Page 247 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

“I’m not touching a woman without her consent, Violet. Especially, not a mated woman.”

“She’s not mated. Bells is pregnant.”

Her words brought my world to a halt, and Nyko’s snarls quieted. My eyes went to her shoulder. Despite the wires falling across her slender neck, I could see no visible mating mark on it. She was pregnant. It had only been less than two months since she ended our relationship. I didn’t want to think of thepossibility Bells had been with another man so soon after our breakup, when all I could think about was her. Day and night, always her. My heart was trying to beat out of my chest, as I steeled myself to ask a question that could change my life.

“Is it—”

“You’re the father,” Violet confirmed, guessing my question. “Touch her, Cade. We need confirmation before I have the medication stopped.”

“Why?” I asked. “Why would touching her have anything to do with what’s going on?” I needed to know, though I let Chris help me get closer; the pull to her was too strong. My soul needed to touch her again. I needed to place my head to her stomach, and verify for myself what Violet was saying.

“Because we think you’re mates,” Violet answered quietly.

Yes! Mate. Ours,Nyko’s tail wagged, trying to push forward to get us closer to Bells.

“We already checked if we were second-chance mates, Violet. You know this.”

“But, you don’t know what happened since. Please trust us, Cade. Touch my sister and if nothing happens, I’ll apologize.”

My hand shook as I reached out to touch her. Despite knowing we weren’t mates, my stupid heart couldn’t help but hope Violet was right, and I was wrong. I wanted Bells to be mine more than I wanted to live.

Sparks so strong they made my whole body tremble, shot down my arm when my hand made contact with her soft cheek. It was like it was shocking energy into my system. I felt Nyko’s strength returning exponentially fast, and the pain in my leg all but disappeared, as he began healing it. Tears I didn’t know were so close to the surface fell, as I muttered the one word I’d always dreamt of being able to say to her.

“Mate,” I whispered, sitting down on the edge of her bed, unable to take my hand away from where it was connected to her, but my good leg was unable to hold me up any longer.

“Thank the Goddess,” Violet breathed out behind me.

I saw the lab coat of the doctor coming around to check the monitors.

“Her heart rate is increasing and the rest of her vitals are rising to normal levels. How di—”

“Zi found the cipher to the spell book. One of them, we think was a bond hijacking spell,” Violet explained.

“What? What does that mean?” I asked, tearing my eyes from my princess to look at Violet, but keeping my hand on her cheek.

“After we killed Martha, we found a secret room behind her closet. It had an altar with all sorts of spells on it. Before we could stop her, Bells took a sledgehammer and destroyed it. I found a book underneath the debris and brought it back for Zi to translate. One of the spells inside was for transferring an existing mate bond from the rightful partner to an intended target.” Violet took a deep breath and looked at Chris, who nodded.

"This was almost two weeks ago. The day after, Bells started getting really tired. She napped all day, and was barely eating. We thought it was related to her pregnancy at first, but then her wolf became lethargic, before falling unconscious. Bells asked to be put in a chemically induced coma, so when her wolf died, they could keep her body on life support until her pups were born.”

My heart broke at the sacrifice my princess made, until I caught on to what she said.

“Pups? More than one?”

“She’s having twins,” Violet answered with a smile.

I turned back to Bells and finally moved my hand from her heart-stoppingly beautiful face, and placed it on her stomach. Another tear dropped, as I felt the small curve of her abdomen.

“Why didn’t she call me?”

Did she hate the thought of being with me so much, that she would rather raise our pups alone?

“She did,” Chris answered, and made me whip my head to him.

“She didn’t.”

“She did. The day you left, she called you and left you a voicemail, asking you to call her back if you thought you could forgive her,” he insisted.

“I-I never got a voicemail.”

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