The Revelation (3 page)

**

              “Tell me the truth, Liam.”

             
Ever since she'd mated with the Alpha's brother, Viola had enjoyed the fact that they had a whole wing of the Douglas manor to themselves. Now, she found the convenience more useful than ever- there was no one about to hear her interrogating her husband.

             
Sitting comfortably across from her in a large armchair, her mate fixed her with a hard look.

             
“Viola, there is nothing to tell.”

             
The redhead purposefully made her reactive eye-rolling blatant. “You can't even fool Luther, love. Do you really think you can fool me?”

             
His gaze suddenly angry, the scarred man stood abruptly from his chair to stalk across the room and speak to her lowly, his face mere inches from hers. “It's not about 'fooling' anyone, Vi. It's about the safety of our clan. It always is.” His Scottish burr, stronger than his brother's, was always more prominent when he was aggravated. It was something that Viola found enduring on most occasions; but she'd admit that since discovering Yuna's pregnancy, she'd grown just as tired of all the secrets as Luther had.

             
“I care just as much about our clan as you do,” she shot back insistently, pressing a finger firmly against Liam's hard chest. “If you really had our best interests in mind, you would let me lend my assistance. I am strong. Isn't that why you chose me?”

             
For a moment, Liam simply glared at her, his face reddening as he searched madly for a reasonable reply. It was almost laughable, Viola had often thought, how a man who'd be willing to murder a human in cold blood could be cowed by his mate. If the Douglas clan knew what happened beyond closed doors, they would almost certainly be forced to rethink their perception of the volatile man.

             
When Liam could think of nothing apropos with which to argue, Viola pressed her advantage. “Requiring that we return to the land of origin so early is no small thing, Liam. There will be months spent in close quarters with other clans. Old feuds will be rehashed, and as little as you care for it, Yuna's life will be in danger. Her pup will be in danger.”

             
“Any danger there would be far less than the threat we currently face here!” The dark-eyed man burst, gesturing out the window as he finally gave in under pressure. “The den has been destroyed, Viola; the manor: burned. There was copious evidence of Hunters.”

             
The flame-haired woman's heart stuttered in her breast.

             
Hunters?

             
Almost immediately, her mind was filled with screams of fury and pain, the burning heat of fire scalding her, and a fear that had enveloped her almost to her own demise, long ago. Her expression, suddenly hollow and haunted, drew her mate's concern. Though still frustrated with her stubbornness, he quickly enfolded her in his embrace. “Viola, are you alright?”

             
She took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Fine. Are you alright?” Her gaze became equally as sympathetic as she realized how much of a blow losing the den must be to Liam. He always felt most desolate when faced with the notion that he'd somehow neglected the clan's safety.

             
“I would feel better if we left for Broxburn,” he replied lowly to her, his expression unreadable.

             
Her hands rising to cup his face gently, Viola attempted to coax more information from him.

             
“How bad was it?”

             
Frowning, Liam pulled from her grasp to step away from her. As was his nature when he brooded, he stared out of the window as if whatever he saw beyond might lessen his pain. “The manor was razed to the ground. But worse, they'd discovered our underground caverns. The entire lot was collapsed. Explosives of some kind.”

             
Gods above.

             
But... how on earth had the hunters found them? It had been years... decades since they'd heard rumors of hunter presence in North America. Viola felt a similar twinge of confusion echo her own in the back of her mind. Errantly, she reached down to touch the spot on her wrist marked with Liam's bite. After being bonded for almost a decade, she could sense his emotions almost as clearly as she felt her own.

             
Taking a deep breath, she finally gave her reply. “I have to tell Yuna.”

             
Almost immediately, Liam was back at her side, his grip on her marked wrist firm. “You will do no such thing. The human can't know.”

             
“Liam, her sense of preservation for her child will be more than enough to drive her to make the move. Don't you see? It's the most obvious solution for convincing Luther to remove Yuna, his pup, and the clan from harm's way.”

             
“Gods, woman, but you are infuriating.” As Liam yanked his hand from her in a mutinous tantrum of frustration, Viola swayed on the spot, suddenly dizzy. For a moment, she thought it might simply be the way the motion had rocked her backwards, but soon she realized that it was something far beyond that. She was going to be sick.

             
Without a word to her mate, she turned and raced for the bathroom.

             
Viola couldn't remember ever being so violently and suddenly ill. It wasn't in her nature to be sick. As she emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet, her entire body shuddered.

             
What fresh hell was this?

             
It seemed an eternity before her insides calmed, and even when they did, she rested her forehead against the toilet seat until she felt steady enough to walk. Outside the bathroom, Liam was waiting for her, worry coloring his features starkly. “What is it? Are you ill? I can fetch Nita.”

             
The thought of her cousin's sickly smelling concoctions made the woman's stomach turn once more, but she managed to keep her composure. “I'm fine now. It's passed. I must have eaten something rancid this morning.”

             
“Probably something the human made.” Viola glared at her mate as he grumbled under his breath about Yuna's cooking. To insult the younger woman was one thing, but to debase her cooking was a crime almost too severe for words.

