Tristan
“But you were unconscious,” Athena said, her voice rising to match mine and I could hear the desperation threading through every word. “You were hurt and bleeding and the doctors didn’t know if you were going to wake up.”
I watched Orion from the corner of my eye and saw his jaw clenching, saw the way his hands had curled into fists at his sides, saw him working hard to keep his own anger contained.
But I didn’t understand why they were all acting like I was the one overreacting, like I was being unreasonable when all I’d done was point out the obvious danger she’d put herself in.
“So you decided to play god,” I said, and the words came out sharp and cutting. “You decided to use powers we don’t understand, powers we have no ide how they work or what they cost, you decided to channel magic or whatever the hell it is through your pregnant body without thinking about what it might do to you or to our babies.”
The statement hung in the air between us and I watched her face change, watched understanding dawn in her eyes as her hand pressed harder against
her stomach like she was trying to shield them from my words.
“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice dropping to barely more than a whisper.
My heart was hammering against my ribs and I could feel sweat beading on my forehead despite the cool air in the room.
“You used your healing ability while carrying them,” I said, forcing myself to speak more calmly even though everything inside me was screaming. You channeled power through your body, through the same body that’s growing our children.”
I took a breath and made myself continue.
“What if that affected them? What if they absorbed some of that power? What if they’re born with abilities because of what you did, abilities we don’t
understand?”
S
The color drained from her face so fast I thought she might faint and I had to fight the urge to reach for her, to steady her, to take back every word I’d
just said.
But I couldn’t take them back because they were true and someone needed to say them out loud, needed to make her understand the magnitude of what
she’d done.
“I didn’t think,” she whispered, and I could see her mind working through the implications. ‘I didn’t consider that possibility. I just…”
‘No,‘ I cut her off, and my voice broke on the word. “You didn’t think, you just acted, you just decided that saving me was worth any risk and now we have no idea what the consequences might be, for you or for them.
I had to turn away then because I couldn’t look at her face anymore, couldn’t see the guilt and fear and regret painting her features without wanting to take back everything I’d said, without wanting to pull her close and tell her it would all be okay even though I had no idea if that was true.
My eyes found the wall across the room and I stared at it, seeing nothing, trying to get my breathing under control.
All of it was true and someone needed to say it, needed to voice the fears that were eating me alive from the inside out,
*Tristan, you’re being too hard on her, Orion said, stepping forward.
1/3
Chapter 342
Something snapped inside me and I rounded on him, feeling all that anger I’d been trying to control come flooding back in a wave that threatened to drown me.
I’d asked if he’d do that if reverse was the case and he didn’t answer, everyone in this room already knows what his silence meant.
He wouldn’t have wanted it. He’d react the same way if he was in my shoe.
“Am I?” I demanded, and I could hear my voice getting louder but I couldn’t stop it. “Because from where I’m standing I’m the only one who seems to understand how serious this is.”
I moved closer to him and saw him tense, saw him hold his fist from connecting to my jaw but I didn’t care.
“She could have died Orion, the babies could have been hurt, and instead of protecting her you let her walk into danger, you let her use powers we kno
nothing about while she’s carrying my children.”
“I tried to protect her,” Orion said, I could see his own anger starting to surface, could see it in the way his shoulders squared and his eyes hardened. “I
tried to tell her no, I argued with her for an hour at the hospital, I told her all the reasons it was a bad idea but she wouldn’t listen.”
His voice was rising too now.
“What was I supposed to do? Physically restrain her? Lock her in a room?”
“Be her brother,” I said, throwing the words at him like weapons. “Be the one person who could talk sense into her, be the voice of reason when she was
being reckless.”
“She wasn’t being reckless, Orion shot back, his voice getting louder with each word. “She was trying to save someone she loves.”
“By risking everything,” I countered, my hands clenching and unclenching at my sides. “By putting herself and our children in danger, how is that not reckless? How is that not the absolute definition of reckless?”
“Because love makes us do things that don’t make sense,” Derek said quietly from his spot on the loveseat.
I turned to look at him and saw understanding in his eyes, saw something that might have been sympathy or pity and I wasn’t sure which one made me
angrier.
“It makes us take risks we shouldn’t take,” Derek continued, his voice steady and calm in contrast to mine and Orion’s raised voices. “Makes us make choices that might not be logical, makes us throw caution away when someone we care about is in danger.”
He leaned forward slightly.
“That’s what love does, it makes us reckless in ways we never thought possible.”
‘I would rather die than have her risk herself for me,” I said, looking at each of them in turn and letting them see the truth of it in my eyes. I would rather be dead and buried than have her put herself in danger to save me, that’s how much I love her.”
2/3
The Biker Alpha Who Became My Second Chance Mate
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
