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My eyes widened as I felt my cheeks turn hot. Of course Alpha Sergei would bite his mate. They did that. During sex. I gasped. They were in the clinic. The omega clinic. Dr. King had another appointment right after us.

“Oh! You’re here.” I gestured toward Dr. King. “That means—” It didn’t take me long to put everything together. “Congratulations, Alpha Mate Chin.”

His smile widened. “Thank you. We’re excited to bring another little dragon into our family.”

That was understandable. They had been mated…forever. I couldn’t even fathom how long, actually. For a very long time. They already had several children, and now they were going to have another. That was so exciting.

“Congratulations to both of you,” Vaughn said.

“Thank you,” Alpha Sergei said. “As Chin has said, we are excited about our next little one.”

I tried to remind myself that they were just people like we were, but this was the created dragon. I’d only ever seen him from a distance, and he usually looked like he had a thundercloud over him. Well, except when I’d seen him with his arm wrapped around his mate. Who was absolutely gorgeous. How could someone be that old and look like he was in his twenties?

“Are you ready to go share your news with Beau?”

I absolutely loved this man, but he’d just given me the perfect out so I didn’t have to be awkward around the created dragon any longer.

“I am, yes.” I waved to the others and let Vaughn lead me out of the clinic. Only once we were out there did I relax and look at my mate. “Did I overstep in there? You won’t get into trouble with Alpha Sergei, will you?”

“Why? It’s not been kept a secret that Alpha Mate Chin had a heat recently. It makes sense that they’re here for whatever reason. I would think it is too early for an ultrasound, so it’s possible they’re just here for an early check.” Vaughn gestured toward the walkway. “Are you ready? We’ll share our news with Beau and then stop at the café before heading home, and you can get started on the nursery because I know you’re excited about it.”

He wasn’t wrong. “I love you,” I said before I leaned into his side.

“I love you too, little mate.”

Chapter 19

Vaughn

“Do you know what the meeting is about?” I asked Frederick as we all headed toward the cafeteria. It was the fact that we were having a meeting in the cafeteria that told me this was a large-scale meeting and was going to involve more than one team.

“I’m almost positive that it involves the next assignments. According to Rainier, there have been some new developments, and it’s a bit worse than expected.”

I nodded. I hated what others did to paranormals. I had a feeling this was going to be on par with the sex trafficking that we were still, on some level, taking down. It wasn’t nearly as involved as it had been, but I knew there were still teams that went out chasing down smaller organizations that were popping up here and there. Sadly, they would always be around because people were just that terrible.

When we turned into the hallway that had the cafeteria, there was a line waiting to enter. I felt someone to my left, and when I looked over, I saw Evan there. “How’s Lewis doing? Still super excited about the baby girl?”

I, of course, smiled. “He is. He’s changed the nursery at least twice since then, but I think he’s finally settled on a theme that he loves. Although if he decides to change it, I don’t see it as being an issue for him. He just waves his hand, and things are different.”

“Only twice?” Evan asked. “I think Beau has changed the nursery half a dozen times since they moved Cooper over to the other room.”

Lukan was suddenly on the other side of Evan, and he smiled at me. “How’s Lewis? I haven’t seen him in what feels like forever. Are you keeping him hidden away?”

“He’s good. I’m not; he’s just busy. He’s working at the bakery five days a week again, but he’s about to go down to only three, and then we’ll see how things go from there.”

“Is something still going on with Beau?” Lukan asked, looking directly at Evan.

“No, they worked everything out. I apologized about a million times, and they’re back to being besties again.” Evan looked at me. “They are, aren’t they?”

I grinned. “Yes, they are. I think when Lewis rushed over to share with Beau that we were having a little girl was when it really started to heal between them.”

“Wait,” Lukan said. “Lewis is having a girl?”

I nodded. “How do you not know that yet?” I asked. We’d finally made it to the door, and I entered the cafeteria. It was full. Probably every enforcer that was on the mountain was there, and that explained why we were having this meeting in the cafeteria.

“I’ve been out on assignment. Our team got sent to Oklahoma for some pack issues down there,” Lukan said.

“Sorry. I hadn’t realized that you were gone. It’s been a bit hectic here,” I told him.