by Kaia Pierce
Rowan frowned. “My only problem is that spells from Eliza Vreeland’s coven come with a price. Do you even know why Garland Grayback is so afraid of them?”
I certainly didn’t, and I could tell that Kaden didn’t know, either.
Rowan blinked slowly and took a deep breath. “Years ago, Eliza herself promised a spell that would grow Garland’s company, and he promised to help her business in return.”
“But he never did,” Kaden said, already familiar with what kind of man he was.
“Exactly,” Rowan said. “So she took his kid.”
“What?” I snapped.
Kaden balked. “What do you mean ‘took’ him?”
“Where do you think all those stories about witches eating babies come from?” Rowan said sharply. “Eliza had her coven spin the biggest spell I’ve ever heard of, expecting to gain something as significant in return. But when Garland didn’t come through…” She trailed off ominously, leaving us to our own conclusions.
She took his kid. At that moment, all I could think about was Liam, swollen with my own future kid.
Under my three layers of clothes, my heart was silently racing.
“I haven’t seen Max in years, but I just thought Garland and Arlena sent him away to school or something,” Kaden murmured. “So what happened to him?”
“What do you think happened to him? Garland is scared shitless of them,” I blurted out. Realizing I was clenching my fists under the table, I unfurled them. After wiping my palms on my jeans, I cleared my throat to say, “Max is probably dead.”
“Probably,” Rowan agreed. “So do you see why I’m so concerned?”
The Adam’s apple in Kaden’s throat bobbed as he gulped.
Rowan adjusted her glasses and leaned in close on her elbows. “This is extremely important. What did you guys promise them?”
“The only thing they asked of me was to make sure Caleb comes to the meeting with me to set off the spell,” Kaden said.
Rowan narrowed her eyes. “That was to create the opportunity for Stevie to sneak in and shoot her husband. They must want whatever she promised them pretty badly,” Rowan said. Then, she turned to me. “In that case, how about you, Caleb?”
My mouth went dry. Suddenly, I wished that I’d had the foresight to ask the waitress for a glass of water, but it was too late now.
I swallowed uncomfortably. “A favor.”
Rowan’s eyes narrowed further. “What kind of favor?”
My answer came as a dry whisper. “Just…any favor.”
Kaden and Rowan let my words sink in. I caught them exchanging troubled looks across the table.
“I fucked myself over, didn’t I,” I said darkly.
For the first time in the short time I’d known her, Rowan appeared to be at a loss for words.
“No,” Kaden said firmly, “because we’re going to make sure that isn’t the case. Me and the whole pack.”
He extended his hand across the table to me. For a split second that felt like a lifetime, I stared at it, feeling a strange, buzzing emptiness inside of me.
I need him, I thought before taking his hand.
We were barely able to shake on it before Rowan called for our attention again. Secretly, I was thankful. When Kaden offered me his help without hesitation, I’d felt my eyes beginning to water.
“If you guys are done bro-ing out, I’d like to address the real reason we’re here,” she said.
“I thought we were here to talk about what happened with Garland,” I said, pulling my hand back into my lap.
“We were, and we did,” Rowan said. She signaled to Kaden with a nod.
Kaden coughed, looking suddenly uncomfortable. With a nervous sweep of his hand, he pulled off his beanie and scratched his hair.
“If we were meeting in person, I figured we might as well start talking about Liam’s birthing plan,” he said.
“Birthing plan?” I echoed, clueless. “What’s that?”
Chapter 23: Liam
It’s weird how things work out sometimes.
About this time last year, the Black Paw and Grayback packs were enjoying its new truce, and Kaden and a very pregnant Josh were nesting in a luxurious cabin on Garland Grayback’s private island.
The months since then were tumultuous at best. Inexplicably, the least of our problems was the dissolution of the truce. However, it had all worked itself out somehow.
The truce was back on, the pack was safe, and an alpha was crossing a narrow strip of the Pacific with his very pregnant omega.
