Falcon

News would soon spread that we had defeated The Lamia onslaught again, forcing our kind to take sides or take shelter. Our battles couldn’t be caught in the eye of the human lens, so battles would be in isolated places with little to no surveillance present.

With Nora being pregnant, I was tempted to take her to the island. It was remote enough to be a blessing and a curse. More security had to be added to the fortress on the island. It was state of the art as could be without any government property.

“How are you feeling this morning?” I asked Nora as she came out of the bathroom. Her color was normal, but slight fatigue was visible in her eyes.

“I’ve had better and I’ve had worse. Falcon, I want to talk to you about going back to Seattle,” she said, sitting on the bed.

“Not yet,” I told her.

“When? You know we have to open the lab on Monday.”

“Yes, and we’ll stop by there then,” I stated. She wasn’t going to win this argument no matter how much she tried.

“Do you really feel it’s safer for me here?” I knew she was anxious to continue her work.

“I don’t know, but what I do know is that I want to be as close to you as possible. I was here the last time you were attacked.”

“Yes, and had I called to you at first, you would have come sooner,” she reminded me. It scared me that she had waited so long. My life was nowhere near as important as hers was. She meant everything to me. Losing her was more than I could bear.

“That’s something that puzzled me. Why didn’t you?” I was supposed to be there for her and she should have known I’d move mountains for her.

“I was afraid you were in battle and I would distract you at an important moment. When I had no other choice, I called for you.”

“Regardless, always call for me,” I demanded, pulling her from the closet and into my arms.

“I know better now,” she replied, a regret filled smirk on her face.

“Good girl. Now give me a kiss because I’m going to have to talk to Draco and Charlotte about our baby.” I wondered how they were going to take it and if Charlotte could see what we were having.

“Charlotte already knows,” she admitted, her gaze shifting to my chest.

I tipped her chin to look up at me. “Of course she does. Did she say anything about the sex? Wait, of course she didn’t. The fates wouldn’t be so kind.” I shook my head. “How come you didn’t tell me when you found out?”

“Because you were about to go into battle,” she explained.

“And?” I was kind of offended, as if I couldn’t handle the truth.

“And Charlotte told me not to distract you. Your thoughts would have been on me.” That explained a lot. If she said so, maybe she knew that it would affect me. Even if it didn’t get me killed, the battle turned out flawless. It may have not ended that way if I’d been thinking about Nora instead of helping end the fight with Gideon, but Nora was never far from my thoughts.

“They’re always on you,” I said, smiling down at her. It was true and I didn’t feel an ounce of embarrassment about it.

“There’s one more thing. Charlotte’s pregnant, too,” she confessed.

I stepped back to get a better look at her. With my arms stretched out, clutching her waist and tilting my head, I asked, “Both of you? Does Draco know?”

She grimaced, guiltily biting her lip before she answered, “Yes, she told him already.”

“So, it was safe for him to go into battle with his mind clouded?” I asked, a little ticked that they thought he could handle the news but I couldn’t.

She rolled her eyes at me, which got her a smack on the ass and a guilt-free smirk. She narrowed her eyes at me playfully, then snipped, “No, he knew before we were alerted to the upcoming attack.”

“I need to have a talk with our seer and my second in command,” I grumbled. People keeping secrets from me annoyed me to no end. It was hard to trust people when you were being given half information or none at all.

“She told him the night before.”

“Yeah, but we need to do something to protect the both of you. She could be the one to have a girl.” It made sense if she was the one because my mother had been the ruler along with my father.

“Falcon, I get the feeling that you don’t care for Charlotte.” I was waiting for her to say something. I tried to bite back my constant need to say something less than kind to Charlotte. I thought I did a good job of hiding my irritation, but apparently I was wrong.

“Let’s get going,” I said, ignoring her statement.

“You didn’t answer my question.” Her expression was comical. I felt like she was going to stomp on my foot. She was adorable when she was annoyed with me.

“There was no question to answer,” I said, stealing a kiss from her angry mouth.

She hissed and scrunched her nose at me as I stood there waiting for her to ask me. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down, then formed her question with a bit of bite in her words. “You don’t like Charlotte, do you?”

I shrugged because it wasn’t as easy as they thought. As a leader, I had to be fair and just. As a mate, I was irrational and in full protective mode. Charlotte had failed me when it came to protecting my mate and her supposed friend. “It’s hard for me. I want to like her. After all, she’s mated to my brother, but she didn’t warn me you were in danger.”

“Um, because she knew it would have played out well. One of us would have died if she told you.”

“That’s what bothers me. My mother was the same way and it drove me insane, but I loved her. It’s harder with Charlotte. She’s not the same person to me.”

“I know, Falcon. You don’t have to love her. But you should respect her. You don’t know this, but she saved me from being attacked when I was in college. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know what would have happened that night.” I stepped back and walked away without a word. Emotions were pumping through my veins and my fangs were protruding. My feelings were conflicted, but she was right. Charlotte had been there for her from the start, saving her the best she could. It was more than I had done. I felt Nora as she followed tentatively behind me. Her soft touch pressed against my shoulder blades, then she moved her hands down and around to my stomach. Her head rested on my spine. My body was shaking with rage and only Nora could take it away.

“Nora, I’m sorry. The thought of someone harming you guts me. To know there was a time before we met that I could have lost you steels my ire and makes me desirous to hunt the weak being down and rip his head off,” I snarled, wishing that I could find the bastard.

“Falcon, never apologize for being so in love with me,” she whispered. “I never will.”

I tugged on her hold, then turned to take in her beauty. “I’d do anything for you, Nora.”

