She felt it.
The Iron Drakes weren’t just part of her past anymore. They were coming for her future.
CHAPTER 14
Sloan paced his home office while Becky showered and dressed for the day. It had taken everything he fucking possessed to walk out of that bedroom because he knew she had wanted him. He had seen it in her eyes, felt it in the air between them, and fuck, he had wanted her too. That wasn’t the problem. Wanting Becky had never been a problem. Knowing what the hell to do about it right now was the problem because she was pregnant, and he didn’t know the first damn thing about this shit.
Could he hurt the baby if he had sex with her? Could he hurt her?
Those thoughts stopped him dead in his tracks, his eyes narrowing as if the answer was going to magically appear somewhere in his office.
“Shit.” Sloan cursed, then realized he was pacing, which he never did. He started to run his hand through his hair for the hundredth time, but stopped before he went fucking bald.
He had faced rogues, demons, enemies who had wanted him dead, and yet the thought of having sex with his own mate whileshe carried a child had him acting like some clueless bastard who needed a manual. Jesus, maybe he did need a fucking manual. Was there a manual for this?
He blew out a hard breath and glanced toward the ceiling where Becky was upstairs. His body didn’t care about questions or what-ifs. His mate had wanted him, and every instinct he possessed had wanted to go to her, to take that fear out of her eyes and remind her exactly who she belonged to. But this wasn’t about his instincts. Until he knew what was safe for her, for the child, he wasn’t taking chances with either one of them.
He had called Slade when he came downstairs that morning to tell him about the positive pregnancy test. Becky had also told him about freezing her eggs after having Frankie because of her female issues. She’d said she had wanted more kids, just no husband. They had both chuckled at that, and the memory had him smiling despite everything pressing down on him. He loved her laugh and had missed it. He hadn’t realized just how much until hearing it again damn nearly knocked the breath out of him.
His smile faded when he remembered the silence on the other end of the phone after he told Slade about the frozen eggs. Slade wasn’t a man who went quiet for no reason. When Sloan questioned him, all Slade said was he was going to try to get Becky in with a doctor that afternoon.
That was it. No calm reassurance that Sloan was overthinking things. Just silence, then a plan to get her in with a doctor.
Sloan’s jaw tightened as he looked toward the doorway. He didn’t want Becky walking into his office and seeing the rage riding him, but he also didn’t want her out of his sight. Not afterlast night. Not after finding her on that bathroom floor, broken glass around her, tears on her face, and fear in her eyes.
That memory alone was enough to make his eyes burn black again.
What pissed him off most was that she even had to wonder if wanting him was right. That thought dug under his skin and stayed there, sharp and ugly. Becky had been through enough, and now she was questioning her own feelings, her own body, because someone had put this nightmare in front of her and left her to make sense of it. Sloan didn’t know how something like this affected a woman, his woman, and that tore at him because he wanted answers. Wanted rules. Wanted something solid he could follow so he didn’t make one wrong move with her.
But there were no rules for this. He knew that, dammit.
There was only Becky, scared and trying to find her footing, and him needing to be careful enough not to push, strong enough not to break, and patient enough to let her feel whatever the hell she needed to feel. If that meant walking on eggshells, then so be it. He’d walk on glass for her if that was what it took.
But one thing was for sure. His hunt for the son of a bitch responsible would never end. Whoever had hurt his mate, whoever had twisted her world until she didn’t even know what was safe to feel, had better enjoy breathing while they still could.
Because once Sloan found them, that luxury was over.
The security alert on Sloan’s phone went off, letting him know someone had pulled into the driveway. Grabbing it off his desk, he looked at the screen to see Duncan coming down the drive on his bike. Heading toward the front door, Sloan was thankful forthe break from his thoughts because they were starting to piss him off.
Opening the door just as Duncan climbed the steps, Sloan stepped back, letting him inside.
“How’s Becky feeling?” Duncan asked, following Sloan into his office.
“Better,” Sloan replied, not giving anything more than that. He needed to talk to Becky first on how they were going to handle this. He didn’t like keeping things from his Warriors, not when every decision he made could affect them, but this was different. This was her choice on what was said and when.
Still, he couldn’t ignore the warning burning in his gut.
His men needed to know enough to protect their own. If someone was coming for Sloan through Becky in this way, for whatever fucked-up reason, then he had to assume the others could be targets too. Human mates tied to Warriors who would burn the world down if someone dared touch them was exactly the kind of weakness an enemy would look for.
Sloan’s jaw tightened as he walked behind his desk, but he didn’t sit. Sitting wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, apparently. “Slade’s on his way.”
Duncan’s brows drew together. “Medical?”
“Yeah.” Sloan’s answer was short, clipped, and Duncan’s eyes sharpened at the tone.
“What’s going on?”
Sloan stared at Duncan who he trusted with his life, and hated that he couldn’t give him the full truth yet. Not until Becky was ready. “I can’t give you everything right now.”
