Page 35

A shadow moved through her sister’s eyes, eyes that looked so much like their mom’s.

It made the ache in Kai’s chest tighten around her heart.

She felt like an idiot for speaking with such bliss when Morlie was in such a fissure in her life.

From sickness to wellness to discovering herself bonded to a stranger because of a marking placed on her without her consent.

How can I be so insensitive? How can I tell her about the baby?

It was the same war that had been waging inside her all day. Part of her mind said it wasn’t fair to Morlie to heap another piece of coal on the fire of happiness and force her sister to watch the beautiful blaze. In contrast, Morlie had nothing but uncertainty.

Then, the part of her mind recalled the issue between her and her sister regarding Morlie’s age. Kai wasn’t trying to go backward with Morlie.

“Sissy? Kai?” Morlie placed a hand on her knee and drew her attention.

Shifting her gaze from the view, she looked at her sister. “Morlie, I’m pregnant.”

Morlie’s brows rose high. She stared at her for a long moment, her face blank, not revealing anything.

“Look, I’m sorry.” Kai covered her sister’s hand and rushed on. “I know I should’ve told you earlier today. I just wasn’t sure... Even now, am I being selfish in telling you when you don’t—”

Her words broke off when Morlie pulled her hand away.

Kai swallowed. Damn, it was too soon. I should’ve waited.

But when Kai expected her sister was going to move away and get up and march into her suite, pissed, Morlie reached for Kai’s hand and sandwiched it between her long, thin, elegant fingers. “Kai.”

Staring at her younger sister, Kai waited. She wanted Morlie to have the space to share her thoughts. No matter what they were.

“I’m so happy for you. You can always talk to me no matter what I’m going through. As I told you before, you’ve carried so much of the burden, and it’s time you shared it.”

“Okay.” Kai placed her other hand on top of her sister’s and squeezed.

Morlie offered a gentle smile. “You are going to be the best of moms. Hell. Look how much practice you’ve had taking care of everyone in our family.”

“You think so?” Kai allowed some of her insecurity to show in her trembling voice.

“Yes. No doubt.”

“I’m scared. This world we now live in is nothing I’ve ever imagined.”

“But you have Aodh to help you navigate it. Who I’m sure is pretty happy about it.”

Laughing, Kai released some of the tension. “Very and obsessed with me eating and resting.”

“Do Eilidh and Liekki know, yet?”

Kai drew her hands away and ran one through her curls. “Every Drahk knows. Not because I told anyone before you,” she rushed out. “Apparently, a dragon link connects them on some strange level and makes them aware of health, sickness, and fertility. I don’t understand it.”

“Well, it explains a lot.” Morlie nodded.

It was Kai’s turn to arch her brows. “Like what?”

“When we were out, how everyone spoke to you with crazy delight and smiled like fools as we passed.”

Her exhale was sharp. “It is a lot. I don’t want to disappoint anyone.”

“You won’t,” Morlie declared with firm confidence. “Well, I’m with Aodh. You do look tired.” Morlie rested a hand along her cheek and drew Kai’s gaze to her. “Get some rest.”

Now that she told her sister the news, exhaustion sat on Kai’s shoulders like a wet cloak. “That’s exactly what I will do.” Kai rose from the stone step.

Morlie rose, too. “Good.”

“I know you will meet Eilidh and the others for dinner. But Aodh wants to show me something, and I don’t know when or if we will be down for dinner.”

“Don’t worry about me. No time like the present to start taking care of myself.”

Kai stared at her sister. For a moment, she felt something in Morlie’s tone. Maybe if she hadn’t been so tired, she would have examined it and delved deeper into it, but it would have to wait until later.

“Night.” Kai pressed a shoulder to her door and shoved it open.

“Rest well,” Morlie called out to her.

~YH~

After shutting the door of her suite, Morlie pressed her back against it.

Her core was quivering, and her blood felt as if it was pumping too fast through her veins.

She would have thought it had to do with her sister’s news about the baby.

However, she was truly happy for her sister.

If anyone had given enough to others and now they needed joy, it was Kai.

Besides, the sensations had been with her off and on all day.

