Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (latest ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Alarm fills him at her abrupt movement. “What are you doing?”

Her only answer is to slide off the bed and into his waiting arms. Her body shakes with full spasms as her emotions drain out of her like water through a sieve. He holds her close and breathes her in, not knowing what to say, only sure that nothing will ever come between them again.

Until I heard Aiden talking to me, or more accurately, to my stomach, I thought I was having another of those lucid dreams. His scent, that unique combination of cedar, sage and wildness that only Aiden possesses lures me into his waiting arms.

His breaths are ragged as he buries his nose in my hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

I can’t speak yet. Words, those tricksy adversaries, elude me. He knows about the baby, about Hanson.

Aiden pulls back just far enough so he can see my face. His eyes flash emerald fire. “What did she do to you?”

I shake my head, not wanting to talk about it.

“Nic,” he breathes.

“It’s over,” I murmur. “I just want to focus on you. I’ve missed you.”

His expression is tight and I can feel his wolf prowling beneath the surface but he just pulls me in tighter.

Now that I’ve started though there is more I need to tell him. More that can’t wait. Into his shoulder, I make my apology. “Aiden, I’m sorry. I know you didn’t want…that is I didn’t plan….”

He stiffens, then sets me back so we are once more looking eye to eye. “What is it, Nic?”

“The baby.” Tears are brimming, those hormones getting the best of me once again.

“Hey,” he cups my face in his big hands. “Nic, I know you didn’t mean for this to happen. Neither of us did. I was there, remember?”

His tone is amused, of all things. I stare at him, unable to comprehend this change of heart. “But you told me you never wanted kids. You were adamant about it.”

“I know. I didn’t. Not with her.” He cups my face in his warm, rough palms. “But you aren’t her. You’re mine. And this baby will be ours.”

Ours. The word sends a hot wave through me that spreads from my heart to my fingertips. It’s similar to the way I used to feel about the monsters I had hunted. Possessive. Greedy.

Looking into Aiden’s eyes, for the first time, I feel hope. Maybe I can do this after all. As long as I have him, anything is possible.

Game Plan

“We have to go back,” I say to the group gathered around Sophie’s kitchen table.

Blank stares from every direction. Sophie’s blue eyes are huge as she takes us all in. No doubt we are a motley crew of misfits. Werewolves, giants and serial killers, oh my!

I’m not as confident as I want to be that this is the right move, but after catching up with Aiden, I know there is no alternative. I am a wanted felon on this side of the Veil.

“It’s suicide.” Angrboda peels the label off a beer bottle. “There aren’t enough of us to combat the Draugar.”

“I have to agree,” Chloe says. She appears better, though there is a large bump on her forehead that she holds her own beer bottle against.

I turn to face my wolf. “Aiden?”

“Where you go, I go. And so will the pack.” He chucks a thumb out to the missing side of the house where the majority of the wolves have congregated beside the burnt carcasses of the SUVs.

Pack. While I’d been tortured and experimented on, Aiden had gone and found himself a pack. And a sister. Lucky for her purple hide. If not for that connection, I would have murdered her for handing Aiden over to Freya. I glare at the seer with dislike.

She glowers back. “You really think we all deserve to die? The fey realm is two worlds out of nine. I say let Underhill have it.”

Aiden shakes his head. “It isn’t practical. Pharaildis won’t stop with killing the fey.”

I add my support to his observations. “How long until she finds a way to free Loki? Between herself and Fenrir, Underhill controls the entire Unseelie Court. She wants to kill Aiden. She wants to kill my child to prevent the prophecy of the One True Queen. I won’t let her just go ahead with her plans.”

Laufey’s eye is swollen but she nods. “We can’t just abandon our friends and allies. And yes, while I mostly mean Fern, don’t forget she holds Soladin, Nahini, and the other Fate as well.”

“But every dead soldier on our side adds to her army,” Angrboda points out. “I say we stay here and try to live in peace.”

“Peace?” I gape at the giantess. “Did you not see how they came down on us today like fire from the sky?”

“That was a few mad mortals. You’re talking about going up against every being that has ever died beyond the Veil.”

“Trust me, there are plenty more like Hanson.” I suck in a deep breath and put my hand over my belly. “I’m past the point in my life where my only goal is to stay out of prison. Freedom comes with a price and I am willing to fight for it, for ours and for all the fey.”

“As am I,” Laufey stands.

Angrboda shakes her head.

“We could really use your help,” I say to Chloe.

Her teeth sink into the flesh of her lower lip. “You know I can’t interfere with Fate, but I’ll do what I can.”

“Angrboda?” I face the mother of Fenrir.

The giantess looks around the table, then throws her hands up in the air. “Fine. I guess I’m outnumbered. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“So here’s the plan,” Aiden folds his hands on the table. “We go in, snag big brother and drag his—er, Gretchen’s—carcass back across the Veil.”

“Um, isn’t Fenrir like royalty?” Liam asks.

“An Unseelie Queen,” I say with a nod.

“With magical powers?” Another werewolf, a redhead wearing one of