“Do you think we have time?” she asked, giving me a squeeze on the front of my pants. My eyes widened, then I grinned. This woman was insatiable. I dropped my head to steal a kiss when I heard the knock at my door. Damn, it was Draco and Charlotte.

“Never mind. It seems we have company, and I can’t send them away,” I complained. We had a ton to talk about before we started the next round of training.

I moved to the door, holding Nora’s hand. I opened it with a grimace. My cock was stiff and I wasn’t in the mood to talk at the moment. “Come in,” I muttered, turning back and walking to our sitting room that connected to our bed chambers.

“You seem thrilled to see us this morning. I thought you’d be chipper,” Draco teased.

Charlotte eyed Nora and a silent exchange passed between the two which I didn’t miss. “Yes, I know, Charlotte,” I stated, pulling Nora to me and sitting her down on my lap. “About both of you, too,” I added.

“Wait? You’re pregnant, too?” Draco asked, his jaw dropping as Nora nodded. “Wow.”

“Yes, so is there a way to find out what we’re having? Can we go to do an ultrasound or something?” Nora asked, eagerly bouncing in my lap.

“That’s a good idea. I say we break into a prego doc’s office and do the test ourselves. I mean, it’s not that hard. We’re looking for the bit and bobs or not,” Charlotte said.

With a twist of her head, Nora looked at her friend and said, “Yeah, but in normal pregnancies this isn’t seen for months.” Then she turned her gaze to Draco and back to me. “You two would know, how long does this last?”

“I would say about four months. It’s been so long since we’ve seen someone who was pregnant.”

“Really? It explains why we’re starting to show. Thank goodness, I already don’t like the nauseous feeling and the damn smells. Everything is irritating my nose,” Charlotte complained, scrunching up her nose.

“You, too? I can’t stand to be near anyone,” Nora confessed. Immediately, I felt like I got kicked in the nuts.

“Damn, that’s harsh, my love,” I told her, my feelings hurt.

She brushed her hand against my cheek and shook her head. “Well, everyone but you. Your scent to me is stronger and all consuming. I crave it.”

“Do you love the way I smell?” Draco asked Charlotte, leaning into her.

“You know I do. We hardly slept last night,” she murmured against his lips.

“Okay, so we need to time it and see which place we can get in. They won’t have cameras in the rooms, so we should be able to teleport in without being seen.”

“I think my female doctor’s office had one. They aren’t opened on the weekends, so we can go there,” Nora added.

“That will have to do. Check it out while we’re in training so that we know when we can get it done.” It sounded like a great plan, but then Charlotte’s face changed from a smile to a frown. She was staring out not focused on any of us.

“Oh no,” Charlotte gasped. She looked at me and stated, “Arm your men. They are coming to strike soon.”

“Both of you stay here,” I ordered, kissing Nora hard. Our kiss ended too quickly for my liking, but we didn’t have time for more.

“I’m going to check the surveillance. Do you know what time?” Draco asked his mate, looking down on her as he held her by the waist.

“No, I don’t. The sun is up in the sky.” The panic on her face told me that this battle was going to be more dangerous than before.

She kissed him, then pushed him away.

Draco and I teleported from the room to the security center in the secret room of the castle. As soon as we were in the room, the sirens went off. They were already around the farthest perimeter. “This was two battles in less than twelve hours and during the daytime. Stavros can’t be in the light during the day, so I wonder if he’s hiding away and viewing the fight from a safer place. There has to be a lookout somewhere relaying the information or one of the bastards has on a body cam.”

“Falcon, I have a signal jammer for use during the battle. Anything in our battle zone crashes. He probably has someone with a body cam, but it’s not getting a signal until I hit the button. We must scour the area for any evidence of a camera.” Both of us teleported out to the barracks and called the men into battle.

“They are along the perimeter already. Let’s go,” I roared. In a flash, everyone was out the doors, slipping on their armor as they took their positions in around the castle. Our numbers weren’t as great as the nighttime when we could enlist all the army at once. However, we had more soldiers than they did and the advantage of knowing the land easily.

Draco and I headed to the front line of the invading foe. Our eyes focused on their armor and I saw the one with a camera. It reminded me of the human’s police body cams. “The signal is already jammed and isn’t going to be undone, so let the battle begin,” I bellowed. Rushing in with swords swinging in unison, Draco and I diminished their numbers two at a time. I started to see the first group retreat back.

“We can’t let them escape,” he growled.

“They’ll want us to give chase, Draco,” I said, pressing my hand to his chest, stopping him from hunting them down. We joined the rest around the perimeter as Dante wielded the blade with more confidence, taking out his foe with ease. Staring down my next Lamian soldier, I smiled. They wouldn’t defeat me and they were foolish to even try.

“Do you smile? Silly, old fool. Your world will crumble.”

“Not before you do,” I said with a grin.

“Your mate will meet her fate,” he sneered. Immediately, my expression changed to anger. He threatened Nora and that alone was more than enough to be killed.

“See you in hell,” I said through gritted teeth. Hitting my trigger point, I snapped and wasted no time, lobbing off his head and stabbing his heart in less than a second. I peered around the field outside the castle and only my men stood. We had managed to get rid of the last who stayed to fight and die.

“Victory,” Draco shouted to our men.

“Victory,” they cheered back, raising their swords in celebration. I had a feeling that this was only the beginning. Stavros was trying to test us and get more details about the castle and the numbers we possessed.

“Game on, Stavros,” I muttered, walking into the castle before teleporting to my bed chambers and locating my wife for a special rendezvous.