Claimed by Shadows (The Shadowmen #2)

Chapter 30

CHAPTER THIRTY

“ISLAND” BY SVRCINA

IRIS

H unter makes the most delicious spread of food I’ve ever eaten; succulent meat dressed in herbs and spices, gorgeous wild rice with vegetables and almonds, and the most sublime Peach shortcake with Sindyanna cream that has me moaning and three heated gazes locked on me.

I drop my stare, unable to hold theirs as a feeling of faintness rolls over me. I know where this leads, and while at Serene Haven I could keep my secret hidden, here, they will want to see all of me and won’t be able to miss my rounded stomach.

“I’m going to get ready for bed,” I say in a rush, getting to my feet and hurrying to the bedroom, grabbing my silk robe and going into the beautiful bathroom, shutting the door behind me and locking it.

With trembling hands, I strip off, looking at my body in the large mirror on the wall. My soft lace bra can’t hide that my boobs are bigger, which are so fucking tender at the moment. My knickers also sit under the swell of my stomach, highlighting the slight roundness even more.

“You knew you had to tell them at some point, Iris,” I whisper to my reflection, trailing my fingertips over my stomach. There’s a small flutter inside, and my lips twitch. “I know, little one. I’m not ashamed. Just…scared. I can’t lose them.”

“Everything okay, Peaches?” I jump as Hunt’s voice sounds from outside the door, his tone tinged with worry.

“Y–yes. I’m fine,” I rush out, throwing the robe over me, tying the belt, and flushing the toilet as if that’s why I was in here. “Be out in a minute.”

I try to calm my breathing as I unlock the door, opening it to find all three of them in the room, matching looks of concern furrowing their brows as they stare at me.

“Hey,” Hunt murmurs softly, stepping close and brushing his fingers down my arm, leaving tingles in his wake. “We don’t have to do anything you’re uncomfortable with. We just want to worship you, in whatever way you are happy with.”

His fingers tangle with the tie around my waist, and he starts to pull one end, but my hands fly to the edges of the silk, keeping it closed.

“I… I can’t,” I stutter, clutching my robe tighter as a wave of panic rushes over me, leaving me almost dizzy.

Hunt’s eyes narrow, his gaze darting to where I hold my robe closed, and my mouth goes dry. “What do you mean you can’t, Peaches?”

The twins exchange confused glances before they settle back on me, and it feels as though the walls are closing in, the secret that I’ve kept for these past four months clamouring to be set free, threatening to burst out of me. They step towards me, and usually being surrounded by my guys makes me feel safe, but tonight I just feel like I can’t take in enough air.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Roman says softly, reaching for my hand, and it’s the look of understanding, of sorrow in his usually laughing brown eyes that is my undoing. “Whatever it is?—”

“I’m pregnant!” The words explode from me, hanging in the suddenly silent air. My tight body sags, like finally telling them has released me from a burden that I never wanted but had all the same. It’s a relief, even as barbed-winged butterflies threaten to tear my insides apart as I look at each of their faces.

Three pairs of eyes are wide in shock, three mouths slightly agape as they stare at me. I watch as understanding dawns on their faces, their eyes clearing. Then it’s followed swiftly by a storm of emotions I can’t begin to untangle, regardless of how desperate I am to learn how they feel. To beg them not to hate me for keeping my rapist’s baby.

“You’re... what?” Roman whispers, his voice barely audible, but as his eyes dart down to my stomach, then back up to my face, I know he heard me loud and clear.

I swallow hard, my hand instinctively moving to my stomach as I take a deep inhale. “I’m pregnant,” I repeat, softer this time, my fingers stroking across the silk covering my small bump. As if my baby knows I need the support, there’s a flutter and my lips tremble. “And it’s... it’s Sergi’s.”

