move in?”
The bear shifter groaned and slapped his palm on his forehead.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” Anders laughed aloud and slapped him on the shoulder. “Besides, though your McMansion’s pretty big, it gonna get pretty crowded once the baby—” All of a sudden, blood drained from Anders’s face, and his arms fell down to his sides. “Fuck.”
“Anders?” Gabriel waved a hand in front of the tiger shifter’s face. “You all right?”
His jaw dropped. “I’m gonna be a dad.” He grabbed his glass and knocked back the contents. “Guys, I’m gonna be a dad!” he shouted, as if he had just realized it now.
Gabriel and Damon slapped him on the shoulders and congratulated him. Daniel stood back, looking smug as he obviously already knew.
“Congratulations,” Krieger said and offered his hand.
“Thanks, man.” Anders shook it vigorously.
There was something about Anders … a different air to him that Krieger could not quite put his finger on. In his previous encounters with the tiger shifter, there had been a simmering anger bubbling there, a chip on his shoulder that was permanently buried there. But now … he couldn’t describe it accurately, but there was an underlying peace under the tiger shifter’s boisterous demeanor. Was this what it was like to be bonded and mated? The envy twitched inside him once again.
“And really, thank you.” Anders continued. “If it wasn’t for you … I don’t even know if she would …”
“Are you crying, Stevens?” Gabriel asked incredulously.
“No!” Anders denied as he cleared his throat. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Damon sighed. “All right, all right.” His lips quirked up. “Now, that wasn’t exactly what I meant when I mentioned good news, but I’ll forgive you this time for showing me up with your news before I could share mine.” There was a twinkle in the chief’s eyes that Krieger had just noticed.
“Showing you up—” Gabriel’s eyes widened. “No. Really?”
A rare smile broke out from the chief. “Really. We’re having a baby. Anna Victoria’s out with the girls to tell them tonight.”
“Oh man!” Gabriel engulfed him in a hug. “Damon … I’m so happy for you guys!”
“Here, here.” Daniel raised his beer bottle. “Congrats, Chief.”
“Fuck yeah!” Anders clinked his glass to Daniel’s bottle, then slapped Damon on the back once Gabriel released him. “Hey, we’re gonna be dads! Let me get everyone a drink. What do you want, Daddy?” he asked Damon, then winced. “Wait, that didn’t come out the way I wanted it to.”
To his credit, Damon barked out a chuckle. “A beer would be fine.”
“And you, Krieger?”
It took him a second to answer. “Same.”
“All right.” Anders gave them a thumbs-up before he strode out to the bar.
“You okay, Krieg?” Damon asked.
“Congratulations, Chief. To both of you.” Envy twisted deeper in his chest, but he managed to swallow it like a bitter pill.
“Thanks. I’m glad you came down here so I could give everyone the news at the same time. Anna Victoria took a home pregnancy test a couple days ago and we confirmed it at the doctor’s office today.”
“When’s she due?” Gabriel asked.
“Late April.” Damon now, too, had the same look of panic Anders had earlier. “Geez. A baby. I mean … we decide to try, and she stopped taking her birth control as soon as they ran out, but … I didn’t think it would be quite this soon.”
“Hey, it’ll be fine, Damon,” Gabriel assured him. “We’re here for you.”
“Yeah, whatever you need, Chief,” Daniel added. “Right, Krieg?”
“Of course.” That, at least, he could be sure of. He would protect these men and theirs with his very last breath.
“Here you go guys,” Anders said as he came back, carrying four mugs of frothy, ice-cold beer, and handed one to each of the men around the table. “Again, congrats, Chief.”
“Same to you.” Damon grabbed one of the mugs and raised it. They all followed suit and clinked their glasses together. Damon cleared his throat. “There’s one more thing.”
Once those words were spoken, all four gazes zeroed in on Krieger. For the first time in his life, he suddenly felt like prey. “What the hell is goin’ on?” he growled. It seemed his earlier suspicion about this being a set up wasn’t unwarranted.
“Krieg,” Damon began. “It’s not what you think. Please, stand down.”
“We wanna help,” Anders continued.
“Like you’ve helped us,” Gabriel added, and Daniel concurred with a nod of his head.
“Help you?”
“Don’t think we haven’t noticed,” Gabriel said. “You’ve been watching over us these past months. You took out that asshole who nearly burned Temperance.”
“And