I made a face at Alanna, embarrassed, and she giggled. It came out muffled with her fist still shoved into her mouth, but it was adorable nonetheless.
“Of course. I’ll see you tomorrow at seven.”
When I hung up, I set the phone next to me on a side table. If I tried to put it in my pocket while sitting down, I’d injure something. I wasn’t a young man anymore. Roarke would laugh at me and call me a fledgling, and I knew fifty wasn’t old in shifter years, but lately… I’d begun to feel my age.
With these new concerns, I wondered if it could also be depression. Depression often masked as other things. I guess I would find out tomorrow. And since I wasn’t able to do anything about it today, I set it aside and checked in via the Clan link with my enforcers on patrol.
Other than the storm, everything seemed quiet, and they reported no new problems or sightings.
Sighing in relief, I looked down at a very wide-awake . “What’s it going to take to get you to sleep, huh?”
She grinned, still gumming her fist.
I shook my head. “That fist sure seems tasty.”
She replied by blowing bubbles at me, and I laughed.
“Okay, let’s get you out of this carrier thing. Maybe you’ll relax better out of it.”
It took a few minutes, but I got her out, laying her down right next to me on the couch as I worked the rest of it off and slid it onto the floor. Then I picked Alanna up again.
“You know, you’re a lot of work, sweet thing.”
She waved her glistening fist at me, grinning, and my heart melted.
“So, what you’re saying is that you know you are, but you’re well worth it. In other words, you know your worth.” I nodded at her seriously. “This is good. It means I won’t have to break too many boys’ jaws when you get older.”
If I got to witness her getting older…
Shaking my head, I moved back to the kitchen and made her a bottle. “Let’s see if food makes you sleepy. I’ve run out of ideas.”
When we got back to the living room with the warmed-up formula, I pulled out the little half-moon pillow meant for mothers who nursed their young, but it worked just as well for bottle feeding. I felt no embarrassment whatsoever as I sat down, latched it around my waist, and settled Alanna onto it, resting her in the crook of my arm before giving her the bottle. She did a good job of holding it herself, but I helped, because the weight was too much for her after a while.
I watched her eat. Sometimes I sensed something in Alanna. Something other. But always, before I could pin it down, it flickered away, slipping out of my shifter senses, even my alpha senses.
“Do you have powers, baby girl?” I murmured to her. “Is it something you want to share with the class yet?”
Her wide blue eyes stayed locked on me as she drank the bottle down, and a deep tenderness filled me. It wasn’t new. I’d been feeling it for the past several weeks she’d been with the Clan, but it was deepening. And even though I knew loving Alanna and Piper might rip the heart from my chest in the end, I didn’t care.
Love was always worth it.
At least… that’s what I told myself.
I just hoped I was right.
Chapter 10
Piper
It was the storm that woke me, but it was Riggs rumbling tenderly to Alanna through the baby monitor that kept me wide awake. I held it to my chest as I closed my eyes and listened shamelessly to his one-sided conversation with her.
Here’s your teething ring. It’s squishy and cold, just like you like it.
No? Oh, I guess your toes are more interesting. I’m not sure you should be eating your toes, though…
Google says it’s okay, as long as you don’t hurt yourself.
It’s really storming out there.
