HAYES
I snapped my eyes open instantly. The master suite was pitch black, lit only by the dying red embers fading in the hearth. Beside me, Ciara was completely rigid. Her back arched violently off the mattress, her fingers clawing frantically into the heavy wolf furs beneath us, and her mouth opened in a silent, suffocating scream.
"Ciara?" My voice came out cracked, thin, and terrified. "Ciara, what is it? What's wrong?"
She couldn't speak. Her whole body buckled, a hard, violent spasm tearing through her abdomen. She let out a sharp, ragged sob that sounded like her throat was tearing apart from the inside.
"It's... the boys," she choked out, her head snapping back against the wooden headboard. Sweat burst across her forehead in an instant, dripping down her pale cheeks. "Hayes... f
