The Alpha's Surrogate: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance (19 page)

She smiled up to him. “That’s because it is.”

He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up to him. His lips brushed against hers and it sent shivers down her spine, her skin lit up with goose bumps, and she could feel that her lips had the same effect on him.

“I should brush my teeth,” she started to say when he kissed her. His hands roamed her back, pulling her to him, smashing her body to his. She embraced him, pressing her breasts against his chest, her hips against his.

He froze for a moment. His nose twitched and the yellow in his eyes expanded.

“Do you hear anything?”

.

Then they both heard the scream.

Gently, but with alacrity, Richard pushed Reign off him and to the side. He jumped up, pulled his pjs up with one hand, and reached for one of his crescent shaped axes with the other. The door to the bedroom burst open. Two men clad all in black, wielding AK-47’s with long black suppressors attached, were in the doorway, one was kneeling, the other standing. They said nothing, they moved with the rapidity of operators as one tracked Reign and the other Richard. They were fast, for humans.

Richard was not human. He rolled sideways, to put himself in front of Reign. When he came up on one knee, he hurled his ax at the one standing. They both opened fire, the sound of the bolts crashing against metal filled the room seconds before the scream of agony as the axe embedded itself in the chest of the one man. He slumped to the ground in a great spray of blood as his heart raced in panic, but with the artery severed, it just pumped blood into the open.

The other man barely registered the death of his comrade as he held the trigger down. With remarkable accuracy, each bullet hit Richard. The large rounds tore chunk after chunk of flesh from him. The agony of the bullets blossomed and beat him down. He fled backwards, still trying to shield Reign with his flesh. The bolt locked back and the hail of bullets stopped. All thirty had hit him, and he couldn’t move. His body was healing, but it took time, and the man advanced on him reloading as he did so.

Reign was there in his field of vision; she wasn’t scared so much as angry. Her nakedness didn’t seem awkward to him, and their assailant didn’t seem to register her as a threat. Physically, she wasn’t, what could a naked woman, with no obvious training, do to a full-on commando that this man so obviously was.

To her credit Reign did not cry, or back down, she did not ask him to stop or surrender. She simply held her hand out, and lightning answered her call. The bolt arched from her fingers into his chest, lifted him up and smashed him against the wall. He grunted with the impact and twitched as she poured the electricity into him..

Richard’s groan was lost in the sound of crackling energy. His whole body hurt. He had shielded his head with one arm, thankfully. But thirty rounds had stripped him of bone and muscles. It wasn’t the first time he had been riddled with bullets, but it made it no less painful.

The lightning stopped, and the man fell to the ground. Richard smelled the burned flesh and hair. It made his nose wrinkle. Reign stalked out of the room, anger bold on her face.

“Wait,” he tried to say but a round had pierced his lung and he was having trouble breathing. These men were dangerous, and terror filled him. They obviously knew what they were up against, and no matter how fast a wolf healed, bullets still could kill, it just took more. His vision was clearing, his legs started to respond. He felt something, then a massive explosion like a clap of thunder filled the apartment. The overpressure deafened him, and likely blew out his eardrums.

What the fuck is going on?

He stumbled out of the room. It led to a short hallway, then to double doors and the main living room of the three thousand square foot loft. The place only had four bedrooms, so the wolves had partitioned off the main room into living spaces. They could have separated and gotten hotels, or went to their other homes, but something seemed right about all of them staying together. Now, seeing several bodies of his friends littering the ground, Richard wished they had separated.

Reign was in the middle of the room, three assailants were on the ground, the smoke rising from their torsos told the tale of their demise. Richard stumbled through the doors, still not fully healed, but he was determined to get to her, to protect her, even if he didn’t need to. Skye was collapsed on the ground in the kitchen. She was hunched over something, the massive amount of blood on her back a testimony to her desire to protect the baby at all cost.

One last man stood, a large combat knife held to Abbey’s throat. TJ’s body lay on the ground at the man’s feet, a hole the size of a baseball in his head. Abbey’s sobs broke the silence of the room.

