Page 29 of My Hexed Honeymoon (The Bridgewater Pack #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

At the agony in Diego’s voice—not over his injuries but failing me—I roll so that I’m lying square on his chest and place my hands on either side of his head.

Tears pool in my eyes, blurring his handsome face. Still streaked with blood, his jaw constantly reforming beneath the surface, and yet his espresso eyes fill with me. “No, you saved me. I was losing myself in the Hollow—you pulled me out. You took on seven vampires for me.”

“And lost.”

I shake my head. “I never dreamed they’d ambush us, or that you’d have to take on a bunch of vampires alone. I asked too much.”

Now he’s shaking his head, and aren’t we a sad pair?

“I wasn’t alone—I had you.”

My heart does a wobbly flop-splat in my chest. Nobody had ever treated me like my help mattered.

We did make a pretty incredible team when we stopped fighting and worked together.

It doesn’t change the unfortunate truth, though.

We lost it, and it’s about to turn the supernatural war in the wrong direction, I can feel it.

“We have to get back that loom. I felt its power, and I know down to my bones that the amount of destruction the vampires will do with it will be devastating—for humans and supernatural creatures alike.

As much as I want to lie on Diego and cuddle for an evening under the stars while we recover, there’s no time.

We’re dealing with powers that are much bigger than us.

We’re talking the type of shit that changes the course of the universe.

“If I can just get a hold of the Blood Loom again, I can open up the Hollow and put the weapon back where I found it. Then I’ll seal it up inside for good.”

Diego’s slowly nodding, not quite as enthusiastically onboard as I would’ve hoped. “Okay, so we’ve got to get it back and fight off the vamps as we return to the summit where magic is the strongest, and then you can seal it off?” He taps his finger to his lip. “We’re going to need reinforcements.”

“Yes to reinforcements—I definitely need the help of the werewolves to retrieve the loom, and it’s going to be a battle for sure. Once it’s in my possession, I’ll use it to amplify my powers and open up a portal to the Hollow.” I give a little curtsy. “No need for a three-day hike.”

“Thank God,” he utters, and I smile despite our in-over-our heads situation. He would hike back up there for me in a heartbeat, fighting off vampires the entire way.

I’m one more dreamy declaration from falling in love with him completely.

“Yeah, I’d like the hiking portion of our honeymoon to be over already,” I say. “We’ll just unzip a door, toss that fucker inside and have you pull me back out, then we’ll never do another deal with the vampires.”

“ Deal ,” Diego says, the side of his face that’s fully formed smiling while the side that’s red and shiny-looking tries.

“And who said marriage was hard?” I ask.

He huffs a laugh. “It’s really just about compromise, after all.”

Our jokes do their job, breaking some of the tension.

Still, as we gather what’s left of our gear, unease churns through my body, the logical side of my brain screaming that we’re still up against huge odds.

“I’m too slow,” I say, not quite asking him to carry me like he’s offered a dozen times before but walking him right up to it.

“Yes,” he says, and I shoot him a scowl he finds incredibly funny.

He’s going to make me ask, and how can he still be so incredibly pigheaded when so many lives hang in the balance?

How can I?

“Diego, my dearest husband, whom I promised to throttle and to hold?—”

“Ah, that’s where our miscommunication started.” He’s already naked from his last transformation and the subsequent battle, so he doesn’t have to strip before he drops to all fours.

I hear the growing-familiar crack and pop of his bones as he shifts. Then the gray, golden-eyed hound stands before me like I’m a girl who asked for a pony for Christmas, only to get this beast instead.

I look for a foothold. “In sickness and in health, in wolf form and human…”

“Till death do us part,” Diego finishes through gnarled teeth, his face a disturbingly human-wolf hybrid. “But don’t worry, bruja. Neither of us is dying today.”

By the time we reach the outer perimeter of the compound, every muscle aches and burns, but there’s no time to rest.

Sasquatch, Elias, and Gideon meet us as soon as we reach pack territory, their expressions grim.

“Scouts picked up movement,” the massive ginger security guard informs Diego, as if he hasn’t received enough bad news lately. “Coming from the East, fifty-to-sixty vampires, all warriors.”

“We also picked up a trace of Riven, along with a few others, cutting through the woods and heading toward the same area,” Elias adds.

Suddenly it hits me, what probably should’ve dawned on me sooner. My stomach sours, dread curdling in my throat. “They’ve struck a deal with Andromeda.”

All of the werewolves besides Diego look at me awkwardly, as if they weren’t sure how to break the news.

No, they weren’t sure if I was in on the betrayal.

Even though they don’t know me and have no idea what we’ve been through these past five days, it still hurts.

