Ride Wild (Raven Riders 3)

“Hi, there, hon,” a nurse wearing pink scrubs and a black Afro said. “How are you feeling?”

“Okay I think. A little sore,” Cora said as the woman checked her vitals.

“Do you need pain medicine?”

Cora nodded. “Maybe.”

“Okay, hon, I’ll get that ready for you.”

On a sudden inhale, Slider blinked awake, his gaze going from Cora to the nurse and back again. “Hey, is everything okay?”

“Yep,” the lady said. “Just checking in.”

“What’s wrong with me?” Cora managed. She remembered the truck, and the popping sound of gunfire, and then . . . Nothing.

“The doctor will be by within the hour to talk to you, but you suffered four gunshot wounds. They patched you back up real good though,” she said with a friendly smile. “Let me go get that pain medicine.”

Wow, that was a freaking lot to take in. “Four,” she said.

“Yeah,” Slider said, leaning closer, those pale green eyes intense and clear. “I talked to the doctor earlier, and he said they were able to repair everything. You had a few broken bones and a punctured lung, but they put you back together again.”

“What about the others?” she said, having a vague recollection of Slider saying everyone was okay before. But still, there were a lot of kinds of okay. And Cora needed to know.

“Wait, sweetheart, there’s something else you need to know,” he said.

“What is it?”

“It turns out . . . Cora, you’re pregnant,” he said, his expression so full of love.

The room went spinny around them, and then his words really sank in. “I’m pregnant. They said that?” He nodded. “They’re sure?” she asked, awe and disbelief and wonder shaking the ground beneath her. Because . . . because she was going to be a mom. And Slider was going to be a dad again—with her.

“It showed up in your bloodwork,” he said. A tentative smile played around his mouth and just brought out the hint of his dimple.

Then Cora gasped. Four gunshot wounds. Four. “Oh, God, do they know if the pregnancy will be okay?” Panic shot through her, and the pulse monitor spiked.

“Ssh,” he said, stroking her face. “Don’t worry. It’s very new but so far it’s fine. You just worry about healing you and the rest will work out the way it’s meant to be.”

Love and desire rushed through her because she wanted this baby to live. God, she wanted it so much, this child that she and Slider had made. But did Slider want it, too? “Does that mean you’d be okay if I had this baby?”

“Oh, Cora. I would be fucking ecstatic if you had this baby,” he said, so much emotion in his voice that it choked her up. He kissed her cheek, just a light brush of skin on skin. “For something so beautiful to come out of so much pain would be an amazing gift.”

“I’m so glad, because I want it, too.” She couldn’t stop the tears from falling no matter how hard she tried. Tears of hope and fear and love. She was going to be someone’s mom. She and Slider were having a baby together. And they were going to love this child—and Sam and Ben, too—so much that none of them would ever wonder if they were wanted or cherished or loved.

“You’re gonna be the best mama,” Slider whispered, catching every one of her tears.

And then the nurse returned with a syringe of pain medicine. “This will make it better,” she said, sliding the needle into the line.

The next time Cora woke up, she had the sense that it was daytime. The room was brighter, noise filtered in from the hallway, and flowers lined her windowsill. Oh! And she had more visitors. “Boys,” she said. “Hi.”

They rushed to her, one on each side.

“Watch her arm, Sam,” Slider said.

Almost reverently, Sam nodded. “Hi, Cora,” he said, a little shyly.

“Hi yourself.” Her gaze went to the thick gauze on his bicep, and her belly clenched. She’d tried so hard to protect him, but he’d still gotten hit. “You too, huh?”

“Yeah,” he said, not taking the bait of her humor. “But you more.”

“I guess we’ll have to help each other get better then,” she said.

“I will, Cora. I promise. I . . . I love you,” Sam said.

The words absolutely filled her chest. Here she was in a hospital, in more pain than she wanted to admit and recovering from getting shot, and yet she felt lucky. “Oh, Sam. I love you, too. Both of you guys.” She smiled at Ben. “So much.”

“And Daddy, too,” Ben said.

She peered up at Slider where he stood next to Sam. “And your daddy, too.”

An aide came in with a lunch tray and settled it on a rolling table. “Good afternoon,” she said, in almost a sing-songy voice. “How are you today?”

“Thank you, okay so far,” Cora managed. But she wasn’t interested in the food, because she still didn’t know who else had been hurt. So when the lady left, she met Slider’s gaze. “Who else?”