Page 85 of The Bodyguard and the Alpha
“To find my mate. I’m sick of lying here like a medieval maiden waiting for the knight to come home from war. I’m his bodyguard. I should be there with him.”
Marguerite shared a look with her husband and my sister. It was Caly who responded to my outburst. “You’re also his mate and he wants you to be safe.”And maybe you’re pregnantshe conveyed with her eyebrows.
Oh my gods! Were they for real? Uncaring if I was being rude, I pointed at Simon. “Would you wait at home if your mate was in danger?”
“Of course not,” he said, his eyes going soft as they flicked to his wife. “Even if she wanted to punish me later.”
“TMI!” I clapped my hands over my ears. “Don’t say another word.” He smirked. Just like his sons. When I thought it was safe, I turned to the two women in the room. “I know thatneither of you would sit and wait for the menfolk to fight without you. Why do you expect that I will?”
“I know it’s hard,” Marguerite said, sympathy in her voice. “But if it’s a political stunt, we don’t want to distract Bastien or the lawyers. He needs his focus to be on whatever play Maximilian is making.” She rubbed one hand over her eyes, looking suddenly as scared as I felt. Simon moved to her side, and pulled her into his arms, rubbing her back.
“For now, we have to wait. If Bastien can talk his way out of the trap Maximilian set for him, we will have gone in too hard and may do more damage to his image and reputation.”
I didn’t like it, but I could see what she was saying. She had been a politician too. And she had survived an assassination attempt on her family. It meant fighting my instincts that were screaming at me to go, go, go, but her advice was sound. Bastien was the President and I didn’t want one of my first acts as his mate to damage his public image.
Fuck. All right. I had to pull my head in.
For now. But in my bones, I knew that Bastien had been outflanked by the Humans First leader. There was no way my pre-cog would be pinging like this if Bastien was still able to negotiate his way out of trouble.
It wasn’t long after that when Luc returned. One look at his face and it was clear that the news was not positive. Caly rushed to comfort him and he breathed her scent in deeply, shoulders relaxing a little, just from her nearness.
When his grip gentled, Caly drew back. “Sit down and let me get you some food.” At a heated look from him, she added, “I’ve eaten. You can dial down the Alpha-ness.” He smiled and Caly blushed.
Marguerite helped me to my feet. Leaning close, she whispered, “You need to eat something. Shifter babies use a lot of energy from their mother.”
I almost rolled my eyes. Of course, the woman had figured it out. My stunned silence in front of the doctor had been a dead giveaway. I’d been kidding myself that she hadn’t noticed. “It’s too early to tell,” I whispered back as I tested my balance.
“You need to get a test taken as soon as possible. If you are carrying my grandbaby, the Council will have to postpone any sentence.”
Which was why I’d interfered with my birth control implant in the first place. “Will he mind?” I blurted the question that had been worrying me since I’d realised that I hadn’t told Bastien about my decision and the risk of pregnancy.
“He will be over the moon,” Marguerite said. “Come on, let’s give Luc the chance to tell us what’s going on.”
Over the moon. Over the moon. Over the moon.
The words bounced around and around in my head. Even while Luc reported that he and the lawyers had been too late to prevent Maximilian from stacking the Council with Bastien’s enemies and ordering that Bastien be subjected to truth serum. Too late to stop Bastien from confessing that he hadn’t Declared his Intent before he gave me his bite.
The lawyers said they had statements to lodge as part of Bastien’s defence. The Council rejected them. They didn’t care what I had to say. My consent hadn’t been fully informed.
The sentence was death.
“The lawyers say he can lodge an appeal,” Luc said, tiredly. “If Maximilian put one step wrong, they’ll find out. But I suspect it won’t do much more than delay things.”
“Fuck the appeal.” Four sets of eyes turned to me.
“Fuck this whole process. Fuck Humans First. Fuck Maximilian Veder and the Council.” Four sets of eyebrows raised. Caly smiled openly, already on the same page. Twinbond for the win.
“What do you suggest instead?” Luc wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t sound hostile. Simon and Marguerite made noises of encouragement.
All right then. Time to put it all out there.
“Bastien tried the political route and it went south. I’m not relying on an appeal or on the unlikely chance that I’m pregnant”—Simon hid his smile behind his hand; Luc’s eyes lit up with surprise and happiness, eyes sliding to Caly, who blushed— “I’m going to get my mate out of there and we’re going to get away from here until it’s safe for us to return.”
“Thatta girl,” said Marguerite with an approving nod.
“Do you have a plan?”
“Not yet. But we have a former President who’s a Shifter, a retired Professor from the Witch College, the head of Palace security and two kick-ass Witches. I reckon we can come up with a plan.”
