Hunt narrowed his eyes at her, but said nothing. She was right, and everyone in the room knew it was only a matter of time before her mates could no longer resist touching her. Relearning her body. Thanking her for the miracle she’d just given all of us.
“You have two mates,” Caroline stated. “I’ve met Rachel and hers, but it is still so new to me. I have enough to handle with Rezzer and his beast.” She looked up at me and winked.
“Enough?” I countered. “Am I too much for you, mate? You weren’t complaining earlier. I believe your words were, ‘more, more’.”
Even after all the things we’d done, my mate blushed.
The baby cooed and we all stepped closer. “She is well?” I asked.
“Perfect,” Tyran replied proudly. “Ten fingers, ten toes. Looks just like her mother.”
“We have been distracted by the impending birth and delivery,” Tyran said, walking away from the bed and his mate. “I have not heard any news of Krael.”
Caroline leaned in and brushed her hand over the baby’s head as the women talked, Lady Zakar speaking of the delivery.
I joined Tyran at the edge of the room, leaned in and spoke quietly. “There is no news, although there have been daily sweeps of the caves.” Krael was a known traitor, and we’d been hunting him for weeks. He was working with the Hive, for what reason we had yet to understand. But his reasoning didn’t matter. Not to me. I would see him dead for the harm he’d caused. Captain Brooks’ death was just the beginning.
“The teams have been larger since your capture, I hear.”
I ground my back teeth together. “Yes. The lesson was learned from me. No groups smaller than six warriors now search the caves. Eight to twelve is preferred.”
I’d followed Krael in alone, being captured by his group of Hive hidden there. It had been stupid of me to do so, but if I’d had a teammate with me, he’d have been captured as well. I’d escaped after two days of tests and torture, but not unscathed. Whatever they’d been trying to do to me had cost me my beast. Until Caroline.
“Yes, but remember. If you hadn’t been captured again, you would not have met your mate.”
I looked over my shoulder at Caroline, who now held the baby. My beast practically howled at the sight. Her face was loving and soft in a way I’d never seen before as she spoke to the little one in her arms. She was more beautiful than I’d ever seen her. I grabbed my cock, shifted it in my pants.
“True. I cannot find it in my heart to regret it.” I cleared my throat, my gaze wandering over the fullness of my mate’s breasts under the Atlan gown. They were large, and now swollen as our child took root within her. The need to taste her nipples, bury myself deep and mark her and the unborn child as mine roared through my blood until I could barely hear Tyran’s words.
I did not want to talk about the Hive or my torture at their hands. Not now. I needed something else entirely. “I will take my mate and allow you your privacy again.” I nodded my head in deference to the new father, even though we were equals in rank.
“You want your privacy,” he countered with a knowing grin.
I smiled back, or rather, my beast did. I struggled to keep him down as we were both eager for Caroline.
“Exactly.” I strode over to the bed, and she looked up at me with such a beautiful smile, my breath caught. The baby was beautiful and precious, and even I knew she was not ours, but the scene was perfect.
Caroline lifted the small bundle to me, and I shook my head. The child was too small. Too fragile.
“Hold her.”
Seeing the determination in her eyes, and not wanting to make her think I would fail in my role as father and protector, I held out my hands, shocked to see them trembling. I’d faced Hive Scouts and Soldiers, blood and chaos and killing, and not been this unsettled.
Smiling softly, Caroline placed the little one in my hands, the baby’s entire body not filling them. So small. So sweet. So fragile and beautiful and perfect. I held the babe as if she were made of spun glass.
“Get a grip, Rezz. She’s not going to break,” Kristin pointed out from the bed. Caroline was too busy leaning up on her tiptoes to place a kiss on my cheek. Why holding an infant earned me such a gift, I did not understand, but the gesture brought me to my knees. I was in love with my mate. Totally and completely under her spell. There was nothing I would not give her. Nothing I would not do for her. No one I would not kill to protect her.
The baby made a strange gurgling noise and drew me from my musing. The child blinked up at me with huge, innocent eyes, and I could not help but stare back at her. “Hello, little one.”
Caroline’s hand came to rest on my arm as she peeked at the little girl. Standing together, like this, surrounded by family and hope and such miraculous innocence, something inside me shifted, healed. Became softer.
This is what I had fought for. This moment for billions of families on hundreds of planets. If even one father experienced such a blessing, all the pain and blood, the torture and sacrifice had been worth it.
Caroline watched me and wiped a tear from her eye. “God, you’re so damn cute holding her.”
Kristin laughed from where she watched us, propped against a sea of pillows. “Never thought I’d say this, Rezz, but she’s right. Totally cute.”
Cute? I could tolerate such blasphemy from my mate, but from Kristin, a member of the security team who worked with me? Hunted with me? No. I was an Atlan Warlord. A beast. I was not cute.