Ryan was going to fucking kill him, but Drew didn’t have a choice, not when the bitch was still trying to take them down. When he found out that his best friend’s mate had been the one behind all the bullshit that they went through, he hadn’t believed it, but then he saw the bounty on Kara…
Tattletale was now watching her every move. She wouldn’t be able to so much as check her messages without Tattletale knowing about it, which is why the Sentinels were counting on it to help find those children before it was too late. They had Tattletale searching for twins since Sentinels required a human sibling’s help surviving the birth, the Sentinel birthmark, and unfortunately, for twins that died during the birth since most human twins didn’t survive. Drew was counting on them to find his son’s mate.
“That’s it,” Noah murmured as he gestured for Samantha to get ready and-
“Oh, god…” Drew mumbled hollowly as he stood there, watching as his son came into this world, screaming.
“He’s beautiful,” Samantha said with a warm smile as she took the baby from Noah and wrapped him in a blanket while Drew stood there, unable to look away as he watched his son.
He had a son…
Slowly exhaling, Drew felt his lips pull up into a smile as Samantha carried the little boy that was going to change everything closer so that he could see him. He was so beautiful, Drew thought, reaching out with a trembling hand to cup his son’s face in his hand as green eyes matching his mother’s narrowed on the move. Definitely going to take after Kara, Drew thought, chuckling as he leaned down and kissed his son’s forehead before Samantha took him to the table they’d set up to clean him so that she could introduce him to his mother.
“Are you ready?” Noah asked solemnly as his smile slowly disappeared as Drew’s attention was brought back to his mate and-
He was about to lose his daughter.
He’d told himself that he could handle it, that it was normal for mated couples to lose children this early in the mating, that it had to happen since his son needed a human twin to survive the birth, and every fucking line of bullshit that he could think of, but he couldn’t do this. He wasn’t going to be able to handle losing his little girl, Drew realized numbly as he stood there watching as Noah helped his little girl into the world.
“I need you to push one more time,” Noah said as Kara’s hand tightened around his, letting him know that this was tearing her apart.
Releasing a shaky breath, Drew stood there, watching as his little girl came into the world as the scent that her brother’s Alpha and Sentinel blood had covered became stronger, confirming that she was human.
Please, God, don’t do this to us…
“Shit!” Noah muttered as the smallest, most beautiful baby girl that Drew had ever seen made her way into the world and-
She wasn’t crying or moving.
“Please,” Kara said, sobbing as she struggled to sit up and go to her.
“Shift,” Drew said hollowly as he stood there, feeling his heart break as he watched Samantha hand his son over to Cloe so that she could help Noah try to save his daughter.
Please…
“You’ve gotta shift for them,” Drew said, already moving to help his mate off the bed while John went to take his grandson so that Cloe could help save his granddaughter.
With a reluctant nod, Kara slowly climbed off the bed while Drew stood there counting the seconds, praying that she took her first breath before it was too late. Giving Kara’s hand one last reassuring squeeze, he stepped back so that she could shift. In a matter of seconds, she shifted, forcing her body to heal.
She was so tiny, Drew thought, watching as Samantha grabbed oxygen while Noah pressed his fingertips against his baby girl’s tiny chest and began compressions and-
Drew’s legs gave out, dropping him to his knees as the realization that his daughter was about to die slammed into him. As soon as Kara shifted back to human, she was climbing onto his lap and burying her face against his chest as he struggled to hold it together.
Closing his eyes, Drew wrapped his arms around her as they waited for the words that would destroy them only to end up chuckling when he heard it, a small gasp and then, the loudest, most pissed-off baby scream that he’d ever heard. Releasing a shaky breath, Drew opened his eyes and pressed a kiss against the top of his mate’s head as they took in the adorable little girl that owned the last piece of his heart.
Chapter 34
“What the hell happened?” Jacob asked as he walked into the living room while Kale stood there, staring down at the silver necklace sending sharp pain through his palm and-
“FUCK!” Kale roared as he threw the necklace that he never should have brought into the fucking house across the room as the memory of Ashley sobbing his name as she begged him not to leave her played through his head. She’d been hurt because of him! Kale thought as he grabbed a chair and threw it, slamming it against the wall where it broke apart, destroying the wall in the process.
Jacob looked from the wall that he’d destroyed to the pizza he’d dropped on the floor last night when he’d heard her scream before settling a curious look back on him as he said, “Ashley’s going to be pissed when she sees this.”
“Shut up,” Kale said hollowly, ramming his throbbing hand through his hair as he looked for something else to throw.
He wanted to fucking kill something.
“She glared at me for a whole day when I accidentally brushed against the wall while the paint was drying. I’d hate to see what she’s going to do to you after she sees what you did,” Jacob said with a sad shake of his head and a long-suffering sigh as he reached down and grabbed the pizza off the floor.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Kale demanded only to drop his hand away with a sigh and cross the room to clean the mess that he’d just made, knowing that Ashley would be upset to see the house that she’d worked so hard to turn into a home destroyed.
