I laughed against her hair and shifted her gently until I could lower my head to her stomach. Three heartbeats thrumming fast against my ear, strong, healthy, furious with life.
“Hey, you three.” My lips moved against her skin. “Your dad just had a very important conversation with your mum. You should be proud.”
“You’re not telling our unborn children about the sex we just had.”
“I’m telling them about the forgiveness. The sex was just a bonus.”
A kick landed directly against my cheek. Firm, deliberate, aimed.
“That one’s got Solomon’s accuracy,” I muttered.
“And your audacity.” Her fingers carded through my hair, gentle, unhurried. The tenderness in the gesture made my throat tighten. “Percy.”
“Hm?”
“Thank you. For coming back. For choosing.”
I pressed my mouth to her belly one more time. Then lifted my head and met her eyes. Mismatched, wet, open in a way she never let anyone see.
“Every time, love. Every single time.”
60
— • —
Solomon
I reorganized her jacket pockets before dawn. Keycard moved to the right hip for faster extraction. Water repositioned closer. Blankets rebuilt because her body temperature had been climbing with the pregnancy.
“You’re nesting, Solomon,” Lucian said from the command area without looking up.
“It’s operational readiness.”
“At three in the morning?”
“Preparation doesn’t observe a schedule.”
Lucian sighed but I simply ignored him and he let me be in the end.
I couldn’t stay still, my body and instincts are screaming for me to move, to do anything that will keep me busy.
Percival’s bond channel had restored yesterday afternoon. The surge hit mid-patrol review, his frequency blazing open with a force that snapped the pen in my hand. Across the clearing, Lucian had gone rigid.
Neither of us spoke. We knew instantly.
One channel open. Two still closed.
The weight of it followed me into the morning.
Camp had resumed its routine. Hunters rotating through on their scheduled windows, Percival building camaraderie between the two sides with the social fluency that made him indispensable, Lucian reviewing compound schematics in the command area.
Mira sat at the supply station with the radio.
The device was her lifeline to the compound. Scheduled check-ins with Thiago disguised as patrol updates, feeding her father enough truth to keep his suspicions managed while withholding everything that mattered.
I was at the map table, twelve feet away, when the radio crackled.
“Morning check-in, little daughter. How’s the eastern perimeter looking?”
