Page 106 of Marked By the Devil

“It can seem scary to be this involved in their family,” she whispered. “But it’s worth it.”

Knocks sounded on the door to the bedroom. These were the heavy-handed raps of a man’s fist. “Wren?”

Viktor was there.

“Yeah.” He opened the door, and he and Lev entered.

“There you are,” Lev said, smiling at his wife.

“There you are,” Viktor echoed, looking at me with concern.

And here we are, about to see how you’ll react to the news that we’re going to have a baby.

37

VIKTOR

Mila and Lev left. More men were downstairs, still handling the aftermath of Smithson breaking in and trying to kill Wren and almost succeeding in taking Paul’s life too.

As soon as I could, I would visit him, but something nagged at me about how Wren was acting. Like she might be struggling from the trauma of it all.

If she needed me—for comfort, to hear her out, to fuck her and make her not think at all—I’d do it. Whatever she wanted or needed.

“How are you holding up?” I asked her as I brought her to the bed. I sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled her onto my lap.

“I’m… overwhelmed,” she admitted.

I loved her honesty. I was a sarcastic asshole and she could play hard with me and be witty too, but we would always be true and real with each other as well.

“Because he was your first kill?” I asked, stroking my hand up and down her thigh.

“Kind of.” She leaned against me, running her hand over my beard, almost like she was petting me. I noticed she did it when she was idle and pensive, needing to move somehow.

“It is sobering to take a life, but I won’t allow a second of guilt. He broke in here to kill me. He initiated this violence—since the beginning—through no fault of mine. I did nothing to deserve him treating me like this and attempting to use me as a shield. I killed him in the line of self-defense and I will never back down from that. It’s kill or be killed, and I have too much life to live to let him win like that.”

I cupped her face and kissed her, falling that much more in love with her and how strong she was.

“But…” She cleared her throat and gazed up at me like she was searching my face for something. So intent. So serious. So… cautious.

“But…?”

“It wasn’t only self-defense. I was defending our child, too.”

I watched her lips move. I heard the sound of her voice as she spoke. And I felt the weight of her body on my lap and resting against me.

But still, I wondered if my senses were scrambled. If I was imagining that she had actually just said that… she… was… I narrowed my eyes as my heart kicked up in speed.

“I’m pregnant, Viktor.” She exhaled a deep whoosh of a breath. “I’m pregnant with our baby. I… I was late and I wondered. When I started feeling off I got suspicious and I just took a test now. I was going to take the test earlier, right before Smithson showed up. But… yeah.” She nodded, furrowing her brow.

“You’re pregnant.” It should’ve come out as a question, but it didn’t. I stated it. I tested the words out on my tongue and waited for the other shoe to drop, for her to laugh and say she was teasing.

But she wouldn’t. Not about this.

“You’re pregnant.”

She nodded again.

I was so stupefied, I couldn’t find the words.