“I’m going to fucking kill you!” Anna screamed, red-faced, into mine, her tiny hand beholding the strength of The Hulk as she squeezed it tighter than a vice until I felt the bones creaking in my fingers. “You did this to me!”

I didn’t bother arguing with her, standing quietly as I fought the need to pry my hand out of hers, bearing the pain as she gave it another squeeze.

“One more push!” Kay said, who stood in the midwife garment on the other side of the sheet, helpers on her left and right, as she ducked between Anna’s legs, eyes determined. “The baby’s crowning!”

“Fuck!” Anna hissed, her eyes glancing up at me for a fraction of a second before Kay gave her the go-ahead and Anna let out a horrifying scream as she pushed. And this time, I swore I heard the crack in my hand but bit down on my lip as I fought the queasy need to escape out of here.

“You’re doing good, Anna,” Mallory said from her other side, her hand wrapped around Anna’s as she clenched down on a soft, gelled squeezy thing Hunter had gotten Mallory when she had gone into labor two months ago. She dabbed a cloth against Anna’s head and wiped away the sweat, going through the breathing motions with her. When I had tried to do that the first time, she had bitten my head of straight away, and an hour or so in, I had been screamed at to just stand still and shut up. So four hours on, I hadn’t moved an inch or spoken, letting Anna take her anger out on me as I reminded myself that this was, in fact, my fault, and every time Anna screamed, I told myself it would be over soon.

“Here, it comes!” Kay called, the excitement evident in her voice as she peeked back over the curtain. “One more push.”

“You said one more push four hundred pushes ago!” Anna screeched back, causing Kay to roll her eyes.

“Come on, you big wuss,” Kay teased. “I mean it this time.” She looked Anna in the eyes, her silver ones holding onto hers as she said loud and clear. “One more push.”

I could feel the huge burst of adrenaline, fear, and excitement as both Anna and I knew Kay’s words were true, and for the first time in several hours, I turned to my girl, my other hand wrapping around hers and my probably broken one as I leaned down and pressed a kiss against her fever-hot lips. “You ready?” I could feel the smile on my lips, and though I could see Anna’s body had no energy to return it, the way her blue eyes shone told me everything.

“One more,” I said, holding her gaze.

“One more,” Anna repeated, and with a deep, shaky breath, she let out the most terrifying, horrifying scream as she pushed all her last remaining energy into that one last big push. It felt like it would never end, until suddenly, Anna’s hand went limp in mine, her scream cutting off, and a big gasp of air fell from her lungs as the push was over.

The silence that followed felt like an entire lifetime as my heart stilled in my chest while I—as we waited.

And then we heard it.

A loud, proud, and long cry broke the silence of the room as Kay stood back, lifting a wriggling, red-faced baby in her arms. “Congratulations, Mommy and Daddy.” Kay smiled as I moved, almost in a trance, toward her, turning in my blue gown as Kay came toward me, her eyes meeting mine, holding out the wriggling child. “Do you want to hold your son?”

“Son?” I choked, and I heard Anna sob behind me as I looked down at the small head of dark hair, his eyes closed shut, and skin a blushed crimson as Kay held him out to me.

It was as if the world slowed as she raised the baby up to her chest and my arms reached toward him as she lowered him again onto my forearm and hands. His feverishly warm skin touched mine, and all I remembered thinking was how heavy he was as Kay moved her arms away. She turned toward the umbilical cord as she pulled out a small pair of scissors, but I paid little attention as the world stood still around me, as my son’s cries were the only thing to fill my ears, my eyes taking in every inch of blushed skin, dark hair, and chubby cheeks as the weight of him in my arms grounded me to where I stood.

“Why are you crying?” Anna’s choked half sob, half laugh took my attention as I turned to look at her, feeling the burn of my eyes as I let the tears fall down my cheeks.

“Our son,” I said, turning to look down at him and then up to Anna.

Kay reached up and cut the umbilical cord shorter, and I began my first steps with my son in my arms as I walked toward my woman. Her baby blue eyes were filled with her own unshed tears as I stepped forward, reaching my arms out as Anna’s came out and wrapped around our son. I kept mine on hers as her strength had all been zapped from her and supported her as she brought our son to the top of her chest and placed a soft, long kiss against his forehead. His cries seemed to soften slightly as she turned and looked down at our baby, our son, and said the words I had spent months longing to hear.

“Welcome to the world, Dimitri Sasha Kazimirov.”

