“The truth?”
“Nothing but…” he added.
“Fine. I’m scared that I’m going to be a shit mother, and I don’t know anything about raising children, and we never talked about having kids. And now, here I am, tying you three down with a kid. And I don’t know how all of you are going to react and I’m scared. Shit. I said that twice.”
Cannon hooked his finger under her chin. “Let’s go through the list. One, all we have to do is love this baby and you’re going to be an incredible mother. Two, you’ve got us tied down with your love and we are happy to be strapped down. It’s all voluntary. Three, no matter what it says, we’re going to be happy, and we love you to the ends of the earth. Period. Nothing will ever change that.”
I fist-bumped him. “Well said.”
When the timer on my phone went off, she went in and came out with the biggest smile on her face.
She held up the stick. “There’s a cub in my belly. I’m gonna be a mama.”
We took her to the nest to celebrate for the rest of the morning. She was enough to make us happy but a baby? Life couldn’t get any better than this.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Millie
I was pregnant.
We were having a baby.
Life really couldn’t get much better than that, but it could get a whole lot worse.
As Cannon and I were making the grocery list one afternoon, Cannon came in and let us know that my father had escaped custody. The details as to how were pretty fuzzy, which meant he had help. If he’d gotten out on his own, it would’ve been a bloody mess. His escape was clean, not a drop of blood to be found. He was there until he wasn’t.
It shouldn’t have surprised me. He had connections in the most horrible places.
From the look on Tyrone’s face, there was something I was missing from the story. I reached up and placed my hands on his cheeks. “Tell me what you are holding back.”
“It’s… I think this is something I should’ve seen coming.”
“No, my love, you can’t expect yourself to think that way.”
“No, that’s not what I mean. The more I think about it, the more I think this is what happened in a dream I couldn’t fully remember. I think he comes here.”
“He won’t. He can’t.”He’d better fucking not.
“What do you mean, he can’t? He couldn’t get out of jail, either, and he’s not there anymore.” He was right.
From that moment on, I was so overprotected, I didn’t go anywhere alone. For the past two weeks, if I so much as went to the window, someone was with me. One of the alphas was running the perimeter at all times. If my father came here, it would not end well for him. Nor should it.
But, as time ticked on, we started to wonder if my father had fled and given up on retaliation. He could’ve just cleaned out a bank account that hadn’t been uncovered and gone to another country. That was what most people would do in that situation. And as great as Felix was about finding all my dad’s money issues, the odds were pretty strong that there were more out there, so it was definitely possible.
But my dad wasn’t like other people. He blamed my sleuth for everything that had gone wrong. His own shitty behavior? No, that didn’t factor in at all. So even as the days marched on and the possibility seemed to grow closer to reality, I could never let my fear go.
Today, when Felix was on the phone with a client facing some sort of tax issue, I heard the chickens go wild and forgot everything in that split second. I forgot about my dad. I forgot about my safety. I forgot about all of it and ran out to see what was up.
Our land was filled with bears and because of that, we didn’t have as much trouble with foxes as some people did, but that didn’t mean foxes weren’t there, and that one might not have decided to brave it. I couldn’t allow us to lose our chickens.
I barely reached the pen when the reality of my mistake slammed into me. My father was standing there, his eyes no longer human.
“It’s your fault, bitch.”
There would have been a time when him calling me that name would have stung, but now all it did was fuel me. I wasn’t the one who broke the law time and again, I wasn’t the one who sold drugs, and I wasn’t the one who raised a daughter just to get the highest profit.
“Get off this land before my mates find you here and decide to end you. Go.” My voice didn’t waver.