This time, the tenants of Garland’s cabin were Caleb and me.
We rode a boat captained by a small-time fisherman, the same one who had taken out Kaden and Josh the year before. We paid him to drop us off at the dock on Garland’s island, and to keep quiet about the two men living there, in case anybody asked.
With the noon sun peaking high above our heads, we climbed the crooked, wooden steps up the side of a hill, slowly ascending to the top where the cabin was located. The cold wind bit my cheeks while the shadows of the fat, fluffy clouds painted the hillside.
My back and shoulders and legs ached, but just when I thought I couldn’t take another step, we finally reached the top.
Caleb got there first. When I rounded up over the final step, I emerged to a view of his broad back, dwarfed by the enormous, two-story cabin.
“This is it. Our home for the next few weeks,” he said, turning around to face me.
Our home. I got a tingle when I heard him say that. Suddenly flooded with emotions—or maybe hormones—I walked to close the last few inches of distance between us and tilted my face up to his.
Caleb dropped our suitcases and wrapped his arms around me. I closed my eyes as he pulled me close, savoring the warmth radiating from his body while the wind whipped around us. My heart fluttered, the way it did every time Caleb kissed me, and the way I hoped it always would.
If only life could be this perfect, I thought, surrounded by the salty sea air, invigorated by the wind, and energized by the breathless tide pulling in and out from the beach miles below.
But Caleb was kissing me so deeply, so lovingly, that he convinced me that life truly was perfect, so long as we were together.
Feeling light-headed, I finally pulled away for some air. When I opened my eyes, I saw Caleb grinning back at me. Our noses still touched, and I pursed my lips to catch his for one last, quick kiss. At the exact same moment, there was a gentle, flipping sensation in my belly.
*
The first few days were long and quiet. I woke up almost every morning to the aroma of eggs cooked in butter, which we’d later spoon onto pieces of baguette from the Morning Glory Café. When we ran out of eggs, we turned to the pantry and fixed meals out of saltines and canned fish.
Then, my pregnancy appetite finally kicked in, and we burned through our provisions until there was nothing left.
Caleb called his brother. We needed more food, but we figured it was almost time, too. I was growing heavier and more ravenous by the day, and my body ached all over, from my hips to my swollen, lactating nipples. My entire body screamed that the baby was coming, and it was finally time to call Rowan.
Rowan, Lucy, and Kaden’s trip out from Riverrun took two entire days. When they arrived, it was the middle of the night, and I was in bed sweating bullets, barely clinging onto consciousness. I’d been having contractions for the past day, so they made it just in time.
In my memories of that night, I could recall how Rowan’s steady hands held the damp spoon against my mouth, feeding me her witchy tonic. I was near-dead by then. My contractions were merciless, a clenching pain that came in waves, striking my womb like bands of lightning. I didn’t even care that Rowan’s tonic smelled like manure and tasted like salty, rotting meat.
I swallowed it quickly, hoping for relief.
Rowan’s hands were cool as they cleared damp hair from my forehead.
“Calm, Liam,” she whispered soothingly.
It was like my brain was getting drizzled with sun-baked honey, as my eyelids drooped and my quivering, exhausted muscles unwound themselves like loosened ropes.
My baby is coming, I thought into the darkness. I realized that my eyes were closed, so I added, in prayer, Please let this baby live. I just love my baby so much.
Rowan and Lucy turned me onto my back. A cool mask was lowered over my nose and mouth. A blast of oxygen later, I was sinking into blackness.
Chapter 24: Caleb
Kaden kept trying to get me to sit, but I couldn’t. My body simply refused it. With my shifter ears picking up the sounds of clinking metal and sliced, damp skin, with the dull throb of Liam’s heart beating underneath it all, it was impossible but do anything but pace, and growl, and grind my teeth.
Then, the moment finally came.
Once I heard the first scream of life, I burst through the door of the master bedroom.