No, the anxious feelings curling from her belly and infiltrating every fiber of her being was something else. What?

What? She questioned again.

Shoving away from the door, Morlie headed to the bathroom, ignoring the urge to gaze out the window when she went by it. There was nothing out there, and she felt more and more foolish because she couldn’t stop staring at the woods as if some answer lay in the darkness of the trees.

It didn’t.

While she and Kai walked around the central area of the territory, stopping occasionally to see the shifters work or train, Morlie had a nagging feeling that she was being watched or followed.

Now that she knew that Kai was pregnant and all the Drahks knew it, it made sense that the Drahks probably watched them.

The dragon-shifters, including her friends here, often talked about the lack of offspring and were concerned that there would be a three-generation gap if babies weren’t born soon.

They worried what that would mean eventually for their numbers and the strength of their Thunder.

Yes. It was probably just one of the security team members keeping track of Kai from afar.

“Better her than me.” Morlie ran a hand over her short hair, frustrated. There wouldn’t be a reason for anyone to track her movements now that Aodh had called off the guards.

However, even as she tried to convince herself, she couldn’t forget the intense feeling that came over her when they were over at the fields on the west border.

Eilidh was doing her training rotation there and came over to her and Kai.

When Eilidh said the gang would be at dinner and maybe have another bonfire and asked her to join, Morlie agreed but had only given half her attention to her friend.

Inadvertently, as she’d faced Eilidh, she’d had an unobstructed view of the woods behind the other girl. Morlie had thought she’d seen something in the distance for a moment. Whatever it had been, it was deep in the forest. It was too deep for her to figure out what drew her attention.

Kai had given her and Eilidh some space and had walked over to Idalia, the head grower, to talk.

Morlie didn’t think she imagined the flash or moving shadow because Eilidh had pivoted her body to look in the same direction. But when her friend faced her again, she just stared at her for a moment and then started talking about the plans for the night again.

She told Eilidh she would be there.

Morlie stared at herself in the mirror for what seemed the hundredth time—searching her face and body for something. Some sign. Anything to explain why her body felt plugged into a live wire—jolt after jolt after jolt assaulted her system as if hotwiring her for another purpose.

There were so many whys going through her mind. Taste, smell, and hearing, to name a few.

Kai’s hunger made sense with the baby, but hers.... Nope.

Pissed at her reflection that gave nothing away, she walked to the bathtub and decided to shower before dinner. She could have gone down to find Tana or someone and asked them to heat her water, but right now, she hoped the coldness would bring some sense to her.

She moved a bathing cloth from the linen closet to the empty small basket beside the tub and hung a body towel on the rack along the wall close to the bath.

She then dumped the moisturizer into the water.

Soon, the rushing water filled the tub, and she shut it off.

It only took a minute for her to divest herself of her clothes.

When she stuck one of her feet into the cold water, she bit her tongue and encouraged herself to keep going.

It wasn’t until she was easing her backside into the frigid water and gasped that she almost leaped out.

But the icy bath did what nothing else had done over the last two days; it helped her mind clear. It calmed the riotous feelings in her body and helped her feel more at ease than she had since the bear-shifter had treated her like a large sack of potatoes and carried her off to the council.

Before she met Chanin.

Chanin.

Even mentally saying his name caused heat to infuse her body.

Those quivers were back. It didn’t do her any good to think of the wolf-shifter.

Regardless of what the dragons thought, he wasn’t coming for her.

She thought about how Kai had a man in her life who was so consumed by his lust, love, or attraction to Kai that he would stand beside her while she wielded a god-awful big sword before an army of leaders.

Yes, she was Chanin’s mate, but he’d let her be dragged far away from him.

Tears stung her eyes. It was the truth of the emotions she’d been trying to fight since Aodh had thrown her to Liekki, and the dragon Alpha’s brother walked away. She’d glimpsed the wolf Alpha over the dragon-shifter’s shoulder, and Chanin had just stared at her and watched her leave.

Fighting the emotions that started welling up and choking her, Morlie slid down further and fully submerged herself under the surface. The glacial fingers of the water dragged along her scalp and down her spine. She kept her eyes closed and held her breath.

She was grateful for the coldness that helped stabilize her.