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Finn came back the next evening a little earlier, sitting at the table when Ezra invited him to eat dinner with us. I could barely look at him as I pushed the food around on my plate. I wasn’t hungry at all after a day of reaping. I was exhausted and queasy, which didn’t make me a great conversationalist at dinner.
I pulled Finn aside before dessert, lowering my voice in the hallway. “Look, I love that you’re trying to get along with my family and all, but what happened last night was completely wrong. Totally my fault, and I’m sorry. I’m not available, and I got caught up in the moment.”
Finn’s jaw tightened. “I thought you’d say that.” He sighed with practiced patience. “This whole having a conscience thing is terrible. All I want is to carry you up to your bedroom, throw you down on the mattress and suck on your ankle until you admit that you want me with you. Then I’d strip your clothes off and make love to you, which is what I should’ve done when we were living together.”
I swallowed hard. “That wouldn’t fall into the realm of friendly behavior. We’re friends, Finn. So anything that you’d do with Mason, you can do with me.” I pressed my fingers to my forehead to rub the tension away. “I’ve got to warn you, friend to friend, Mason’s toes are very hairy, so I’d think twice before putting his foot in your mouth.”
Finn’s eyes hardened as he ran through his lengthy mental list and crossed off offending items. “I wanted to stay tonight and read to you.”
“Reading is fine. In a group setting. With witnesses and socks and shoes on.” My cheeks pinkened.
The corner of Finn’s mouth tugged upward. “If you say so. You’re the one who’s barefoot now.” He let out another labored sigh. “But I can keep myself honest, if it means I get to keep you in my life.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’ll have however much of yourself you’d like to give to me.”
I blinked twice, touched that his love was about more than the physical connection we couldn’t seem to sever. “Wow, Finn. Thank you. You’re a good man.” I shifted my cheery yellow stretchy maternity shirt, wishing it was a little less form-fitting so I didn’t feel so very exposed. Mariang had sworn I didn’t look like a giant bumble bee, but I’d still switched my black yoga capris for dark gray ones, just in case. As Finn stood before me, looking too tempting and too available, I knew I should’ve opted for a ski jacket and clown pants.
I was tentative around him during dessert, extra polite and avoided too much eye contact. I finally started to loosen up in the living room when Finn opened the book to start our nightly ritual. Mason stayed true to my request that he not leave me alone with Finn. He was in his wolf form, warming my feet while Finn read so that no one would suck on my toes. Ezra was my other buffer, sitting in the recliner to keep us company.
Finn finished three chapters, and then closed the book, resting it on the coffee table. I was too tired to go up the stairs, so I drifted off to sleep on the couch in Finn’s arms with Mason warming my toes, guarding them so they didn’t end up in Finn’s mouth again.
I expected to wake to Finn jostling me gently before he left for work. The jaws that clamped onto my calf woke me with a jolt and a scream I wasn’t awake enough to temper. Finn jerked awake, sitting us both up as he assessed the source of the danger. Mason’s fangs were latched onto my left leg, digging deeper as I screamed. He growled with a feral snarl that started deep in his belly.
“Mason! Let go!” Ezra was upright, clearing the distance between the recliner he’d fallen asleep in and the couch. “Danny! Boston!” he shouted through the mansion, his voice carrying up the stairs.
“Mason, stop! It’s me!” I screamed as the teeth dug deeper. “You’re hurting me! You don’t want to hurt me!”
I clawed at the couch as Finn slid out from under me. He grabbed my wolf by the snout, prying Mason’s jaw open without caring that his own fingers were getting sliced. Mason wriggled his head free and lunged at my belly, jaws snapping. “Get her out of here!” Finn ordered, a determined snarl in place. “Ow! Damn Matruculan!”
Ezra helped me up and ran me to the hallway bathroom, shutting me inside. “Lock the door. Mason’s not in control of himself anymore.”
