“I still think it would be better if I wasn’t here,” Ivy muttered, her face pale above her black scarf. “Hugh, are you really sure about this?”
He squeezed her shoulder, as best he could through the many layers of clothing she was wearing. “It’ll be fine. They’ll love you, once they get over the shock.”
Despite his confident words, his apprehension rose as he descended the stairs. He paused in the corridor behind the bar, squaring his shoulders. Then he pushed open the door.
“Hugh! The man of mystery!” Chase sprang up from a bar stool, his black eyes alight. “What’s this all about?”
Hugh winced as the pegasus shifter’s electric aura stabbed his senses. Chase’s energy was turned up to eleven even at the best of times, and he had clearly spent a very enjoyable time with his mate recently.
“Where’s Connie?” Hugh asked, glancing around for Chase’s wife.
Chase’s exuberant grin flickered. “Sorry. She wasn’t feeling up to it. She found out all the other mates were going to be here, and, well…you know. It’s hard on Connie.”
At the other end of the bar, Dai and his mate Virginia were laughing as their eighteen-month-old daughter Morwenna cajoled Fire Commander Ash into a game of peek-a-boo. John stood smiling a little way off, one arm round his own mate, Neridia. The sea dragon knight leaned down to whisper something in his Empress’s ear, his other hand gently stroking the proud curve of her pregnant belly.
Hugh winced again, this time out of guilt. Chase and Connie had been trying for a baby for two years now. It had been getting harder and harder for the couple to watch their friends effortlessly spawn.
Hugh had tried to sense what might be going wrong, but the only thing he’d gained had been a splitting migraine. The energies involved in reproductive issues were far too powerful for him to even focus on, let alone handle.
“Sorry,” he said to Chase. “For not thinking. And for not being able to do anything.”
“You can’t fix everything, my friend.” Chase clapped his hands, his customary cocky grin springing back again, though there was something a little forced about it. “But enough of that. I normally have to drag you kicking and screaming to the pub, so I’m agog to find out why you’ve called us all here. What’s so urgent? Why did you want us all to bring our mates too? Speak, oh enigmatic one! I breathlessly await your words!”
“Clearly, since you aren’t letting him get one in edgeways,” Dai said dryly, coming over. “Is Griff joining us too, Hugh? Are we waiting for him?”
Hugh shook his head. “He’s busy doing something else. And he already knows what I want to talk to you all about.”
Hugh hadn’t actually had to do very much explaining, when they’d dropped Hope off again at Griff’s house for safekeeping. Griff’s eagle eyes had deduced what was going on the instant he saw Hugh and Ivy together.
In fact, from the rather restrained, cautious way that Griff had congratulated them both, Hugh had an uncomfortable suspicion that Griff knew exactly what was going on. Still, if the uncannily perceptive griffin shifter had worked out why Hugh finding his mate might not be a cause for celebration, he was at least holding his tongue about it.
“Huw! Huw!” Little Morwenna abandoned Ash, toddling over to clutch Hugh’s knees. “Up!”
“Morwenna!” Curvy Virginia hurried after her daughter. “You can’t just grab Uncle Hugh, he doesn’t like it.”
“I don’t mind her.” Hugh picked the child up, putting her on his shoulders. “Want a ride, dragonet?”
She giggled, fisting both hands gleefully into his hair. Despite the tugging, she was actually soothing some of his headache. Her innocent warmth was a tiny oasis of peace amidst the boiling energies of all the adults present.
Hugh took a deep breath, drawing comfort from Morwenna’s baby-soft aura. It was time.
“Thank you all for coming at short notice,” he said, looking around at them all. “I don’t quite know how to say this, but…there’s someone upstairs I want you all to meet.”
At the back of the group, Ash looked at him sharply, opening his mouth. Chase, however, beat him to it.
“Someone? A special someone?” Hugh flinched as Chase slapped him on the shoulder. “You sly dog! Come on, what are we waiting for?”
Before Hugh could stop him, Chase barged past, heading for the stairs. With a lurch of fear, Hugh realized that the pegasus shifter was about to crash in on Ivy without any preparation whatsoever.
“Chase, wait!” Hugh sprinted after him, ducking to avoid hitting Morwenna’s head on the low oak beams of the old building. The toddler shrieked with laughter, clutching his face and nearly making Hugh miss his footing. “Stop!”
Too late. Chase had already flung open the door to the private room.
“Welcome!” Chase announced—and stopped dead.
Only the child on his shoulders stopped Hugh from swearing a blue streak. Heedless of the pain, he grabbed Chase’s arm, hauling him round. Ivy had flattened herself into the corner, bare hands raised defensively. She must have reflexively yanked off her gloves when Chase had burst into the room.
Hugh interposed his own body in between the two. “Listen, Chase. For once in your life, just listen.”