Darkmoon (#5) (The Cain Chronicles) (6 page)

He was down by the pond when he found the paw prints.

Seth hesitated by the shore. His gaze followed the indentations in the snow to the place they disappeared between hills.

The full moon was still a couple of days away. There shouldn’t have been any wolves to make paw prints.

Seth’s adrenaline spiked as he thought back to Yasir’s text message about Cain being in prison. Wild visions whirled through his skull. What if Cain had broken out of the Union prison, come back to the ranch, and started stalking them at night when everyone was asleep. Or worse—what if he had come back to kidnap Rylie?

His pace picked up as he followed the trail. He had left his rifle in the bedroom, but now he regretted it. If Cain was at the ranch again…

But when he found the wolf responsible for the footprints, it wasn’t the brother he had been expecting to see.

A big black wolf that Seth immediately recognized as Abel was curled underneath the trees, sleeping with his nose under his tail. Wrapped within the furry warmth of his body was a slender blond figure. Rylie’s head rested on Abel’s massive flank, and his legs encircled her protectively as they slept.

They looked restful. Content.

The sound of Seth’s approaching footsteps made Abel lift his head.

Seth punched him across his stupid furry muzzle.

It was like striking a brick wall. The shock jolted up his entire arm to his shoulder. But the wolf’s head smacked into the ground from the force of the blow, and that was satisfying enough to make up for how much it hurt.

The wolf’s surprised yelp woke Rylie instantly. “What’s going on?” she asked, rubbing her face as Abel got to his feet.

There was murder in Abel’s golden stare, but Seth didn’t give him a chance to regroup. He lunged at his brother and tackled him to the ground.

The snow softened their landing. They hit and rolled, and Seth twisted to keep Abel’s kicking legs from sinking into his stomach. Those silver claws were sharp—almost as sharp as his teeth.

Abel bit at Seth’s leg. He snapped his boot into Abel’s mouth.

“What are you guys doing?” Rylie shrieked, snow in her hair and horror on her face.

Seth closed his hands on either side of Abel’s jaw and forced it open so he couldn’t bite. “I told you—to stay—
away
!”

Rylie got to her knees. “Stop it!”

Abel and Seth flipped over and over. Somehow, Seth ended up on top, and he braced his knees against Abel’s ribs to pin him down. He slammed his fist into Abel’s skull again. He was a kopis, a legendary hunter, and his strength was immense…especially in the midst of a jealous rage.

But even a human hunter was nothing in comparison to the power of a werewolf.

Abel thrashed and bit Seth’s leg. It wasn’t hard enough to break skin, but the fangs pressed into his calf.

Rylie was still shouting, but all Seth knew was the fight. The anger. The
hatred
.

Abel’s fur began to ripple.

It was even harder to wrestle with a werewolf as he shifted back into human form. Every time Seth grabbed hold of a limb, it would change size and shape. Bones popped, fur fell to the snow, and within moments, he was punching Abel’s stupid ugly face instead of that of a wolf.

Abel shoved Seth away and stood. Rylie jumped between them, hands extended. She was shorter than both of them—barely an obstacle.

Seth stepped forward. “What were you doing to Rylie?”

“We weren’t
doing
anything, you insecure little prick,” Abel said.

“He was helping me,” Rylie said, shoving Seth when he tried to step around her. She was incredibly strong for her size.

Rylie’s imploring voice was the only thing that could cut through the red haze of anger. Seth stopped trying to get at his brother and looked down at her. “Helping you?”

“I have too much energy now that I can’t change,” Rylie said. “I had to put it somewhere, so Abel let me change him. And I feel
so
much better.”

The intended calming effect of her words was ruined when her face suddenly crumpled. She grabbed her belly and groaned.

“What is it?” Abel asked, stepping forward.

Seth shot him a venomous look as he took Rylie’s shoulders. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

She sucked in a hard gasp. “I think—I think I’m having a contraction.”

“A contraction? You mean, a labor contraction?”

“I don’t know,” she whimpered.

Abel reached for her hand, but Seth shoved him away. “Don’t even think about it,” Seth said.

Anger twisted Abel’s features. “Fine. I can see when I’m not wanted.”

He stormed away, cutting a path through the snow, bare skin steaming. “Abel—” Rylie began, but another contraction interrupted her. She doubled over. Only Seth’s grip kept her on her feet.

