Page 44 of Never Trust the Living (Battle Crows MC 7)

I didn’t have to.

“Dory…” he whispered, choking on the word. “No.”

I shrugged. “I haven’t done it yet.”

Yet.

Yetbeing the very operative word.

That’s when I saw the change come over him.

I didn’t know what I was expecting, but him moving in and wrapping me in a hug so tight that I couldn’t breathe? That was downright surprising.

“One more time,” he said softly into my hair. “That’s all I’m asking for, is one more time.”

I looked over at him sharply, feeling the weight of those words in my chest.

“What if this time you hurt me like you’ve hurt me all the other times?” I asked.

What if this time, you actually break me?

He shook his head fiercely. “I’m all in. I won’t do that to you again.”

Would he?

Would he not?

I guess only time would tell.

But my answer didn’t come to me in some sudden epiphany of ‘you should give him a shot.’

No, it came with the fluttering of the life in my belly.

The very first time that I for sure, felt the baby move.

The very first time that his father was around at the same exact time.

I gasped and pressed my hand to my belly, my eyes going wide.

And there it was again, a sudden fluttering sensation.

A sign that I needed and wasn’t about to deny.

“What is it?” Bram gasped, moving forward and catching me by the elbows.

His eyes were intense, and the way his hands felt on my skin…

“The baby,” I whispered, feeling tears start to form in my eyes.

“What about her?” he rushed, his eyes now super intense, as if he could fix whatever it was making my world wrong by the feel of his body alone.

He couldn’t.

But I knew for a fact that Bram had a will of steel. If he wanted something fixed, he’d fix it.

Even if it was inhumanly possible.

“No.” I shook my head, trying to soothe the fear I could see creeping into his eyes. Fear for a baby I’d at first been afraid that he didn’t want. “It… there’s nothing wrong with her. There’s just… I felt her move.”

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