by Honor James
Coming hard, he held her to him as he spilled into her ass, his cock knotting and nearly strangling the stream as she squeezed around him. “Oh Gods,” he roared out as his body bucked against hers, creating more friction.
Bethany screamed and tears burnt her eyes but it was such an amazingly good feeling. Her body fell against the bed and she gasped for air. “Hold me tight.” He was still locked inside of her ass. It hurt, but it felt so really very good as well. Damn she loved that she had gotten him to lose control as she had.
Pulled down with her, he grunted and wrapped his arms around her. Rolling them to their sides so they were spooned and she wasn’t trying to yank his cock out by the roots, he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked in concern. He’d heard pain in her last scream and that terrified him beyond all belief.
“It hurt but it was a good hurt. I know how weird that sounds but it felt so good even though it did hurt to feel you swelling inside of me. I love it, baby, so don’t even for a half second be upset, because I loved it.” She refused to let him think that she didn’t like it.
Brushing his lips over her neck Zaidu let out a breath and nipped her skin lightly. “You scare me when you do shit like that, love. Are you trying to see how many years you can take off my seriously long lifetime or what?”
“I wasn’t trying, honey,” she told him with a smile. “I just hadn’t expected it.” She should have. She just didn’t think he would lose control like that since they had just both gotten off less than an hour or whatever earlier. “I love you, honey, but I want a nap,” she whispered softly before closing her eyes. “Then we can do this all over again.”
“Damned straight we will,” he said, pressing a kiss to her throat. Moving an arm, Zaidu tugged up the blankets and covered her up. “Sleep, babe, we have a good few hours to go before we’re home.” And they had her brother to deal with.
Chapter Twenty-One
Lifting her face to the sun Bethany sighed happily. A smile crossed her lips and she turned to watch Zaidu. Shaking her head she could only smile. God she loved that man but there were times when she swore that he picked an argument just to pick one. She walked toward the waiting limo and lifted her hand to shade her eyes, the sun catching on the high shine of the wax of the vehicle. She stopped at the side and turned to watch Z as he and one of the other Rogue Hunters walked toward the limo, engaged in a heated argument that was getting louder with each step.
Shaking her head she turned to slide into the cool interior of the car but came face to chin with the driver. “Hello, sister dear.” From the face that was now so close to hers, she heard the voice of her nightmares. Looking up with wide eyes she gasped and that’s when the odd feeling of cold started to set in. When he began to laugh she looked down between them and saw his hand, covered in—blood?—between them. It was a horrific moment that seemed to just simply stop as she watched a silver blade pull from her body, covered in her blood. “Bri?” she whispered and felt him release her, her whole body giving way to the numb sensations of cold that filled her. Scrambling back she fell out of the car onto the pavement. In her mind she could have sworn she heard shouts, weapons fire, something, but the last thing she thought of was her bond-mate. Z, she whispered in his mind and desperately clung to the feeling of his very willpower pushing into her body. Brian, he’s here, she thought to tell him finally as her vision began to waver and darkness started to creep into her being. No!
Fighting, she forced her eyes open, her vision shaded by a silhouette that she couldn’t make out, and found herself reaching again for the only person that mattered in her life, would ever matter in her life. Zaidu?
“Get him,” he snarled at the other Hunter as he slid across the pavement to her side. “Babe, I’m here,” he whispered, easing her head up gently onto his thigh. Tearing her shirt open he cursed before pulling his own shirt off over his head and pressing the material into the wound. Fumbling for his phone he got it out. “Q, it’s Zaidu, Bethany’s been stabbed. I need medical help now. Gods.” He forced his normal calm into place but it wouldn’t stay. “She’s bleeding out, man,” he whispered, letting the phone fall to the ground as he gathered her into his arms. “You will hold on, Bethany. You are not leaving me now, damn it, not after you made me fall in love with you,” he whispered, rocking her back and forth even as he kept pressure on the wound.
