Chapter 21 - Adalyn
We walked back to the sanctuary not long after I had climaxed, right there, beneath the watching eye of the moon. Zephyr had spilled so much that I couldn’t think straight, but it all made sense.
Everything connected. My dreams, the pull between us, the sickness.
The fact that I was…
That I was carrying Zephyr’s baby.
A shifter baby.
The thought knocked the breath from my lungs, causing me to feel less sure about my future than ever.
Once we were back inside the sanctuary, Zephyr took me into the pool, where I let myself fall into his arms, leaning back against his chest. He cupped water in his hands and poured it over my bare body. He massaged my chest, poured water over my shoulders, and rubbed the muscles in my thighs. I hadn’t realized how much it had taken out of me to train these past few days as well as tend to the shields.
I held my stomach again, trying to comprehend that not only was I carrying a baby but that Zephyr had scented them before I knew. Jealousy speared me, sudden and intrusive, a thought I didn’t want to have. I had no need to feel jealous.
But he had known about our child before me .
It had been just over a week since we had first had sex that night we had gone underground. It was possible—I knew witches who had reported symptoms after a week and carried a healthy baby. Maybe the process was even faster when a shifter was the father.
I felt the man behind me and relaxed. I was safe, he was there, and that settled me.
He had come to find me when I had snuck out. I turned in his arms to face him. He had shed his clothing, as I had, and stood as bare as me.
My wolf , I thought.
Once, I had hated those watchful eyes as they pierced me with all of his hatred and need for vengeance, his fury narrowing into the nearest witch he got close to. But now they pierced me with adoration, the weight of his full attention on me. I was starting to think it was one of my favorite feelings.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked with a slow smile.
“You,” I answered and kissed him lightly. He held my hips, rubbing circles into my hip bones.
“Good answer,” he murmured into my mouth. He pulled back slightly. “Adalyn, what does your future look like?”
I hesitated. The way he had spoken outside made my stomach cramp with doubt. He had never talked about wanting a family. He had talked in length about his career with the military but never a family . How could I tie him down here? How could I trust that he would want to stay?
Would I wake up one day to find my bed empty and a child looking out the window for their father? It had happened to Harper, and the thought of Zephyr doing the same to me in the name of his job terrified me.
“What does it look like?” he prompted.
I paused. “I—honestly… I always envisioned myself with a seaside cottage. After I moved back here, I knew it was where I wanted to stay, make roots, settle down.” My eyes skimmed his face, watching his expression. “I don’t want to leave Azure Cove.”
Zephyr frowned. “Is anything making you think you’ll need to?”
I shook my head, although it wasn’t entirely true.
“I pictured a quiet life. Magic, growing the coven, helping other young witches,” I told him.
“Children?” he asked.
“It had never truly come into the equation, really,” I confessed. “I love Harper’s triplets and just figured I’d grow up to be their aunt, as such.”
“And now?”
“Now…” I stroked my stomach. “Now I don’t know. It’s hard to picture anything. It’s hard to know anything. It all feels so confusing. I feel like I already know and love this life growing inside me. Is that crazy?”
“It’s not crazy,” he swore, those green eyes gripping me. He kissed my mouth, my chin, then my clavicle. He burned a path with his mouth right down my body, until he lingered on my stomach. He knelt before me in the pool, his eyes never once leaving mine. He kissed my stomach, still flat, as it would be for another couple of months.
“This new life… It’s ours . It’s ours to love and to know. To have together. The future is big, Adalyn, and it’s fucking terrifying, but I want you in mine.” I smiled at him, my hands linking through his. “And I told you, I swear to you , that you will never be alone with our child.”
“But is this what you envisioned for your future?”
“No,” he said honestly, and I appreciated that. “I spent countless nights in all sorts of places in the country. I watched my mom raise my brothers and me after my father lost his life in the career I also then chose. I’ve doubted myself—of course, I have. I doubted if, given my upbringing, I would ever be the right man to be a father.
“And I still don’t know some of those things, but Adalyn, I made a vow to myself that no matter what happens, I’ll protect you and this child.”
His eyes bore into mine, nodding. He kissed my stomach again, slow, languid presses of his mouth, before standing up once more. I arched into him, feeling for his heartbeat, steady and slow, beneath my palm.
“How long did you know for?” I asked him.
“I realized the day I taught you how to aim with your powers.” He swallowed. “I just didn’t know how to tell you, and I should have figured it out sooner and told you properly. In a better way than I had done.”
I nodded. “It’s okay, Zephyr.”
