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Holler if you need me. I’ll be right there.

Thank you.

He reached out for Cosmo again, trying to make sure he was still okay. He heard humming. Cosmo was clearly in a good mood, at least.

He headed down into the basement, following the sound of his lover, who was wandering and moving rocks.

“Cosmo…” he called out softly, wondering if he should have brought cookies as a lure.

“Here, love.” Cosmo’s pleasure wrapped around him like a hug.

“There you are.” At least Cosmo hadn’t tried to crawl into the narrow tunnel.

“I wanted to see how bad it was. See if I could get through.”

“Well, I think that’s a monumentally bad idea. Let’s tie Cullen to a string and send him.”

“Yeah?” Cosmo chuckled softly. “I’m a little bored, you know?”

“All you had to do was say so, love. I would have found something to keep you busy.”

Cosmo rolled his eyes. “Would you now? And how would you keep me busy? My great big old dragon.”

“Old?”

“Ancient.”

“Now you’re just being mean.” Hawk leaned down and rubbed noses with Cosmo. “Come back up into the light, love. It’s… it’s dark down here.”

And he wanted Cosmo out of these caves. There were just so many opportunities to get hurt or lost or overwrought or something. He wanted his pregnant mate not down underneath the ground.

This was not unreasonable.

“Okay, I’ll come with you.” Cosmo rubbed his belly, stretched. “Your son is heavy. He’s very heavy today.”

Hawk wisely did not point out that was because Cosmo was the size of a house. He thought that would go over poorly. “Is he going to be a big bouncing baby boy?”

“I think so. Our Elliot is going to be amazing. On the order of Arielle and Sebastian and Lia.”

“You know you’ve cursed him now to be—” He stopped, and his head tilted. “Honestly, as far as being difficult children, Arielle is the top.”

“You only say that because you haven’t spent as much time with the twins.”

Hawk grinned. “Which ones?”

That cracked Cosmo up. “Well, I was talking specifically of the special Ks, but point taken. You know how we multiple children?—”

Cosmo stumbled on a loose bit of gravel, almost falling, and it was all Hawk could do not to just growl and say, “See? This is why I didn’t want you down here!”

It wouldn’t help, so he didn’t do it. He absolutely wanted to though.

“Can we stop for a minute?”

“I’d really like to get you upstairs,” Hawk answered. “It’s not very much farther. I could carry you.”

“My back hurts. I just need to take a second and rest, all right?” Cosmo’s frown was deepening, and that worried him.

“All right, of course.” He wasn’t going to argue.