Tides Of Fate

Chapter Twenty Three

“I don’t know. This has never happened before. Baku has never sired a child, and this one’s Ash’s first. It may have. This morning her pregnancy wasn’t so pronounced, now…” Joe eyed me, probably gauging how far off my temper had gotten. Billy just stared at me angered by my warning.

“Is pain, a part of the pregnancy?” My dad was really going to make this worse.

“Dad!”

“Don’t dad me! You’ve passed out twice because of the pain it was causing you! Today I was sure you were going to die from it.”

Ash’s head shot toward my dad, after a few seconds he shifted his gaze to me. His face creased in pain for a second before it went back to being angry. He must have seen me in pain in my dad’s head, and he must have read mine to see exactly how bad it was. That wasn’t going to help my argument.

He looked at my belly then at me. His stare was so lethal and cold it scared me. I put my hands over my bulge protectively. I could feel the defensive instinct kick in. I moved away from the couch, and stood at a point where I had all of them in my line of sight. If this was going to end in a fight, I didn’t want to be close to my sisters.

Ash took a step closer to me.

A rumble went through me. I held one hand up as a warning, the other stayed protectively over my belly. “Stay where you are.”

“Lee, we need to get it out before it kills you.”

“I took Sabrina on, I will fight you if I have to. They are not going to kill me!” Immediately, I knew I shouldn’t have said that.

I heard a louder rumble from Ash. He was past livid, he was murderously furious. He pointed at my belly. “There are two of those things inside you?” 

I felt even more threatened. My body went rigid. I took a step back and kept my hand out towards him. My fingers tips were curled. I growled at him, showing him how serious I was about defending them.

“Ash, would you please take a few steps back.” Billy spoke, his eyes fixed on me. Of course he would take Ash’s side!

“Don’t you understand? She is carrying two of them!”

“Ash it doesn’t mean she can’t handle it. Look at her. She’s already turning. She is going to attack you if you don’t step back.” Joe, at least he was on my side.

The thought of attacking the man I love sickened me, but these were my children. As a mother it was my job to protect them against everyone, even their own father if need be.

“She won’t be able to handle it! She isn’t carrying your offspring, she’s carrying mine!” Ash sounded desperate, the rage replaced by anguish.

The room went quiet. His statement froze everyone. It was some sort of eye opener. The girls and I were the only ones left out of the loop.

“What’s the difference?” Ann was courageous enough to speak, Maria however stayed silent on the couch.

“Ash is the original werewolf, we are his creation. His abilities are three times if not more, stronger than ours. We wouldn’t be able to win even if all three of us attack him at the same time. He’d kill us seconds apart from each other. Everything about him, depending on the situation and how you look at it is three times better or worse than ours. This isn’t venom he is passing on; it’s a piece of him.” Billy spoke decisively.

“If it was only one, there would be better odds, but two, they will definitely kill her. As a complete human she wouldn’t have survived the first few months but as a werewolf in transition, I don’t know…” Joe wasn’t calm anymore. He turned to me, his eyes filled with sorrow. “All I know is, from all the stories out there, you will die with them inside you.”

I looked at them, my guard still up. They were all staring at me, apart from Ash who was leaning against the wall. I understood their fears when it came to carrying Ash’s children, but they still had no right to decide on my behalf. I would do what I had to, to carry them to full term, it didn’t matter if I died or not.

“How soon can we do this?” Dad sounded determined.

“What! Dad, you are not doing anything to me!” I could feel the rage rise fast inside me. I crouched a little lower; reluctantly freeing my hand from my belly, leaving my children exposed. I needed both my hands if I was to defend them.

“As soon as Ash says so.” Joe was sad. I was pissed he had abandoned me so easily.

“He doesn’t have a say over my children!” I looked around the room, measuring the distances to the closest exits.

“The hell I don’t!”

I hadn’t seen him coming. Ash had flashed in front of me and was holding my arms, dragging me up to his eye level. I stared into his cold silver eyes, frightened but angry.

“You looked at me with those eyes and reminded me it was my place as the man who loves you to do what’s right for you. I’m taking my place firmly in this matter.”

I felt weak. I couldn’t believe he would force me to do something I didn’t want.

“Joe will cut you open and take them out.” He was so cold, he said it as if it wasn’t me he was going to let Joe cut into. Exactly how much did he love me?

“No stop!” Maria shouted. She leaped off the couch and ran to Joe. “You don’t understand! You need to listen…”

“Maria wait.” I blinked back the tears that were stinging my eyes. “Ash, you would kill the most precious things we could have created in our entire lives all in the name of doing what’s right for me?”

“I would kill anything that threatens your life. They are going to kill you, and they are not worth dying for. I’d rip them out of you myself if there wasn’t a risk of you dying in the process.”

My rage was back. “You wouldn’t be able to kill them without killing me.”

“You’ll survive. Joe, do it now.” He let go of me and walked away.

His indifference burned me. I was enraged; he didn’t love me, not as much as he claimed. I wanted him to hurt as much as I was.

“Since you like picking through people’s minds, go ahead take a peek into mine. Don’t worry I won’t stop you, you have my permission.” There was a wicked cheer in my voice. My lips curved up in a heinous smile as I waited for him to read my mind. “Go ahead, I dare you.”

He turned to me, his gaze cautious, wondering what I was up to. Then his face dropped, he looked pale. He rocked on his feet, and then stretched his hands searching for something to lean on.

My desire for revenge only hurt me more when I saw his expression. The smile disappeared. I regretted the pain I was causing him. “Ash, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” I was crying hysterically. “I didn’t mean it to happen. I’m so sorry!” I moved closer to him, but he raised his hand and stopped me.

He staggered into the AA room. The guys looked confused by our reactions. Ash was not in any state to explain, and I was too preoccupied to do it.

I ran after him. He was on the couch, his head in his hands. I knelt beside him and wrapped my fingers around his wrists, crying and apologizing at the same time. He looked up at me, his eyes were back to brown, and they were wet and red. He kissed my forehead and stood up.

I scrambled to my feet. “Where are you going?”

I need some time.

I was reading his mind, or he was putting the words in my head. Either way, I was panicking. “What do you mean?”

I’m going away.

His words hit me severely. I was losing him. “Please don’t leave me.” I was shouting in desperation.

Please, Lee, don’t make this more difficult than it already is.

“When are you coming back?” I demanded. I wasn’t going to let him out the door without an answer.

Soon.

“Promise!” I desperately wanted to believe him, but I knew better.

Goodbye, Lee.

He flashed out of the room before I could say anything else. The main door banged loudly. He was gone. I ran out of the room after him. I wasn’t going to let him leave me, not after I’d fallen deeply in love with him.

I was stopped when I met the sad eyes in the living room. They all knew what I had done. Ann and Maria moved towards me. I turned and ran back into the room, banging the doors shut behind me. I didn’t want comfort or pity, I wanted Ash and he had left me.

The pain in my chest was too much. I couldn’t handle it. It was burning a hole in my heart, leaving me hollow and empty. There was nothing left to do but cry.

I could hear their voices on the other side of the door, trying to coax me into opening it. I lay on the ground, wishing Sabrina had killed me, hoping she would come back and finish what she had started.

I wasn’t sure what he hated most growing inside me—life threatening unpredictable immortals that were his or human babies that were another man’s, worse yet, Steve’s.