Twice Tempted: Between Two Alphas (Mia and Cameron) novel Chapter 95

Chapter Ninety-Five

I make it three steps down the stairs before I realize how stupid that plan is.

I don’t have my wolf. Eric would catch me before I made it off the airstrip.

One hint of betrayal from me, and he’d call the whole mission off.

Cam has our daughter right now. Eric is my link to Cam.

Eric can’t use his Alpha commands to compel me right now, but he doesn’t need to when he holds my daughter’s fate in his hands.

So I join him at the bottom of the stairs. His face twitches, indicating that he’s communicating with someone in his pack.

I want to ask who it is and what they’re talking about. I hate being in the dark like this. Without my wolf, I’m not just cut off from half of myself—I’m cut off from everyone around me.

“Was that Cam? Is it about the baby?”

“I didn’t mean to call you that,” he says. “She was…well, I thought she was—”

“I don’t care about that,” I lie.

It stings. How could it not? I’ve spent half my life jealous of my sister. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose we’re even—I kept Mia’s mate from her for years, she slept with mine—but thinking of Mia and Eric together hurts.

Mia’s always had options. I’ve never had that luxury. Everything I have I’ve fought for tooth and nail, but in the end I always wind up in the same place: with nothing.

“Eric, if there’s news about Merilee, you have to tell me,” I say.

“I will. But right now, you need to pull yourself together and follow my lead. We’ve got company.”

I tense, ready for an attack. But looking around the airstrip, I don’t see anyone but Eric and his flight crew. They’re unloading our minimal baggage and getting the jet ready to fly back to Eric’s pack lands. Whatever threat Eric sensed, I can’t find it.

Then a man approaches us from the hangar. He’s in a fur-lined cap, heavy work boots, and a waxed coat. His face is lined with age. The knees of his canvas pants and the elbows of his jacket are well-worn. He’s the picture of a born and bred Alaskan—and definitely human.

Not a threat, then.

“Are you MacPhearson?”

Eric approaches him with a broad, friendly smile.

“Yes. You must be Bill, our pilot.”

The men shake hands, but Bill eyes me warily the whole time.

The words ring true because Eric means them. As much as he might want to push me off a glacier, he won’t do it.

Bill huffs out a sharp breath but doesn’t push the issue. He heads off to load our bags, muttering to himself about “tourists with more money than sense.”

Eric keeps his arm locked around my waist. His grip is sturdy like he’s afraid my knees are going to give out and I’m going to collapse. Or like he knows I thought about running.

“It was Cam,” he says quietly. “He and Mia are delayed. They’re going to bring Merilee to meet us as soon as possible, but there’s been a…complication.”

Terror races through me. Okay, maybe there is a risk of me collapsing.

“Is Merilee okay? Did she get worse?”

He shakes his head. “No, it’s not Merilee. She’s the same as before.”

I don’t like the way he’s frowning. Whatever the complication is, it’s rattled him.

“Tell me, Eric. This delay affects my child. I deserve to know what’s going on.”

He sighs and squares his shoulders like he’s bracing himself for something.

“It’s Mia. She’s pregnant.”