I stuck my tongue out at him. “Not funny.”
He smirked. “And that.”
“Oh, gods.”
“What? You married me, claimed me, and now I believe this”—he reached around my waist, his palm resting atop my very hard, very rounded pregnant belly—“this means I’m forever in your debt, my love. For the gift you are giving me.”
I smiled and leaned to kiss his cheek, grimacing as a swift kick from our child collided with my ribs, followed by a low pressure in my core.
“The babe is feisty today,” I said.
Daxton laughed, bending to whisper, “Just like your mother.”
“Right, just me.” I laughed, but something felt… wrong.
“Skylar?” Daxton’s voice was laced with worry.
If I thought he was overprotective before, gods, there was officially a new definition when I told him I waspregnant. He, along with all the others, were always watching me like a fragile thing ready to break.
Aggravated was an understatement. I was creating a life here, just like thousands of other females had done before me, and it was—
“Ouch.”Okay, that one hurt.
Daxton leaped into a crouch beside me. “Skylar…”
“Don’t use that tone with me, Daxton. I’m—” I tensed as a pain seized the breath from my lungs. “Okay, that was one strong kick.”
Daxton narrowed his eyes. “How long?”
“How long what?” I asked through clenched teeth.
He glared at me harder, lowering his beautiful face toward me until his nose was practically touching my own. “Spitfire?”
I sighed, giving in. “Since this morning.”
“Skylar!” Daxton roared, rising to his feet.
“Hey! Come on now,” I said in a scolding tone, pushing myself off the rocks to face him, only slightly stumbling along the way.
Daxton rolled his eyes and reached out to help steady me.
“You don’t want your child to hear you yelling at its mother like that.”
His glare said more than his words ever could.
“I needed to be here, Dax. I needed to—”
My mate sighed heavily, giving me a sad smile. “I understand. I know, I miss him too.”
I looked beyond the falls to a patch of grass with a sturdy pine tree growing over two small graves, where my aunt Julia and my uncle Magnus were laid to rest together, in the place where they first met.
In the final battle, Magnus intended to make it his last stand. He refused to let me heal him, refused to let anyone tend to his wounds. When my eternal flame finally ended the false queen and our world was saved, my uncle, the only father I had ever known, made his way to the crossing, where his mate waited for him.
A strong wave of pain stretched from my back along my stomach, and this time, I wasn’t able to brush it off like the previous ones.
“Dax—” I said, my voice strained with labor pains.
I reached out to him to try and steady myself, but being the overprotective male he was, Daxton bent and lifted me with one arm under my knees, marching down the rocks and toward the clearing where myself-proclaimedbabysitter for the last ten months was patiently waiting for us.
