Page 47 of Mated into the Mob

“Are you well enough for me to keep going?”

“Flint, I yawned. People do that. I’m tired, and I have to read over a paper in the morning.”

He continued driving. This was going to be a long nine months.

“Stop the car!”

“I knew it. I’ll head to the hospital.”

“Stop right now and listen. I trust you to keep me safe with your bodyguards and cameras and apps and gods only knows what else. But you must trust me to look after our baby. I won’t be hurdling over tall buildings or mountain climbing.”

Poor Flint. His eyes bulged, and I hid a smile, thinking of him traipsing up a mountain with a heap of baby paraphernalia.

He exhaled. “I can do that, but if I slip and fail, be gentle with me.”

“Not sure about that. I might have to smack your backside.”

“Tony, I almost came in my pants.”

“Naughty.” I put a hand on his thigh, and he gasped.

No matter what happened, we were linked forever because of our child. But we hadn’t had the mate discussion, nor had we come to an agreement about his work. I was floundering in a deep pool, but no matter what the future looked like, I had to step up and be responsible for the baby.

Flint helped me into the house. My instinct was to fling off his hand, saying, “I can do it myself,” but I bit off my response and enjoyed having him at the side and the skin-to-skin contact.

But when I crawled into bed and my eyelids were too heavy to keep open, my brain refused to quiet down. I flicked on the bedside lamp and shook Flint, even though he wasn’t asleep.

“If we decide to live together and be… you know… mates, what does that mean exactly?”

“If?” His poor brows were getting a ton of exercise.

“Calm yourself, big guy. I’m just asking. I need all the information before I make a decision.” This must have been hard for him. His body was rigid with tension and his jaw so tight it might break.

“As my mate, you are the Alpha Omega.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got that on the meet-the-pack day. And what a fun event that was.” I rolled my eyes at the memory.

“Traditionally—”

“Cut to the chase, babe.” I wasn’t in the mood for a history lesson. “In the twenty-first century, what role am I expected to play?”

“Ummm, well… you attend full-moon runs, though you’d be an observer, as you can’t… shift.”

“So once a month I show my face to the pack, stand under the full moon while the wolves do their thing. What else?”

“Support the family.”

“When you say family, is that the Durant family or the La Luna Noir family, because those are very different.” I tensed, waiting for his answer.

“Both.”

It was time to havethatconversation. The one I’d been avoiding. I loved Flint the man, but what he did when he wasn’t with me couldn’t be excused by me saying, “That’s nothing to do with me.”

“I can’t bring a baby into this world and teach them about love, compassion, empathy, honesty, sympathy, and be with an alpha who is in the mob.”

There I’d said it. The only options were a) I’d leave Flint and raise the baby on my own, though knowing him, he’d have a bodyguard or maybe just Emilio sneaking around to check out what I was doing and that the little one and I were safe. Or b) he left his position in the mafia, which he probably wouldn’t do and that might end in his death? I’d never seen the mafia handbook rules, so I wasn’t sure.

Flint took both my hands in his. “You see the world in black and white. People are either good or they’re bad. That’s what your books and movies teach humans. But look around, Tony. Real life isn’t like that.”

---