Fallen Son (The Fallen Men 3.5)

She tipped her face up into mine and fuckin’ beamed like a flower used to too little sunlight. “Thanks, Zeus.”

H.R. bound up to wrap her friend in a tight hug, and I stepped back to shoot Nova a look even as we clasped hands and embraced.

“What?” he questioned as we pulled apart.

“Nothin’.” I shook my head. “You’re just dumb as dirt sometimes.”

“Doesn’t seem to bother women much,” he countered with his pretty boy grin.

I snorted and turned my back on him, snagging Cressida from out under my son’s arm so they’d stop fuckin’ kissing for two seconds.

“I’m leavin’ in ten seconds. If any of you hooligans want a ride, you better be in the car ’fore then, or I’m happy to leave you behind,” I hollered.

Unfortunately, everyone found a seat in one of the two cars in five.

Loulou

My head ached, my breasts were swollen so big they throbbed to a painful beat, and I was so nauseated, it was an effort not to throw up with nearly every breath.

Yet I loved it.

Being pregnant.

Knowing I was harbouring two little souls that were a part of Z and a part of me. It was like living with a miracle inside me. It made me understand religion in a way I never had before even after years of attending service at my grandfather’s church. It felt like something more than biology to have life forming––a manifestation of our love forming––inside me.

But of course, in typical Garro fashion, they made me emotional as hell.

“Are you cryin’?” my husband asked as we finally took the turn off the snow-glazed highway onto the road that would lead us deeper into the mountains near Whistler.

I blinked hard and tried to sniff silently as I resolutely stared out the window at the glistening powder on the trees. “No.”

A hard pinch to my shoulder had me whipping around to glare at the three people in the back seat.

Harleigh Rose grinned wickedly, and announced, “She totally is.”

“Am not,” I retorted, suddenly reverting to the teenage attitude I’d left behind years ago. H.R. did that to me.

“What’s this then?” she demanded, leaning forward to swipe her thumb under my left eye. It came away wet.

I glowered at her, then turned back in my seat.

“You wanna apologize for bein’ a brat?” Zeus asked her mildly.

We both knew him well enough to know his intent did not match his tone.

“She can handle it,” she argued.

And it was true, normally, I could handle any of the teasing heat King or Harleigh Rose threw at me. It was the language of love in the Garro family, in the Fallen family, and I was just as fluent after years of being Zeus’s wife as the rest of them.

But I felt almost seasick from the pregnancy hormones, as if emotion was lopsided and every thought was blurred with dizziness. I sniffed, preparing to defend myself, but my overprotective husband beat me to it.

“Can it, babe. Lou’s not feelin’ great.”

Immediately, Harleigh Rose’s face melted with concern, and those hard blue eyes went soft like overwashed denim. When her hand touched my shoulder this time, it was gentle. “What’s going on? Are you okay? Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s nothing,” I assured her, shooting Z a sidelong glare for worrying her. “I’m just a little under the weather. Nothing to be scared about.”

My best friend’s eyes turned to stone again. “You promise?”

My heart burned at her concern. H.R. was as rough as the motorcycles she was named after, but secretly tender as the second of her names. I both loved and hated that she felt for me enough to ache for me.

“I’m good,” I swore.

“We deserve to know if something’s wrong with you,” Nova inserted, leaning forward to use the force of his thickly lashed bedroom eyes on me. “We’re family.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I retorted, needing to move on from this conversation because I hated them worrying, and I hated lying to them, even if it was by omission. “You guys mean everything to me.”

“Damn fuckin’ straight,” he agreed. “If you’re sick, we’re all sick. You get me?”

My lips twitched, but I knew he was serious as hell so I bit back my smile. “I get you, Nova. Now, quit frowning or you’ll crease that pretty brow and ruin the only thing you have going for you.”

Everyone else burst out laughing, but Nova only leaned back and shared a quiet, intimate smile with me that said more than he ever would with words. He loved me, and it was important for him that I knew that.

My throat ached and tears crawled up from the backs of my eyes.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I turned back to face the front.

“Warrior,” Z reminded me quietly as Nova, Lila, and H.R. began to chatter about something else in the back. His heavy hand landed on my thigh and gave a rough squeeze.