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“I’m sorry, honey. I am. I’m not trying to be a?—”

“Not at you. At everything. I just want to be with you and the baby and be pregnant and not be scared that you’re turning into a zombie!”

“Technically, a vampire.”

“No, people who are like, only half turned become zombies or something. I read it in a book.”

“Hmm.” He thought he knew what book that was, and it wasn’t exactly a history of real vamps. “I’m fine, love. Really. Just bloody and full of adrenaline.”

Cullen stared at him. “This has been the longest day in the history of days, and there has been a long goddamn history of days, and I do not want to do thisanymore!” He crossed his arms over his chest and glared. “You went out without me for the first time. My brother went out on the job without me for the very first time. Ever. You brought home a fae vampire Pomeranian and a baby with wings, who is hanging out with Hawk, but he should be hanging out with us. And now you’ve gotten bitten! I’ve fought with my brothers. I think that maybe Corbin has lost his goddamn mind. I found out that I am mated to a man with gold blood!”

Orion opened then closed his mouth and shook his head, and Cullen stuck his finger right in his chest.

Not literally.

“You know, we had our first real fight, and you walked out on me, and I don’t feel like that has been effectively resolved. First, you ran off to your parents to complain about me? That’s not fair! They haven’t even gotten to know me yet! Now they’ll think I’m a harridan. You got all pissed at me because I killed vampires. See why I kill vampires? Did you notice how you got bit in the neck? Did you see the teeth marks on that baby? Somewhere, that baby has parents, and I don’t know how to find them! We don’t even know his name. And they didn’t care. They just eat. And eat. Andeat!”

Orion listened, allowing Cullen to vent his spleen. They would talk afterward; he had no doubt. They could talk about things like how that baby’s parents weren’t alive because there was no way anyone would steal a baby like that and leave the parents alive. Then they would talk about how somebody—most likely the baby himself—would tell them the baby’s name.

He would tell Cullen that he understood, and that he was sorry.

And that he was okay.

But first, he was going to have to let the screaming just happen.

Of course, the most important thing was not to smile, because Cullen’s screaming was accompanied by balloons.

Hundreds of them.

Some with skulls, some with unicorns. Some with baby pegasuses. Pegasi?

It was adorable, but he was not going to smile, because that would get his ass kicked, and he would by definition have to let the pregnant guy kick his ass. Because otherwise, Hawk and the other brothers would kick his ass. Possibly his dad would…

“—pregnant with your baby and it would kill me to lose you. I just found you.”

Oh, that was the end of the storm. So Orion felt like it would be reasonable to draw Cullen in and hug him tight.

“I hear you.”

“Do you?” Cullen sniffled, and he nuzzled one of Cullen’s temples. “For real?”

“I swear to you on my horn.” He needed his pregnant mate to be about to relax. Seriously. “Let’s shower, get cleaned up, and then we’ll go see the baby. He’ll be hungry again by then.”

“Okay. But if you turn into a vampire, I’m going to be really mad.”

He wanted to note that he wasn’t turning into a vampire. He didn’t feel any different than he had any other day. Maybe a little tired.

And hungry.

There hadn’t been enough food, like real food, and he wasn’t hungry.

Not in an oh my god, I just got turned into a vampire so I have to go eat the universe kind of hungry. This was more hmm, I could murder a fried tofu sandwich with lettuce and tomato kind of hunger. Actually, that sounded super, super good. “You know what I want?”

“The blood of the innocent and your enemy’s head on a pike?”

“No… I was thinking a fried tofu sandwich with lettuce and tomato, possibly with a little mayo on brioche.”

Cullen grinned at him. “I’m fairly sure no vampire in the history of vampires has ever said fried tofu sandwich.”