Page 26 of The Fall Before the Heat

“I’m not the one who needed convincing,” Del laughed as I crossed the room to pull him into as tight of a hug as his full moon belly would allow. “You were.”

“I want somewhere safe and sane to raise our kid. I want to go to sleep at night without worrying about when the next war will come. Clarence Moonscale can’t seem to keep his dickout of the fire. Maybe Heartville will be that. If it’s not, we can move, but I think we at least have to try it. We won’t get another opportunity like this. Besides, it’s not like we’re going out to clubs or anything. We’ve gone straight from studying to expecting a baby. Maybe the middle of nowhere will be fine.”

“Thank you,” Del whispered.

“See, I knew you wanted to go,” I chuckled and kissed the top of his head.

“I did, but I wanted to be wherever you were more than I wanted to go to Heartville,” he said as Lee knocked on our apartment door for the second time that day.

Chapter Nineteen

Del

I pulled my big baggy pregnancy shirt off over my head and settled in on the sofa while Rex went to open the door. Butterflies danced through my insides. Soon we’d see our baby and we finally knew where we were going to call home. I tried my best not to worry even during the biggest periods of uncertainty because it wasn’t like the dean was going to kick us out and make us live on the street with our baby, but we couldn’t live here forever.

“You brought it!” I grinned as Lee wheeled in the cart with his portable ultrasound machine.

“Sorry about earlier,” Lee flashed a sheepish smile. “I actually meant to bring it along the first time I stopped by. Except I opened the acceptance letter from the Heartville doctor and wanted to tell you guys right away.”

“We’re going. I spoke to Dara. He seems like a really nice guy,” Rex said, his voice neutral about the situation.

“Are you sure?” Lee asked, pushing the cart around the sofa and sitting down on the edge of the mahogany coffee table.

“I think it’s our best move for now,” Rex nodded.

“The village is growing. That’s why they need someone else on the medical staff,” Lee pointed out, ever the optimist. “Soon, it’ll be a city and you can say you were there pretty early on. Plus, there’s an airport and theme park close-ish. Well, not much further than it is from here to Hemlock Mountain. The drive might actually be shorter.”

We fell silent as Lee turned on the machine and gelled up my belly. Rex held my hand tight, and I tried to focus on his part of our mating link for a second. He was happy about the baby,over the moon about the ultrasound, and determined we were moving to Heartville.

“It’s going to be okay, mate,”he said, noticing me ruffling around his emotions.

“I know. I just want you to be happy too.”

“You make me happy,”he said over our mating link as the whoosh whoosh of Lee’s machine filled our apartment.

I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and turned my attention to the monitor. Our baby had long since stopped looking like a jellybean. Our baby was now a baby. Which was a good thing, because in a few weeks he’d have to live outside of my body.

“How’s my intuition, doc?” I teased Lee as he slid the wand over my belly.

“I’d say this baby is probably a lion.”

“Huh?” I blinked.

“Why’s that?” Rex asked.

“Does that change my due date?” I tacked one more question on before Lee got the chance to speak.

“I don’t think so,” Lee said. “Now, hold on. Let me get back up there. I was headed down, but the baby is partially shifted. I barely caught a glimpse. I could be wrong, but let’s go back up. Pay attention to his hand.”

“Does he have claws out inside of me?” I asked, gripping Rex’s hand tighter.

“No, but even if he did, you’d be okay. He’d shift fully, if you shifted to your wolf. He’d have his claws out then and you’d both still be okay,” Lee said.

“What did you see?” Rex asked, but before Lee could answer the proof was on the screen.

Our baby’s tiny little fingers were gripped around the end of a long skinny tail.

“That’s definitely a lion tail,” Rex said. “I can almost see the tuft. Not quite.” He squinted. “Well, maybe I can.”

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