Gil did as she bade him, Zul following close behind.
Ursula gasped when she saw the Fangrys Prime lying in bed, swathed in bandages and looking disturbingly small and ashen. She kneeled beside the bed and took one of his big hands between her much smaller ones.
“Bran, I am here. I’m fine. Our son is fine. Come back to us,” she pleaded. “Don’t leave us like Crow did. I couldn’t bear it. We all need you.Ineed you.”
She continued to talk, begging him to hear her, to wake up, to come back to them until her voice grew hoarse. When her parched throat rasped every word, she switched to mental communication. The physical link of touch strengthened the bond between them. Bran’s mental barriers dissolved into nothingness as she barreled through them to his consciousness buried deeply in a swirling well of pain, dark regret, and sorrow.
Zul and Gil joined her. Each of her males rested a hand on her shoulder and a hand on what small patches of Bran’s hide the bandages did not cover. Thus connected by touch and mind, they forged a bright beckoning that burned away Bran’s darkness, splintered his regret, and crushed his sorrow, replacing them with hope and love and their need for him. They remained that way late into the night, connected and urging Bran’s return.
“Come back to us, Bran. Don’t abandon us,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “Please, or our unborn child will never know you.”
The other two males’ eyes widened with surprise.
“You’re pregnant?” Gil growled. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Zul gulped, wondering how he could have not known. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She looked over each shoulder in turn to meet each male’s gaze. “It wouldn’t have changed anything.”
“But… but…” Zul spluttered.
“We would not have permitted you to fly on the wyvern,” Gil said. “Or to live in such primitive conditions.”
“Oh, you knew about that?” she responded. She pressed a hand over her belly, leaving one hand on Bran’s broad chest.
“Yes, I knew about that. So did Bran. But we didn’t know about the babe.”
Zul squeezed her shoulder, not hard enough to hurt, but enough to let her know he meant business. “Do not keep secrets from us, Ursula. I will not have you risking our young.”
She sighed because she knew she had risked her pregnancy. “And if I had told you? What then? What would you have done differently?”
“We would not have retreated to the box canyon.”
“And you would have taken us somewhere civilized, I suppose?” she countered in an arch tone. “A place where it would have been easy to find us? Easy to take us into custody?”
Gil winced. Zul opened his mouth to protest, but Gil shook his head. “No, Ursula, we would have proceeded more cautiously.”
“You mean you would have delayed the necessary action to effect the reforms that would keep mates together?”
“That ‘reform’ is not as important as you and our youngling,” Zul snapped.
Ursula retorted, “No, it’smoreimportant. Rooting out a corrupt government and replacing it with honorable people is bigger than me, bigger than our children: it’s important to all of Uribern.”
“Not to us,” Gil said, cupping her cheek with the hand that had rested on her shoulder. “To us,youare more important than the Council Supreme.”
“Never to us. Family is more important thananything,” Zul added. “I lived without family for too long. I know exactly how important family is—how importantyouare. You areeverything.”
“And Bran will feel the same way,” Gil added.
Ursula looked at Bran again, eyes welling with tears that trickled down her cheeks. “Don’t abandon us, Bran.” She moved closer to him and held his limp hand over her belly. “Please.”
Bran’s eyelids flickered open, and his nostrils flared as he finally caught her scent, ripe and rich with life despite her gaunt figure. His golden eyes remained unfocused, but he turned his head toward his mate.I will never abandon you.
His eyes fluttered closed again and he sighed, a small smile curling the corners of his mouth. The others relaxed, for this was a natural, healing sleep rather than the oblivion of unconsciousness and despair. The three of them remained by his bedside for a good while longer. Suvesh brought Crow in to see his parents and bid them goodnight. Another servant brought in trays of food and drink. Exhausted, Ursula fell asleep in Gil’s arms, her legs resting on Zul’s lap.
“Is she safe?” Zul said when he was sure she was sound asleep. “If not, I will take her and Crow somewhere else, somewhere they are not endangered.”
“We are safe,” Gil assured him. “And we’re now on the new Council Supreme. You and Mosk have been assigned to serve as the new joint commanders of the Guard Supreme.”
