Chapter 20
The first thing I felt was quiet.
Not the sterile silence of the hospital, but something heavier, a kind of stillness that pressed at the edges of my awareness. Then came the ache, deep and low in my stomach, and the soft beeping of a monitor somewhere beside me.
I blinked my eyes open.
The light filtering through the curtains was soft and muted, a late-afternoon glow, and for a few seconds I didn’t know where I was.
The walls were too white, too clean. The sheets smelled faintly of antiseptic and smoke.
Then I remembered, the contractions, the panic, Volken’s arms lifting me, the rush of the car ride, the doctor’s voice saying too soon.
My throat tightened.
I turned my head and froze when I saw a man sitting at the foot of the bed, long legs stretched out, arms folded across his chest.
Gideon.
He wasn’t smiling, but there was something like warmth in his pale eyes, a kind of quiet watchfulness that seemed to fit him perfectly. His dark hair was tied back, his coat still speckled with the faint dust of the night outside.
When he saw me stir, he stood immediately, moving with that silent, predatory grace all the changelings had. “You’re awake.”
I swallowed, my voice rough. “Apparently.”
He gave a slight nod. “How do you feel?”
“Like I lost a fight,” I muttered, rubbing a hand over my stomach. The bump was still there, solid and round, and my pulse jumped when I felt a faint, reassuring flutter from within. “The baby…?”
“Stable,” Gideon said quickly. “Doctor says both of you will be fine if you rest.”
I exhaled shakily, sinking back into the pillows. “Good. Because if something happened, Volken would probably blame himself.”
That earned me a rare, faint smile. “That sounds accurate.”
I tried to push myself up, ignoring the way the IV line tugged at my arm. “Speaking of Volken, where is he? Did he get home before daylight?”
“He did,” Gideon said, his tone steady. “Viking took him back right before sunrise. He wanted to stay, but…”
“But someone dragged him out before he caught fire,” I finished, smiling faintly despite the ache in my chest.
Gideon’s expression softened just enough for me to catch it before he straightened again, professional to his core.
“Well,” I said, reaching for the bed controls and raising myself a little higher, “since I’m awake and not dying, I’d like to go home now.”
The way his brow furrowed made it clear he’d been expecting that. “You can’t.”
“Excuse me?”
“The doctor said you need at least two more days of observation.”
“I feel fine.”
He gave me a look that could’ve come straight from Volken himself, that cool, immovable calm that said don’t even try me. “You nearly gave birth six weeks early. You are not fine.”
“I’m bored,” I shot back.
He sighed, and I could’ve sworn there was the faintest hint of amusement in his eyes. “You’re his mate, all right.”
I huffed, crossing my arms. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you’re impossible,” he said simply, then stepped toward the door and cracked it open. “Ivan get the doctor. She’s awake and plotting her escape.”
“I’m not plotting,” I muttered under my breath.
Gideon shot me a look over his shoulder. “You are. I can smell it.”
A laugh bubbled up, weak but real. “I see why Layla likes you. Can you really smell it?”
He didn’t answer that, just crossed back to stand near the foot of the bed again, every inch of him a sentry.
When the door opened again, Ivan stepped in, his blond hair a mess, his expression torn between irritation and concern. “I told you she’d try to get up the second she woke,” he muttered to Gideon.
“Traitor,” I mumbled.
Ivan ignored me. “Doctor’s on his way.”
I sighed, looking between the two of them. “You both know Volken’s going to lose his mind when he wakes up and realizes I’m still here.”
“Already did,” Gideon said. “He sent word before dawn that if you even think about getting out of bed, I’m supposed to chain you to it.”
That earned a laugh from Ivan. “He wasn’t joking, either.”
I groaned, sinking back into the pillows. “Wonderful. I’m pregnant, confined, and apparently under guard.”
“Welcome to the Dragic family,” Ivan said dryly.
Despite myself, I smiled. It was strange for all the danger, for all the insanity that came with their world, I didn’t feel like an outsider anymore. Between Sorcha, Layla, the changelings, and these infuriatingly protective men, I’d found something that looked suspiciously like home.
Still, my chest ached for Volken. I could feel him faintly through the bond, it is distant, muted, but there. The hum of his presence like a heartbeat under the surface of my thoughts. He was worried. Tired. Angry, mostly at himself.
“Tell him I’m okay,” I said softly. “Tell him to rest.”
Gideon nodded. “I will.”
“Promise?”
