He wasn’t wrong, though from what I’d heard they were just as bad in their human forms. But I didn’t need to add that particular fact right now.
“They’re also nocturnal and hunt at night,” I said. “We’ll have a better chance of getting in and out unbothered during the day when they’re sleeping.”
He nodded. “Great. That makes me feel so much better.”
I was about to laugh when a weird flippy thing twisted inside my stomach.
Gasping, I grabbed my belly, exposed beneath my crop top.
Brock’s eyes went wide. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He fell to his knees in front of me, coming face to face with my stomach as if it would reveal its secrets.
I laughed. “The baby. It kicked, I think.”
It was as if a butterfly were fluttering around in my stomach.
Brock’s entire face lit up, and for the first time I pictured what he might be like as a father. “You felt ... our baby?” he asked. Never had I seen him so vulnerable. “Really?”
His face split into a contented smile as he pressed both hands to my slightly rounded belly. Shifter pregnancies progressed more quickly than ordinary human gestation. Sabine said I was nearly twelve weeks along, which by shifter standards was enough to make it difficult to snap my jeans, and I only managed it because of how low-slung I liked to wear them.
“I think I felt our baby kick. I mean, I’m no expert. I’ve never been pregnant before, so I can’t be sure, but I think that’s what happened.” I was rambling. All this emotion was making me uncomfortable. I wasn’t used to doing emotion.
Shit. What if it was just gas? That’d be embarrassing.
But when I met Brock’s gaze as he peered up at me over my belly, everything outside of the connection between us, and eventually our baby, fell away. Our eyes held until I forgot that tomorrow morning we’d have to go to a cave filled with nasty selkies to get my katana fixed. I even forgot about that damn gate to the underworld with the way his eyes were shimmering with ... what exactly? I couldn’t be sure, but I knew I liked it.
“Brock,” I whispered, unsure of what I’d say next. “I...”
But then he snapped to, stood, grabbed my face in his hands, and pressed his lips against mine. His kiss was deep, insistent, and it lit my fuse in an instant. I eagerly met his tongue with my own as I wrapped my fingers in his thick hair and pulled him even closer toward me.
He pressed the length of his body against mine, proving that our passionate moment before had simply been on pause and not abandoned. He was already ready for me, and boy did I want him. I’d die before admitting it, but pregnancy made me horny. I discovered myself admiring his body more times than I cared to admit. Sex three times a day would be fine by me.
His strong hands skirted the swell of my breasts before they circled around to my back, and then lower, to cup my ass. I moaned into his mouth and any patience we might’ve had evaporated.
His hands became one frenzied sweep across my body, as if he yearned to touch me everywhere at once. I was happy to return the favor, running my fingertips along the edges of his strong shoulders, biceps, and forearms. I traced the lines of his back until they met his waist, and then I squeezed his ass and pulled him toward me, pressing his hard length against my pelvis.
We were wearing entirely too many clothes.
Brock must’ve thought the same thing, because he tugged off his shirt one-handed, separating our lips only for the instant it took to pull it over his head. His mouth crashed against mine again with feverish desperation.
He slid his hands beneath my short shirt and trailed it upward, over my bra.
“Ahem.”
Our hands froze, mine on his ass, one of his holding my shirt, the other squeezing one of my breasts. Our heads whipped around to discover Ray, who was carefully maintaining a neutral expression. His eyes wouldn’t meet mine, trained only on Brock’s face, and I immediately understood why. I was their alpha’s woman. It didn’t matter that he’d been the one about to undress me in the middle of the dining room. Respect for the alpha extended to that which was his.
Ray said nothing, only nodded once, turned on his heel, and walked straight out the front door. His message was clear regardless. Brock shouldn’t be gearing up for sex on the dining room table when he had a house crawling with wolves. Ray wouldn’t say it though, because no one told an alpha what to do. But Ray was a good second, looking out for the welfare of the pack and Brock’s position.
Brock growled, tugged my shirt down back over my breasts, and took one of my hands. Without a word, he led me down the hallway to his bedroom. If I moved in with him, it’d become “our” bedroom. A small thrill ran through me at that thought and I squeezed his hand.
When he turned to look at me, I thought he’d realize what I was thinking. But when I met his eyes, they were alight with passion, smoldering with thoughts of what he was about to do to me. I liked what I saw there and bit my bottom lip as I anticipated what was to come.
It only made him growl, deep and low in his throat.
Oh. Fuck. Me.
He practically ran to the bedroom after that, and he didn’t have to encourage me to keep up. The moment we were inside, he slammed the door shut behind us and pressed me against it.
