Page 86 of Shifter's Secret Baby

“Yes…”

“Let’s assume that you met your mate eight hundred years ago or nine hundred years ago,” Rachel went on.

I stared blankly at her.

“Let’s say that your mate was Valeria’s granddaughter or great-granddaughter.”

I still wasn’t following and said as much aloud.

“It would be strange if the fae cursed her own bloodline, wouldn’t it? Valeria would extend the protection over her own blood as a failsafe. Just in case. It’s just common fae practice.”

I continued to stare at her. “Is that something fae do?” I fired back.

“Yes, but there’s only one way to know for sure,” she replied, standing. “You have to go and see.”

I balked as I realized what she was suggesting.

“Hell no! I’m not going back to Briar now! That’s the worst thing I can do!”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Ash, the mate bond is already in place. It doesn’t matter if you stay away from her or not. It’s a done deal now. You can’t undo it by keeping your distance. She’s actually safer if you stay closer. At least that way you can protect her if something does come for her.”

I hadn’t thought about that, and now I felt like an asshole for having left her.

“Right,” I muttered. “Thanks, Rachel.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I’m not sure I’m right.”

Jumping to my feet again, I raced back across the courtyard the way I’d come and back up the stairs to my suite, where Briar sat sobbing exactly in the place I’d left her. The sight of her misery tightened my chest.

“Hey,” I murmured, rushing to her side. “Don’t do that. It’s going to be okay. We’ll figure it out.”

“Why did you run out of here like that?”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“This is so wrong, all of it. Maybe it’s just better if I go somewhere else, like Forny or—”

“You’re not going to Forny,” I growled, shuddering at the idea. “You’re not going anywhere, Briar. You’re staying right here, with me.”

She squeezed my hand. “I don’t know what to do,” she moaned, her tears spilling faster. “It all seems so hopeless. Am I going to die now? Is our baby—”

Her sentence cut off midway, and Briar’s chest jutted outward. Her body heaved upward, her shoulders pinning to the bed as if someone held her down.

“Briar?!” I choked, my hands on her shoulders, trying to loosen her.

The irises disappeared to the back of her head, the whites pulsating. She didn’t seem to be breathing.

“BRIAR!” I screamed, panic fully consuming me again. “Briar, come back to me!”

Oh, gods! Is this some aftereffect of the drugs?

“Briar! Answer me—”

“You always were a sly one, Ash,” a voice rasped from the depth of Briar’s body, but her lips did not move.

I drew back in shock, the hairs at the base of my neck rising. “I should have foreseen the ways you would manage to scorn me yet again.”

Oh, no. It can’t be.

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