The Blackest Night (Dusk Before Dawn 3)

My cheeks filled with heat as Kieran chuckled behind me. “I think you’re missing the point, brother.”

“Yeah, stop distracting Bronwyn with all the sexy stuff so she can share her news,” Thana agreed, earning her a growl from her husband over the use of the word “sexy” while describing his brother, however innocently—and accurately.

I shook off my sensual fog and blurted, “I’m pregnant.”

Delighted gasps echoed off the walls surrounding us before I was lifted off my feet in a crushing embrace. Then I was promptly set back down, ever so gently. “Shit, I need to be more careful.”

I pressed Stephan’s hand against my belly and laughed. “It’s early days yet, but our little miracle is safe and sound.”

“You don’t need to treat her like spun glass,” Aria chided after rushing across the room to give me a hug. Then she turned to wag her finger at her son. “She’s a daywalker, after all.”

Everybody else got in on the hugging until Stephan pulled me back into his arms when Ronan almost knocked me over in his excitement over getting another cousin. “She’s still mine to protect, same as our child.”

I twisted in his hold and smiled up at him. “You’re going to be such a great father.”

“Damn straight, just like you’ll be an amazing mother.” Cupping my face in his palms, he brushed a kiss against my lips. “Thank you for giving me everything I’ve ever dreamed of and more, angel.”EpilogueStephanTen Years Later“It’s Christmas Eve,” I sighed into the phone as I impatiently drummed my fingers on my desktop.

“Your point being?” my cousin drawled.

I frowned and glared at the wall. “Don’t be a bastard, Liam. There are at least twenty Bancroft relatives here for the celebration, including your parents and brothers. They miss you.”

Bronwyn and I wanted our children to have the sort of Christmases that I’d had growing up. My wife was especially adamant about it since she’d never had this sort of experience until she became a Bancroft. Thana and Selene were every bit as enthusiastic about it since neither of them had enjoyed most of their Christmases growing up, either.

Every year, we invited any relative who wanted to come to celebrate the season with us. Most of the time, we hosted a modest number of people, but there had been a few times when it had ended up being a reunion so large we took up most of the hotels in the area.

Liam had done his best to avoid the festivities, and I wasn’t without understanding of his reasons. He’d grown up with the girl next door as his best friend, and as they got older, despite the nature of our kind and his inability to feel any sort of physical reaction to her, he’d believed himself in love with her. He spent years assuming that when she came of age, she would be revealed as his mate.

When she finally turned eighteen, Liam told her everything. But when he reached out to touch her, she’d recoiled, afraid of what he was. Then she ran as fast and as far as she could go to get away from him. Without being able to awake the connection through touch, Liam was still convinced that this woman was his fated mate, and when he received word that she’d died of cancer at age thirty, he believed he was doomed to spend eternity alone.

Personally, I’d never thought she was good enough for my cousin. In fact, I’d been almost certain she wasn’t a virgin, which would have ruled her out, but when I brought it up to Liam, he refused to believe it. I was of the opinion that his consort was still out there somewhere, waiting for him to find her.

Again, I wasn’t without sympathy for his situation. However, it had all happened half a millennium ago, and this year, he needed to buck up and get his ass to Kieran’s house for dinner. Liam’s family had been disappointed not to see him very often during their visit, and I wasn’t going to allow him to ruin their Christmas dinner because he wanted to brood in solitude, getting wasted on his own whiskey.

“And the kids miss their uncle Liam,” I added, pouring the guilt on nice and thick.

“It’s just family?” Liam queried suspiciously.

I smiled in triumph. He was cracking.

“Absolutely,” I replied. It was the truth, although I was omitting a few facts. There were a handful of unmated consorts at the party, but each one was related to someone there. Even if it was by marriage. It was unlikely that we would pull a needle out of the haystack and find Liam’s mate among them, but it couldn’t hurt to try. After all, my consort, as well as my brothers’, had literally come running to us. Perhaps fate was on the side of the Bancrofts.