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CELESTE
Bile rose in my throat and I choked on it. Tayte wanted to hand me over to the bears?
I couldn’t let them hear me; I couldn’t.
So, I swallowed the acid, and the tears.
I had to get out of here.
I crept away and began to run, stumbling over tree roots, long grass and thick shrubs. My belly was so cumbersome, but I carried myself the best I could as I cut across the forest. Away from the bears, and more importantly, away from the pack I had thought was my family.
They were going to kill me!
The bears for honor, and the pack to save their own hides.
What had I done to deserve all this?
Be born human.
The tears ran down uncontrollably down my face as my baby rolled and kicked within my womb. It was as if the child sensed its mother’s anguish.
I had to get away from here.
Those wolves were not going to take my baby from me.
And they were certainly not going to send me back to the den for my punishment.
Anger pushed me harder. I ran, tripping and stumbling, through the forest.
But I didn’t stop, though the cold ate at my skin and the pain in my heart made me want to cry.
I have no idea how long I ran. My legs trembled and my whole body shivered with fear and the pain of rejection.
I turned back my head to look over my shoulder. Had any of them heard me, when I inadvertently let out that gasp? What if they’d heard me?
I face the front again, and took another step forward, and then I was falling, slipping down a hill I hadn’t noticed.
And the world went black.
***
SAM
I woke to a cold hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake. It was Tayte, and by the look of him, he’d only just returned from a run.
“Hey, where’s Celeste?” Tayte said. There was an urgency to his voice that had me sitting up.
I glanced to the other side of the bed, where I’d left her.
She was always surrounded by pillows these days, and didn’t like us getting too close in sleep. She got too hot and her back hurt, so we had temporarily given her some space.
But the place that should have housed my mate was empty.
“I don’t know. Where’s Dane? Maybe she’s with him?” But as I said the words, cold fear spread through my gut. That tone of Tayte’s had not been conducive to low stress. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s gone. I can’t find her. Dane’s getting dressed. Get up, get some clothes on.”
I pulled on some jeans and a sweatshirt as quickly as I could, though it was pointless. I could feel my wolf stir and Tayte’s speech was a little garbled as he struggled to talk through his shifter teeth.
Our clothes would be shredded soon if the mood continued like this.
“What’s going on, Tayte?”
I followed him down the stairs and Dane met us in the living room.
“Where’s Celeste?” Dane asked.
My brain was empty, free of all thoughts, as my shock rammed into me. “She’s eight months pregnant; where the hell could she have gone?”
The front door opened and Dexter walked in. “She’s not at my place and Claire hasn’t seen her.”
Tayte’s fingers tightened into fists. “Fuck! I knew it. I felt her—I even caught her beautiful scent—but I thought I was imagining it. This is all my fault.”
I grabbed my Alpha’s arm and shook him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He sighed heavily, running his hands through his hair.
“I... ah, I think Celeste followed me into the woods tonight.”
“Why would she do that?”
Tayte shrugged. “Maybe she was worried about us? Maybe she wanted to help? I have no idea, but I heard a few noises as we walked into the forest and thought we may have been followed. But I dismissed the idea, because who would be that stupid?”
Good point, but dear God, she could be anywhere.
I groaned. “Okay... fine. Where is she? We need to find her.”
Tayte grimaced. “We do. But you need to know something before we go. If she heard what I said to the bears, then she’ll be running away from us.”
“But... why would she do that?” I grabbed him by the shirt. “What did you say?”
I could barely talk now.
My teeth were shifting, and my eyes had flashed to wolf’s night vision.
I could only see in black and white, though a red haze was covering me.
Tayte sighed, not looking at me. “I told the bears they could have her once the baby was born.”
I pulled back my arm and punched my Alpha as hard as I could.
Pain cracked through my wrist as Tayte reeled back, blood dripping from his nose.
“If something’s happened to her or that baby, Tayte...” I panted and began to strip.
She was in danger. I could feel it. And it was all his fault.
I let my wolf tear through me. My black Beta wolf that was almost as big as my Alpha. Today, I would take him down if I needed to.
I ran straight out the door and put my nose into the air.
Blood. My mate’s blood.
Oh, fuck, no.
I began to run, the other wolves behind me.
They were on my tail, but I ran faster.
How could he do this to us?
To her?
After everything she’d been through.
I pushed down my anger, the feelings consuming me and making me want to turn around and fight my own pack.
But my mate needed me. That was more important now.
I’d deal with the guilt later.
The scent of her sweetness, her blood, made me turn off the road and into the forest.
She’d come this way. I could smell her. Frightened and bleeding.
I skittered all the way to the edge of a cliff and looked down.
All my nightmares came true in that one moment when I stared down to the bottom of the cliff.
Celeste’s broken body lay in a tangle of brush. Her blonde hair was strewn over a fallen tree branch.
I threw back my head and howled, alerting my brothers to the pain I was in and letting loose the raging feelings bottling up in my head.
Then I ran, making my way down the cliff as fast as I could, slipping and sliding on the loose dirt, the rocks cutting my paws.
Oh my God, she’s dead.
She’s dead.
The baby... please no.
