Chapter Thirty-Three

Zeke

I t had taken a few hours, but Amara was finally released from the hospital. The doctor had told her to take it easy for a couple of days since she was still going to be a bit weak from all the smoke she had inhaled, and he and the guys had every intention of making sure she did.

Leaning against the bathroom sink, Zeke had his arms folded as he kept an eye on Amara while she showered. Drake stood to his right, leaning against the cabinet, and Knox was to his left, sitting on the counter and doing something on his phone. The bathroom was humid and steamy due to the heat from the shower, and he could see her naked form through the frosted glass of the shower doors.

Maybe it was a bit overbearing, but none of them felt comfortable letting her shower alone. In fact, they didn’t want to let her out of their sight at all. They had almost lost her today. It had been way too close for comfort, and their wolves needed to be near her to reassure them that she was okay.

When he found her in the shop, unconscious and curled up with one arm wrapped around her stomach as if to protect their unborn child, Zeke had thought they were too late. The normally flawless skin on her arms had been red and blistered from the fire being less than three feet away from her. He knew without a doubt that, if they had shown up just a few seconds later, if they had hesitated for even a moment, then Amara wouldn’t be here, and neither would their child. He had never been more afraid in his life than he had been that night.

Once they got her to the hospital and the doctors had taken her back to check her out, he began wracking his brain to try to figure out who could have done this. He and the guys hadn’t exactly been saints since they left pack life, crossing paths with people they shouldn’t and screwing over deals with those more powerful than them at the time to get what they wanted. The list of possibilities was endless, and that terrified him. When the culprit figured out that Amara was still alive, there was a very good chance that they would come after her again. As far as he was concerned, she was still in danger.

They never used to care who they pissed off before, but that was because they didn’t have anything to lose. Now they did, and he feared that their past was coming back to bite them in the ass.

It also didn’t go unnoticed that Amara had been strangely quiet since they left the hospital. He was sure that discovering that they were having twins was a bit of a shock, but he was even more sure that her silence was about more than just that.

Zeke had been shocked to discover they were having twins too, but he was also excited about it. All three of them were. He had thought that, once he left the pack, becoming a father wasn’t in the cards for him anymore. That had obviously changed, and now that he was preparing to become one, he couldn’t help but dream of the future. Even if it was muddied by recent events.

Amara turned off the shower and opened the frosted door. She looked up and met all their gazes as she reached for the towel on the hook before she rolled her eyes. “Are you three always going to be overprotective like this?”

“Yes,” they all responded with no hesitation at all.

“May as well get used to it, little bunny,” Knox added.

Zeke stepped forward and took the towel from her, gently wrapping it around her small frame. “You almost died today, Princesa. You can’t blame us.”

Amara sighed softly in response. “But I’m fine. I’m still alive.”

“You almost weren’t,” Drake murmured. “We saw what you looked like when we found you. If we had gotten there just a few seconds later, there would have been nothing left of you.”

Amara pressed her lips together as she moved toward the sink. She grabbed a smaller towel and began to dry her hair as she said, “ So, we are having twins.”

Zeke, Drake, and Knox exchanged looks. It was clear to them that she was trying to change the subject. Something about the fire made her uncomfortable. But what?

“We’re going to need another crib,” he replied, playing along. For now.

“Already took care of it,” Knox told them both, waving his phone in front of him. “I got some extra toys and clothes too.”

Amara’s gaze went to Knox through the mirror, her eyebrows raised. “That was fast.”

Knox finally looked up from his phone and grinned at her. “What can I say, I’m excited.”

As she began drying her hair once more, Zeke watched her closely. He realized then that she was having a hard time maintaining eye contact, and her smile didn’t reach her eyes.

His eyes narrowed slightly. “Why are you changing the subject, Princesa?” he asked her pointedly.

She blinked and shook her head quickly. Too quickly. “I’m not.”

“Yes, you are,” Drake chimed in. “Is something wrong?”

