Taking a deep breath, Samantha reached over and grabbed onto his collar and pulled him back, because she couldn’t stomach the idea of the annoying little bastard getting hurt because of her. He continued to growl as she pulled him inside the small cabinet and wrapped her arm around him to keep him from doing something incredibly stupid that would end with her having to explain to Nathan how she let the little bastard get torn apart.
“I’m also going to need you to get my son out of there,” Ethan said, making her wince even as she shook her head because there was no way in hell that she was going anywhere with-
“You’re his only chance, Sam,” Ethan said and just when she went to tell him that she wasn’t going to take him anywhere those red eyes that were probably going to haunt her for the rest of her life faded and were replaced by a pair of kind emerald eyes that looked completely lost as they slowly took in the damage around him.
It was at that moment that she realized something important.
Stockholm syndrome was real.
Chapter 9
Williams Mansion
Upstate New York
“Are we going to talk about it?” Caine asked, pressing a kiss against the back of his mate’s neck as he closed his eyes and slowly inhaled, taking in her irresistible scent that was laced with the proof that they’d fucked up.
“No,” Danni said, shaking her head as she placed her hand over his where it laid on her bare hip and brought it down to her flat stomach, where he placed it against the other thing that they weren’t talking about. “Because I’m fine.”
“You slipped into another coma,” he said softly as he pulled her closer, wondering just how much more of this that he was going to be able to take.
“I’m fine,” Danni stressed, pretending that things weren’t bad when all he could do was wonder how everything could be perfect one minute and the next…
He was watching his mate die again.
He should have known better than to believe that he was ever going to have a happy ending. Not after what he’d done. He didn’t deserve it, but even knowing that hadn’t stopped him from going after it and now, Danni was the one paying the price. Christofer’s blood was no longer working, his blood was no longer helping, human blood was only making her weaker, and demon blood was only making this worse. Nothing was fucking working and that terrified him.
She’d gone from being invincible, able to wipe the floor with Chris and Ephraim with a smile to barely able to make it up the stairs most days without someone carrying her. He still wasn’t sure how it happened. One day she was smiling and everything that she was meant to be and the next…
She was dying in his arms, again.
He’d rather spend eternity trapped at the bottom of the ocean than to watch her suffer for one more minute, but there was nothing that he could do to stop this. He’d tried. God, how he’d fucking tried to save her, but nothing he did worked. He’d contacted doctors from all over the world, oncologists, surgeons, biochemists, biologists, hoping to find an answer, but so far, the only thing that they could agree on was that she was dying and there was nothing that they could do to save her.
The Council hadn’t had any luck either. They’d searched their archives, had one of their Sentinel doctors move into the compound to take care of her, bargained with demons for their blood to see if any of them could save her, but nothing helped. The only thing that they’d learned over the past few months was that they were running out of time. Every time she fell into a coma, he was forced to watch, helpless to do anything as he listened to her heart stop beating and count down the minutes until it started beating again.
Every time her heart stopped, it took a little longer for it to start beating the next time, letting him know that the cancer was winning. Sooner or later her heart was going to stop beating and-
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Danni asked, reminding him of the other reason why it was taking her heart longer to recover.
“Yes,” he promised her, as he pressed a kiss against the back of her neck, wishing that they could keep pretending that they hadn’t brought an innocent baby into all this.
They’d never wanted children and had always been careful, but somehow, they’d missed the signs that she was pregnant and now there wasn’t anything that they could do about it. By the time they’d scented the change, it had already been too late. Her body had shut down any possibility to end the pregnancy, ensuring that they couldn’t do anything to stop what they’d both known was coming.
The first time that she’d gone into a coma after they’d found out that she was pregnant, he’d been forced to sit by her side, holding her hand while he listened as her heart took its last beat, knowing that they’d just lost their baby, and he’d fucking lost it. One minute he’d been sitting there, struggling to catch his breath, realizing just how badly he wanted this child and the next, he’d lost himself to bloodlust, had fucking welcomed it. It had taken every Pyte in the house and a bullet to the back of his head to put him down.
By the time that he came to, chained in one of the cells they’d had built in the cellar, her heart had started beating again and he’d realized that his definition of pain had been a fucking joke. Their baby was still alive, suffering right alongside his mother, and he’d realized that he was going to have to watch as his wife and child died over and over again while he was forced to sit there, helpless to do anything to stop it.
“Your phone’s ringing,” Danni said even as she arched her neck, giving him better access.
“Let it ring,” Caine said, determined not to waste even one precious moment with her.
“What if it’s Michael?” Danni asked, making him close his eyes in defeat as he reluctantly pressed one last kiss against her neck and reached for his phon
e, praying that the fucking Sentinel finally found a way to fix this before it was too late.
“Somebody better be fucking dying,” Caine said, entwining his fingers with hers and used his hold on her to bringer her closer as he closed his eyes and pressed another kiss against the back of her neck as he savored her scent and-
“I found him,” came the words that he’d never expected to hear.