HURRICANE (Beasts of Prey Book 2)

by LC Lehesaho

  "Falcon, make sure no one can get into our surveillance system again," Leo states to her, sliding the bracelet back to his wrist, and then he glances at my hand, his lips tugging into a smile. "Congratulations."

  In a half-second, six pairs of eyes are staring at me, four of them stunned as fuck.

  "For what? What did I miss?" It's Puma, bending forward on the couch, locking his blue eyes on me past Cobra. I'm not looking at him.

  I watch her.

  She beams like the brightest rays of the midday sun on a hot summer day.

  This is how I want to see her every day for the rest of our life, or if possible—happier. And I know I can make that happen too, just not yet.

  And despite what she thought, I want to have a baby with her.

  Watch her grow with my child inside her.

  Part of her and part of me.

  If that isn't perfection, I don't know what is.

  Keeping my eyes on her, I nod at Leo's congrats and answer Puma's question. "My best friend proposed to me. I'm gonna marry your sister."

  CHAPTER FORTY

  Two weeks later

  "Don't do this. Please," my plea echoes in the cold basement, but the temperature of the room is nothing compared to the frost that is biting into my bones when I look at the syringe in his hand. "Please, Levi, don't do this to me."

  He lifts his free hand to my face, gently brushing the sweat drenched strands to the side and cups my cheek. The bright baby blue eyes stare back at me from that angelic face I used to trust.

  "Darling, I have no other choice," Levi whispers, voice soft as a feather's touch.

  I yank my hands against the shackles that keep me on the wall, but it's no use; only more blood drains down from the cuts the iron had made. Anger pushes out from my pores, trying to take over the panic, which lingers inside me from knowing what's coming.

  "No! You have a fucking choice!" I yell from the top of my lungs, throat burning with choke down tears. "You can choose not to fucking rape me!"

  His hand from my cheek falls down to his side, hurt flashing in his eyes. Taking shallow breaths, he dips his head, looking at my bare feet on the floor. "I don't…" He changes his weight from side to side, finding his words. "I don't rape you. It's not what you think, Cobra."

  I let out a sarcastic laugh. "If I don't want your dick inside me, that's precisely what it is. How many days have I been here, five, I guess? I know you've done it at least twice. You're a sick rapist—"

  "No, I'm not!" Levi cuts me off, his voice wavering. "I'm not like that, and you know it. I've never touched you without your permission before, but this is… different."

  My blood runs hot in my veins, making me feel like I could burst into Hell's flames any second now and burn this place to ashes. "There is no fucking difference in violation. That's disgusting and wrong in—"

  "Stop it, please. I did it to save you. Protect you." He cups my face again, like trying to assure me. "Darling, I'd never do that if it wouldn't be the only choice. Only chance."

  I shake my head, unable to comprehend the twisted mind he possesses.

  "No. No. No…" My eyes widen as his other hand slides lower. Levi presses the syringe to my neck, and after a sting, the warm fluid tickles my insides. Forcing to keep my eyes on his, I fight against the tranquilizer, but it's useless. My muscles start to lose their stiffness, my mind blurring out from the moment. "Why are you doing this to me?" I plead with the last strength I have, my voice coming out in a quiet mumble.

  "I'm sorry, beautiful. I don't want to hurt you," he says, pressing his cheek against mine. "But Silas will if I don't stop him. He will kill you, darling, but I'm not going to let him."

  Levi's other hand threads through my strands to the back of my head, caressing, and the other one comes to my stomach, his fingers splaying against my abdomen. "Our baby will save you, darling. It's the only way. Silas won't kill you if you're having my baby."

  The nightmare made from my obscure memories jerks me awake, tears already falling down my cheeks. It can't be possible. It can't—

  "Baby," Tiger's muffled voice, thick from sleep, comes from beside me, his hand reaching out to me as I jump up to sit on the bed. "What's wrong?"

  My mind buzzes from the shock, rewinding the hazy memory in my head. I feel my hands shake, and as hard as I try, it won't stop. "I just..." My jaw trembles, and swallowing, I try to keep myself together. "Bad dream. Go back to sleep, love." Pushing myself off the bed, I start to make my way to the bathroom.

