Page 29

S waying back and forth with Avery on the dance floor as we celebrated Emmet and Jezebel’s wedding was just about the best damn thing I ever experienced.

Truth was the curvy little human was driving me crazy. She was about seventy percent smart ass and thirty percent pure loudmouth most of the time, but I still found her irresistible.

Of course, I understood her reserve. Being a single mother was not easy. I should know having been raised by one. My Mama was the best damn woman I ever met.

Until now.

I think she’d approve of Avery. And little Rosalie. Hell, the beautiful little girl had me wrapped around her finger. I knew plenty of Shifters who wouldn’t want anything to do with another male’s cub, but to me the child was a bonus gift.

The tot had a secret, though. One she wasn’t aware of, and I was pretty sure her mother was clueless as well. I just wasn’t sure how to broach the subject.

“Well, look at you two all cozy. Mind if I cut in?” Kian interrupted us and, before I could tell the obnoxious bovine to fuck off, Avery stepped back and nodded her head.

“Sure. Um, thanks, Dante,” she muttered, not looking me in the eye.

Kian started in right away on some cockamamie story. Damn Bull was always running his mouth.

I supposed I could make some joke about him being a bullshit artist, but I wasn’t feeling very funny right then.

“Pick me up!” a little voice demanded, and my Bear’s ears perked up as Rosie tugged on my pant leg and lifted her arms for me to pick her up.

“Pick you up? What are you supposed to say?” I chided gently.

“Please, Danny! Please!”

“Alright, Squirt. Come on,” I said, grinning at the sweet cub.

“Dance, Danny! Dance!”

I nodded my head and two-stepped her around the room, purposefully bumping my elbow into Kian’s side.

“Ouch! Such a Bear on the dance floor, Danny,” he said, grinning.

Fucking idiot.

“You don’t get to call me Danny,” I growled.

“That’s my special name for Dante, Uncle Kian! Only I can call him that,” Rosalie told him in her best no nonsense voice.

“Rosie, are you getting tired? Sorry Dante, you don’t have to carry her,” Avery said, opening her arms for her baby girl.

Normally, I would have told her it was no problem. But if handing her Rosie meant Avery stopped dancing with Kian, then I was all for it.

I watched the two females walk back to their table, and my inner Bear chuffed in approval.

“You know, Danny, if you want that woman, you’re gonna have to do more than stare at her longingly,” Kian said, right before he doubled over in pain as a result of me shoving my elbow into his gut.

“Don’t talk to me. We’re not friends,” I muttered and walked away.

“You just haven’t accepted our love!” the moron shouted after me.

He was right, though. I did want Avery. Ever since I met the curvy little goddess my Bear has been saying one word over and over again inside my mind’s eye.

Mate.

I just didn’t know if I was worthy of either of them. Rosalie lifted her head off her Mama’s shoulder, and her eyes glowed in the dimly lit barn.

Concern for her was growing by the day. I needed to have a serious talk with Avery about her daughter and who her father was before she discovered what I suspected to be true the hard way.

But how the hell was I supposed to start that conversation?

Guess it was on me to figure it the fuck out.

T he end

—or really, I guess it is the beginning for Emmet and Jezebel.

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