Page 9 of Cold Curses

His eyes lit with love. “Fallon is pregnant again, and we’re thrilled.”

Shifters, with their longer-than-human life spans, could conceive well into middle age.

“Congratulations! When is she due?”

“Early next year, so we have a ways to go yet.”

The crowd of shifters parted as Fallon ran through them into the hallway. Her face looked a bit green.

Jeff sighed. “Midnight sickness hits hard. I’d better go after her.”

“Go,” I said with a nod. And found myself quickly surrounded by the arms of another shifter.

“Elisa!” said Daniel Liu, another Pack member and one of Connor’s closest friends. “Congratulations.” He gave me a hug that might have broken the ribs of a human.

“Thanks, Dan.”

He released me and pushed straight dark hair from his dreamy brown eyes. Dan was gorgeous—with light brown skin and high cheekbones—and an unrepentant flirt, but he still managed to find himself single. Based on his recent bar fight with the boyfriend of a lady he’d tried to steal, he didn’t make the best decisions in the romantic arena.

“Alexei is with Lulu, so he told me to hug you for both of us.”

I doubted that, since Alexei wasn’t a hugger.

“I look forward to seeing what you make of the Pack,” he said.

“That’s Connor’s deal. I won’t interfere.”

“Eh, the Pack is more than business.” He gestured to where Tonya stood with Gabriel. She was frowning as she listened to him with obvious intensity. When he finished talking, she leaned in and said something quiet that had him pressing his forehead against hers.

“Love,” Dan said, “helps fill the Pack. Keeps it centered. Balanced. And when the shit goes bad—”

“Which, in Chicago, it often does.”

He nodded. “Love gives us a place to land.”

“Dan, you’re going to make me think you’re a romantic.”

“Lies,” he said with a wink. “And you’re going to do fine. Just don’t forget the love.”

* * *

That love was everywhere in the Keene house, and Connor and I accepted hugs and congratulations until dinner was ready, which involved old-fashioned meat loaf that tasted like heaven and yeast rolls light enough to float. The family’s dining table, which fit twelve, wasn’t big enough for this crowd; every spare chair and folding card table in the house had been commandeered, so everyone had a seat. That, I thought, was how you did Pack love.

“A toast,” Connor’s dad said when plates were heavy with magic and food and glasses were full and ready for clinking.

“Twenty-some-odd years ago,” he continued, his glass of whiskey raised, “Tonya gave me the most amazing gift I could have asked for. I still have that Ducati,” he added with a wily grin that had the laughter roaring. He leveled his gaze at Connor. “And then she gave me you, and you were a miracle until you hit puberty. And then you were a terror.”

“Be honest,” Connor’s uncle Eli said. “He’s my nephew and I love him, but puberty was not the problem. He wasalwaysa terror.”

Connor lifted his bottle of Goose Island root beer, a Chicago specialty, in salute. “You don’t know where the boundaries are until you test them.”

“Boundaries you did not like,” Gabriel said, “which made it very amusing that your first crush was on a girl who followed all the rules.” And he looked at me.

I snorted. “I was absolutely not his first crush. He had a new girl every week, and none of them was me.”

“He was intimidated,” Tonya said with a smile.

“I’m pretty sure Connor Keene has never been intimidated byanything.” I slid my gaze to him, found equal parts arrogance and affection in his return smile.