Ryatt
Granger returns three hours after Ella slumped into a restless slumber in my arms. His golden wolf appears at the edge of the clearing I’ve been sitting in, unable to even blink, my mind and heart in shambles.
How could I have been so stupid? So desperately, unapologetically unaware of how hard this kind of travel would be on Ella in her state?
She whispers something in her sleep, her face buried in my shirt. For the last two hours she’s been jerking awake and calling out for a little girl, of all things. She asks what her name is, over and over, each time the question leaves her lips it becomes more pleading.
She’s in pain. While our bond isn’t strong enough to feel those changes and emotions in my own body, I can smell it on her. I can smell the changes taking place in her body as the minutes speed by.
“Granger,” I say hoarsely. My unused voice sounds like someone has taken a rake over my vocal cords.
Granger shifts back to his human form and quickly pulls on a pair of pants, forgoing a shirt. He pauses before approaching me and crouching in front of us, laying the back of his head on Ella’s forehead. “She’s burning up, Alpha,” he says with remarkable calm, but his eyes betray his steady tone.
“I need your report.” I can’t talk about Ella right now. Her body goes tight in my arms again, and that scent… it’s something new. Something fresh and clean. It’s the baby, of course. I’ve never been around pregnant women for long, even during my time in the coven, but I’ve heard stories about how it’s easy to tell when they’re close to giving birth because their scents change. The baby's scent grows stronger.
But what I can smell the most right now is death lingering nearby.
“Of course,” Granger whispers, his green eyes still glowing from his recent transformation. It’s the only light in the dark. “There’s a village nearby, roughly six miles into the mountains. Kind people but suspicious. They have a healer, but she’s not a witch.” I grit my teeth as he continues, “Their Alpha is gone on business, but his Beta is going to allow us entrance to their village. I was able to connect with Westfall. He’s in range, just reached Tarsian, and Jaxon has made good on his promise to pull his forces out of Rifthold and the bordering packs. You’re the Alpha King of Eastonia, Ryatt.”
It doesn’t matter. None of this matters right now as Ella whimpers and curls into herself.
“I’m wondering,” Granger says in a low, skeptical tone, “if she was poisoned in Oasia. This change in her is so abrupt–”
“She’s in labor.”
“You’re sure?”
I nod, running my tongue along my lower lip.
“It’s too early,” Granger insists. “Amanda isn’t due for another four–no, yes… four months, give or take.” Granger rarely panics, but the panic in his voice is clear as he rocks back on his heels and stands, looming over us.
I don’t move. I know that when I do take that first step, everything is going to happen quickly, and I have no way to stop it.
“We’re out of time.” That's all I can say. I slowly pull up Ella’s shirt to show Granger the black tendrils of the curse that are now creeping up her sides, weaving between each rib. Granger makes a noise deep in his throat that slices into me.
“It was the jump.”
I nod. “We were wrong about how much time she had. The medicine only did so much. I don’t know what to do.”
“We need to move, Ryatt. Now. Westfall will be here in a few days, I’m sure. Artyom–I can contact him. He can spirit like you can, can’t he?”
“It’s not the same.”
“It’s similar. He could find the witch–”
I take Ella in my arms and rise to my feet on legs that haven’t moved in hours. Defeat drips from every word as I look my Beta in the eyes and slowly, carefully, place Ella in his arms and say, “Take her to the village nearby, to the Healer. I need to get in contact with her family.”
* * *
*Maddy*
Sunlight pours into the informal sitting room on the second floor of my home. Lively chatter and laughter fill the air, and my heart is so incredibly full. Maddox and Isla are both here now and spending the entire summer with us in Crescent Falls. A few of Isaac’s closest allies–other Alphas he considers friends–are visiting as well to pepper us with congratulations on the birth of our twins.
We are the luckiest people in the world, in my opinion. Two healthy sons. A thriving kingdom currently at peace, especially since we just gave them not one, but two, heirs.
Hanna stretches out her legs on the floor below me while Ryan blinks up at her from between her knees.
“Are you all moved in yet?” I ask, giving her a little nudge with my leg. For the first time in a while, my arms are empty of babies, and instead I clutch a crisp glass of lemonade. I glance over my shoulder at my mate, who is holding Sydney, our future king, against his shoulder while he laughs with his friends.
“Yes, we are,” Hanna says in a sing-song voice as she wiggles her fingers at Ryan. “Cassian doesn’t have an eye for decoration, but I do want to replace that wallpaper in the living room eventually. We haven’t really… well, we don’t spend much time in the living room.”
I raise my brows as a blush creeps over her cheeks. “Let me guess,” I laugh, “you’ve become well acquainted with your bedroom?”
Her blush deepens, but her eyes are soft and so full of love that I’m reminded of those first few weeks with Isaac after the war, when we were finally able to just be together. We barely ever left our bedroom.
