Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
MERRI
“I’m sorry, what the fuck did you just say?”
Sin stole the words right out of my mouth as we all stared at Grim in shock. My gaze trailed from his face to where he rested his large palm on my belly. I wasn’t pregnant. I’d know.
Wouldn’t I?
“No, I’m not.”
“Yes, wildflower, you are.”
Kingston snickered and said, “Been there before, right Thorne? Sunday was so mad when I told her about Eden.”
I was too busy gaping at Grim in absolute shock to bother acknowledging the shifter.
“You’re sure?” I whispered.
He dipped his chin in the smallest of nods. “I can sense the soul.”
Holy fuck.
This was good news, right? They’d been trying to get me pregnant for months.
But then my eyes slid to Lucifer, still preening in the center of the room.
What if . . .
“Who’s the father?” Michael’s voice was icy and deadly serious.
“Shouldn’t an angel know better than to ask that question?” Remi muttered.
“I mean, does it even matter? It could be one of them, it could be all four of them. What’s the point in asking?” Kingston added.
“It’s not all four,” Caleb said with a surprising amount of authority. “That was a work of fate specific to us.”
“All right, fair enough, but the point is basically the same. Why bother asking?”
“Because it could be his,” Hades said, jerking his chin toward Lucifer. “Which means it might be the antichrist.”
“Oh shit, that’s right. I almost forgot he was one of hers.” Kingston shook his head with a low whistle. “The four horsemen and the devil? That’s one hell of a party.”
Remi nudged him. “I see what you did there.”
“Look, it could be worse. Our little sunbeam is the harbinger. She turned out great.”
Lilith cut him a disgusted glare. “She only turned out that way because Caleb sacrificed himself and Sunday stopped War in her tracks.”
Suddenly everyone was looking at me. I have never wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole more in my entire life.
“I . . . I . . .” Words failing me, I finally shrugged.
I didn’t have an answer to give, because the truth was, it could literally be any of them.
It’s not like I had the precise details of when I’d conceived, but they’d all finished inside me multiple times over the last couple of weeks, so their guess was as good as mine.
“Where’s that talk show host when you need him?”
“Remi,” Ben chastised. “N-not the t-time.”
“I dunno, Benny, seems like a dramatic paternity test reveal is exactly what she needs.”
“I’m s-sure L-Lilith can j-just whip one up. N-no p-problem,” Ben said, the sarcasm so thick you could cut it with a knife.
“Can you?” Remi asked, looking at Lilith with puppy-dog eyes.
“No.”
His shoulders slumped, but that was about the time I stopped paying attention.
It didn’t matter right now. The truth about my baby’s father would come to light one way or another, but regardless of who that was, everything had changed.
Glancing at each of my mates in turn, I waited for one of them to say something.
It wasn’t uncommon for them to all sit quietly and take in the information before they added to a big conversation like this.
Even Sin. From what I’d noticed, their preference seemed to be to speak to each other first and come up with a consensus before saying anything to someone outside of their foursome.
Lucifer wasn’t part of the foursome, though.
Nor was he a remain-quiet sort of person.
He was more of a grandstand and showboat sort of guy, so his silence right now was entirely out of character.
I didn’t know what to make of it. Out of all my mates, he was the one I knew the least, even if sometimes it felt like our souls were mirrors of each other.
I couldn’t help but wonder if he was plotting.
Or if he knew more than he was telling me.
“If this child could be Lucifer's, that tips the scale, and not in our favor,” Michael cautioned. “There will be no winning this.”
“So, what do you suggest we do about it?” Kai asked, finally adding his participation to the group.
“As far as I can see, there are only a few options,” Evander interjected, not letting Michael respond.
All eyes turned to him.
“One, we let the child be born. Roll the dice, as they say, and take no action. Two, we contain Merri—”
The second my name left his lips, fury shot through me. There was absolutely no way anyone, let alone a dickless angel, as Remi liked to say, was going to make decisions about my future or body. That part of my life was over.
From the time my true nature emerged, people thought they could tell me what to do, and I’d let them because I’d been so scared I hadn’t known better.
And that somehow translated to me becoming a passenger in my entire life.
I’d allowed Lilith to make all the decisions, and that led me to the horsemen attempting to do the same. But no longer.