“Don’t hurt him!” I cried, hobbling to the toilet and closing the lid so I could get a good look at my calf. Mason hadn’t done a ton of ripping back and forth, but the bite had gone deep. Blood was cascading down my leg and pooling onto the hardwood floor. My lower lip started trembling as the air hit the angry bite marks. Immediately I did my best to compartmentalize the pain so I didn’t lose it altogether. I bit down on my lower lip and set to cleaning out the wound, which was impossible to do properly without some kind of antiseptic.
Mason hadn’t recognized me. He attacked, and even when I screamed, he didn’t know who I was. I guess I’d romanticized that there would be logic left in him even as his desire to eat September grew stronger. He talked to her every night, spooning me while he stroked my belly protectively. He promised my daughter things as if she belonged in part to him. He even referred to himself as Uncle Mason when he spoke to her. Mason loved us.
And now Mason wanted to eat my baby. Ain’t no shrink qualified to guide me through that bucket of nonsense.
Danny banged on the bathroom door. “Let me in!” When I unlocked it, Danny nearly crashed through to the opposite wall. “Get up. You’re leaving now. We’ve got him contained to the basement, but the second he gets it in his head to turn back into himself, he’ll be at top strength and there’ll be no stopping him. Get in the SUV.”
“Get Mariang! He might smell her baby and go after her instead!” I was scared of the damage Mason could do at full strength.
Danny’s eyes widened when it dawned on him that there were two babies ripe for eating. “Oh, shite! Get in the car!”
I grabbed the hand towel off the rack and limped as fast as I could to the driveway. I was barefoot and cold as the light dusting of snow that had been accumulating after the sun went down iced my toes.
“October? October!”
The voice that reached me cut worse than the teeth marks and stiffened me more than the snow on my bare feet. I turned as if in slow motion and saw none other than Von tearing up the driveway toward me at full speed.
I reared back in shock, my butt bumping against the side of the SUV. My mouth fell open at the sight that had once been beautiful, but now was only painful. The man with messy black hair, lips meant for kissing, a tall, lean and muscular body, but totally devoid of the smirk I adored stood before me, taking my breath away and shocking me even more than an attack from Mason.
He reached for me, but then inhaled sharply the scent of my blood. He looked down at my leg in alarm and recoiled.
“No!” I cried, cocking my fist and taking a wide swing. I didn’t want to make contact, only to show him I was ready to defend myself if it came to it. “Back up! You can’t have my blood! It’s mine!”
“I’m completely under control. I don’t care about your blood; I care that you’re bleeding.” He gripped my shoulders, looking down at my belly in fear and wonder.
I recoiled from his touch, pushing him back and putting up my fists in preparation to fight my ex-vampire if he attacked. “Don’t bite me. Don’t even think about it. Dad!” I shouted, hoping anyone heard me.
Von voluntarily took a step back, his arms raised. “I’m not thirsty at all. I promise you, I’m safe. Why are you bleeding? And you’re barefoot and pregnant! Get back inside!”
“Mason bit me!” I wailed, shivering. I was wracked with pain from the freezing snow on my feet and the bite that was still oozing on my leg. “I have to get out before he hulks out and tries to eat the baby!”
Von’s eyes widened, flinching at my shriek when he lunged forward. I didn’t realize he was just opening the car door to usher me inside. “Get in and warm up. I’ll see if I can lend a hand with Mason.” He ran into the house before I could respond, though what I might’ve said, I couldn’t tell you. I was reeling, shocked that Von was here, and that my Mason wasn’t.
I shoved myself to the backseat of Ezra’s SUV, knowing Danny would never let me drive, bloody as I was. Plus, I didn’t have the keys anyway. I buckled up, shivering in the freezing temperature that the last days of winter just refused to give up on. I wrapped the towel around my calf, scared that at any moment, Mason could come out as his human self and rip the car door off its hinges. I held my belly, singing softly through my panic to September, assuring her that Mason still loved us, and that I’d keep her safe.