Chapter 22 Danny
“WHAT?” SAXON SAID. “Why are you begging me to not hurt a demon?”
Wilder piped up. “I”m just going to keep holding him in place. So let”s all take a breath, and not do anything impulsive.”
“Impulsive?” Saxon hissed.
It was a lot to expect Saxon to immediately put aside his life-long abhorrence to demons. He had good reason to think this one was trying to harm me, because that was the only thing he knew about them.
“Alpha,” I said. That got his attention. Now he was fully focused on me.
He put his hand on either side of my face. “Danny. I am so sorry. I will make this up to you, I promise. Just let me take care of the demon.” He glanced over his shoulder again.
“Hey. I really need you to listen to me,” I said.
He nodded. “Okay. I can do that.” He turned to Wilder. “How long can you hold him?” Saxon asked.
“About six hours. After that, we’ll have to make some decisions.”
Saxon nodded. “Thank you.” He led me away from Wilder and the demon, who went by Larsen when he was with humans.
I kept glancing back. I didn’t want Wilder to hurt the demon, and I didn’t want the demon to get desperate and harm Wilder.
“Danny, I can handle it. I promise. I won’t let things get out of hand,” Wilder said.
I would just have to trust him.
Once Saxon had me out of Larsen’s sight, he ran his hands from my shoulders down to my sides. “Are you really okay?”
“Yes.” I licked my lips. “Do you know about –” I let my hand hover over my stomach.
“God, yes. I am so sorry you had to find out alone. I will always regret not being there with you.” He bent down on one knee and pressed his face to my stomach. “Our child.”
His reaction was better than I’d dreamed. “It was hardly your fault. You were poisoned while saving my life.” I ran my hand through his thick hair. “They told me how you busted the cave open so you could call Simon.”
He stood up and took both of my hands into his. “None of that matters. It was my fault. I ignored each warning my family tried to give me. No, they didn’t go about it in the right way. But if I’d listened, we might have avoided all of this.” He cupped my face again. “Tell me everything that’s happened since the cave,” he said.
He wrapped his arms around me and held me close, so I explained what life had been like in the shelter. Then I backed up a few weeks, and told him how I woke up in the cabin, and he was unconscious. How I waited there for a week, but finally went back to class, and how his brother ferried me back and forth to the university each day, so that I could be with Saxon at night.
“Tell me about the baby,” he said. His big hand rested on my stomach. It felt right, having it there.
“I threw up. And I was tired. But I thought it was because of what happened. I was in an unfamiliar place, sitting by your bedside. Anyone would be stressed.” I swallowed hard. “Then I overheard your brother and the healers talking.”
“Tell me what they said.”
“It wasn’t anything terrible.”
“But it caused you to run. It must have been something.”
“I thought that if you didn’t make it.” My voice cracked. “That they’d take the baby from me. They said your mother would want the baby. If you didn’t wake up.”
He cursed under his breath.
“Saxon. Human families do that too. It’s not uncommon. If a parent dies, the family gets territorial. They’re afraid they’ll never see the child. Or they don’t want the remaining parent to exclude them.”
“That’s no excuse. Don’t give them too much credit. I am so sorry you had to run.” He pulled back and looked at me. “I want to keep talking, but I need to get back to Wilder.”
“Oh yes.” I squeezed his arms. “But listen. Really listen. The demon. His name is Larsen. And he came here to warn us.”
“Warn us?”
“Yes. He and his tribe are being controlled by a more powerful demon. Not all of them want to kill Fae. Or humans either.”
“I’m not sure he’s a trustworthy source.”
“I understand. But he just wanted me to listen to him.” I didn’t blame Saxon for doubting the demon. Hundreds of years of attacks would be hard to overcome. I had a gut feeling that Larsen was telling the truth, but that wasn’t going to get us very far. “Promise me you’ll listen. It could save us.”
He bowed his head and let his forehead rest against mine. “I promise I’ll listen. I’ll talk to the demon. Depending on what I think, and what Wilder thinks, we’ll come up with a plan. And then I’ll deal with my family. Them thinking for one second that they’d try to take the baby is unconscionable.”
“Maybe they felt like it was necessary. Since we aren’t together.” I hoped he’d say that we would start a relationship. A real one. But he didn’t.
“No. It wasn’t necessary. It was cruel and needless. You were worried enough to leave everything you know. You left your brothers, and your home, and your classes. You”re not impulsive. You must have felt threatened.”
