Chapter Eleven
Frost
Hunter and Gunnar sat cross-legged on the floor next to Frost, who leaned back against the couch. She snuggled between Xander’s thighs as he sat on the couch, a computer on his lap and his fingers flying over the keyboard. Gunnar and Hunter were talking to Silas. She smiled as her and Xander’s son got to know each of the assassins in his own way. She had now seen a side of these intense men that she never thought possible.
Although they had been there during the ultrasound, each of the men had continued to call Silas a miracle and acted in awe by the fact that she was pregnant. And she understood. Even immortals couldn’t impregnate a human, because as Liv explained it, it was biologically impossible. They still didn’t understand how she had fallen pregnant, but Liv, armed with the explanation about her skin glowing and shifter mixes being extremely rare, believed that they were somehow able to pause Xander’s stasis long enough for her to conceive. Frankly, all the science made her head hurt, but she enjoyed each moment of carrying Xander’s baby.
Over the past three weeks, Silas had grown at a healthy rate as her belly expanded, until Liv told her she was a little shy of eighteen weeks pregnant, in human terms. During the time she and Xander spent alone with Silas, they tried to establish communication with him through a mind link, but so far, Silas had remained silent. They only cared that he was growing and healthy, which Liv assured Frost of whenever the latter would show up in the vampire’s lab with a concerned look on her face. Between her still frequent trips to the restroom, falling asleep wherever she sat and whatever time she wanted, and the baby bump she carried, there were no other symptoms that she and Xander had both read about.
The assassins had sensed Silas the moment Frost had come to Liv for answers, and each of them spent time with Silas in their own way. Xander read it was important for Silas to know the voices of those he would be close to in order to form a bond. After he explained that to the group, they immediately cornered Frost and started talking to Silas, with no hesitation. So every day, after Xander made her a large breakfast, her first of several meals for the day, they wandered over to Kai and Liv’s to spend time with their family.
Silas had also become stronger as he grew, throwing out waves of emotions, his way of communicating without talking. The assassins would know how Silas reacted to a story by the emotions they would feel from him. But the best reaction Silas had was whenever Xander was near. Silas would sense him and practically tap dance in her belly until Xander pressed his hands to her skin, and then he would calm and send out radiating waves of happiness. And each night since they learned of Silas, Xander would sleep wrapped around her, his hands settled on her stomach, allowing both Silas and herself to sleep through the night.
“Do you think you’ll look like your mommy? Dark hair and blue-green eyes? Or your daddy, with white hair and blue eyes?” Gunnar asked.
They had been curious as to what combination of features Silas would have. Silas thought it was funny because he didn’t know what he looked like, much less an image of Frost and Xander, and sent out waves of confusion, but he felt included and that made him happy. And that, in turn, made Xander and her happy.
As Frost went to rub her tummy, a loud voice in her head stopped her movements and she felt Xander’s hand squeeze her shoulder in reaction.
Daddy!
There was a rush of movement throughout the house as the immortals flooded the living room, all looking at her. That was when she realized that Silas had mind linked with everyone, at the same time, not just her and Xander, which was a feat by itself.
Frost laughed as she ran comforting circles around her belly. “Of course you would say Daddy first.”
Daddy!
Xander moved the laptop aside and leaned down. He ran his hand underneath her shirt and touched her skin. “I’m here, little man.”
Silas giggled at that, but soon settled inside her, comforted by the fact that Xander was still close. Gunnar and Hunter continued talking as if they hadn’t been interrupted by a baby in the womb speaking to the lot of them without any hesitation. Frost laughed and shook her head. She loved her life.
The front door opened and Jade walked in carrying a large box. “Did I just hear Silas?”
Frost nodded and chuckled at her shocked face. Jade dropped the box onto the coffee table and kneeled in front of her. “Hi Silas, it’s your Aunt Jade and she missed you.”
Silas sent out a wave of affection for Jade.
Frost patted her on the cheek. “You’re going to be such a great aunt.”
At that time, Kai came from the kitchen with Liv, and he handed Frost a sandwich she had forgotten about asking for. She was certain she had mumbled it under her breath, but of course, Kai heard it.
“Thank you, Kai.”