“I’m gonna step out to the balcony and you all are going to stand there and do nothing, understood? Or she’s going to join her boyfriend.” He pressed the knife to her neck for emphasis.

“And don’t think I don’t know what you are. If she tries anything, this knife will cut her head clean off.”

Reign’s stance told Richard she had no intention of standing down.

“You hurt my friends, my baby, my home, and you think you get to live.”

It wasn’t a question, Reign was furious; Richard had never heard her speak in such a way.

“No, you don’t get to live.”

She waved her hand, the knife jerked out of his grasp and flew to Reign, and she grabbed it out of midair.

Abbey slammed her heel down on the man’s foot; when he let her go she spun and, with all her might, kicked him in the chest. He shot clear off the railing and they could hear him scream the six floors to the ground.

After the scream ended, the noise of the city returned. The loft was quiet for a few moments, broken only by the stifled sobs of Abbey as she knelt over TJ’s body.

Richard tossed the ax aside, it wasn’t needed anymore. He found his pack in his head. TJ was gone, two more were wounded enough they could die, and Skye was one of them.

“Indigo,” he didn’t even need to finish. The Spaniard leaped into action. He directed two others to lay out the bodies of the invaders, and then he proceeded to check on the wounded.

Skye was in bad shape, she clutched baby Cara to her bosom, protecting her with her own flesh. Richard had to block that out though, the danger had not passed. Reign wasn’t standing down. She was still emanating small amounts of electricity, and anger clouded her face like a storm.

“Reign, it’s over…” he started to say.

She turned to him, her pupils engulfing her eyes, leaving black pits where they once were.

“Is it? No matter where we go, we are in danger. Did the council send these?” she asked, her voice tilted with an odd quality, almost as if she were speaking through a radio.

“Doesn’t seem their style, does it?  Heidi would have come herself. No, I think the council thinks we are dead, or missing, there’s something about…”

“Richard, Reign,” Indigo interrupted.

With care, Richard reached out to Reign to hold her hand. At first, she resisted, but after a second she relented, and let him. Her body relaxed, the brown in her eyes returned, and she was Reign again.

Together, they made their way over to where Indigo knelt next to Skye. Her color was bad, but it improved by the moment. She smiled at Reign, and nodded to the baby in her arms.

“They wanted the baby,” she said through a wicked cough. “The one Abbey kicked out the window was the leader, and he got pissed when they shot me.”

Richard knelt down beside her.  “You did well, Skye, save your strength.” He pried the baby from her arms, his heart burned for a moment thinking the baby could be dead, for through all of that, it made not even a whisper.

Her brown eyes widened when she saw her dad, a smile split her lips.

“Remarkable,” Indigo said.

Reign reached for the baby, her hands shaking; Richard let her have her, of course. She held the baby tight, and started singing a lullaby to her as she walked around the room.

“One more thing, boss,” Skye said, coughing up a little blood, but well enough to sit up, “they just appeared on the balcony.”

“They repel in?” Indigo asked her.

“No,” she shook her head. “I mean, one second there is an empty balcony, the next, poof.”

“Magic,” Indigo muttered.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“It failed, milady,” the lieutenant said, his perfectly chill blue eyes downcast. He affected the right amount of disappointment, sadness, and penance in his tone that Christina Dela Dulci was almost swayed to spare him.

Almost.

Her other lieutenant, the stunningly beautiful Devado smiled ever so slightly. That is how it worked in the Vampire clan, when one person lost favor, another gained.

“Pearson, leave my sight. I grow tired of the stench of failure that follows you around.”

The young looking man nodded. “As my queen commands.” He bowed and scraped his way out of the room.

It was not a proper throne room, just the main hall of a mansion the clan had picked up years before. It had been extensively remodeled, to allow the Vampires of the Dulci clan to move about in the daytime. All the windows were bricked over. Tunnels spread from the basement to many other buildings on the property, and to nearby buildings not on the property. It was a simple matter to convince the previous owners of the surrounding houses and businesses to sell to them. After all, her family had a way of persuading people.