Roman stumbles, taking a few steps back and sitting heavily on the bed as if he’s been knocked over. His gaze stares out at nothing, his hands raking through his long hair, his lips parted but unmoving. Hunt growls, stepping away with sharp, jerky movements, the sound sending shivers up my spine as his fists clench and unclench at his sides, his jaw tight as his gaze bores into mine.

“I won’t get rid of it, Hunt. This baby is innocent and I won’t take its life just because of the sins of its father.” My voice is unwavering, uncompromising as I speak my truth.

I’ve had months to accept it, to make my decision, and nothing will shift me from it. A pang makes my heart twinge, thinking that it may cost me the loyalty and love of these men, my soulmates, but if they were truly the other parts of me, they wouldn’t make me choose.

Rowan shifts, having been silent the whole time, his gaze intense as he stares at the ground before my bare feet. I can’t read what’s going on in his amber eyes, and sweat drips down my spine as I wait for his judgement. His gaze finally meets mine, and I freeze when he closes the distance between us, his presence like an incoming snowstorm, all swirling violence and freezing winds. I can’t move, can’t do a damn thing as he gets closer, his eyes never leaving mine.

He suddenly drops to his knees, a gasp leaving my lips as he parts the robe that I was clutching so closely to me only moments before. The silk slips between my fingers, tears stinging my eyes as he brings out one of his favourite blades, the twin of the one he gave me that Sergi stole all those weeks ago.

My heartbeat thrashes in my ears, my palms slick even as I’m frozen, waiting to see what he plans to do with the knife.

Then my mouth drops open when he slices the metal across his palm, bringing his steady hand to the small swell of my stomach, and placing his palm flat across my skin. It’s warm, almost burning, and I can feel the wetness of the blood branding me.

“I swear on the blood that runs through my cursed veins to love and protect our baby with every fucked up part of me.” I can barely see his beautiful face through my tears, his words tearing into me and stitching up a part of me I didn’t even know was torn. “I’m so fucking sorry you’ve been alone in this, Lamb, but we will look after you both, every day for the rest of our lives because they are nothing without you.”

“Oh, Roo,” I sob, looking up as Roman comes up beside his brother, and my hand flies to my mouth when he drops to his knees too.

“Pass me the knife, brother,” he says, his voice firm and missing the teasing element it usually has.

Rowan gives him the blade without hesitation but keeps his palm in place, and I swear my baby gives a fluttering kick, which he doesn’t feel but I do.

With hardly a clench of his teeth, Roman slices his own palm, placing his hand next to his twin’s and adding his bloody handprint to my stomach.

“You’ve made this family so much more than I ever dared dream of, Princess, and I don’t give a fuck who shares genes with this baby. It’s ours, just like you are, and I will love it just like I love you. You have my protection, both of you, and you have my heart. All of me belongs to all of you.”

I can’t speak, the lump in my throat too big at their acceptance, their declarations warming me inside out. Movement in front of us has my watery gaze darting up to find Hunt, his jaw tight as his eyes take us in.

His emerald gaze locks with mine as he strides towards our group, and a bolt of fear makes my breath stall in my lungs at the fierce look in his eyes.

“Knife,” he snarls, and Roman hands it to him, but he doesn’t take his gaze from mine as his arms moves, his teeth bared when the metal bites into his skin. “I am fucking livid that you think I would force you to have an abortion, Peaches,” he says between gritted teeth, the knife making a loud thunk as he drops it to the floor. “I may enjoy bending your body to my will, pushing your boundaries, and taking what’s fucking mine, but I would never make a decision like that. Steal away your choice like that.” He doesn’t drop to his knees, of course he doesn’t. He’s Hunter Anderson, leader of the Shadowmen. Instead, he stalks behind me, and my body trembles as he presses the heat of his skin against my back. His arms come around me from behind, his bloody hand landing just above the twins’ on my rounded stomach. “There is no fucking question that I will protect you and our baby. That I will love you both with every fucking atom in my being. That our child will want for nothing, least of all affection, because this baby is a part of you and I don’t give a fuck if half of its DNA belongs to that dead cunt walking. All of it belongs to me, to us, and we protect what’s ours.”

