I’d been living in Shifters Sanctuary for a year or so, but only now did I feel as though the word fit. After all, home was where the heart was, and Sage and Sergio were my heart.
“Can we get him now?” I asked. “I don’t want him to spend a single second longer than necessary behind those barbaric bars.”
“You’ll have to wait until morning, “ a nearby officer said, answering before anyone else could.
“That’s not acceptable,” Beckett informed him smoothly. “You have all the evidence and a confession right here. Why should an innocent man continue to suffer overnight?”
“There’s a process to be followed. Rules and laws and—”
I scoffed. “Pardon my frankness, but your system and laws are the reason my innocent mate is wasting away in a jail cell right now. So fuck your process. You’ve got the shifter you want,” I jutted my chin in the direction of the cruiser, where the beta in question was slumped in the back seat, hands cuffed at his back and the door securely shut. “So call ahead to your little friends and arrange his release.”
“We can’t—”
“Yes you can,” I interrupted again, Sergio’s hand gripping my bicep the only thing preventing me from lunging into the officer’s personal bubble. I suspected that the urge to grab the man and shake him until he complied was written on my face, though, because he put his hand on the weapon on his hip and took a bracing step backwards. Forcing calm into my tone, I tried to reason with him. “He’s innocent. Scared. Alone. Feeling sick.”
“Sick?” The officer frowned. “How do you know that?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that Sage was pregnant, but I knew doing so would only cause more troublethan it was worth. Humans were funny when it came to things involving sexuality and biology. I could never understand it, but then humans were a different species altogether. They couldn’t understand us, which was what made them so dangerous. Additionally, I didn’t want to risk one of Morstein’s supporters hearing about Sage’s condition and taking advantage of his vulnerable state, locked behind bars without access to his shifter side.
So, instead of going into detail, I shrugged, “His lawyer mentioned it after their meeting.” Still hoping to appeal to his sense of justice and sympathy, though, I continued, “The magic in the bars which prevents him from shifting is hurting him.”
That hadn’t been proven, of course, but it was still a concern for us. I swore, if these humans had hurt our unborn child by detaining Sage in one of their evil magical cages, they would rue the day they first slapped cuffs on my mate.
The shifter officer grimaced and turned to his partner. “We could make some calls, right?”
Despite his raised eyebrows, the taller, broader man nodded slowly. I wondered if he even knew that his partner was a shifter, but none of that was of my concern.
“Please,” I begged, pulling free of Serge’s hold, clasping my hands in front of my chest as if in prayer, “you’ve got your man now. Give me mine back.”
“We’re not going to go quietly until you do,” Sergio added firmly. “And if we have to fly down there and break down walls to get him out, we will.”
“You’re a dramatic bunch, aren’t you?” The shifter’s partner snarked, but he looked to the officer I had been arguing with and said, “Guess we’re all in for a long night after all.”
I might have been desperately in love with my mates, but in that moment, I could have kissed that officer.
Sage was going to be released that night.
My mate was coming home.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The door at the end of the hallway burst open and slammed against the cement wall with a crash that echoed through the dark space. Light spilled out from the open doorway, around the shadowy frame of one of my jailers. His shoulders were tense, and his footsteps were heavy with agitation as he stomped in my direction.
I had no idea what I had done to piss him off, especially so late at night, but I sat up on my cot and waited for him to start talking. Unconsciously, I splayed a hand over my belly, which was churning with unease.
Or morning sickness, the voice in my head chimed in unhelpfully.
I knew Sergio wouldn’t have lied to me about such a thing, but it was still hard to believe. Me, pregnant.Pregnant. I’d never even been knotted. Sergio hadn’t been an alpha when he had come inside me. I hadn’t even been in heat. But, all that aside, he sounded certain that I was in the family way and I...well, I didn’t know how to feel about it.
On one hand, I was ecstatic. I’d fantasized about alphas and babies for hundreds of years. But, on the other hand, it suddenlyfeltwaytoo soon. We’d talked about waiting until after we bonded. Sure, Serge said he was happy, but what about Dex? Was this too soon for him? And was hereallyokay with me being the one to carry our first baby? After all, he was the first omega Serge had popped a knot with. Theonlyomega, seeing as we had been waiting for me to go on birth control. He had to be feeling some kind of way about that, didn’t he? I probably would have if the tables were turned.
Plus, on top of all of that, there was the tiny matter of my incarceration behind shift-inhibiting bars. How would that impact the baby’s growth? Not to mention if I was still stuck there for the birth itself. As omegas, our bodies literally shifted during birth, developing a whole new passage and orifice to deliver the baby. If I was still in this cell, I didn’t think I would be able to do that. What would happen then? I shuddered to think about it.
“Get up,” my captor demanded in his usual gruff voice, sounding more agitated than usual.
I got up and kept my mouth shut.
Keys jangled and he slid one into the lock of my cage, turning it until a sharp, metallic click rang out between us.
