“Good job, Connor.” Mason gave the young wolf encouragement as he held up the pads covering his hands for Connor to hit. “Pretty soon you’ll be ready to start sparring.”

Connor grinned at him as he hit the pads. “That’s if my mom will let me.”

“True.” Mason was going to let Connor’s father broach the topic of Connor sparring with his mother. Faith was fierce when it came to her son, and he didn’t want to tangle with her over the subject of her son sparring.

Silence enveloped the gym, and Mason looked around to see what was going on. Grace stood just inside the door and like it did every time he saw her, his love for her flooded every cell of his body.

“Connor, I’m going to get Dan to take over.” Mason caught Dan’s eye and the other wolf came over to them and held out his hands for the pads Mason was pulling off his hands.

He turned to walk toward his woman, and looking at her with the sun shone through the door and onto her golden hair took his breath away. There was a lightness to her now, a buoyancy of spirit that had come into her after she’d unburdened herself to him. Looking at her now he saw the woman she’d been fifteen years ago when he’d first fallen in love with her. He didn’t think it was possible but his love for her ran deeper with each moment he was with her, and there seemed to be no end to it.

“Is there somewhere we can go to talk privately?” She gave him a soft smile as he stopped in front of her.

“Yeah, we’ll go to my office.” He tucked her against him as he walked toward his office. She’d just returned from meeting with the Council and had to spend the night away from Cold Bay. He knew that it was necessary for her to go and do this alone, but he hadn’t liked how empty their bed had been without her in it. Hopefully it would be the last night he had to spend without her by his side.

They walked into his office and he leaned his hips back against the edge of his desk as he took her hands. “How did it go?”

“It was fine. The Council accepted my version of events and Logan’s judgment. I think it helped that Titus was well known to them, and that there was no surprise at what he’d done. It’s all over now, and I never have to think about him again.”

“I’m glad, sweetheart.” He raised her hands to his lips. “How was the rest of your trip? Did you get a chance to do any shopping while you were in the big city?”

“No, but I did manage to get in to see my doctor.” A look of quiet stillness came over her face, and Mason’s heart beat sped up. She’d not said a word about going to the doctor to him. “It looks like you’re going to have to get used to having a new name.”

“And what name would that be?” He pulled her to him and he held his breath as he waited for her to tell him what he hoped she was going to say next.

“Daddy. We’re having a baby, Mason.”

Joy soared in his heart as he dipped his head down and kissed her. He was going to be a father and he couldn’t be happier. Just when he thought that his love for Grace couldn’t get any deeper it took on a whole new dimension now that he knew that they were building a family.

“It looks like I’ll be running by myself for the foreseeable future.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth he regretted it when he saw the sober look cross her face. After she’d told him what had happened he’d been very careful not to remind her of the baby they’d lost so long ago. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I said that.”

She reached up and cupped her hands on his cheeks. “It’s okay, Mason. It hurt when I lost our baby, but it was a long time ago. I don’t want you to pretend that it never happened. It did happen and while it is a painful chapter in our lives the best way to move on is to acknowledge it. We lost a baby once and now we’ve been blessed again. We will build our family together and nothing is going to stand in the way of that. Not anymore.”

He pulled her to him and held her for a long time while they stood in the middle of his office. She was right. Nothing stood in the way of building their family together and he would spend the rest of his life doing everything in his power to make sure that she and any children they were blessed with were protected. And he would also show her in every way he could how grateful he was that fate had given them a second chance to love each other.