Unlock and Bind: (Maya Strom Series - Book 2)

by A. B. Marie

“Perfect, let’s go get our nails done and you can leave from there. Beatrice is almost here for my prenatal appointment, let’s leave in about two hours?” They nod and head back upstairs. Gerard shows Beatrice in when she arrives, and we head up to the master.

  “Good morning, Maya! Let’s check you over.” She takes my vitals and checks the swelling along my ankles and feet. “Your blood pressure is a little high and you’re too swollen. You need to stay off your feet, Maya. I’m putting you on modified bedrest. Only get out of bed for a few hours a day, and that’s it. You’re in the home stretch.” I glare at her and nod. She has me lie down and she checks my cervix. “No thinning or dilation just yet, but she’s definitely dropped down! Won’t be too much longer.” She packs up her bags and helps me sit up. “I’m serious, Maya, bed rest. I’ll see you next week.” She gives me a hug and leaves me in my room. I text all of the guys though a group text and let them know what Beatrice said.

  Penny walks in and lays down on my bed next to me. “How did it go?”

  I pout and tell her that I’m on bedrest and she rests her head on my breast. “Danika and I can stay here for a few hours and we can do facials and paint your nails for you!” I give her a kiss on the head.

  “You’re too sweet, that would be nice.” She smiles at me and leaves the room. I get comfortable on some pillows and turn on the TV that’s on the wall across from the bed. I scroll for a while, not really happy with what I’m finding. “Okay, Danika, go lay with Maya and I’ll get everything set up. Do you have nail polish anywhere?”

  “Yeah, there should be a bag of them under the sink in the bathroom.” She heads there and I hand the remote to Danika to pick one of her girly movies. “Okay! Facials or nails first?” I look over to the tray on my nightstand that’s loaded with a bowl of smashed avocado and some cucumber slices.

  “Let’s do nails first!” Danika exclaims while I point Penny to the closet where we keep the extra towels. She sets them out and Danika paints my finger nails a deep, sparkly blue and Penny paints my toes silver. They take turns painting each other’s next, and I look over to see Penny chose a hot pink, of course, and Danika chose a sunflower yellow. I roll my eyes, how are these girls even friends with me.

  “So, how’s life with six men?” Penny asks me, just like she does every time we are together.

  “Sexy. Orgasmic. Mind-blowing.” I wink and stick my tongue out at her.

  She rolls her eyes. “You’re obnoxious.”

  Danika looks up to me with her sparkling, deep blue eyes. “How does sex work with all of them? It sounds like a lot of work.”

  I give her an evil smile. “I have three holes and two hands. They swap out, team up, or take turns.” I shrug and she chokes out a laugh.

  “Well, damn.” Penny looks over to me with heated eyes that I haven’t seen since we first met. Ah fuck, and I’m huge and pregnant.

  Penny kisses Danika quickly on the lips. “Well, you know where to find us if you need a break from all those cocks.” Danika quickly looks at me with wide eyes and back to Penny.

  “Sounds good! Let me pop this baby out of me and I’ll take you both up on that offer.” I wink at Danika and she relaxes and looks relieved.

  “I didn’t think you’d be into women.” She says sheepishly. I just shrug and we move onto facials and watch the dumbass romantic movie. I end up falling asleep with the cucumbers over my eyes and wake up to my face getting cleaned up.

  “We’re leaving now, Maya. See you soon!” Penny and Danika give me quick hugs and walk out after cleaning up our mess and taking everything downstairs. I grumble to myself while taking a long, hot shower. Deciding to have my best rest outside in my hammock, I grab my Kindle and take the elevator down to stay off the stairs. After Graham saw me having some issues getting comfortable, he helped me lay down while chuckling and gave me a kiss on the head before walking back inside. Asshole.

  My academy guys decide to stay home another week, and we spend it preparing my ensuite for the birth, washing a bunch of baby blankets, and setting up another rolling cart by my bed that’s full of diapers, wipes, and extra baby clothes. Mark puts the bassinet together and sets it up next to the right side of the bed.

