He frowned. “After what?”
“Humping, pregnancy, bam beautiful baby.”
“Rinse and repeat until we’re too old or dead.”
He saw the news hit her. She paled and her steps hitched.
“Were you hoping to get pregnant and then be rid of me?” The question came out harsher than he intended. The idea that she’d conceive his child and then kick him out of her life was so infuriating that he grew murderous at the mere thought.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “What? No! And for the record, I want children. I’d love a couple kids and a husband who is there for me and them. I just haven’t had time to think about it.”
Her words warmed him, gave him hope well out of proportion for what she was saying. But he took the joy and held it close. Maybe, if he played his cards right, it would be possible for them.
“For the record,” he said slowly, his voice thick with need. “I want kids, too. And I’d be there for them and for my wife.”
She nodded, but she didn’t quite meet his gaze. “Okay, common interest has been established. But what about the magic? How long before it eases up?”
“Never,” he ground out.
“And you’re okay with that?”
He opened his mouth to answer. Sure, growing up, he’d always expected he’d have a wife and child someday. Maybe a whole bunch of kids. But not recently. Not since…
He winced. “After my brother died, Mom all but forced me into the military. She said it would instill discipline, burn off the aggression.”
“Get you past shifter adolescence?”
He nodded as they made it out to the parking lot. He held her back, his hand on her belly as he sniffed the air. Nothing unusual out here. Just the urban scents of exhaust, waste, and dog poop baking in the sun. And her. Always her, perfuming the air until he wanted to breathe it all in, straight down to his soul.
“This way,” he said, guiding her to his car. He hadn’t thought he’d needed to, but she’d started heading in the wrong direction.
“Oh. Right,” she said, quickly adjusting. “So you went into the military for discipline. Did you get it?”
“Not like she thought.” Not like anyone thought. “Two firefights later, I lost my best friend.”
Her hand stilled on his car as her gaze shot to his. “The guy you have in a choke hold in the picture.”
He nodded. “Charlie was my best friend. And after losing my brother…”
“Double punch. Hank—”
“I went wild. Got drunk every chance I got and into fights. Shifted a few times that should have got me killed or at least exposed, but I got lucky.”
“What happened?” she asked the moment he climbed in behind the wheel.
“A shifter I met in a whorehouse taught me Zen Buddhism.”
She laughed, the sound bubbling out of her like a temple fountain.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. I honestly don’t even know why she was there. She wasn’t working, that’s for sure. But one night she started saying things to me. Simple things.”
“What is the sound of one hand clapping? That kind of thing?”
He smiled in memory. “More like, the greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.” He glanced at her. “That one stood out.”
She smiled. “I’ll bet. You were grieving. It must have felt like your brain was going to explode.”
