I closed my eyes as another contraction hit me and a scream tore out of my throat. I didn’t know much about pregnancy or babies, but I knew enough to know that things were moving way too fast.
Travis ripped my sweatpants off and I couldn’t even grumble about being exposed to him. That wasn’t important right now. Right now, all I could focus on was bringing Beau into the world—alive. I needed to hear him cry. I needed to see him and hold him. Breathe in his scent.
“Sophie, there’s no time to give you any drugs.” Travis explained in a gentle tone, smoothing my sweat drenched hair off my forehead. I didn’t understand Travis at all. One moment he could be yelling and on the verge of losing it—the next he was actually…sweet. “The baby is coming now.”
I nodded my head. I knew the baby was coming and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
I’d always been told that it took a while to deliver your first child, but no more than ten minutes could have passed since my water broke. I wondered if this was a shifter thing, or there was something really, really wrong. Despite the fact that death might be a better option for my child, I didn’t want to lose him. It was selfish of me, but he was my baby.
Travis stuck an IV in my arm and I jumped, not expecting it.
He already had gloves on, one of those funny looking hats, and a mask covering his nose and mouth. He’d really thought of everything. I glanced at the corner of the room and saw one of those clear beds they put babies in when they’re born as well as blankets and other things I couldn’t see very well.
I was breathing deeply, trying to block out the pain and everything going on around me.
Right now I didn’t need distractions. I needed to focus my strength on delivering Beau.
Travis adjusted my legs and muttered something I didn’t hear. My vision was going spotty and I couldn’t concentrate. The world around me was going in slow motion.
Oh no. The IV! He was drugging me! He had to be!
Travis’ face appeared in front of mine. He said something else but it sounded like he was speaking to me from the end of a tunnel.
“Whhhaaat?” I tried to speak, but I wasn’t sure the word actually left my mouth. My lips were numb. Why the hell were my lips numb? I thought he said there was no time for pain medicine? He had to have drugged me for an entirely different reason.
Everything felt out of my control. I was here, but I wasn’t here. My vision was blurry and I couldn’t focus on anything. Time was slowed down, but at the same time it was like it was sped up. Nothing made sense.
I felt pressure and a clenching in my gut. I wanted to cry from the strange feeling, but my body showed no reaction. My brain was active, but my body wasn’t. It was like I was paralyzed.
I felt so out of control…like I was spinning through the air with no idea which way was up or down.
My breath stopped when a cry filled the room.
Beau.
My son, he was here, and he was crying. He needed me, his mother. I was a mom. Gosh, that was a strange concept. I really had a baby.
I tried to lift my arms, but they didn’t move. I was broken, useless.
“B-b-beau.” I tried to say his name, but the word left my lips sounding nothing like Beau. Give me my son! I want my baby! I screamed the words in my head, but they did no good. Travis couldn’t hear me, and even if he could, he didn’t care.
The cries grew quieter, disappearing farther away.
“W-wait,” I muttered weakly. Please, wait.
My eyes closed and everything else ceased to exist.
Twenty.
Caeden
I sat up straight, an awareness rocking me to my core—so much so that I fell out of the chair I was sitting in.
“Caeden?” Nolan questioned hesitantly, looking at me like I was crazy.
I put a hand to my chest, my cheeks stretching into a smile. “I feel her.”
“Uh…”
“I feel her, Nolan!” I jumped up, excitement and adrenaline coursing through my veins. “This means I can find her!”
“Are you serious?!” He jumped up as well.
“I’m positive.” I was grinning like a fool, but all of a sudden I frowned, because if I felt her then that meant… “No,” I shook my head, dropping to my knees. “Beau.”
“Oh, shit.” Nolan muttered.
“We have to hurry,” I exclaimed. I managed to get myself to my feet and I looked around frantically, wondering if I needed to take anything. I decided there wasn’t time. “Come on, we have to go.”
