“Philip will eat whoever keeps calling to harass them,” he whispered. “Some of his kids fly because one of his mates is a dragon. He’s gonna eat them.”
“He can’t have the gummies if they make him sick. Those are mine.”
“What’s goin’ on in here?” Philip walked in, adjusting his cowboy hat.
“I think we might be pregnant,” Eran said.
I waited for Philip to ask him how he managed to get pregnant too. He seemed like the sort of guy semantics mattered to, but he didn’t. Instead, he just walked over and sat down in front of me.
“You can use the group link to speak to me if you want,” Philip said. “I know we didn’t get off to a great start the first day you showed up, but that was a complicated day. This is a complicated sort of era, I guess.”
“Life is complicated. Did you eat the killer ghosts?”I asked, cutting straight to the chase.
“We have a plan, I think. Canton has some stuff to finalize before the full moon, but it’s almost time. Now, what about you? What happened?”
I told him about the zoomies and the cigarette. He nodded as if it made perfect sense.
“Got the portable out in the glovebox,” he said, pushing himself up onto his feet. “I’ll be right back and we’ll see what we’re dealing with. Might be you’re just averse to cigarette smoke.”
“Gonna be twelve puppies all trying to kill me,”my dog whined.
“We’ll put up a no smoking sign when we get home,” Eran said.
It didn’t take Philip long to come back inside. He smelled annoyed and while logically I knew it wasn’t about me I still wasn’t thrilled at the idea of rolling over for him. The bear shifter sat down in front of me and adjusted his hat. He stared at me for a long moment, waiting for me to bare my belly. After I didn’t move, he glanced at Eran. It was totally his ‘give me a hand here, huh?’ look, but Eran didn’t budge.
“You’re making him nervous, Philip,” Eran said a second later.
“Do you want to sniff the wand?” he asked, holding it out.
I sniffed it out of instinct, but it didn’t smell nervous. Its aroma was distinctively of disinfectant. I coughed and tried not to throw up but I lost that battle.
“Well, maybe no more sniffin’ stuff,” Philip said, producing a package of baby wipes from the cargo pocket of his pants. “Thought it might help. Sorry about that. We use really good cleaners on everything to stop the spread of germs.”
“Your scent is making him nervous,” I said.
“I’m aware of that. I’m just a little irr—” Philip started but Eran pounced him. The handheld machine flew out of his hand and into the filing cabinet across the room before ricocheting onto the floor. Crouched over the bear shifter, still in his human form, Eran hissed at Philip. I hopped up despite the churning in my belly because I was sure we’d have to fight the bear.
Philip’s hat tumbled off his head, revealing a full head of hair.
“Are you done catting around, Eran?” he sighed. “If you think I’m going to eat your mate, maybe we should use the handheld on your brain.”
Eran hissed again.
“Well, Vatten, I can’t perform your ultrasound at this moment, but congratulations. If his behavior is anything to judge by you’re pregnant. I’d like to find out how far along you are and you might want to know the size of the litter but I don’t think Eran’s down for that right now,” Philip said and then looked at Eran. “If you weren’t one of the kids,” he shook his head. “Actually, if your inner beast weighed more than twenty pounds, I might still whoop your ass. Though, I’m sort of impressed with the moxie. Seriously. I’ve taken heads for less than this.”
“No, you haven’t,” Eran said, narrowing his eyes on the bear.
“You knocked off my hat,” Philip pointed to it.
“Well, stop smelling like that,” he said, still crouched over him.
“Kiddo, you’re way too old for this game. You’re a therapist. What’s that line you all use? Something like use your words?” Philip arched a brow. “Seriously, next time you can ask a healer to leave or step back.”
Eran hissed again and Philip stuck his finger into his mouth. For a moment, his eyes crossed and he sat down on Philip’s stomach, a bemused expression contorting his features. Philip chuckled, no longer smelling irritated.
“I needed that laugh,” Philip said, rolling over, taking Eran with him. He got up and helped my mate to his feet. “But this is why I normally let Evie deal with the domestics. You are all unpredictable. Hiss at me. What will Evie think? Your sister is going to kick you.”
“Uh….” Evie said from the doorway. “Grandpa, stop volunteering me for jobs that include kicking people. I was down at the club about to start a daiquiri when Zevna ran in. I thought you hung another intruder out the window by his ankles.”