Bethany nodded and smiled up at him. Not leaving you. Never leaving you. She couldn’t speak aloud. It was too hard to simply breathe so even thinking of speaking was bad. I love you, Zaidu. I’m just so very cold. She felt the magic of Quincy as he appeared near them and she shuddered. Don’t leave me? Don’t let me go. Please. I don’t think I can hold on if you let me go.
“I know, baby,” he whispered, brushing his lips to hers. “I’m right here with you. I’m never letting you go, love. Not in this lifetime or the next,” he promised her as Quincy moved in next to her on the other side.
She felt the pull of the Vortex that Quincy opened and then the blinding lights of medical overhead. When she saw Dr. Aba racing toward them she closed her eyes. Why Dr. Aba? Where’s the other doctor? Aba was a maternity specialist, not a surgeon. Maybe she wasn’t as badly hurt as she felt.
“I don’t know, love.” He growled at the doctor, which had her slowing down in her approach. Watching the doctor very closely he moved enough to let her have access to his mate. I’m right here, love, he said, taking her hand in his and holding it tight. “Quincy, what’s going on?” he asked in a low, tight voice.
“Don’t fucking know,” Quincy muttered and looked around medical. “What the hell, Dr. A?”
“You’ve got me. Sorry,” Dr. Aba said and looked at Zaidu and then Quincy. Stepping in behind the Mage she said, “Her blood work from her last checkup came back a couple days ago,” she said. “I’m here just to hopefully help save your child. The OR is being prepped right now but I need to check her, see where the wound is. Will you let me touch her?”
Zaidu stared blankly at her and shook his head. “What?” he bellowed, making everyone within the room jump. “Fucking get your hands on her now and save her life because I swear to the Gods if she dies”—he paused and nailed the doctor with a vicious look—“you’re first,” he snarled darkly.
She nodded and moved in closer. She shined her light in Bethany’s eyes and then to the wound that Zaidu was holding with his shirt. Instead of moving his hand she explained, “I’m trying to assess here. Don’t move or release the wound. You have the bleeding staunched for a moment while you are applying pressure but I need to see if it’s chest or stomach.” She lifted the shirt. Moving, she nodded and heard the gurney being brought in. “We need to get a scan of her abdomen and she will need OR stat.” She listened to Bethany’s chest and nodded. “Sounds as if it hit her lungs. Let’s move her, people.” Stepping back, she looked to Zaidu and said, “We will do everything to save her, and if possible the fetus, but right now she’s our concern.” She helped get Bethany on the gurney and added, “You can’t go into surgery with us.”
“I’m going in,” Zaidu said quietly, his resolve firmly in place. “I swore to her I wouldn’t leave her and I’m not going to. You will operate but I’m going to be there the entire time,” he told the doctor. “Try drugging me and you’ll find out why Hunters are so hard to deter from a goal.”
“Fuck.” Dr. A looked to Quincy. “Help us out here?” she asked and got the blank look that she knew was the look of “no fucking way in hell” and sighed. “Fine but you have to wash up, so you have to leave her side for five minutes. Wash up and suit up because of the dangers that could be involved if you don’t. Five minutes, Zaidu, that’s all it will take you.”
“Fine, but she stays in my line of sight the entire time,” he told the doctor. Following them to the OR he only released his hold on Bethany when he had to and kept his eyes locked on her the entire time. He scrubbed up according to the doctor’s instructions. Even dressing in the go
wn, cap, and mask, he never once blinked.
“We are going to sedate her,” the surgeon called over his shoulder, already cutting off Bethany’s clothes and seeing the depth of the injury. “Chest tube,” he stated and nodded as the IV was started. “So if you are going to say goodnight to her come do it now so that we can start.”
Growling at the man, Zaidu moved to Bethany and, taking her hand, touched her face with his other hand. Babe, he whispered softly to her. They’re going to put you under now and when you wake up I will see you, all right? He was going for calm but he knew he sounded anxious and couldn’t help it.
You won’t leave me. I know you won’t. Bethany had the utmost confidence in him. Did you find Brian? Please tell me that you didn’t let him get away, that he’s somewhere in a jail right now? Or dead. As much as she hated that thought it was there in her mind.
