by Jaymin Eve
“How’s my little niece or nephew?”
Everyone knew about the baby now; it was impossible to hide a belly this size. Family and pack also knew it was Maximus’ young and no one got weird or anything about it. Which I’d never expected. Their unwavering acceptance had reduced me to tears more than once, but I’d at least waited until I was alone to explode in a pregnancy-induced ball of emotions.
“Good, just … I really want to send him a text. I can’t have this baby without him knowing. I just can’t.”
I didn’t say his name out loud very often. It was painful, and I’d had enough of that. Tyson’s hand drifted across to clutch mine. I loved the tactile nature of supernaturals. It was comforting and I sucked it up because I’d never had anything like it in my life before.
“Not a great idea. We don’t want to send him over the edge, and who knows what a text like that might do. He said he was on his way back, and he’s a supe of his word.”
I groaned before dropping my head against the wizard’s shoulder, something a few months ago I’d never have been comfortable enough to do. But once my wolf accepted them as my pack, the rest had fallen into place.
“I planned to tell him so many times right after the dragon king battle. I even stood outside his door for an hour just hoping he’d emerge. But he was in so much pain and he didn’t seem to want to be anywhere near me.” After losing Cardia, he’d spent time with his pack, but he’d very clearly been avoiding me with a single-mindedness that was quite insulting.
“I should have forced him to listen on that last day, when you guys were inducted into the council. Why did he just take off without even stopping to see me?” I sucked in a deep breath, trying to stuff my hurt feelings deep down where they belonged. I had no right to these emotions and I was working really hard at accepting that. Maximus owed me nothing. But he did owe our child his attention, which meant I needed him here so he could at least know before the birth.
Tyson’s hand was comforting again. “You were trying to do the right thing. Give him time to grieve and assuage the pain over the loss of his mate. He’s the one who took off without a word to you. This is on no one but him. He’ll return soon. I know it.”
The mage was probably right. He seemed to have an inside scoop to the goings-on in our universe. The gods talked to him.
“I don’t think I can take it any longer,” Jessa said as she sat next to me, Braxton on her other side. “I need Maximus back. Brax … get him back for me.”
She turned large, pleading eyes on her mate, and I could practically see the way he was crushed under the enormity of his love for her. There was nothing he wouldn’t do or get for her. I had no doubt now that his vampire brother would be back in Stratford soon.
Sinking further into the soft couch, I tried to school my features. No point letting anyone see the burning well of agony inside of me. It was stupid that every time I heard his name a sharp stab hit me in my chest before ricocheting down through my ribs. But there it was.
Every single time.
My wolf brushed against my mind and I let her wrap around me.
Mate.
For some reason she always called him mate. I’d had just about every supernatural I knew explain to me – multiple times – that there was no possible way a vampire could be my true mate. We were from different supernatural races. That was one of the first truths I’d learned upon my arrival in Stratford. True mates were within the same race. My mate would be a shifter, and Maximus’ would be a vampire … was a vampire. Cardia. She died in the battle against the dragon king, and was the reason Maximus had taken off.
Ugh! I would not dwell on this any longer. No more was I going to be the sad and pathetic member of this pack. It was hard though, to not feel alone. Outside in the human world I’d been nothing, forgotten, a freak, neglected by a mother who was grieving and ridiculed by humans who didn’t understand the odd little things I’d done. And while I had eventually learned to hide my peculiarities – which I now understood were part of my shifter nature – the cruel taunts and feeling of loneliness had never left me. But I was not weak like that any longer. I was strong and I would not let any creature bring me down again, even a gorgeous, dirty-blond vampire.
I closed my eyes, taking a moment to inwardly connect with my unborn child, to Zen my mind, as Jessa would say.
The ebb of pain did not ease.
Dammit! Wasn’t time supposed to heal wounds and stuff? The twin connection flared inside and a sense of love wrapped around me. It was so hard to explain, but the warm sensation was how I’d describe home. Together with my wolf, Jessa had given me my first true sense of family, of not being alone, and I loved her so much that my heart swelled at the pure emotion of it.
And still it was not enough.
It’s going to be okay, Misch. He’ll come back to us. And he’ll learn to be okay with his pain. The same way you are. This child will be loved by both parents.
We didn’t speak through our link much. I preferred it that way. It scared me that she could see the sadness inside my heart and soul. I worried she would think I was weak again. Jessa was the epitome of everything I’d always wanted to be, strong, sassy, beautiful, and confident. We looked almost identical, but even our face she wore better than me. Her inner confidence gave her a shine I’d never have. Which was fine. I’d learned early on looks were nothing to strive for. Kindness, intelligence, and the ability to continue caring even when everyone and thing had knocked you down, that’s where my goals were.
Truth be told, I wasn’t the only one who’d suffered from our parents’ decisions to separate us at birth, even if they had done it to save our lives. Jessa, too, had lost her mother and sister, left with an absent, grieving father. When our parents had seen we bore the dragon mark – symbol of the long dead king who was touted to rise again – they’d known they had to separate and hide us and our marks or we’d both have been taken from them.