  It can't be possible.

  "Where are you going?" Tiger turns to lay on his back, the moon illuminating the room enough for me to see his broad figure. The gloom comes from behind me, not revealing my devastated look to him.

  "Bathroom. Just sleep. I'll be right back," I rush to say, and make my way out of Tiger's bedroom and grab the red duffel bag from the corridor with me before slipping into the bathroom—locking the door behind me.

  "Oh, my god," whispering to myself, I crouch and pull the zipper open from the bag, turning it upside down to the floor.

  I can't believe I've forgotten something so important.

  Hastily throwing the clothes from the bag I had packed for our gig into Preston, when we tracked down Navarro and shit went south, I find what I was looking for.

  My motherfucking contraceptive pills.

  The cold chills run down my spine as I stare at the package with one whole week of pills left untaken. I haven't had the strength to open this bag since I got back home four weeks ago, only watched it from a distance at Tiger's corridor, where he left it for me to wait for the right moment. Opening it had felt too much.

  Not that opening it would've helped me now anyway.

  Of course, I didn't eat pills while I was at the fucking house of horrors, captured, tortured, and... raped.

  Clamping a hand over my mouth, I keep the sobbing in control, trying not to wake Tiger up.

  The vomiting in the mornings... it's not fucking withdrawals.

  Levi knocked me up.

  The realization hits me like a nuclear weapon, making my stomach spasm, and bile rises from my throat. The acid burns my insides, my mouth, as I throw up in the toilet, a cold sweat breaking from my forehead and pouring down my back.

  My throat keeps gagging even though there's nothing left to vomit, and my eyes keep leaking even though there are no tears left to cry.

  We were supposed to have a baby together, Tiger and me. A family of our own. A little baby made out of the two of us.

  And now...

  I'm expecting a dead rapist’s child.

  ~

  Three minutes.

  Keeping my phone in the left and pregnancy test in the right hand, I lean my back to the toilet seat at the gym's bathroom. I close my eyes, trying to breathe calmly, but like for the past sixteen hours, there's no success. My chest heaves like after hard training, and I can hear my heart pounding inside my skull.

  I've been avoiding Tiger the entire day, but luckily, he doesn't know I'm avoiding him. After tossing and turning the rest of the night beside Tiger, I jumped up early in the morning and asked Dad to take me to meet my professor at the university. Just to get me something else to think about before I was ready to pay a visit to a pharmacy store.

  To Dad, I lied and said I was picking up vitamins.

  The unnerving feeling in my gut doesn't ease up; it only rolls up into a tight ball in my stomach. I hope to God almighty that some miracle will happen, and the test tells me the good news. I calculated the pills and the weeks, concluding that I had forgotten to take them even before I was captured. It only proves Levi has probably succeeded in his plan. The things that happened before we left for Preston had got me stressed out, and I had forgotten how to live everyday life. It doesn't matter, though. For two weeks, Levi made sure his cum was inside me every fucking night. This test is practically pointless because I'm almost sure of the outcome.

  How can I tell Tiger if I'm expecting Levi's child?


  He won't take it well, I know it. The way he talked about Bear's situation and abortion comes back to me, making breathing even harder.

  "Of course, it's an option. Bear didn't want the baby in the first place. I'm not saying it's okay, but you know, why bring someone to this world who's not even wanted?"

  Tiger would never want to keep Levi's baby.

  Clamping an arm over my eyes, the back of my head against the cold tiles, I keep myself from crying. I need to focus, find a way to tell him if I'm... fuck.

  One thing is for sure.

  I've killed many people, but there is no way I'd ever hurt a child, even an unborn one. Remembering the rhythmical, strong heartbeat from Rose's ultrasound, the small figure in the black bubble on the screen...

  If there's a baby inside me, no matter who the father is, it's safe.

  The alarm on my phone beeps, telling me that three minutes have passed. Oh, my god. Gathering my shallow breath, I open my eyes, peeking through half-masked lids to the small screen on the stick.

  No matter how blurrily I try to look at it, the answer is clear as a day.