“I told you it wouldn’t work; no mage would be defeated so easily. Certainly not one powerful enough to hide his presence from me.”

“Care your tone, Devado,” Christina replied, as she lifted her well-toned body off the antique high backed chair she used as a throne. Her lithe form rippled under her loose dress, which left little to the imagination.

“My apologies, I just get angered by others failing you,” she said with a slight smile.

“Better.” She stood near her; one of her delicate hands brushed her cheek.

“What have you for me?” she whispered into the other woman’s ear.

“A new ally. A city councilman who decided to cheat on his wife.”

They both chuckled; after all, no one decided anything around them. They decided for them. Devado gestured and the far door opened. Bound with his hands behind his back, a man was pushed in. He was in his late forties  and Christina fancied the salt and peppered beard the man carried; few men carried them well.

“Who is this?”

“Park Williams, milady.”

She circled the man, savoring the fear that emanated from him like sweat. Her hand brushed against his back and chest, his jumps and gasps left her feeling the need for more.

“Mr. Park, you come to serve me,” she said from the corner of her mouth.

“I don’t know who you people are, but I serve the city, not you.”

“Can you not do both?”

She closed the distance between them, her succulent red lips just inches from his. She ran the back of her hand down his cheek, enjoying the thrill as he recoiled; he was helpless, a gazelle in lion country.

“Ahh, Mr. Park, as if you had a choice.”

He opened his mouth to speak, she pounced on him, kissing him with an intensity that sent electricity down his spine. She could feel him kissing her back, her tongue in his mouth, his body responding immediately.

Men, so easy.

She kissed his cheek, running her lips down his neck; his breath came in ragged clumps. She paused, giving her canines time to elongate, before sinking her teeth into the carotid artery. He grunted, a low moan echoed in her ears as he came instantly. She held him close as his body bucked against her. She felt his pleasure, his pain, she could see, to some degree, inside him. She drank deep, only stopping when she sensed his heart racing, struggling to pump enough blood through his body.

She released him with a shudder. He collapsed to one knee, his head rolled back and forth, and his eyes hung open with an incoherent glaze about them. She turned her back to him as she spoke.

“This is Devado, do as she says and obey.”

“Yes, mistress.”

She smiled, taking slaves always left her excited. She stripped out of her dress as she walked for her bedroom. She could sense Devado usher the man out, she would take care of things.

In her room, two men waited for her. While many vampires took new thralls constantly, growing bored or tired of old ones, Christina kept them for as long as they could physically please her. They learned, and she hated breaking new ones in. The men, one in his thirties she had kept for almost a decade now, the other only a few years into college, sensed her presence and rose from the bed. They were naked, as she liked them to be, and they could tell what she wanted from the soft sheen of excitement that coated her body.

As they embraced her, she let herself be carried to the bed, for it was their role to pleasure her.

*

Reign held Cara close to her breast as the little baby fed upon her mother’s milk. All the excitement and confusion had left the baby untouched, not a mark on her, nor was she screaming, just famished.

She tried to make herself relax. All she could see was Skye’s bloody back hunched over her baby. She was thankful that Cara was okay and more so that Skye was also, but who would do this? She heard Richard enter, his breathing told her that he was still upset.

“Who could have done this?” she asked, not looking at him.

“It wasn’t the council, they would have come themselves, or sent someone like Heidi, no, whoever did this sent humans,” he said.

Reign could hear the worry in his voice. She was taken aback by it.

“Is that a big deal?”

“You know what pains we take to keep humans ignorant of our existence. Whoever did this uses humans as enforcers. That’s dangerous; it means they have no fear of being discovered. Which means they play for keeps.”

“You know who it is, don’t you?”

“I’ve got an idea.” He poked his head back out the hallway. “Indigo!”

A few seconds later, the Spaniard appeared, Skye limping at his side.

“She insisted, wanted to make sure the baby was okay.” Indigo ushered her in the room.

Skye immediately went to Reign and the baby.

“Thank you,” she whispered to Skye. “You could have died.”

