Free to Love (The Tribe MC: Chase of Prey Book 3) (7 page)

Sebastian spoke. “I’m going to go inside and grab some ice and towels. Will you be okay out here?”

His eyes searched hers and she nodded encouragingly but he hesitated.

“Go.” Her word was soft but the spell that she put behind it was not. Cara hated to use a spell on Sebastian, but he would not have left otherwise.

As she watched him go, she had the fleeting thought that spells might actually come in handy; perhaps she could use it to help their child be less difficult. A sharp kick in her ribs let her know that that probably was not going to be the case and she chuckled softly as she ran her fingers over her belly once more.

That flesh tightened as another contraction hit her. Her eyes closed but she snapped them back open. Now was not the time to be caught off-guard, not even for a single moment.

She sat up, and then slowly rose herself to her feet. The wrap she wore around her hips was knotted below the bulge of her belly. She could see the end of the wrap as it trailed near the earth, but she could not see where it began. “I’m going to love you all my life, you know, but I will sure as hell be happy when I can see my own thighs again.”

Her breasts were bare, gleaming under the rapidly increasing moonlight. She waited, holding her breath until she remembered to breathe. Red lights, some lower to the ground than others, glowed through the foliage. Cara stared at them, dread and disgust threatening to overwhelm her.

She stepped forward, one foot leaving the blanket that the women of the her tribe had made for her. She dug her toes deep into the soil, connecting to the earth and all the living things upon it.

She could feel the stringy blades of the grass, the small creep of a bug across her toe and the cool black soil as it stained her feet. Above her, a nightingale sang and an owl called mournfully across the woods.

Music started. A violin, sobbing softly, while a drum began beating slowly. Her belly went rigid again, tightening so much that it felt like steel bands had been clamped around her middle and were being screwed down tightly with a vise. When she could breathe again, she stepped forward.

The small flickering red lights grew brighter and the rustling sounds grew louder. She heard a growl, low and urgent. She could smell rogues. Hungry rogues.

What none of them had counted on, what Gregory could not have known, was that the rogues would eventually lose their ability to shift back into the human state. It was his blood that had given them that ability, and they didn’t have enough of it. They had found themselves unable to shift back to human shape and they had taken refuge, forced to live as wolves outside the city, eating small animals and the occasional alligator or crocodile. Since his death, they had been waiting for this child who would be able to give them what Gregory had once given them: the ability to shift their shape while still being able to eat human flesh.

That was the true difference between rogues and Wolves. The rogues who could shift their shape thanks to Gregory’s blood and magic had wanted to eat human flesh and reside in it as well. But nature could not tolerate such a thing.

Cara knew that their brains had devolved as well. It was impossible for them to maintain their humanity. What they did know was that here, in this forest, was the smell of the blood that they wanted most.

They would have come eventually. Cara was eager to put this final chapter of horror behind her, so she took a slow breath and moved closer to the screen of shrubs and bushes.

Night fell. She could see shadowy shapes, vague outlines. The flickering red eyes of the wolves gathered tightly together and she knew that they were forming the pack, that they would come now. They would savage her and kill her child in order to have the blood that they so craved.

A rogue leaped out from behind the bushes and she lifted a hand, wondering if her vision would be correct, and it was. Nothing happened. Her magic was gone. Her magic had not worked against Gregory because he was Tribe, but this was different: these rogues were merely vicious and violent animals.

She heard the roar of the motorcycle. It was Sebastian — he had stuck to the plan and was riding to the rescue, his lean body clad in silver, his motorcycle flashing in the moonlight.

Another contraction hit her, and this time, she screamed. It wasn’t a scream of pain, though; it was a scream of rage. She would not allow these animals to kill her child.

Blood trickled down her legs and the need to push was more intense than it had ever been before. Sebastian rode toward her, but the rogues were too intent on their prey to care about the danger.

The first rogue jumped and Sebastian was there. He hit it with the silver wheel cover of his bike. The wheel cover cut a large chunk in the rogue’s skin and its screamed a high–pitched scream that raised the hair on the back of Cara’s neck. He leveled a shotgun at another rogue, accelerating as he drew closer. There was a roar of fire and smoke as the shotgun went off. Another rogue went down, writhing in pain as the silver bullet, inscribed with Tribe runes, burst through its body.