Despite him being a thousand years locked away, the supernatural communities had feared the king, prophesied to return with an entire army of dragon marked supes at his disposal.
Thanks to a few stupid moves from me, he did manage to escape his prison a month ago. And he most certainly had control over all of us who’d been marked, but in the end he’d been defeated by my sister and the Compasses. They’d permanently ended him, which meant all of us “marked” were now free to return to our lives.
So yes, Jessa had suffered, but she’d always had her pack, the Compass quads. And those four boys were almost the toughest supernaturals in existence. I thought Jessa was even tougher.
It’s your pack now too.
She gave me that final gift before initiating the block between us again. She was better at mental barriers, having learned from her dragon. For most of her life Jessa had been a dual shifter, dragon and wolf, but had had to release her dragon’s soul during the last battle. Now she was a plain old wolf shifter like me – even if nothing about my sister was ever really plain. Josephina, her dragon soul, now resided in a beautiful golden dragon body, and was queen of the beasts, living in Faerie.
I made Jessa promise she would take me to visit as soon as we could. There was no rush of course, supes lived for hundreds of years. Still, there was some human in me, and I always worried about running out of time.
A hard kick by the baby had me jumping about a foot in the air, instinctively I clutched my ribs.
“Good boy,” Tyson said, shifting my hand out of the way so he could feel the kicks too. It was unbelievable to see these absolutely lethal males get all gooey over the babies Jessa and I carried.
“You don’t know it’s a boy,” I said, my heart beating rapidly as warmth and joy flittered through my mind and into my blood.
A child was a miracle. There was no other way to describe it. And while I regretted so many decisions I’d made since coming back into the supernatural world, I would never regret my one night with Maximus. It gave me my child, and I wondered at times if
a heart could actually explode from too much love.
The baby kicked again and Tyson gave a shout: “Okay, that was a strong one. You’re right, could be a little girl. We know there’s no stronger being in this realm than a female. The way you carry young and feed them from your body, you’re damn miracles.”
From a human male this might have sounded condescending, like they were just trying to placate a silly woman, but supernatural males really meant it. They were earthier than humans, animalistic even; they cherished their females to the point that if a human female ever witnessed these bonds, they would probably die of envy.
Braxton gave a low growl then, and I could feel the heat from the dragon shifter over here. “We’re blessed to have you and our new young in our lives,” he said. His gaze was firmly locked on Jessa, and through the twin bond my own heart clenched at the staggering emotions of their true mateship. He had a way about him. Maybe it was the blue as blue eyes, or the hypnotic rumble of his chest, but I was never surprised when my sister was a gooey puddle at his feet.
My baby kicked me again, harder this time, and suddenly there was dance party going on inside. I shifted on the couch, trying to find a comfortable spot, or hopefully derail the party before it got started and went all night.
“How far along did the witch say you were?” Tyson was looking at my stomach now, his brows raised. “What was the gestation expected to be?”
I knew what he was asking; it felt as if this one was already ready to come out fighting. “They tested me three times, and every single time it was six months expected gestation. I’m about four and a half months, so still a bit to go.”
Jessa shifted forward, curiosity lighting up her face. “I’ve never heard of a vamp-shifter hybrid taking six months to be born. Generally, it would be much shorter. Your baby must fall heavily toward our family line rather than Max’s.”
That made me think of the Compass quads themselves. They were a genetic anomaly. How could they be born of hybrid parents and each have a pure soul of the four races?
“What the heck was the gestation period for Jo?” I blurted out, hoping it wasn’t an inappropriate question. I was completely void of all social graces and knowledge in this world. Totally learning the hard way, foot in mouth style.
Luckily the guys just laughed. “If you ask Mom, she’ll tell you it was at least four years,” Tyson said. “But she ended up going around eight months. That was the longest her body could hold the four of us, and although we were born a little early, there were no issues.”
Of course not, an issue wouldn’t dare show itself around these quads. Damn, they had destroyed the dragon king. They were the new council leaders. They were all gorgeous, looking like they’d been perfectly carved by the gods themselves. Around them, and my sister, I generally felt like a stupid human who had accidentally stumbled into their perfect world. I didn’t fit. I didn’t belong. But I would stay as long as I could. I craved their pack bond too much to leave, even if I knew the moment Maximus returned the ache in my chest would explode full force.
My newly sensitive hearing picked up Jacob coming long before he made it down the stairs. His voice rang out with a slight sense of urgency. “We need to move. They spotted Kristoff at the edge of Stratford, right on the security line. Louis just let me know. He’s heading there now too.”
The males were up and moving before the words even fully registered with me. Jessa was also on her feet, rounded belly just visible beneath her black cotton shirt. “If you all think you’re leaving without me, think again.”
Braxton froze. I could see the gears turning in his head as he searched for the words to placate his moody mate. Jessa had that half-grin on her face. She knew she’d won before he even opened his mouth.
The shifter just shook his head and scooped her up into his arms. “We have to run. I don’t want you to fall behind.”
