Page 57 of Gambling with Time

I moistened my lips, gently pressing them together before slowly parting them to respond. “Ty.” I swallowed.

He lifted an eyebrow in question but remained silent.

Lex tangled his fingers with mine, and I squeezed his hand in thanks. “It’s because I’m expecting.”

“Expecting?” he asked. Confusion painted his face in almost comical lines before it sank in, and he launched himself out of his chair like a rocket headed for space. The wooden seat clattered to the marble floor as he leaned across the table. “What?”

I rolled my lips together. “A baby.” I pressed my palm over my small pouch, which could honestly be a food baby at the moment.

“Does Mom know? Dad?”

I shook my head.

“You can’t fight right now.”

“Mom fought during both of her pregnancies.” I crossed my arms.

“Mom wasn’t going up against a literal God.”

“Ty–” I sighed.

“Samantha–” he mocked my tone. “I’m telling Mom and Dad.”

“What are we, four?”

“Maybe we should take a breath,” Rai said, slicing through the tension that had formed as soon as Tyler realized I was going to fight anyway.

“You’re okay with this? Rai, she is my little sister,” Ty practically hissed, his voice lowering like it was a secret. “I thought you would protect her.”

“Ty, I get it. When I first found out, that was my knee-jerk reaction too. But she is capable and strong, she will be fine. We will be there to protect her.”

Tyler shot me a glare, crossing his arms to mirror my position. “Alastor?” He threw a look at the God.

“Rai’s right,” Alastor replied.

He threw up his hands and turned away from us, pacing toward the elevator doors. I was half surprised when he pivoted on his heel and came back to us. And fully surprised when he knelt next to my chair. He wrapped his fingers around mine, meeting my shocked gaze with his own.

“Samantha, Mom didn’t fight a God or hybrid demons. This isn’t safe, no matter how strong of a hunter you are. None of you will forgive yourselves if something happens.” He squeezed my hand. “Do you want to put that on your guys' conscious? On yours?”

A pang rang through my chest, clenching my heart in a vise grip. What if he was right? But if he was, and I said, fine, you guys go I’ll wait here, and something happened to one of them—that would be the same pain. Maybe a worse one because I felt it in my gut that we needed to face this together.

When he noticed me hesitating, he pressed further. “I know you would hate yourself. All of your hang-ups about relationships becoming a reality. Would you come out of it the same person?”

I sucked in a breath, holding it, as my heart clamored around my empty chest. There was no good answer to this. I wet my lips, slowly releasing the pent-up air. “Ty, if I stayed here and something happened to one of them, I would never be the same. I’m going.”

He pushed to his feet and glanced around at everyone else as if one of them might have changed their mind. When he saw the resolve in each of their faces, he sighed loudly, tugging his fingers through his sandy hair.

“Well then one of us will be by your side, the entire time.” His response sent another painful pin prick through me. We weren’t taking him, he just wasn’t aware of that fact. My brother was going to be pissed.

I nodded because there wasn’t much else I could say without choking on my words. Emotion swelled in my throat, clogging my airflow, while tears gathered behind my eyes. Lying to my brother was painful because I knew it would hurt him.

* * *

Once Ty left, I got a quick shower that no one joined me in, sadly. Then I slid into my hunting outfit, the leather pants like a second skin, and the shirt just as tight. I placed all of my smaller weapons in their holders and hidden straps before sliding my dagger into the holder at my waist.

Bellamy reclined back on his elbows, watching my movements. “Somehow I didn’t realize just how many weapons you had hidden on your body. It’s like an arsenal.”

I lifted an eyebrow as I locked the dagger in place. “You didn’t know what kind of danger you were in, huh?” I laughed.

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