  Pregnant 3+

  EPILOGUE

  “RX (Medicate)” by Theory of a Deadman is playing from the stereos in my messy loft as I stick the spoon full of ice cream into my mouth. Letting it melt, I track down the best parts of it with my tongue—the cookie dough. It's a piece of heaven, so damn good. Especially after the killer workout at the gym, every muscle in my body aching, it feels heavenly to reward myself.

  I deserve the whole container, that's for sure.

  The joint I smoked a while ago might also have something to do with the need for sweets but whatever.

  "Dude, are you moaning for your ice cream?" Tiger's voice pulls me out of my cloud. I turn my eyes where he sits on the armchair, Cobra in his lap.

  "It's fantastic, wanna taste?" I hand the jar towards them, but Tiger already shakes his head, an amused flicker in his eyes. He's been beaming like a kid on Christmas the past weeks. Clearly, being my sister's fiancé is awesome. "What about you, sis?"

  "Hell yeah." She pushes herself up, with a little bit of a struggle because the lover boy isn't letting her go so quickly and steals a kiss before she can get to her feet. After getting rid of the octopus, Cobra sinks beside me on the couch and starts to scoop the jar with my spoon.

  "Baby girl." Tiger gets up from the armchair too, stretching his arms, and the new tattoo on his neck draws my eyes to it. The guy is head over heels in love; the unmistakable sign is tapped to his skin. Cobra's name covers the entire right side of his neck. Hashtag dedication. "I have to go running with Leo, but you'll stay here, right?"

  "Who knows," she teases, even though she's been a little bit off today. There's tension in her demeanor, which was already gone with the past weeks, but now it's returned. Mental recovery is like that; you'll never know when the memories hit you. Usually, it happens when you least expect it.

  You get caught in the fishnet, and it won't let you swim to the surface. The more you wiggle, the deeper into the darkness you sink.

  I know how it feels. It fucking sucks.

  The expression on Tiger's face tells me he will say something I don't want to hear, so throwing my palm in the air, I stop him before he has a chance. "Yeah, man, she's gonna be here. Boy scout honor, I won't let her out of my sight."

  Cobra rolls her eyes, mouth full of ice cream, which is the only thing keeping her from nagging at us.

  "Thanks, bro." He bends down to Cobra, placing a kiss on her forehead, and gives me a fist bump at the same time. "I love you, wifey."

  She tells him the same, cupping his face with one hand, and they share a light kiss. It doesn't bother me as much as it used to—before they were together. Back then, I didn't like the idea of them ruining the whole family just because they want to bang, but knowing it's more than that and after everything that happened… I'm happy for them and hope this doesn’t crash.

  Cobra and Tiger are like lock and key, but love never ends in anything good, so I hope they're the only exception in this fucked up world and get their happy ever after.

  I'd do anything for them to get that.

  When Tiger leaves, the door clicking shut behind him, Cobra turns to me, uneasiness clouding her features.

  "What is it, sis? The nightmares again?"

  She lets her big eyes roam around the room, the tension in her jaw hardening her look. "I need your help, Puma."

  "Okay," I take the spoon from her, filling it with ice cream, "Tell me what I can do."

  "Promise me you won't speak about this to anyone. Get it? No one can know," Cobra whispers, staring at me assertively. Holy shit, this doesn't sound good.

  Secrets in our house?

  Mission impossible.

  Tousling my hair, I puff up my cheeks before blowing the air out, the uneasiness now lingering in my chest. "Yes, I promise, but you know it's not a good idea. Whatever it is—secrets are never an answer in here."

  The annoyance leaks from her pores in waves as she glares at me. "You think I don't know that? But this is something I need to keep to myself before I can find the right way to get it out."

  Great.

  "Okay, what is it, and how can I help?"

  She takes a long inhale through her nose and huffs it out, rubbing her hands together nervously. "I'm pregnant, but—"

  "Holy shit!" I cut her off, gasping. "You're having a baby? Jesus."

  "Yes—"

  "Why can't Tiger know? The guy is gonna be so excited—"

  "Shut the fuck up already, and let me speak!" Cobra snaps, smacking the ice cream jar into my lap. "Tiger is not the father."

