LOGINCHAPTER 58Just a baby.SALVATORECaroline finally falls asleep sometime before dawn. I sit beside the bed long after her breathing evens out, watching the rise and fall of her chest as if looking away might somehow change it. The room smells faintly of herbs, antiseptic, sweat, and fear. Most of it has soaked into the walls over the last twenty-four hours.Her face is pale against the pillow. The fever has broken, but I do not trust it. My gaze drifts to her stomach. The blanket covers most of her body, but I know exactly where our child rests. It is something impossible, something that should not exist, something people will kill for. My hand clenches against my thigh. The thought alone is enough to make my wolf bare its teeth.A soft knock breaks the silence. I look toward the door and see Slade standing there.“You can’t stay in here forever. She’s asleep. She will be fine. We need you out here. Belle won't stop arguing with Nadia, who keeps demanding more blood samples. Sage is
CHAPTER 57CAROLINEThe room expands and collapses around me in slow, violent pulses. The walls are too close, then too far, then too close again. I am awake for all of it, and it is the worst part. There is no escape into sleep, no soft break between moments where my body forgets how much it is suffering. I am being unravelled from within, as if I am being rewritten. It is one thing to try to heal someone with the virus, but it is another thing to suffer from it because I know exactly what is happening to me. I know what awaits me, how painful it is going to get.My life flashes before my eyes, and I think about how I got here. All these began a few months ago because I decided to come here for a vacation. Now, I’m not only carrying a baby, but infected with a mystical virus.Everything is too loud. I press my palms against my ears until my fingers hurt, but it doesn’t change anything. The sound is not outside me. It is inside my bones. It is inside my teeth. It vibrates behind my e
CHAPTER 56CAROLINEI wake up screaming. The sound tears itself out of my throat before I even understand where I am.For a moment, everything is pain. Hot and blinding pain.The room swims in and out of focus as another wave crashes through me. It starts somewhere deep beneath my ribs and spreads outward, through my stomach, my spine, my arms, until every nerve in my body feels stripped bare. It is not the sharp pain of an injury. Not the clean pain of a broken bone or a surgical incision. This is something alive. The virus moves in me, and attacks everything at once.It feels like my blood is on fire, because it is. Tears burn my vision, and I bite my tongue hard. I curl instinctively around my stomach and immediately regret it. My baby. My baby. Oh, my baby. Nothing must happen to my baby.A cry escapes me. My muscles seize so violently that I almost roll off the bed.“Caroline.” Salvatore is beside me instantly. I don't know if he ever left. His hand slides behind my shoulders, tr
CHAPTER 55Infected.CAROLINEThe first time it happens, I think I’m imagining it. The patient’s hand twitches against the restraints, fingers curling too tightly, and his nails scrape skin that should already be healing. The fever has pushed him into delirium, but that’s not unusual. What is unusual is the sound. A low, wet fracture under the skin.“Hold him steady,” I order, already moving closer.Nadia hesitates. “Doctor Blake, maybe you should –”“I said hold him.” My voice is calm. My moment of peace was with Sal, and now I am back to work. I need this whole thing to be over. I hate that I am missing so much of my pregnancy.The monitors spike, and his temperature climbs again, sharp and unnatural. Then his back arches violently against the bed. The restraints creak, and his skin ripples. Shit. I freeze for half a second. His spine is changing. What the fuck? A jagged distortion moves beneath his skin like something trying to remember a shape it was never meant to hold.His finge
CHAPTER 54SALVATOREI wake up in her arms, and the first thing I think is that I can really get used to this.Is it a losing battle now? Should I just stop fighting and enjoy what I have been given? Is she a gift or a curse?Most wolves are very religious, paying homage to the Moon Goddess, but I have lived long enough to watch empires, religion and faith crumble. I have not found anything supreme, but I must admit that the devotion humans pay to their Gods and technology is what I would like to show Caroline. I want to lay the earth at her feet because she deserves it.I sit up slowly, looking at her soft face and place my hand on her belly.She groans softly and pushes into my touch.My heart skips a beat when I realise her belly is a little swollen. She is finally looking pregnant. Her boobs are fuller, spilling out of my shirt. She wakes slowly and smiles at me. “Hi. Are you leaving?”“Hm.” I nod slowly, and she pulls me down, “Not yet.”The room smells like metal and old paper.
CHAPTER 53CAROLINEHe kisses me harder, sliding his hot tongue back into my mouth. I wrap my arms around him desperately, needing him closer. My desperation for him shows, and I do not care about that. I just want him. I want his hands all over my body. I want more. I have missed him so much.Easily, he carries me and places me on the kitchen counter.He pulls away and stares at me with a hooded gaze. “Do you want to take this to the bedroom?”A smile pulls at the corners of my mouth, “What other option is there?”“We can stay here and continue what we’ve started, but we’re not home alone, and I do not want to scandalise your friend.” He flashes me a dirty grin, and I feel it all the way to my toes.“Then, you should probably take me to the bedroom.” I shrug, as my belly tightens with need.“Will you be quiet? You have to be quiet.” He carries me as if I weigh nothing, and I wrap my legs around him.I inhale sharply when I feel his hard dick between my legs. I know I shouldn’t, but I
CHAPTER 48SALVATOREThe council chamber feels heavier tonight. The massive room sits at the heart of pack territory beneath layers of concrete, steel, magic, and old bloodlines. Tension bleeds across the obsidian table like a living thing.I stand near the windows overlooking Manhattan while the c
CHAPTER 47CAROLINEAfter so much confusion, I pull Sage towards the archives unit. It sits buried beneath the hospital. There are no windows or sunlight, just rows of old medical records, metal shelves, flickering lights and so much dust.“This is creepy,” I mutter, scanning another shelf.Beside
CHAPTER 46CAROLINEThe hospital is drowning.I know it the second I step through the medical wing doors. There’s too much noise. The scent of antiseptic, blood, sweat, fear, wet fur and infection fills the air.My stomach twists violently. “Jesus,” I whisper, horrified.Bodies move everywhere arou
CHAPTER 45SALVATOREThe council chamber falls silent the second I walk in.The heavy wooden doors shut behind me with a low thud. Every eye turns toward me immediately. Tension thickens the air. They’re quiet, watching me, staring at the blood on my hands.The long obsidian table stretches across t