  “You getting excited, baby?” He asks as he lays down next to me and gives me a sloppy kiss on the cheek. I look over into his gorgeous, deep, emerald green eyes and grumble about how I’m so bored of laying around in bed. He sits up to take off his shirt and I’m trying hard to control my stabby reflexes. He looks so fucking good. My tallest guy at six-foot-six, cut with hard muscles and hard lines. His abs are contracting while he lays back down and he has a dark happy trail that leads to his tight, black jeans. I look back to his handsome face and catalogue the man that has been a constant in my life for over fourteen years. I run my hands through his dark brown hair and pull him in for a kiss.

  “Fuck me?” He smirks and after some maneuvering and hard fucking, I fall asleep into an orgasmic coma.

  The week is slowly passing by and I’m all caught up on my murder shows, bored out of my mind. I’m not even allowed to go play with my prisoners. I’m starting to have mild contractions over the last few days, luckily Beatrice is coming on Saturday, before I go out of my mind. I waddle into the bathroom and settle into a calm, warm bath. Ross comes stalking in and gets into the tub with me. “Any news on Nathan yet?”

  He gives me a grim look. “Nothing, babe. We’re still working hard tracking everything we can. A few of us are going to Love, Maya tonight. Collins and Graham are staying here with you.” I nod to him and he washes me and helps me out of the bath. He helps me dress in one of Collins’ t-shirts and some panties and kisses me on the cheek on his way out. I spend the night cuddling in bed with all of our familiars and the two guys on either side of me.

  With nothing else better to do, I spend several hours a day working on Lola and Polly’s mental capabilities. I had Mark bring me down some books on familiars from the library to see if they’re ready to mirror my magic. They’re able to communicate decently, now, and are getting a lot more independent.

  “Okay, Polly, freeze Lola.” Her eyes glow violet and she looks at Lola and flicks her tail towards the tiny, black kitten. “Holy fuck. Okay, unfreeze Lola.” She does and I have Lola do it back to Polly. “Fuck yeah!” I pump my fist in the air and we work on invisibility and a protective bubble next. “I think that’s it for today, girls. Good job!” I cuddle up to them and scratch Marie, Mark’s familiar, behind her ears. “Your daddy will be up here soon, sweet girl.” She rubs her face under my chin, and I feed them snacks while I continue reading.

  “Hey babe, we think we have a fucking lead! There’s a council safe house that was abandoned for a few decades and got some feedback from one of the phones we’ve been tracking. We’re loading up to head out. Love you!” Ross gives me a quick kiss and runs out of the room. I lay back down and growl out loud.

  Graham sits next to me. “I know, babe. But you have to stay in bed anyway. I’ll bring you up some dinner and give you a massage.”

  Graham comes back in with a tray filled with food and Troy lays down on the bed with me. “They’ll be fine, gorgeous. Let’s relax and I’ll rub your belly.” Troy wiggles his eyebrows at me, and we settle in for the night. I start to panic; I hate it when the guys go run off and do this shit.

  “Why can’t we just send your cunt of a sister as bait?”

  He rolls his eyes at me. “Because she would somehow fuck more shit up?” Graham puts something on the TV and has me roll to my side toward Troy and starts rubbing my back.

  “Mmm. Fuck.” Graham chuckles and Troy starts hand feeding me some hummus on vegetables. I eat until I’m full and we watch TV to take our minds off of waiting to hear from the guys. “Do you think they’ll be okay?”

  Graham looks over to me. “Yeah, babe. They’re going to be fine.” He pulls me toward him to lay my head on his chest and I close my eyes.

  I wake up to hear Troy talking quietly. “Yeah, she’s asleep.
Everyone’s okay?” There’s a pause. “Fucking A, how is this guy so fucking hard to keep track of?... Alright, see you soon.”

  “Everyone okay?” I ask him sleepily.

  He cuddles up to me. “Yeah, everyone is fine. When they got there, they saw someone in through the window. When they jumped out of the car, the person – presumably Nathan – threw out some spells and just fucking vanished. They looked everywhere and used visibility potions and spells all over the house and grounds just in case he was hiding in plain sight. Nothing.”

  I growl. “This guy is a pain in my fucking ass. Was there anything there to stick a tracker on?”

  He shakes his head. “No. No car, no phone anywhere, and no personal items. He must keep everything either hidden or not at that house.” I roll my eyes and get comfortable to go back to sleep.

