Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

him.”
    Not wanting to anger the man, Jacqueline did as she was told. She stared into the wide, panicked eyes of the guard as she lowered the needle to his arm and injected him. Just as planned, the man’s eyes rolled back into his head as his body began to jerk. The serum was a cocktail of three drugs she had combined together. The first caused the seizure, the second was a sedative that should have knocked him out for hours, but with enhanced shifter healing, it would only be minutes. The final medicine was a hallucinogenic just in case her plan took a little longer. If the guard woke up before she could act, then she needed his behavior to be altered enough for Percival to think the serum had worked.
    While Percival’s attention was solely on the guard, Jacqueline slowly made her way around the gurney toward him. She reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the syringes. It contained a cocktail she had made just for Percival and was intended to kill the man. The lethal combination in the syringe would kill him quickly, which was more than he deserved, but Jacqueline didn’t care, as long as she was free of him for good.
    Taking a breath to calm her nerves, Jacqueline lifted the syringe and stabbed it into Percival’s neck. She had her thumb on the plunger and had started pressing it down just as a large explosion shook the ground. Jacqueline was thrown away from Percival and lost her hold on the needle. She was unable to brace herself because she used her hands to cradle her stomach, which caused her head to bounce against the floor several times before she came to a stop against something solid.
    The room had gone dark, and Jacqueline wasn’t sure if it was from the explosion or the head injury she surely had. She smiled, not caring either way because her mate was there. She felt Ben coming, getting closer and closer with each rapid beat of her heart.
    “You bitch! I will kill you for this.”
    She heard Percival groan and saw him staggering to his feet through the smoke filling the room. Jacqueline gasped as every nerve in her body felt as though it had begun to vibrate at the closeness of her mate. She couldn’t see him yet, but she could hear booted steps getting closer and closer. Percival must have heard them as well because he paused his steps toward her and hesitated as if trying to decide if he had enough time to kill her. Evidently, he decided she wasn’t worth it because he turned and ran into the other direction.
    “Don’t worry, little one,” Jacqueline whispered to her baby. “Daddy is here to take us home.”
    Ben came into the room just then, and Jacqueline felt her pulse soar at the sight of seeing him. She watched as he scanned the room until those chocolate eyes of his finally landed on her. When he saw her, he rushed over and dropped to his knees. He gently lifted her into his arms and cradled her.
    Jacqueline felt safe and protected for the first time in four months. “Hi,” she whispered as she smiled up at him. Now that she knew he was there and wouldn’t let anything happen to her, she gave in to the throbbing of her head and let the darkness wash over her.
     
    * * * *
     
    Ben pulled his little mate against his chest and held her as tight as he could. He hadn’t been able to let her go since he had found her lying on the floor in Percival’s bunker. They’d gone back to Mitch’s home, and he had immediately carried her up to his bedroom. After gently undressing her, he put her in his bed and climbed in behind her. He needed to feel her skin against his, to feel her warmth, and to smell her spicy cinnamon scent. Ben needed all of those things to let him know his mate was really there and it wasn’t some dream.
    He ran his hand down to her stomach and rested it on the swell of her belly and smiled. When Jacqi had gone away, her stomach had been flat. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell her she was pregnant. Now, his pup was resting there, safe and sound.
    “We both missed you.”
    Ben lifted his head at the sound of Jacqi’s voice. “You have no idea how much I missed the both of you. I thought I was going to go crazy.”
    Jacqi turned over on her back so that he was above her. “I’m so sorry, Ben. He got into the house somehow, and all I could think was that he was there because of me. I couldn’t let Tessa and Nico be hurt because of that. You have to believe me. If I had known I was pregnant, I would have never risked my life like that.”
    Ben