The prosecutor closes her folder. “Mr. Harvey, your offer is noted. And rejected.”
“You’re making a mistake.”
“No,” Mark says, guiding me toward the door, “you made that a long time ago by underestimating me and Ava.”
His voice follows behind us, stripped of its polish. “You could have changed things.”
I pause, just long enough to look over my shoulder. “I am changing things,” I say. “You just won’t be around to see it.”
The End
Epilogue
Mark
Fourteen Years Later
“Mr. Kendrick-Taylor, the senator’s office is on line three,” my assistant announces over the intercom, and I frown. What is important enough that a text or voice memo wouldn’t have sufficed?
I pick up the receiver. “Shelby? What’s wrong? Is everyone okay?”
“Yes, sorry. Nothing like that,” she says quickly. “I’m just juggling a lot of last-minute changes, and it was easier to call you while I sort the rest out.”
This only deepens my confusion. “What changes? I thought we were all driving back to New York tonight?” God, please do not let the president be calling a special session. The kids have been counting down the hours until they can get home and put up the tree at the penthouse. We’ve all settled into DC well enough, but it’s not where our roots are.
“Yes and no. Everyone is leaving tonight, except Ron and I will take the girls to Jack and Mateo’s. Tony will drive you and Ava separately.”
I pause. “Why?”
She sucks in a breath. “You’re in for a bit of a surprise, big guy. Are you sitting down?”
Now I really don’t like where this is going. “Spit it out, Shelby, before you give me a stroke.”
“Ava is going into heat.”
Some powerful emotion fills my stomach. Not sure if it’s excitement or dread, though. “Shut up. She hasn’t had a heat in over seven years. We’re done.”
“Apparently not. She’s running a fever, her scent is exploding, and she’s being an even bigger pain in my ass than usual. She flat-outrefusesto even consider having her heat at the brownstone nest. All her babies were conceived in New York. Hence all the juggling.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. That sounds exactly like my mate.
Shit.
Another baby. I mean, I adore my trio of little vipers, but I’m pushing fifty. Starting all over?
“I can call Suzanne,” Shelby offers gently. “I know she’s said suppressants aren’t safe for Ava anymore, but there have been so many advances in birth control.”
“No,” I say immediately. “Nothing like that. I won’t risk her health just because I’m having a minor midlife crisis about diapers, midnight feedings, and being eligible for retirement when this kid is still in high school. It’s exciting. Just… terrifying.”
She chuckles. “Hey, maybe you’ll finally get a boy.”
I snort. “At this point, I don’t even know what I would do with one. My lot in life is to be surrounded by redheaded girls that bully me.”
“Especially since Amelia presented as an alpha.”
“Yeah, no joke,” I say, shaking my head. “All right. When and where do I need to be?”
“Here at the office in an hour. Tony is picking up the girls and heading this way as well.”