The only person who got to decide what I did or didn’t do was me.
So, disrespectfully, fuck all of them.
“No!” Shooting to my feet, I stared at Evander, anger making my voice harsh.
“What did you say?” This from Michael, a warning in his tone.
“I know where this is going. What you’re all going to want to do. You don’t get to decide what happens to my body.”
“We cannot risk the entire human race for one child,” Michael said.
“You tried to make us walk that path before, and it did not end well. I suggest you learn from your mistakes,” Caleb said, his eyes bright with barely restrained emotion.
“We don’t kill innocents,” Kingston added, just as fiercely.
“If you think you’re going to take a single step toward Merri and not come up against the wrath of the four of us—”
“Five,” Lucifer said with an aggrieved sigh.
“—you’d better think again,” Malice continued, rising to his feet and stepping in front of me. “No one is going to take another child from me.”
My eyes flicked to Pan in time to catch him sitting up a bit straighter. With his demon face, it was harder to pick up on fleeting emotions, but I could read them just fine with my succubus skills, and right now he was filled with pride and respect as he stared at his father.
“I think we’re all getting ahead of ourselves,” Lilith said. “No decision needs to be made this second.”
“The longer this goes on unchecked, the more dire and limited our options,” Michael pressed.
“Michael,” Gabriel said with a sigh. “Just let it go. You’re not going to win this argument.”
On and on it went, more voices chiming in with no one considering my thoughts or feelings or the fact that I’d already said they weren’t going to make my decisions for me. So without a word, I started for the door. They could talk all they wanted; it wasn't going to change a damn thing.
“Where do you think you are going?” Michael snarled.
“Well, since no one here seems interested in my opinion, I figured I’d just leave you to it and go make my own plan. You know, since it’s my fucking body and my opinion is the only one that matters.”
“You tell ’em, girlypop,” Moira cheered as I retreated. “Fuck the patriarchy!”
Chaos
I allowed Merri a ten-second head start before unceremoniously removing myself from the conversation and following.
There was no world in which I’d watch her walk away from us again.
Nor would I force her to make important, life-altering decisions on her own.
Unless that was what she truly wanted. From here on out, we were in this together.
Malice was so close I could practically feel his breath on my neck as he followed, and I knew without looking that the others were right behind him.
We’d only just gotten her back, and I don’t think any of us were comfortable with her being out of sight, especially when she was so obviously upset.
The last time that happened, she’d left us.
And now she was pregnant. That development only added to my protective instincts.
“Anyone else think it’s weird Lucifer stayed behind after being such a fucking pick-me boy the last couple of days?” Sin asked from a few steps behind me.
“Who fucking cares?” I growled.
“Right,” he said, before adding in a slightly softer grumble, “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us as soon as you figured it out.”
Grim grunted. “I did. The moment I was certain, I all but blurted it out. Did you not hear me? Do you think that’s something I would purposely share with Lucifer? With the archangels?”
He made a good point. Disbelief had been at the forefront of it all the moment Grim released the words.
I was still wading through my feelings about his revelation.
I couldn’t imagine discovering the truth and not reacting the exact same way.
Even though this was technically what we’d all been working toward, it still came as an absolute shock.
Especially with the Lucifer-shaped wrench in the works.
But none of that mattered right now. All that mattered was making sure she was okay.
“I wish you’d been able to contain yourself just long enough for it to be a private conversation,” Malice said.
“Apologies,” Grim said with obvious disdain. “I shall endeavor to remember that the next time I learn my mate is with child.”
“He just means now everyone has an opinion, and we didn’t get to come up with a plan of our own,” Sin pointed out. “And our girl is upset they’re trying to dictate what she does.”
“It doesn’t matter. Merri’s right, she’s the one who gets to make the call,” I said.
“No one is taking my child from me again,” Malice snapped.
“It might not be your child,” Sin reminded him.
“Any child of Merri’s is mine,” he countered.
Fair play. I felt the same.
Which was the mindfuck to end all mindfucks, honestly. Because if Lucifer was the father, then things were about to go very, very badly. We all knew it, but none of us were ready to say the words aloud.
“Okay, but what happens if it’s the antichrist?” Sin asked.
And I stood corrected. Sin apparently was just going to rip the Band-Aid clean off.