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Her part of it, at least. Mine—that remained to be seen.
“It seems like the dinner has gone over well,” Ren said.
I smiled, dipping and turning her, careful of her balance in her current front-heavy state. “Understatement of the year, princess. Anyone you hadn’t won over before today I expect is ready to kiss your feet now.”
She rolled her eyes at me, but they shone even brighter at the same time. “I can’t imagine many felines ever lowering themselves to foot-kissing.”
“Possibly I was speaking in metaphors,” I allowed. “Don’t argue about it. Tonight was a triumph, Ren.Yourtriumph.”
“It’s not over yet,” she said, with a sudden glint of mischief. She’d kept quiet about whatever she’d been setting up with a few of my staff—sworn to secrecy—over in the immense greenhouse attached to the mansion, where anyone visiting the estate could blow off steam in their feline forms without worries of being spotted by humans in the wilds beyond.
“When do I get to hear about this secret plan of yours?” I asked, leaning close enough that my nose grazed hers.
Ren grinned, apparently unswayed by my powers of seduction, formidable as those generally proved to be. “You’ll see when everyone else does. Don’t you like surprises?”
“Not particularly,” I said.
She tapped my chest. “Curiosity killed the cat, isn’t that what they say?”
“Oh, if I have to wait, I suppose I’ll survive the suspense.”
She eased closer to me again, and as the song petered out, I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the feel of her body next to mine. Her body and that of our daughter so soon to come contained within it.
Straightening out affairs in the shifter realm after sixteen years without a dragon shifter and a interspecies war on top of that had taken a lot of work, with even more ahead of us. We didn’t have many moments where we could simply be together without any pressing responsibilities nagging at us.
The melody of the next song swelled from the speakers, and a hand heavy enough that I knew who it belonged to before he spoke came to rest on my shoulder.
“You can’t hog our dragon shifter the whole night, even if this is your estate,” Nate said in a genial tone. “May I cut in?”
I let out a huff of breath as if offended, but grinned to show I didn’t mean it. “I suppose I should share a little.” I gave Ren a kiss, quick yet sweet enough to send a tingle down to my groin. “I’ll be back to reclaim you later.”
She laughed. “Not if I find you first.”
I left her in the bear shifter’s arms and wove through the crowd toward the tables bunched together at one end of the room. I did actually have one responsibility that still needed taking care of, even if it’d been a completely optional one. Our dragon shifter wasn’t the only one who knew how to put together a surprise.
Stepping onto the dais that held the alphas’ table, I peered around the room until I caught the eye of Coreen, lion shifter and matriarch of the most established lion family among the kin. At the tip of my head, she left the friends she’d been talking with and came to join me.
“I think this is as good a time as any to do the presentation,” I said. “Can you assemble the others?”
“Of course,” she said. Coreen had been skeptical of our new dragon shifter at first, but after she’d watched Ren put down her husband’s murderer without hesitation, she’d been one of my mate’s most loyal advocates. Trust was not a concept that came easily among my kin, but I’d have depended on her through dire circumstances if need be.
She slipped through the crowd, finding the other figures from families prominent enough to have gotten a seat at the alphas’ table earlier tonight: husband and wife cheetah shifters, a broad-nosed tiger shifter, mother and daughter mountain lion shifters, and another couple made up of two leopards. At Coreen’s gesture, they ducked out of the banquet hall and returned a few moments later each with a parcel wrapped in gold foil paper.
I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised they’d decided to coordinate so their presents matched. That was the only way they could make sure none of them managed to top anyone else’s in appearance. Saying feline kin were image conscious was something like saying fish enjoyed living in water.
My people weren’t big on public spectacles, though, at least not ones done in an overt way that outright demanded their attention. As the next song wound down, I didn’t make any big announcement. Instead, I found Ren in the crowd and peeled her away from the bear shifter. “Time for a little break from the dancing,” I said with a grin.
Ren raised her eyebrows, but she followed me. I didn’t have to say anything—my kin around me noted my passing and that of our dragon shifter, and their gazes automatically tracked us to the front of the room. Without my calling any direct attention to what was about to happen, the dancers had already stilled and gone quiet by the time we reached the dais where the eight waiting figures stood.
I wasn’t sure I could say that everyone in this room respected all of them, being the finicky bunch our audience was, but certainly there shouldn’t be anyone here who respected none.
“Dragon shifter,” the male cheetah shifter said, pitching his voice loud enough to carry but not so loud it was obvious he wanted all eyes on him. “To pay tribute to you and your young one about to arrive, we hope that you will accept these gifts. Each was chosen with the most careful consideration.”
His wife offered their wrapped box to Ren with a respectful bob of her head. Ren’s hands closed around its glossy surface. She glanced to me as if for guidance, and I gave her a hint of a nod.
The paper peeled away with a jerk of Ren’s thumb. She opened the box inside, and a delighted smile crossed her face. She held up a red woolen coat and pants, the same shade as her dragon scales.
“It’s the finest lambs’ wool you’ll ever find,” the cheetah woman said in an eager voice. “Soft for your daughter while she’s still so delicate—and thick to keep her warm through the winter of her birth.”
