Page 190 of Conquered (Highgate Preparatory Academ:y Compendium)
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
LILLY
I wake up with a groan, a sharp pain tightening like a band across my stomach. It’s so intense that all I can do is lie there and breathe, just like Mai has been getting me to practise for the past few weeks.
Once it passes, I get up and head to the bathroom, sitting on the toilet. It’s when I wipe myself and notice the jelly-like, pink-tinged substance on the paper that I realise what is happening.
“Mai!” I yell, staring at what can only be my plug, or show as Mai kept calling it. Its presence tells me that the pain I experienced this morning might be my labour starting.
The door is flung open, and I look up with wide eyes as Mai rushes into the room, sleep tousled and still in her cotton PJs. I thrust the stained toilet paper in her direction, and she blinks, then straightens up and looks wide awake when she realises what it is.
“No need to panic, Lilly,” she tells me in a soothing tone, stepping closer and around my still-held-out hand. “This doesn’t necessarily mean that your labour will start today. Let’s get you cleaned up and put some food in you, okay?”
“O–okay,” I reply, finally putting the paper down the toilet and flushing whilst Mai starts up the shower.
Getting to my shaky feet, my heart feels like it’s trying to fly free.
“Hey…” Mai takes my arm, helping me out of my sleep shirt. “Even if baby does decide to come today, we can handle it, okay?”
“Okay,” I repeat once more, stepping under the warm spray and instantly feeling my shoulders relax under the water.
After I get dressed and eat something, we decide to go for a gentle walk, the pains coming fairly regularly but not that often. The twins follow us, both with wrinkled brows and stiff necks.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” Mai exclaims after Roman hovers so close I almost trip. “Plenty of babies have been born a little early, Lilly is not about to keel over, so give her some bloody space.”
I giggle as, chastised, they step back a bit, and a pang of intense sadness hits me when I realise that my guys would be far worse if they were here.
“The guys will be at the cabin by now; they won’t be able to come here if things do ramp up,” I pause as an intense pain shoots across my stomach, making it go rock-hard.
“That’s it, Lilly, just breathe in and out,” Mai encourages, rubbing my back in soothing circles until the pain eases and I can straighten up once more. “Let’s head back, shall we?”
We turn to walk back, my arm linked in Mai’s, and I worry my lip as we walk.
“I think that maybe we shouldn’t let them know. I don’t want them distracted,” I tell them, and although I can see the twins scowling at that, they nod.
“It’s shit, but probably for the best,” Rowan says grumpily.
He’s right, it is shit. I want my guys here with me. Jax was meant to help deliver our baby, but we can’t always get what we want; I know that more than most.
Looks like this night may be one to remember in more ways than one.
ASH
We all take our seats on various couches in the main living room after a long day of hunting elk and a meal of freshly caught elk heart.
My father likes the idea of eating the heart of our enemies, and it doesn’t taste too bad once you get over the idea.
The staff that cooked it have gone home as planned, so it’s just the eight of us.
Jax hands out glasses of scotch, catching my eye and giving an imperceptible nod to let me know that he’s done his part and, at most, we have half an hour before the effects of the GHB kicks in.
The elders talk about business, lots of bullshit back slapping and congratulatory talk about this or that company that has been made bankrupt.
I watch, sipping my drink and trying not to sneer at the devil’s these men have become.
It turns my stomach the amount of lives they’ve ruined, have forced us to take, all in the name of getting richer.
This isn’t how the world is meant to work.
Lilly has shown me that with her light and goodness, and her caring for others.
We’re meant to help people, help to pull them up, and not knock them down for our own gain.
How many families have struggled because of us?
Because of my father’s insatiable greed?
“Asth—” the man in question slurs, grimacing as his eyes try to focus on me. Seconds later his glass slips from his hand, landing with a dull thud on the rug as he slides to the floor, eyes closed and slack-jawed.
Similar noises sound around the room, and I look up to see all four of them lying in a comatose state.
“Stephen won’t be out for long,” Jax informs us, going over to Kai’s uncle and giving him a vicious kick. A small moan leaves the man’s lips, but he stays down. Jax leans down, grabs Stephen under the arms, and hauls him in the direction of the basement.
