Page 39 of Gambling with Time

After exhaustion took over for the others, we returned to my apartment. The club was alive with hundreds of supernaturals that had no clue what happened a few blocks away. Making a quick stop to see Ashton at the bar, I promised I would see them upstairs soon.

He filled me in on operations while I had been away, and I told him that I would have to go to Tartus for a while. Without blinking, he accepted the responsibility, and I decided he would need a title change along with that raise.

Striding for the elevator, I entered the lift, ready to relax for the night. Taking out the Leyak had been almost too easy. He had been so confident it made him reckless. We had to learn from him. Overconfidence could get us killed.

As the doors slid silently open, I took in the domestic sight that greeted me. Alastor and Raiden were sprawled out on the couch with Sam draped between them, and Bellamy was sitting on the floor at their feet between Alastor’s legs. His arm was thrown over his knee, and his tail was wrapped around Sam’s leg.

All of them were watching an action movie I recognized but didn’t know the name of on the large TV.

They glanced over, and Sam lifted her feet, wiggling her toes. “We saved you a spot.”

I moved into the kitchen. “I’ll be right there. Anyone want a drink?”

Raiden lifted a soda indicating that he already had something, and the others just shook their heads no. I snagged a bottle of beer from the fridge and twisted the cap off.

Something in the trash caught my eye, and I reached for the drug store bag. A box was clear in the bag, and I tilted it open to see what it was. My breath stuttered in my chest when I read ‘Pregnancy Test’. Feeling like a kid with my hand caught in the cookie jar, I dropped the bag like it was on fire. Swinging my gaze to them on the sofa. They were all oblivious to what I just found.

Slowly, I lifted the bag again and peeked into the open box. The stick slid out into my palm, the blue bold word like a neon sign making my chest squeeze tightly. I dropped it again, smashing the bag and box deeper into the trash can and moving discarded rubbish on top of it.

Holy shit.

I dragged my hand through my hair, rubbing at the back of my neck, then I took a long drag off of the beer. Sam obviously didn’t want us to know or she would have told us. Was this my secret to tell? No. The answer was simple and quick.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there staring sightlessly down at the trash can, but it was long enough for Sam to call out to me. I shook myself out of my thoughts and pasted on a smile as I joined them. Bellamy looked up at me, and an eyebrow raised before glancing at Sam.

Did he know? Did I imagine the slight nod as confirmation? Shit. This had me questioning everything.

My fingers absently ran over her feet and calves as the movie played in the background of my rampant thoughts. Her hand rested on her stomach, and I saw it for what it was this time. An unconscious gesture to hold the life growing inside. I wanted to do it too.

Even with the danger looming on the horizon, excitement for the future with all of them coursed through me. For so long, I had felt adrift and alone in this world, even surrounded by supernaturals each night. Giving them a place to belong while not really having mine. But now I did, and nothing would tear me from them.

As the credits rolled, Sam stretched before climbing off of us. Raiden disappeared into the bathroom to do his business while Alastor followed Sam to the fridge.

Bellamy flopped his head back on the cushions, watching me lazily. I wet and parted my lips ready to ask if he knew when he squeezed my knee. “Keep it quiet, Lex.”

It was all the confirmation I needed. Was I the last to know? Kept in the dark for some reason? The corner of Bellamy’s mouth lifted in a half smile as he shook his head.

I sank back into the cushions as I tracked each of her movements. Cerberus shoved his nose into her stomach, and he’d been doing that a lot lately. He must sense what was happening. She laughed and gave him pets while two of his heads attacked her with kisses.

Alastor started making sandwiches, enough to feed an army by the looks of it. And I could see our life. Mundane and full of love, we just needed to claim it.

* * *

The preparations for the battle were in full swing, as we set up at the Dragon’s palace. Raiden had filled Baldwin in on the situation, and he’d rounded up the troupes. While Bellamy gathered the demons and for the first time in hundreds of years, they mingled.

Some of the interactions were like watching ice crack on a frozen lake, just waiting for it to bust open and drown the unsuspecting fool that was walking on it. But others were almost as if old friends were seeing each other for the first time in years. Like a homecoming.

There were some snags. For one, the demons loved to party. If they weren’t having a good time, they were dead. Whereas the dragons were more silent observers. The whole lot. And here I had assumed it was a Raiden trait. But apparently, they were all just giant watchers. The clash caused just that, clashes.

We prepared as much as we possibly could. Still, there was no indication there was an army at our back door. It almost felt like a trap we had fallen into.

Sam was restless, all of us were, after a week. She spent a lot of time in the library, looking for lore on the prophecy to see if there was anything more that could be found about it.

So far, her findings have pointed to Hades' castle as the battleground. And if that was the case, we were in the opposite place we should be in. Bellamy and Alastor had gone to check in at Alastor’s home and even scouted the area, finding nothing.

This constant black cloud that hung over us almost erased the happiness I had felt finding out about Sam and her secret. It had been a week, and her lips were still sealed.

And except for the minor changes I’d noticed not much had changed. Bellamy stopped his breath play with her for the most part, which should be a huge red flag for Alastor and Raiden. But they hadn’t seemed to notice. They also hadn’t caught on to the gentle way he was with her like she was even more precious than she was before, and that was saying something.

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