Into the Fire (The Unseelie Court Book 4) by Gwen Rivers (free ebooks romance novels .TXT) 📗

her expression inscrutable. His wolf shifts, sensing his mate’s unhappiness.

“We’ll be down in a few minutes. Thank you for the clothing.” Aiden reaches out and takes the offering from Sophie.

After her footsteps retreat, he drops the pile on a nearby stool then moves to wrap his hand around her nape. “What is it?”

She looks up at him, pure torment in her eyes. “I want to go with you.”

His heart hurts. “Nic, you can’t. You have been banished. She’ll sense if you cross the Veil.”

She waves her arm as if he can erase the logic of his words with that single gesture. “I just got you back and I have been doing nothing for what feels like an eternity.”

“You aren’t doing nothing.” He places his palm over the small swell of her belly. It’s hardly noticeable, even to his keen senses. “You’re protecting our child.”

“You’re the protector, not me,” she grumbles.

He pulls her in close and buries his nose in her hair. “You know if we had any other choice I wouldn’t go. The wolves don’t know the Underground Palace the way I do. We’re more likely to succeed if I lead the charge.”

She presses her face into his bare shoulder and mumbles, “I know that.”

What else can he say to reassure her? “It’ll be a quick operation, with Angrboda spearheading the distraction.” They’d gone over the plan the day before. Everyone has a role to play.

“I know that, too.”

“And you know I’m coming back. That I’ll meet you at the farm?” With Agent Hanson’s team being dropped in Underhill, Nic was eager to return to the place she felt the most secure.

“Yes.” She pulls back until she stares up into his eyes. “But Aiden, I’m scared.”

That admission…. He never would have believed the icy girl she’d been when he first met her, the stone-cold killer, would admit to her feelings of helplessness and terror.

He never would have thought she would accept him. Or that he was eager to meet their child.

But first, they had to secure her a place.

“Tell me what you fear.”

She places her hand over his on her abdomen. “Everything that’s coming.”

Because of the child. The danger on both sides of the Veil. Because no matter how much he wants to reassure her, there are things out of his control.

“So am I,” he breathes, pulling her close again. “But we won’t let her win, Nic. We both have too much to fight for. To look forward to. I have a house to build you.”

For a moment she looks as though she wants to say something. But then her eyes close and she nods once. “Okay. The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll come back.”

And really what more is there to say?

He presses his lips to her forehead. “Time to kidnap a werewolf.”

Parting Ways

Angrboda uses her magic to slip Aiden and the wolves out of the pocket realm and into an in-between. Since she is planning to appear in a different location to draw Underhill’s attention, they will have to cross back over through the Tear.

It’s a sound plan. Yet I can’t seem to shake the worry knotting my gut.

Someone knocks on my bedroom door and Chloe sticks her head in. “You ready to leave?”

No, but I’d promised Garret and Sophie that we would all be out of their hair as soon as possible. Giant contractors have already been called to repair their house and we need to be gone before they arrive.

I worry my lower lip. “Do you really think it’s safe for us to return to the farm?”

She nods. “The mortals are all under Angrboda’s thrall. They won’t reveal anything.”

It had been the giant’s idea to enthrall Agent Hanson and the rest of the FBI. They would serve the creatures beyond the Veil for a year and a day—Underhill time— and be returned after our fight was over.

I swing my feet down and reach for my borrowed shoes. “I’ll be ready in a minute.”

Chloe wrinkles her nose delicately. “It smells like werewolf and nookie in here.”

“Feel free to show yourself out.”

She sighs and then turns to go.

“Chloe?”

“Yeah, babe?”

I hesitate. “Do you think…that is, should you mindwipe them? Sophie and Garret, I mean.”

They’d witnessed a lot. I didn’t want to leave them as a loose end or have anyone come after them for information on us.

Chloe holds my stare. “Do you want me to mindwipe them?”

“No.” Having been mindwiped myself out of my first six years of life, I knew how upsetting the experience could be. “But maybe that’s why I should. To keep them safe.”

She comes back into the room and shuts the door. “Maybe you need to give them the choice. True, they will be safer if they don’t know who you are and what you can do, but I don’t know if that necessarily means they will be more content. You’re their daughter, Nic.”

I nod. “Okay, I’ll be down in a few.”

“Laufey and I will wait in the car.”

I take one final glance around the room. This could have been mine, if things had been different. Somehow, I doubt my life would be on the same path if I’d been raised by kindhearted Sophie and honorable Garret. I wouldn’t be the same person I am now.

Chloe and Addy had encouraged me to kill, to use my gift to make a difference. Here, I would have maybe hurt an innocent by accident, maybe even Tate.

Everything happens for a reason.

I leave the door open and head downstairs. Sophie is at the stove. She is wearing a cream-colored sweater and black leggings. Her hair is tucked up into a messy ponytail that bobs as she moves. “I’m just making you a fried egg sandwich for the road.”

“Thanks,” I say even as my stomach knots. No way can I eat anything, but I’ve discovered that Sophie cooks to ease her own tension and worry as much as to feed the people around her. She’s been practically chained to the stove since the day before.

She turns to look