Although Trey had never had a way with words, he had never found himself knocked enough to be speechless. Until now. When he had sensed her anxiety, he had thought that maybe she’d had a nightmare or was worrying herself stupid about the challenge taking place tomorrow – what else was going to wake her up in a panic at dumb ‘o’ clock in the morning? The distinctive change to her scent had hit him immediately as he entered the room, but not harder than his understanding of what that meant.

The sight of his little mate huddled on the stool as if bracing herself for a fierce impact made something in his chest tighten. His reaction, she was bracing herself for his reaction. Her emotions were all over the place, but her primary emotion was happiness. She was happy. Scared and shocked, but happy. And she feared he wouldn’t feel the same.

His wolf bucked at the reigns, wanting to be near her, to protect her, to hold her. Wanting the same and knowing he needed to say something, Trey went to her and squatted in front of the stool. “You’re pregnant.” Oh hell, he was getting worse with words if all he could do was state the obvious.

“Yeah. Pregnant. I’ve been taking my pills but…” She let the sentence trail, shrugging.

“I…I have no idea what to say, baby.”

She smiled a little at his apologetic expression. “I don’t need you to say anything. I just need to know if you’re okay with this. I can’t sense anything from you.”

“That’s probably because I’m numb.” Her small smile fell and Trey wanted to kick himself. “No, I don’t mean...” He sighed. “Baby, I don’t know what I mean.” This here and now showed just how much of an unfeeling bastard he was. He was supposed to be over the f**king moon, wasn’t he? Wasn’t this supposed to be one of the top moments of his life? Here was his mate telling him she was pregnant. Pregnant. His mate was pregnant. She was having a baby. His baby. His son or his daughter…And then the surreal quality of the situation cleared and it actually sank in that, shit, Taryn was pregnant with his baby.

Slowly he raised his hand and placed it on her stomach. A fierce sense of protectiveness surged through him, stealing his breath. Her half smile returned, but it was forced and shaky. Even as she had a fragile look about her, there was pure steel there. She was ready to kick his ass if he said anything negative. He leaned forward and closed his mouth over hers, kissing her greedily, and suddenly became aware that, hey, he was happy about this. No, more than happy. He was…kind of excited. He rested his forehead against hers as he spoke. “If someone had told me a few months back that I’d soon be mated with a baby on the way, I’d have laughed my f**king head off. You changed everything, Taryn.”

She knew he didn’t mean it in a bad way. Still, she couldn’t resist teasing him. “Me? This is all me, is it?”

“All you. You’ve made me want things I never would have expected to want. Things I didn’t think were on the cards for me.” He massaged her stomach gently. “Like him.”

She arched a brow. “Him? It could be a ‘her’.”

“I’m not going to be very good at the dad thing. You know that, right?”

Taryn pinned him with a look as she cradled his face in her hands. “You will be. I know you will be.”

“Baby, I don’t know anything about being a dad – mine was an ass**le.”

“Exactly. Just do everything your dad didn’t do.”

There was actually logic in that, he thought. He could work with logic. His gaze was drawn again to her flat stomach. So slender. She was so slender and so damn small. He didn’t see how she could carry a baby inside that body and not snap in half with the strain.

Sensing his fear that she might be hurt, Taryn kissed him softly. “I’ll be fine.”

“Nothing can happen to you, Taryn,” he insisted.

“Nothing will. I’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.”

He scrutinised her face as he asked in a low voice, “How does it feel? To know you hold my sanity in your hands?” If he lost her, if she left his life, his sanity would go right along with her.

She smiled, brushing her nose against his. “Trey, whatever makes you think that you’re sane now?”

He chuckled, shaking his head. He nipped her bottom lip then sucked it into his mouth, liking the way her eyes flared with lust. She was so responsive it was enough to drive him crazy. He kissed her softly, denying her his tongue just to tease her. “You better be okay, baby, or I swear I’ll blister your ass with the palm of my hand.”

“Like last night?” Her eyes widened as something occurred to her. “Oh shit.”

“What?”

“I can’t believe our baby was conceived in front of the guys.”

He couldn’t help smiling. “Something tells me they’ll be pleased about that.”

“What about everyone else? How do you think they’ll feel about the pregnancy?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”

When half an hour later they stepped, hand in hand, into the kitchen, they were granted their usual brief nods and smiles. Then everyone’s nostrils flared, the chatter stopped, and all eyes zoomed in on Taryn.

She knew the pregnancy was an extremely significant thing. For some reason no one had yet been able to explain, wolf shifters couldn’t produce their own offspring unless either their Alpha pair or their Beta pair had done so. Nature had really funny ways, in her opinion. Now that Taryn was pregnant, it meant that it was possible for Grace and Rhett or Lydia and Cam to begin their own families, which was probably a lot to do with why all four of those looked absolutely ecstatic.

Dante was the first to react. He jumped to his feet and strolled over to slap Trey on the back. “Congratulations.” He quickly kissed her cheek and artfully dodged Trey’s subsequent clout. “With his gene pool, he’ll be a powerful Alpha.” Suddenly they were surrounded by most of the pack, and Lydia and Grace were squealing excitedly.

Tao raised his hand. “I claim bodyguard duty!”

Ryan grunted. “Damn little shit, I was going to do that.”

“I’m going to be an uncle,” said Dominic excitedly. “If it’s a boy, I’ll teach him all he needs to know about reeling in women.”

Trick snorted. “You mean you’ll teach him those dirty lines you’re always subjecting us to.” He gave Taryn a quick hug and said, “Congratulations, honey.”