I hit the ground and put my nose against my mate, my heart pounding in my chest as I checked to see if she was alive.
If I felt her dead, cold skin against my nose I didn’t know what I’d do.
Kill Tayte would likely be first on the list.
But she moved. She moaned.
She rolled her head and I let go of my wolf so fast, my human skin hurt as it stretched back to fit me.
“Ah... fuck...”
My head spun with the speed of my shift, but I put my fingers to her neck, feeling a pulse.
I looked up, where my pack and Dexter’s wolves stood on top of the cliff.
I called out to them. “She’s alive! You need to get Claire! And an ambulance!”
Dexter and his pack took off and Tayte howled.
I knew he wanted to come down also, but I didn’t want to deal with the Alpha at this moment.
“Find a safe way down for Claire.”
I squatted next to my mate, wishing for blankets and towels and an air lift.
I cradled her face gently, careful not to disturb her neck.
She could have broken anything.
Or everything.
Then her eyes opened, slowly, and she began to cry.
“Sam.... the baby, the baby’s coming. I’m bleeding.”
I looked down and realized there was blood over her jeans.
A lot of it.
That’s what I’d smelt.
That’s how I’d found her.
How horrific.
I’d tracked my mate, because she was bleeding out.
I cupped her face. “Just hold on, Celeste. Hold on. Help’s coming.”
She tried to sit up, but I pushed her shoulders gently. “No. Please, don’t get up, beautiful.”
“Tayte... he’s going to send me away. The baby...”
I let loose a growl I’d never made. “He will never send you away. Do you understand me? I’ll kill that bastard first. You will live with us, and give us more babies forever, do you understand me?”
I was crying now, and I couldn’t stop.
“Celeste! Celeste!”
She closed her eyes and she wasn’t waking up this time.
Oh my God, what do I do?
There was noise above and around me.
I wanted to drag my mate close and hold her.
But I was too scared to damage her, and knew that I couldn’t do anything.
I just stood next to her almost-lifeless body, doing nothing. Feeling useless.
“Help me! Please!”
Claire was suddenly there next to me, with a bag and blankets.
“Move out of the way, Sam. The paramedics are on the way.”
Claire checked Celeste’s pulse and the baby’s heartbeat with a stethoscope.
“They’re both alive.”
“But... the blood.” I gestured to the blood staining Celeste’s thighs. “Surely the baby can’t survive this.”
“Cover her up. Quick. Keep her warm.”
I followed Claire’s orders.
“Claire, tell me. What are her chances of surviving this?”
Claire’s face was grim, her lips twisted as she considered how to answer me.
“I don’t know what her injuries are. If she’s fractured her spine, or has massive internal bleeding, she’ll be in for a big struggle.”
“And the baby?”
“The bleeding is probably an indication of a placental abruption, so the baby is still alive. But we need to get her to the hospital for a C-section as soon as possible.”
“How long do they have?” I asked.
Claire shook her head. “I don’t know, Sam. I honestly don’t know. But we need to get her to hospital. Now.”
I could hear sirens.
I didn’t know how much time had passed but Celeste was getting paler by the minute.
Claire glanced behind her. “Oh, thank God, they’re here. Tayte’s gonna bring them down, but we may need to help them through the brush. This isn’t an easy spot to get to.”
I growled, loudly. “You get Tayte away from her, or I’ll kill him. This is all his fault.”
“Sam...”
“Claire, I’m serious.”
“Fine. I’ll go get the paramedics.”
Claire disappeared and someone called out to me.
I looked up and Dane was throwing down a pair of rolled up jeans. They snagged on a tree, then fell down in the dirt.
I hadn’t even considered my own nakedness. I grabbed them and pulled them on.
That would have been fun to explain to the humans, why I was naked and in the middle of the forest with an unconscious woman.
It was going to be hard enough as it was.
“Here she is.”
Two men with a stretcher hurried over and Claire pulled me out of the way.
“She’s thirty-six weeks pregnant and bleeding. We’ll need to prep the OR for an emergency C-section as soon as we get back.”
The men tied Celeste to the white stretcher and carried her off to an ambulance.
“I’ll ride with her,” Claire said to me. “Get your car and drive to the hospital. I’ll meet you there.”
I nodded.
I didn’t want to let Claire take her, but there was nothing more I could do. And there was no extra room in the back of that tiny ambulance with her. I could see that.
So, I trusted Dexter’s mate to take care of Celeste.
I had to. Because my own pack had sure as shit let her down.
As the ambulance drove off, I was left with a sinking, horrible feeling. One of pure grief and despair.
I’d never recover from this if Celeste and her baby died.
Tayte was suddenly next to me and I was no longer alone with my feelings. Instead, my need to hurt him was pure and nasty, and bigger than me.
I looked at him and spat. “If she dies, you’re dead.”
Tayte nodded. “I know. Because I won’t be able to live without her.”
His grief came at me in a wave. I couldn’t handle it. What he carried was too much for me now.
Grief and regret.
“No.”
I let go of my human self and shifted back to my wolf, and I started running home.
I needed my clothes. I needed my car and I needed my mate.
Our baby’s life hung in the balance, and my family was in tatters.
What the hell could go wrong next?