Sin Undone

“Can we get a minute?” he asked, and everyone but Kar drifted to the other side of the room. He drew her toward the fireplace. “How are you doing?” “I’m scared.” She looked down at her stockinged feet. She was wearing his wool socks, which were twice as big as her feet, and they looked adorable on her. Adorable? Shit, he hadn’t even known that word was in his vocabulary.

He took her hand, and though it felt awkward, it also felt… good. “You don’t have to do it, Kar.” “Yes, I do.” She inhaled deeply, blew the breath out for a long time, as though gathering the courage to speak. “I hadn’t planned to tell you about the baby. At least, that’s what I told myself. But I didn’t have a choice. Not really.” She paused, let a few heartbeats pass, enough that Luc got antsy before she swallowed audibly and continued. “I was faced with a pregnancy I didn’t know how to deal with, because of what I am. I’m out of a job, The Aegis is hunting me, and if my father knew… he might see the baby as a monster. I could have gone to my mother, but she doesn’t know what I am, and I don’t know what she’d do if she found out. And how could I take care of the baby on the nights I shift? I know regular werewolf mothers don’t shift for a few years after giving birth, but I’m a different breed. God, I’m babbling. I know I am.” She tried to back away from him, but he gripped her hand tighter, forcing her to stay.

“Finish,” he said quietly. She sighed. “It’s just… I knew I couldn’t do it alone. My only choice was to find you… or let The Aegis find me. Better for them to kill me before I give birth than to kill me and do God knows what with the baby.”

The very idea chilled him to the bone. That she’d been so desperate as to even think of allowing those demon-slaying scumbags to kill her… Jesus. “I won’t let them touch you,” he swore. “I will keep you safe no matter what.”

“I know. Maybe it’s hormones, maybe it’s some sort of warg connection… but whatever it is, I know that about you. And I don’t want to lose our baby.” He traced a finger over the lush curves of her lips. “I’m glad you told me.” Holy hell, he couldn’t believe he’d just said that. “I can’t promise you a white picket fence and flowers and poetry,” he said gruffly. “All I have to offer you is…” He made an encompassing gesture around the cabin. “This. Some weapons and rabbit furs and me. But nothing will get past me to you or our kid.” Nothing. For the first time since becoming a werewolf, he’d lay down his life for someone else.

Gently, he tugged Kar into his arms, suddenly liking how she felt there. “And if anything ever happens to me, you still won’t be alone. Those people standing over there listening to every word we’re saying? They will make sure you’re safe and cared for. I promise.” Damn, he was shocked to discover that he meant what he’d just said. At some point, even as he watched his humanity fade away, he’d learned to trust the people who ran Underworld General.

“Thank you.”

“God, Kar, I should be thanking you. It’s been a long time since I had something to live for. So you’d better make it through this.”

“I will.”

Before he broke down and looked like an idiot Con would make fun of for the rest of his life, Luc stepped away and gestured to the group of eavesdroppers. “Let’s do it.”

Sin Undone





Twenty


Luc and Kar’s conversation sat in Sin’s gut like a hot coal. She knew little about Luc, except that he’d always been gruff and unfriendly. But the way he’d spoken to the female—yeah, Sin had eavesdropped, BFD—had been a shock. Not just the words themselves, but the affection threaded through the gruffness. He wasn’t used to caring about someone, and Sin could totally relate to that. It was foreign territory, and it made sense to tread carefully in situations where land mines made every step hazardous.

One wrong move could result in suffering and utter destruction.

Con didn’t seem to be unmoved either. He kept looking between Luc and Kar, his face expressionless, but raw pain and understanding flickered in the silver of his eyes.

“We’re doing it,” Kar repeated. “Cure my baby.” Sin guided Kar back to the couch and sat beside her. Luc took her other side, and Sin got a lump in her throat when he took Kar’s dainty hand in his big one. Eidolon came around front and kneeled before her.

“I’m going to get a blood sample before Sin starts, okay?” Kar nodded, but the fear in her face was obvious. Eidolon took a deep breath, and when he spoke, he still sounded like a doctor, but a nice doctor. One who wasn’t being all superior, like he usually was.

“Kar, I know this is hard. You’re a Guardian. We’re demons. Natural enemies. But you’re also a werewolf. You’ve obviously accepted that, so you’re going to need to accept your place in our world.”