  Collins and Nolan had to return to work for a few days for meetings, then Troy and Ross have some issues to deal with at one of the clubs. I’m down four guys and the other two are figuring out what to do with our prisoners. Brant was supposed to start working on the gym again last week, but we pushed the timeline up. “What if we move them to the Strom house and ward it up?”

  Mark looks over at me. “We could put Amelie in the pink room.” He winks at me. I love how he understands my brain. Mark and Graham leave me at home, and they go take care of that. I call Brant to let him know he can come back at any time and he says he will bring the crews back tomorrow. Glad that’s settled. I call down to Malek and ask him if he can make me a burger with some grilled vegetables, a salad, and some of his homemade potato chips for lunch. I’m starving today. While I’m waiting on that, I decide to head to the magic room and catch up on highlighting my syllabus and going over what I should be “learning”. Maggie finds me about an hour later and places the tray of food on the desk.

  “Hi sweet girl, you feeling okay?”

  I smile up at her. “Yeah, just working on schoolwork.” I take a huge bite of my burger and set my work to the side.

  “That’s good! I’m going to go freshen up your bedroom.” She smiles and waves at me on her way out and I scarf down my lunch. After I’m done, I work on replenishing all of the potions the guys have been using and decide to lay down on the nest of pillows and blankets in the middle of the room. I get comfortable and meditate for a while. I haven’t astral projected since last semester, so I decide to let my mind wander and I let my spirit roam around the grounds. I float above the trees in the back and look out towards the roaming hills. After I get bored, I start to follow Malek around the kitchen and see that he’s preparing some sort of roast for dinner. I chuckle as I watch him dance around the kitchen, he’s such a nice man. His short, black hair is slicked back and his tight white shirt and jeans form to his muscular frame. I dance around him and leave the kitchen to go chase after Gerard.

  After looking on all three floors, I don’t see him anywhere and don’t want to check his quarters to invade his privacy. I head back to my body and open my eyes. Man, that exhausted me more than it used to. I check my phone and see a few texts from the guys:

  Mark: ~Hey baby, just got to the old Strom house, see you soon.~

  Nolan: ~These meetings are so boring.~ *a photo of him and Collins in a meeting room while scowling at the camera.*

  I roll my eyes and close them to take a little nap.

  “Hey baby, we’re home, and dinner is ready. Do you want to come downstairs?” I open my eyes and see Mark sitting next to me moving my hair out of my face. I mumble and nod to him and picks me up in his arms and takes me down to the couch.

  I sit up and yawn. “Did you call Brant to put that place on hold now?” I laugh, poor Brant, we like to keep him on his toes.

  “Not yet.” He takes a seat next to me and hands me the remote to the TV. I take it and scroll through.

  Graham walks in with a tray filled with three plates of food. He sets it on the table in front of us and hands me a plate. Mmm. Roast with mashed potatoes and a large portion of green beans. “Hey babe, how was your day?”

  I take a big bite. “It was relaxing. Spent a few hours in the magic room.” I shrug and pick out a new documentary that came out about aliens since Mark loves this shit. I sit back and get more comfortable and finish my food. “When will the twins be home?”

  Mark places his plate back on to the tray. “Not sure, I haven’t heard from either of them today.” I pull my phone out of my bra and call Ross. It goes to voicemail and I hang up. I scroll through my phone and reply back to Nolan, and send Ross and Troy a group text telling them to hurry their asses home.

  I look over to Graham, “Are you going to be staying home with us instead of heading back to campus?”

  He shakes his head. “No, I enjoy my classes and it’s nice to get out of the house. I’ll go back starting when Collins and Nolan do.” He stands up and gives me a kiss on the head. “We’ll probably wait until we’ve dealt with Nathan.” He takes the tray of empty plates to the kitchen and I call down Lola and Polly to come relax on the couch. A few minutes later they come barreling in and jump up on the couch. We relax and I try to wait up for the twins to get home, but I can’t keep my eyes open.

  The next morning, I wake up and look around my bedroom and see that I’m alone. Hmm. My phone says it’s only eight AM, so it’s still early as hell. I stretch, roll out of bed and pad to the bathroom to draw a bath.

  “Baby? Want me to bring you breakfast?”

  “Sure! Thanks!” I get out and put on a robe and lay back down in bed. “Have you heard from the twins yet?”

