Page 40 of These Little Heirs
“Sorry, I—” Indigo started but Cade shook his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” he glanced around the nursery. “I smelled all of you panic all the way from the damn house. Thought something---”
“Teal’s in London,” I announce. “He ran off and didn’t tell---”
“Shit,” Cade swore under his breath and walked up to Cobalt. He took his face in his hands, trying to soothe the angry dragon inside his son. “I need to go after Teal. There’s not enough time in the universe to explain. Your carrier is on the way here. Just get him into the bath and calm down. Everyone needs to calm down. If there are enough pieces of Teal left when I get back, you can have at him.”
“What’s going on?” I asked but no one took the time to tell me why Teal might be in pieces.
Indigo swore under his breath and Cobalt carried me to the bathroom with the big tub we set aside for just this moment. Ambry followed on his heels and Indigo lingered to talk to Cade for a few seconds before sprinting to catch up with us.
“I’m calling your dad too,” he said to Ambry, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he spoke.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked again. “Did he go to kill Torvan?”
“No,” Cobalt said. “Stupid fucker went to save him.”
“That’s Teal for you, though,” I whispered as Ambry squeezed past Cobalt to open the door and turn on the lights. Then in a blur my clothes were stolen, and the tub was filled with warm water. Indigo dribbled in special drops that Dara had given us that made the water extra safe for the baby and the open wound my womb would be after giving birth. Just because shifters had some healing speed didn’t mean we didn’t need to be careful.
“That’s how he is,” I whispered. “Morvan’s his friend and---”
I teared up as my back squeezed up tight and desperate to grab anything that might help, I grabbed a handful of Cobalt’s green hair. He yelled with me as I tugged his hair nearly sending us both over backward, but Indigo caught us both.
“Sorry! Sorry! So—Sorry!” I panted as the pain receded back into whatever hole it crawled out of.
“It’s okay,” Cobalt said, not even bothering to rub the back of his head. “It’s okay. Fuck Teal but it’s okay.”
“I’d do it for Ambry. If his dad went bad, I’d save him,” I said, trying not to cry but failing miserably.
Cobalt lifted me up into the water before stripping off his own clothes and joining me. He slid in behind me and reached around to gently wipe away my tears. Everything hurt and Cade thought Teal was going to die. What a fucking day for this baby to come into the world.
“I’m here,” Eston announced before walking into the room. “Thank the old wolves that you chose the biggest bathroom. Otherwise we’d be squeezed. Look, everyone is upset. Everyone is worried. Believe me. I’m worried too. Teal is my kid but until this baby comes this is our focus. This is what we have to do. Baby Steel can’t make choices for himself and Teal decided what he was going to do today. Cade will bring him back but we have to bring Baby Steel into the world. So save you’re anger until we know what’s going on. Someone make sure the vacuumed sealed towels are ready. I sent Dara a text to be ready in case we needed him. He’ll probably drop by either way but I think we can handle this,” Eston said, his voice steady. “The world isn’t ending. For this baby it’s only beginning.”
Guardie’s tail thumped against the side of the tub. He didn’t know why everyone was so worked up but he knew that the puppy would be here soon.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ciro
“There she is,” Morvan said, spotting Patrica on the ground from our hiding spot high on one of the government buildings. The alphas hadn’t lied. The lynx shifter was a bitty thing of a woman probably standing five feet, but she was five feet of solid muscle holding something enchanted at the ready. I shifted my eyes to that of my cat and swallowed hard. I assumed she’d try to blow Torvan up or shoot him but her weapon of choice was a throwing knife packed with so much magic that I didn’t want to get in her way. For a moment, I considered telling Teal that we needed to go back to Heartville and let him work out his own debts. I could be pregnant. I couldn’t get myself stabbed with that thing.
“You’re going to be our eyes up here,” Teal announced, picking up on my thoughts over our mating link. “We’ll deal with her. We’re the only ones who might stand a chance.”
I wanted to shift and throw myself on top of him. My weight wouldn’t keep my mate down forever but it would slow him down enough not to be the one to die because someone was dying today. When a cat went hunting, it rarely returned home empty handed.
“Patrica is our friend,” Morvan tried to reassure me. “She’s our friend! She wouldn’t hurt us! If she wanted to hurt one of us she wouldn’t have waited until we were both out of the way.”
“You stay here, please,” Teal begged, his eyes locking to mine.
“If you die, I swear I’m hiring some goon to die and kick your ass. I swear it to the moon and stars Teal Moonscale!” I said and kissed him hard before he could make any objections.
Then they were gone and I was alone on the roof watching my mate descend into what was bound to be chaos. I let out a long, slow breath and prayed the lynx didn’t kill my mate. She was good. Even from here I could smell she was good. She blended in with everyone coming and going around the apartment building but she was posed like a killer with her muscles strung tight for the throw. Her ears gave the slightest twitch, and I held my breath. The old building’s door opened and Toravn stepped out into the sunlight.
The sun glinted on the dagger as it zigzagged around passersby unnoticed. Morvan shouted and leapt back into the air towards his unsuspecting brother. Torvan’s eyes lit up when he saw Morvan and then his face contorted with bemusement as Teal tackled Morvan just in time for the dagger to pass through him a few feet from his brother. Both dragons tossed their arms out toward the target but neither of them was fast nor tall enough. The dagger found its home right where Patrica sent it: Inside Torvan’s heart.
The dragon sank to his knees as a crimson pool formed on his chest. Morvan elbowed Teal off his back and scurried to his brother screaming for help. His words were lost to the wind but his mouth moved and moved. No one was going to get there in time. The magic spread over him quickly, sucking up his blood into the knife.
I was an asshole. As Morvan held his dying twin in his arms and he and Teal both yelled for help that was en route but would never make it in time I felt only two things. Relief and awe. My mate was alive. Patrica disappeared into the crowd and climbed into the passenger seat of a baby blue pickup truck. Morvan was right about one thing. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him or Teal. Still, I was in awe of her. She threw that knife as if moving a claw through prey. If I was into women I might’ve sprung a boner because I was that big of an asshole.