He cringed, shaking his head. “I’ll always want to do better. I didn’t… I didn’t start us right. I let my angry and hateful heart rule me. I said and called you things I regret, Adalyn. I can’t ever truly forgive myself for that, but I can always work to make it up to you in the future.” He grazed my cheek with the back of his knuckles. “You are not weak, Adalyn Lindell. You are part of one of the strongest covens in the world. I’ve witnessed and experienced your powers firsthand. I’m sorry that I ever said those shitty things to you.”
I couldn’t help my laughter. “We’ll need to sort out the language thing before our child picks up some awful language.”
He snorted. “It’s probably already too late,” he muttered. “And wait until this little one is around Sweeney. God, it’ll be bad.”
I laughed, thinking of a future where the group stayed and settled in Azure Cove, as Alex had. A future where my child grew up with Harper’s triplets. Where they knew their great-grandmother, were told about their grandmother, and we all lived together and honored our coven through the generations.
And a wolf—a shifter—at the head of the family.
Two bloodlines combined.
I pulled Zephyr back in for a kiss.
It was possible, but my heart still ached to imagine it fully. I couldn’t budge the distrust in my heart, even as Zephyr held me against his chest. I listened to his heartbeat and realized I had no idea what to tell my grandmother.
Had I utterly betrayed my coven by doing this? Would they follow me with my decision? I didn’t know. I just had to hope.
And hope was a flimsy, feeble thing at times.
***
We lay together that night, entwined in bed. My back pressed to Zephyr’s chest as he held me protectively, as he had to do.
We had come so far from the two people who tried to sleep complete ends of the bed, not at all touching, lapsing into stony silence.
I was dreaming—Zephyr and me beneath the waterfall, the water cascading over our heads, laughter in the air—when I felt the temperature in the airdrop. When I came slowly out of my dream, I heard the hisses.
We crave the taste of witch blood. We remember it well.
I opened my eyes. Around us, moisture collected on the walls, illuminated by the flickering candle I had left lit when we slept. Zephyr was awake before I could even reach for him to wake him up. Demons were peeking out from the other caverns, their blank, manic faces staring back at us as they swarmed closer.
“The seal,” I whispered, my stomach dropping. “I forgot to reseal the doors.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Zephyr said, his voice urgent. “Adalyn, I need you to get somewhere safe.” He pushed himself from the bed and got me behind him, angling me away from the demons, so I had a clean break right through the main, long tunnel to the other exit. The demons were coming up from the pool and crawling through the ceiling. Down the tunnel, there was a blue flashing light. More portals.
They hissed, calling out for my blood, for shifter blood.
Clawed fingers moved them in a slow gait towards us.
“Adalyn, swear to me that you’ll run like hell and not stop until you’re safe,” he said. “Use your shields. Put up ten of them if you need to.”
“I want to fight,” I insisted, backing up automatically as he pushed me away from the swarm. “Zephyr, you promised—”
“I know,” he said. “I know, but right now, I need you to focus on keeping yourself and our baby safe.”
“Zephyr—”
“Please.” Desperation weighed in his voice as he met my gaze. He held my face for a brief moment. “Please, Adalyn. Get both of you to safety.”
With that, he nudged me over the threshold of the sanctuary on the other side. And then he ran for the tunnel. I was stunned, and panicking, but had just enough time to throw up a seal over the sanctuary entrance as demons slammed against it, stuck on the other side. Stuck with Zephyr .
I left a whispered spell that would unlock the seal the moment he touched it as a shifter, allowing that unity into my spell without me there. It took much of my energy immediately, and I swayed, holding onto the wall.
Safety.
Where was it safe? I had no idea where any of the other shifters were. I didn’t even know where Gramma was, safe with Harper and Alex.
I went to the only place I knew was second best to the sanctuary. Somewhere, I would be on the ground I knew well enough to protect myself. A place already thick with shields and wards. I turned around and sprinted out of the main entrance through the cavern, bursting through the waterfall.
And then I ran into town and towards the Emporium, casting a shield around myself. I had to think of my baby—of this new life that needed to grow, not end before I had a chance to bring something good into the world. I couldn’t put Zephyr through more loss and heartache.
I ached for him. That tether between us grew unbearably taut. I thought of him calling me his mate, and I struggled to keep my wits about me as I ran. He had to be okay. He would shift. He had taken down swarms before.
Only with the others , I thought fearfully. But I needed to believe in him. I had to trust that he would be okay. I had to be okay—I had to protect my baby and protect her, as Zephyr swore to protect us both.
I didn’t see the glowing spots of neon blue following me as I ran.