I sagged. I was grateful that he would hear me out, and take my concerns seriously. That was the only way we’d be able to co-parent this baby. But that did nothing to reassure me about the status of our romantic connection. “How did you find me?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you the whole story once we’ve gotten this situation wrapped up.” There was something he was hiding from me. But I couldn’t put my finger on it. A wave of dizziness hit me. Had I eaten? I couldn’t remember.
“Danny?” Saxon lifted me, holding me with his strong arms.
How was he holding me? He’d been gravely injured by the poison. “Are you healed?” I asked. “Should you be picking me up?”
“I’m fine. Let’s worry about you. Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
“Dizzy,” I said. I rested my head against his chest and took slow deep breaths.
“We’re going straight to a clinic.” He found a bench and sat down, putting me next to him.
I didn’t argue. After four years of living without a lot of daily stress, I’d put my body and mind under a lot of strain once I left Crestfire Hill.
“Have you seen a doctor yet?” he asked.
“No. The shelter got me an appointment for next week. They use a free clinic.” I tried to reach for the appointment card, but I couldn’t get to my wallet while he was holding me. “The name of the clinic is in my pocket”
“Danny. I don’t mean to be rude, or elitist, or however a human would say it, but we aren’t taking you to a free clinic.” He picked up his phone and started typing. “I’m asking Luke to find out where we should go.”
“Luke as in Luke that’s Haven’s mate?”
He nodded.
“Luke’s never been human.”
“No, but he has a half-human baby, and he appreciates quality health care for that reason. He’ll find out what clinic is best. If we need to leave South Marigold for a larger city, we will.”
I’d started this relationship with Saxon so I could make use of his money. Using it to check on our child was hardly wrong. But I felt torn about leaving the shelter. Sure, I’d hated that I had to live there, but there were a lot of omegas there who didn’t have a sugar daddy Alpha to show up and rescue them.
“What’s wrong?”
I leaned against his shoulder, letting all of my weight rest against him. “I feel bad. I was really getting to know all the omegas in the shelter.”
“I’ll send them a check. Or you could do it yourself,” he said.
I hadn’t even thought about that. I’d never had any money to donate before..
“How much?” I blurted out, before I could stop myself.
“How much would help them? Five million? Ten million?”
“Are you serious?” I pressed my hand to my eyes. “I think they’d be more than happy to receive either.”
He grinned. “What’s the point of dating a sugar daddy if you can’t get any perks?”
My heart clenched. I didn’t want to cry again. “Thank you.” I wiped my face. “We could do it anonymously. I don’t want to rub their faces in my happy ending.”
Saxon wrapped his arm around me. “I promise I’m going to take care of you and this baby. Nothing is more important to me.”
That really made me cry. I cried while Saxon held me. He had to let go to reply to Luke, who’d gotten us an appointment at a private clinic with a top-rated obstetrician. “I really hope I’m not taking someone’s spot,” I said.
“You’re not. The doctor was off today.,” Saxon said. He got us a rideshare somehow, even in this small town. The car pulled up and he insisted on buckling me in himself.
“You pulled her in on her day off?”
“She was offered a bonus for coming in to see you, just this one time.”
“How much?”
“$500,000.”
I didn’t even have words for that. That kind of money – especially for a few hours – would be worth it for anyone to come in on their day off, even a specialist physician. Once I was a tenured professor with a doctorate degree, it would take me at least five years to make that much money.
We arrived at the clinic ten minutes later, and a nurse showed us straight to a room. She took my temperature, which was normal, and my blood pressure, which was a little low, considering the circumstances. I let myself drift while we waited to be seen. The doctor came in and introduced herself. She was cheerful, which helped me not feel bad.
“He was dizzy,” Saxon said immediately.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “I’ll do a blood test and see if there’s an underlying issue, or if it was something as simple as needing more protein. I’ll call you with those results tomorrow. If you’re sure that you”re pregnant, we’ll skip the urine test,” she said. “We”ll start with an ultrasound. How far along are you?”
I’d done the math with one of the omegas at the shelter. Of course I knew exactly when I’d conceived. “I’m at six weeks.”
“Good. We’ve got a brand new machine, so we should be able to detect the heartbeat.”
She had me pull my shirt up, and she smeared the lubricant jelly over my stomach, which wasn’t round at all yet. She pressed the wand against my abdomen. At the same time, Saxon reached for my hand and held it tight.
“Ah. I’ve got a heartbeat.”
