The Haven (Book 2 of The Claiming)

Chapter Eighteen

"Belle!" Ada's screech is an echo in my ears as I fall to my knees, my mind numb with shock, my body pulsing in excruciating pain.

Walden yanks the dagger out of me and glares triumphantly at his friends. He frowns.

As my vision begins to blur, I hear gunshots that pierce my eardrums, and then a screech, the crunch of bone, and then nothing.

My heart pounds in my ears.

Lights blinding.

Voices.

Lights.

Heart.

Blood.

Lots of blood.

A warm hand in mine.

My baby.

His voice seems to fade in from nowhere. His sweet, tender voice that would talk to me until I fell asleep under the stars, under the dusty ceiling fan of the farmhouse, under the rattling ceiling of the RV.

"...and as soon as he turned on me, I clobbered him over the head with the hilt of my sword. You should have seen it, Belle. It was pathetic. My own mentor gets beaten by the one-armed wimp."

I blink. White lights flood my vision, and I squint. It doesn't hurt, though. Nothing hurts. In fact, I feel numb all over.

"You're not a wimp," I croak.

Beside me, I hear him shift quickly and something crash into the ground. "Belle!"

As my eyes adjust, I see him reach above my head and tap something. I hear a small buzz. The room is bathed in white. I have an IV drip attached to my arm to the left of the bed, and Alec to my right.

Alec grabs both my hands in his and plants a kiss on my cheek. "You have no idea how relieved I am right now..."

Questions scroll through my brain, but I don't know where to start. Why the heck am I here in the first place?

"How do you feel?" Alec asks me.

"I don't feel anything. What happened to me?" I guess we'll start there.

"You don't remember?" Alec's voice changes suddenly. He's worried and nervous at the same time. "We're at war now, Belle. With Bayfell."

Bayfell.

Walden.

All at once, I remember the wretched man with the knife.

My eyes shoot down to my stomach.

My flat stomach.

In horror, I look back at Alec, whose expression says it all.

"They tried to do an emergency C-section when Ada and Natalie brought you in. The damage was too much."

I hear his throat tighten as he speaks.

"It was a boy, Belle. We were having a little boy."

My mouth gapes. And then the tears burst from my eyes and I collapse sideways into Alec's arms. I hear him cry, too.

"He killed our baby," I choke.

Alec runs his fingers through my tangled hair, holding me tightly to him. "I know, love."

I glance up through tear-filled eyes at the entrance to the hospital room when I hear footsteps. My mother and father stand beside each other, and Alec's mom and dad peer in at us from behind them. Suddenly, I envy my mother's pregnant belly, swollen with life.