Izzy was limping and Max had a huge gash in his shoulder. Oh God, where was Devon.

“Devon?” I asked.

‘He’s with Emma. They are waiting for us.’

I sagged with relief. The Los Angeles Alpha approached me in human form. “I have a hotel you can stay at until you are healed for travel.”

I nodded. “Thank you.”

Kai nipped my hand. ‘What the hell happened, Aurora? You said human hunters had come. Then I couldn’t find you.’

‘We have a lot to talk about. Not here.’ I rubbed the sore spot on my head where I had been knocked out, and followed the Los Angeles Alpha.

Life

As soon as we reached the hotel lobby I smelled Emma. I broke into a run and followed my nose. I ran down the long hallway and stopped at door 137.

“Emma!” I pounded the door. Devon opened it. His arm was in a sling and he had a black eye. He stepped aside to let me in. I ran to the bed where Emma sat eating room service. I could sense Kai behind me. He had shifted to human form before we entered the hotel.

“Did they hurt you?” I hugged her hard and she squeezed me back.

“Not really.” She had a few bruises but nothing bad.

“Once I stopped fighting back, they were okay.”

Kai approached her. “Emma, I will never let that happen again. I promise, you and your baby will be safe with me from now on. But I understand if you want to switch to a bigger pack.”

My mouth opened in shock. Of course Kai would feel guilty. He was supposed to keep her safe. A pregnant female needs the most protection but to switch packs over this? Maybe Emma would be safer in a bigger pack.

Emma held out her hands and Kai took them. “I will never leave this pack. You are my family. You were out of town and no one thought the bloodsuckers were a problem to us. If I left the pack based on the grounds that you couldn’t protect me, I would have to leave my husband, too. He was there and almost died trying to fight them. No one is switching packs.”

They shared a look. There was love there. It gave me goose bumps. Kai would protect anyone of his pack members but Emma was special to him. Like a true sister.

A man entered the room with the Los Angeles Alpha. “Kai, this is the pack doctor you requested.”

Kai shook his hand. The doctor smelled of the Los Angeles pack and was a submissive. I would imagine a werewolf doctor would have to be a submissive. You wouldn’t want a dominant male tending to you when you were injured.

“Emma is pregnant. Can you check on the baby? Make sure it’s okay?” Kai asked him. Devon placed a hand on her belly.

The doctor nodded and left. He returned a few minutes later with a handheld ultrasound machine.

Kai, Devon, and I all hovered around the bed. The doctor placed some gel on Emma’s belly.

“How far along are you?”

“I don’t know. I just took a home pregnancy test and found out. We had arranged for a doctor’s visit but then I was taken.”

He nodded.

He placed a wand against her belly and a black blob appeared. When he moved it a little to the right you could see a flicker inside the blob.

“The baby’s heartbeat. Perfectly healthy. You are about nine weeks along,” the doctor said and then smiled.

I looked up then and noticed that all of us had tears in our eyes. Even Kai. Creating life was an amazing thing.

The second we got inside our own hotel room Kai collapsed onto the bed out of exhaustion and closed his eyes. I approached him slowly.

“The government has been watching the supernatural community for over twenty years. They kidnapped me tonight, tied me with silver chains and threatened to kill me if I didn’t answer their questions. In the end, we created an Alliance. Our common goal is to kill vampires and keep humanity safe.”

Kai’s eyes flew open and flared yellow. “What the hell did you just say?”

Forty-five minutes later Kai and I were eating room service and he was still probing me about my encounter with RAIDOS.

“They have a drone flying over Mount Hood!” He was screaming as he chewed his rare steak.

“Kai, they are the government! What they lack in magical abilities, they make up for in intelligence and money.”

“They knew my name? They knew to tie you up with silver? I don’t like it.”

“Think about it from their angle. They know you exist but they have sat back quietly and watched. Then they overheard the vampires say, ‘Hmmm let’s wipe out the werewolves and make a huge vampire nation with tons of human blood slaves.’”

I shook my hands for emphasis. “Oh and while we are at it, let’s have vampire blood-sucking babies because this Matefinder girl can help us!”

Kai groaned. “I see your point.”

I pulled out the phone that had been setting in my pocket. “They gave me this, said we would be in touch.”

Kai snatched it from me. “We need to tell the council right away. And I want to meet them. And I want that damn drone off my mountain!”

I stroked my finger across his chest. “First we need a shower.”

He raised his eyebrow. “We? As in together?”

I laughed and stood, stripping my shirt and walking into the bathroom, leaving the door open.

After our shower, Kai called his father and told him that when we went to get Emma, some government agents had detained me. That’s all he said over the phone. We didn’t know who was listening. His father said the council would be visiting us soon. No time or place was given. Maybe that was better. I was sure that RAIDOS could be trusted not to kill us as long as they didn’t have reason. But there were a lot of reasons. As soon as we weren’t a good use for them, or if they felt threatened, they could annihilate our kind. I shivered.