Midnight Wolf (Shifters Unbound #11)(96)
“Not necessarily. Dylan’s tricky. But I made him understand that if you help him, it will be on your own terms. And you’re protected now by me, as your mate.”
Tamsin slid her hand along his bare arm to his shoulder. “I like that.”
“So it’s up to you, love. Do we continue the life of the carnival? Or do you move into Shiftertown with me? I know it’s not much of a choice. Maybe one day I’ll be able to offer you more, if Shifters ever get free.” Angus touched her lips before she could speak. “There’s another choice, you know. Go your own way. Live as you like. As you did before we met.”
“That’s off the table,” Tamsin said immediately. “I stay with you, Angus. You know we have the mate bond. Being without you is no longer an option.” Her big smile shone forth. “Besides, I’ll need your help. Wherever we decide to live, you’ll have to help our cub, if she’s a fox, understand what being a fox Shifter means and what she might be able to do. And if she’s a wolf, she’ll need your guidance. And Ciaran’s.”
Angus gave her a nod. “If cubs come along, yes. Why do you say she? The first might be a male.”
“She’s not. And I mean when, not if.”
Angus stared at her as the meaning of her words penetrated his brain. As he froze, his heart ceasing to beat, Tamsin laughed.
“Tiger told me last night, when we stopped in Dallas. He knows I’ve started a cub. And he knows it’s a she. I told him there was no way he knows I’m preggers when even I don’t, but he insisted. He says he can tell these things far in advance of anyone else. I believe him. Angus?” Tamsin lost her smile and touched his face. “You all right?”
Love, hope, fear, excitement, joy swelled up hard in Angus’s body and wedged in his throat. Any words got tangled in his brain, and he could only stare down at his mate, his eyes burning.
Then he threw his head back and let out a howling roar, the triumph of a wolf who has found his heart’s desire. Tamsin laughed at him and enfolded him in her arms.
In a few minutes, Angus heard small, swift steps, and the door of their trailer banged open, Ciaran appearing on the doorstep in his pajamas.
“Dad,” Ciaran shouted. “What’s wrong? What the hell?”
Angus was too joyous to admonish him for running from Dante’s care. His voice filled the RV. “You’re going to have a baby sister, son!”
“Really?” Ciaran sounded dubious, then his tone changed to excitement. “Really? Cool!” He jumped high and punched the air, then started dancing around the trailer.
The RV rocked, and Tamsin continued to laugh. The moon shone brightly through the curtains, the only light now that the carnival had died down, the Goddess joining their celebration.
Angus pulled the sheets high over them and tugged Tamsin into his arms, kissing the mate of his heart while his son cavorted and cheered in celebration of new life.
EPILOGUE
Tamsin chose Shiftertown.
She amazed herself, but she decided she did it for Ciaran’s sake. And Angus’s. All right, and maybe for hers as well.
Tamsin had thought she’d fall down into depression and be unable to move as soon as she set foot in a Shiftertown, especially with a false Collar around her throat, but to her relief, nothing so dire happened.
The New Orleans Shiftertown—which was about fifty miles west of the city—was an area of brick houses and lush green grass on flat land under a wide sky. Some houses had trees towering over them, planted long ago. No fences ran around the town. This Shiftertown was separated from the rest of humanity by a road on one side, a winding bayou on the other.
The Shifters in Angus’s Shiftertown, instead of gazing at Tamsin in suspicion, as she’d expected them to, welcomed her with enthusiasm.
“About time Angus got a life,” Reg, the tall Feline, said. He gave Tamsin a hard hug when Angus brought her to the outdoor gathering where she met the entirety of this Shiftertown, and kissed her cheek. “He picked someone cute to do it with too. I kind of figured when I saw you two together it was real.”
Reg didn’t seem bothered about having to get himself to Lake Charles to retrieve the SUV they’d left there. He was happy he’d been able to evade Shifter Bureau and help them out, he said.
The Shiftertown leader, Spence, welcomed Tamsin as well. Spence was a Lupine in Angus’s clan, his eyes a bit darker than Angus’s and his hair starting, like Dylan’s, to go gray.
“Thank you for bringing Angus home,” Spence said to Tamsin when they were formally introduced. “I can already tell you’re good for him. He’s been through too much tragedy.”
“Being rejected by his Shifter leader didn’t help,” Tamsin said pointedly. “But you probably knew that.”
It was none of her business what Angus’s Shifter leader had decided in the past, but she hadn’t missed the bleak look in Angus’s eyes whenever he’d talked about losing his place as second. His position had been taken from him by his brother’s actions and through no fault of his own.
Spence acknowledged her hit with a nod. “I’m sorry about that,” he said. “They backed me into a corner and gave me no choice. But now that so much time has passed, and Angus has proved he had nothing to do with Gavan’s group . . .” He trailed off and shrugged. “Who knows what might happen?”