I ran out the back door of the house, transforming in mid air. Pieces of my clothes exploded, decorating the yard in a strange looking confetti. I vaulted over the fence, running through the woods so fast you would’ve thought the hounds of hell were chasing me. I forced myself to come to a stop so I could howl and call my pack. I didn’t know what I was heading into and I needed everybody.
My legs were burning because I was running so fast. If someone had been hiding in the trees, watching me run by, all they would’ve seen was a gray blur.
What’s going on? Bentley voiced. I could tell he was near his home and was racing to meet up with me.
I feel Sophie. I answered simply. She’s fading in and out, but I know she’s close. We have to get there soon.
He understood what I couldn’t say. Sophie ‘fading’ was a bad thing. It meant she was barely hanging on and I had to hope and pray we reached her in time.
I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was coming very close to losing her—and I might have already lost my son. It was unfair that one person—Travis—could destroy my whole world. If he was there—wherever there was—when I reached Sophie, I’d rip him into pieces and not even blink an eye. I had suffered too much because of him and I’d long ago reached my breaking point.
I didn’t know you could run so fast. Nolan’s voice filled my head.
There’s a lot you don’t know about me. Like the murderous thoughts I was currently thinking of. I wanted to see Travis’ blood on my hands. I wanted to watch the light leave his eyes. I wanted to—
I came to a stop.
Holy shit.
What? Nolan and Bentley asked simultaneously. Several more voices echoed in my head but I couldn’t focus on them.
I know where we’re going.
Where? Bentley questioned, his voice laced with confusion.
The elders’ headquarters. The elders occupied a small two-story house in the woods to conduct their business. It had been vacant for years, and no one else knew its location. They didn’t live there full-time, but they spent most of their time there, which meant they were in on it just like I had suspected. I had been right all along about them and I should have trusted my gut. I’d never make that mistake again.
My anger spurned me on the last few miles. I came to a stop outside the house and transformed back into my human skin. I couldn’t get inside the house quick enough. The place was deserted, but I knew Sophie was here.
I jogged up the steps and came to a stop outside a closed door with a deadbolt on it. It was unlocked, my stomach clenched. She’d been locked in here like some kind of animal. Someone had to be really sick to do that to another human being. I took a deep breath and opened the door, bracing myself for what I might encounter.
The room was empty, except for the lone form spread out on the bed. Blood was everywhere. Covering her legs, the sheets of the bed, and even the floor. Her skin was pale and her chest shuddered with shaky breaths. A noise I couldn’t even begin to describe bubbled out of my throat. I ran to her side, taking her face between my hands. She was so tiny and fragile looking. She hadn’t looked this breakable when I found her before. This was bad.
“Sophie, baby, can you hear me?” I lightly smacked her cheeks, trying to generate a response.
Bleary brown eyes peeked at me. They were fading, taking on the chalky tone of death.
“Sophie, stay with me,” I pleaded, on the verge of tears. “I need you, baby. You have to
stay with me. You can’t leave me. I love you.” Words tumbled out of my mouth without any control on my part. I needed her to hear my words and to grasp onto them so they could give her the strength she needed to live. She was my life and I couldn’t live without her.
“B-b-b—”
She tried to speak, but couldn’t form words. Her lips had taken on an unnatural blue tone, like someone who was too cold. I looked at the IV in her arm, it’s liquid a strange pearly gray color. I ripped it out of her arm, tearing the plastic in the process, and some of the liquid sprayed on my hand. I screamed out in pain and glanced down at my hand to find it burned and blistered looking in the spots where the liquid had splashed it. My eyes widened. The liquid was laced with silver.
I knew Bentley was in the room behind me, I didn’t know where the others were and frankly I didn’t care.
“Bentley, I need you to stay with Sophie. I’ll be right back. Just talk to her. Keep her eyes open. Please, don’t let her leave me.”
He nodded, taking in the seriousness of the situation. “Hurry.”