Instead of meeting their eyes, Amara busied herself with searching for something on the counter. It was just another indication that she was hiding something. “No. Why would something be wrong?”

“Because your tone is a little higher pitched than it was a few seconds ago,” Knox replied, pocketing his phone with a frown.

She turned to them and lifted an eyebrow. “You pay attention to my tone now?”

Zeke nodded. “When we notice something wrong, yes.”

After a moment, Amara sighed and shook her head. “It’s… It’s nothing. Really.”

The bathroom fell quiet for a moment, and he and Drake exchanged another look, but it was Knox who broke the silence. “You know you did this, don’t you?”

Her head snapped up, her eyes wide, and he knew then that Knox was right. She knew who did this to her, and she had been keeping it from them. “I didn’t… I don’t…”

Gently grasping her waist, Zeke pulled her close to his chest and tilted her head to meet his gaze. “No one is going to hurt you. Tell us so we can figure this out.”

“There’s nothing to figure out,” she muttered as if ashamed. “You know who it was.”

The growl that came out of Knox was inhuman, and it made Amara flinch in his arms. “I told you it was her asshole father.”

“He said that, if I don’t go home, he’s going to kill us all,” she added in a whisper, her hand going up to her throat. “He… he was there, at the hospital, when I woke up.”

His anger began to rage inside of him, but he didn’t outwardly show it. He didn’t want to alarm Amara more than she already was. Knox was radiating enough rage for all three of them, and Zeke had noticed that she was beginning to shy away from it a bit, pressing deeper into his chest. Even though he wanted to kill the bastard just as much as Knox did, he had to remain her rock. That was who he had always been for her.

“What did he say?” Drake asked, slowly reaching up and brushing a wet strand of hair out of her face.

“Just what I said. He wants me to come back, or he’s going to kill us. He doesn’t like being disobeyed. He said he’s going to use us as an example for the rest of the pack. If I don’t fall in line, I die. I guess some of the others are starting to try to leave too.”

Zeke met Drake’s gaze over Amara’s head. “What do you want to do?” he asked him, fighting like hell to keep his tone even.

“What the fuck are you even asking for?” Knox exclaimed loudly, also looking over at Drake. “You already said that, if he went after her again, we’d take care of it.”

In truth, Zeke didn’t know how much to say in front of Amara because he didn’t know where she stood on the matter. But her father had to be taken care of. Brad would always be a threat to his mate, and he would do everything in his power to make good on his threat. He already tried once, and they had been lucky that they found her in time.

“You’re going to kill him, aren’t you?” Amara whispered.

“Don’t worry about it,” Drake replied.

“She has a right to know that I’m going to rip him to fucking pieces,” Knox interjected through clenched teeth.

“Knox,” Zeke warned.

“What? I’m not going to fucking lie to her!”

“And we are not asking you to,” Drake stated. “But can you be a little more fucking sensitive about it? He may be a monster, but he’s still her father.”

Knox scoffed. “Father or not, he’s a fucking threat to what’s mine. That’s something I’m not fucking okay with.”

With that, Knox turned and stormed from the bathroom, throwing the door open so hard that it banged against the wall, denting the plaster.

“Knox, wait!” Amara called after him.

As she moved to follow him, Zeke stopped her with an arm around her waist. “Don’t. Just let him go.”

“What? Why?”

“When he gets amped up like this, it’s best to leave him alone to cool off,” Drake explained.

Amara shook her head. “That is the worst idea ever! What if he goes to score again?”

Drake shrugged. “You just have to trust him to keep his word to you, baby.”

At his words, she deflated a little. “I hate this. I hate every bit of this.”

It wasn’t clear which part of this she hated, but Zeke didn’t blame her. It was a shitty situation. But once Knox cooled off a bit, the four of them would sit down and talk about what their next steps were going to be. They would go over their options and see where Amara stood on everything. Whatever they chose to do next would be her decision.