Page 24 of 12 Months of Mayhem

Dallas gave me a huge hug as Killswitch and Mako went inside the clubhouse. “I was worried about you, little brother,” he said. “I couldn’t find a trail on you, and we were stumped. Thankfully, Séamus came through.”

We both went inside, and a grin lifted my lips as I saw Ryian lift her head hopefully. In what seemed like slow motion, she got to her feet and ran to me. I caught her as she launched herself into my arms.

“Hey, baby,” I softly murmured as I held her tightly in my trembling arms.

“Hey,” she whispered back, though it was followed by a sniffle, and I knew she was probably crying.

“Happy almost Valentine’s Day,” I teased in an attempt to make her laugh.

It worked because she chuckled as she extricated herself from my hold and wiped her face. Then she cradled my cheeks in her hands and looked up at me. “You’re… okay?”

“I’m fine, I promise.”

Then she hugged me again.

***

We had decided to take the club up on their offer to let us crash there for the night. I had been informed that the club had Ryian, her mom, and Anson staying there, as no one knew why I had disappeared or what it meant for their safety. I was eternally grateful to them.

Anson and I had spent most of the day together outside, and Ryian and I had just tucked him into bed. We were sitting out in the common area with everyone having a few drinks.

“What I don’t understand is that if my father was a fallen angel, then who was the woman that we thought was his mother and left me her house?” I asked.

Dallas snorted. “According to what Séamus found out today, she was a crotchety old woman who he used to take care of because she let him live in the lower level of her house when he first arrived in New Orleans. He developed a grudging affinity for the grouchy woman for some reason, which is why he took her last name, spelled differently, for his identity here.”

“I’m sure there was more to it,” Séamus added before easing his glass to his lips.

Ryian got up and hugged her uncle, then each of the members who had gone with to save me. I still couldn’t believe I’d been abducted by a woman. It hurt my manhood to know I’d been taken by a small woman, despite knowing the details I now knew.

She threw her arms around Séamus last. He appeared momentarily startled by the act of affection, but he finally gave her a brief hug back. When he did, he pushed her back almost immediately and plucked her drink from her hand. “No more of this for you.”

“What? Hey! Give that back!” she snapped playfully as she reached for the drink he held out of her reach.

Séamus scowled. “You shouldn’t be drinking in your condition.”

“My condition?” Ryian drew out as her head reared back.

Séamus motioned toward her abdomen. “That little spawn you have growing in there. Alcohol is terrible for it.”

Ryian’s jaw dropped before her palm instinctively went to her belly. “I’m not pregnant!” she insisted.

Everyone in hearing distance stared—including Killswitch and Amy. While Amy appeared thrilled, Killswitch cocked a brow and stared pointedly at me.

“I beg to differ,” Séamus shot back. He then turned to me after glancing at his watch. “I have somewhere to be. I’ll be in touch. There are several things you need to be trained to handle. Don’t take that amulet off until we do.”

He finished off Ryian’s drink, set the glass on the table, and walked out as if he hadn’t just dropped an atomic bomb.

I gently laced my fingers with Ryian’s. Still in shock and with her one hand still on her belly, she looked up at me. Love exploded through my chest as I stared into her beautiful hazel eyes. “I love you, Ryian. We’ve got this.”

She blinked, but she finally nodded and goofily smiled.

The conversation and activity around the room had gone back to normal, but we seemed cocooned in our own little world.

Well, it appeared that my Valentine’s Day present was going to need to be modified. I made note to pull the bottles of wine out of the basket to hide until after the baby was born.

“I love you too,” she softly replied and hugged me tightly.

As I returned the hug, I knew I would never take another thing for granted again.

---