Ripping it open, he immediately saw the backside of an 8 x 10 frame.
What the hell?
Pulling it from the box, he flipped it over, and the suspicions that had been ramming against his mind, shredding his thoughts, and filling his heart and lungs to bursting were finally confirmed.
It was a framed sheet of paper…a printout of a report from Kendra’s OB/GYN.
Right there, in black and white.
Pregnant.
He fell back onto the couch, his body trembling, the aftermath of a catastrophic shift in his world.
Kendra was pregnant.
His wife was pregnant.
His burning eyes snapped to the framed portrait over the fireplace; a picture of him and Kendra on their wedding day. She was dressed in a simple white dress that hugged her curves, her hair expertly styled, her makeup flawless—but it was her eyes, her smile that really made her breathtakingly beautiful that day.
Love.
It shone from her like the light of a newborn star.
That woman was meant for love, to live and breathe it, to gift it to others, to fill their lives with it until they were love itself.
She was meant to be a mother.
And now she was.
She was pregnant. Withhischild. And he had no idea where she was.
Suddenly, that beast, just barely restrained by years of fierce denial, reared up, snapping it’s jaws, snarling through razor-sharp teeth.
Their woman was pregnant, somewhere out there alone, hurting, and without them to keep her and their baby safe.
And it was his fault.
That beast snarled again, jerking against the chain straining to keep it tethered in the dark and cold of his soul.
Standing, his chest heaving, his body vibrating with predatory, primordial instinct?—
Hunt!
Possess!
Protect!
Again, the beast struggled, the chain pulled tight, the links groaning with the strain—his heart racing, his blood surging, Gideon did something he’d never done before.
He didn’t stop it.
The beast bellowed.
The chain links screamed.
The leash snapped.
And Gideon grinned.
