Allegiance of Honor (Psy-Changeling #15) - Nalini Singh Page 0,128
beat, just wrapped them in his arms and rose to his feet as they began to talk his ear off about their adventures.
Tamsyn brushed her fingers through the twins’ hair before she went to the other side of the counter; her intense joy at having a busy home filled with packmates was a warm taste in the air to Sascha’s empathic senses.
“You’re all staying for dinner.” It was less a question and more a command.
Talin groaned. “I’m so full of cake. Don’t make anything delicious.”
“I was thinking Vietnamese chicken with glass noodles.”
“I’m going to go run laps with Noor so I can make room in my stomach.”
Smile deep at that solemn response, Tamsyn said, “Nate, honey, do you want to give Zach and Annie a call, see if they want to come over, too? It’ll probably depend on how exhausted they are. Annie said their cub’s fond of four a.m. wakeup calls.”
Having finished dressing Naya in a soft blue jumpsuit, Sascha put her down so she could toddle around. Her balance had improved in leaps and bounds since she started shifting—as if her brain was using what she was experiencing in cub form to assist her in human form. “I’ll call Lucas,” she said as Naya wobbled off after Jon and Noor. “He might’ve been held up.”
The mate of an alpha knew too well that his time wasn’t always his own.
Chapter 37
ZACH AND ANNIE arrived before Lucas. The DarkRiver senior soldier and his elementary school teacher mate had walked over with their one-month-old baby, even though Annie was currently using a cane to support the leg that had been injured in a train derailment when she was a child.
“I need the exercise,” the brown-eyed woman said, a little breathless upon arrival but flushed with health under the delicate cream of her skin. “All this baby weight isn’t going to shift itself.”
Behind her, her taller mate—their baby boy cradled in one arm—bent down to nip at her ear.
Annie yelped. “What was that for?” she asked, rubbing at the abused ear.
“I seem to remember you throwing up for most of the first half of the pregnancy,” Zach replied. “I don’t see any extra weight.” Bad-tempered words from the copper-skinned male with aqua eyes but the raw tenderness he felt toward his mate made Sascha’s heart hurt in the best way.
Annie tilted back her head to scowl at him, the deep black of her unbound hair brushing over his chest. “You need your eyes examined.”
Growling, Zach maneuvered her into a chair. “Let me massage that leg.”
Annie, who’d always been shy, blushed a little but didn’t push away her mate’s gentle hands when he hunkered down beside her after handing her their cub.
“Hey, sleepy.” She nuzzled their child. “Your daddy’s being a grumpus.”
Growling deep in his chest, Zach continued to massage Annie’s leg.
Sascha smiled. The couple was adorable.
“Did you two settle on a middle name yet?” she asked, leaning over to look into the baby’s sweet face. Annie and Zach’s first child had his daddy’s skin and straight black hair and his eyes looked like they might end up the same stunning aqua as Zach’s. But there was a sweetness to his drowsy baby smile that spoke of Annie.
“We’re going to leave it as Rowan Quinn for now,” Annie said, a stark poignancy to her. “If I ever find the boy who saved my life, I want to use his name as Rowan’s middle name.”
Sascha could understand Annie’s desire to honor that unknown telekinetic boy—if he hadn’t lifted the train off Annie, she wouldn’t be here today, wouldn’t have a mate or a child. And the world would’ve missed out on the beauty and gentleness of Annie’s spirit.
“Zach understands.” Allowing Tally to take Rowan for a cuddle, Annie ran her fingers through the hair of her still-scowling mate, who growled at her even as he continued to massage her thigh.
“What I don’t understand is why you keep overdoing it,” Zach said, then looked at Sascha. “This morning, I stumble bleary-eyed into the kitchen, thanks to the alarm clock called Rowan, and what do I see but my mate on a stepladder trying to fix a malfunctioning kitchen light.”
Screwing up her nose, Annie pulled at the hair she’d been petting. “I was being nice, letting you sleep in.”
“You were giving me a heart attack, that’s what you were doing. It’s like you’re taking lessons from Mercy.”
Tamsyn frowned from where she stood on the cooking side of the counter. “How bad is your leg, Annie?”