Justin’s POVAfter cleaning her hands off, Dr. Myles placed two fingers in the center of Helen’s abdomen and started muttering. I waited to see if I could visualize the magic, but whatever she was doing wasn’t something that was apparent on the outside. The only indication that the doctor was doing anything was the changing look on her face.She kept her fingers there a minute before she pulled her hand off, cleaned her fingers again, and replaced two fingers on the other hand on Helen’s stomach. The same display of unreadable emotions, or rather, disconnected emotions, flitted across her face.I couldn’t pick out whether it was good or bad or what was going on, but whatever it was, she must have found something interesting. Otherwise, why bother doing whatever she was doing twice?“Well?” I demanded when my patience ran out.She waved me quiet with her free hand. After a moment, she washed up and handed Helen a cloth. “This is to clean the herbs off your stomach. Would you like priva
Randy’s POVA fresh blanket of gloom had settled itself over the office area inside Juden’s mansion. I hadn’t expected Justin to come back for the day after he left to go to Helen’s appointment. We still had work to do, but it was early in the evening, after all.Yet he busted into the office, all worked up, barely controlling his temper. He didn’t even have to tell me that anything was wrong. Simply by the way he was acting, I could tell that we weren’t through with the Huntsman. Something had happened during the doctor’s appointment with Helen.My only question was what.After I had asked Justin that very question and heard the explanation, I wished I hadn’t.Knowing that Helen was carrying that beast’s child made me physically sick to my stomach. My first instinct was to tell him to abort the pregnancy. They could conceive another lycan child. Whereas they only had this on
Randy’s POVI stepped outside into a sunny, late winter day, and my breath came out in a puffing cloud. Thank goodness, from just down the street, I could see the little white car which had been parked in Emily’s driveway the other day coming towards me. At least I wouldn’t have to wait outside in the freezing cold for very long.She waved as she pulled up in front of the mansion to pick me up. I opened the door on the passenger side and flopped into the seat, shutting it behind me.“Hi, Emily.”“Hi,” she said. “Looks like you heard.”I nodded. “As far as doctor-patient confidentiality goes, you don’t have to hide anything from me, at least not about the fact that one of the twins is actually a part demon. How could that happen?”I tipped my head back, closing my eyes.“Just bad luck,” she said. “Instances of twins with two differen
Helens POVThe end of my first trimester came and went, and sadly Justin missed a large chunk of it. After the news about one of the twins belonging to the Huntsman, he moved back into his father’s mansion and left me alone at my house. He came for dinner most nights, but we talked about silly things like the weather and, now that spring was arriving, what we were going to do for the pack at the new park he had planned.Every time he came over, my heart leaped with joy, and every time he left, I wanted to cry. In fact, most nights, I did. Justin would go, and I would crawl into my bed upstairs, all shades of miserable. After having a long discussion with Justin and Randy and our two doctors, we decided that we would keep both babies and we wouldn’t try to do the banishing rite unless the baby turned out to be horrible.But Lisa and Russo were already starting to train two additional witches that she was friends with in how to do the ritual, just in case it ever needed to be done. Afte
Helen’s POV“I’m sorry,” Julianne apologized. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while now. Maybe I should have called the others out on their behavior sooner instead of letting them torture you for a month. But they’ve acted absolutely despicably. I simply couldn’t watch any more neglect.”“You’re such a good friend, Julianne,” I said, smiling around my tears.She huffed and leaned against the sink counter. “I try to be. I mean, it’s not like I don’t get what everyone else’s objections are, but the way they the way they’re handling themselves is beyond childlike. If they were my kids, I would have scolded them. Thank goodness they’re not. What a headache that lot would have been.”This time I actually giggled a little. “I can only imagine how much trouble they would have been if they’d actually all grown up together.”“Now,” she said, digging in the drawers and coming up with a clean washcloth. “I promised I would scrub you. I’ve been saving this. I tucked this in your drawers the last ti
Russo’s POVSomehow, the bow tie on my tuxedo felt like it was choking me. I had no idea that I could be this nervous before my wedding. It wasn’t like I had any family or friends or pressure on me or anything. And Lisa and I were fully acquainted, to the point we were expecting a child, so there wasn’t any mystery waiting for me at the end that I needed to be nervous about.Still, my palms were sweaty, and the collar was entirely too tight.“Stop fidgeting,” Justin ordered, poking at my shoulder. “You’re squirming around like a schoolboy before his first dance.”I made a face at him. “I’m getting married,” I protested. “This is a big deal.”Justin hmphed and crossed his arms. “What are you so nervous about? It’s not like you’re the last one of your kind to ever get married.”This drew out a grudging smile from me. “No, and it’s a good thing we moved our wedding up into June. Because if we waited any longer, Lisa would definitely be obviously pregnant in her wedding dress.”“How do yo
Helen’s POVI glanced around, looking for my mate, but Justin wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I wasn’t sure where he’d gone because I didn’t sense Justin in the same direction that I sensed his father. But I had to find him. Juden was not going to ruin this day for us.I hurried in the direction of his scent, determined not to let him cause any trouble. I would need to get rid of Juden before Justin found out. No sooner had I stepped into the trees that comprised a greenbelt forest at the back of the property than Justin’s father materialized from the shadows.And speaking of shadows, Juden was a mere shadow of his former self. When I first met him, he was imposing, muscular, tall, commanding, clean, and well-cut. At the time, he looked every bit like the king.Juden was now thin and rather gaunt looking, his skin tight around his bones and his hair fully gray and rather lank. This man clearly had troubles. He wore stress nearly as obviously as his clothes which were no longer labeled by
Helen’s POVMy nails had lengthened into my claws, and I tucked my hands behind my back, shaking, holding myself together. Juden was so unbelievably insulting; Joy and I wanted nothing more than to rip him apart.But I was pregnant enough to be showing. The last thing I wanted was to hurt the pups. And the last time I had tried anything against Juden, I was helpless.“That was before . . .” A little voice whispered in my ears. “You’ve mated with a lycan and a demon. You’re stronger now.”I shook my head.Judan snorted. “You disagree with me on your value? Then you think your motley heritage and my son’s own mixed breeding makes you worthy of any kind of throne?”“You’re not,” Juden snarled. “The only thing you are fit for is exactly what happened to you. You’re worth nothing more than being a half demon’s fucking whore.”I lost control, shifting instantaneously into Joy. Where the shift had once taken effort, it now happened without even thinking about it.I turned so fast it even ca