Rhyn's Redemption (Book III, Rhyn Trilogy)

Chapter Seven

Heat surged through his body, but he hesitated. She really believed this was the last time they’d be together.

“Is this place even real?” he asked.

“Does it matter?”

Rhyn smiled faintly, admiring the woman before him.  She was foolishly stubborn and lippy – and he loved that about her.  She was the first creature ever to see beyond his half-demon curse. She’d stayed strong in Hell, through confrontations with demons and Immortals alike, through his own failures.  She hadn’t just survived; she’d found some part of him to believe in.

The idea of caring for her overwhelmed him again.  He’d never had a reason to try to control his power or to focus on anything other than surviving.  That a simple little mortal could show him just how little his Immortal and demon powers really meant humbled him.  If he found his way, it would be because of her. 

Her distress and sorrow were, buried but he still saw them.  She was trying to be brave, asking him for one last moment of comfort before what she thought was the end. He owed her that, and so much more.

“No, it doesn’t,” he said softly.  He reached out to her.  His hands trailed down her soft cheek and tangled in her wayward curls.  With his index finger, he drew a line from her chin, down her neck, between her breasts and rested his hand on her belly, where the hatchling grew.

A different kind of sorrow filled him, one he recognized as regret.  If he failed, he’d never see the little girl Katie carried.  Their hatchling would be as stubborn as her mother, and he could almost imagine huge eyes as blue and clear as Katie’s peering out at him from a sweet, curly-headed demon child’s face.  He wished he’d told Katie how terrified – but thrilled – he’d been when she told him about the hatchling.  He wished he knew one fucking thing about raising a child or being a mate.  Every one of his brothers could’ve managed these things, but his nature left him better apt at destroying than nurturing.

At least he could kill anything that came near his mate and child, if he had the chance.  He’d been reluctant to accept any role with the Immortals, fearing his own broken nature was too weak.

“I’m sorry, Katie,” he said.

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“I didn’t protect you.  You shouldn’t have had to make the choice you did.”

She took his hand, squeezed it and then wrapped her arms around him. “I don’t regret it, Rhyn.  You’ve had the deck stacked against you.  The least I could do was give you a second chance.”

“You’re the only one who would.”

“The Immortals need you.  They’re too fucking stupid to know it, but Kris can’t manage Hannah let alone the Council,” she added. “You have so much to give, Rhyn.  You just have to believe you can.”

“I’d trade everything for you.”

“But you won’t, because you promised me,” she reminded him. “Besides, you have to show up Kris and the rest of them.” A peaceful quiet settled over them until she spoke again. “Do you like the name Hazel?”

He shrugged.

“If we would’ve lived through this, I’d name our baby Hazel.”

“When we get through this,” he corrected her.

“If we get through this, we get to spend our lives together.  I don’t know anything about you, Rhyn,” Katie said. “What the hell happened to you to make you as you are?”