Lucy held the baby, a tiny, wet thing streaked in blood, its features so fragile and small it made me want to weep. With my shaking right hand, I accepted a pair of surgical shears from someone, and I sawed through a section of its umbilical cord.
Blood roared in my ears. I was aware of voices sounding off all around me. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought I heard a doorbell ring, but I barely noticed it at all.
I could only stare at the bundle of warmth that Rowan eventually passed into my arms.
“Boy or girl?” Liam said weakly from the bed.
My eyes prickled with tears. “A…a girl.”
I placed my squirming daughter on Liam’s chest. Her soft little face swam before my eyes.
“Monica,” I whispered. It was the name of Liam’s mother.
“Monica. It’s perfect for her.”
With my baby girl’s head cupped in my hand, I turned and kissed Liam’s smiling lips.
We made this together, I thought happily, my eyes holding tight against my tears. We made this—
The sound of heavy footsteps forced us to pull apart.
I whipped my head around just in time to see two female figures storming into my room: Sarah, from the sheriff’s office, and a tall, icy-blonde woman.
What the hell is going on? I wondered, my eyes bouncing back and forth between Sarah and the stranger.
Then, Rowan said something that sent chills up my back.
“What are you doing here, Eliza?”
Suddenly, I was feeling very, very sick.
“I’m here to help,” the blonde woman said in a husky voice. With a start, I realized that her smooth face and cold eyes had made her look much younger than she truly was, and that made her instantly intimidating.
“Eliza Vreeland,” Liam said, surprisingly energetic despite the fact that his abdomen was still flayed open.
Rowan lunged forward. “You have to get out. I need to keep my surgical area sterile, and—”
Eliza snapped her fingers, and there was a loud clap. My ears popped as the air broke in half. I grabbed the sides of my head, wincing from pain.
Liam arched his back and screamed. The loose skin of his incision met and stitched itself back together right before my eyes. Then, there was a second clap, and Liam was left completely intact, with nothing but a faint, pinkish scar crawling vertically down his middle.
“Completely healed, with no downtime and no risk of infection. You’re welcome,” Eliza said.
Kaden ran into the room, but Sarah whipped out an arm to block him before he could reach us.
The room fell briefly silent as everyone processed what was happening, and I got my first good look at the infamous Eliza Vreeland.
She was elegant and stately in an ageless way. Her smooth, blonde hair was pulled into a severe bun at the nape of her neck, and she had the piercing gaze of a woman who was used to giving orders and having them obeyed. Even casually dressed in jeans, riding boots, and a wool trench coat, she emanated a strong sense of power.
I could actually feel it, her magic. It burned the air like electricity. My inner wolf knew she was someone I shouldn’t cross.
“There is a debt to be paid to my coven. I’m here to collect,” she said.
All eyes in the room turned to focus on me, and I became sick with dread.
No, I thought.
“So take your payment and leave this family in peace,” Rowan said firmly.
Eliza’s eyes flashed at Rowan’s tone, but they never left my face. I remained frozen, still kneeling at Liam’s bedside. It was completely quiet, all except for the soft, wet sounds of Monica suckling on Liam’s swollen breast.
“We gave you what you wanted, Caleb McArthur. Now it’s our turn,” Sarah said.
To my utmost horror, Eliza raised a slim hand and pointed straight at little Monica.
“Give us the child.”
There was no mistaking that tone. It was an order, not a request.
No, I thought, but I could barely even command my lips to move. Deep down, I realized that promising to fulfil any favor for the coven was a huge mistake, but now it was too late.
“What’s she talking about?” Liam mumbled. He was still coming off of whatever potion Rowan had used as an anesthesia.
Sensing his weakness, my body tensed as my inner wolf awakened. It gave me all the strength I needed.
I stood up to face Eliza. “I understand that I owe you. Just anything but the baby.”
“We want nothing else from you, shifter. But you can rest assured that the coven will love and care for that baby girl as if she were our very own,” Eliza said.
