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He could feel his mate melt. Sweet Cullen wanted to come first, and dammit, he should. At least with Orion. That was his mate, after all, and he loved Cullen so much more every day.

Every day.

Of course they had to find out about the vamps, and kind of right now, and they would. But they had to keep their house happy and safe in order to guard the other worlds.

“Of course. Guardian guard thyself.” She smiled faintly once more. “I would take Evander with me, but Corbin seems to be happy to care for him.” Then her brow furrowed maybe a quarter of an inch. “He will wake soon, I hope.”

“So do we all, Lady,” Cullen said. “But he’s far better than he was at first.”

She ate one last pimento cheese sandwich and then, completely out of character, he thought, she licked her fingers. She really did like cheese. “Well, I shall leave you now. I will come back soon to see my nephew. Bright blessing, my loves.”

“Bright blessings,” he and Cullen said, and she walked off, disappearing through a corner in the wall.

“That was wild,” Orion said.

Cullen winked at him, grabbing a sandwich. “She’s a hoot. But thank you for standing up for me and the baby. We need alone time, the four of us.”

“We do. And I need you. With all my heart.”

He leaned down and kissed Cullen, then Tisi, who was back sleeping happily in his father’s arms. “That’s all I can ask for.”

ChapterTwenty-One

“Ithink I’m going to have to put a fence over the top of your crib.” Cullen stared at Tisi, who stared back with his gorgeous ebony eyes from on top of the bookcase.

“He doesn’t seem real worried,” Cosmo pointed out, little Emily in his arms.

“Hims can fly, no fair.” Elliot stared at Tisi, arms crossed, little flames threatening in those gray eyes. Man, if that baby could blow fire, he would. He was getting stony as they spoke.

“Oh, little gargoyle, don’t be mad,” he reached out and tried to stroke Elliot’s hair, but the little one moved away.

“Don’t be mean.” Cosmo clucked his teeth. “You’ll fly soon enough, but first, we have to figure out how to get your cousin down off the bookshelf.”

He nodded, staring up at Tisi and holding his arms out, hoping Tisi would fly down. He was too pregnant to climb up there.

“So what are you going to do if you have another one that has wings?”

He gave Cosmo a look. “Orion is a unicorn, not a pegasus.”

Cosmo shrugged. “So? We don’t know what happens when you mix fae and dragon with unicorn. She could come out with wings. Then you’d have two.”

“Well…” Dammit. “Then I’ll put netting on both cribs. I don’t know.” Cullen shook his head. “I mean, you had a gargoyle.”

Cosmo nodded. “Have you met Stella? Brandon and Abe had an owl. There’s no telling how this works.”

“Right. Every baby is different. I just happened to have an airborne baby.” Cullen glanced at Elliot, who was still pouting mightily. “You want to call him down, little gargoyle?”

“No,” Elliot snarled. “No. I no like him.”

Okay, that actually hurt his heart a little bit. “You don’t like Tisi?”

“No. I no like babies.”

“Well, you don’t have to like him if you don’t want to.”Little shit. “It’s a shame though, because you’re the oldest cousin, and that’s important.”

Elliot narrowed his eyes, and Cullen could see Cosmo fighting his smile.Someone is really jealous.

Do you think? I thought maybe he was just being an asshole.