I jogged back down the steps and into the room the elders used for meetings. There was a loose floorboard beneath the table and I had to crawl on my hands and knees to reach it. I yanked it up, tossing it to the side of me.
Vials of fairy dust met my eyes. It was gold in color and to a human they would have thought the tiny bottles were filled with sparkling glitter. But I knew better.
I grabbed all the vials, knowing I didn’t need all of them, but there was no way I was leaving them here.
“Hurry, dude,” Bentley warned when I topped the stairs.
My heart was racing so hard in my chest that I was scared it might give out and my blood roared in my eardrums. I dropped the vials on the bed and grabbed one, pulling out the cork. I sprinkled some of the gold dust over the small dot of a wound where the IV had been, before proceeding to pour the rest down her throat.
Within a minute color was returning to her cheeks and her breathing was evening out. I wasn’t going to lose her. I wasn’t. I wasn’t. I wasn’t.
Her eyes opened completely and the warmth of the brown made my heart skip a beat. They weren’t dull like they had been.
“Caeden?” She croaked, her voice dry and shaky.
I couldn’t say anything in response. I reached out, enveloping her in my arms. A sob escaped me and I didn’t care if it wasn’t very Alpha like to cry. I thought I’d lost my girl forever, but she was here in my arms, and she’d be fine.
“Where’s Beau?” Her voice was quiet and hesitant, like she feared the answer.
I pulled back, taking her face between my hands. I didn’t know what to say, because I didn’t know anything about Beau. It was obvious he wasn’t here and neither was Travis or any elders.
She took my silence as an answer and tears began to leak out of her eyes. I swiped them away, hating seeing her in so much pain. She buried herself into my arms and sobbed. Her tears soaked my bare skin and I brushed my fingers through her matted hair. “We’re going to find him,” I assured her. “I promise.”
“Don’t promise me that,” she said weakly. The fairy dust had brought her back from the brink of death, but having silver sent directly into her veins was going to take some recovery time. “Don’t promise me something you might not be able to keep.”
I closed my eyes, her words like a punch to my gut. She was right though. Beau was with Travis, and chances were we’d never meet our son, because whatever Travis had planned couldn’t be good.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I whispered, pressing kisses to the top of her head. She had no idea just how sorry I was for everything. Sophie might have always been going to be a shifter, but meeting me brought a lot of bad into her life. None of this would’ve happened if she’d never met me. I didn’t deserve her love, because all I did was destroy her life. That didn’t mean I was walking away though. I’d fight for this girl, for our love and for our lives, till my dying breath. Because that’s what you did when you loved someone unconditionally. You didn’t walk away because of the bad, you stood up and you fought.
I held her for as long as I could, breathing in her scent, but eventually, I knew we were going to have to leave.
“Can you shift?” I asked her, forcing her to meet my gaze.
She sniffled and shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can. I’m too tired.”
I grimaced. If she could shift it would speed up the healing process, but after everything she’d been through I wasn’t going to push her.
I turned to Bentley, who had yet to leave my side. I didn’t know what I’d do without that guy. He was more than my best friend—he was like a brother to me. “We’re not too far from my mom’s house. Go back there and get clothes for us,” I pointed to me and Sophie, “and pick us up in Bryce’s Jeep. It should be able to make it out here.”
The house was located deep in the woods and the terrain was rough, making it nearly impossible to reach by car, but we had no choice.
He nodded and disappeared. I knew he’d hurry, but waiting was going to suck. All I wanted to do was get Sophie home and take care of her.
“Bryce!” I called for my brother. I needed his help and there was no way I was leaving Sophie here by herself. Now that I had her, I wasn’t leaving her side. She was going to get so sick of me, but I didn’t care.
“You called,” Bryce’s voice sounded at the bottom of the steps. “What do you need?”