He hesitated…then, with a rare softness, said, “On my life.”
That was the thing about these men.
They didn’t make promises lightly.
And as the doctor entered the room a few minutes later, checking monitors and murmuring reassurances, I let my eyes close again as the faint pulse of Volken’s bond in the back of my mind the only thing keeping the fear away.
He’d be back at nightfall, and until then, I’d rest because I understood what he meant when he said our child is everything.
It wasn’t just his vow anymore. It was mine too.
The room had settled into a soft hum of quiet, the rhythmic beeping of the monitor, the faint hiss of air conditioning, the muted voices from the hallway.
Sleep came slowly, pulling me under in fits and starts. I drifted somewhere between waking and dreaming, lulled by the steady thrum of my baby’s heartbeat echoing in my mind. For the first time in days, the air didn’t feel heavy with fear just warmth and exhaustion.
Until the noise started.
At first, I thought it was just part of my half-sleep a dull, distant sound, like someone dragging metal along concrete. But then came a thud, sharp and real, followed by another, heavier one. Voices rose in the hallway too low to make out at first, then rising in pitch.
A growl and it didn’t sound human.
My eyes snapped open just as the monitor beside me began to stutter, matching my racing heart.
“Gideon?” I called, my voice hoarse.
No answer.
I tried to sit up, but the IV pulled taut, tangling around my wrist. Panic surged through me as I heard the unmistakable sound of scuffling boots on tile, a body slamming into a wall.
Then came the sound that shattered the world.
CRACK!
The window exploded inward in a hail of glass and cold air. I screamed as shards flew across the bed, glittering like knives under the fluorescent lights. The curtains snapped violently, and the force of the blast threw my tray table to the floor, scattering medical supplies everywhere.
A dark shape landed on the edge of the window frame, it was tall, broad, eyes glinting a sickly gold.
A demon.
My pulse spiked so hard I thought I might pass out.
Before I could move, Gideon burst through the door, his weapon already drawn. His usually calm face was hard as steel, his eyes glowing faintly, his fangs bared. “Runa, stay down!”
He fired once, twice and each shot a silver streak that hit the creature square in the chest. The demon snarled, jerking back as smoke hissed from its wounds, but it didn’t fall. It leapt forward instead, smashing into Gideon with enough force to knock him against the wall.
I gasped, trying to scramble backward on the bed, my stomach tightening painfully. The baby fluttered frightened, mirroring my fear.
“Ivan!” Gideon shouted through clenched teeth, grappling with the demon. “Now!”
Ivan appeared a heartbeat later, his gun already blazing. Two more demons surged in through the ruined window, they are smaller, quicker, their eyes black as tar. One of them hissed, its voice scraping through the air like broken glass.
“She’s the one,” it rasped. “The womb…”
Ivan shot it mid-sentence, the silver round blowing through its jaw. “Not tonight, you bastard.”
Another one lunged toward the bed, claws reaching for me. I screamed, throwing my arm up in instinct, but before it could touch me, Gideon ripped it away, his claws slicing through its neck in one clean motion. Black blood sprayed across the floor, sizzling where it hit.
“Runa, listen to me!” he barked. “Get down, stay still!”
“I…my baby…”
“The baby is safe if you stay still!” he snarled, eyes flashing with feral light as another demon lunged at him.
I clutched my stomach, gasping, trying to steady my breathing. Everything inside me screamed to run, but the bond flared hot and wild, a voice at the back of my mind that wasn’t mine.
Volken.
He wasn’t awake yet, the sun was still clinging to the horizon, but he felt it. The panic, the danger. His fury was a distant roar under my skin, echoing through the bond like thunder in my bones.
The demons hesitated for the smallest moment, as if they could sense it too.
Ivan reloaded. “We need to move her, Gideon!”
“No,” Gideon snarled, slamming a demon into the wall. “We hold until the others come!”
“The others?” I whispered, clutching tighter at my stomach as another burst of light flared outside the window.
A roar split through the room it was low, lethal, and unmistakably inhuman. Relief and dread crashed together in my chest.
Volken was awake.
Even from miles away, I could feel the storm building through the bond. The sunlight wouldn’t stop him this time, not when he knew I was in danger. The floor trembled.
Gideon froze for a heartbeat, then looked at me. “Hold on, Runa. Your mate’s coming.”
And in the distance, above the sirens and the screams, I heard it, a growl so deep it rattled the air.
Volken was coming. And God help anyone, or anything, that stood in his way.