observing him with delight.
Little hands grabbed onto his fur, but it didn’t hurt even when Kieran used that leverage to pull himself all the way up to sitting.
“Ca, ca, ca,” Kieran said importantly, banging on his father’s haunches.
It dawned on him that the child was saying cat.
And he was correct. His father was in the form of a lynx right now. Smart boy.
Killian gave the babe a gentle head butt, which sent the boy off into trills of laughter.
Killian was so taken with the child’s amusement that he did not notice Piper stirring until it was too late.
Suddenly she was snatching up the baby and backing toward her bow.
Kieran wailed at the loss of his new playmate as Killian flung himself into the change, rising so quickly into his human form that it almost made him dizzy.
“K-Killian?” Piper stammered.
“Yes,” he said as calmly as he could. “Sleeping in my animal form allowed my wound to heal. And it’s easier to protect the baby and keep him warm as a lynx. I forgot that it might be startling. I should have warned you.”
“So it was you,” she said to herself, still clutching Kieran, who waved his little arms at Killian like he was directing traffic.
“What do you mean?” Killian asked.
“At the party,” she said. “I thought I saw a big cat in the mirror. That’s why I went into the hall.”
“Yes, it was me,” he admitted with a smile. “My brother has been calling me the Prince of Cats since we were old enough to gain our bonded animals. He’s convinced he got the better end of the deal.”
“Ca,” Kieran yelled.
“May I?” Killian asked, extending his arms to his son, who kicked his little feet excitedly.
“Sure, but he’s got a very wet diaper,” Piper warned him.
“Oh, we can take care of that,” Killian said.
He moved forward slowly, afraid she would change her mind.
It meant a lot that she would allow him to hold the boy.
Kieran grabbed onto his shoulders and leaned backward slightly to gaze directly into his eyes with a slightly cross-eyed stare.
“Hello, lad,” Killian said.
“Bah,” Kieran replied, bonking him on the nose.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” Killian suggested. “There’s a stream downhill. We can all bathe.”
She nodded and they grabbed their clothing and headed between the trees down to the creek.
It was hard not to stare at Piper’s curvy form as she stepped carefully into the cold water, her pretty nipples hardening instantly, sunlight in her hair.
“Well, it’s not getting any warmer, is it, son?” Killian asked the boy.
Kieran squeaked at his mother and she waved to him.
Killian managed to undress and bathe the boy without upsetting him too much. The water was cold, but interesting. Again, he could tell how bright the boy was by the way he explored the droplets of water.
By the time Killian had scraped together a bit of magic to weave a cotton nappie for the child, Piper was finished with her bath and dressed again.
She took the babe, and Killian waded into deeper water.
He bathed as quickly as he could while Piper watched him from where she sat, nursing the baby.
Killian felt happiness he had never known before.
Again, he was tempted to take his little family and disappear. They could live quite happily by this stream for the rest of their lives, as far as he was concerned.
So many thousands of lives will be lost if there is war.
He sighed and waded out of the water, summoning a gust of fall air around himself to dry off.
Piper laughed. “Why didn’t you do that for us?” she asked.
“It’s cold,” he told her, trying not to let his teeth chatter.
“So I guess we keep going now?” she asked, as she lifted Kieran to her shoulder and rubbed the spot between his tender shoulder blades that made him burp like a fire-breathing dragon.
“Yes,” he told her, even though everything in his heart cried no.
They climbed back up to the spot where they had camped, and she watched as he cleared out every sign they had been there.
“So we can’t be tracked?” she asked.
“It’s just good manners to leave a site better than you found it,” he replied. “The only people trying to track us out here should be members of my own court.”
“And what if they’re not?” she asked, cuddling the baby closer.
“I will protect you,” he told her. “With my life, if necessary.”
She arched an eyebrow.
“What?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” she said. “It’s just that last time we were attacked, I believe it was me who