“You ready?” I ask Kai, pausing him with my hand on his bicep. He turns to face me, and it takes more effort than I’d like to admit not to flinch at the sight of his cold, dead eyes, all the warmth drained away.
“Yes.”
I loosen my grip, letting him go, but the stiffness in my shoulders remains as I watch him.
“Let’s get this show on the road, brother,” Loki says, his usual, teasing tone gone and replaced with the hard Knight that we’ve all been moulded into.
Taking one final, deep inhale, I draw my own darkness to the front, letting my inner demon take over for this bloody night’s work.
One last life to take.
LILLY
The pains increase steadily as the day wears on, becoming more intense and frequent as evening draws in.
When we returned from our walk, Mai helped me to set up the main living area as my birth space; placing affirmation cards around the room, and plugging in fairy lights that she’d brought with her.
The twins helped to set up the bluetooth speaker, and the classical playlist that Loki and I had created specifically for the birth is playing softly in the background.
There’s a sharp pain in my chest which has nothing to do with my labour and everything to do with my missing Knights.
I keep walking round the space, pausing and breathing every time a contraction hits me.
It’s full night-time now, the moon shining through the French doors, the curtains left open at my insistence.
I’m looking out into the darkness as another pain tightens my abdomen, and I grab hold of the back of a chair in a tight grip as it washes over me.
“That’s it, just breathe through them, Lilly,” Mai soothes, rubbing my back in circles. “You are doing so well, sweetheart.”
Tears sting my eyes at the endearment. It’s Kai’s new nickname for me, and I would give anything to have him here. To have all of them here.
“They’re getting stronger,” I pant out, straightening up once it passes and resuming my pacing, Mai giving me the space to walk.
“And closer together,” she says with a smile. “Baby is growing impatient to meet its mama.”
“Here,” Rowan says, holding out a bottle of some kind of sports drink. “You need to keep your energy levels up, especially as you haven’t eaten much.”
I take a sip, my heart aching when mango fills my mouth and I remember Jax taking care of me in his truck after Julian had said those awful things at the paintballing centre.
I gasp as another searing pain hits me, and Rowan quickly grabs the bottle before I can accidentally drop it. I grasp his arm, digging my nails in as I pant, this pain stronger than the last and much sooner.
A cool cloth smelling of lavender is pressed to my forehead as the contraction subsides, and I sigh, breathing in the relaxing scent. It reminds me of all the bubble baths the guys ran for me.
“Sorry.” I wince when I see the crescents in Rowan’s forearms left from my nails digging in.
“No worries, pixie,” he assures me with a grin.
The next hour or so is more of the same, walking and panting through the pains, time slipping away as I get lost in my own body and the war that is raging inside me.
I come to realise that’s what birth is, a war with only one outcome. Your body is literally being ripped apart, and all you can do is ride the waves of agony, praying that you both come out of the other side.
JAX
Agony contorts Stephen’s face as the cat-o-nine tail lands on his torn-up back, blood spraying over Kai holding the whip. Can You Hear Me Now by The Score plays loudly in the background, Loki dancing around like a fucking insane person as the lyrics ramp us all up to a state of fury.
I lift my gaze to Kai, watching as he observes his handiwork with a cold detachment that’s fucking scary. His chest is bare and glistening with crimson drops and splatter covering his face as he brings the whip down again.
Stephen struggles against his binds, crying out around his gag, but Ash tied him up good, hanging from the basement ceiling as Kai requested, so the fucking paedo isn’t going anywhere.
The beast inside me purrs in approval at the bastard finally getting what he deserves.
Kai meting out the punishment that his uncle gave him all those years ago is the icing on the cake.
Tears track down the man’s face, fucking pathetic sack of shit. He’s saying something, and Ash steps forward, removing his gag.
“What was that, Stephen?” he asks, and a dark bark of laughter bursts out of me at Ash’s tone. It’s like we’re in one of those shitty board meetings at Black Knight HQ, his tone bored and unemotional.
“P–p–please,” Stephen rasps out, the whites of his eyes showing as he looks at Ash.
“Did you listen to a small boy’s pleas, Stephen?” Ash questions and his voice is fucking arctic, his hand fisting in Stephen’s hair. He holds his grip as another hit lands on the man’s back, and we all relish in his loud scream, the sound unhindered by the gag.