“You mean besides watching you have a mental breakdown?” Jacob asked, dropping down on the couch with a heavy sigh as he flipped the lid back and helped himself to a slice of cold pizza.
“Besides that,” Kale said as he stacked the pieces of broken wood near the fireplace as he listened for any signs that Ashley was awake, only to release a shaky breath when he heard her soft even breaths, letting him know that she was still asleep.
“Came to see what was going on,” Jacob said around a mouthful of pizza as he watched Kale pick up the necklace and toss it into the small trashcan in the corner.
“It turns out that you were right. Ashley is an Impure. After she shifted, she got curious and decided to find out what would happen if she touched silver,” Kale said, watching as Jacob paused mid-chew to frown as he scented the air and-
“Oh, fuck,” Jacob said as his gaze darted back to the trashcan. “What happened?”
“It took her fucking hand off,” Kale said hollowly.
“Shit,” Jacob said, tossing the pizza aside as he moved to go check on her only to stop when Kale said, “Let her sleep.”
“How the hell did it take her hand off?” Jacob asked, rubbing his hands roughly down his face as Kale dropped down in the chair that he’d come to think of as his.
“I don’t know,” Kale said absently as he struggled not to think about the terror on Ashley’s face when she’d realized what was happening to her hand.
He’d never felt more helpless than he had in that moment, not even when he’d been forced to watch as Aine was-
“Do you think it has something to do with her Ion blood?” Jacob asked only to add, “Word spreads quickly in the Williams household. It wasn’t difficult to figure out who Christofer’s sister was,” at Kale’s questioning look.
“I think it fucked with her shifter side, keeping it dormant until she was strong enough to handle the transition, and fucking with her DNA in the process so that her reaction to silver was a thousand times worse than it should have been,” Kale explained even as he couldn’t help but won
der what else her father’s blood had altered.
He needed to find out.
“Christofer is pissed,” Jacob said conversationally as he returned his attention to the slice of pizza in his hand. “He went looking for the assholes that put her in the hospital and wasn’t happy to find out that someone else had already handled it.”
“They deserved to die,” Kale pointed out, wishing that he could do it all over again for what they did to her. They threw her down a stairwell, breaking every fucking bone in her body and left her for dead.
“True,” Jacob murmured, sounding thoughtful as he finished off the slice of pizza and grabbed another one. “The Council wasn’t happy to find out that two humans had been killed, but then again, I’m assuming that it was her mate that tore them apart so there’s really not much that they can do about it,” he murmured thoughtfully around a bite of pizza.
“Shifters are allowed to protect their mates,” Kale pointed out, watching the other shifter as he looked for any signs that he’d already fucked him over by going to the Council. It wouldn’t be the first time that he’d been fucked over by someone that he’d trusted.
“I’m not a fucking traitor, asshole,” Jacob said, correctly guessing where Kale’s thoughts had gone as he shrugged it off since being fucked over to the highest bidder was part of the job.
“Do they know that she’s alive?” Kale asked even as his attention shifted back to Ashley to make sure that she was still asleep.
Shaking his head, Jacob finished off another slice of pizza as he said, “They think she’s dead, which makes me wonder what the plans for her are now.”
“The same as before. To keep her safe,” Kale said, barely resisting the urge to go upstairs and pull Ashley into his arms when he heard her whimper in her sleep.
Frowning, Jacob said, “You can’t keep her locked away forever.”
“Watch me,” Kale said firmly because there was no fucking way that he was going to risk something happening to her, not when he knew that he wouldn’t survive losing her.
“You don’t think that she’ll want to go back out into the world once she has control of her abilities?”
“It doesn’t matter what she wants.”
“Is that what her mate wants?” Jacob asked, throwing him a questioning look.
“He just wants her out of the picture,” Kale said, shrugging it off like he didn’t care when this was killing him knowing that she was going to end up hating him one day, but he couldn’t risk something happening to her.
For a moment, Jacob sat there, watching him before shifting his attention back to the slice of pizza in his hand. “You’re making a mistake,” he said quietly, looking lost in thought.
“It’s just another job,” Kale said, forcing the words out of his mouth.
“She’s your mate, Kale,” Jacob said, taking him by surprise.
“How did you know?” Kale asked, wondering if the shifter had any idea what Kale would do to him if he failed to protect her.
“She makes you smile,” Jacob said, shooting him a wink only to chuckle when Kale narrowed his eyes dangerously on the little bastard. “Well, that and I noticed that you started wearing your watch on your right arm, so I checked when you were passed out,” he added with a shrug.
When Kale continued to glare, Jacob chuckled as he grabbed the last slice of pizza as he asked, “Does she know?”
“Not yet,” Kale said since he had absolutely no idea how he was going to make her fall in love with him.
Chapter 35
“There,” Ashley said with a firm nod as she finished securing the towel around her, and once that was done, she climbed onto her bed and dropped face down on it with a pathetic groan.
She followed the move by grabbing her pillow and pulling it closer so that she could settle more comfortably for the day of pouting that she had planned and-
“I see that we’ve moved on to the pouting phase, mo ghrá,” Kale said with a teasing smile as he leaned down and kissed her cheek.
