“El, I really think you should give your mother a chance to speak with you.There is still a lot for you to know.”
“Willow, honestly, I trusted you, and I thought you were my friend, and now I don’t know if my mates weren’t right about you.”
“I know it may seem that way, my Luna, but I told you from the beginning that I would do what was best for you, no matter the costs.I’m doing that now, even though I know you’ll be upset with me, and your mates probably want to kill me.”
El leaned back against the door and slid down to the floor.The room was starting to spin again, and she felt queasy.She put her head on her hands as she tried to let her thoughts slow down.The main thing she needed to focus on now was figuring out if she really was pregnant.She didn’t trust either of them, but since she couldn’t leave the apartment, she had no way of figuring that out.All she could do was go with their word and make sure she took care of herself accordingly going forward.
“If I am pregnant and twelve weeks along like you say, then I should see a doctor.I need prenatal, ultrasounds and everything else that goes along with being pregnant.”
“A human doctor isn’t going to be able to help you.Willow has been monitoring the baby’s progress thus far,” Persia told her.
“Oh, I see.So, while you were telling me that I couldn’t get pregnant, you were lying straight to my face,” El snarled.
“El, I’ve been very upfront about the fact that I will do everything to protect you, my Luna, and fulfill my part in the prophecy.”
“What about me?Has anyone thought of that!I don’t think one single person—the Mother herself —has stopped to think about me.I don’t want to be pregnant, I don’t want to be your Luna and I sure as hell don’t want my daughter to be some sort of chimera savior that everyone is going to want to kill more than they want to kill me.Most importantly, I do not want to spend one more second in this room with the two people I distrust most in this world right now.”
El turned and began yanking on the door handle and banging on the door, screaming for help.She screamed until it felt like her throat was bleeding and raw, and even then she screamed some more.She banged and yelled until her body physically and emotionally shut down, and she felt herself fall to the floor and give into the darkness.
Chapter 24
Ryan
“I don’t trust this.She’s close by; I can feel it,” he told his Triad brothers in the back of the bakery.They had since taken it over sending Persia’s entire people home for the day with one single glare from Ryan.There two contacts on the police force had come over, but they were much help.The traffic cams had all been disabled conveniently within ten minutes of El being at the bakery and were just now coming back online.
“Where is Officer —whatever his name is?”Ryan barked.
“He’s out in his patroller running a background check on Persia,” Adam replied.
“Persia’s already been vetted by me years ago, and again by Trip when El first asked to have her in her life,” Shawn interrupted.
“Well, apparently somebody missed something,” Adam growled.
“I get that you want to prove Willow’s innocence, but while you’re trying to cover her ass, you’re wasting our time and our resources.If that’s all you want to do, get the fuck out of here and do it your fucking self,” Shawn roared.
“My mate is not the reason El is gone,” Adam said, his voice low and deadly.
“Get out of my fucking sight if you’re not going to be useful,” Shawn retorted, taking a step closer to Adam putting them just a hair’s breadth away from being nose to nose.
“Enough,” Ryan ordered, the wave of his command rippled through the small bakery almost bringing everyone to their knees.
“We go out again, now that the police have been able to get the humans calmed down after the roar scare.We search everything, but mostly we need to scent out magic.Willow has them protected.They’re hoping to hole up somewhere until they can move El.We can’t let that happen,” Ryan ordered.
Everyone nodded in return and filed out the back door.Ryan stopped Adam with a hand to his chest.
“Shawn’s right.You’re wasting our resources.If you want to go back to the compound and do your own searching, you have permission to leave.”
Adam’s eyes searched Ryan’s for a moment, and then he simply nodded and left.Ryan didn’t fault his brother.If the tables were turned, Ryan would no doubt be searching for a way to do the same for El.Ryan tore his thoughts from his brother’s retreating figure and headed out into the alleyway where Trip, Marcus, and Shawn were splitting up to search for El.
“Shawn goes with me.He’s had less time around magic, so he may not know what to search for.Check in every fifteen minutes,” Ryan ordered.
Trip and Marcus set off on their assigned directions, and Ryan and Shawn did the same.
“What makes you think El is close?”
“I can feel her close by.If you try hard enough, you can too.One of the best things, and also the worst about being true mates, is that distance from your true mate is painful.If El were far away, we would all be feeling the pain of that distance.None of us are in pain, which tells me she is close.”
“Maybe Willow is affecting that part too, though?”Shawn mentioned.
