Total pages in book: 202
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193561 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 968(@200wpm)___ 774(@250wpm)___ 645(@300wpm)
Sherry gets in the front passenger seat.
Aphra stares at me.
“C’mon, Momma. Quick so we can get away from the fire!”
“Quick, yeah?” Jase tells her.
“I… I don’t have anywhere to go.”
Jase gets into the driver’s seat, saying, “Come with us. We’ll figure it out.”
Aphra and I exchange a loaded look before my eyes bounce back to the building, looking for my mate. She gets in and shuts the door, buckling her daughter’s seatbelt as Jase turns the truck on.
Suddenly I see Grey! The man I love emerges from the burning building, bare-chested, eyes glowing silver as his chest rapidly rises and falls. He’s looking for me, zeroing in. He spots me and I’m trying to get out of the truck, but the child locks are still engaged so the door won’t open!
“Argh!” I cry out and pound on the window in frustration.
Grey pulls the door open and now I’m in his arms. He’s squeezing me tight, kissing the side of my face as I sob, wrapping my limbs around him.
It feels so, so good to be embraced by him, to smell him underneath the scent of smoke. I put my hands to his jaw and kiss his face over and over.
There’s a loud boom from inside the warehouse and Jase says, “Gotta get this moved!”
Grey sets me on my feet and shuts the truck door.
“Hurry,” he says, tugging my hand so we can rush but changes his mind and lifts me again, running across the street impossibly fast with me in his arms.
Just as he sets me into the passenger seat of his car, there’s another explosion sound inside the warehouse, but Jase is already pulling the truck onto the road in front of us. I see Sheena in the truck with the camper bed on the back. She drives one way. Jase drives the other way and we follow.
A minute or two later, we’re on a highway, still following Jase.
“Your mom?” I ask.
“Okay now.”
“Your…mother…”
“Dead.”
“You?” I ask.
He takes his eyes off the road for a split second to look at me and I see immense pain there. Also relief.
“You?” he answers my question with a question.
I grab his thigh. “I’m okay now. Now that I’m within reaching distance of you.”
He lets out a stuttered exhale. “Meadows is unconscious and I suspect tied up in the back of Jared’s camper since Jase went to take care of that before he came inside. Don’t know how long till he’ll wake. That redheaded witch blew something in his face that made him drop.”
“That’s Aphra. Sherry also dosed his whisky with the rest of that herb that was in my suitcase. If he wakes up, he won’t be able to shift for a while.”
Grey barks out a laugh. He barks it out loud enough it startles me.
“That’s poetry right there, Blossom.”
I feel a smile tug at my mouth. “Isn’t it?”
His expression darkens as he drives and there’s a moment of silence where I can see and feel how devastated he is at what he just went through.
“I… um, so… apparently we’re gonna have a baby,” I say.
The trouble leaves his face immediately as he corrects, “Babies, Blossom.” He reaches with his right hand to caress my belly as he holds the steering wheel with his left. “I smelled you were pregnant when your scent was masked. The scent of our kids led me to you. It’s early but maybe I was smelling them that strong from a distance because there are two of them. Didn’t know it wasn’t just one until I got close.”
“Good job, little beans,” I say, caressing my belly with tears in my eyes, with joy welling up inside me. “I love you, Grey,” I say.
“Twin boys, Blossom. Both alphas, I think. That there are two of them might also be why you were able to take that chain off her neck.”
Joy wells up inside me. Me, growing alphas inside my womb. Little versions of Grey and me.
“Wow.”
I sober. “I had to take it off her. She told me she’d shove something down my throat that’d make me miscarry. Or use a coat hanger.”
His expression hardens and he grips the steering wheel so tight I see the whites of his knuckles.
“She wouldn’t have. She would’ve let them be born and then try to siphon their magic. But… you did the right thing,” he assures.
“There was no other choice,” I say. And I’m not just talking about for me. I’m also talking about for him. I don’t know exactly what went on in there but I do know my mate would’ve saved her if he could.
“She siphoned magic from me as a newborn. Almost killed me. This is why he severed the bond. She wouldn’t stop. She’s an addict. She would’ve eventually come after them.”
“You did the right thing, too, Greyson.”
He swallows and flexes his fingers before tightening his grip on the steering wheel again.