Page 47

He had delivered a bunch of baskets with Lucien this morning, played with the kids, had a wee nap, and now he was…cookie-ing.

“Man, I went full-on omega, didn’t I?” He snorted, thinking how he used to drive a snowcat to take supplies to dragons.

As if he’d conjured up the sound, a snowmobile roared up outside. He blinked, because no one had called up on the SAT phone to say they were coming.

A knock sounded minutes later, and he covered his dough before going to let…

“Liam. Hey! What’s up?”

“I just wanted to bring you some stuff.” Liam’s face was red from the cold, and he looked a little guilty, truth be told.

“Oh, okay. Come on in. Want coffee or hot chocolate?”

“Sure. I’ll take a coffee please. How you feeling? You’re all swollen.”

“Don’t make me hurt you, man. I will totally hurt you.” He looked like he’d swallowed a basketball, and the baby was wildlyactive. All the time. It was crazy. “Snows are lasting late this year, huh?”

“I know. April is right around the corner. It’s nuts. Cookies smell good.”

“They are good. What are you doing up here? I mean, I love to see you, and I’m not worried about that, but. It’s just usually not…you’re not usually up here this much.”

“Can I tell you something?”

“You can tell me anything.”

Liam’s cheeks went dark under the shaggy beard he wore in the winter. “I keep dreaming about going up the mountain. Seriously, I keep dreaming about going up to see the dragons. I mean, I really wanna go. I want to go up there and see what’s what.”

“Well, the snow is really deep, and it’s not real stable right now, but you know, I mean the melt’s gonna happen in a few weeks.”

Liam nodded. “I know, I know. I got up as far as Loyal and Niall’s last time. They stopped me from going any farther but….” He shook his head. “I just have this feeling.”

“Well, Niall of all people should understand that.”

“Yeah.” Liam sat with him, coffee in hand. “So, things are going good for you?”

“They are.” He grinned. “I love Fen. We’re having a baby. He finally stopped worrying I’m going to get shot. Now, once the run-off happens, and everyone is able to move about better, who knows what he’ll do…”

“How much longer can you possibly have? You’re the size of the house.”

Rory put up his dukes, playing. “I’m going to throw you out the house and put you down a well.”

Liam cracked up. “Okay, this is pretty fun. Can I see the nursery?”

“Sure.” Rory led him up the stairs to one of the guest rooms that they’d redone for the baby. “We painted it blue, which is so like…normal, but it was the color that we had.”

“It’s pretty. No one will care.” Liam wandered around, admiring the amazing crib, the cradle, the rocker that Fen had created. “Have you settled on Alexander for a name?”

“Yes, my Fen thought that was perfect. He heard me say it, and it hasn’t changed since.” He would be aggravated, but he was so charmed…

“Alexander is a fine name; it won’t hurt anything. I still think you should name him after me.” Liam fluttered those long eyelashes at him, and Rory could see real worry and exhaustion in his eyes.

“Would you like to stay here? Or I could have Jameson see if Niall needs help up there. But honestly, I mean—you can stay with me…”

“I don’t wanna stay with anybody, Rory. I mean, maybe I’ll try to go up and check on Loyal and Niall and see what they need. It’s just a thing. I can’t quite get around it. I want to…”

Rory understood, sort of, and he absolutely understood needing to come up here to the pack, but there weren’t any single wolves in Loyal’s pack.

Not any. They tended to take in couples that were leaving the bigger pack, looking for more space. All of the single wolves there were children.