“Yeah, is there any other kind?”
He sighed, as if this should be obvious. “Sunday... human tests don’t work on shifters.”
“But Moira—”
“Is a witch, not a shifter. She’s human, with a little added flair. She wouldn’t know better. This is why you should have come to me.”
“Don’t let her hear you call her magic a little flair. She’ll castrate you.”
One of his hands protectively curled around his junk. “The fuck she will. I have more babies to put inside you.”
“Kingston.”
“What? I’m excited, okay? I’ve always wanted a big family. A whole pack of our own.”
My chest squeezed. “Really?”
“Yeah, of course. You carrying my pups is the hottest fucking thing I can imagine. Your body is going to be even more breathtaking because I’ll know you’re taking care of our baby.”
“How many pups are we talking about here?”
He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. “At least four. Mmmm, maybe I put more than one in you this time.” His cock swelled, pressing against me. “God, your tits are going to get huge.”
There it was. This was Kingston talking; even his sweetness came with an edge. But I loved it. Hearing how excited he was, how badly he wanted this, took my fear away on a cloud of possibility.
Instead of worrying about who the father was or how the hell I was supposed to juggle everything, I was starting to picture a little boy with eyes the color of a summer forest. Or perhaps a sweet dimpled little girl with eyes of amber or glacial blue.
While unexpected, life-changing, and way earlier than I’d ever planned, this didn’t have to be a bad or scary thing. It could be amazing.
It could be perfect.
We stood there together, me in his arms, now facing away as the two of us watched the torrential rainfall and the lighting arc through the clouds. It had been a wild raging storm when it had first begun, but now, as though linked to my own thoughts, the thunder rolled farther in the distance, the lightning strikes were less often, and the rain softened. Calming as I did.
“I don’t want anyone else to know yet, Kingston. I need to figure some things out first.”
He tensed behind me. “Like what?”
“What I’m going to do. How this is going to work. Take your pick.”
His hand shifted back to my belly, cupping it as if he could protect the tiny bundle of cells within from whatever I was about to say. “Do about what?”
“Babies take money and time. I can only go to Ravenscroft for so long until everyone sees I got knocked up. Not to mention the logistics. How am I going to manage classes with an infant in tow? And I’ll need to find a job. I don’t want to go back home and rely on my family. God, can you imagine what my grandfather will say?”
Kingston relaxed at my words. “You’re not in this alone, Sunshine. I already told you, I’ll take care of you. How about you come home with me for the holidays and we’ll figure it out there? Together.”
“You want to take me home to your parents?”
He grinned. I could feel it against my mark as he nuzzled me. “Of course I do. You’re my baby mama.”
I groaned, but secretly loved the possessive quality of his voice. “Secret baby mama.”
Those lips trailed over my mark, making me shiver. “It won’t be secret for long. You’ll start showing, then everyone will know what I did to you.”
Heat bloomed across my skin. They would. I had to admit, that wasn’t a bad thing.
“You don’t want to tell Noah and Alek?”
I shook my head, knowing I wouldn’t have long. Noah would be able to hear the heartbeat with his stupid vampire ears. But I wanted to hold onto this for a few days. “Not yet.”