Chapter Thirteen

Rhiannon spent the next few weeks trying to make her presence in the city known while, also, trying to seem harmless. It was a careful mix of action, most of which placing her at the hearings that Wilson and Everett were facing. Agents and officials that worked for GOE cast wary looks in her direction. They were people that she worked with and knew most of her life. Now, they treated her as though she might attack at any moment.

She refused to live up to their expectations. The dragon shifters were not animals.

This city needed to see that. She hoped that, eventually, the world would see that, too.

Wilson cast dagger like glares in her direction, effectively erasing the years of tough love that he’d shared with her. Everett, on the other hand, was more welcoming to her presence. That earned him Wilson’s cold hatred, too.

She and Everett were in this fight together. He was following through on his promise. He told the truth about Wilson’s dealings with Raphael, the white dragon. He confessed that they knew Raph was a white dragon the entire time and had done his bidding more than a few times.

Raph and two of his dragon friends were being held by GOE, bound with silver ties that effectively made them near human. She knew what that must feel like. She knew the helplessness that Raph must be going through behind those bars. Or, what he should have been going through.

When they brought him to the hearings to speak, he sat silent. He refused to speak. He refused to look defeated in the least. He showed no signs that he understood the predicament he was in. It made Rhiannon wonder what was left up his sleeve. Certainly, no one would look in the face of the enemy and sit so confidently if they didn’t have a plan B.

Rhiannon thought about it while she sat on the edge of her tub. A line of tests sat around her bathroom sink. She stared at them while she wondered what Raphael still had planned. It seemed that the future was unpredictable because the impossible happened several times over in the past two months for her. First, she learned that there was a beast curled up inside of her. One that was currently looking in the same direction, pleased and content.

Gareth paused as he passed the bathroom door. He back tracked and turned to face her. She could hear his heart pounding with fear.

“What’s wrong?” Fear was palpable in his voice. That was understandable. Last time he’d seen her like this she’d bled all over the small room.

“I’m…” she paused. How did she tell him this? How did she tell him the unthinkable happened?

Gareth closed the space between them, his hands instinctively searching her for wounds. With a small smile on her lips, she gently pushed him back so that she could look up at him. His brows knit together at the sight of her soft smile.

“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out. Her face warmed, embarrassed by her own clumsy communication.

He very carefully stilled around her. She could see the mirth in his eyes, but he was still wary. She didn’t understand his mixed emotions. It made her stomach do anxious flips.

“Is this what you want?” he whispered to her.

She pressed her lips together. A million thoughts rolled through her mind, tumbling one over the other so fast that it was hard to keep up with all of them. Instead of thinking, she turned to how she felt. She inspected the overall emotion that filled her. There was a warm feeling that filled her, crackling at the edges with nervous excitement.

“I can’t tell you how this could have happened. I was told that I was barren. Yet… I think I’m okay with this,” she confessed. “I never thought of myself as the kind of person who would become a mother, but a lot has happened that I didn’t see coming. I’m living a whole new life.”

“We should see a proper doctor to confirm this,” Gareth said as his eyes roved over the pregnancy tests that ringed the sink. “I know what the doctors told you before, but what if that was caused by the silver in your body? What if your body refused to reproduce because it wasn’t completely functioning?”

Rhiannon weighed his words. They made sense. For humans, it was hard to become pregnant if there was stress or sickness in the body. The silver could have very well had the same effect on her body, inhibiting its functions. But it brought about a whole new set of unknowns.

There was still so much to come. GOE might have come to their senses, but the white dragon clan were still out there. They wanted Snowdonia for themselves at any cost. If they couldn’t push the red dragons out, then they might very well attack. Rhiannon’s hand hovered over her stomach. Could she bring a child into that?

Gareth’s hand rose to cover her own. His eyes met hers, burning with a fierce fire. He could see the hesitation on her face, could read the reason behind it. Her eyes travelled to the photo Drystan gave her, now framed and hung on the wall. Two smiling people hovered protectively over a small, serious child.

“Our child will not have to go through what you did. I promise to protect the both of you until my last breath.”

She reached up and touched the stubble on his cheek. This was not the life she ever thought she would have, but she couldn’t be happier.

“And I will protect you.”