Hanna and Cassian recently moved out of the castle and into a manor on the grounds. It has a private garden and all the amenities they’d require to live comfortably, even luxuriously, but for Hanna it’s been an adjustment. She’s no longer a maid here. She’s a Beta’s mate, soon to be wife after their binding ceremony next week, and she’ll be the second highest ranking female in our kingdom other than me.
Movement catches my eye, and I notice Isaac placing Sydney in Maddox’s arms. Isaac runs his hand over the back of head and down to the nape of his neck, his eyes suddenly shadowed as he leans in to whisper to Maddox, then abruptly leaves the room.
I straighten a bit, peering over the back of the couch to watch my mate disappear from view. Maddox must have caught the alarm flaring behind my eyes because he approaches me, patting Sydney’s back. “He said he’s being summoned to his moonstone dog bowl,” Maddox says with a bit of a grin.
I arch my brows. That’s a new one, and a great way to describe that insanely expensive bowl sitting in the tower several stories above our heads. I call it his special salad bowl, much to his annoyance.
“But it’s several days before the new moon,” I argue, my initial amusement slipping. Is something wrong? I glance around the room, noticing the way the conversations continue as if nothing is amiss. I briefly catch the tail-end of a conversation between two neighboring Alphas about a skirmish taking place near their territories. Something about a new Alpha rising, having challenged his pack's previous one.
I fight to swallow as I look back at Maddox. “I’m sure it’s fine. Ryatt has been making good on the terms of the treaty, I hear, and contacting Isaac regularly.”
“Yes, he has,” I reply, but my tone is sharper than usual. “But only during the new moon.”
Maddox shrugs. I grind my teeth. Why do I feel like whatever Isaac is about to find out is the opposite of good news?
I rise from the couch and excuse myself from the room.
The library is hot, the smell of books and ink rich as I rush through the hidden door and start hiking up the steps to the observatory.
But it’s silent when I reach the landing. Isaac stands with his hand on either side of the bowl, his eyes wide and unblinking as if in a trace.
“Isaac,” I say, but he doesn’t so much as breathe.
More than concerned, I pad over to him and lay my hand on his arm, but before I can utter a word I feel the air being pulled from my lungs, and suddenly the heat in the room is replaced by cool, damp air.
And my bare feet are no longer on weathered floorboards. I grip Isaac’s arm as I gasp and take in the startling view of a mountainous forest and a sky so full of stars it’s nearly blinding.
Ryatt is standing before us. His eyes slide to mine. If he’s surprised I’m here, he doesn’t show it. He doesn’t care.
In fact, his face…
“What happened?” I rush out, seeing the tears in his eyes. Beside me, Isaac is rigid, and one glance up at him shows me that he’s not looking at Ryatt in anger, but in clear, focused concern.
“My mom could come. You could bring her through the veil,” Isaac says with great effort.
“I can’t risk that. Isla has never traveled like this before, and if she’s injured or her powers need time to recover, she’ll be useless, and stuck here.”
“Her tears, then–”
A shake of Ryatt’s head cuts Isaac off.
“It won’t work,” Ryatt whispers. “I am sorry. I am doing what I can but I–” His voice breaks, and finally he turns his attention to me.
Goddess, the look behind those stunning silver eyes breaks me into pieces.
“Where is Ella?” I whisper.
Ryatt’s lips part, but he says nothing for a long time. He just stares at me, slowly shaking his head.
“I’m sorry,” he says again. “I am so sorry.”
“Ryatt!” Isaac shouts, and the words let us help you are absorbed into the ether as Ryatt pulls a weathered sword from the ground between us, and Eastonia fades away.
I stumble backward away from Isaac and his dog bowl, nearly tripping over a crate, but my mate catches me around the waist and hauls me upright. “Isaac, what–”
He takes my face in his hands and leans down to press his forehead against mine. His scent is rich and thick, masking the fear and disbelief coursing through his blood. “Ella’s in labor.”
“No,” I rasp. “It’s far too soon.”
“I have to go to her, to them.”
“What?”
I pull away from him and look up into his blue eyes.
“No, Isaac, you can’t!”
“I can get through the veil,” he admits, like it’s some secret power he hasn’t even shared with me. “I have to go, Maddy.”
I shake my head. “You could die!”
“So could Ella. Ryatt helped me once when you were in labor. He kept my head clear and focused. Ella saved you and Ryan when he got stuck. I owe them a debt, and now I have to pay it.”
“This is insane!” But he pulls away from me, shaking his head.
“I love you,” he says, pressing a kiss to my temple. “Tell the boys I love them. I’ll be home soon.”
“Don’t. You. Dare.” I growl, but blinding white light envelopes the room, and my mate is gone.