by Honor James
“Then sleep, we will go to the clinic in the morning before our shifts.” Zhubin squeezed her leg gently. “Sleep, baby. We’ll move you upstairs in a bit and we’ll all get some sleep.” A moment later the large, warm throw that usually resided on the back of the sofa, was draped over her to keep her warm.
“Oh, that was just playing dirty,” she whispered and shifted against Ansell. Lacey was shortly sound asleep. The heat of his body, the touch of Zhubin’s hand to her knee and the blanket wrapped around her. She couldn’t fight the need to rest with that combination, at all.
Chapter Fourteen
It wasn’t even morning and someone was calling. She could hear the very insistent and annoying ringing of a phone. It had to be one of the cell phones they were all currently using. Zhubin and Ansell both had the implants but had deactivated the phone portion while stalking her stalker. They hadn’t wanted to give him any way to track them so disposable and heavily encoded cell phones were all they were using. Besides that, she’d never hear the damn things ring even if they had, rung that was.
“Yeah,” Zhubin’s voice said as the annoying sound was killed. She felt him rolling toward the edge of the bed, bouncing her around slightly. “What? Where the fuck would someone get that?” he hissed into the phone.
Ansell moved to a sitting position, obviously picking up on the hostility rolling off of Zhubin. Not exactly subtle, her Zhubin, especially at whatever horrid early morning hour it was.
“Fuck, yeah, we’ll be there soon.” More rustling and bouncing, “Shit. Lacey, love, you need to wake up. We have to go into headquarters now. And by now I mean, yester-fucking-day.”
Lacey frowned and shifted slightly. Pushing her hair out of her eyes she watched him. “Okay, why?” She yawned again and wanted to just curl up and sleep some more, but she couldn’t. Not with Zhubin carrying the look that he was right now.
Reaching out a shaky hand toward him, she frowned. “Talk to me, honey. What’s going on?” And then in excitement she asked, “Did they catch him? Is that it? Do we get to go in because they have caught this son of a bitch?”
“No, we haven’t caught anyone yet,” he said, shoving his hand through his hair. “We have a hell of a lot worse situation going on. That residue in the envelope was some form of poison. Which is now in your system. It’s only designed to take out humans and is a redesigned and messed up version of something our scientists had designed for chemical warfare against your people. It was never used, obviously, and all stores were supposed to be destroyed. Apparently they were not and this psychopath got his hands on a batch, screwed with it and now it’s trying to kill you. We need to get you to the office and to Briar and the others. They are already working on something but we need to go, now.”
“What?” Lacey shook her head and frowned. “How in the hell is that possible?” She rose from the bed and swayed on her feet slightly. “Right. Okay. Time to get ourselves to the office so that we can have Briar have a look at me. Let’s hope that they have whatever I need to take in order to get me feeling better so we can catch this asshat.”
Nodding, both men began to dress and helped her to dress as well. When they were all as ready as they were going to be they piled into Zhubin’s truck and headed for the office. It was a short drive, traffic was light and he was driving very fast. Very fast.
Lacey was watching the skies as they raced into the office. Her mind was whirling round and round. She was uncertain as to what to do next. She didn’t know what in the world they would do to catch this asshat that was tracking her and wanted to kill her. “How do we catch him?” she asked softly.
“He made a fatal mistake,” Ansell said quietly. “He directly attacked you. Now he will have to deal with us and all the Luhpyne that call us friend and family. We will hunt him down and he will suffer things that no one could even dare to imagine.”
“I’ve called in one of our best trackers to take a whiff of the envelope. If there is even the smallest trace of this asshole’s scent on it, he’ll pick it up. His nose is about twenty times better than Ansell’s and we know just how good his is.” Yes, they did. Ansell’s sense of smell had saved their bacons a couple of times.
“Good.” Lacey sighed and leaned back against Ansell once more, her eyes closed in exhaustion. “Well as long as they can get a bead on this asshole I will be a happy woman,” she muttered. “I just want to find the asshat and put him under the ground.” Dammit. She was being rather bloodthirsty but she didn’t care. Dammit.
“In many different locations across many different worlds,” Ansell muttered. Okay, maybe she didn’t have the market on bloodthirsty. She felt him press a kiss to her temple and hug her closer to him. “For fucking with our mate, his will be a slow and very painfully long death.”
“Good. I know that’s bad but I want whoever it is to pay for what they did to me, to us. I really hope that they will be able to fix me,” she whispered.
“They will,” Zhubin said. His tone suggested that the doctors better or there’d be a lot of death and dismemberment in the near future. A quick cut of the steering wheel and they were driving down into the bowels of the underground parking. A few hair-raising turns, a few squeals of the tires and they came to a rocking stop in his parking spot. Both men were out of the truck quickly and Ansell just scooped her up, kicking the door shut even as he started to stride for the elevator with her.
She didn’t argue, she was far too tired and felt far too sick to her stomach to argue and complain with the man carrying her around. Her hand lifted and rested against his chest, her fingers lightly stroking over his chest as she whispered, “I love you. Both of you. Always know that?”
