“You…” Torren frowned. “You want a baby with me?”
“Yes. Someday, when you’re ready, I want you to put a baby in me. I don’t care if she’s tiger or gorilla. We’re gonna keep you steady. I’m not going to be a dancer forever, Torren. You came in at a bad chapter of my life. You won’t be a brawler forever. I came in at a bad chapter for you. Someday, things are gonna be different for you and me, but you have to fight until we get there. And I’ll fight with you because someday I do want the life you could give me. I want to see you holding our little baby girl.”
“You keep saying baby girl.”
“It’s just what I imagine when I get lonely. And before you, I was very lonely. I daydreamed about a little baby girl to take care of and give a better life than the one I have. I want to be close to her like my dad was close to me. I couldn’t imagine the father though, because I hadn’t found you.” She jammed her finger at the puncture scars on her neck. “You made bigger promises to me than you realized with this claiming mark.”
Torren’s wide-eyed gaze dipped to her neck, then to his arm as he held it out. His skin was covered in gooseflesh. It was cold out and he was in a T-shirt, but that man was a furnace. He wasn’t cold. He’d just been knocked off balance with her declarations.
She stomped her foot in the snow. “You don’t get to quit anymore. Now, you’re a mate, and someday you’ll be a dad. I’m gonna get you there, but you have to fight with me. No quitting. No quitters in this family group. Too many people need you.”
“I—” Torren’s voice cracked. He dipped his gaze to the snow and hooked his hands on his hips before he swallowed audibly and tried again. “I would like a baby girl. Someday. A tiger with thin stripes. Orange. Pretty little girl like her momma.”
She huffed out a half-laugh, half-sob. He’d just said yes to a family someday. Her face crumpled, and a warm tear trickled down to her jawline. This was something she’d yearned for her whole life. Thickly, she demanded, “Then fight. I like HavoK the way he is. He’s a wrecking ball. That’s fine. It’s up to you to figure out how to let him out and remain sane. For me. For Vyr. For your family back in Damon’s Mountains, and Nox and Nevada and that silly, horny swan, and someday, for a little tiger cub with tiny stripes who looks at you like you hung the moon.” She shrugged one shoulder up. “Hang the moon, Torren.”
“Jesus, woman,” he murmured, running his hands through his hair and linking his hands behind his head. “Who’s the real wrecking ball? Did you just change the entire path of my life?”
“Get used to it, ya monster. You didn’t pick a girl who will sit aside and lose you.”
“Clearly. I picked a make-shit-happen girl instead. Gonna make me work.”
“I’m high maintenance,” she said cheekily.
“Chhh, you don’t have to tell me. I know. Got me holding a damn sparkle bag and carrying you over rubble and claiming you and talking future babies.”
“I’m not sorry.”
“Good. Geez.” Torren held his arms out to her. “I’m suddenly hungry enough to eat like six steaks. You stress me out.”
She giggled as she melted into the safety of his arms. The man was warm as a campfire, and she snuggled close against his chest. “You eat meat when you’re stressed. Perfect man.”
Torren snorted. “I like how I can literally have any reaction, and even if it’s weird, you just roll with it.”
“You aren’t weird to me. I understand you. I could go for a steak, too.” She rolled her head back and grinned up at him. “Stripping makes me hungry.”
Torren belted out laughter and hugged her closer. “Not Changing into a badass tiger and fighting a silverback for your man? That’s not what made you hungry? It’s the stripping part?”
“Yep!”
Torren shook his head and kissed the top of her hair, lingering there for a few seconds. “I like my life better with you in it. You make my insides feel less dark.”
“Good. Feed me.”
“High maintenance,” he teased her again. But the stunning smile on his face said he liked her just the way she was.
He pulled her by the hand across the parking lot. There was a thin layer of snow, and she looked behind them to see her small footprints next to the giant prints from his boots. She smiled to herself. He was so big next to her, his hand massive around hers, his dominance mountains bigger than hers, and yet she’d never felt safer. His hand was so warm and strong around hers, so steady. She wasn’t limping anymore. In fact, she felt completely fine after the fight. Sex with Torren had done wonders for her body. Magical monkey man. And a gentleman monkey because he opened the door to his old, black Camaro and waited for her to buckle up, a slight smile on his face as he watched her, like he thought she was beautiful. And when she clicked her seatbelt into place, he shut the door, made his way around the front of his car, and slid in behind the wheel.
“I like your car.” She complimented him as the engine roared to life.
“It was my dad’s. He gave it to me for my twenty-first birthday. It’s old as dirt, but we kept working on it together, replacing parts, and someday, maybe, I’ll give it to our little hellion.”
She laughed because, yeah, look at them. A trained dancer turned stripper and a logger turned brawler. Their future kids were definitely going to be hellions.
The drive to Vyr’s mansion was short. Torren didn’t even ask if she wanted him to take her back to her car, still parked at Jem’s. He just drove her to his home. She liked that. He was taking her back to where he was comfortable, inviting her deeper into his life.
And as they crossed the river with the hidden roadway, she got excited. She wasn’t tired. Quite the opposite, she was energized from the night with Torren. And she knew it was silly, but she wanted to show Nevada, Nox, and even Vyr the claiming mark Torren had given her. She was proud, and who else would understand its meaning? Only the crew.
But when they pulled into the clearing, blazing red and blue police lights were illuminating the night.
“What the hell?” Torren growled, the steering wheel creaking under his grip.
“Torren, look,” she murmured in shock, pointing to the huge hole in the side of the mansion that was billowing smoke.
“Fuck. Vyr must’ve done it.”
She squinted at the officers standing near the two police cruisers. “Thank God. I know one of them. That’s Sheriff Thompson. He’s good. He helps at the club every time the guys get out of control, and he knows about the fox shifters. He pretends he doesn’t, but he does. He has protected the shifters from being outed in Foxburg. He’s pro-shifter and understanding. Look, he’s just talking to Vyr and Nox, not putting them in handcuffs.”
“What about that one?” Torren asked, jerking his chin at the tall truck of a man standing somberly beside Sheriff Thompson.
“I don’t know him. Maybe he’s new. Foxburg is a really small town, and the police force has only been three strong as long as I can remember.”
“I don’t have a good feeling about him.”