“And let something happen to me bairn,” she said with a tired smile.

“Reign, a second?” Richard asked. She handed Skye the baby, which she gladly took.

“You two don’t look happy, what is it?”

“Vampires,” Richard said quietly.

“They’re real? I mean, I know right, but I mean, real?”

“Yes, but not like you think in the movies. A hundred times worse.”

“How could they be worse than blood sucking demons that feed on the living?”

Richard took a breath and let it out slowly. “You can’t kill them; like a bad penny they just keep coming back.”

“What about wooden stakes and silver?”

“Superstition. You can burn them till there is nothing left but ash, but eventually, they come back.”

“That sucks.”

The three of them paused for a moment and then broke out in chuckles.

“Okay, what’s the plan?” Reign asked.

“There’s only one thing to do, boss.”

“I know, I don’t like it, but we can’t win this; we run. Make the arrangements.”

Indigo gave a curt nod before departing. Richard took Reign by the arm and led her to the back of the loft.

“They are looking for us for a reason, it may be we violated their territory, or something else, but only one thing has changed recently…”

Reign waited for a moment; when he said nothing else, it dawned on her.

“Me and the baby.”

Richard nodded.

Reign stifled the fear that flooded through her. If she believed in werewolves, then it was only logical that everything else was true.
Hell, I met a Norse god.
She hadn’t even wrapped her brain around that one.

“Don’t forget your magic, that’s new too, unless there’s something you’re not telling me?”

“No,” she said with a smile, she leaned in to kiss him; she needed the comfort of his warmth next to her, to be held.

After a few moments, she was able to breathe again, to focus.

“Where are we running?”

“To the equator, it’s a contingency plan Indigo and I worked up years before.”

“Why?”

“The sunlight part is true, it won’t kill them, but they hate it. Imagine having the worst sunburn ever, that’s what they get.”

“Okay, good, the equator it is, when do we go?”

“Now. You and I will hang back and wait for your passport, but everyone else goes now.”

Abbey, who must have been hiding around the corner, stepped forward.

“I want to stay with Reign, it will take more than just you to protect her, and if there’s trouble, I want a chance to avenge TJ.”

Reign could tell Richard did not like the idea, but she could also tell that if he said no, Abbey would just leave, and likely die on her own.

“Done, get a day bag; we got to get out of here today.”

Abbey nodded and headed for the room she shared with the other girls.

“Listen, Reign, the next thing I have to ask you isn’t going to be easy.”

“I have to leave the baby with Skye.”

Richard looked amazed and she wished she could take a picture of him.

“I expected to have to fight you on this.”

“Why? It’s the right thing to do. Come on, let’s help everyone get packed.”

Reign held Richard’s hand as they watched the pack leave. All that was left was Abbey, Indigo, and the two of them. Skye, despite her recent trauma, was in charge. It amazed Reign how willing the pack was to just leave like that. No questions, no doubts, Richard said go to Brazil and they packed up and went. Taking her baby with them. It felt wrong, but she knew it was the right thing to do. Skye could look after her, and she would be safe from the vampires.

“Now, what?” she asked a little louder than she meant.

“It will be okay, honey, we just have to wait the day or so for our guy to get you your passport.”

It really was only a day. Richard's phone beeped during breakfast the next morning. A casual glance at it told him that the passports were ready and could be picked up.

Excellent.

Abbey sat across from the table where they were all eating breakfast. Feeling like it would be a good idea to go out to eat, Richard had taken them to one of the many breakfast joints that dotted Seattle. This one was his favorite. It sat snugly under the overpass to I-90, had three major roads nearby, and the absolute best French toast he’d ever eaten.

Reign troubled him though, she looked calm, but he could smell the fear and anxiety on her. She had come to the decision to let Skye take the baby easily enough, but he could tell her conscience was weighing on her.

“It’ll be okay, Reign, this time tomorrow we’ll all be sitting on a beach, and nothing has to keep you and the baby apart again.”

“That obvious?”

“You’re a new mom, and you've been separated from your baby, it doesn't take a shrink to figure it out.”