Her hands clasped primly before her, Sarah stepped forward to add, “You don’t want to be on our bad side, Caleb. Just give her to us and you’ll be off the hook.” Then, she turned to Rowan, and her expression darkened. “Remember what happened to Garland’s son,” she whispered.
I felt something snap inside of me.
Before I could stop it, my wolf erupted out of me. My scream of rage and pain was choked off in seconds as my mouth and throat became all wolf. I landed on all fours as ribbons of my shredded clothes rained to the floor. Liam’s presence burned behind me, and so did my gut, ignited by the instinct to protect my mate and my offspring.
Driven by this protective urge, my attention narrowed in on Eliza Vreeland. The enemy, I thought.
Without a second’s hesitation, I lunged for her.
Her right hand flashed. She threw some sort of powder into my face. My nostrils stung, as if I’d inhaled black pepper. Then, the sensation was all over my body.
And it was quickly getting worse.
My legs gave out from under me, and I collapsed to the floor right before Eliza’s feet. It was like an army of needles were trying to tear their way out from under my skin. I was in so much pain, I couldn’t even breathe.
I couldn’t even think.
All I could do was twitch in agony as my body was hacked apart from the inside out.
Eliza snapped her fingers once again, and the pain immediately stopped. My skin felt cold, and that was when I noticed that I’d somehow shifted back into my human form.
I was weak from the pain, but I still had enough energy left to puke right there on the floor.
“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” Eliza said coolly.
I heard her speak, but it was Sarah’s earlier words that really sank in.
Remember what happened to Garland’s son.
Thinking about anyone hurting my little baby was worse than whatever torture Eliza’s powder had inflicted on me. What was the right thing to do? There was no fucking way I could ever give up my baby.
But there was no way I could let her be harmed because of my stupid decisions, either.
The back of my jaw tingled, and I was afraid that I was going to be sick again,
“Wait.”
His voice sounded so much like mine, I almost thought I was the one who had spoken.
Bewildered, I glanced up to see Kaden stepping out from his corner of the room.
>
Naked and cold with my stomach scraped empty, I could only watch from my position on the floor as Kaden drew Eliza’s attention to himself.
“I have twins. Take my daughter instead.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I spat out the last of the bile in my mouth and rasped, “What are you talking about?”
But Eliza’s clear voice dominated mine. “With all due respect, Kaden, she is the one we want—”
“She’s a bell baby,” Kaden blurted out.
Lucy gasped softly. Rowan whispered Kaden’s name, which he ignored. Monica continued to nurse, and meanwhile, something in Eliza’s expression changed.
Kaden’s eyes flicked briefly to my body on the floor, and I recognized his look of panic.
“That means something to you, doesn’t it?” he continued, fixing his gaze back on Eliza. He took two more steps until he was standing within touching distance of her. Now, they were eye-to-eye, regarding each other as equals. “Our female packmembers stopped going into heat until my twins were born, which means they broke our curse, and that makes them bell babies.”
“And you’re offering your daughter to us to take that newborn’s place?” Eliza asked.
Kaden nodded. “Only if it means that Caleb no longer owes you anything.”
The atmosphere in the room changed completely. There was more tension in the air. If Eliza had any thoughts about it, however, she didn’t say so.
“That’s fair,” Eliza concluded. She gestured to Sarah with her right hand. “You’re friendly with Kaden’s mate, aren’t you? Make arrangements with him so we can go pick up the child.”
Hearing her say that solidified what Kaden was proposing as reality. I was still weak, but somehow I managed to scramble back up to stand on two feet.
“Kaden, think about what you’re doing—” I began.
“Don’t do this—” Lucy said at the same time.
The two of us rushed towards him, but a single wave of Eliza’s hand made us freeze. It wasn’t her magic that stopped us. It was our own fear.
“It is already done,” she said. “Sarah, let’s go.”