“It’s the most important phase,” Ashley said, nodding in agreement even as she couldn’t help but wonder why she wasn’t freaking out over the fact that Kale was in here while she was only wearing a towel.
Then again, Ashley mused as she watched him grab the chair from the corner of the room and drag it closer to the bed, it might have something to do with the fact that he’d seen her sprawled naked on top of a grizzly bear a few days ago. If it had been Jacob, she definitely would have-
“So, I hear you’re a shifter,” came the heavily sighed announcement as she felt something drop down on the bed behind her as she tried to remember how to breathe.
That was quickly followed by Ashley struggling to pull the blankets free from beneath her with one hand without ripping them while she tried to keep her towel where it was with the other as she demanded, “What the hell are you doing in my room?”
“Why wouldn’t I be in your room?” Jacob asked, sounding amused as she gave up trying to pull the blankets free and settled for shifting closer to the edge so that she could curl up into the fetal position as she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping beyond hope that Jacob took pity on her and left before she died of mortification.
“Because I’m naked!” she snapped, tempted to throw something at his head.
“But…we’re shifters,” Jacob said, sounding truly confused, probably because nudity wasn’t exactly a big deal among shifters since they normally shifted with their Packs, but she already knew that Pack life wasn’t for her.
“Get out,” Kale said as he dropped down on the chair and grabbed his backpack off the floor and began searching through it while she contemplated rolling off the bed and resuming the fetal position on the floor.
There was a slight pause, and then, Jacob was sighing heavily as she felt him climb off the bed. “Fine. If it will make you feel better, I’ll go. I have to do a perimeter check anyway,” Jacob said as she lay there, really hoping that he moved faster. That swiftly changed to really wishing that she’d thrown something at him when he muttered, “It’s not like I haven’t already seen you naked,” reminding her that he’d taken care of her during her transition and had probably seen more than she was mentally prepared to deal with at the moment.
“I really hate him,” Ashley mumbled with a pathetic groan as she rolled back over onto her stomach and promptly buried her face against the pillow.
“Do you want me to leave, too?” Kale asked after a slight hesitation.
“No,” Ashley said, sighing as she turned her head so that she could watch him.
Nodding absently, Kale continued searching through his bag for a moment while she lay there, watching him, unable to help but notice just how handsome he was even as she found herself wondering for probably the hundredth time why he had this calming effect on her. Even when he was being a jerk, there was just something about him that made her feel like everything was going to be okay and that she was right where she was supposed to be.
“How’s your arm?” Kale asked as he pulled out a Ziploc bag of empty vials and placed it on the nightstand along with a black thermos.
“I’m trying not to think about it,” Ashley said even as she moved her fingers beneath the pillow, needing the reassurance that her hand was still there. That quickly shifted to her slowly exhaling and trying to think about something else when the image of her hand burning off left her feeling like she was going to be sick.
One of her stepfather’s favorite ways to punish his Pack for disobeying him had been to drag them downstairs to the basement and tape a row of silver coins down their spine, leaving them unable to do anything but scream and beg for mercy. The silver made them sick and left them in agony, but they’d never reacted to it the way that she had.
“Why did I react like that?” Ashley asked, watching as Kale pulled another Ziploc bag out of his backpack, this one held blood-drawing supplies that she was, unfortunately, very familiar with. After she went into foster care and it became obvious th
at she wasn’t growing, her life had consisted of doctor appointments, physical therapy, and an array of weekly tests to find out what was wrong with her. The only thing that the doctors had been able to agree on was that they had no idea why she wasn’t growing.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out, mo ghrá,” Kale said as he began taking vials out of the bag and lining them up on the nightstand.
“I think I’m going to need my blood,” Ashley said, swallowing hard when he kept pulling vials out of the bag.
Chuckling, Kale leaned over and brushed his lips against hers, making it difficult to focus at the moment. “I’ll replace it,” he promised before returning to what he was doing.
“I would rather keep my blood,” Ashley mumbled weakly as she watched him pull out a needle that had her biting back a whimper.
“I’ll make a deal with you,” Kale said as he placed the backpack on the floor.
“What kind of deal?” Ashley asked, reluctantly sitting up when he reached for her arm.
“While I draw your blood, I’ll answer your questions,” Kale murmured as he searched her arm for the perfect vein.
“And I have to answer questions in return?” Ashley asked, not really in the mood to talk today. She’d already decided to tell him everything, but after last night she just didn’t feel like talking about it right now.
“No, you’re doing enough. You don’t have to tell me anything that you don’t want to,” Kale promised her as he picked up the needle and-
“Ow!”
“Sorry,” he murmured, pausing in what he was doing to lean down and give her a quick kiss that somehow made it better.
“Why are you doing this?” Ashley asked, wondering if he had any idea what his touch did to her. Then again, maybe he did, Ashley thought, feeling her stomach drop as she couldn’t help but wonder if he was doing this to keep her in line, and god, how pathetic would that make her?
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