by Mina Carter
“And no…I’m not joking. Jon knew, and MK too. Though I don’t think she meant for him to say something. Seemed really pissed with him…” He glanced away a moment and shivered. He wouldn’t want to be Jon right about now. “The General said we’re off front-line duty for a while. So we can have the baby safely.”
Baby.
Dale’s mind latched on to the word and just…stopped.
The heat of Spencer’s hand, large over her lower stomach, penetrated the skin and seemed to burrow deep inside, warming her from the inside out. She blinked once, twice. Spencer made to move but she stopped him, keeping his hand on her abdomen with one of her own as she looked inward. She ignored the warm presence of her wolf and searched deeper still.
There—the tiniest flutter.
She gasped, her eyes wide as she looked up at him. “I’m asleep, aren’t I?”
He grinned at her.
“A dream? Nope. Unless you can have one together. I’d say it’s just hope. Genuine. The real stuff. Not that ‘oh I wanna win the lottery’ shit. Good news is rare nowadays, but this tops the list.” He traced circles on her abdomen absently. “Not exactly an ideal world to raise a pup, but with the General and her watchdog around, I think we’ll be ok.”
Hope overwhelmed her, but still she held off, watching him closely. She wasn’t sure how he felt about taking her as a mate. Had he felt compelled to stay because of the mate bite? If so, how was he going to feel about being stuck with her and a baby?
“Good news?” she asked, moving her hand out of the way of his delicate drawing on her skin. “Are you happy about this, Spence? About the baby…and being with me?”
He blinked and sharpened up a bit—the look he gave when he was about to verbally swat her nose. “Of course I’m happy. Just thirty minutes ago I was convinced I’d lost you for good. Now I find out not only do I get a second chance with you, we get a child of our own. I’m not happy…I’m fucking ecstatic.”
He leaned over, cradling her face in his hands.
“Dale…you’ve been the one thing keeping me going as the rest of the world was coming down all around us. I’ve known it for a long time but was just never sure how to act on it or what to say to you, but…I love you.”
He gave her a playful wink. “So no more of this doubt bullshit. It’s not your style.”
Dale was not a woman who cried. Often. But this… Everything was too much. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes at the confirmation of his feelings. About her. About them… About them being parents.
She sucked in a breath.
Love spread out from the center of her chest, filling her up, warming every cell in her body and easing most of the ache from the recent battle. Her hands wrapped around his wrists as she reached up and brushed her lips across his.
“I love you too,” she whispered against them, gazing into his eyes. “And you should’ve just said.”
He cracked a wry grin.
“Me? Admit how I feel? Have ya just met me?” he teased, nuzzling her nose. He gave a soft shrug. “It was hard for a while. I made a promise to Cain to protect you, but I was worried what would happen if I got too close… I don’t know. Nothing these days makes any sense y’know? But there is only one thing that does.” He poked her chest softly.
He kissed her cheek and laid down next to her, propping her head on his bicep.
“When I saw you take that shot to the back I lost it. Buck wild. I think I carved up almost an entire platoon of those bastards before a second crew got the drop on me. I didn’t even care though. Far as I knew they took the one thing in my life that mattered to me…” An awkward expression flitted across his face.
She rubbed her hand across his arm. “Spencer? What’s the matter?”
He shook his head.
“I just…it was the worst moment of my life. I’d only just gotten you, and then I was losing you. But I can’t be afraid of all that. We have to take what we’re given. Make the best of things. Try and rebuild this hellhole. For the first time since this all happened…I feel like we can.”
Her heart melted at the look in his eyes, the conviction in his voice that wasn’t there before the battle. A smile curved her lips as she settled in closer to him.
“So…off duty, huh?” She walked her fingers across his chest and flicked him a look from under her lashes. “At my beck and call? This could be interesting… I hear pregnant women are very demanding.”
He arched his brow. “Demanding huh? And, uh…just what kind of demands might we be talking about?” he asked her, slowly closing the gap between their lips.
“A discussion for later.” She smiled. “Right now, all I demand is that you stop worrying about things we can’t change…and love me for the rest of our lives.”
About the Author: Mina Carter
Mina was born and raised in the East Farthing of Middle Earth (otherwise known as the Midlands, England) and spend her childhood learning all the sorts of things generally required of a professional adventurer. Able to ride, box, shoot, make and read maps, make chainmail and use a broadsword (with varying degrees of efficiency) she was disgusted to find that adventuring is not considered a suitable occupation these days.
So, instead of slaying dragons and hunting vampires and the like, Mina spends her days writing about hot shifters, government conspiracies and vampire lords with more than their fair share of RAWR. Turns out wanna-be adventurers have quite the turn of imagination after all…
(But she keeps that sword sharp, just in case the writing career is just a dream and she really *is* an adventurer.)
The boring part: A full time author and cover artist, Mina can usually be found hunched over a keyboard or graphics tablet, frantically trying to get the images and words in her head out and onto the screen before they drive her mad. She’s addicted to coffee and would like to be addicted to chocolate, but unfortunately chocolate dislikes her.
www.mina-carter.com
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Other titles by Mina Carter
Now Available in eBook:
Hedging his Bets (with Celia Kyle)
Reaper
Perfect Mate
Close Protection (Paranormal Protection Agency)
The Wildcat and the Doctor (With BJ Barnes)
Midsummer Heat (Stratton Wolves)
Now Available in Print:
End of Days (anthology)
Halloween Heat (anthology)
About the Author: Chance Masters
Veteran, Artist and an Author, at 30 years old Chance can generally be found sat in front of a sketchpad, a keyboard, or work and/or drills. With over 10 years time with the military he uses that experience to inspire and drive his written and illustrated works. He tends to lean towards kinetic action and fast paced high octane stories. If he’s written or illustrated it, odds are you can expect movie style action sequences with plenty of collateral damage. He’s only been professionally writing for a short time, so he’s still wearing his floaties on his arms, but he’s got a much longer term of experience in the 2 dimensional art field. Having illustrated and self published his own comic book, drawn a variety of commission pieces, and worked in several design jobs he’s come to realize the only person he really cares to do art for is himself. So he’s decided to make his own studio to publish more comic books, graphic novels, and even a cartoon or thirty.
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Other titles by Chance Masters
Now available in eBook:
Wild Card (with Mina Carter)
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