His eyes burned into mine as he slid in and out of me, deeper with every thrust. His pace increased as he slid in and out of me over and over again until his length hit my innermost spot each time. My hips rose to meet his, and I moaned out loud as the combination of our bodies rocking together and the caress of his skin sliding against mine pushed me right back into another orgasm so easily. He stiffened above me, panting against my throat, and kissed it once before pushing in deep one last time, filling me up with his orgasm. Mine exploded at the same time, and I couldn't stop myself from crying out, the risk of waking little Alex be damned.
His thrusts slowed down until they stopped entirely, and we both collapsed against the bed to catch our breath. As soon as he pulled out of me, I rolled over to lie next to him again so we could stare at each other in each other's eyes. His arm draped across my back idly before drifting further off the side of the bed for a brief moment before it rested back on top of me again.
"I love you," I said softly, staring at him like he was a dream come true. "I love you so much."
"I love you too," he replied almost instantly with a faint sigh. "It surprised me and snuck up on me, but I'm never letting you go."
8
A quiet knockon the door woke me first, but it also was enough to wake Alex, or he'd already been awake and chose that moment to cry.
I quickly slipped out of Doryu’s arms and into a robe and opened the door to find Matt, one of the kitchen helpers, smiling at me. "Ma'am," he said quietly. "I've made Master Alex's bottle."
He held a silver tray in his hand with a crafted silver baby bottle resting on the top of it. The bottle itself was made from a purple glass swirled with white within it that came to an oval point and a way for the lid to fit on top. The bottle was wrapped up in a red and white cloth, along with a stack of paper napkins. I took the tray, surprised at how heavy it was, and smiled at him, trying to hide how exhausted I felt as I leaned forward to close the door.
Doryu got up, wearing only his boxers, and took the tray from me. "Let me," he said quietly. "Please, lay back down."
I did as he said and watched him walk the tray into the nursery with a tired smile on my face. I was so beyond exhausted. Even the excitement of the past few days hadn't given me enough lift to get me moving. If I could get a full night's sleep, maybe I'd have better ideas for helping the babies.
Maybe not, too, but it was always preferable to be well-rested.
I'd barely closed my eyes when Doryu shook me. "Jen," he said urgently. "Get Zander and Roan here, now. Quickly."
I didn't stop to question why he wanted them there, I just grabbed my phone from the bedside table and dialed Zander's number. "Come to my room. As fast as possible." Then I repeated the process with Roan.
Half a minute later, when I'd barely gotten off the phone with Roan, Doryu placed a fussing Alex in my arms and the door burst open. Zander ran in with his hair sticking up all over the place, his robe open to reveal his sculpted chest and torso, and a gun in his hand. "What's wrong?"
Roan came next in a similar state of undress, holding a sword, of all things.
"I don't know," I cried. "Doryu said to get you here."
The Sárkány paced at the end of the bed, holding Alex's bottle. "This bottle. It smells of rotten fish."
"Maybe they used fish for the protein," I said reasonably.
Doryu shook his head. "Perhaps, I suppose, but on Galdiart we used to use a certain chemical to kill rats that smells like rotten fish. We called it brindium."
I tapped quickly on my phone. "The active ingredient in rat poison is brodifacoum." I gaped at Doryu. "You think someone put rat poison in the baby's bottle?"
Zander took the bottle and lifted it to his nose. "I smell it."
"I'll go make him a fresh bottle," Roan said. "And tell anyone who asks that we dropped this one."
"And I'll take this straight to Dr. Karon to analyze it." Zander gritted his teeth. "Who the hell in this town would be that far gone to kill babies?" He shook his head. "No. We can worry about that later. Right now, we need to protect him until we find out who did it and get them out of here and into a cell."
"Matt brought the bottle up," I said. "Do you know anything about him?"
Zander paused on the way out of the room with the bottle. "No, but he's been here for a few years. I'll see what I can find in his personnel file." He eyed Doryu and me. "Let nobody else hold him, except maybe Mrs. Grunst if she comes. I trust her with my life and his. Stay here."
He stopped one more time and looked back at Doryu. "I owe you for this."
Without giving Doryu time to respond, Zander swept from the room. I pulled Alex close and looked at Doryu with watery eyes. "We all owe you."
He shrugged. "Alex feels like as much my responsibility as any of yours. I'm here, too, taking shifts and loving that little guy. And even more so, he's half my species. He belongs with us."
My heart swelled. I bounced Alex and rocked him gently. "What did he mean about keeping an eye on the baby? Do you think someone will try to get a second crack at him?"
"Who knows? There are people out there who hate the fact that he exists. Hate him." His face was hard, his eyes narrow.
