Page 248 of His Sunshine Baby

His murderous glare is convincing. I look down, reminding myself he’s still the King.

“Even if she could potentially fight off that witch, there’s still the vampires,” says Tonia. “Her main problem is that, while she is pregnant, if she gets bitten just once…”

“She could die,” whispers Nathaniel, bitter.

Why do I feel like this is a taboo subject here? I shake my head, annoyed. I can’t believe we’re stuck. On one hand, that witch is too scared of Nora’s power to attack, and on the other, Nora can’t risk a vampire bite.

I hate this. I hate not being able to do anything, waiting for something to happen in this stupid climate of fear. Nate walks up to me, putting his arms around me to try and comfort me, but I keep shaking my head. Why do I even feel like crying?

“Elena.”

Here we go, I’m crying. I’m so fucking tired of crying these days! But I can’t stop it, neither can I stop Nathaniel from hugging me, though he’s careful not to hurt my arm. I hear Nora growl behind me, pissed too. She suddenly stands up.

“I’m not waiting and doing nothing. I want all the Alphas to gather tomorrow. Let’s explain this to them. If hell must break loose when this baby decides to come out, I’d rather be ready. Sylviana, you too, please.”

“Of course.”

“I’m coming too,” I declare, sniffling, but Nora shakes her head.

“No, Elena, you go home and focus on getting better, okay?”

“Don’t leave me out of it!”

“Elena, I’m the one who’s going to be left out!” she yells. “Don’t you think I’m frustrated too? I’m already scared enough for my babies, now I’m going to be the trigger for when that damned Dark Witch will attack, and there’s nothing I’ll be able to do because I’ll be too focused on giving birth!”

Only then do I realize my cousin’s crying too, with red eyes and a raspy voice. She walks up to me, facing me, voicing her emotions out. She’s twirling her messy curls, her thing when she’s frustrated or stressed… or both, I guess.

“Elena, you’re the fighter,” she says. “I’m the healer, the protector. I was never a fighter, okay? It was always going to be this way, right? You’ll be healed by then, but I won’t be able to fight. Trust me, I hate it. I hate standing on the sidelines, but this time, I probably won’t have a choice. You’ll be the one this time. Okay?”

I shake my head. I hate this whole situation. Nora won’t be in the battle, but she’ll be the target. The first fucking target of that Dark Witch. She doesn’t care about me, the half-breed. In a way, I was lucky to have a human mother. But Estelle…

I turn to my daughter, who's playing with James, trying to catch Boyan's tail and barking with excitement. Estelle will be a target too. I take a deep breath and turn to Nora, who’s clumsily wiping her tears away.

“Promise me you’ll protect her.”

“What?”

“All three of the Black brothers and I will be fighting, so if anything happens to me and Nate, you’ll be the only family Estelle has left. Promise me you’ll protect her. I can fight, but I won’t be able to focus if I don’t know my daughter is safe.”

“Elena!” yells Nate, but I turn to him.

“Don’t act like you don’t know, Nate. It’s going to be an all-out war. They’ll need both of us, and Estelle… I love Danny, but his family is mostly betas, and they’ll probably be on the front lines too. Nora will be the only one to protect our baby.”

“Stop it. Nothing will happen to you, to us.”

“I’m just saying if…”

We stare at each other for a few seconds, a heated tension between us. I’m dead serious, and I don’t care if he doesn’t want to hear the truth. Nora gently takes my hand.

“Elena, it will be alright. We’ll win, okay?”

I nod, but the truth is, I don’t have the confidence.

Sylviana’s expression is too dark to be confident. She’s blankly staring at the children. How much does she really know? Our Good Witch realizes I’m watching her and leaves the room without warning. Liam follows right after her.

I let out a big sigh.

“Anyone else want to add something not depressing about this?”

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