             
“It was nothing of Yuna's concoction.” She declared loyally, brushing past her mate to start out of their private wing. “Speaking of which, I'm going to speak with her. If there really are hunters about, the quicker she convinces Luther to leave, the better.”

             
Liam didn't even bother to argue with her. Viola would hope that after so many years that he'd learned how fruitless it was.

             
As she made her way down the manor's main staircase, another, smaller wave of nausea rolled over her and she had to pause for a moment and take a breath. What on earth was the matter with her? She'd always had an iron stomach.

             
Perhaps Yuna would have a more palatable medicine that she could partake of.

**

              The pain.

             
God, the pain.

             
Moaning deliriously, Yuna contorted beneath the coverlet as she clutched her huge stomach.

             
She didn't ever think she'd endured such agony in her life. Turning onto her side, she gritted her teeth and gasped as she felt the skin of her abdomen undulate beneath her fingertips. From within came a ripping, burning sensation that made her cry out as she tumbled from the mattress to the floor.

             
Gasping, the young woman pulled herself hellishly over the bare marble floor toward the nearest available chair. She had to get help... someone had to help her... As another sharp pain ripped through her, Yuna screamed, scrabbling at the stone beneath her until her fingernails were bloody.

             
She screamed until her vocal cords snapped, until she tasted blood, but still, no one came.

             
Red-tinted tears streaked her face as she worked herself onto her back. Her stomach was now stretching and contorting, and as the young woman's gaze fixed on the sky beyond the window and the full, crimson tinged moon beyond, she knew that her child was going to destroy her.

              “Yuna!”

             
With a gasp, Yuna jerked awake, her eyes flying wide as she slammed back into the conscious world. She shrieked at a foreign touch at her arm and flailed wildly, clutching her still aching stomach to turn and see-

             
Viola.

             
As the young woman realized where she was, and as the terrifying tendrils of her dream slowly released her from their clutches, her expression softened and her body relaxed. Viola's face, however, did not. “Yuna.” She spoke the dark-haired woman's name again, softer this time. “What is it? What's wrong?”

             
Her baby... Luther's baby...

             
It had been her time. She'd been alone, isolated, and the thing inside her had been ready to tear her apart in its efforts to be born- “A dream.” On a hastily exhaled breath, Yuna forced herself to calm. It had only been a dream. It didn't mean anything. She was frightened and uncertain, of course her mind would concoct an all manner of frightening scenarios. “It was just a bad dream.”

             
Viola eyed her skeptically; but as the Yuna's breathing slowed further and the tension in her limbs ebbed, the crimson haired woman finally nodded, choosing not to press her. “It must have been a pretty terrible nightmare for you to have been screaming like that. I could hear you from the front drive.”

             
Yuna managed a weak smile of amusement. “Your sense of hearing might be somewhat heightened above a normal human's, Viola. I'm fine.”

             
“As you say.” The dark eyed woman replied, finally withdrawing her hand to shift at the edge of the bed. With a sigh, Yuna glanced around the darkening room. Everything was as it had been before she'd fallen asleep. She had intended only to take a short nap, but it seemed that being pregnant sapped more of her strength than she would have thought. It was far past dinner time, and the roast that she'd marinated would certainly have spoiled on the kitchen counter.

             
Strange; even in the wake of her heinous nightmare, she was still more vested in her stomach than in her apprehensions.

             
“Viola... what time is it?” Glancing around, the young woman searched for her alarm clock, only to find that Luther had considerately unplugged it. Her lover was nowhere in sight, however.

             
“Luther left to go into town. He said he needed to pick up a few things. I... wasn't going to wake you, but this is the perfect opportunity for us to speak privately.”

             
At the dark timbre of her companion's words, Yuna arched a brow. “Don't we usually speak privately?”

             
“This time, I want to make absolutely certain that Luther does not hear these words before you. It is your progeny that the matter involves, and I believe that you should be the first to know.”

             
Her statement sent a chill down the younger woman's spine. “What, exactly, is it that you wanted to talk about?”

             
Viola's eyes narrowed, filling with a strange and frightening light. “Hunters.”

             
While the tone of her voice was enough to make Yuna's arms stand out in goosebumps, the dark-haired girl wasn't versed enough in the history of moonkind to understand the implications of the imposing term. “Hunters... of your kind? Of the Douglas clan?”

             
“Of every one of our species.” Viola returned lowly, shaking her head in disgust. “While I can't remember the last time one of our kind killed a human, Hunters seem to be constantly murdering us. Or at least, that was the case the last time we heard of them going on the warpath.”

             
“And when was that?”

             
“More than a decade ago... until only recently.” Viola ran a hand through her hair in what Yuna had come to recognize as a nervous gesture. “Liam told me today that they recently visited the den.” The mention of the location which where she'd been captured and imprisoned to wait for the Elder's judgment enveloped her in a strange mixture of emotions. Though she'd been held there against her will, the sight had also been where Luther had bonded with her during the ripening, and as such, it held special meaning for her.

             
“What... what happened?”