* * *

Anna cried out as I sucked on her nipple, both still so sensitive, round, and not to mention, swelled several cup sizes, as I struggled to fit her other breast in my palm.

“Stop teasing me,” she hissed as I let my cock rub up and over her clit, the throbbing length just teasing her lips, never making it far enough down to even brush her entrance. Her legs tightened around my waist, heels digging in hard to my pelvis as she urged me forward.

“This is revenge,” I growled, nipping at the tender pink skin of her areola.

“Revenge?” Anna growled. “For when?”

“You didn’t think I noticed you this morning? Walking around in that silky red underwear you know I love, your tits spilling out the top of them, ass begging me to bite it when you knew I had to head to the club.”

“I wasn’t teasing you! I was getting dressed!” Anna’s nails dug hard into my shoulder, and I felt the hot bead of blood mix with the sweat on my skin as it slid down my spine.

“You can’t lie to me.” I leaned my mouth down to the edge of her neck, my nose brushing aside the long, damp hair stuck to her skin. My lips opened, and my teeth slid over the unbroken skin.

“Don’t you da—”

Anna didn’t get chance to finish as I pressed my teeth into her skin and—

Dimitri's cry stilled us both.

The baby monitor on the side table of our master bedroom crackled with his cries, but the small size of the house allowed us to hear him even without the device. My son had a pair of lungs on him, that much was unquestionable.

Anna let out a suffering sigh as I lifted myself up and off her.

“Don’t go,” she whined, grabbing my forearm. “He’ll fall back to sleep in a minute.”

“No,” I said, dropping down and placing a hard kiss against her lips. “I’ll go.”

I got off the bed and slid on a pair of shorts as Anna sat up, her blonde hair sticking up at the back of her head, ruffled and disturbed, matching her expression. “You went the last four times.” She placed a hand on my shoulder, using it to pull herself to the edge of the bed, and grabbed her silk dressing gown. “I’ll go.”

“It’s all right,” I argued, grabbing her by her hips, loving the way I could still feel the warmth of her flushed skin through the silk of the robe. “You stay here.”

Anna cocked a pale eyebrow at me. “Are we really going to argue over who goes to see him?”

“Nope, because I’m the one going.” I pushed against her hips, and Anna’s knees hit the bed, her body going over with it as she flopped ungracefully onto the bedsheets.

“Wolf!” she hissed at me as I slipped out the bedroom door.

I followed Dimitri’s loud cries down the short hallway to the back bedroom, glancing at the wooden, hand-carved plaque bearing his name hanging on the wood before reaching for the door handle.

The second my hand wrapped around it, silence flooded the house.

I stilled, frozen in the tense silence as I waited for it to begin again.

I opened the door to find the pale blue room covered in model bikes, cars, and stuffed animals on the other side as I stepped through the tall doorframe.

My feet were quiet across the carpet as I approached the crib to see a head of dark hair and pale, chubby cheeks wrapped up in a thin summer blanket. His eyelashes were long and dark, lips a light pink as his chest rose and fell, softly breathing over and over again. I listened to the gentle sound of it fill and empty the room, my eyes roaming over his features, a mixture of mine and Anna’s. As he was now, you could see nearly all of me in his square face, broad body, and dark hair. But when he was awake, his eyes were the same bright baby blue of his mother, and I was happier for it.

I thought about his blue eyes and what perhaps they would look like the older he got. I wondered whose personality he’d inherit more of when he learned to speak, walk, and ride. I wondered whose kids he’d be friends with and what future partner he would choose to spend his life with.

I wasn’t sure how long I stood there, watching him sleep, wondering about what his life and future would hold before I felt that tingling warmth spread across my back.

I turned, spotting Anna standing in the doorway, hip propped against the door, arms crossed, and a beautiful, gentle smile on her face. Her blue eyes didn’t look away from me, hair pulled back in a headband, watching me silently.

She didn’t say anything; she just watched me, just like I had watched my son.

I felt my own smile pulling on my cheeks, Anna’s not faltering as I made my way across the room toward her. She stayed put, only craning her neck further and further backward until I towered way above her.

“What you looking at?” I asked, my voice low and amused.

“I could ask you the same.” Anna smirked, her eyes dropping mine for only a second as she looked past me to where our son lay asleep in his crib.

I smiled, my hand unconsciously reaching to smooth over the cooled skin of her neck, damp from sweat, but still fitting perfectly under my palm. I used my other hand to brush the long length of hair away from her face, leaning down the distance between us, pausing with my lips just in front of hers.