Until she said the words, I hadn’t realized how anxious I was. I’d never planned to have a child, but now that he or she existed, I very much wanted to keep my baby. I looked up to see Saxon’s eyes filled with tears too.
“There’s your baby.” She pointed at the bean-shaped oval in the middle of the black and white screen. “It’s about a half-inch long right now.” She hit a few buttons. “It looks like you’re due on December 6th. Of course, that’s an estimate. I’ll print you off a copy to take with you.”
December 6th. That’s when I’d meet our baby. Saxon’s free hand brushed over my hair as he took the ultrasound photos.
“Here’s a bottle of prenatal vitamins.” She handed those to Saxon too. “The person who contacted me required me to sign a non-disclosure agreement, but I’m told that the father of your baby is a Fae,” the doctor said.
“Does that change anything?” Saxon asked.
“Not much. Your baby won’t be fully human, but so far the development is on track. I would recommend seeing a Fae healer as well as a human doctor.” She glanced down at her clipboard. “I’m going to give you a vitamin B6 shot. It might help with the dizziness.” She also calculated how much protein I needed to eat and wrote it all out on a piece of paper, which Saxon carefully studied.
After that, we were free to go.
Just as we were walking out, with Saxon’s arm wrapped possessively around me, someone came rushing at the front door.
Saxon had me on the other side of the hallway in a flash, blocking my body with his own. Then he sighed. “Simon. What the fuck are you doing here?”
I peeked around Saxon’s broad shoulders to see. Sure enough, there was Simon. My hand went to my stomach. What was he doing here?
“Listen. I know I fucked up. I do.”
“Simon,” Saxon growled. “I don’t know how you found me, but you need to leave.”
The door opened again, and Saxon’s mother stood there. Just like him, she was tall, regal and eye-catching. In her gray pinstripe suit and long black coat, she was a showstopper.
“Danny,” she said. She made no effort to get any closer. “It’s come to my attention that my younger son implied that we would take your child. That is inaccurate. Yes, we would like all of you to be a part of our clan. And we would like Saxon to take over the title of heir. But we are not in the business of baby stealing.”
I said nothing.
“Prove it,” Saxon said.
“How?” she asked.
“Make a vow. A vow that as long as Danny is alive, he will make the decisions for our child. And we’ll add in provisions about making sure no Fae tries to interfere with his life. We’ll have a mage’s spell binding you to your vow. A mage of my choice. And the consequence for breaking it is death.”
I gasped. Death? That was extreme. But this was about the fate of my child, so I wasn”t going to argue.
Her eyebrows shot up. “Surely you don’t think we need death as a threat to keep us from taking your child.”
“Take it or leave it,” Saxon said.
“We’ll take it,” Simon said. “Or I will, at least. I know that I screwed up. I didn’t think about what I was saying.” Simon tried to inch closer to me. “I really want to meet my niece or nephew.”
I looked up at Saxon.
“That remains to be seen. We’ll get the spell done first.” He crossed his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me the demons were back?” he asked his mother.
“We didn’t know for sure,” his mother said. “We’d only heard rumors. We’d hoped you’d investigate.”
“You owed me an explanation. Not whatever half-assed game you were playing. Now go.”
His mother stepped forward. “Saxon. Danny. I am sorry. We have failed you both. We will both happily participate in whatever spell you choose.”
“Are you actually interested in helping the clan?” Saxon asked.
“Of course. I’ll do anything to prove myself.”
“If so, this is your chance. Wilder, a mage for a wolf pack, is holding a demon captive right now for me. The demon claims that he’s here to warn us, and that he’s on our side.”
Simon gaped. “Here to warn us?”
“That’s what he says. We need to verify that claim. If you’re both serious about mending fences, then you can help me. And Wilder is a friend, so watch yourself.”
“And the demon’s name is Larsen,” I said.
Saxon finally moved and stood beside me, no longer blocking my view of his brother and mother.
One of Simon’s eyebrows shot up. “You spoke to him?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Okay, wow.” Simon said. “I’ll do whatever I can.”
“We will both help with the demon,” his mother said. After Saxon gave them the details on where to meet, they left.
“You’re trusting them to handle this?” I asked.
“Simon has to start somewhere. If my mother has truly changed her tune, then I’ll be open to helping with whatever my clan needs. I can’t ignore that demons are plotting against us.” His hand went to cover my belly. “But with this one on the way, I’ll need backup.’