Chapter 18
Two months.
Two months since I’d told Volken I was pregnant, and two months since my life had become a full-time war between gratitude and absolute madness.
Because Volken Dragic had officially lost his mind. I couldn’t walk across the damn room without him or Colt shadowing me. Going outside required a security detail. A walk meant four armed men, two changelings, and Volken glowering like I was trying to start a war.
If I so much as mentioned wanting to go into town, he’d look at me like I’d suggested skydiving off a volcano.
“You’re carrying my child, Runa. Our child. You don’t get to breathe without me knowing who else is inhaling the same air,” he’d said once, half-serious, half-possessive, and entirely exasperating.
At first, it had been endearing, the hovering, the way he’d constantly check if I’d eaten or slept, the way his hands would wander protectively to my stomach even in sleep. But now?
Now it was infuriating, and under all that love and protectiveness, there was something else. Something darker.
A lie.
I could feel it through the bond. A shadow in his mind, something he kept locked tight whenever I brushed up against his thoughts. The harder I tried to touch it, the more he shut me out.
Every time I’d ask what was wrong, he’d give me that same careful, infuriatingly calm smile.
“Nothing, little one. Everything’s fine.”
Except it wasn’t, and my mind, being the overthinking mess that it was, started whispering the one thing I didn’t want to believe.
Maybe he wasn’t lying to protect me. Maybe he was lying because of someone else.
The thought made my stomach twist in ways that had nothing to do with morning sickness. I’d never seen Volken look twice at another woman, but lately, he’d been gone longer, coming home smelling of blood and smoke. And when I’d ask, he’d just brush a kiss to my forehead and tell me to sleep.
So naturally, I did the worst possible thing. I told Layla.
We were in the kitchen, the late afternoon sun slanting through the big mansion windows.
Layla was feeding Aleksander while Sorcha sat nearby with little Suraya on her lap.
The sight should have calmed me, two women who’d walked through hell now cooing over their children, domestic and content.
But instead, I blurted it out like a bomb.
“I think Volken’s cheating.” Layla froze mid-spoonful. Sorcha blinked. Then both women burst out laughing.
“Sweetheart,” Layla said between giggles, “do you know who you’re mated to?”
I crossed my arms, scowling. “Yes, a six-foot-four overprotective vampire with control issues.”
“Exactly,” Sorcha said, smirking. “Which means he’s also a one-woman man.
All the Dragic men are. The bond doesn’t allow for cheating not physically, not emotionally.
You’d feel it the moment it happened. Trust me, if he so much as looked at someone else, your instincts would have him staked before he could blink. ”
Layla chuckled softly, reaching across to touch my hand. “They love hard, Runa. Almost too hard. If Volken’s hiding something, it isn’t another woman. It’s something he thinks will hurt you.”
Her words lingered long after I left them.
But later that night, when Volken finally walked in, blood still drying on his collar and exhaustion in his eyes, I couldn’t help myself. I snapped.
He’d just closed the bedroom door behind him when I said it.
“Are you cheating on me?” The silence that followed could’ve frozen fire.
Volken turned slowly, his blue eyes sharp and unreadable. “What did you just say?”
I stood my ground, even though my knees felt weak. “You’ve been gone more, you’ve been hiding something, and every time I ask you what’s wrong, you lie to me.”
He blinked once, slowly, like a predator processing whether to pounce or laugh. “You think I’d cheat on you?”
“You tell me.”
For a moment, his jaw clenched so hard I thought he’d crack his teeth. Then, before I could blink, he moved.
One second, I was standing near the dresser and the next, I was bent over the back of the armchair, his hand gripping my hip, his breath hot against my ear.
“You think I’d look at another woman,” he growled, low and lethal, “when the only one I can’t stop thinking about is you?”
“Volken…”
He pressed against me, the heat of his body searing through my clothes. “You drive me insane, Runa. You make me lose control. You think I’d want someone else when I can barely keep my hands off you long enough to breathe?”
My breath hitched, the bond between us humming like wildfire.
“Say it again,” he whispered, voice rough, dangerous. “Say you think I’d want anyone else.”
I couldn’t. My voice had fled, my heart pounding in my throat.
He pulled me upright, spun me to face him. His eyes glowed with that electric blue that came just before he lost himself.
“Do you know what you do to me?” he said, almost a growl. “Do you know what happens when you’re near me? When I smell you, when I taste you?”
He kissed me hard then, punishing and desperate and for all my anger, I melted. His hands roamed, his mouth claiming me like he needed to prove something written into his blood.
One minute I was wrapped in my robe after my shower and the next I am standing naked before him. His lips and his hands are everywhere, the fury coursing through our link from him is like a scolding flash of lightening touching every inch of my being.
“You will not doubt me,” he growls in anger as he tears off his clothes.
“Volk…Volken,” I stutter just before he leans down, his hands grabbing my upper legs just before he leans me against the wall as he thrusts in one motion deep into my very depths.
We both gasp as his length dips in and out in a fury of motion that has us both breathless, his head lowers to my breast taking my nipple into his mouth as he sucks, and then his teeth clamp down, not painful enough to scream but just enough to have me arch in release as my orgasm explodes through my body.
Volken throws his head back as he groans in release.
The chair, the wall, the bed I lost count of where one ended and the other began. It wasn’t gentle; it wasn’t slow. It was raw and consuming, a firestorm that left me trembling and breathless, my body marked and his words echoing against my skin.
When it was over, we lay tangled together, both of us shaking with leftover adrenaline. He buried his face in my neck, breath still ragged.
“You’re mine, Runa,” he whispered, voice cracked with emotion. “My mate. My woman. The mother of my child. How could you ever think I’d want someone else?”
Tears stung my eyes. “Because you’re hiding something from me.”
He froze. For a long time, he didn’t move. Then, with a quiet exhale, he rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling.
“You’re right,” he said finally. “I am.”
I turned, heart hammering. “What is it?”
He hesitated. I could feel the war inside him through the bond, duty versus love, fear versus truth.
When he spoke again, his voice was raw.
“We found your father.”
My blood ran cold. “You… what?”
“Two months ago,” he said quietly. “We found him in one of Caesar’s warehouses.
But he’s… not the same, Runa. He’s been hurt.
Possessed. Turned inside out by demons and vampires both.
He’s alive, but he’s not well. I couldn’t tell you, not while you’re pregnant.
You don’t need that kind of pain right now. ”
I sat up, my heart cracking wide open. “You kept that from me?”
“I kept it to protect you.”
“I had a right to know!”
He sat up too, grabbing my hands, forcing me to look at him. His eyes burned, fierce and haunted. “You’re carrying our child. You think I’m going to risk that? Risk you? You don’t understand what I saw, Runa. He’s not the man you remember.”
My breath caught on a sob. “Then let me see him.”
“Not yet,” he said softly. “Not until we can fix him. Not until I know it’s safe.”
The tears I’d been holding back finally broke. I turned my face away, but he caught my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes.
“I swear to you,” he said, voice trembling but unyielding. “I’ll save him. For you. For our family. But I won’t let that darkness touch you again. Not ever.”
And despite the fury, despite the heartbreak, I could feel the truth in his voice. Volken wasn’t lying out of betrayal. He was lying out of love.
So, I nodded, just once, as the tears rolled silently down my cheeks. He pulled me into his arms, his lips brushing my temple. “I’ll make this right, little one,” he whispered. “Even if it kills me.”
And deep down, I knew he meant it.