A sob rips through me as I sag in his arms, letting all three of them support me as tears fall down my cheeks, scalding my skin.

“I— I was so scared that I’d lose you all,” I stutter, my hands tangling in the twins’ hair and pulling them closer as Hunt wraps me tighter in his embrace. “But I just couldn’t get rid of my baby. I just couldn’t do it.”

“Shhh, I know, baby,” Hunt soothes me, his other hand brushing the tears from my cheeks. “And we would never ask you to, my love.”

The twins get up, keeping their palms on my stomach, as if that touch alone will protect our unborn baby from the world that they will be born into. My hands slide from their hair, gripping their biceps to keep them close.

“We’ll get started on the nursery tomorrow, Princess,” Roman tells me gently, and more tears fall down my cheeks. “It can have my room. Rowan and I moved our shit in here anyway.”

I nibble my lower lip as a chill runs down my spine, and Rowan pulls it from my teeth.

“What is it, Lamb?” he asks, and it doesn’t surprise me he’s the one to notice my unease.

“It’s so far from here, your room, I mean,” I say, glancing up through tear-studded lashes at Rowan and then Roman.

“Fuck, you are already the best mother. Protecting our baby so fucking well,” Rowan coos, his free hand cupping my cheek. I take a gasping inhale, heat flaring through me as he thrusts his hardness against my thigh.

“We move the office somewhere else and build the nursery next door,” Hunt states behind me, nuzzling his face into my neck and peppering kisses down my skin. “And the fact that you are such a fierce mama bear is such a fucking turn-on, Peaches.” His hand moves from my face to cup one of my swollen breasts, and he groans long and low in my ear. “Her breasts have already gotten bigger, filling up to feed our child.”

Oh. My. God.

Why are their words such a turn-on? Heat licks up my spine as he fondles and rolls my nipple between his fingers, my eyelids fluttering. I open them fully when a hand glides down from my stomach, not pausing as fingers dive underneath my knickers to slide against my damp slit.

“She’s already so wet for us too, though lube is always helpful,” Rowan rasps, sliding his fingers lower. His other hand is still on my face, and it’s with a start that I realise he’s using his cut hand to play with my pussy. That the lube he’s talking about is his own blood.

“Oh god,” I moan as he thrusts two fingers inside me, lighting me up in the best possible ways.

“I need to see these tits,” Roman groans, and I jerk as my lace bralette is ripped from me. “Fuck, baby. They’re incredible.” His head dips down, his tongue lashing my nipple as Hunt holds up my breast for him and his brother toys with my clit. “When do you think we’ll get some milk from them?”

“I, um, I think you h–have to be careful,” I stutter as he continues to lick and suck my nipple, Rowan adding another finger inside my pussy that has me arching into him. “I–It can cause early labour if you try too hard to get some out before the baby comes.”

Roman pauses, rolling his eyes up to me. “Noted.” Then he goes back to playing with my sensitive nipple with his tongue and teeth, not sucking, but it still sends shock waves through me.

“Are they sensitive, Peaches?” Hunt whispers in my ear, moving his bloodied hand from my stomach to play with my other breast, and I gasp sharply.

“Y–yes,” I whimper, loving the pleasurable release of their touch even as I squirm.

“One day soon, I’m going to make you come from playing with your tits and nothing else,” he rasps before sucking the skin on the side of my throat. “But for now, be Daddy’s good girl and come all over Rowan’s bloody fingers.”

His words are the shove I need, and I dig my nails into Roman and Rowan’s skin as I cry out with an earth-shattering release. My head rests back on Hunt’s shoulder as the waves consume me completely, filling me up until I am a being made of pure pleasure, held in the arms of my soulmates.

When I finally open my eyes, my vision hazy with the afterglow, my Shadows are still there, surrounding me.

“What was it I promised you earlier, Peaches? When you told me how gallant I was?”