*Isla*Ben isn’t breathing, and I don’t know what to do. He’s bleeding everywhere. I feel lost, hopeless, and alone.“Maddox! Help me! It’s Ben!” I shout for the hundredth time using the mind-link. I don’t expect him to answer me this time either, but I hear his voice saying, “Isla? Where are you?”I feel my heart begin to pound just from hearing his response. “We went in through the door closest to the stage, and some woman stabbed him! He’s not breathing. Where’s Mystica?”“Are you safe, Isla? Where’s the woman?” he asks me.I wish he wouldn’t always do that, answer my questions with his own questions. “She’s dead!” I shout at him, still unable to believe that I’ve killed someone. “Maddox, what do I do!”“I’m coming,” he says, but that doesn’t help me any, and I know that if we don’t do something soon, there will be no getting Ben back.My tears have soaked his shirt right above the wound, and he’s starting to turn blue because he hasn’t been breathing. I think about doing that thin
*Maddox*It’s too much.I have too much to take care of right now, too many things to think about and do, to sit here and consider the possibility that Isla’s brother has just died, gone to the island of Maatua, and then been brought back by her tears or blood or both. No, with the uprising that just happened in the courtyard, I can’t even begin to process it right now.I know that I will come across as an absolute jackass if I even try it at the moment. Isla is staring at me, waiting for me to acknowledge what Ben has just said, but all I can do is nod my head. “Is there anything you need now?” I ask instead. “Are you hungry?”“Hungry?” Mystica repeats. “I think he’d better stick to IV fluids for a while, Your Majesty. We did just sew his stomach back together.”I have no idea which parts of him were split apart. What I do know is I can’t comment on his adventure to the isles at the moment.Isla games my arm. “Are you okay?” she asks me, looking concerned.“I’m fine,” I tell her. “An
*Isla*“It felt so real, Isla,” Ben says to me from his position in bed. “It was like we were really there.”I smile at him from my chair near the window. I was really hoping he’d fall asleep, but he hasn’t, and even after I went and cleaned up and checked on Poppy, who was fine and helping the injured, Ben is still wide awake.I even asked the nurse to put something in his IV, and I think she did, but he’s still chatting about his dream, and I know he wants me to ask him exactly what his dream was about, but I am hesitant. It’s clear to me that Maddox doesn’t think there’s anything special about the dream Ben had when he was dead–if dream is even the right word–and it’s probably silly of me to even ponder asking him.But Ben isn’t going to rest until I tell him. “What happened, Ben? In your dream. Or vision. Or whatever it was?”He takes a deep breath, and his eyes glass over a little bit so that he is looking off in the distance. “We were standing on the island, you and me,” he begi
*Maddox*“What do you mean Zabrina is gone?”The words leaving my mouth sound like they can’t possibly be true, like there’s no way in hell that Seth is accurate with his description to me of what the situation is at the moment.Zabrina can’t be gone. I killed her myself! I can still taste her entrails in my mouth from when I leaped up and grabbed hold of her with my teeth and tore her middle apart so that that black wolf who was trying to save her would be unsuccessful.“We’ve looked everywhere for her,” Seth says, shrugging and shaking his head. “We have no idea what happened to her.”“But she’s dead,” I tell him. “I took care of her myself. I know she has to be dead.” I have a very vivid picture in my mind of her guts spilling out of her body as it continued to swing on the noose. “The black wolf ran off the moment he saw that she was dead. It’s clear to me that she was the reason that he was here, that the riot started to begin with. They were trying to keep her from being killed.
*Isla*“Mom? Dad?” I say as my parents come charging into the room. “What are you doing here?”“Oh, thank the Moon Goddess!” Mom says, ignoring my question as she practically runs across the room to Ben. She wraps her arms around him and cradles his head like he is a small child. “We were so terrified!”Dad stays back a bit, but he has a worried look on his face as he surveys my brother and Mom.“Mom, I’m fine,” Ben says as he struggles to get himself free of Mom’s grasp. “Seriously, you can let go.”Mom relaxes her grip, taking him by the shoulders as tears stream down her cheeks. “When we heard you were hurt in the uprising, we were so scared. We got here as quickly as we could.”“Thank goodness I just bought that new car,” my dad says. “We would’ve had to take the train.”My dad doesn’t seem nearly as upset or even surprised as my mom, but then, perhaps he has always been a little more chill than she is.My mom whirls around to look at me. “Isla!” she says in a stern voice. “What i
*Maddox*“Mates.”The word hangs in the air between Seth and me, both of us trying to process what this means for Austin, assuming he’s escaped. Zabrina was obviously his fated mate. He came here to try to save her, even though she was acting as if she had absolutely no intention whatsoever to be with him. She was here, trying to become my Luna queen, yet he was willing to risk his life, and actually sacrifice the lives of some of his pack members, to try to free her ass.And from the sound of things, there’s a chance it just might have worked…. How can her body be gone if she’s not alive? But how can she be alive when I ripped her intestines out?None of it is making any sense to me.“She has to be dead,” Seth says. “If you did as you say you did, and I believe that you did, then there’s no way she could be alive.”“I would say you’re probably right, but seeing as though Isla’s brother Ben died a few hours ago, but he’s alive now.” I can’t imagine there’s anyone else in this palace w
*Maddox*It’s taken me far too long to accept what Austin already told me in those few moments when he was trying to save Zabrina. He said he was her mate, but I didn’t think that was possible. His pack is so far from hers. Even though they were mates, it made little sense to me that he would want to save her. It’s not as if they were lovers–were they?I need to catch up to Austin to find out the truth. He has started quite an uprising by even being at the hanging, so there has to be something I am missing.Zabrina told me about the mate bond herself. She told me that it hadn’t meant much of anything for her to walk away from her mate, so why would Austin go to so much trouble to try and spare her life? If she died, it would be painful for him, but not for long, not without a true relationship like I had with Rebecca to increase the pull I had to her. I didn’t just feel a mate pull to Rebecca, I loved her as my wife and Luna.So why is Austin running through the woods from me now afte
*Isla*“Your son?” my mom repeats. “Isla, what in the world are you speaking about?” Her face is even paler than Ben’s as she stares up at me.I have to think carefully about how to answer that question because Maddox probably doesn’t want the entire kingdom to know our business just yet, but Ben knows, and if he knows, it’s only a matter of time until my parents know.Besides, I’ve never been one to keep information from my parents–unlike them. They are, apparently, very used to keeping information from me and my siblings.Until recently, when I became a breeder, I didn’t keep anything from them at all.With one hand still hovering over my abdomen, I begin to try and explain the situation to them. I want to call out to Maddox and ask him to come and be here with me when I tell my parents the situation, but I know he is busy with the aftermath of the uprising, and I can’t tell them to just wait until he returns.With a deep breath, I say, “I’m pregnant.”My parents exchange a look, an