Page 56 of Betrayed Pregnant Mate

The person in the passenger seat turns, and I don’t give them time to see what they will do. I’ve been going to the three-times-a-week training sessions with other women, and it’s taught me enough.

It’s taught me where the hard spots are on my body. Taught me how to use a bigger person’s body weight against him and get the upper hand even when my opponent is larger than me.

I remember the triumph I’d felt the first time I was able to flip Bigby onto his back on the mat. I’d danced around punching the air, while Rosa and Linnea hugged me, squealing and jumping along with me. Only Olivia went to check on Bigby and make sure he was okay.

When the person in the passenger seat turns, I rocket my head forward, catching them in the face and hearing the satisfying crunch of their nose breaking into a million pieces. They scream, clutching at their face, and I slip my bound hands around the driver’s throat, pulling and pulling until they yank the wheel and veer off the road.

After descending for a minute, the car smashes into a tree, and it feels like my brain is the ball on a paddle, flying away from my head for a mile before snapping inside. Despite a slight, ringing headache, I feel mostly okay, and I climb out of the car, distantly registering that the car has a chance of blowing up.

I crawl away from it, feeling the pine needles of the forest under my palms the cool air on my skin. The driver and passenger had looked dead, but I didn’t stay to make sure. I couldn’t stomach it.

If being in the paranormal world means being used to blood and gore, I’m not sure I’m cut out for it. I feel like I’m crawling for days, but when I look back, I can still see the car, smoke billowing out of the hood, the car crumpled like a soda can someone smashed against their head at a barbecue.

I get shakily to my feet, and that’s when I see it, in the distance.

Several shady, black figures. Heading in my direction.

A little noise slips out of my throat, and I turn to try to weigh my options. Likely, those are the vampires Rafael warned me about, the ones who would try to get me if they found out I was pregnant. I think of the way Paul Smith’s eyes had lingered on me, making bile rise in my throat, during that meeting.

Did he know? Could he tell that I was pregnant, just from looking at me?

The black figures get closer, but several other figures come from the road, standing protectively in front of me.

Aris, Ado, Byron…Percy, who runs to me, his hands on my face, my arms, my neck.

“My love,” he’s saying, “are you okay?”

“Yes,” I nod, “but they’re coming.”

A moment later, Percy is turning, joining the fight, and from my left, I see Bigby appear from between the trees, morphing into a massive wolf shift mid-jump, leaving the ground with two feet and coming back down on four paws.

They’re ripping and growling and chomping and fighting, and it comes to me in this moment that Rafael, given he and Percy are compatible, could give him blood instead of me, and that wouldn’t jeopardize the baby.

“Veronica!” someone screams, and I look up to see Olivia standing over me, her eyes frantic. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“You need to shift,” Rosa says at my other side, “then we can all run together, out of here.”

I stare at her with empty eyes, not understanding what she’s saying as we inch away from the fight happening behind us. Something inside me urges me to turn around, to fight with Percy.

I’m the one who’s immune to their bites. I should be the one fighting them.

“Veronica!” Rosa screams, and it feels like it’s loud enough for everyone to hear, for the entire fucking world to hear. “You need to shift right now to protect the baby.”

If this was a comedy movie, the shifters and vampires fighting behind us would all stop, focusing in on us, my pregnancy the comic relief. Instead, I grab Rosa by the shoulders, shaking my head at her.

“I can’t shift, Rosa,” I murmur, “I’m a human.”

“Veronica, come on,” Olivia pleads, tugging on my hand. “Come on, this is not funny right now.”

“Ask Maisie,” I laugh, “I’m a human and can’t shift. But I am a vampire.”

“She’s actually having a stroke,” Rosa says, eyes narrowing on me. “Oh Gods, what are we going to do?”

It comes to me all at once, and I turn on my heel, moving away from them as I go. I’ve been training to fight. I’m strong. I survived that car crash.

“Veronica!” Percy screams when he sees me running to him, pushing my back against his. “Get out of here! Go!”

“Don’t fucking tell me what to do,” I say, using my elbow to knock a vampire across the face. He tumbles to the side, looking shocked that I’m as strong as I am. I use my elbows and knees and catch as many vampires as I can, and eventually, Percy wordlessly hands me a knife, and we fight together like that, back-to-back, taking out the waves and waves of vampires.

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