“I should have done it sooner. I will never take you for granted again.”
Frost’s energy completely waned and she needed sleep. He remembered the conversation about the last few nights and he vowed to take care of her. He carried her upstairs to their room, pulled back the covers, and laid her gently on the bed. He made his way to the bathroom and, after soaking a washcloth in warm water, brought it back to the bedroom. His blood surged as he roamed over her flushed skin and the smile that tilted up her mouth. He moved the cloth over her with gentle care, before he tossed it through to the open bathroom door and lay down next to her. She cuddled against his side, her head on his chest, as he wrapped her close.
“Next time, you can claim me.”
He ran his fingers over the healed puncture marks that would slowly start to darken over the coming days. But they would always remain. He smiled when she shivered at his touch.
“I would love to.” Her mouth moved on his skin.
“Have you thought about a name for our son?” The surge of happiness that thrummed through his body at the thought of his mate carrying his son wouldn’t dampen any time soon. Frost was everything he would ever want, and now, his son as well.
“Nothing comes to mind.”
“I’ve always been partial to the name Silas. What do you think?”
Frost gasped and with Xander’s hand on her belly, he could feel when the baby moved inside her. But what he hadn’t been expecting was the wave of happiness that struck him a moment later. Frost laughed as Xander looked at her with awe, and they stroked her belly together.
“Well, Silas loves it. Maybe now he’ll let me sleep and leave my bladder alone,” she joked.
Another wave of feeling washed over them. This time it was contentment along with the happiness. Before long, Xander could hear Frost’s deep breathing. And he could’ve sworn that he fell asleep with a smile on his face as sleep claimed him several minutes later.
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 walk
ed 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.”
Chapter Twelve
Xander
There had been no further activity from Anzû or any of his shifters since they’d received the note the month before. It had been decided that the assassins, much like when they were protecting Ara, would stick close to Xander’s house, a sort of protection detail. They were in close quarters until they found out what Anzû truly wanted and stopped him or destroyed him once and for all.
Xander had found that he couldn’t be apart from Frost for very long. One, because he didn’t want to, but when he did, Silas would send out a wave of unhappiness until Xander came close. It would upset Frost, and he hated to see Frost upset.
Xander had been working overtime trying to find a connection between anyone in the government, to see whether they had an off-books connection with Nightfall. Although the company was relatively new, Xander had found some redacted material about an old, defunct company that Anzû had been connected to, albeit loosely. The company had been fired while under contract with the government, but there was no information on who owned them or the name of the employees under them. Apparently whatever they had done had Anzû and the company banned from ever being contracted by the government again. The information had been deleted or someone just as talented as Xander had moved it to a private server so no one could ever find it.
Ghost’s contact was told that as long as Dark Company existed, they wouldn’t have a need for another immortal assassin group. But if Anzû knew that he was banned, he might believe the only way to get a government contract was to kill the assassins and take over, hopefully without much scrutiny. The one thing that made no sense was his fascination with Frost. Anzû knew that Frost wasn’t his mate; it would be obvious to any self-respecting immortal to understand and leave another’s mate alone. But he persisted with little thought for failure. Which, if he continued, would happen, because Xander would kill him if the fucker came close to Frost.
Xander knew that she was powerful, transitioning without the effect of his venom and she could speak through their mind link quicker than any other of the other immortal mates had, without even knowing it was possible. And now Silas, in the womb, could mind link with any immortal he wanted to, on top of being able to put an effective barrier around any person or thing he wanted. They had gone so far as to test the strength of his established barrier; and not one of the immortals could make a dent, much less was able to break it. Silas had told them that he didn’t have to think about it. If he wanted it, it appeared.
And that was another thing that awed them. Silas could effectively communicate with complete sentences. Among his other talents, he had emotional ones as well. He could sense auras and send out emotions to reassure or strengthen someone’s existing feelings. Both his son and his mate were brilliant.
Xander had spent another night working all the way until morning after getting a lead on Anzû, and happened to stumble upon a photo of him. He had showed the picture to those who had gathered around their house, but no one recognized the shifter.
Daddy?
Xander rushed up the stairs toward Frost and carried her the rest of the way down the stairs and onto the couch. He kissed her before he kneeled, slipped his hand underneath Frost’s shirt, and rubbed her stomach.
“How are you, little man?”
Frost’s stomach protruded even more. He remembered that Liv mentioned the day before that Frost looked eight months pregnant and Silas’s growth was perfect.
You’ve been gone too long. Mommy couldn’t sleep.
“I’m done now. We’ll take a nap later together, how does that sound?”
Silas sent out a wave of happiness that made both him and Frost smile. Thomas gave back the picture that Xander had passed around and Xander handed it to Frost. “Do you recognize him?”
“Yes.” Her words were rushed and before their next breath, Silas had put up a barrier around the three of them. “It’s okay, baby. It’s okay. We’re okay.”
Her words relaxed Silas and he dropped the barriers.
“He was at the diner the morning we set off and then we ran into him on the second day, but he never spoke to us or seemed to know any of the mercenaries who were with me. He walked away soon after I spotted him.”
Ghost walked in and made a beeline for him, and glanced down at the photo. “I remember him. He’s a bear shifter who came to me for a job about a half century ago. He had just transitioned and believed that all we did was kill people for fun and he wanted to be a part of it. I told him that I didn’t have a spot for him and he bec
ame so volatile that he trashed my office. I haven’t seen him since.”
“It still doesn’t explain what he wants with Frost and he knows that we, as a group, are too powerful to win an all-out battle, no matter how many he’s recruited. We should assume the worst and keep our eyes open.”
Silas, barrier please.
Yes, Mommy.
They had taught Silas to put a barrier around himself, blocking both sounds and thoughts, until Frost hummed a certain note that vibrated against the barrier, letting Silas know it was safe to listen again.
“I don’t care what the fuck he wants. If he goes anywhere near Silas, I will rip his fucking throat out.” With that, she waddled toward the kitchen. Xander.
When he arrived in the kitchen, she had removed the lasagna from the fridge, leftovers from the dinner the night before, and he took the pan and cut her a large piece. He went to the fridge to see what they had, because she wouldn’t eat the pasta alone. “Do you want whipped cream, marshmallow fluff, pickles, cream cheese, or mustard?”
“Yes.”
He turned to her and raised his eyebrow, but Frost pierced him with a glare that had him shivering. He topped her lasagna and put everything away when she was happy with her breakfast. But halfway through her meal, she paused with her fork near her mouth, before she set it back down on her plate. He wondered, for a split second, whether she had gone into labor, but then her arousal reached his senses. Although they’d had sporadic moments alone, they had spent every night together, well, except for the night before. With those crowding in the house and him busy working finding any leads he could, it didn’t leave them much time for sex.
Frost reached for him and pulled him down in a heated kiss and he swallowed her loud moan. He wrapped his arms around her and lost himself to the sensations of his mate and her talented mouth.
“Please make love to me.” It was a demand and a request.
Her body vibrated with a need that matched his own. Xander lifted her in his arms, loving the weight of his mate and their son, and walked toward the living room.
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