  My jaw drops from confusion, and I squint my eyes, trying to comprehend who else she's—

  Then it hits me. "No, don't say—"

  "Yeah, it's Levi's baby," she sighs, rubbing her temples. "Now you know why I need to figure out the right time and place to tell Tiger. I refuse to lose him, but I'm not going to get an abortion either."

  Dropping the back of my head to the backrest of the couch, I want to fucking die. This is going straight to Hell, and I just know my wishes for happily ever after for them blows up to the sky like fireworks on New Year's Eve.

  I don't even have to question her decision to keep the child. She's Cobra Hayes; of course, she's going to keep it.

  "Oh, Jesus." I rake my hand through my hair, trying not to drown from the weight on my chest. "How long have you known? And why do you need my help?"

  Cobra turns sideways, bending her other leg to the couch so she's facing me. Her hazel eyes focus on mine. "I found out yesterday. I'll handle the things with Tiger; you don't have to stress about it. My problem, and I'm the one who solves it. But. Remember, when I got back home, and I was in the medical room?"

  Focusing my stoned brain on thinking back in time, I dip my chin.

  "Good, and you're aware of the withdrawals I had? Tiger told me he gossiped about it to you." Yet again, I nod, and she continues. "I realized that Doc took blood tests from me back then. Otherwise, how else she'd have seen what they had injected in me, right?"

  My poor brain is spinning like it’s in a carousel, and the smooth high I had escapes from me like smoke from the chimney. "I don't know, is that a rhetorical question, or do you want me to nod all the time? Yes?"

  Cobra rolls her eyes, growling from annoyance. "Whatever, just listen to me. I was in Rose's ultrasound with Bear a couple of weeks ago, and I found out that pregnancy can be seen in the blood test. Are you following?"

  Fuck, no.

  Tilting my head forward, I cock an eyebrow. "Open up; I have no clue what you mean with all of this."

  She grabs hold of my t-shirt, staring at me with a wild look in her eyes. It's fucking scary.

  "Doc must have known I'm pregnant. Why didn't she tell me about it?"

  Oh. Ooh.

  "You want me to help you find out why?" I try to offer, not quite sure if I am still on track.

  "Yes. First, we
need to find out if she knew and, if yes, why she kept her mouth shut." Cobra lets go of my shirt, gathers her hair into a messy bun above her head. "We have to keep this quiet before I find out a way to tell this to Tiger. I'm not going to lose him. I can't."

  "You won't." I pull her into a hug, ignoring the melting ice cream on my sweats. "I'm gonna be your Robin, and we'll figure this out."

  Or I hope to God we do.

  When it comes to our family, we can't expect the storm to pass—it never does.

  We just have to learn to dance in the rain.

  Acknowledgements

  I know this might sound ridiculous, but I want to thank the beasts for making this all so much fun. I love to write them, and even though they break my heart in every turn, they eventually put it all back together. I love each and every one of them, and I hope you do too.

  And now, my husband. Thank you, baby, for everything you do for our little boy and me. I probably couldn't do any of this without you. I'm sorry for being a snappy bitch when I haven't slept enough or when the beasts hijack my brain, and I need to crawl to my cave for days to write.

  I love you, and I see you.

  I'm forever grateful for my alphas, Antonina and Daria. Your endless support when I wrote this story means the world to me.

  And my amazing betas, I can't thank you enough for staying by my side. Your love for the beasts makes my heart sing.

  Brianna, thank you for being you. You're the kindest person I know. ILY.

  Amy, my fantastic editor. Holy shit, you did it. I want to give you a medal for this, seriously. Let's take things slowly next time, yeah?

  And hey, you right there.

  Thank you for reading HURRICANE. Beasts and I welcome you to be part of our pack.

  Join here:

  The beasts of LC | LC Lehesaho Reader Group

  About The Author

  LC Lehesaho

  I'm an author of dark romance.

  Just so you know, I'm way more balanced than my characters—they are the outcome of my madness. I run on coffee and wine and suck at saying something about myself—blame on my zodiac sign.