Didn’t make a difference. Her body felt it striking her scalp, penetrating the thin fabric of her clothes. The baby kicked and squirmed, lunging and spinning. She probably imagined she felt it chewing.
She knew puppies weren’t born with dangerous teeth and claws. The ultrasound showed a baby.
What would it show now? Was peanut now a pea-wolf?
Not yet, she’d wager, because she still lived. She had to get to shelter.
A rustle lifted her head.
The snarl chilled her blood.
She saw the glow of its eyes first. A wolf stalking between the cornstalks, intent on her.
She rose to her feet, wavering as the waves of nausea and pain consumed her, blurring her vision, making her taste bile. She could smell death’s fetid breath. The wolf slavered, the line of hanging drool repugnant.
When the wolf leaped, she didn’t hold up her arms or run. She lunged and snarled right back, swiping with her hand. Tearing a stripe as she struck a blow to its muzzle. The wolf landed and skidded into some stalks before shaking its head.
It dared to lift its lip at her. She bared her own teeth as she attacked. Wildly. Without conscious thought to what she even did. Other than a need to strike.
Fight.
Live.
She won and staggered to her feet, uttering an eerie sound. She loped through the stalks, heading for the house. Emerging from the field to light and chaos. Bodies too.
Not all of them lying on the ground.
Ulric grappled with a monster. Her daddy shot a wolf. A car pulled in, and more people arrived to join the chaos.
Meanwhile Honey couldn’t stay upright in all that moonlight. She collapsed to her knees whispering, “I don’t feel good.” She hit the ground on her ass then flopped to her back. She eyed her rippling belly and had time to think, “My parents should have called me Ripley,” before passing out.
27
Ulric need to end this fight. Needed to help his mate, who writhed on the ground. But what the wolfman lacked in size he made up for in extras like those claws and strength.
Grappling took all Ulric’s concentration, and yet when Jacob yelled, “Honey!” his head turned.
Wham.
The blow made him see stars. He might have lost his throat next if not for the bullet that hit the monster in the head, fired by none other than Quinn.
Silver hollered, “I told you we were supposed to take him in alive so he could stand trial.”
“Waste of time and resources. Lycan law has only one sentence for traitors.” Quinn didn’t look apologetic as Ulric released the limp body.
“Honey.” He whispered her name as he ran, sliding to his knees. Jacob held her head cradled in his lap.
“Something’s wrong,” the other man murmured. “She won’t wake up.”
Her body shuddered, her stomach rippling.
“We have to get her inside out of the moonlight.” Ulric gritted his teeth against the wildness surging within. Before Jacob could struggle out from under Honey, Ulric scooped her up and ran for the house, only too late realizing it might have company.
When he paused in the doorway, Quinn urged him onward. “I’ve got your back, brother.”
He followed her scent trail, wagering they’d kept her somewhere very secure—likely with few or no windows. The basement he found proved to be a perfect hideout from the moon, only Honey kept shivering.
He kept her in his arms as he stood helpless.
Silver clattered down the stairs. “I need you to hold her tight while I give her a shot.”
“A shot of what?” he asked.
“Something to calm the baby.”
He wanted to ask more questions, but the way Honey hung limp while her belly jiggled…
“Do it.”
In the distance he heard more gunshots. Jacob didn’t surprise him, but Quinn? Since when did he run around with a weapon?
The needle went in, and the doctor pushed the plunger. But she wasn’t done with one. “You’ll really have to hold on. This next one might get ugly.”
He didn’t know what she meant until Honey began thrashing. Her head snapped back, and her whole body went into convulsions. He almost lost his grip. As he readjusted, her face slammed forward, and she bit him right on the pec.
Bit him right through flesh, and he started bleeding.
She growled and hung on as her body quivered then calmed.
“One last one to help her sleep,” the doctor said. The third needle didn’t even make Honey flinch.
She collapsed against him, sound asleep, and yet he couldn’t let her go. He held on to her as Jacob and Quinn brought down a mattress with blankets. Food and water as well.
When the old man would have stayed with them, it was Silver who dragged him away saying, “Go home to your wife. Let her know Honey’s okay.”
Apparently, Daisy hadn’t been happy about being left behind. Even less happy that Silver had left Terror the kitten with her.
“Not before you answer some questions.”
Silver shook her head. “You know the Cabal rules.”
That thinned his lips. “Oh I do, and I will be having a chat with them. My family should have been off-limits.” Jacob departed but not willingly or happy about it.
The Pack arrived in time to help with cleanup. AKA disposing of the bodies.
They thoroughly burned Viper. Dead wolves weren’t a problem. Even dead men could be explained. But a cross between the two would have raised uncomfortable scrutiny. Bad enough Jacob knew and quite possibly his wife. At the same time, Ulric had to assume the Cabal trusted him, given the man knew all their financial secrets.
Would it be enough?
Hell, Ulric should be more worried about himself.
A Cabal member had died this night. There would be repercussions. But he’d do it all again to see Honey open her eyes the next morning and smile. “Morning, my Viking.”
“Hey, Bee. How you feeling?”
“Hungry.”
Which led to them demolishing the scant food in the kitchen. But she needed more. So they bundled her into a car and took her home, where her mother took one look and said, “Let me make you some pancakes.” And bacon. And some potato thing that almost made him ask Daisy to marry him.
But surely Honey would know the recipe. And he was so damned happy she was okay that he treated her like glass that entire day.
It wasn’t until that evening—right after dinner actually—that they finally sat down with her parents, and Silver, for a chat.
Honey eyed her dad and said, “I can’t believe you work for the werewolf mob.”
With that as an ice breaker, some details emerged to fill in the gaps of their knowledge such as how Jacob had been the Cabal accountant for decades with enough dirt to ensure his safety and that of his family.
“That didn’t stop Viper from coming after you,” was Ulric’s reply.
To which Jacob pursed his lips. “Because he was a crooked fucker from the get-go and thought he could intimidate me into silence.”
Silver then jumped in to explain Viper was a newer Cabal member, nominated at the unexpected death of another and not without argument. “There are some that considered him too hot-headed for the job.”
“And crooked,” Jacob added. “At first, I tried guiding him in the right direction, but he just wouldn’t see reason. Since I didn’t want him jeopardizing the entire operation, I reported him to the Cabal, which is when he threatened me and went after Honey thinking he could blackmail me by harming her.”