She nodded. “You’re going to grow it back, right?”
He grinned. “Oh, yeah.”
They couldn’t take all the bad boy out of him. He didn’t think it was likely he was ever going to be a model citizen.
“I like you a little rough around the edges,” Eden said, picking up on his intent without having to read his mind.
He liked that she could know him so well without any special psychic talents. Correction, he loved it.
She kissed him again, long and slow and thorough, totally uncaring that they were standing on the crowded sidewalk outside the airport baggage claim area.
“I missed you,” she said when she let him up for air. “We both did.”
He touched her expanded abdomen and got a head-butt from the inside in response. He grinned. “Toni’s as tough as her mama.” And unlike her mama, their daughter was already showing signs of being psychic from inside the womb. They were going to call her Antonia Sidonie Wolf.
It was a good thing they were already an official couple by the time Eden discovered she was pregnant. If not, he’d probably have had the Clan and the hunters after him for that indiscretion. Eden had been right to worry about their not using birth control the first time they’d made love. She’d pointed out then that it only took once.
So now, here they were, going to be parents.
He took her hand, and they went to the car that was waiting for them. Sid was waiting behind the wheel, totally oblivious to the traffic cop trying to wave her to move on. Once they were settled in the back seat, she turned the car out into the heavy traffic.
“Are you ready for this?” she asked him, once she’d greeted Eden.
“You’ll like it,” Eden assured him, patting his hand. “I know I do. Was I missed?”
“Terribly. Even Cathy likes having Eden around,” Sid assured him.
After the scattering of the Manticores, Eden had rejoined the hunters to finish cleaning out the Dawn dealers, and he and Sid had helped with the op. For him it was a way of proving his intent to turn over a new leaf—and it hadn’t hurt his emotional well-being to be there to watch Eden’s back.
Then she’d finally quit the vampire hunting business. Her family had been upset with her on several counts, but at least her father and brothers were still talking to her. They’d even grudgingly showed up at the wedding.
She’d also left her job to take a position with a company that operated within her new world. Bleythin Investigations had acquired a new investigator who specialized in computer security.
Another thing he’d done to prove his Clan-worthiness was give up any right to whatever was in the Patron’s computer. It was Manticore property—and he was Wolf. So much for the treasure that could have been his if he’d gotten Eden to break into the data before his miraculous reformation.
Now he was about to take on one more Clan Prime responsibility.
He glanced at the fresh wolf’s-head tattoo on the inside of his right wrist. He hadn’t been required to take the vow to protect and serve, but he’d decided to give it a shot. It had made his mother proud. And Sid. And Eden most of all.
Serving humanity had to start somewhere, so at Joe’s prompting, Laurent had also taken a position with Bleythin Investigations. He was going to help find missing persons, starting as soon as they got to the office.
He looked at Eden and touched the tip of her long, elegant nose, drawing a smile from her.
“I never thought I’d have a day job,” he told her.
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