  “Yeah, Ross called your phone last night after you fell asleep. They stayed in their PI office last night. They thought they had a new lead on Nathan.” He shrugs and hands me a tray filled with fruit, eggs, and toast.

  I nod. “I hope we catch this fucker soon; I’m fucking sick of the council’s psychotic bullshit. Have we decided what we’re going to do with the prisoners?”

  “I was thinking about putting tracking spells on the councilmen and just dropping them off somewhere. The twins can figure out what to do with their sister. Maybe send her back to the treatment facility and actually make sure the cunt stays there?”

  “Mmm. Fine. Justin and Jerome did give me a lot of information. Maybe they can lead us back to Nolan.” I relax in bed and read on my Kindle. I skim through some more parenting and baby books that Mark keeps downloading. “You know I won’t read these.” I look over at him and stick my tongue out at him.

  He smirks at me. “The guys and I have read some…” I glare at him and go back to my murder mystery novel I started yesterday. A few hours later, Troy walks into my room and hands me a tray filled with chicken strips and Malek’s homemade fries.

  “Fuck yes!” I gobble it down and feed Mark a few bites before I finish it all. “How was your night?”

  Troy lays down on the foot of the bed. “Not good, we can’t find shit.”

  “What if we place tracking spells on them and send them back to that hotel? Then you can stay up all night watching your surveillance screens again?” I stick my tongue out at him.

  He nods. “Yeah, that was a possibility. I’ll head into the magic room and get something ready. Maybe a cuff that turns invisible… And makes them forget they’re wearing it…” He mumbles more to himself and heads out the door.

  “Oops, were you still hungry, Marky?”

  He rolls his eyes. “I’m fine. I’ll go down and have a real lunch soon.” He kisses me on my head and settles back down. He starts to rub my belly and talks to the baby. “You’re going to be here soon, baby girl. I can’t wait to meet you.” He kisses the side where she’s pushing her elbow out and I decide to take another nap. Fuck, I feel like I can’t get enough sleep.

  Chapter 12

  Markus

  _________

  Troy worked hard on the three cuffs that we’re placing on the cunt, and council bitches one and two. I don’t remember what Maya said their names were, and I really don’t care. “Jus
t slap the cuff on their wrists and we’ll leave them here for another night for the spells to kick in. We need them to forget about them being on there.” I nod and slap one on Amelie while Troy takes care of the other two. We take care of our prisoners for one last night and ward the house back up.

  I jog back to the car. “Fuck, I can’t wait for the gym to be done. Laying around with Maya so much to keep her company is putting me out of shape.” I wink at Troy and slap my abs a few times.

  “Fuck off, you’re fucking stacked.” I laugh at him and we head to the shops to shop around for a few hours. “Did Maya make another list?”

  “Of course, she did. I linked her phone to mine, and I go through them every few days so I can pick up anything she wants or needs.”

  He gives me a curious look. “If I didn’t know you actually loved her, I would think you’re a damn stalker. A smart stalker, though.” He smirks at me and we shop around for the random shit Maya needs and head home. Troy runs up to the surveillance office on the third floor to make sure the trackers are working, and I bring the bags of shit up to Maya.

  I walk into the master bedroom and see that she’s asleep with her phone on her face. I put it on her nightstand and place the bags on the floor. Leaving her alone to nap, I head out to the gym to see how it’s coming along. I nod to Brant and see that they’re hard at work, so I go for a jog around the property then sit in the grass to exercise the familiars. I settle Marie in my lap and work on commands and some light magic. After a while I see Polly and Lola start to cry and run back towards the house. Jumping up to run to the master bedroom, I see Maya hunched over and crying out while holding her swollen belly.

  “Fuck! What’s wrong, baby?” I sit next to her and rub her back.

  “Contractions. Holy fucking shit.” I pull her hair out of her face and tie it up with a hair tie from her wrist.

  “Do you want to get into the bath or wait?”

  She breaths deeply and relaxes back down. “They’re not very close together. I just want to try to relax as much as I can. Can you call Beatrice and let her know? They’re about ten minutes apart.” I pull out my phone to call her and let her know, she said she will be here in a few hours and to just keep Maya comfortable and not let her eat, she can suck on ice.