“Really.” I pulled her against me, wrapping my arms around her as I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Then, barely realizing I was doing it in the first place, I held the back of her head and brought my lips to hers.
Startled at first, she leaned into the kiss, pressing harder against me as her fingers gripped the back of my shirt. I held her there for as long as possible, holding her tight as my wolf growled in approval. After a long moment, I reluctantly pulled away from her.
“I don’t think there are words to properly describe how I feel,” I said. “So I think I’ll just have to go with elated.”
“Really?” she asked again, the faintest hint of a smile breaking out.
“You’re starting to sound like a broken record,” I teased. “Can you say anything other than ‘really?’”
Scowling even as her eyes danced, she swatted at me playfully. “Careful,” she warned with no real malice, a smile still dancing on her face. “You do not want to piss off a pregnant wolf.”
I broke into a wide grin as I caught her wrist, rubbing my thumb along the heel of her palm. “You know me. I’ve always had a dangerous streak in me.”
“More like a death wish,” she fired back with a grin.
I laughed. “That, too, probably,” I admitted.
Then a sobering thought slammed into me, like something flinging a bucket of ice water onto my face. A very specific someone, who happened to be the pack alpha, my boss, my best friend, and Rachel’s brother.
“There is another problem, though,” I said, lowering her hand and releasing it.
She stiffened, her features taut as she nodded. “Elias,” she said. A brief look of panic washed over her face. “You didn’t tell him about us having sex, did you?”
“Hell, no. You should have figured that out by the fact that I’m still breathing and not a eunuch,” I said.
She broke into a brief, startled laugh, erasing some of the tension that had been looming over both of us. “So if he found out about the baby…” she trailed off, but I knew what she was trying to say.
“I would be lucky to walk out of that conversation with all my limbs intact,” I confirmed. “He still thinks that we’re doing this out of obligation.”
She worried her lower lip, her hands still running along her stomach. “What should we do?”
“For now? I say we keep it to ourselves. And the doctor. We should schedule an appointment for that, by the way.”
Her brow creased. “Elias is smart. And I don’t want someone else figuring it out and him finding out from someone else.”
I shook my head. “I’m not saying we hide this forever,” I said. “Hell, that’s not going to be possible. Your scent is going to change soon enough. But with everything going on with the wraith, I don’t want to add another thing to Elias’s plate.”
“Plus, you like your organs inside, and you’re afraid he’s going to tear you to shreds for hooking up with his sister?” she asked with a smirk, one eyebrow raised.
“That might be one reason,” I admitted.
She laughed again. She had a great laugh. It was as if the pregnancy had removed some of the unease that had always seemed to wrap around her, like she was finally letting herself open up more to me.
“At the right time,” she agreed. She gave a sly smile. “Besides, between you and me, I sort of like the idea of you and me having our own secret.”
I pulled her against me, running my fingers along her spine as she shivered at my touch. “I do, too,” I murmured.
As she nuzzled against me, though, a new hesitation entered that fray. I had been working to quell the protective instincts I felt whenever it came to Rachel. I had been wrong when I had called her weak, and she deserved me to trust her. Most of the time, I did. Hell, she had better defenses than I did with her magic. And since I had backed off, things had gotten better. But that was different. That was before I found out Rachel was pregnant. It wasn’t just her that I had to think about anymore. And no matter what I felt about Rachel and her powers, I couldn’t forget the fact that she was now carrying our baby.
Those protective instincts that I had been trying to temper flared back up in a flash. And I realized they weren’t going to go away. And as long as they were there, I wasn’t going to be able to focus on anything else. I cared about Rachel and this baby. I would be damned if I was going to let anything happen to either of them.
She’s going to hate you, a voice reminded me. I shoved the thought down. She might be angry, but she would have to understand. I was doing it for both of them. And if I did this right, there was a chance she wouldn’t ever find out what I had done in the first place.
As I stared after her, I made a promise. No matter what, I was going to keep Rachel and our baby safe. I’d do everything in my power to make sure that happened, even if Rachel hated me for it.
Chapter 19 - Rachel
I finished mopping the floors of the grocery store. A wave of exhaustion washed over me, not uncommon, now that I was pregnant, but I could still do without it.
