“And on that note…” Jim grabbed hold of her arm and started edging toward the door.
“Why is your butt so warm?” Alex frowned. “Is something wrong?”
Chloe grabbed hold of her mate and darted into the hallway. “Three…two…one…”
“Holy shit! What the hell is that?”
Jim collapsed against the wall, dragging Chloe down with him. “Think he meant that literally?”
Chloe nodded, laughing too hard to answer.
With their shifter hearing they could still hear Alex’s disgust. “Tabby, I think Wren’s ass is possessed.”
“Why’s that, sugar?” Tabby sounded calm, but Chloe could hear rustling, like Tabby was playing with her sheets…or changing a newborn’s diaper.
“Should it look like something from The Exorcist is living in there?”
“Alex, we were told about this.” Tabby’s tone was patient. “The black stuff, the…what did she call it? The poo cork? Is out now, and we’re going to see the poop rainbow for a while.”
“I’ll never look at Skittles the same way again,” Alex groaned.
Jim tugged on her hand and Chloe followed, silently laughing. “Sk-skittles.”
He bit his lip, holding it in until they were in the elevator. Then he let it out again, collapsing against the elevator wall. “Oh, jeez, that was bad. Poo cork?”
They were holding each other up when the elevator finally hit the first floor. There stood Eric Bunsun, Alex’s brother, a big-ass stuffed bear in his hands. “What’s gotten into you two?”
“Not a poo cork, that’s for sure,” Chloe gasped.
“Or rainbow candy,” Jim added.
“Okay,” Eric drawled. He pushed his glasses up his nose. “Can I go see my niece now?”
“Sure thing.” Chloe and Jim stepped off the elevator and headed for the hospital door.
“You still want one?”
“A Skittle?” Man, her mate must have gotten oxygen deprived if he thought she wanted rainbow candy after that.
“A baby.”
“Eventually. I think we need to get carried first, though.” She didn’t dare look at him. He hadn’t once mentioned the M-word, and she’d been living with him for a couple of weeks now.
“How does September sound?” He put his arm around her shoulders.
She began to tremble. Did he mean it?
“Yup, I mean it.” He stopped her and turned her around. “With everything crazy that’s going on, I’d like to keep it small. It’s safer that way.”
“Big party later?”
He nodded, the tension she hadn’t noticed before falling away from him. “Sounds good to me. How about you?”
“Yes.”
His eyes turned golden brown. “You mean it?”
She nodded.
“Thank fuck.” He picked her up and twirled her around. Then he plunked her down, his eyes wide and worried. “Rings?”
“Rings?”
“Can we wear them? You know, when we…” He lifted his lip. “Fur out?”
“Nope. But we can hare them when we aren’t.”
“Oh. Good.”
She poked his lip. “You can put that down now, big bad.”
He chuckled and put his arm around her. “I love you, you know?”
“I blow, Jim.” She patted his hand. “I blow.”
He blinked, staring at her in confusion, but no way was she telling him whether or not she’d misspoken intentionally.
She blinked up at him, trying to appear as innocent as her newborn cousin. “Can we go get some Red Butt now?”
“Naughty little vixen.” He nipped her earlobe. “I like the way you think.”
“Wait.”
He took off running toward the car.
“Damn it, I didn’t mean that one!”
Chloe chased after her Wolf, but as she always would in the future, this time she caught him.