.
“Dr. Holinsky, what is that?” she asked, pointing to the other image on the screen. Her attention turned to the mirror image next to the baby.
“That, my dear, is the other baby. You’re having twins, and by the looks of things, they’re both boys. Congratulations.”
~Nicu~
* * *
“Twins,” Alin gasped as her face lit up. “That is wonderful. Isn’t she a twin?”
Nicu nodded, unable to wrap his head around the news himself. He had sat, frozen in place, as Dr. Holinsky confirmed that Samara was indeed pregnant with twin boys. For once in his life, Nicu was speechless.
Afterwards, Samara had insisted that she needed to go home. He’d had Idris, Phaelyn’s mate and royal guard, escort her home. Her car had been swept clean, was free of bugs or any tracking devices, and left in the parking lot of her apartment building.
He had ventured to his parents’ quarters in the mansion to deliver the news to them himself. He leaned back against the couch in their sitting room. He glanced at his parents, finding a smile plastered on his mother’s face, while the king, expressionless, waited to see what Nicu’s reaction would be.
“Yes.” He cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair. “Dr. Holinsky said that there are two babies.”
“Well, son, you will have to find a way to convince the girl to mate with you,” the king said. “They are your heirs. They will rule the vampire nation one day, together. But, we need to know, is she your mate?” The king sat back on their couch, drawing Alin close to him. Nicu glanced away and knew that he would have to admit it aloud to his parents. He couldn’t lie to them, and had to be honest with himself.
“Yes, she is my mate,” he admitted gruffly.
“Oh, Nicu,” his mother started, clasping her hands to her chest. “I knew you had met your mate. I knew it! She’ll come around. Just give her time.”
“Until then, what do you have planned for providing for her security?” the king asked.
“With everything going on, I’m going to assign someone to her. They will be discreet. Anika advised me that she may not take too well to being followed.” He scratched his head, not understanding why fate would send him a human who didn’t understand the way of the vampire.
“I can see on your face what you are thinking, my son,” his mother said. “Don’t question fate. Be blessed that you found your mate. We have to alert the council.”
“No, not yet,” Nicu said with a shake of his head. “She hasn’t agreed to mate with me.”
“They need to know that you have found her,” his mother stressed, glancing at his father.
“Your mother is right.” The king nodded his head. “The damn council can get off your back, then you will have to woo her to win her.”
“Woo her?” Nicu drew back, shocked. Woo a female? How the hell did one do that? The sex between them alone should have been enough to keep her. The heat between the two of them was enough to destroy five city blocks.
“You will have to meet her halfway, son. You know what will happen to you if she turns you away. We cannot afford to lose you.”
Nicu knew of what his father spoke. The mating curse. Once the bond was created between mates, a vampire could not live without their mate. If their mate denied them or died, then it was known that the vampire would die. Most times, it was assumed that the vampire died of a broken heart. The Olaru family all knew that the legend held some truth.
When Bella had died, they had all helplessly watched Teague waste away. Thankfully, the gods saw fit to return Bella to the land of the living to fulfill her true purpose in life. Had she not been given a second chance in life, Nicu was certain his brother would have followed her into the afterlife.
He was more determined now. He was not ready for death. He had planned to walk this Earth for centuries to come. If he had to court Samara to make her see that they belonged together, as a family, then he would do it. He knew that fate never made a mistake. It was irrational for him to even question it. Since it was determined that Samara was the one for him, then there would be no more denying his feelings for her.
It was time to go after his mate.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Samara
It had been a few days since she’d left the Olaru mansion. After finding out the news of the twins, she knew that she would not be able to move to Dallas. Her conscious would not let her tear the babies from Nicu and his family.
She glanced up at the sun as she continued
her walk through the park. It was one of those weird Cleveland winters, where not a hint of snow could be seen. Sure, the weather was cold and chilly, but she had grown up in Northeast Ohio and was used to the weird weather. Going for a walk in the early afternoon was not unheard of. In fact, a few joggers went around her as she made her way down one of the trails in the park.
She figured that with the pregnancy, she would need to start getting some kind of exercise to get in shape for the delivery. The past year, she had slacked off from exercising with Stefan missing. She had bought every magazine and book she could find about pregnancy, and each of them spoke of incorporating some type of physical activity into her daily routine.
A tingling at the base of her neck had her looking around. A few joggers off in the distance and a few people walking with their dogs were the only things she saw.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
She picked up speed as the feeling of unease stayed with her. All the talk of her needing protection from Nicu had her paranoid. She was sure that that was what this was.
“He has me paranoid,” she muttered to herself as she power walked toward her car. “I’m going to go crazy if I think that everyone is out to get me.”
Even though she worked at home, she still had to keep somewhat normal hours. She was due to login at work in a couple hours. She would grab a shower, then try to lose herself in work.
She turned the corner and came to an abrupt halt. She dashed into a brush of trees and peeked around one. A strange man with a hood pulled over his head was looking into her car. Her hands shook as she pulled her cell phone from her jacket pocket. She swiped the glass screen, not hesitating to tap a certain preprogrammed number.
“What?” Nicu growled into the phone.
“Nicu?” She kept her voice low as the feel of unease grew. She didn’t have to open her senses to tell that something wasn’t right about the figure by her car.
“Samara, what’s wrong?” he demanded to know.
“It’s a guy—” she started, watching the man walk around her car, as if assessing it. What the hell was he doing?
“What?” Nicu snapped, breaking through her thoughts as her mind ran wild with possibilities. Maybe he was one of those necromancers that took her brother from her.
“You know, you could be a little more compassionate on the phone. I’m scared out of my fucking mind right now,” she snapped.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. Now, tell me, what’s wrong.”
