We’re having a baby, he said.
Yes, we most definitely are.
She felt Luther nudge her shoulder, giving her a hint to knock it off.
She drew back, gripping Zane’s arms. “Tiffany will love having a sibling, especially one that’s mostly shifter and vampire with a little human thrown in.”
“Yes, she will because our child is bound to be a match for her.”
Olivia laughed and Zane joined her.
She turned back to her father and crossed to him. He’d risen to his feet, but now had the look of man who’d been slapped hard, which she thought a very good thing.
She extended her hand to him. “I hope you figure things out, Ivor. You know where to reach me, but I won’t have anything to do with you until you have a 30-day chip. And I’ll want a call from your sponsor. Do you understand me?”
Ivor nodded, giving her hand a single shake as though making a pact with her. She hoped he followed through. From what Luther had told her about him, he’d once been a true fighting man, an honorable shifter in every sense of the word, one of the most revered in Camberlaune.
“We’ll be going now,” she said.
When she turned, Zane hurried to open the door for her, glancing at her belly.
She laughed outright, then shoved at his shoulder. “Don’t be ridiculous.” She then pulled the door open for herself.
“I’m sorry,” Ivor called to her.
As she headed to the two bikes parked in front of Ivor’s apartment, she said in a loud voice, “A thirty-day chip. Nothing less. Or don’t even bother.”
“Okay.”
Once outside, Zane hopped on his cherry-red, replacement Valkyrie and Luther sat astride a big Harley. She slid her arms around Zane’s waist and held on tight, not so much because she needed to, but because she loved having her arms around her man.
The two men throttled their bikes, letting the noise flood the street, then each let out a warrior cry as they took off.
One day soon she’d get her own bike. But right now, getting to ride behind Zane seemed the best of both worlds.
The vibration of the machine, her arms around the man she loved, and the feel of the wind blowing her hair a dozen different ways was more than she’d ever hoped to know in the entire course of her life.
Now she had all this and a baby growing inside her, and Zane’s wonderful, willful vampire daughter.
Zane’s deep voice penetrated her mind, making her ache for him. I love you, sweetheart, he said.
And there was that word. A word she was sure she’d never tire of hearing.
Sweetheart.
I love you, too, Zane of Swanicott. More than shifting or bounding through the air or even swimming in the beautiful pond near your treehouse complex. Sweet Goddess, yes, I love you.