Chapter 8
Chapter eight
Mai
Another contraction hit, and I crushed Ryan’s hand hard as I rode the pain, counting breath by breath, willing it to end. This one felt stronger than the others, deeper and more intense.
When I could speak again, there was only one word that came to mind: “Fuck!”
A movement by the door caught my eye. Gremlin padded across the room. In the low light, her white fur looked… bigger. Not just fluff—mass. Easily twice the size she’d been at breakfast.
“Holy shit,” Ryan breathed, staring.
Instead of curling up in her usual spot by my feet, Gremlin planted herself between me and the bedroom door. Every muscle in her body was tense and alert; her ears pricked forward as she kept glancing toward the window like she could sense something the rest of us couldn’t.
“She’s guarding you,” Thomas said quietly, studying our cat with interest. “Whatever’s got her on edge, she thinks you need protecting.”
My phone rang from the nightstand. The sharp sound made Gremlin’s fur stand on end as she hissed softly at the device.
Ryan glanced at the screen. “It’s Esme.”
“Answer it,” I said. “Put it on speaker.”
Ryan hit the call button. “Esme? We’re kind of in the middle of—”
“Ryan—” Esme’s voice bled through static. “The babies… they’re—” The line cracked and stuttered.
“Esme? You’re breaking up.”
“—coming now… Jem and I are driving… but the…”
Then the call dissolved into static before cutting out entirely.
Ryan tried calling back, but it went straight to voicemail.
“What the hell was that about?”
“I don’t know, but Jem and Esme will be here soon,” Ryan said, his thumb making soothing circles on the back of my hand. “Until then, we focus on you and these babies.”
Another contraction started building. This one felt different—deeper, meaner. “Fuck, fuckity, fuck! It fucking hurts!”
“You’re doing great, baby.” He kissed my forehead.
“Thomas, honey, where do you want this?” Wally appeared in the doorway, he and Derek carrying what I swear looked like half the clinic’s equipment.
“Set up in the corner. And thank you both for—”
Footsteps pounded the stairs. Waylen barreled in, white-faced, laptop hugged to his chest. “Ryan, I need to show you something. Now.”
“Waylen, this really isn’t the time,” Ryan said without taking his eyes off me.
“It’s about the visitors. My facial recognition software got a hit on Vera.”
“And?”
“She’s tagged in two separate ops tied to a roaming crew called the Forgotten Pack—different aliases, same face. They’ve been linked to attacks on at least six different Packs over the past decade that we know about.”
I felt Ryan go completely still beside me, his hand tightening on mine.
“What kind of attacks?” Derek asked, moving closer to see Waylen’s screen.
“Infiltration, intelligence gathering, then coordinated assaults on the Packs. Their MO seems to be to pose as refugees, gain access to territory, map defenses and resources—”
Derek frowned. “They’re scouts.”
“Yeah,” Waylen continued. “According to my intel, they send in scouts, then a larger group infiltrates the territory, they strip it bare, take money and anything valuable, fight anyone who resists.”
“If we assume our four guests are the scouts, how long until this larger group arrives?” Ryan asked.
Waylen shrugged. “Hours, maybe less.”
I saw Ryan staring at me with an expression of dawning horror.
“You have to go,” I panted.
Ryan shook his head. “Thomas, can we move her?”
“Not without putting her and the pups at risk.”
“FUCK!” Ryan ran a hand through his hair.
I knew he saw it as clearly as I did. We had to lock down the four impostors and stop whatever was coming—now—before the babies arrived.
And with an unknown number of hostiles potentially already on our territory, we might need Ryan, with his True Shift ability, to defeat them.
Sofia appeared with an armload of towels, took one look at the tense faces around the room, and froze. “What happened?”
I reached for his hand. “Ryan—”
“No,” he said immediately, eyes fierce. “There has to be another way. I’m not leaving you. Not now.”
“But if you don’t—”
“I said no, Mai. I don’t care what they throw at us. I’m staying right here.”
Waylen’s phone chimed. “We’ve got movement on the eastern perimeter. At least fourteen, no, sixteen unknowns approaching through the forest.”
Derek was already on his phone. “I’ll mobilize every enforcer we have, but if they’re hitting us from multiple directions—”
“You need to go,” I said quietly.
Ryan’s head snapped toward me. “Mai—”
“Ryan, look at me.” I waited until his eyes met mine. “You’re the Alpha. You’re the only one who can coordinate a defense against something like this. And if you don’t stop them out there, they’ll just fight their way in here anyway.”
“Mai—”
“I’m not done,” I said firmly, feeling another contraction starting to build. “I trust Thomas to deliver these babies. I trust our Pack to keep me safe. And I need you to trust me to be strong enough to do this.”
The contraction hit hard, dragging a ragged breath from my lungs.
Sofia stepped in, set the towels at the foot of the bed, and planted herself like a wall next to me. “Wally, Thomas, and I will be here. We won’t leave her, I promise. And I’ll call you if we need you back here.”
Ryan glanced at Thomas. “How long do I have?”
Thomas’s expression was calm, implacable. “Until your first pup appears? Could be thirty minutes. Could be ten hours.”
Ryan’s jaw worked as he struggled with the decision. But he had to go. This is what it meant to be an Alpha. We would always be juggling our duties to the Pack and our duties to our kids, but this one was easy. He had to go to protect all of us: our Pack, me, and our pups.
He turned to Derek. “Call Carlito—he stays with Mai and holds this room. Leave Evelyn here; post her at the door. Round up the rest of the enforcers. We hit them fast and hard before they can dig in. Waylen, you’re with us.”
“Copy,” Derek said, already moving.
Waylen shouldered his laptop. “I’ll pipe perimeter cams to your phone and push live routes. East looks heaviest.”
“Go,” I said, squeezing his hand. “End this before our pups have to be born into a war zone.”
Ryan leaned down and pressed his lips to my forehead. “I love you. All three of you.” His hand moved to my belly. “I don’t want to miss it.”
“Then don’t. Work the problem. Get back here. We’ll wait.”
Behind us, I heard Thomas give a small snort, but I didn’t care. Ryan needed to believe he could get back here in time.
He kissed me once, hard and desperate, then straightened and strode out of the room.