That rogue gasped out its last breath, but the first one, merely wounded, was only angered. It made its move, racing away from the motorcycle in order to try to flank Cara. The rogues split up. There were at least a dozen of them forming a semi-circle, streaming around the motorcycle. While Sebastian was reloading and firing madly into their midst, several of them were passing him.

The motorcycle left deep circles in the grass, churning up mud and blood as Sebastian swung around and pursued the wolves. Cara could not see his face, but she could see his aura. It was a bright crisp purple, accented with heavy bolts of gray and red. He was terrified that the wolves would get to her, that he would fail her that he would lose her and his child.

Cara tried another spell, but nothing came except another contraction. She fell to her knees, unable to withstand the pain. A rogue’s teeth snapped in the air only inches from where her face had been just seconds before.

Sebastian drew abreast of her and his booted foot lashed out, kicking the rogue away from her, but there were more coming. The blood pouring from her body was luring them closer. The silver on her body and the runes she had painted on earlier were deterrents, but they would not be enough.

Sebastian tossed her a long silver knife and she buried it deep within a rogue’s throat. These rogues were out for the precious blood of her child.

And she was going to give it to them.

Sebastian held them at bay so that she could stagger back onto her blanket. It was time; Cara barely made it. By the time she sank to her knees again, she was exhausted and dizzy, so scared that she didn’t even know if she could deliver her own baby.

“It’s alright, child.”

The voice belonged to Sebastian’s mother, Nemia, who had somehow materialized in the clearing, along with Olivia and several other Tribe women. The women quickly pressed her down on the blanket and began helping her bring her child into the world.

Sebastian was beyond terrified, but not for himself. He wasn’t afraid that the rogues would kill him — he was afraid they would kill his wife and child.

Cara was the bravest woman he’d ever met. He knew that he should have said no to this crazy scheme, but he also knew that if they were going to put an end to the rogues once and for all, that this was the only way that could be.

A rogue came too close and he whipped the bike around, pressing the smoking exhaust pipe into its face. The stink of burning fur rose into the night. Sebastian gagged as the rogue howled loudly and loped away.

He heard Cara screaming and he knew that she was giving birth to his child. He wanted to go there, to see that baby. Their baby! Joy flooded through him, tempered with his fear and his need for focus. He was the only thing standing between their child and a gruesome death.

The moonlight shone against the metal rivets of his leather jacket. The Fallen emblem was still emblazoned across the back of that jacket, and in his heart he knew that he was honoring his father in the only way that he could. He was honoring all those who had died, human and Fallen alike.

A cry broke the night — the sharp, startled cry of an infant newly brought into the world. Sebastian’s heart nearly stopped.

Cara stared in wonder at the red, wrinkled face of her baby. He was perfect, beautiful and tiny. She had to take a moment and count all of his precious little fingers and his delicate toes. They were all there.

His eyes opened and she began to weep. They were not the eyes of an infant; they were the eyes of a wise old soul. She rose, holding her baby to her breasts. Nemia cut the umbilical cord and relieved her of the afterbirth as she stood, holding her child.

The strength she had expended was incredible. If she had not drawn energy from the earth before this child’s birth, she would never have been able to do it. She took a few steps, her legs wobbling like a newborn colt’s.

The rogues howled louder. Cara walked toward Sebastian, his shotgun held at the ready. The rogues had stopped charging Sebastian now. Their bellies had slunk lower toward the ground and they were all waiting, their eyes on the prize.

Cara walked toward the rogues, still holding her infant son. She spoke calmly and softly. “His name is Lucas. Come for him if you dare.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the rogues gathered their haunches beneath them and leaped into the air. Sebastian unloaded the shotgun and then drew a long blade from his belt, leaping off the bike and onto the ground. The blade flashed in the moonlight as he slashed along the back of one rogue’s spine. The others never got the chance to finish there their leaps either.

Lucas’ hand came up, that tiny little hand. Olivia stepped closer, holding the blood-stained blanket. Cara took it with her free hand.

“You wanted his blood,” she snarled. “Have it.”

Cara threw the blood-stained blanket toward the approaching rogues. It grew larger as it flew through the air and became a huge, shining silver net. The rogues were trapped underneath it, their screams of agony echoing throughout the night.

In the end, the rogues got their wish: they became human again. But only for a few moments, before their bodies ignited and turned to ash.

It was not just the rogues in the woods who had been caught under the net either. From deeper in the woods, they heard more howls, bone-chilling cries of agony that made Sebastian run toward Cara and wrap his arms around her. She turned to him, Lucas held snugly within her arms. Sebastian held her, his face buried in her sweet-smelling hair.