“We know it and you’ll be telling us that for many years to come.” Stepping into the elevator he turned so she was between his body and Zhubin’s. “Just as we will be telling you how much we love you each and every day. That and how you get under our skin, drive us batty and generally make our lives more interesting with every breath you take.”
“You can bet your cute butt that I’m going to be telling you both that for the rest of time.” She grinned and sighed. “Good. Just never let me forget,” she teased him. “I look forward to each moment, each second with you both. I want everything in life with you both. Family, life, everything.”
“Good, because that’s the general plan.” He hugged her closer to him and kissed her cheek. “Lots of Zhubin’s babies that we can spoil rotten and dote on. All of them, preferably, should look just like you and have your amazing and wonderful personality.”
That had her grinning and she nodded. “I like how that sounds. I really love the idea of having such a great life with the two of you. And you will be their dad too, you know,” she murmured quietly. “You might not be their genetic father but you will be their dad as well. Know what I mean?”
“I understand your meaning, though I am yet unsure if I am ready for that step. We will discuss it further, later. For now we need to get you well and cater to your every need and whim in the meantime. So, just relax and we’ll take care of you.” The elevator came to a stop a moment later and they were all moving through the hall toward medical.
“That sounds like a plan.” She patted his chest again and smiled. She could hear Briar before she saw her and giggled. “For someone afraid of you boys she certainly has no trouble giving you marching orders does she?” she teased him.
“She has her moments and, hopefully, she’s also figured out we would never cause her harm.” Pressing a kiss to her lips he set her down on the bed that the doctor had ordered him to. Letting her go he took one of her hands in his and squeezed.
Briar looked to Zhubin and tilted her head to the side. She wasn’t so sure that the woman was ready to hear everything she had to say. When they were in her office she said, “Sit.” She saw the hesitation and shook her head. “Please. I need to tell you something.” She stepped in front of him and leaned against the desk.
When he looked out again she smiled.
“Don’t worry, your mate is being watched over by Ansell and they are getting her hooked up to the IVs but I need to tell you something. I’ve had to contact a doctor on the other side of the Veil. An OB/GYN.” She waited for it to click and knew when it did because every inch of his body tensed as he looked to her. “She’s not far along but with the way that a Luhpyne pregnancy takes place she’s further than her human body would be in this point in the pregnancy.” She took a deep breath and added, “I’m hopeful that the medication tweaks will be enough to not harm the babe but this is something I don’t want her to know about yet.”
Licking her lips, she whispered, “She needs to focus on getting over this illness. We will deal with the pregnancy after, are you going to be okay with that?”
He was just staring at her, a dumbstruck expression on his face. Probably trying to process what she’d just told him, to get it to gel in his mind. “What?” he asked in a stunned voice. Another slow blink and he shook his head before frowning. “What?”
“Lacey is pregnant.” Briar didn’t know how much plainer she could get with the poor guy. “As in she’s going to have your baby as long as I can keep her body from rejecting the pregnancy along with the illness. I’m sorry, Zhubin, but there is a very real possibility that she will lose the child, which is why I don’t want to tell her yet.” She sighed and shook her head. “The good thing with the pregnancy is the child is a male Luhpyne and has a stronger genetic makeup, according to the doctor I conferred with on your side of the Veil.”
He was nodding. “Luhpyne genetics are pretty hard to knock down. Shit, she’s going to kick my ass,” he muttered, getting to his feet. Pacing around her office he ran his hands through his hair and down over his face. “Yeah, we can’t tell her and fuck, we didn’t even know. Which we should have, her scent would have changed about now with the baby but the drug or disease or whatever this is is obviously masking the scent.”
“I would imagine that the illness has masked a great deal of everything with her. When you go back out you can scent her to see if you can tell a difference but I would wager that you can’t.” Briar sighed and added, “Let’s just get her through this illness, then as long as she doesn’t miscarry we will tell her about the babe.”
“If Ansell hasn’t picked it up, I never would,” he said. “His nose is one of the best around, not the best, but definitely one of them. But I agree, we need to make her well and then worry about everything after she is better. Do whatever you have to, Briar. Make our mate well again.”
“I will.” She nodded to him and took a deep breath. “The medics have already started her IV line and the medication, I just needed you to know what might happen when I introduce the medication from your side of the Veil. I hope that it doesn’t, I just needed you to know.” She turned and opened the door, moving from him and toward the woman who was lying on the larger-than-typical bed with Ansell holding her close.
Zhubin was right on her heels as Briar made her way back to the bed. “The medicine,” he asked when they reached Lacey’s side. “Are they sure it will work? I was led to be believe this was a mutated strain of the original.”
“We are hopeful that it will work.” Briar did a little bit of everything around this place. She was the medical examiner, she was the base doctor and also a researcher. She wore all kinds of hats and at the moment was very grateful for them. “As I said, I have been conferring with doctors from your side of the Veil since I got the blood sample. It’s my hope that this is what she needs.” She accepted the needle from one of the Techs and after thanking her moved to Lacey’s side. “Are you ready? It might hurt. If so, try to let the pain flow through you. Easier said than done, I know, but it’s all that I can offer you.” Briar wasn’t sure how this was going to react with the woman’s pregnancy and truthfully hoped there would be no pain.
