Page 128 of Married to the Devil

Silas inhales, and his expression does something I’m not familiar with. Can a lizardman pale? He’s doing his best attempt to.

Foreboding sinks in my chest.

“Are they fighting?” I ask, pushing open the door without waiting for his answer, or considering his shock.

“Fuck you,” Ben says, and it’s full of sad venom.

“What’s going on?” I ask the room this time, walking to the two of them.

They glare at each other, and I shrink a little on the inside, but my news can’t wait. My heart is already pulled so tight between wonder and worry that I’m going to explode.

“I have something to tell you,” I say, hopeful I can derail whatever argument they’re having and solve my touch of panic all in one go, but Ben’s attention drops to my stomach and the expression on his face is shock.

“Impossible,” he whispers. He raises a hand as if feeling or seeing something that I can’t.

Well, I guess there goes my announcing the news. Confusion scrunches my brow. Why does he look so pained?

I take a couple of steps forward, wanting to ease his obvious hurt, but Ben stumbles away.

I turn to my husband, alarmed, but he’s no help.

Stoneheart’s nostrils flare. “Fuck.”

“Did you plan this too? Did the both of you set me up?” Ben asks.

“You think I would plan this?” Stoneheart asks, his voice nearly a growl.

I straightened, and my heart falls into quicksand and the sucking sensation makes me want to curl into a ball.

But we did plan this.

“Ben,” I say, reaching out, needing the comfort he’s always been able to provide.

“No!” he shouts.

I yank my hand back. His voice feels like it slices me to the bone, and it’s a wonder to me that the injury isn’t physical.

His eyes widen, his overwhelm reaching its zenith. “I can’t do this.”

And then he’s gone in a whisp of shadow. My rejected hand flies to my heart, and I press in on a pained gasp. He didn’t actually hurt me, so why does this pain feel real?

“What just happened? This was the plan.” My voice wavers, and I look to Stoneheart for answers. Did we make a terrible mistake? No, we created an heir to stabilize the territory. “We did it.”

“Congratulations, wife.” His tone is as cold as ice, and he looks like he wants to hit something. “But the child isn’t mine.”

It takes a moment for me to absorb the words with how caustic they are. “What?”

“I said, the child you are carrying is not mine.”

My brain stalls out at that because of course the baby is Stoneheart’s. He’s the one that bred me, knotted me even! Ittakes an embarrassingly long time for the mental math to make sense. Because if it’s not Stoneheart’s…

It’s Ben’s.

My hands cover my mouth in surprise. Fuck.

“But that’s not possible,” I say after the first tidal wave of shock. “We were careful.”

“Not careful enough,” he bites out.

---