Page 57 of Taken by Moonlight

He finished the cookie and opened a pantry door, rooting through it. “If you don’t want cookies, we have other stuff if you’rehungry.”

Thinking of all the breakfast I’d consumed, I shook my head. “Didn’t you havebreakfast?”

I watched him tear open a package of beef jerky and select a piece. “Yeah, but I’m really hungry. Good sex does that tome.”

At his wink, I rolled myeyes.

“Try it.” He waved a piece of jerky at me. “We make our ownhere.”

I took a piece of jerky and bit into it. It was surprisingly good, not tough as the kind I’ve bought instores.

Munching on our jerky, we toured the rest of the lodge. Again, it looked like an ordinary lodge, with bedrooms, offices, and a rec room downstairs that served as a makeshift meeting room for the entirepack.

Outside, we took a golf cart to explore the grounds. Gabriel pointed out the white barn where Felicia would hold her play rehearsal, a stable where they kept the horses, and a red barn used forstorage.

The bunk house sheltering the cowboys was a low, long building that resembled a 1960’s Floridamotel.

Opposite, he pointed out another building with a large red cross on it. “Infirmary. We have a physician’s assistant and an experienced nurse in thepack.”

“No vet?” Iteased.

Gabriel bared his teeth in a mock growl. “We visit the vet in Cheyenne once a month to get our fangscleaned.”

“Good to know they’ll be sharp if someone makes a snack out ofme.”

“I’m joking, sweet eyes.” He had that wounded lookagain.

“So am I, big guy.” I patted his arm. “I thought werewolves were almost immune toinjury.”

“The usual cuts and scrapes heal on their own. Once in a while, someone had need of stitching like when Zane almost tore off his hand on that barbedwire…”

I made a gagging sound. “Spare me thedetails.”

“Mostly they’re here for visitors, skins who might get injured. Or to deliverbabies.”

His expression warmed. “We like babies. Lots of them. Dante is hoping three of the mated females will get pregnant this summer. He’s encouragingthem.”

“In what way? Maternityleave?”

Gabriel laughed. “No, they’ll get plenty of leave, if they want, after the babies are born. If they want to return to their jobs or duties on the ranch after three months, they can. Or they can stay home with the babies. Up to them. Dante’s incentive is to offer them vacation time alone with the mate who wants to impregnate them. He even built a few cabins by the river exclusively for baby-making. The couple can run wild in the woods, and come back to make love by thefireplace.”

The way Gabriel looked at me, as if he wanted to get me pregnant, made my insides tingle. My womb actually clenched with anticipation, and I swear my ovaries were crying out, “Let’sgo!”

But the pragmatic side of me that wasn’t ruled by hormones and sexual pleasure nudged aside the primitive urge to have hot, baby-makingsex.

Slowly, the implication of Gabriel’s words sunkin.

“The mate who wants to impregnate them? What do you mean? The females have more than onemate?”

Gabriel kissed my hand, his gaze heating. “Around here, as with many shifter packs, there aren’t many females. So a female will have two or three mates. It’s perfectly legal among us shifters. The Council of Shifters has authorized it. And as for bearing young, each male has a turn impregnating the female. Usually goes by pack status orage.”

Wow, this was different. Not different as in me smelling or acting different according to Felicia, but different from anything I’d everknown.

At a loss for words, I shrugged. “To each their own. If it works for them, good. I thought you meant a group orgy where the female getspregnant.”

“Sometimes it does meanthat.”

Now I did turn to stare at him. “Seriously?”