Likely story. The quads carried my twin around all the time, like she was their personal queen. It was annoying and I was somewhat jealous of how much they loved her. Did these supernaturals even understand how rare this kind of unconditional love was. No competition. No jealousy. No weirdness. Just pure support and love. Assholes. Yeah, I said it. When I swore in my mind, only Jessa knew, so I was safe from Lienda.
Awkwardly pulling myself up, I started to stride toward the front door. I was going too. This was my pack and I wouldn’t let them go into danger without me. I might be pregnant but I was still a wolf. And even though I’d be a lot slower than them, I’d get there eventually. The others followed me, and as we got closer to the front door I prepared myself for the argument to stay behind. That was my life, always pushed to the side.
Tyson gently gripped my arm, stopping me. Then shocked the hell out of me with, “Come on, pretty girl, I’ll take you,” he said, before leaning down to wrap his arms around me. “You’re a little slow right now and we need to get there five minutes ago. Kristoff is a slimy bastard and he keeps slipping through our grasp.”
In one smooth movement he scooped me up and tucked me into his body. I let out a muffled shriek and clutched at his thick shoulders. Unlike Jessa, I wasn’t used to this being carried around business.
My twin grinned at me. “Just go with it, girl. You can’t fight them. They use dimples and pure brute strength to get their own way.”
I snorted. “You’re just lucky I’m tired and fat. Otherwise I’d be kicking your butt, Ty ... and I'm not that slow.”
Tyson just chuckled as he hugged me closer. “We’re tactile guys, you’re just going to have to get used to our manly ways.”
That was just the thing. I didn’t want to get used to it and then have it ripped away from me again. Somehow these supes were slowly infiltrating themselves into every part of my world.
And I was starting to like it. A lot.
We moved out the door so fast my head was spinning. Even though I’d put on a decent chunk of weight with this pregnancy, Tyson didn’t show any strain at all as he carried me.
It was still cold, but the first signs of spring were emerging. The huge acres of forest bordering Stratford were already blooming to life. I had been loving the wolf runs we’d been having lately. Not having a murderous dragon king controlling me had really freed up my time for other fun activities.
As the security force field surrounding our town came into sight, a wiggle of nerves started in my belly. I almost let out a sigh when Louis appeared on the edge of the forest. The absolutely gorgeous sorcerer, with his light hair and arresting purple eyes, was waiting patiently for us.
I found Louis to be such an anomaly. If I’d never seen him and just heard him speak, or felt his power, I’d have expected him to look like a wizened little wizard – something about the way he knew everything, could do everything, and had an ancient power which literally made my bones ache. All things that did not fit the Calvin Klein underwear model look he had going on. He was tall, not quite as bulky as the Compasses, but definitely not lacking in the body department. Looked about twenty-eight years old, but I knew he was well over a hundred. Supes aged really well. We didn’t start to look old until we were like eight hundred years or something.
Louis’ power slapped across my face as we closed in on him. Together with the Compass quads, there wasn’t much that could best these five. Which was a relief when I had a precious one to protect.
I still couldn’t figure out what the hell Kristoff Krass wanted. He’d been the council leader for the magic users before the quads took over. Though, actually, he lost his position long before that, for trying to frame and murder the boys to keep his place of power. He was quite a piece of work.
There had been multiple sightings of the sorcerer over the past week, and now the boys were trying to deal with that as well as learn their new duties.
We’d just finished one war and I’d be damned if another landed at our feet anytime soon. But I had this weird sense that something big was coming our way, and I really hoped we were all equipped to deal wi
th it. New motherly instincts were blazing through my soul. I would protect my child or die trying. That was the first promise I made to the baby when I found out I was pregnant, and it would be the last also.
Maximus Compass
I was rapidly reaching the conclusion that humans were fucking idiots.
Until recently I had never spent much time in their presence. We’d occasionally had to slip into the regular world to chase down supe criminals, but that rarely required an extended stay with the locals. It was better that way; there was something very other about us, and this scared the humans. They didn’t like anything that couldn’t be easily explained. The Guilds were the only ones who could handle knowing about our world. They were born in to it and had a lifetime of training for their role.
I’d been wandering the human streets for a week now, slowly working my way home but managing to find enough distractions that it was definitely taking me longer than expected. The excessive number of dishonorable humans was keeping me busy and fed.
During my time out of Stratford I’d saved many of this short-lived race from rape, torture, robbery, and violence. At first I’d ignored them, not wanting to get involved, but eventually the berserker rage inside of me needed somewhere to go.
Like the piece of shit humans I fed from, my nature was violent, much more so than them. I was the nightmare lurking in the shadows of their world. Until recently I’d directed those urges toward the path where it could do the most good, and hurt the least. I’d always volunteered for criminal collection duty. But now I no longer cared. I was leaving a bloody trail in my wake.
To date I hadn’t killed any of the humans; that would be too easy for them. I chose to weaken and scare the life out of them, reducing them to piss-covered jeans and a fractured mind. For the rest of their lives they would be busy looking over their shoulders for me.
