The Beast's Possession

**Kala pov**

Although Zion joked about not being in the best shape these days, I wasn't blind to his attempts to keep me calm and spare me the stress caused by fear.

He was anything but in the best shape. In fact, this was the worst I had seen him since the day we met. Since.. Ever?

Even the last time when I snuck in the cells he looked far better than this, which meant that monster had visited again and did more unforgivable things to my mate.

Just wait and see, one day, I will figure out how to get my hands on that monster that hides within Bane and once I do - there will be hell that follows.

"Breathe, baby, breathe. Don't dwell on it, focus on anything positive that comes to your mind and don't let the hate get you. I'm here, I'm with you and that is all that really matters. You need to think about the child you are carrying, my love. Stress is bad for our bundle of joy, let's try to remain positive," Zion muttered as he pushed his body upright, leaned against the nearest wall and sucked in a few deeper breaths.

I reached out for him, trying my best to show that I could support him, hold onto him as we both left this god forsaken place, but before I could grab him, Zion shook his head.

There was a smile playing on his lips, the regular teasing one, which made me feel like we were back in the past, enjoying our moments together shortly after we moved into the home he created for us.

"No, you've done enough, my love. I need a moment to breathe and we can start looking for the closest exit. No way am I going to let you support my weight while you're already carrying the biggest treasure of my life," he beamed and looked down at my bump.

For a split second, I could see sadness cross his features, but Zion was quick to hide it with another smile, which sadly didn't reach his eyes. "I've missed so much of your life, little bug," he muttered, eyes still trained on the bump.

As if on instinct, my hand covered it as I stepped closer to Zion. Carefully, I reached out again to wrap my fingers around his wrist and pull his hand to my belly. "You haven't missed the most important milestones, Zion, those are ahead of us. All that matters is that you get better before our little one is born so you have enough energy for sleepless nights, diapers and chasing him around the house."

"Him?” Zion repeated, his wide eyes now focusing on mine, sparks of immense pride and happiness dancing in those beautiful orbs.

Whenever he looked at me like this, I felt weak in my knees. Was this the look he gave me when he got me pregnant? Was this cute, overwhelmingly adorable look on his face Zion's sex face? If so, I had to start planning more cribs and diapers in our future because I couldn't say no to him when he gazed at me like that.

"Yes," I whispered and covered his hand with mine. "Him."

"How do you know?" He asked, sounding like he struggled to believe me.

"Had a quick check up with the doc while Bane didn't pay attention. I found out fairly recently and wanted to keep the gender a secret until you would get out of those awful cells. So, tadaa, I suppose here we are."

If we weren't in a fucked up situation like this, I was sure Zion would sweep me off my feet and jump around, screaming at the top of his lungs.

He looked so darn happy, I couldn't hold back the tears.

Despite the injuries and pain, Zion pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me, holding me just as tightly as he always did. "I'm so proud of you baby," he whispered in my hair, "I'm so proud of us. We're having a little boy, I can't believe we're having a mini Zion."

The last words made me chuckle. Somehow, I knew that he would bring that up once he realized the gender of the baby. What I didn't expect was him, adding another thought, "I can't wait until we have a mini you too. Can you imagine how perfect it would be for us? A son and a daughter? Goddess has me in her prayers it seems."

A little shocked, I let out a nervous laugh. "Zion, love, I still have some time to go until our baby is ready to see the world. Don't you think it's too soon to plan the next one?"

"What? No!" He gasped, carefully squeezing me just a little tighter. "It's never too soon. Once the oven is empty and the docs give you the green light, we're stuffing it with another beautiful baby asap. Only if you will feel ready, of course, but I really want us to have two kiddos. Just imagine the happiness we'll have. Two kids, love, two kids."

Standing here and daydreaming felt perfect. I didn't need a fancy home or loads of money - all I needed was him, my mate, holding me like this and talking about the future we would have together.

But sadly, as everything that was too good in life, this moment faded eventually too. As the silence dragged in, it was followed by the realization of the harsh reality. We didn't sit on the couch in our comfortable home - we were both standing in an old, dirty tunnel with a madman possibly chasing us around.

"I think it's best we really leave this place. We can talk about the future and our dreams once we are sure there's no danger lurking around the corner. I'll make sure to talk your eyes off with baby names and ideas while you heal, don't worry," I added the last part in a desperate attempt to make light out of this situation.

"Yes, you're right, my love," Zion muttered and quickly pressed his lips to the top of my head before he gently pushed me away. "But I refuse to allow you to help me move forward. I might be tired, but I'm not weak, I can manage."

I didn't want to give in this time, really didn't, but when he started mentioning the strength he has and that of our growing baby, I couldn't find the words to fight back. Zion always knew what was best, so I had to learn how to trust him fully. Now that I had my mate by my side, all I needed to do was to find Aife and make sure she was fine. Perhaps she was the key to getting rid of our nightamer. I wasn't sure, but deep down, I had a feeling that only she was strong enough to bring Bane back to his senses. If anyone, who else if not his own mate?