Anna’s breath rolled against my lips, but she didn’t move a single muscle.

“I have something for you,” she whispered between us, and her heated gaze cooled as she studied my expression, a curious frown no doubt appearing.

Anna stepped back from our near kiss and disappeared into her office next to Dimitri's room. I stepped out of the doorway, closing the door behind me, leaving only an onlooker’s crack in the door as I spied the crib, waiting for Anna to return.

She came back out into the hallway, a file in her hand as she extended it to me.

Last time she handed me one of these was when she had confessed about Ash and her past in England. I wondered if it was about her but doubted it as Anna refused to mention Ash since she’d left.

I held her gaze a moment longer before Anna got fed up, and, cautious of Dimitri asleep in the next room, she gestured for me to read it.

I gave in, turning to the brown paper file in my hands, but I didn’t make it past the title.

Oral Sokolov

“This is...” I couldn’t find the words as the weight of the paper turned to stone in my hands.

“It’s the same girl. I thought it would be difficult to track her, but it turns out you weren’t the only one to move to the States, Wolf. She’s here in America,” Anna announced, voice cautious. “You can find everything in there.”

I stared at the object in my hands. No longer just a piece of paper but a link to my past. A loose end I chose to ignore and leave unresolved.

She was here. In America.

“Oral’s in America?” I looked up to Anna, her mouth forming a small smile.

“She and her son.”

Her son.

I felt the impact hard on my chest, suspended in a state of shock as I continued to just stare at it. Too many emotions were competing in my chest, overwhelming me.

I knew I stood in silence for a long time before Anna whispered softly to me, “Are you going to look at it?”

I didn’t know what I was going to do when Anna handed me the file and told me what it was, but somehow, when she asked me that question and I truly thought about what I wanted to do, the answer came easily to me.

“I’m not.”

Anna looked taken aback by my answer, and even I’d admit it wasn’t what I would have expected, but my eyes traveled over my shoulder and through the crack in the door. If I listened hard enough, I could hear his soft breaths echo through the monitor in our room, and the one downstairs, as his life filled this house.

I pushed the envelope toward her. Anna gave it and me a weary look. “Are you sure?”

“I have avoided thinking about Oral for a long time. I was desperate to leave my past behind, and until now, I thought I had. I thought I didn’t need to know about Oral, that I shouldn’t care. But you telling me about her and her son made me realize that I hadn’t left my past behind at all. That I’d been waiting to hear exactly what you just told me. But that being said, Oral and Sasha’s son have their own lives to lead now. They’ve moved on.” I looked back to the door and the blue frame hanging from it before looking back to my own woman, her blue eyes watching me so intently. “It’s about time I do, too. My past doesn’t need me anymore.”

I gestured the envelope toward her, and this time Anna took it and walked back to her office, and I heard the faint sound of the paper shredder fill the hallway.

She walked back out, her own face visibly relaxed as she gazed upon mine. She brushed up against my chest, her nipples poking through her silk gown into my bare shirt. “You’re past might not need you anymore, Wolf,” she purred, her hand slipping lower to the rim of my shorts as her finger pulled on the waist. “But I do.” She let her finger go, and the elastic snapped against my waist, standing my body to attention as Anna darted fast out of my grip, sprinting back toward the bedroom.

I growled, turning on my heels as I came eye to eye with the frame in front of the stairs.

I looked for a moment at the torn property cut hanging on the wall. The bullet marks made some of the writing indistinguishable, but if you looked carefully enough, you could still see the words would match Anna’s new property jacket hanging in the wardrobe. It would be the same jacket Anna never made a single mention of as I hung it up where I would see it every time I walked into our bedroom, reminding me of the same thing every single time I left and every time I came back home.

It reminded me of what I had to cherish. What I had to protect. And what I could never ever risk losing again. It was a warning and a reminder to never take for granted what I had.

A warning I would never forget.

“Wolf!” Anna hissed in a whisper, cutting off my heavy thoughts as she stood in the doorway, her silk dressing gown gone as she exposed herself in her beautiful, curvy glory, tits out, ready for battle as she cocked her finger at me, and with the grace of no lady, purred, “Come get me, you fat bastard.”

“Oh, I will,” I growled quietly, my foot taking a step forward, her eyes growing with pent-up lust. “I’m gonna come take my bitch, however I want her.”

“Fuck you,” Anna hissed under her breath. “I’m not your bitch.”

She was.

I was her fat bastard, and she was my bitch. That’s how it was. And how it would stay.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.