by Lisa Childs
His arms. That was the only place she wanted to be, and she would be more than warm in his embrace. But so much had happened…
“You still didn’t say what happened to your face,” she murmured.
He grimaced. “Damn Secret Vampire Society…”
“They did this?”
He nodded. “I thought it was Uncle Stefan coming, but it was them—dragging me off to some inquisition.”
“Inquisition? About what?”
“They questioned me about a murder,” he said. “Uncle Stefan had killed one of them.”
She gasped. “Yes, Kate told me about that—that she’d thought Uncle Stefan was saving her. But he was the greater danger.”
Reagan shuddered now. “I’m not so sure about that,” he said. “They’re pretty dangerous.”
And he had faced them alone. But he had survived.
He moved his hands from her belly now to her arms. “I should get you out of here,” he said.
She shook her head. “I have no place to go.”
“Warrick offered you his protection,” he repeated. “But you turned him down?”
“I am not Warrick’s responsibility,” she said.
“You’re mine,” he said.
She shook her head again. “No.”
“Sylvia…”
“I am responsible for myself,” she said. “For the decisions I’ve made.” For falling for the man she had—even after she’d promised herself to his brother.
He glanced back down—at her belly. “You and those babies are my responsibility,” he repeated.
She didn’t want to be his responsibility. She wanted to be the woman he loved. “I’ll be fine alone,” she assured him. “I was fine the past few months.”
She’d been miserable and scared. But she was not about to admit that to him. His guilt was already apparent—it bowed his broad shoulders. Or maybe that was the damage the vampires had done to him.
“I can go back to my old life,” she said. “I can go back to my old job.” She had worked days at the museum, so she had no reason to be out between midnight and daybreak.
“No,” he said, and his eyes had an eerie glow to them. “You can’t.”
She sighed. “Is there some other rule I don’t know about?”
“There are a lot of them,” he pointed out. “That’s why you can’t raise these babies on your own.”
“Reagan—”
He lifted his hand and pressed a finger across her lips. She shivered again at that brief, sensual contact. “You’re cold. Let’s go someplace warm.”
She shook her head.
“Warrick gave me a chance to explain my actions,” he said. “Will you?”
She understood his actions. It was his heart she didn’t know anymore. Did he love her? Or did he see her and their unborn children as just a responsibility?
Part of her was afraid to learn the truth. But the night before and the bravery of Detective Kate Wever had taught her to face her fears and fight for what she wanted.
*
“So you will do this?” Kate asked, her pulse pounding hard and fast with nerves and revulsion. “You’ll turn me into one of…you?”
Sebastian nodded. “But only if you’re sure this is what you want.”
What she wanted was Warrick. But he hadn’t come for her. He had probably already returned to lead his pack with the woman he’d really wanted. Sylvia.
“Because once you’ve turned, there is no going back to the life you used to know,” Sebastian warned her. “You have to be certain.”
“I am certain,” she said, but she stepped away from where he stood in front of her couch. “I’m certain that this is the wrong choice.”
“She has no choice,” a female voice murmured as a woman stepped from the shadows of Kate’s bedroom and joined them in the living room.
Was there a damn beacon in her bedroom window that guided every damn creature in Zantrax inside? As a detective, she really should have had better security. But an alarm system wouldn’t have kept out any of the creatures of the underground.
“If she refuses to turn,” the woman continued, “the human will have to die.”
“Ingrid…” Sebastian greeted the raven-haired woman with a coldness Kate would have never guessed he possessed—especially with women. “You don’t need to be here.”
“I need to make sure this is done,” she insisted. “That the threat she poses to the society is finally neutralized. She has dragged this out long enough. Too long.”
As if he knew arguing with the woman was futile, Sebastian turned back to Kate and whispered, “You have to let me turn you now.”
Kate shook her head. “I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want this…”
Not this life. Not these people. Sure, some of them were her friends. But not one of them was Warrick.
“If you don’t choose immortality, then you choose death,” Ingrid said, stepping even closer. “Now.”
Sebastian moved forward to shield Kate from the female vampire, but other men came from the shadows of her bedroom and caught his shoulders, holding him back. He was strong—superhumanly strong, but he couldn’t break free of their grasp. They were as strong as he was.
And so was the woman who started toward Kate.
A gun with a silver bullet would not save her now. She had no protection from her fate. She had chosen Warrick over the society, but instead she would wind up dead.
Chapter 19
“What is this place?” Sylvia asked as he led her inside the building in which he had taken refuge after Warrick had discovered the bank vault.
“An old museum,” he said. And staying inside it had made him feel closer to her. “This was where the paintings and books had been kept, so it’s temperature controlled.” And the walls were thick enough that Warrick hadn’t been able to track him.
“What’s all this?” she asked as she gestured at the candles he’d lit and the food and flowers he’d set out.
“Hope,” he replied.
She turned toward him, her green eyes intent on his face. “Hope?”
