Page 45 of Daddy Frost

“A lot of people call their stepparents by their first name,” Jaytee countered.

Stepparent. Delta felt dizzy, but that could’ve just been from Elvine twirling him around.

Jax just kept staring at him like he was a puzzle to figure out. Maybe the guy was silently stealing his soul.

Jaytee turned toward him. “We just wanted to talk to you, not rename you.” He glared at Damon.

“Or intimidate the hell out of me?” Delta inwardly cursed at the squeak in his voice. It was bad enough he’d admitted to being afraid. He didn’t need to sound like he was going through puberty again.

“We intimidate you?” Jaytee furrowed his brows as all three took a step back. “Do you have any idea of your position in this family?”

“First, we’re not a threat to you, Delta, ever.” Jax crossed his arms, his brows pinched together. “Second, you have no idea what our father would do to us if we even thought of raising our voice to you, let alone scare you.”

“Kill us,” Damon murmured. “In the most painful, brutal way imaginable.”

Clearing his throat so he didn’t squeak again, Delta chucked a thumb over his shoulder. “Is that wolf your dad, or is it a pet?”

All three of them chuckled. “This is the first time you’ve seen his wolf?” Jaytee asked.

“Hello. We just met yesterday morning.” Though Delta had to admit they’d been through a lot since then. He still couldn’t believe someone had broken into the house and shot him.

Don’t think about that right now. Don’t even ask how you’re not dead. Not until you’re ready to process this, if ever.

Another sinking realization struck him as he glanced at Damon’s swollen belly.

If he was their…that meant…

Delta was going to be a grandfather at the ripe old age of twenty-five. He pressed his hand to his stomach as he felt his legs give out from under him. All three men shot forward to grab him before he hit the floor.

* * * *

“What do you think is wrong with him?” Damon furrowed his brows.

Jaytee had no idea as he squatted next to Delta, but he wanted to figure it out before Kalen woke up and found his mate passed out on the hallway floor. “Hurry up and go get Casimir, Damon.”

Damon waddled away at a slow pace. Jaytee was confident in his mate’s magical abilities, but what if they’d missed something? What if an organ was failing or he had a slow leak in his gut?

Jaytee wasn’t going to pretend he knew jack-shit about medicine, but he’d watched plenty of ER shows to know things could go sideways pretty fast.

“I blame Damon.” Jax scowled as the two of them squatted next to the human. “He just had to go and mention a brutal and painful killing. Delta is already traumatized by his shooting. He doesn’t need to be reminded of it.”

True, but Jaytee didn’t think that was it. “I’m leaning more toward his injury.”

Although he wanted to check and make sure, he wasn’t insane enough to lift Delta’s shirt, especially when the human didn’t have any pants on.

When Kalen’s bedroom door opened, Jaytee jumped to his feet and backed away like he was guilty of some wrongdoing. “Delta just passed out. I sent Damon to get Casimir.”

His father, dressed in a pair of flannel pajama pants and a T-shirt, glanced at the floor before he dropped to one knee and lifted Delta into his arms. “Why was he out here?”

“We don’t know,” Jax replied.

Jaytee thought about how they’d rushed into the kitchen early this morning after hearing a gunshot and found Delta bleeding out on the floor. He’d never seen his father so shaken, not since their mother had died.

Kalen was the epitome of strength and calm, of leadership, but at that moment, he looked as if he would shatter.

Jaytee’s heart had constricted, because it had been obvious that Delta wasn’t going to make it.

Having already experienced losing his mate, Jaytee knew the pain his father would have gone through and how Kalen would have wished for death himself.

---