“Yes,” says Sasquatch slowly, studying me with intense, amber-hued eyes as if they’re the only lie detector he needs. “It appears the vampires have teamed up with the Oldenwilde and Ironwood Covens.”

Of course she had a double-crossing backup plan.

My mother. The woman who never saw me as anything more than a puppet and pawn for her legacy. She forced me to marry a werewolf, only to team up with the vampires who nearly killed him.

Diego’s jaw tightens, the barely healed skin of his face pulling with the motion.

“Not surprising, but it proves we need to act quickly. I need our best soldiers to gather their weapons and prepare for battle. Alert the generals that there will be a briefing in the courtyard next to the armory in thirty minutes.”

From there, we rush home to shower and repack our bags.

“I’ve never been in a battle,” I say, looking over my few possessions and having no clue what’ll be useful. “Only witnessed a few from the sidelines.”

Diego pauses to examine my two sets of clothes and a box of granola bars before pressing a gentle kiss to my temple. “You’ll be with me, by my side the entire time. I’ve got you.”

I nod, and I believe that he’ll do everything in his power to keep me safe.

But I’ve also seen how destructive and deadly Andromeda can be. And now she has the support of the vampires, who also have the Blood Loom.

I’m not sure how they plan to use it, but if we don’t stop them now…

The shudder I tried to stop overtakes my spine anyway.

“There’s more to the loom than they let on,” I say aloud, not bothering to face Diego because he’s constantly moving.

“They said it amplified their magic, but it’s more like its own power source.

I don’t know how to explain it; I just know whatever they have planned, it’ll be devastating to us all. ”

“Ready?” Diego asks, stretching out his hand.

My feet are blistered, I’m bruised and sore from hiking for days, and we’re about to enter a battle that has the potential to turn into full-out war. I’ll never be ready.

But I take my husband’s hand, letting him tow me out the door and down the front steps of his cabin.

Our cabin, even if I didn’t get to stay long enough for it to feel that way.

Stop with the downer thoughts. You’re acting like you’ll never return.

I attempt to swallow past the lump in my throat three different times before giving up.

Then I’m standing in a courtyard with the alpha of the Bridgewater Pack, opposite Conall, Tyrese, the hugely pregnant Nissa who’s surely not going into battle, and three burly werewolves I don’t know.

Distrust laces every look aimed my way.

As much as I want to remain steady and claim what they think doesn’t matter—hello, we’re going to war!—it frays my nerves and leaves me on edge.

It’s as if they’re waiting for me to break free of Diego and set their homes ablaze.

Which is a bad example, because I did do that very thing, even if only in a vision.

But I’m here, joining their side, ready to help ensure that doesn’t happen. Doesn’t that count for something?

The generals appear to be having a facial hair competition, and while they’d all lose to Sasquatch, one of them has salt-and-pepper mutton chops, the other a long goatee that skims his protruding belly, and the third wears a beard so bushy it makes me think he wants people to know he’s a werewolf.

They also all hate me already.

As Diego catches them up and details a plan, I’m the target of many glares and sneers—and as I learned the night of the ax throwing contest, these werewolves have excellent aim.

Mutton Chops mutters something under his breath about how a witch shouldn’t be in a battle briefing, and the entire meeting comes to a screeching halt.

I flinch, preparing to remove myself for their comfort this time, but Diego’s growl rumbles from beside me, his flashing gold eyes causing every wolf in attendance to bow their heads.

“She saved my life,” Diego says in a booming voice that echoes around us. “She pulled a sword out of my back and stayed by my side while the vampires offered her power and freedom. If it weren’t for her, I’d be dead.”

I figured that would be enough to get the leers to stop, but Diego lifts our entwined fingers and kisses the back of my hand.

“Talia’s my mate. And yes, she’s a witch—a powerful one, willing to fight by our side. She doesn’t have to repress who she is. We need her for who she is.” Diego turns and looks at me now, as if we’re skipping through a meadow of flowers and have all the time in the world.

I’d look back at him forever if I could.

Then he says something that changes my entire world, something no one had ever said about me before. “I love her for who she is.”

My heart swells, almost too big for my chest. “You love me?”

I can’t help the vulnerability that comes along with the question, and the timing is absolute shit, but it’s the lighthouse in a storm I can cling to as we go head-to-head with Andromeda and the vampires.

“I know we didn’t get to do things the conventional way,” Diego says, lowering his voice to be more intimate, even though everyone in the vicinity will inevitably overhear—and likely be scowling.

“But I love you, Natalia. I choose you as my wife and my mate. I’d go to war for you a hundred times over. ”