“Hi Yvette, thanks for coming!”

Yvette smiled, crossing the threshold with her baby in her arms, a thick blanket wrapped around it. “Hi Maya. She just fell asleep. I hope the examination won’t wake her again.”

“Don’t worry,” Maya said and shut the door behind her. There would be no medical examination. Maya had already taken care of that before Cain had brought the baby to Yvette.

She’d used it as a ruse to get Yvette to come to her house.

“Come!” She motioned Yvette to the stairs that led up to the main floor of the house, passing the door that led to her examination room.

Yvette hesitated. “But don’t you want to examine her down here?”

“The heating died earlier today. It’s freezing in there,” she lied. “I’ve moved my instruments upstairs into the living room instead. We don’t want the little one to feel uncomfortable.”

Without another protest, Yvette walked upstairs and turned toward the door to the living room when she reached the landing.

“Go right in,” Maya encouraged her, smiling to herself.

Yvette turned the knob, pushed the door inwards and stepped inside the room.

“Surprise!” several voices called out.

Yvette froze with a gasp rolling off her lips. “Oh, you guys!”

Maya entered the living room behind her. She’d decorated it with pink and white ribbons and stacked the presents in front of the fireplace. Everybody had helped out, and was now assembled and greeting Yvette enthusiastically, surrounding her to get their first glimpse at the baby: Rose, Delilah with her baby daughter, Ursula, Portia, and Nina.

“Oh, she’s so cute,” Rose professed.

“Look, she’s opening her eyes,” Nina said.

Delilah held Isabelle so she could get a look at the bundle in Yvette’s arms too. “See the little baby? You were that small once too.”

Isabelle reached her tiny hand out to stroke over the baby’s face, but Delilah pulled her back quickly. “Careful, sweetheart, she’s still tiny and fragile.”

Maya watched how Yvette looked at the decorations and the presents. “I can’t believe you did all this for me!” Then she turned her head to glance at Maya. “I’m so grateful.”

Maya smiled back at her. She knew that Yvette wasn’t thanking her for the baby shower, but rather for the fact that she’d given the orphan to her, rather than raising her as her own daughter.

She could have easily made the request, and considering that Gabriel had seniority over Yvette, Samson would have had no qualms agreeing to it.

Despite the fact that she and Gabriel had unsuccessfully tried for a baby for many months now, she hadn’t given up hope. She was half satyr, and this meant that she was fertile, while pure vampire females weren’t. The next time she went into heat, she was positive that she would get pregnant. She just had no way of knowing when it would happen. Since she and Gabriel had bonded, she hadn’t yet gone into heat, and she assumed that this was an event that didn’t happen as frequently as she had assumed at first. Not that it stopped her and Gabriel from trying almost daily.

“Why don’t I hold the baby while you start unpacking the presents?” Rose asked and stretched her arms out.

Rather reluctantly, Yvette handed the baby to her.

Rose chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll give her back!”

Yvette laughed nervously. “I know that, of course.”

Nina dragged her to the couch and made her sit down. “I’ll hand you the presents one by one.”

As everybody huddled around Yvette and watched her as she unpacked one present after the other with “oohs” and “ahs” filling the room, and laughter and chuckles echoing off the walls, Maya couldn’t stop her heart warming. This was her family, the people she cared about, and who cared about her.

“Have you decided what to call her?” Ursula suddenly asked.

Yvette stopped unpacking and looked at the baby that now looked up at Rose. “Haven and I are thinking either Lydia or Emily. Lydia was the name of his grandmother, and Emily was my grandmother’s name. We can’t decide.”

“They’re both great names,” Delilah assured her. “You’ll just have to see what fits better.”

Then she suddenly turned to Isabelle in her arms. “What’s that sweetheart?” Mother and daughter locked eyes before Delilah looked back at Yvette. “Isabelle says the baby prefers Lydia.”

Yvette raised an eyebrow. “But—”