“Travis isn’t here, neither is…neither is Beau.” Saying that made me want to throw up, but I had to be strong for Sophie. “I need you and the others to see if you can track him. Leave some behind to look around here for anything mysterious, like a tunnel or something. I wouldn’t put anything past Travis.”
“You got it, captain!” Bryce yelled up the steps and then the door slammed closed behind him.
“I’m so sorry,” Sophie whispered. I turned to look at her and found her lower lip to be trembling. Tears glimmered in her eyes.
“Sorry?” I brushed her hair off her forehead with my fingers. “Baby, what do you have to be sorry about?”
“I couldn’t fight back,” she croaked. “He-he did something to Chris. Is she okay?” Color heated her cheeks as she began to panic.
“Shh,” I hushed her. “Christian is fine. In fact, I’m surprised she hasn’t busted in here to check on you. She’s felt so guilty about what happened.”
“Guilty?” Her brows furrowed in confusion. “But he hurt her. She couldn’t do anything.”
“No, she couldn’t, and neither could you. Don’t waste time worrying about things that were out of your control. Nothing was anybody’s fault but Travis’.”
She gasped, her eyes widening. “Caeden, he said—”
I put a finger to her lips, hushing her. I was desperate to know what she wanted to say, but I knew she needed to stay calm right now. “It’s not important at the moment, she-wolf. You can tell me later.”
“But—”
“No,” I shook my head. “You need to focus on healing. Whatever you know, you’re still going to know it when you feel better.”
She nodded, lying on her side with her hands curled beneath her head. She looked so small and fragile—two things that didn’t normally come to my mind when you thought of Sophie.
“We’re never going to see him, are we?” She cried softly.
I swallowed thickly. “Don’t think like that, Sophie.”
“I didn’t even get to hold him…or see him. I don’t even know what he looks like.” She began to sob and the sounds of her cries broke my heart. I hated seeing Sophie like this, and knowing there was nothing I could do to make her feel better. Nothing I said could make this better. I had never felt so…useless in all my life. We were mates, and we were always able to handle things together, but right now I had never felt so far removed from her. How do you comfort your wife over the loss of your child—a loss you’re not even sure you need to grieve?
I took a
deep breath, thinking through what I was about to say. “We’re going to see him, Soph. He’s out there and we’re going to find him. You have nothing to worry about.”
God, what a lie. We had everything to worry about.
I smoothed my finger over her cheek and she let out a small sigh as her eyes closed. I knew she had to be exhausted after everything she went through. She’d been with Travis for nearly three months and if it had felt like an eternity to me, it was ten times worse than that for her.
“Go to sleep, baby,” I whispered in her ear. “I’ll be right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I don’t want to sleep,” she croaked, trying to crack her eyes open. “When I close my eyes all I see is…is him.”
My breath came out shaky. She’d been traumatized by what happened to Logan, but this was something I wasn’t sure time would ever heal. She might always be a little bit broken. But I’d love those broken pieces with every fiber of my being, and hopefully my love would heal her—maybe not the whole way, but enough that she’d be okay.
“I love you so much,” I brushed my lips over hers.
Her eyes opened and her lashes fanned her cheeks as she blinked. “I know.”
“And don’t you ever forget it,” I added.
“That would be impossible…” Her eyes closed once more and her breathing evened out so I knew she’d been unable to resist the lure of sleep.
I reached out and took her hand in mine. She was so bony and thin—but she’d gotten like that before Travis took her. I sent up a silent prayer that I’d felt her, and gotten here in time. I’d really almost lost her and I couldn’t imagine my life without Sophie in it. It sure would be a lonely existence.
But now, we didn’t have our son, and that left behind a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I couldn’t begin to describe. I’d do everything I could to find him—just like I had with Sophie. But I had to be smarter about it this time. I couldn’t go off the deep-end and not listen to anyone. I might be Alpha but we’re a pack, which means we’re supposed to work together, and I needed them to find Beau…and Travis, so I could destroy him once and for all.
Avenger (Outsider Series) Page 15
