“Please,” Zarina said. “He held Kendra up so she could push and nearly passed out doing that. He would much have preferred the babies to come out nice and clean and already dressed in their onesies.”
Tanner shrugged unabashedly. “Yeah, maybe. But I also held Noah while you delivered his sister. I did a really good job of that.” His mouth curved as he looked at the baby boy Kendra was holding. “He likes me.”
“Yes, he does,” Kendra agreed. “Which is important, since I plan on calling you and Zarina when we need a babysitter.”
Tanner went a little pale, which made everyone laugh. Even Noah and Chloe seemed to find it amusing.
The lion hybrid was still trying to explain why he wouldn’t be a very good babysitter when Adam walked in.
“Sorry I’m late.” He offered his hand to Alina. “I’m Adam.”
She regarded him thoughtfully as they shook hands. “It’s nice to meet you finally. I’d introduce myself, but something tells me you know a lot more about me than I know about you.”
“You’re right. I do.” Adam looked at Trevor. “You sounded worried on the phone. How bad is it?”
“Really bad.” Trevor looked pointedly around the room. “Before we get into that, are you sure it was a good idea to bring us all here?”
Adam shrugged. “After seeing that video on Thorn’s new hybrids, we knew we’d have to make a move on the farm as soon as we know where it is and what’s going on.”
Trevor frowned. “Who’s we?”
The words were barely out of his mouth when he picked up a familiar scent coming from the hallway. At first, he thought he was imagining it, but then he saw the other shifters stiffen, like they smelled it, too.
It was impossible.
Then John Loughlin walked into the room.
Everything seemed to stop, Trevor’s heart included. He’d seen the damage the bomb had done to the director’s office. How the hell could John be alive?
But he was.
Trevor glanced at the other people in the room to make sure they were seeing the same thing he was. Everyone was staring at John with a stunned look.
Trevor was so focused on John that he didn’t see the beautiful, dark-skinned woman and little girl who couldn’t be more than ten with him, or the big bull of a man standing behind them like some overprotective bodyguard. Trevor had run into the guy while on that mission in Maine, so he knew the man was a hidden shifter. While Trevor had no idea what kind of animal DNA was in this guy’s system, he was willing to bet it was something big. And if Trevor didn’t miss his guess, the woman with John was a hidden shifter, too.
“How…” Ivy whispered, tears in her eyes.
Before John could answer, she ran over and hugged him. John’s arms went around her, his eyes a little misty, too. After a moment, Ivy pulled away to look at him.
“Why did you let us think you were dead?” she asked.
John gave her a small smile. “Once I introduce you to some very important people, I think you’ll understand.”
Turning, he took the dark-skinned woman’s hand. Tall and slender, she had long, dark, wavy hair and the most intriguing blue-gray eyes Trevor had ever seen. As John wrapped his other arm around the little girl’s shoulders, Trevor realized her eyes were the same unusual color.
“Everyone, I’d like you to meet my wife, Cree, and my daughter, Boo.” John glanced over his shoulder at the big man. “And this is Morgan.”
If Trevor had been stunned before, it was nothing compared to how he felt now. Realizing that John was alive was a shock to the system, but hearing that he’d been married long enough to have a kid Boo’s age? That damn near bordered on insanity. How the hell had John been able to keep that a secret from an organization full of highly trained spies and covert agents for so long?
“How can you be alive?” Dreya asked, finally putting into words exactly what everyone else was thinking. “Braden and I were there. We saw you walk into the building right before it exploded.”
John glanced at Adam. “I have Adam to thank for that. If he hadn’t shown up when he did, I’d be dead right now.”
Adam inclined his head. “It was luck more than anything. The weekend before the bombing, my people picked up some chatter on the wiretaps we had on Thorn and his security team. Nothing obvious. Mostly a lot of code speak and double-talk. When we thought John might be in trouble, I went to the complex to warn him. I smelled the explosives the moment I walked in, so I grabbed him and got him out of there.”
“What about Olivia?” Landon asked, his voice uneven and a little hoarse.
Adam shook his head. “She must have been in another part of the building, then gone into John’s office just as the bomb went off. If I’d known she was there, too, I would have tried to save her.”