“That you would give me a chance to explain,” he said. “And to apologize…”
“I understand,” she told him. “I know why you had to kill your father—to protect Warrick.”
She was more understanding than he was of himself. “I should have protected you, too.”
She shook her head. “There was no time. And I was never a threat to Uncle Stefan,” she said. “It was you and Warrick who were in danger.” She lifted her hand to his face. “Those vampires really hurt you.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “Or I will be…”
Concern stole color from her already pale skin. “You’re in pain?”
He nodded and admitted, “I hurt.”
“Where?”
He moved her hand from his face to his chest, to his heart. “Here. I ache…for you…”
Her eyes darkened as her pupils dilated. “Reagan…”
“You have every reason to doubt my feelings,” he said, “with the way I left.”
“I understand why you left,” she said. “I just don’t know why you’ve brought me here.”
“To explain…”
“Or to assume your responsibilities?” she asked. She pulled her hand from his chest to place it on her belly. “Is this about them?”
His heart thudded hard and he expelled a shaky breath. “I didn’t know…”
“I should have told you,” she said. “But I wasn’t absolutely certain and there was already so much tension between you and Warrick and your father…”
Then it had all blown up and Reagan had killed. “And then, after I did what I did, you probably didn’t want me for your mate anymore—let alone a father to your children.” He couldn’t blame her for not trusting him, for fearing his violence. “I understand…”
She pressed her fingers across his mouth now, her skin so silky and warm. “I couldn’t have a better father for these
babies,” she said. “I know you’ll do whatever necessary to protect them—just like you protected Warrick.”
“And failed you.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine, or I will be if you answer my question honestly…”
He touched his swollen face. “I’m not sure I can handle another inquisition.”
“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said.
“You’re the only one who really can…” Because if she rejected him, he wasn’t sure how he would survive—if she went back to her old life and excluded him. “What’s your question?”
“All this…” She gestured at the candles and flowers and food. “Is it for them…” She touched her belly again. “Or me?”
He settled his hand beside hers and a tiny foot kicked his palm. He gasped in shock—the shock he’d felt when he’d overheard his brother’s conversation with her. “When I set all this up, I didn’t even know about them. I didn’t know until I overheard you and Warrick talking about the babies.”
Her face flushed. “I’m sorry…”
“I left you,” he reminded her. “You had no way of telling me.”
She shook her head. “You heard me telling Warrick that he’ll make a better leader.”
“He will,” Reagan readily agreed.
“But you’re the one your father was grooming to take over the pack.”
He flinched. “And that’s why Warrick will be the better leader. He’ll be his own man. I was my father’s.”
Her lips curved into a smile. “No. You’re your own man.”
“I’d rather be yours,” he said. “If you’ll have me…”
Tears shimmered in her beautiful green eyes as she stared up at him.
And his heart broke. He hated to see her cry. He touched her cheek. “It’s okay if you don’t feel the same way anymore…” He wouldn’t force her to honor the rule of mating for life. Those had been his father’s rules. Hopefully Warrick would make his own.
“I don’t,” she admitted.
And his heart shattered.
“I love you more.”
He grabbed her then—gently pulling her burgeoning body into his arms. “I love you, Sylvia. I love you so much. I will never leave you again.”
He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her with all the love and passion burning in his heart and soul for her. But when he tasted her tears, he pulled back. “Are you really okay?”
She nodded. “I’m happy for us, so happy…”
“But?”
“I want that happiness for Warrick.”
Guilt tugged at him. “Me, too. I hope he took your advice,” he said. “I hope he went to Kate.”
But they both knew how stubborn Warrick could be. Had he waited too long? Had he already lost her to the Secret Vampire Society?
*
Just as the grandfather clock chimed for the twelfth time, Warrick snarled and growled as he stepped from the shadows of Kate’s bedroom into the faint light of the small, crowded living room. “Get away from her!”
“This doesn’t concern you,” Ingrid said. “Go back to your pack. Get the hell out of Zantrax. You and your brother brought enough trouble to our city. If not for you, the human would never have discovered our secret. Perhaps you need to die with her.”
“I would have learned about the society even if Warrick had never come to Zantrax,” Kate defended him.
He did not deserve her loyalty—not after leaving her alone and in danger. Not after waiting so long to claim her as his mate. “Kate is no threat to the society. She’s known your secret for days and has revealed it to no one.”
“We cannot let her live,” Ingrid insisted. “You know the rule.”
“I know an exception to that rule.”
The woman’s face distorted to an ugly mask of bitterness. “She would not let Sebastian turn her into a member of the society.”
“Let me change her,” Warrick urged.
“Into one of your pack?”
“Into my mate.”
Kate turned toward him, her blue eyes wide and unreadable. Did she want him?
