Chapter Twenty-Eight
“A baby?” Damon’s heart did something funny in his chest. His breathing increased.
“I know, we haven’t talked about starting a family, and it’s kind of a bad time with everything going on in the Pack.” She chewed her lip and glanced at the ground.
“A baby?” He tested the words on his tongue. They settled into his chest, warming him from the inside out.
“Yes, a baby.” She took a deep breath and met his gaze. “Please say something. Other than the word ‘baby.’ You look like you might be sick.” She frowned and took his face between her hands.
A slow grin grew on his face, and he pulled her into his arms. “You’re having my baby.”
“Yes. I am.” She cupped his face between her gentle hands. “I’m not that far along. I just found out today when I took a pregnancy test.” She swallowed and looked into his eyes. “Are you mad?”
“Mad? How the hell could I be mad? You’re having my baby.” He buried his face into the side of her neck and inhaled. It hit him. The scent of her pregnancy.
Ava was pregnant. He should have recognized the signs. Her increased appetite and sex drive. She’d even lost interest in wine.
His body hardened fast and he all he wanted was to pull her jeans down and bury himself in her body.
She moaned and rubbed against him.
“Damon.” She breathed out his name and tugged his T-shirt out of his jeans. She ran her fingernails up his bare stomach to his chest, scraping against his flesh and making his blood pulse.
He rid himself of his shirt and tossed it on the floor. He growled as he tore at her shirt, rending it in two.
She looked at him and grinned. “That’s more like it.” She quickly tugged her jeans off while he did the same.
She jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist. He grabbed her tight butt and positioned her over his erection. She dug her heels into him and impaled herself on his cock.
She moaned and he pressed her back against the wall, thrusting himself into her willing body. She dug her nails into his back, clawing and scratching with lustful desperation. He growled, thrusting faster as a thin sheen of sweat covered both their bodies.
Fingertips traced over muscled and smooth flesh as they discovered each other again, tasting and savoring their love. The connection they’d always had seemed to grow a thousand times tighter now that they were going to be a family. A family never to be broken.
It almost brought tears to his eyes.
“You’re mine. Now and forever.” He growled and then covered her mouth with his.
He felt her quiver as her climax washed over her fast and hard. She laid her head against the wall, shivering as pleasure swamped her body.
He quickened his pace, thrusting deep inside her body. Lust licked the pit of his stomach and he growled as he came.
“That’s a pretty good warm-up.” Ava lifted her head and stared into his eyes. Her pupils were dilated. He knew that look. She wasn’t done with him yet.
“I heard that females who are with child are unusually…”
“Horny?” She finished the sentence for him and smiled.
“Yeah.” He grinned as he trailed his finger down between her breasts and circled a pretty pink nipple.
Her eyes drifted shut and she moaned.
“We should definitely get all the sex in that we can now. Who knows how much sex I’m going to get once the baby arrives.” The thought had his chest expanding with pride.
“Oh, that’s not going to change. You have to promise me sex at least twice a day.” She looked at him and sucked his finger into her mouth.
His cock stirred. He wanted her again.
“Twice a day? That’s all?” He arched his brow.
“I don’t want to tire you out with your job as Guardian and being a new father and all.” She pressed her lips to his neck and sucked.
His body tightened and he was ready to have her all over again.
“Baby, I have enough stamina for all that and you.” He kissed her hard, and when he pulled back to look at her, his heart nearly exploded with all the love inside his chest.
“I love you, Damon,” she whispered.
“I love you too.” He carried her to the bed and laid her down. “Now let me show you how much.”
* * *
Barrett watched his Guardians filing one by one into the Compound. He had seen the females sneak inside. He’d had a hard rule about no females in the Compound where the Guardians slept, but that was before so many of them had mated up.
He had to remind himself to act pissed tomorrow at his Guardians for allowing the females in. In reality he didn’t mind. He knew his men needed whatever encouragement they could get tonight, and if the females could deliver, then then so be it.
He frowned and wondered what it would be like to be mated. He’d never given it a thought for himself. He didn’t need the distraction, nor did he want the inconvenience. He had a job to do, and having a female around twenty-four-seven would just get in the way of his purpose. And his purpose was to bring order and peace to Arkansas.
He would need to brief Damon on what was to be expected at the Tribunal, but he knew that the Were was with Ava.
He would talk to him later. He headed towards the woods located behind the Compound. He needed to be somewhere solitary and think. He couldn’t do that locked up in his office or some other room.
He kept walking away from the security lights toward the dark. He blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness. His footsteps soon left the concrete for the grass, and he was walking farther into the thick woods.
Mosquitoes buzzed near his ear, and an owl hooted from her perch on a nearby branch. He lifted his face as a breeze of summer air whirled across him. He stopped when he came to a large oak tree near a small pond.
The pond was overgrown with weeds and shrubs. He doubted there were any fish in the water, but he was pretty sure there was more than one water moccasin gliding across the surface.
He pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket and dialed in a number.
“Hello?”
“Ryker. It’s me.” He looked up at the sky and was struck by how completely void of stars it was. Not even the moon was out.
“Barrett. What’s up?” Ryker asked.
Barrett’s gut twisted, and he fought back the sense of dread that he’d been feeling all day long. Even before the showdown with Boudier, Barrett had been getting a very bad feeling that something big was to go down between the Packs. Something he didn’t think he could control.
“How’s the situation with the Fae in Vermont?” He blew out a breath and waited for the report.
“If you would have told me a week ago I’d be in New England fighting alongside an army of fairies against an army of demons and a sadistic Fairy Queen, I would have told you to fuck off,” Ryker said.
Barrett snorted. “And now?”
“While I don’t like to get involved with other species’ problems, I have to say it was a hell of a fight. Those fucking fairies are pretty damn strong,” Ryker admitted. “And that Celeste, well, she not only can fight, but she can heal people. Never seen anything like it. Not to mention she’s hot as fuck. But married. Definitely married.”
“I wouldn’t be messing around with Celeste Nordstrom, Ryker. Her husband, Eric is not known to share anything, and I’m sure when it comes to his wife, he’d kill a fucker,” Barrett stated.
“You know Eric Nordstrom?” Ryker asked.
“He’s a past acquaintance.” Barrett didn’t tell Ryker that he’d once done business with Eric. They were both from wealthy families, and their pasts were very similar.
Ryker didn’t need to know that. None of his Guardians did.
“Where are you?” Barrett asked.
“I’m crossing the Mississippi River Bridge back into Arkansas. I should be at the Compound in a few hours,” Ryker said.
“Well, don’t stop at the Compound in Little Rock. I need you to head on to Petit Jean State Park.”
“What the fuck are we doing there? Cooking hotdogs?” Ryker groused.
“There is to be a Tribunal. And that’s where it is to be held.”
“Fuck. A Tribunal? For what? Jaxon crossing across the state line?”
“Let me catch you up.” Barrett quickly filled Ryker in on all the details of what had happened.
“Are you fucking kidding? Man, Boudier isn’t going to let Jaxon walk away from punishment. That asshole is going to demand blood,” Ryker said.
“I know.”
“Do you have a plan? Please tell me you have a plan.”
“Glad you asked. Because I’m going to need to you to be ready for anything when the time comes.” Barrett studied the ground.
“Anything, man. Whatever you need. I’m there.”
“Good.” Barrett wasted no time and ended the call.
Now he had to get ready. To hope for the best and prepare for the worst.