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Then he turned and walked into the cabin, leaving the front door open.

On the ground, Bruiser shifted into a man and tugged his clothes back on. The cabin was tiny, more of a shed than a living space, and it was so bare that Bruiser had serious doubts about actual plumbing and electricity in this place. Uriel had conjured glowing balls of light in the corners of the room, but it was dusty, and the single bed looked moth-eaten. The cabin smelled musty under the scent of burnt electronics—the scent of magic.

Bruiser pushed away the niggling feeling that something about this felt familiar.

“You’re going to camp here for four days?” he said doubtfully. “Is there even running water?”

The mage rolled his eyes. “You have a better suggestion?”

Bruiser took in the only colorful thing in the cabin—the playpen in the middle of the room, and the tiny child crawling toward Uriel, pressing her face against the playpen’s sheer netting to stare up at her dad.

A soft, warm smile curved Uriel’s lips, one that Bruiser had never seen before. “Hey,” Uriel murmured, in the gentlest voice that Bruiser had ever heard from him. “Sorry I’m late. Are you hungry? Did you pee your pants?”

How in Hell did uptight, prickly Uriel Anderson transform into this for a baby?

Then the mage bent over—did his pants always cling so tight to his body?!—and scooped the child into his arms.

Uriel glanced over at Bruiser. Bruiser barely remembered to yank his eyes back up. What the fuck were his eyes still doing on Uriel’s ass?

He thought Uriel might bite off his head for staring. But apparently Bruiser’s expression was enough to make Uriel’s gaze shutter, blocking out his thoughts.

That felt wrong. Bruiser didn’t know why his instincts said that, but he needed to fix it.

“I have a better idea,” he said, fumbling out his phone. He pulled up a short-term rental website and typed in the zip code.

To his relief, a listing popped up. There was only one cabin for rent in this area, but the preview pictures were already miles better than the current cabin. Bathroom, hot water, electricity, close to a general store and a restaurant that delivered.

He turned his phone around triumphantly to show it to Uriel. “Actual accommodations that don’t suck. Hot water and food. For your baby,” his mouth added.

Uriel froze. Then he narrowed his eyes and looked more closely at the pictures. “Fine. You’re paying for it.”

Bruiser shrugged and typed in his credit card details. “There’s no physical key to hand over. I have the code for the door lock already.”

The mage frowned. “That’s it for security?”

“This was the only cabin I could find in this area, that didn’t involve us going to the nearest town. And it has a restaurant nearby. That delivers. And a general store. You’re welcome to pass on it. I’m heading there right now. I’m starving.”

Uriel glowered, his full lips twitching like he had another insult ready. But he took one look at his baby and exhaled. “Fine. We’re coming along. Just... give me a few minutes to clean her up and see if she needs anything. If you can stand to wait that long.”

Bruiser glared back. “I’m not that much of a jerk.”

“Oh, really? Did that cost you a whole tooth to say?”

“You shouldn’t set a bad example in front of your kid,” Bruiser retorted. “Insulting other alphas like that.”

Uriel rolled her eyes. “She’ll learn what I want to teach her.”

“Ha! Right. You say that, and the next thing you know, she’ll be saying shit like that to you too.”

Uriel flipped him off behind the baby’s back. He grabbed a few things off the floor that Bruiser had not noticed earlier, then laid down a blanket on the sad, single bed and changed his kid’s diapers. Uriel fed her something out of a little plastic container, pulled up his shirt, and tucked her underneath.

That was the other thing Bruiser could never quite wrap his mind around.

Uriel breastfed his child. His nipples leaked; Bruiser had seen the wet spots on his shirt several times. But it didn’t compute. How did an alpha get lactating nipples? Surgery? Magical alterations?

Uriel glowered at him, so Bruiser pulled up the restaurant menu. No sense in waiting when he could have food delivered soon after he got there.

He was about to place his order when he glanced at Uriel pacing on the other side of the cabin, his strong arms wrapped around the bundle under his shirt.