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Sportinga cast hadn’t made life any easier for Wilder. He’d crushed several bones in his dominant hand, leaving him incapable of much work. Not that work was simple, either. He spent the following week spiraling with the worst thoughts. It made it impossible to sleep. Impossible to function.
Finally, the next visitation day arrived and he was almost terrified to go. But he had to. At first, he wasn’t sure if the guards would allow him inside after what he’d done the last visit, but they seemed unfazed and even snickered at his cast—one offering to sign it for him.
Wilder clenched his jaw and kept his head, if only for Avery. He sat on the other side of the glass partition, not sure he could look his mate in the eye.
He stared down at his hands and the cast… his gut roiling. A knock sounded on the other side of the glass. Avery tapped the receiver of his phone against it. Wilder held back the tears burning at the backs of his eyes and lifted his phone, bringing it to his ear.
“What happened to you?”Avery asked, eyes wide.
Wilder lifted his cast, unwilling to add one more concern to Avery’s many. “Accident. I’ll be fine.” He wasn’t going to be fine. The doctors were sure he’d need at least one surgery to reset some of the finer bones they couldn’t get to because of the mess he’d made.
“You look like hell. Are you okay?”
No.“I came last week,” Wilder murmured. He stopped, unable to finish his thought.
“You did?”
He nodded. “They wouldn’t let me see you.”
“Why?”
Wilder frowned. “Because… of… the heat.” Wilder swallowed back bile.
“Wilder?”
Wilder couldn’t lift his gaze. Tears burned in his eyes, and he wasn’t showing that face to Avery.
“I didn’t go into heat.”
Wilder’s gaze flipped up. “You weren’t in heat?”
Avery shook his head. “No. Seems I was… already pregnant.”
A rush of air was forced from Wilder’s lungs. He slid forward in his seat, closer to the glass. He placed his mangled hand along the window, needing to touch his mate. Pregnant? He hadn’t been forced to lie with others? A sob wracked his chest. “So… you weren’t forced to—” he trailed off, unwilling to say it again.
“I wasn’t forced to do anything… but was dropped into the middle of the insanity for a few minutes. It was terrifying.”
Wilder’s shoulders relaxed. His mate was safe. Untouched. “A baby.Our baby.” A smile came to his lips… but then soon fled. “No…”
The expression on Avery’s face cut deep.
“No, my love, I only mean, not like this. Not with you here.” Wilder’s instinct roared twice as loud. It was one thing to have his mate behind bars—but their child, too? “We have to abandon this plan, Avery. We have to get you out of here. I know you didn’t want to be treated like prop—”
“I can’t stop now.”
“And what of the babe? Will they take our child and give it to others? I think not! Ican’tlet that happen.” Thoughts of what Tensen had suggested came to mind. It made more sense after hearing Avery’s announcement.
“Slow down,” Avery said.
Wilder sprung from his chair. “Slow down? We have so little time! Your court date is in a fewdays.”
“I realize that,” Avery mentioned.
“I’m calling Tensen and Rohan. We need to change tactics.”
“No!”
Wilder met Avery’s stare. “Isn’t it bad enough I might lose you to this place? You’d want us to lose our child, too?”
