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“Best get home, then.”

Ruari’s grin didn’t falter, but his weight shifted towards the door. “Yeah. ’Course.” He bent to press a kiss to the top of Cassian’s head. “Night, gorgeous.”

“Night, Ruari.” Cassian’s voice had gone soft and private.

The front door closed behind him with a click, and the hallway opened back up. Funny, how a non-family alpha could shrink a five-bedroom Notting Hill house just by standing in it.

Colin lowered Tala into the bouncer beside the kitchen island, easing her weight off his shoulder. She grumbled once, her mouth working at nothing, then settled into the gentle rocking of the seat. He fastened the clip over her middle, smoothed her blanket flat, and by the time he had his daughter settled, he knew exactly how he wanted to tackle the situation.

Cassian was still standing where Ruari had left him, his fingertips resting on the spot where the kiss had landed on top of his head.

“You smell like sex, Cassian.”

A flush crawled up from Cassian’s collarbones to his hairline.

“Did you use protection?”

“No,” Cassian admitted. His fingers found the hem of his T-shirt and twisted it. “I didn’t. We didn’t think about it.”

Colin pulled out the stool beside the island and sat down. “Right. Here’s what’s going to happen. Tomorrow morning, first thing, you’re going to take a morning-after pill. It’s a single tablet. What it does is stop a pregnancy from establishing itself, if one’s started. It works best within the first twenty-four hours, so we’re not waiting. Are you all right with that?”

Cassian’s eyes searched his face, and Colin could see the machinery behind them turning over, cross-referencing what he’d just been told against years of doctrine about Sacred Vessels and how the Light entered a Receptive’s body through their Evermate’s seed.

“Yes,” Cassian said. “I’m all right with that. I don’t want a baby yet.”

“Good. After that, we’re getting you to the GP for a proper contraception consultation, and I want Dr Carlisle’s office to review your suppressant, and run you through an STI screen while we’re at it. That’s all happening tomorrow. It’s not a discussion.”

Cassian’s fingers had stopped twisting his shirt, and the fizzy joy he’d floated in on broke across his face. “It felt so good, Colin,” Cassian said. “Like the way it’s supposed to, I think.”

Colin stood up from the stool. He crossed the two steps between them, took Cassian’s face in both hands, and gave him a kiss on his forehead.

“Good, Cassian. That’s what I want for you. Now go and have a shower. You’re not going into your bed smelling like that.”

Cassian landed a peck on Colin’s cheek, and then on Tala, before he padded up the stairs without argument.

✦ ✧ ✦

Colin waited until the house was quiet. Cassian’s shower had run for twenty minutes, followed by the soft thud of his bedroom door and the muffled sound of whatever programme he’d put on to fall asleep to. Diwa had Tala in the nursery, sunk into the glider with a burp cloth over his shoulder and the low-volume white noise machine doing its work. Colin kissed the top of his alpha’s head and said, “I’m going out for a bit,” and Diwa’s free hand caught his wrist.

“To the bakery?”

“Yeah.”

Diwa squeezed his wrist. “Don’t kill him, Col. I can’t afford the legal fees on top of the nursery refurb that you want.”

“Yes, you can. But I wouldn’t do that to my Tala anyway. She needs me around to have a fighting chance at being normal.”

Diwa kissed his hand and let him go.

Proving Ground was lit up, every window blazing. The front door stood wide open, letting the warm air roll out into the cold.

Colin stopped on the threshold and rapped his knuckles on the doorframe, loud enough to be heard over whatever the man had going on in there. He’d seen Ruari throw a bag of flour the length of a kitchen. Surprising a six-foot-three alpha in his own space at midnight was a good way to end up wearing a sheet pan.

“Ruari. It’s Colin.”

There was a clatter of metal on metal from the back, and then Ruari’s head appeared around the kitchen doorway, his hair pushed away from his face in wild dark peaks. His forearms were coated to the elbow in something pale and sticky.

“Colin! Come in, come in. I’m just doing a thing with — actually, it doesn’t matter what it’s called yet, since I haven’t decided if it works. Have a seat. Or don’t. Stand wherever you like.”