Page 44 of Thrilled By Her Protector

Dor took a sharp turn, and her mate tightened his hold on her. Jennifer paid little attention to the arguing brothers, or to Arthur Wessex’s firm command for them to shut up. Boys would be boys, she supposed, but she really did not care at that moment. Her entire body was in the middle of something that should not even be possible. She felt her flesh stretching, her organs shifting, and her muscles compensating for the new life she harbored inside her. Then it really hit her.

Jennifer was having a baby. With Zircon. Their baby. They were having a baby.

“Be easy,pakein. She is a Shifter. Her body can heal and adapt far more quickly than the human mates. Experiencing so many moons of gestational development in what I expect was just a few days is not something I have seen, but Jennifer, I believe, is capable of it.”

“You’re damn right I am,” Jennifer growled. “Now, buck up, Conny. We’re gonna be parents.”

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Epilogue

After six and a half hours of intense labor, Jennifer delivered a healthy baby boy at precisely ten o’clock at night. Jennifer and Zircon’s son arrived fifteen minutes after Carolina and Kimberley both delivered a set of twins, all male, and five minutes before Candy brought three baby girls into the world.

Arthur Wessex was puffing on a cigar, the man’s grin larger than the Cheshire cat. Meanwhile, his sons were on a mandatory ice cream run, demanded by their mates who, after hours of labor, were positively determined to indulge in creamy deliciousness.

All except Zircon. Arthur’s youngest was currently inside his mate’s room, cradling their infant son with tears welling unabashedly in his eyes.

“Hey,” Jennifer whispered.

“Hey, baby,” he told her, sitting on the edge of her bed. “Look what you did. Look how perfect he is.”

“Mmm, he is, isn’t he?” she said with wonder lacing her tone.

“Are you feeling okay?”

“Yeah. I feel good, actually,” she replied, sitting up and settling into his side.

Zircon held their son with one arm, the other wrapped around his mate, and he thanked the gods for all his glorious bounty. So much. He’d been given so much, and he would spend the rest of his life taking care, being grateful, and proving himself worthy to the two of them. Jennifer and their babe. The two most important people in his entire life.

“You have nothing to prove, Conny. You’re already a wonderful mate and father. I am so happy you picked me. So glad you waited for me.”

“There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, Jenn. I love you so much. You honor me. You’ve given me everything. So when I say I’ll spend forever proving you made the right choice, I mean it. It’s my vow to you both.”

She smiled at him then. A real, soul deep smile, and his heart stretched to its limits, overflowing with love for her. He didn’t know how they were going to do it. But he knew it was going to be worth his while. Good thing they had family and friends to help.

Already the Drakeins were readying the Wessex family home, putting together a nursery for Jenn and Conny, and preparing hundreds of bottles in preparation for the dragon-sized appetites of the eight newborns who would be going home sometime in the next couple of days.

“Mmm. He’s hungry,” Jennifer murmured, opening her gown and lifting their baby from Zircon’s arms.

He watched as she placed the babe’s lips to her breast, feeding him with nourishment from her body. Fuck. It was a miracle. She was a miracle, and Zircon was the luckiest man in the world.

“Love you so much,” he said, kissing her on the head.

“I never knew until now how much I wanted to be a mother,” she confessed, her cheeks pink and her eyes soft and loving as her gaze flashed from the baby to Zircon.

“Thank you, Jenn.”

“For what?”

“For you. For him. For us. Thank you for everything.”

“Silly man. I should be thanking you.”

“We can agree to disagree, or we can spend the next hundred years proving it to one another,” he said, kissing her lips and smiling down at their son.

“I think I like the sounds of that, Conny.”

“You do, huh?” he grinned wickedly, already planning the ways he was gonna show her his undying devotion.

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