“Hey, Mom? That’s the first thing you have to say to me after three months?” Alynna’s green eyes blazed with anger.
“What’s up?” she offered, which only made Alynna’s brows draw together furiously. “I’m fine, I promise.”
“Why didn’t you tell us you were coming back? I had to get a call in the middle of the night from Lucas that you were back, and there was a shooting and—” Her voice trembled, and Mika could see genuine concern in her eyes as tears pooled in the corner. “My baby. I thought you were—” Her face froze when her gaze lowered to Mika’s chest. She sniffed the air, then let out a scream when she finally realized it was blood on her sweater. “What the hell? You said you were fine! Why isn’t the doctor seeing to you!”
“Calm down, Mom!” Oh God, this was not how she wanted to start this conversation. “I’m fine, I—”
Alynna pulled her to her feet. “We’re going in there and—what the fuck is that?” Her eyes went wide as she stared at the obvious bump on her stomach.
“I can explain.”
“You better, young lady!”
“Mika! Are you okay, baby?”
Oh, Jesus. “Dad!”
Alex Westbrooke sprinted toward her and pulled her into a hug. “I came as soon as I heard. I was on overnight shift.” When he let go of her his gaze went to her chest. “Fuck! What happened?”
“She’s pregnant,” Alynna stated.
He didn’t seem to hear his wife as he continued to stare at the bloody stain on her sweater and his nostrils flared “Why are you covered in blood? You—” Her father’s eyes nearly popped out their sockets as his gaze slowly dropped to her belly. “Oh. Oh.” Something must have short-circuited in his brain, because he just stood there with his mouth open.
“Explain,” Alynna said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Now.”
“H-how did this h-happen?” Alex stuttered.
Where to begin? “The usual way?” When both of them glared at her, she clamped her mouth shut.
“God, Mika!” Alynna began. “You disappear for three months—”
“I did not disappear, Mother. I was working in Russia, trying to negotiate an important alliance so we can win this war against the mages.”
“You leave for three months, and then next thing we hear is that you’re in a shooting and you come back pregnant? How did you even—” Her jaw dropped. “Wait, you’re not hurt?”
She nodded.
“That means … oh!” Her mother’s face brightened; all traces of anger gone. “Oh, my God! You found him. Your True Mate.”
Mika found herself buried in a flurry of arms and chests as her parents embraced her. “Mom, Dad, I can’t breathe.”
“Oh, sorry, baby,” Alex stepped back. He cleared his throat. “Who is he? When are we meeting him?”
“Is he from Russia?” Alynna grabbed her hand excitedly. “He must be. How did you meet? Did you know right away?”
“Er, maybe we should—”
“Mika, are you all right?”
Oh, for God’s sake. This was turning into a farce. Did they call the entire clan in here?
Astrid, the new Beta of the New York clan, strode into the waiting room, followed by Lucas and Nick Vrost.
“Astrid,” she greeted. “And Nick. I’m surprised you’re here.”
“Zac had to stay with Annaliese,” the former Beta said, referring to his granddaughter and Astrid and Zac’s pup. “Welcome back.”
“She found her True Mate,” Alynna said. “Isn’t that exciting?”
“Hello, someone also tried to kill me,” she reminded them. “I think that’s the more pressing matter.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Lucas said.
“It has to be the mages,” Astrid began. “But they’ve only gone after Adrianna or Lucas until now.”
“That’s what I said,” Mika began. “We should—”
The door leading to the treatment rooms opened. Mika’s heart skipped a beat, waiting for Dr. Blake to come out and relay Delacroix’s condition, but to her surprise, the Cajun himself staggered out. His skin was still pale, and his chest was bandaged under his leather jacket, but he was upright.
“Mr. Delacroix.” Dr. Blake followed behind him, an annoyed look on his face. “I told you, you can’t leave yet. You need rest.”
But he ignored the doctor and marched straight to Mika. “You’re not hurt.” When his gaze lowered to her belly, his eyes widened.
“Of course not,” Alynna said. “She’s carrying her True Mate’s baby. It makes her invulnerable to almost anything.”
Dread crept into her chest, and Mika prayed he wouldn’t say anything. We had a deal, she said silently, trying to catch his eye. But he wouldn’t meet her gaze as he continued to stare at her stomach.
“Oh no, are you moving to Russia?” Alynna cried. “I mean, I know you have to be with your True Mate, but Moscow is so far away.”
“You met your True Mate while abroad?” Astrid inquired. “How cool.”
“I didn’t say—”
“Russia?” Delacroix snapped out of his trance. “What the fuck are they talking about?”
Anger emanated off him in waves, making her flinch. “I didn’t say anything about my True Mate,” she said and sent him a warning look that said, and you better not either.
But he wasn’t listening to her as his obsidian eyes hardened. “How could she meet her True Mate in Russia when he’s right here in New York?”
“Here?” Alynna looked at Alex and then back at her daughter. “I don’t understand.”
“Delacroix,” she hissed. “Stop—”
“Me. I’m her True Mate. And that baby is mine.”
The silence that filled the room made her ears ring. Five seconds later, chaos erupted.
“What does he mean—”
“Delacroix?”
“But you were in Moscow—”
“Did he—”
Mika held her hands up. “Stop, stop!” When the room quieted down, she turned to Delacroix. “We had a deal. We agreed not to tell anyone about … this.”
His mouth curled up into a sardonic smile. “You said you
