Page 3 of Betrayed Pregnant Mate

Horribly vivid and too, too real, those dreams have had me waking up in cold sweats every night, throwing the covers off my legs, and pacing until I’m tired enough to fall asleep again.

Ado and Byron set me down on the couch in the family room, and I wince, hoping I’m not getting my blood on the Cadell’s furniture. After getting the antidote, I was happy to learn that Aris and Linnea are happily together now. Thinking about that first night in Rosecreek, in the bar, watching as he and she were blood-bonded together—it feels like it was a million years ago.

“Veroux,” Aris says, coming into view, and I flinch away from his gaze, knowing I’m about to get my ass handed to me. “What the fuck is this? Showing up on my porch in the middle of the night? Scaring my wife? My children sleep here, man.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, gaze on the floor. “I didn’t think—”

“You’d better tell me what the fuck took a chunk out of you like this,” Aris says, shaking his head and sitting on the edge of an armchair. On his left forearm, he has two little paw prints. One reads Araya, the other Percy. His children. One of whom he named after me. When I first heard about it, I’d had to turn away so they wouldn’t see that I was crying.

“Where’s Veronica?” I hear myself asking, and Aris gives me a strange look before glancing over his shoulder. He doesn’t say anything, but it’s clear as day that he’s communicating with Linnea—or someone else—through a mental bond.

Something I haven’t been able to do since being dosed with Varun’s serum.

“She’s okay,” Aris says, “humans—can’t handle the shifting. Which is another reason this shouldn’t have happened, right? So, get to talking. Tell me what the hell is going on.”

I let out a sigh. When this first started, I thought that I would be able to go out, come back with the information, and show everyone that I was ready to come back to the team. Now, it only feels like I’ve further demonstrated that I’m not ready for action.

“I overheard Byron,” I say, rubbing a hand over the back of my neck. “At the pack center earlier, saying something about that field of Wolfsbane up by Red Creek. I thought—”

“You thought you would go check it out yourself?” Aris asks, raising his eyebrows. “Percy—you know how these things work. We gather information, we put together a team. I can’t condone you ignoring protocol like this. This information about the wolfsbane is too important to be running a botched mission.”

I know first-hand how important the information about the wolfsbane is—Rosa, our resident chemist—is the one who figured out that wolfsbane was the primary ingredient in the “silver” serum Varun—a rogue alpha—developed to poison other shifters by blocking their ability to shift, and essentially driving them insane.

That’s what I was dosed with—and all other subjects dosed with the same serum version as me died after just a few months. I was the only one who lived past that time frame, but I did so out in the woods, with little to no recollection of what was happening or what I was doing.

Figuring out why there’s a huge field of wolfsbane in the area could lead us a bit closer to knowing more about Varun’s full plan, and who else might have been involved in the serum development process.

And, after my little trip, I think I know who’s involved.

“I know, man,” I say, hating how my voice breaks. I look down at my hands, wincing, when a fresh wave of biting, searing pain rips through my abdomen. It takes a moment to subside, and Aris looks a little less frustrated with me after seeing the pain I’m in.

“Go on,” he says, his voice a little softer.

“Well, I found the field,” I laugh, staring up at the ceiling and remembering the moment. I was shifted into my wolf form, sniffing around the perimeter of the wolfsbane field, when I was ambushed by several other paranormals. It only took me a few moments to realize it was vampires—their acrid, not-quite-alive smell similar to a strange combination or iron and thawed meat.

“I’m here!” someone says, and when I look up, I see Maisie hurrying inside, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and carrying a medical kit. She’s wearing a set of pajamas with cartoon kittens on them. “Linnea said there was a flesh wound?”

“Something like that,” Aris says, gesturing to the wound on my side. I couldn’t see it when I was in my wolf form, but now, I don’t even want to try and look. I can feel the pain radiating up and away from it, and I’m worried that if I look at it, I might pass out.

Maisie lets out a low whistle under her breath and drops to her knees in front of the couch, pulling the things out of her bag.

“You don’t have to stop talking,” she says, glancing at me. “You might need the distraction—these stitches are going to hurt.”

I grit my teeth at the thought of it—I hate needles, and Aris motions for me to keep talking, so I do.

“I got a sample of the stuff,” I say, “it’s in a bag I dropped on the porch.”

Aris’s brow lowers, and he looks like he’s concentrating for a moment. I know he’s communicating to someone that they should go and collect it. The same is important because it will tell us if it’s the same strand of wolfsbane that was used in the serum.

I suck in a breath through my teeth when I see Maisie threading the needle, and she apologizes under her breath, turning so I can’t see it.

“It was vampires,” I say, looking back up to the ceiling, my head spinning, feeling light from seeing the needle. “They ambushed me. At least twenty of them.”

“Vampires,” Maisie says, pulling her hands back, though she’s wearing gloves. She shuffles a little closer, leveling her eyes with me. “Percy, I need you to tell me—did one of them bite you?”

I swallow thickly.

“I’m not sure,” I saw, lowering my gaze, “but it’s possible.”

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