He couldn’t blame her if she didn’t—not after the fool he had acted. He’d thought he’d been protecting her, but he had really only been protecting himself. Afraid that some day she would leave him, he hadn’t dared to give her the chance. So he had left her first…when she’d needed him most.
“She refused Sebastian,” Ingrid said, as if no woman had ever refused the vampire bartender before. “What makes you think she will accept your option?”
“Because she loves me.” Or at least he hoped like hell she did.
Her face flushed, her cheeks growing pink.
“Then she should have chosen you already,” Ingrid said. “She waited too long.”
“No, I was the one who waited too long to claim her as mine.” And he’d risked her life. And his own. Because he could not live without Kate.
“It doesn’t matter who waited,” the woman replied, shaking her head with disgust in both of them. “You both need to die.”
*
Kate gasped. She couldn’t lose Warrick now, after he had finally chosen her as his mate. But there were too many of the vampires. No matter how hard they fought together, she and Warrick could not win this battle.
Her true hero, in his wolf form, leaped toward the woman. He had a wooden stake clasped tight in his claws. “I’ll take you out,” he warned Ingrid. “You’re the one whose immortality will end tonight.”
“But you will die, too,” the dark-haired woman warned him. “The society has only been able to coexist with packs because we’ve stayed out of each other’s way and honored each other’s rules. Killing me will end that peaceful coexistence.”
“And killing me won’t?” Warrick asked. “You’d be killing the leader of the St. James Pack. The rest of my pack will be duty bound to come after the society.”
The woman sucked in a breath, as if only now realizing the implication of killing Warrick James. No trace of fear or intimidation was apparent in her imperious tone when she said, “You will be spared if you leave now. We will just kill the human.”
Warrick shook his head. “You won’t be able to hurt Kate with this stake buried in your heart.”
The woman’s throat moved as she swallowed hard, fear filling her dark eyes as she realized how serious the werewolf was. “The rest of the society will kill you,” she warned him. “And the human.”
Sebastian shook his head. “I won’t kill him. He’s given her another choice, one the society will accept.”
“But will she?” Ingrid asked.
Warrick turned to her, his topaz gaze intense and questioning. He had claimed that she loved him, but from the way he looked at her, he wasn’t certain of her feelings. But she hadn’t actually told him what she’d felt for him. He hadn’t given her the chance, and then after she’d shot his uncle, she hadn’t wanted to burden him with another responsibility when he already had so many others. The pack, Sylvia and her unborn babies…
“Will you?” he asked. “Will you become my mate for life, Kate?”
She feared he was only offering her that option over death—that he was just trying to protect her as he had been since she’d first been attacked in the alley. But if she refused him now, in front of all these members of the Secret Vampire Society, she would be putting them both in mortal danger. So, even though she wasn’t certain of his motives, she accepted his proposal. “I will.”
“See,” Sebastian said as he tugged free of the men holding him. “There is no need for any violence.”
Ingrid nodded. “All right.”
Warrick dropped down and stepped back from her. But he still clasped the stake tightly, ready to strike if Ingrid changed her mind.
“As long as she’s turned from a human into something else,” the vampiress said, “we will let her live.”
“I will turn her as soon as you all leave,” Warrick promised.
The woman stared at him, as if
unwilling to leave—as if determined to witness the transformation.
“I will not share such an intimate moment,” Warrick said. “A moment that is just for me and the woman who has agreed to be my mate. You need to leave.”
Finally the dark-haired woman nodded. Then she gestured at her men and headed toward the door of Kate’s apartment with them falling into line behind her. The vampiress stopped at the door and stared over her shoulder at them. “But she must be turned tonight.”
“She will check tomorrow to make sure Kate’s been turned,” Sebastian warned them before following the other members of his society out.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Warrick asked her once the door had closed behind all the vampires.
Had he changed his mind?
“Because changing you into a werewolf will be quite violent,” he continued. “I have to bite you.”
“I’m fine with however much it will hurt,” Kate assured him.
“You’ve been through so much pain already though,” he said, his voice gruff with regret.
It couldn’t hurt any more than the thought of losing him forever had hurt her. “I need to know why we’re doing this, though,” she said.
“You heard them. It’s this or death,” he reminded her.
She shook her head. “There was another option. I could have become one of them.”
“But you didn’t. Why not?” he asked. “Your friends are part of the Secret Vampire Society. I would have thought you’d choose them.”
She sucked in a breath and braced herself for the admission she needed to make. “I didn’t want to become one of them and risk never seeing you again, never being able to be with you again. I chose you.”
His pupils dilated, nearly swallowing the topaz. “Kate…”
“But I didn’t think you would choose me,” she said, her voice catching with all the fears and doubts that had been pummeling her.
“Kate…” He stepped closer, still on all fours even though dawn was beginning to break, light streaking through her blinds. “There was no choice.”
“Over Sylvia,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “She’s the love of your life, the woman you were willing to kill over losing.”
“I was a fool,” he said. “I had no idea what love was until I met you.”