I won’t leave you, darling. I’m going to be right here with you the entire time. I don’t know about Brian but as soon as you are out of surgery I will call my colleague and get an update. He was heading off after Brian and he never lets his target get away so hopefully he’ll have nothing but good news for us. Pulling the mask down a hair he pressed a kiss to her lips before stepping back, but not letting go. “Do it,” he said to the doctor as he leveled his gaze at the man that would be messing up his mate. Zaidu, however, had a feeling that Brian would be there for another day, would be there for him to kill at another time.
Pushing the solution into her IV, the doctor watched Zaidu. “I’ve known you for years, Zaidu, since I was a child. You know I would never, ever hurt an innocent and that’s what she is, innocent. I will do all that I can and then some to make sure that she makes it, but stop growling. You are making my nurses nervous and that’s not what you want in an operating room.”
Snarling once more, he fell silent as he cradled Bethany’s hand in his and rubbed his thumb over her wrist in a continuous movement. She would be fine. She had to be fine. Gaia couldn’t be that big of a bitch to tempt him and then take from him just when he’d fallen. Forcing a slow breath in and out of his lungs he watched what they were doing with the eye of a Hunter, dispassionate and slightly apart from the scene.
* * * *
Hours later
Pulling back from his hunched position, the doctor covered the stitches and nodded. “We will get her settled into a room, flood her body with antibiotics and pain meds.” Pulling off his mask he shook his head. “The child won’t make it. I’m sorry. It was just far too early in the pregnancy to survive the trauma that her body took. She will, however, make a full recovery. You mate will be fine, Zaidu. She’s a fighter and worthy to be your mate.”
Nodding, he followed them out of the OR and to the room. Later they would mourn the child they never even knew they’d created. Later they would mourn the life lost. For now, though, he needed to be there for his mate, let her know that she was fine and to come back to him. Later he’d break down and lose it, but that was later.
She was still sleeping when she found herself reaching for him, her mind connecting to his and relaxing as he brushed his mind to hers. Zaidu. She whispered his name like a talisman, needing to invoke his name like one would a God or Goddess. You never left me, she whispered in awe.
Never. No one and nothing could keep me from your side, he assured her and moved in closer once they were done setting things up. Sitting on the chair he took her hand in his again and pressed a kiss to her fingers. “I’m right here, love,” he whispered softly, rubbing her knuckles to his cheek.
“I’m so sorry that this had to happen like this.” Gaia spoke softly beside him. “I didn’t see this happening to her. I don’t know why but I didn’t see this,” she whispered as tears shimmered in her eyes, her sorrow clearly etched on her face when she took a seat opposite from Zaidu. “I’m so sorry, Zaidu. I swear to you on my daughter’s life I didn’t see this happening to her.”
Grinding his teeth, he kept his eyes on Bethany as she slept once more. Reaching out, he stroked her hair gently. “You put her with me and she’s in danger. You take her from me and she’s in danger. It would seem that someone really doesn’t want either of us around. I don’t care if I die but hurting Bethany and ending the life of a child before it’s barely even begun, that is unforgivable,” he said in a quiet, extremely controlled voice.
“I agree,” the Goddess whispered and reached out, hesitating before touching Bethany. “The child lingers. Its spirit is strong but its home has been damaged. The child no more wants to leave you than you want it gone.” She pulled back and looked to Zaidu. “If you could change anything, Zaidu, other than the life of your bond-mate or child, what one thing would it be?”
“Nothing,” he said softly. “As long as I have Bethany and as long as we could keep our child, I wouldn’t change a damned thing. Except maybe having her brother’s head on a bloody pike,” he muttered under his breath as he closed his eyes and pressed a kiss to Bethany’s fingers.
“And if your identity was no longer Rogue Hunter Zaidu? If you could retire and be with your bond-mate, your child, would you give up that life? Would you give up the freedom to be a law unto yourself?”
“No,” he said quietly. “I do what I do to keep the innocents safe and I’d never give it up willingly. If someone comes along one day to replace me then fine, but I won’t step aside and shirk the duties and laws I swore an oath and my life’s blood to uphold. Bethany is my world and I have to ensure the world is safe for her to be a part of.”
