Page 100 of Vegas Baby!

“I don’t ever want you to worry about that. Any child of yours is a child of mine. I don’t give a fuck who the father is. Ifyoulove them,Ilove them.”

“Ava,” said Nathan, “should I bring your alpha back?”

“No.” Her voice cracked. “I’m okay. Catch up. I’ll still be sad about it later.”

“We’ve got her,” I told them. “Finish your visit and we’ll work on a plan.”

Bryce got on his knees in front of Ava, taking her hand in his. “This baby is pack. I swear I’ll raise it with love.”

“I never intended to do otherwise,” Micah added. “Andrew can go fuck himself. He’s not getting our baby.”

However this panned out, that was the one certainty. “Ava, you’re ours, the baby is ours, and I’ll kill Andrew myself before I let him take either of you.”

“You’ve upgraded,” Nathan stated as we drove away.

“The pack house?”

Nathan nodded.

My home as a kid had been a nightmare the longer my mom’s struggles had gone on. The pack house was a palace by comparison. Nathan was the only one of everyone who knew exactly what I came from and the stark differences in where he’dfound me. I didn’t like to think about the conditions I’d grown up in. I’d made some modicum of peace with it, but it wasn’t pleasant to dwell on.

“It’s brand new. Jesse, Micah, and I were living in an apartment when Ava showed up. Bryce bought the house so we could all stay together.”

Nathan snorted. “Ava bagged herself a rich one just like Mom always wanted.”

“She didn’t know that when she met him, and I don’t think she’s told your mom he has money either.”

“Why not? That would probably make Mom back off.”

“I don’t know what’s going on in Ava’s head about it. Maybe she wants your mom to like her pack without a financial incentive.”

I didn’t blame Ava if that was the case. If her mom was going to switch gears and suck up to Bryce just because he had money when she couldn’t see his value as a person, I wouldn’t want to tell her either. She seemed to like Andrew for his bank account, since god knew he didn’t have any other redeeming qualities.

“I remember your mom being a lot more chill when we were younger,” I said.

“She was better than your mom, but in fairness she capped a lot of shit until she figured we were old enough to handle it. She also behaved better for guests. So, where are we going?”

“Food, activity, or staring off into the abyss while we talk?”

“I already ate with Ava, but we can grab you some rations so you’re not starving while we do some existential abyss staring.”

“Sounds good to me.”

We were on our way to a drive-thru when a call from Micah came through.

“I’ve been gone for five minutes.” We weren’t an especially codependent pack, so I’d answered it instead of letting it go to voicemail in favor of catching up with Nathan.

“Ava has news everyone needs to hear. If you and Nathan had stuck around for those five minutes, I wouldn’t have had to call you.”

“What’s going on?”

Dread snaked through me. Had she purposely waited until we were gone?

Ava launched into her explanation of Andrew’s wife trying to snap up our baby. Rage filled every pore as she spoke.

Nathan’s fingers were white-knuckled on the wheel. “Want me to drive to New York and run him over?”

“In what universe would that help anything?” Ava snapped.

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