She shook her head slowly, smiling down at their son.“What did I tell you?”she cooed in a sweet voice, clearly directed at the baby.“Always so commanding.Never allows for anyone else’s opinion.”
Griffin made another series of gurgling noises, still clutching a handful of her hair with baby determination.
“I’m not commanding,” Zayn argued, then paused.“Okay, yes I am.But that’s only because—”
“You’re arrogant and think you can boss everyone around,” she cut in smoothly.
He dragged a hand through his hair in frustration.This argument was far too familiar—one they’d had before, but that time it had been teasing.
“Azlyn, what you call bossy, other people would define as leadership.”
She glanced down at Griffin, who babbled cheerfully.
“He’s such a tyrant, isn’t he?”she chirped in that same teasing tone.
Zayn rolled his eyes.“I’m not a tyrant!”
The baby smiled, and Zayn felt something shift inside him.With a heavy sigh, he stomped over to the bags and peered inside.He grabbed a package of diapers.
“Do you need these?”he asked.
Azlyn glanced over at the package—but not at him, Zayn noticed.Then she nodded, rising with Griffin in her arms.
“Yes!Thank goodness!”She wrinkled her nose.“I hope there are baby wipes in there.”Without ceremony, she held Griffin out toward him.
Zayn blinked.She was handing him the baby.Thebaby.
Gingerly, he took the child, holding him out in front of his body like a fragile, possibly explosive artifact.Griffin’s legs dangled in the air as he stared up at Zayn with wide eyes, looking both intrigued and mildly skeptical.
“Change him while I find a bathroom,” Azlyn ordered, then promptly disappeared.
All that tender, swelling joy Zayn had felt moments earlier—about being a father, about having a son—melted under a wave of rising panic.
He was holding a baby.His baby.An actual, miniature human.Thefutureof Lativa was suspended from his hands, and he hadnoidea what he was doing.
“Your Highness, you’re going to need these,” one of the guards said, offering him a pack of baby wipes.
Zayn stared at the package with growing alarm—then at his so-called elite security detail.
They were scattering.Retreating.Vanishing into doorways and around corners like they’d just been exposed to radiation.
“Come back here!”Zayn called.
Not a single man stopped.
“Cowards!”he yelled after them.
Silence.
Zayn sighed and looked down at the baby in his arms.And right on cue, the scent hit him.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”he muttered.
Griffin just smiled, his tiny legs kicking with enthusiasm.
“Fine,” Zayn grumbled, pulling the child a little closer.Balancing the baby in one arm, he reached for the diapers and wipes with the other.It was awkward.It was clumsy.And it was his life now, apparently.
He glanced around the room.White sofa?No chance.White floors?Not a chance.White carpet?