“We have to get you to Stephanie,” he said, scooping an arm underneath her legs to lift her from the snow. “And
fast
.”

S
IX

The Siblings

Rylie had always assumed that
turning into a werewolf would be the most painful experience of her life. As of this morning, that was still true. But contractions were pretty close competition.

Every time another one hit, her abs clenched, her vision blurred, her ears rang, and she tasted iron on her tongue. It wasn’t just her womb getting tight. Her whole body was along for the ride, and it was so much worse than she expected.

Fortunately, it also didn’t last very long. The worst of them were over by the time Seth carried her back to the house, and once she lay down, they stopped entirely.

Stephanie joined them in less than an hour.

“Where in the world did you get
that
?” Seth asked, staring at the cart that Stephanie wheeled into Rylie’s bedroom.

The doctor pulled it alongside the bed and plugged a power cord into the wall. “I got it from the hospital.” At Rylie’s look of confusion, she explained, “This is an ultrasound machine. I received it just yesterday.”

“I thought we were going to a clinic to do this.”

“We were, but I couldn’t arrange for a private room without an ultrasound technician present, so I told Scott to buy a used machine. Remove your jeans. I’m going to use a lot of conducting gel, and it stains fabric.”

Rylie wiggled her pants down her hips. They had already been unzipped, since she hadn’t been able to button any of her pants for weeks. “Isn’t that kind of equipment expensive?” she asked, blushing as she revealed a pair of white panties with a bow on the hem. They were her most comfortable pair, and she had only been wearing them so she could sleep without the hem digging into her stomach. She hadn’t planned on anyone seeing them.

“Immensely expensive,” Stephanie said.

“I’m surprised Scott bought one.” Rylie kicked her pants off.

“I didn’t give him a choice. He owes us a hell of a lot more than an ultrasound machine after what he did for Cain. Lay down.”

Rylie stretched out in bed again. Even when she was flat on her back, her stomach was getting big enough that she couldn’t see her toes. Seth gazed at her with a look that was somewhere between possessiveness and fear, like he wasn’t sure what he thought about her pregnancy yet.

Stephanie turned the machine on and positioned it beside the bed. “How are you feeling now?”

“I haven’t had any contractions for about twenty minutes.”

“Good. What were you doing when they started?”

Rylie glanced at Seth, but his eyes were fixed on the blank monitor. “Seth and Abel were fighting,” she said.

Stephanie made a noncommittal noise. “I checked my old medical school textbooks on obstetrics before coming over. If they were irregular, and changing positions reduced the intensity, then they were almost certainly Braxton-Hicks. They’re practice contractions to help your body prepare for the real thing.”

“They felt awfully convincing for practice contractions.”

“Hmm. Well, let’s take a look. We might be able to make out the baby’s gender today.” She squirted cold gel onto Rylie’s stomach. “This is an old machine, so detail won’t be very good. You won’t be picking out Uncle Bob’s nose just yet.”

“Or Grandma Eleanor’s crazy eyes,” Seth muttered. It wasn’t really funny, but Rylie still giggled nervously. “Do we have the blood work back yet?”

“Most of it, and everything looks normal. But I had to send the vial for paternity testing to a special lab, and the results have been delayed. Let’s see what else I can find.”

Stephanie pressed the wand to Rylie’s stomach and slid it across her skin, eyes focused on the monitor. The screen was turned so that only the doctor could look at it.

Rylie held still, unsure if she was allowed to breathe or move during the scan. Seth’s hand squeezed hers tightly, and she didn’t shake him off. She was too scared to be angry.

The silence stretched long.

“Hmm,” Stephanie said.

“That’s a good ‘hmm,’ right?” Seth asked, squeezing Rylie’s hand harder.

“Not quite.”

Oh God, Rylie was going to pass out. “What’s wrong? Is it furry? Does it have four legs?” She was speaking too fast, and her words tumbled over each other.

“Actually, yes,” Stephanie said, and Seth paled. “I do see four legs. I also don’t see much other detail, but that’s because you’re not as far along as I expected. Let me show you what I mean.”

She rotated the monitor. Rylie couldn’t make any sense of the blurry image on the screen. It looked like a big gray cloud, with two black circles in the middle.

