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He tucks it in behind one tiny ear and kisses his soft cheek.

“Really?” Nix checks his blurry reflection in the glass of the microwave and adds a sassy hand under his chin like they’ve seen Luca do a hundred times.

“I love it, thank you.”

“Very pretty. You two coming?” Jay asks.

Nix giggles before scampering off so as not to miss a minute, leaving Grayson to pull up his shirt for a quick sniff.

He’s not wearing perfume, but Nix is right; it’s that patchouli scent again.

The scent is aromatic and mysterious, blending so well with the basil-vanilla that it feels like it’s a part of him.

Rowan runs by him then, with a faux-growling Luca chasing him and shouting, “Grrr, alpha! Grrr, chase!”

Grayson can’t help but laugh, following them out.

Strength in Every Beat (Nix)

Someone is tickling him, and whoever it is had better run fast because Nix just closed his eyes an hour ago. They all had. Finn’s last wave had crested, but like a real tide, it hadn’t ebbed away completely.

Nix’s stoic, even-keeled alpha mate had taken each of his mates and renewed their mating bites before finally falling asleep, knotted inside Leo. Everyone had cleaned up (except Leo and Finn) and rolled back into the nest, trying to avoid the wet spots, rather unsuccessfully, considering Nix is a walking wet spot on a regular day.

And now, there were gentle, tickling fingertips all over his ever-growing baby belly. “Quit it,” he grumbles, but the tickling only increases, and by then, Nix has had enough. “Listen, I mean it.”

He swipes a grumpy hand over his belly to move the fingers away and…there aren’t any.

What? The tickles continue, though, unimpeded by Nix’s alarm, and it strikes him that they are coming frominsidehis abdomen.

The babies. He is feeling the babies, and it’s the most exciting thing that has ever happened to him, bar none. But he’s cognizant enough to know that yelling his excitement in a nest full of exhausted Weres, including five alphas, is probably unwise.

So instead, he whispers loudly, “Guys.”

There’s a granola bar dropped on his face from a large, freckled hand over his head.

“Will make food soon, Nixie. Shhh.”

Rude. Fine, be like that.

“Jamie, wake up.”

The tickles pick up, one movement escalates to a swirl and his belly jiggles. He canjustsee the babies moving from the outside. But he’s not sure. At least, not until he looks inwards, where he can see the tiny golden lights are so bright and very awake.

Of course, Jamie always answers the call. “Baby boy? You okay?” He’s got his enigma nose in the air.

“Look!” He points at his belly.

Jamie tilts his head. “Um…pregernant? Preganante? Perganernant?” He smiles at his own joke and leans forward to kiss the smooth skin, and the babies go crazy when he does. Very nice, but not news.”

“No! They’re awake and moving!”

Eyes popping wide, he finally looks closely at the lower part of Nix’s belly just as it ripples.

“Holy shit balls!” Jamie shouts, and every single mate in the nest is jerked rudely awake.

In a single second, Grayson is crouching, red-eyed, next to him in an instant, and if Nix hadn’t seen it coming and thrown up a quick block, he might have landed that left cross-swipe across Jamie’s throat.

“Whoa, Gray. It’s okay,” Nix says, in the multi-layered voice that comes from deep in the vortex of his bonds.