Gaia smiled. “Yet when there is one who is able to take over the protection of the others you will step aside?” she asked and leaned forward. “Your child wants to live, Zaidu. If I give you this, bring that peace to the child and ensure that it’s safe inside of its mother’s womb, will you promise me that when I bring another Hunter for you to train, you will do so knowing that they will one day replace you so that you can be with your bond-mate? It won’t be for a very, very long time, but that day will come. It comes for all that have power where they turn their power over to another. Even The Dragon King will one day give up his Throne, so I ask you, will you promise me that when that day comes far into the future you will train them knowing that they will one day be the leader of the few Rogue Hunters there are?”
“You want to bargain my position against the life of an innocent child?” he asked, looking at her in horror and disgust. “Fine, if that’s what it fucking takes then you can have my fucking position. Take it, I don’t care. But this is beyond beneath even a God to barter a child’s life for a position in life. I’d actually thought better of you until you proved otherwise, again, that you are no better than those on the side of the dark. Do what you will and get out.” He hissed at her before turning his eyes on his mate, disgusted with the Goddess.
Gaia shook her head and rose. “The child is healed. It will be healthy. And I do what I do not to cause anyone harm but because I have to. You had two paths. One would lead you where I just asked you to go and the other one would send you into darkness so deep that not even the bond with your mate would keep you on the side of light. Power will corrupt. That’s why even the Gods have checks and balances. There are ways to kill even us,” she told him softly. “But we have to be very, very sure that we are ready for the fallout. Be well, Zaidu. Your child and bond-mate will heal and you will have a beautiful family. Protect them well,” she whispered.
Growling at her he waited until she was gone before finally relaxing again. He fucking hated that Goddess. She couldn’t keep her damn meddling out of his life. She meddled with Bethany and him and threw everything out of whack and then wondered why she hadn’t “seen” what had happened. “Gods are idiots,” he muttered, and blind to their own idiocy and stupidity.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bethany looked out over the lawn and shook her head as she watched Zaidu training with the Hunters. She leaned her head against the porch frame and rubbed her hand over her rather sizable belly. Feeling the answering k
ick, she smiled, not surprised when Z looked her way, and sent him waves of reassurance and love. She loved this man, was happier than she could even put into words, and it was all because he had been put into her life. Yep, she was a lucky, lucky woman.
Returning his attention to the group, he sighed. “No, you need to be three moves ahead of me at all times. If I were a Rogue I’d already have killed you a dozen times.” Rubbing a hand to his hair he looked at them. “Go, get some sleep and come back tomorrow. Remember what I said and watch people around you. Anticipate but don’t get caught too far ahead of the game. If you get too far out in front they will do something just to fuck you up. Get,” he told them and moved toward his mate.
Moving back just a bit she waited for him to get onto the porch and laughed when it began to rain buckets around them. She smiled happily and opened her arms to him. “Hey you.” She giggled when she felt their baby bumping against her belly and rolling happily so that Daddy would feel. “So are you guessing boy or girl today?” she teased. They hadn’t wanted to find out the sex of their baby and it was getting harder and harder to have that secret kept from them.
Resting his hand on her belly he stroked his hand over her tight flesh and nuzzled her throat. “I don’t care. As long as he or she is completely healthy, I don’t care,” he whispered. Hugging her to him he closed his eyes. He’d nearly lost her because of her psychotic brother and that was not something he’d ever forgive or forget.
Thankfully his fellow Hunter, who’d been on Brian’s tail while they’d been fighting for Bethany’s life, had caught up to the bastard. While Brian had been human, he’d interfered in Changer lives and therefore fallen under Changer laws. Taken before the Council, Zaidu and Bethany once again in attendance, he’d been sentenced to death. This time though, unlike with the Rogues previously, Talon had let the choice of the sentence fall to Z and Bethany. After much discussion they’d rendered their verdict. Death by Dragon’s Fire. Slow, painful, and just for his crimes against Bethany and every other of his victims.