When she lifted the slice of bread covered in mayonnaise and mustard, she couldn’t help the smile that bloomed on her face or that her stomach rumbled loudly for everyone to hear. The sandwich was just as she asked for. Thinly sliced turkey topped with an inch of peanut butter—chunky, of course—and a generous sprinkling of red chile sauce. And on the side, a bowl of pickle spears dunked in cottage cheese.
“No problem. What’s in the box?” Kai circled it, automatically suspicious.
Frost shrugged, not really caring one way or the other, and dug into her sandwich. She knew that she was making obscene sounds while eating, but she couldn’t help it—she was hungry all the time and the food tasted so good. Silas hummed as she ate, and within minutes, she had demolished the sandwich and her sides, while everyone looked at her as though she were an alien who had sprouted wings. She captured Seth’s hand after he set down a large glass of milk in front of her and squeezed as her way of thanking him. Xander chuckled at the reaction from the others each time she ate, but she laid her head back against his stomach as the food coma set in, too satisfied to care.
“Although it looks and smells disgusting, I can’t taste a trace of it when I kiss her.”
The front door opened again and Axel walked in, buck naked, and shut the door behind him casually. He walked toward the one unoccupied chair and went to sit down, but Kai snarled at him, a vicious sound that, if it were directed at her, she would pee herself. Frost, who sat closest to the stash of clothing, opened the top lid of the ottoman and grabbed out a pair of sweats. She threw them to Ax, who donned them and then sat down with a defiant smile aimed toward Kai.
Ghost, Reaper, Ara, and Aubrey all came in. They said their hellos to Silas, and her baby greeted each of them by saying hi to them through their mind link. It was hilarious as they froze, all staring at her belly with wide, disbelieving eyes.
“Who brought the box?” Liv arrived silently from her lab and darted to Kai’s side.
“It was on the doorstep addressed to Frost, so I brought it in when I arrived,” Jade said.
She had gone to the kitchen and grabbed the leftover pasta that Frost had wanted for an after-meal snack. Although the shifters had a large appetite, it was nothing compared to Frost at that moment. She eyed Jade and the pasta when Jade sat next to her, but when she let a growl slip through her lips, Jade scooted a couple of feet away and dug in.
Distracting herself from the food she missed out on, she struggled to stand until Xander lifted her up, and she waddled over to see what was in the box. Silas had settled down from all the excitement and conversation, and as she approached the box, she felt some trepidation. No one truly knew she was here, or knew that she had found a mate in Xander. She had ordered a crib and wondered whether they had misread the address or whether she had been the one to make the mistake. But she grew nervous when she glanced around and couldn’t find a shipping label on the box, just a card taped haphazardly to the side.
Ripping the card off, she opened the envelope. As she dug it out, her eyes spotted the signature. Anzû. So he knew that Xander would figure out the links between the mercenaries and his company, Nightfall. She dropped the card onto the floor and stepped back quickly from the box.
Instantly alert, the other’s in the room closed in on the box as Frost moved away. Silas picked up on her distress and with the sensations tingling through her, she could feel that he put an invisible barricade around the box.
“Huh. Well, Silas put a barrier around the box and he won’t let anyone near it.”
Ara stepped forward and placed her hand on Frost’s stomach. “Silas, I can open the box in your protective bubble if you let me in.”
Okay.
Ara’s eyes widened as she was able to open the box with the barrier still in place, and Frost blew out a relieved breath. But confusion and fear swamped her as Ara lifted a bouncer with a colorful pinwheel suspended above it.
“Destroy it.” Frost’s voice dropped to a deadly whisper.
Ara immediately crushed it and then managed to pulverize it until there was nothing but dust left, which she put back in the box and closed it.
“Silas, can you remove your barrier so I can take the box outside?” Kai reached for it slowly and when he gripped the side, he walked the box out the front door, taking it somewhere out of sight, before coming back in. He shut and locked the door.
From the corner of her eye, she spotted Xander pick up the note from the floor. “He must’ve had us surveilled from a distance, enough to know that Frost is pregnant by sight alone.”
“What does the note say?” Her curiosity got the better of her.
“I’ll see you soon. P.S. Tell Ghost I said hi.”