day."
Huffing with exasperation, Mom drummed her fingers on the table top. "Forget about the men, darling. Let's move back to the present, or I'll have to start arguing in favor of Errol Flynn. Now there was a dapper young man. He had a bit too much chin, though, I always thought. But I digress. Who else is going around quoting Scarlett? I did so enjoy the novel. The movie was wonderful, but something is always lost in translation from the original source, don't you think?"
What I thought was how my mother could bounce conversational topics like balls on a racquetball court if I let her get away with it. Good God, it was enough to give a man a headache. After my last fight—argument—with Gil, I was smart enough not to say my musings out loud.
"If you're going to be nosy, you should at least focus on one subject at a time, Mother. It wasn't such a big deal. I don't know why I even mentioned it. When Gil's brother Edgar turned me away yesterday, he told me to be patient. Gil both wants and needs to talk to me, but he’s too busy with his Vivien Leigh impression to make it happen."
Mom pondered my comment and brightened. "Oh, honey! Do you realize what he’s saying? Gil is going to forgive you and accept you as his mate. Obviously, Edgar meant Gil was putting it off until tomorrow because he's not ready today. This is good news, son."
Right then, the back door slid open and Dear poked his head out. "There you are. Thank fuck I found you. Gil and a bunch of his brothers are in the living room and… never mind. You'll never believe me. Just get in here before things get truly weird."
Mom and I shared a confused look before I sprang out of the chair and rushed inside. Gil was barking orders and screaming for his asshole alpha's clothes. I ran through the kitchen and careened around the corner, stopping so fast I probably left skid marks on the tile.
My eyes bulged out of my head, and my mouth dropped open so wide my chin nearly touched my chest. Gil looked about thirty months pregnant, with a huge belly sticking out so far I was amazed he was able to stand upright without help. Or without something to prop it up. He leaned against the arm of our couch, looking so tired I couldn't help but wonder if he hadn’t been able to make it any farther.
I didn't need to make sense of how he'd gotten so big in one short month. He was here, and that was enough for me. I rushed straight to his side, where I should have been all along.
He looked up at my approach, and there was no hiding the definite relief in his eyes. "Good. There you are. I've already got your brothers working on it, but you need to help because there isn't much time. I need your clothes. Not solely the clean ones, the dirty ones too. And bedding. Pillows! Maybe even the curtains in your room. I want every piece of fabric with your scent on it, and I want it ten minutes ago. Which means move now."
I was so confused. I took one step toward the stairs and then turned back. "Hold on. Are you pregnant? Because you look pregnant. I don't understand. You were so skinny a month ago. What happened?"
Gil's eyes went bright red, a sure sign his bunny was right at the surface, about to take over and probably kick my ass. I was half correct. His bunny was ready to seize the reins, but when Gil shifted, his sole interest was jumping onto the couch. I was used to Gil's bunny side, but he'd changed in this form too. The tips of his ears had turned silver, and his fur was longer and hairier than I'd ever seen on any brood member.
And his belly. If it was big in human form, it was unbelievably large now. I wanted to be mad when Dear whispered Gil looked like a white bunny version of the blueberry girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wanted to be mad but couldn’t be because he wasn't wrong. Physically, a bunny no larger than two and a half feet tall couldn’t have a stomach the size of a beach ball. A very hairy beach ball. And yet… somehow he did.
When he turned and sniffed the couch and pawed