“What is that?” she asked.

“This is a placenta,” Stephanie said, pressing a button to make the image freeze. She pointed at a thin line. “That’s a spine. This dot is a heartbeat. We should be able to hear that, too.” She unfroze the image, repositioned the wand in a way that made the image swirl and blur, and turned a dial.

A steady thumping filled the room. It was way too fast, like a humming bird heart.

She moved the wand again. The thumping faded and then returned.

“I’m finding the heartbeat in two places,” Stephanie said. “I think I also see a second placenta, and a second spine. So…yes, definitely four legs, four hands, two skulls…”

Rylie stared at her blankly, but Seth sucked in a hard breath.

“What? What does that mean? Is it a mutant?” she asked.

“No,” Seth said. “It means that we’re having twins.”

Levi returned while Rylie and
Gwyn were looking at the printouts from the ultrasound. Rylie heard his car pull up outside the kitchen window, but his voice was too soft for Rylie to understand what he was saying to Pyper. She didn’t care anyway. Even the sound of Levi’s approach couldn’t make her feel any worse than she already did.

Stephanie had managed to capture a great picture of both babies. They looked kind of like gummy bears.

“Twins,” Gwyn said, all but trembling with excitement.

“Twins,” Rylie repeated, dropping her head onto the table. Her forehead
thunked
against the wood.

There was coffee brewing even though neither of them drank it anymore. Stephanie had officially banned all caffeine in the wake of the contractions, and it wouldn’t do much good for a zombie, either. But the smell should have been comforting.

It wasn’t.

“Oh, pumpkin.” Aunt Gwyn rubbed her arm. “It’s not going to be that bad.”

“It
is
going to be that bad,” she said into the table. “I’ve never even babysat for an infant before. And now I’m going to have two of them, and they’re going to be
werewolves
, and I am in so far over my head.”

“But look at them.” Gwyn’s voice was filled with warmth. “They’re all cozy in there. Your daddy would—”

“I don’t care what my daddy would think. He’s not here to help me!” Rylie snapped, glaring at her aunt.

Gwyn’s hand stilled. “Don’t use that tone with me. Being scared is no reason to disrespect his memory.”

“Scared? I am so much more than scared, Aunt Gwyn. What am I going to do?”

“You’re going to deal with it,” she said matter-of-factly. “And I’m not going to listen to melodramatic whining on the subject. You’re allowed to be intimidated. That’s normal. But there’s a lot of terrible things in this world, many of which we’ve seen firsthand, and two wonderful little babies are
not
among those terrible things. You hear me?”

“Easy for you to say,” Rylie muttered.

Gwyn grabbed a mug of coffee, warming her hands on the outside without drinking. “You won’t have to deal with this alone, babe. I’m with you every step of the way.”

Seth had said something like that, too. It hadn’t been comforting then, and it wasn’t comforting now.

Levi pushed through the back door, stomping mud and slush on Gwyn’s clean linoleum. Rylie was glad for the distraction. She flipped the ultrasound pictures face-down on the table.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

“I was picking up the new werewolf from the airport.” Levi peeled off his boots. “Abel was probably too busy getting drunk to do it himself.”

He ambled toward the living room, and Rylie sniffed the air as he passed. “Why do you smell like Tate’s aftershave?”

“So Bekah told you.”

“She didn’t tell me anything.” Rylie turned in her chair to face him. “How did you run into Tate while going to the airport?”

“Why do you care? You ate his mom.”

Rylie shoved her chair back to stand, but before she could speak, Stephanie elbowed past Levi to enter the room. “What’s going on here?” she asked.

“Werewolf pissing contest,” Gwyn said.

Levi glared. “I’m glad you think it’s funny.”

He moved to leave, but Stephanie grabbed his arm. She was a tall woman, so she could look him straight in the eye. “I don’t care about werewolf pack Alpha nonsense,” she said. “You’re not allowed to get into fights with Rylie anymore. This is a health issue. You have to set aside your pettiness for the sake of her babies.”

His eyes widened. “Babies?”

“Whatever issues you have, they can wait,” Stephanie went on, ignoring his question. “She needs to rest.”

“Then it sounds like she’s not in good enough shape to be Alpha anymore, does it?” Levi asked, shooting a look at Rylie before storming out of the room.