“I’m twenty-seven, Artem. Previously bonded. Pregnant. On my own. Men don’t exactly queue up for that.”
His answer came without hesitation. “We do.”
I looked up.
He was so certain it nearly undid me.
“Really?” I asked, hating how small the word sounded.
“Really.”
Silence stretched between us, but it no longer felt sharp. Just full.
The pregnancy had been lonely. Going to appointments alone. Sitting in waiting rooms alone. Feeling kicks in the middle of the night with no one there to share them with. Talking to my son because at least he was there and he was mine and he had to listen.
And now Artem was sitting in my kitchen at two in the morning, watching me like I mattered.
Not because I smelled good.
Not because instinct said so.
Because I mattered.
He stood and came around the little table. He didn’t touch me. Didn’t crowd me. He just stopped close enough that I could feel the heat of him and said, “Go back to bed. You need to rest.”
My chest tightened.
It shouldn’t have sounded so gentle in his voice. Artem was not a gentle man in any ordinary sense. But with me, with this, he kept stepping around the sharp edges as if he knew they were there.
Maybe he did.
He walked me back to the bed with one hand hovering near my back, never quite landing. It was a mess of blankets and pillows, and the room smelled so thickly of all of us it made my head spin. Champagne. Caramel. Storm-clouds. Me. Fergus. Home and not-home all at once.
Gregor was still by the door, though he was now sitting instead of standing. Progress. Ivan was sprawled on the floor with one arm over his face, sleeping like a man with no problems at all. I resented him for that.
Artem pulled the blanket back for me.
I got in with a grateful sigh I pretended not to make.
He tucked the blanket around me carefully, as if I might break if handled too roughly.
“You can sleep here,” I said, patting the mattress beside me. “In the nest.”
He hesitated.
“Ivan and Gregor...”
“Come as a pack,” I finished.
He nodded once. “They won’t leave me.”
I knew that already. I had seen it in Prague too. The three of them moved like separate men right up until it mattered, and then suddenly they were one thing.
“If they wake up they can find a space on the bed,” I said.
That finally got a real twitch at the corner of his mouth.
He lay down beside me carefully, leaving enough space between us to be respectful and not quite enough to feel distant. No arm around me. No claiming touch. No pressure. Just warmth. Presence. Him.