Samara pulled back and looked at her phone. Did she hear him right? Did the great Nicu just apologize to her? She had heard of women having pregnancy brain, but did that cause a woman to hallucinate too?
“I’m over at the Metroparks, over on State Road, and some strange man is walking around my car,” she whispered, praying that he didn’t look her way. The woods weren’t the thickest, but right now, it was providing enough cover.
“I’m not too far from you. You did well in calling me. Can you see what he looks like?”
She tried as best as she could to describe the person near her car. She glanced back and he was gone.
“He’s not there anymore.” She looked all around her, and didn’t see any trace of the stranger. A large, black SUV pulled into the parking lot and parked in-between her and where her car was parked.
“Come on.”
Samara sat in Nicu’s truck as he and his brother, Adrian, got on the ground and crawled beneath her car. When she had gotten into the SUV, they had grilled her on what she saw. She admitted that she hadn’t seen anything that she didn’t already tell him on the phone.
She glanced out the window and was able to stare at Nicu and his brother through the dark tinted windows. They both closely resembled each other—tall and muscular, with the same dark hair and piercing ice blue eyes. Just one look into Nicu’s eyes had her clamping her legs together.
Down, girl, she thought to herself.
She had to remain strong. No more sex with the hot vampire, until they could get their relationship sorted out. He glanced at her and she knew, that even through the tint, he was looking right at her. He pulled his phone out of his jeans and made a call as he turned away. His brother slid from beneath her car and jogged back to the SUV.
“Whoever it was around your car, put a tracker on it,” Adrian said, closing the door. She turned to look at him in the back seat.
“But why?” she asked, shocked. Who would want to keep tabs on her?
“You carry the heirs to the vampirian throne. You basically have a mark on your back,” he said. “We are in the middle a war, and there are plenty of enemies that will come after you because of Nicu.”
“Oh.” Her soft voice filled the air as his words sunk in. Her hand instantly moved to her belly, as if to protect her boys. “But what has Nicu done that’s so bad, that would make it dangerous for me to be associated with him?” She didn’t know how else to label their relationship.
“The necromancer king, Sodan, wants Nicu’s head,” Adrian stated, turning to her.
“Because of Nicu killing his son?” she asked, recalling Nicu’s reason for being in the dungeon.
“Exactly.”
Her eyes moved to Nicu as he opened the driver’s side door. He climbed in, but must have sensed that something was off.
“What’s wrong?” he demanded.
She smiled softly, knowing that he would protect her and her babies.
Their babies.
She would have to trust him.
“Is it true?” she asked as fear took hold of her.
“What did you tell her?” He tilted his head to his brother, but didn’t take his eyes off her.
“Nothing but the truth, brother. She needs to know that she will be a target because of her relationship to you and the babes growing in her belly,” Adrian snapped as he displayed his phone to Nicu. “The council has announced to the world that the great Nicu Olaru, the heir to the throne, is now off the market, and that you and your future mate are already expecting.”
Nicu growled deep in his chest. She watched, fascinated, as his eyes transitioned from blue to crimson. “No harm will come to her and our children.”
“Whatever I have to do to protect the babies, I’ll do it,” she whispered, desperate to protect her children. Fear gripped her soul as she thought of the rogues she had watched Nicu kill. What about the necromancers who drained her brother of his life force? She would be no match to any supernatural being on her own.
She could not lose anyone else she loved.
It would kill her.
The babies were a blessing from God, and she would cherish them. Her eyes met Nicu’s and something happened. She didn’t understand this draw to him, but her heart was softening to this big controlling vampire.
Her vampire.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nicu
“Adrian is taking care of her landlord now. We’ll pay off the rest of her lease, but she is coming with us now,” Nicu informed his father.
He was beyond pissed at the council for announcing to the world about Samara and the babies. In the midst of the war with the necromancers, there was no telling what they would do. This would give them even more ammunition.
“Cesar should have consulted us before blasting the news to the world.” The king’s words broke through Nicu’s thoughts. “He will have to answer to me for that. Get your mate to safety, and we will deal with them together.”
“Yes, sir,” Nicu said before disconnecting the call.
He glanced around Samara’s living area, taking in the large plush couches, delicate window coverings, and the many pictures that were placed around the room. He walked over to a bookcase and picked up a picture frame that housed a photo of Samara and her twin.
It was a picture of them at a bar, for what looked to be a celebration of sorts, with them both dressed in all green. Samara had a ridiculously large green hat on, and a large drunken smile plastered on her face. Both of them had what looked to be a
green drink in large glass mugs.
He placed it down and took inventory of her condo. She was currently upstairs packing for the next week until they could have someone come and pack up her entire place. It would not be safe for her to stay alone. At least on this part, he didn’t have to argue with her. This was one thing that they had agreed on. The babies and her safety were top priority.
They would set her up in the mansion with her own suite for now. But Nicu knew that this would not last long. He wanted—no, needed her to be with him. The bond between them was too strong. Her empath abilities, that he knew she possessed, amplified the bond every time she opened herself to him.
Nicu walked back through the quiet condo and paused. It was too quiet. Samara had been banging around on the second floor, but now it was silent.
“Samara.” He called her name as he arrived at the bottom of the stairwell.
No response.
He muttered a curse and instantly went on alert. His heart pounded as he imagined all the reasons as to why she wouldn’t respond. He pulled out his dagger and tried to lower his heart rate.
Was this nervousness?
This was a first for him. During battle, he loved the adrenaline rush he would get, but this was different. His mate was in danger. He would kill whoever laid a hand on her without a second thought. He narrowed his eyes and took the first step, but was blocked by an invisible barrier.
He let loose a string of curses as he tried again, but could not pass.
Necromancer magic.
~Samara~
* * *
Samara blew out a nervous breath as she stared at her closet.