“I’m ready,” Lacey whispered and yawned, her head on Ansell’s shoulder and already more asleep than awake.
“Sleep if you can,” Briar murmured nervously as she stuck the needle into the IV port and injected the medication into the line. She tossed the needle into the sharps container and nodded. “Now we just wait.”
Zhubin stood at the end of the bed, his arms crossed over his chest as he watched everything. Ansell held her close, his hands rubbing over her arm and back in a light and slow caress. They were both worried, that was easy enough to see. This wasn’t something they could hunt down and kill, it was something they didn’t have the knowledge to battle and she knew it was killing them a little inside to acknowledge that fact.
An hour later Briar nodded and looked to Zhubin. “She’s starting to chill. You might want to crawl into bed at her front and both of your body heat against her while she’s covered as well. Yes I could get out the heated blankets, but your body heat would be more comfortable for her,” the doctor murmured as she watched Lacey’s body temperature drop another two degrees.
Nodding, he moved to the side she was standing on and kicked off his boots. Climbing onto the bed, he and Ansell got Lacey on her side and tucked between them. It wasn’t the most comfortable of beds, given it was made for a human body and not a human plus two large Luhpynes, but it worked. As long as no one coughed they likely wouldn’t fall off.
“I will turn the lights down, if there is any change, let me know?” Briar asked and added in there as an afterthought, “If she begins to hurt, get me immediately. Zhubin, you know what I’m looking for.” She was worried that the woman would miscarry and if she was going to it would be within the next couple of hours since she had just had the medication pushed into her body.
“I’ll get you if anything changes,” he said, shooting her a look. Nodding in understanding of her request he relaxed back down into Lacey and held her to him. His cheek was to hers as he and Ansell wrapped their mate up in their heat and kept her as safe as they could in that moment in time.
Chapter Fifteen
Several days later…
Sitting up in the bed, Lacey slowly ate the soup that she had been brought. It wasn’t because it was too hot or anything, it was just she was stunned, to say the least. Pregnant. She. Was. Pregnant.
When Zhubin called her name again she finally looked up. “And now?” she asked softly. “With all that I went through trying to get over the shit that I was infected with, how is the child now?” She was shocked that she was pregnant, more than a little, honestly, but now her mind turned to the health of the child. Nothing else mattered, just their child.
“The babe wasn’t affected at all,” he said quietly. Both he and Ansell were watching her with the same expression as a man handed a bomb with no visible indication of when it might blow. “Your body’s natural protective measures kept him safe. Briar was worried about it, for a time, but she did all the tests and it appears the pathogen never made it close enough to harm. You’ll need extra vitamins and other nutritional supplements for a time to combat all the pathogen took from your body but you will be fine and back to your normal self in about a month she figures.
Lacey’s hands were shaking. She hadn’t thought about this particular part of life. Having a child. “I.” She started but stopped. She couldn’t seem to think, at all. Holy crapola. “And you are sure we are pregnant?” she whispered. Holy. Hell.
The men shared a look before Ansell nodded slowly. “Quite. Both Briar’s tests and our own scenting of your skin have proven that you are pregnant. The disease you were infected with masked the scent until it was finally pushed from your body.”
“And it is now?” She was more worried now than she was before. “You are sure that the illness is gone and our child is okay?” she asked softly and put her hand to her stomach. “I need to learn more about Luhpyne pregnancies. I need to figure out what to expect as I’m expecting.”
“Briar has a lot of materials that you will be able to read. Since we became part of your world we felt it only fair warning to let your doctors know all about us and the results of possible pairings and matings
. Not everything, but enough to keep all your people as safe as possible.” Reaching over, Ansell squeezed her arm, just above her wrist, gently. “It’s gone, your scent is pure again and all you and the baby. Eat.”
Lacey picked up the spoon and then smiled. “Oh god, your momma is going to have a heart attack when she finds out that we are expecting. I’m fully prepared for her to make your dads come to this side of the Veil to try to talk us into moving to that side.” If that made sense aloud.
“Oh, she likely will,” Zhubin said quietly with a smile. “Our life is here and, if one day we want to, we can move to the other side. But at this time, though, I think staying here is the best idea. If you want to that is, if you want to move to the other side we can.”
“I want to remain here,” she agreed. “Maybe one day we will move to the other side but right now I think we belong here. I think that this is just where we need to be. Don’t you think?” She couldn’t help the smile that kicked up the corners of her mouth though. “Heavens, I didn’t think I would be so happy, but I am. I am so very, very happy to have this step in our lives here.”
“Then this is where we will remain, for however long you wish. But that means you need to eat and get better. Otherwise, Briar will keep you here for much longer than we all want.” He flipped a look at his watch and sighed. “We need to go, darling. We have work to do so if you are okay, I’ll get Briar to give you some reading material and we’ll be back in a few hours.”