From the house came another scream and the door burst open. From where they stood they could see a man running out, his naked body blazing. “I hope it didn’t pee on the rug,” Olivia sighed.

The man writhing on the ground in front of the house also became ash. Sebastian looked at Cara questioningly. “Yes, it’s happening all over the world,” Cara said. “All of the rogues are dying, Sebastian.”

“I still don’t understand how.” He stared at her, at the baby in her arms and then back at the piles of ash smoldering on the grass. “And I don’t want to hear about it right now. What I want is for you to get inside and into bed. Jesus Christ, woman, you just had a baby! You should not be standing out here naked!”

CHAPTER 9

It was over. Cara lay in her bed, tucked into soft, clean sheets with Sebastian at her side and Lucas at her breasts. The infant was nursing, his little fingers squeezing, and she stared down at him, her eyes awash with tears.

He already had a thick head of dirty blond hair. He had one eye of blue and one of green. It was obvious that he was both Tribe and Fallen.

Earlier, he had shifted, leaving her staring down at a Wolf pup whose teeth had been far less pleasant than her infant son’s. She’d placed the silver rings around his tiny wrists reverently and he’d shifted back without a problem.

Cara turned her head to see Sebastian staring at her with a look on his face that made her breath catch in her throat. He was crying, tears running down his rugged, scarred face.

“I have never been so happy in all my life.”

“Me either.” Cara reached for him and their fingers intertwined. Lucas sighed before belching loudly and then re-latching himself back to her breast.

“Tell me again what happened,” Sebastian said. “Explain to me how Lucas’s birth signaled the end of all of the rogues.”

Cara smiled and said, “Ever since the time that the first werewolf was created, the balance has been off. Gregory signaled a shift in the balance that destiny and nature could no longer ignore. It was fated that you and I would meet, or at least I like to think so.

“The two of us had to come together in order to make this wonderful little boy. Lucas was what restored the balance. He’s both of us. He’s everything.

“Lana could have done it with Gregory if only she’d been willing to stand in the circle and choose her Wolf lover then, but she didn’t. When I was having visions, right before I met you, I thought that those visions were about me. They weren’t. They were about Lana’s selfishness. She wanted to be Queen and she wanted her Wolf. She decided to have both in a way that ensured she would have to become a traitor to the Tribe at some point.

“In order for the balance to be restored, the Tribe and the Fallen had to become one. Only then could a child be born that could put everything right again.”

“I have heard stranger things. I suppose next you’re going to tell me that he will make a great King.”

“No, I can’t say that. I know what I want for him, but nobody ever knows how it will turn out.”

“Is that all you have? We should do our best? We should have a far better plan for parenting.”

Nemia reached down to take Lucas away for a much–needed nap and said, “Being a parent is being a parent, no matter who you are. This little boy is going to mess up his diapers like any other kid. You’ll make decisions that seem really good until he argues with you about them. You were the world’s worst at that.”

“Gee, thanks Mom.”

“You’re welcome,” she said as she left the room with Lucas.

Cara patted the empty space next to her in bed and said, “Climb on up here with me.”

“What if I hurt you?”

“You won’t, silly. And if you do, I’ll punch you in the nose.”

“You really know how to give a guy an incentive, don’t you?”

“My boobs are four sizes bigger than before I got pregnant. That’s your incentive.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so?”

He climbed up onto the bed next to her and gingerly reached out to snuggle her close. She rolled over and pressed herself close against his body, ignoring the twinges of pain still carrying into her lower body. She inhaled his scent and wrapped her arms around him.

They both lay there, neither of them speaking for a long time. The roar of motorcycle engines drawing closer made Cara lift her head, but Sebastian murmured, “Let my mom and Olivia greet them.”

“Is that your kingly pronouncement?”

Sebastian chuckled. “Yes, I decree it to be so and so it shall be.”

“I love you.” The words came out a rush and she looked up into his face.  “I can think of no better person to have beside me.”

“I second that motion, your lawyerness.” He pressed a gentle kiss to her mouth and snuggled even closer to her.

Cara smiled as she drifted off to sleep. From downstairs she could hear the laughter of both Tribe and Fallen as they celebrated the arrival of Lucas. Everything had come full circle. Destiny had spoken, and she was right where she was meant to be.

THE END

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