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  So perfect. So right.

  They settled into a rhythm, both of them more fucking each other’s mouths than going down on the other. Faster, harder, until Emery felt his own balls drawing up tight in preparation of spilling their load.

  In his mouth, Sean’s cock hardened, grew even hotter, the way it always did right before he came. Timing it perfectly, he managed to hold back until Sean’s cock started throbbing and the first splashes of cum shot down his tongue and throat.

  Emery let out a moan of his own as he let go, echoed by Sean as he tasted Emery’s juices. Sucking until he was satisfied he’d coaxed every last drop out of his mate, he held Sean’s cock in his mouth and rested his cheek against his thigh. Sean gently blew across Emery’s sac as he caught his breath below him.

  Then Sean lifted his head and lightly motorboated Emery’s balls.

  He laughed and fell over onto the bed next to Sean. “What was that for?”

  Sean grinned. “For making me wait so damn long to come.” He sat up and kissed Emery. “Even if it was worth the wait.”

  He reached up and palmed Sean’s cheek. Being half-Japanese and half-Jewish, Sean didn’t have a lot of body hair. But he did have a little evening stubble shadowing his cheeks. It lightly rasped against the pad of Emery’s thumb as he stroked his jawline. “I’d wait forever for you, babe.”

  “Aw, you big softie.” He kissed him again, slowly, sweetly. “How’d I get so lucky?”

  “I think I’m the lucky one. Despite all the craziness, you’re still here.”

  “Where else would I be? I don’t want to be anywhere but with you.” He playfully grinned. “Although, don’t ask me that while we’re in the middle of a houseful of people Christmas Day. My answer might differ.”

  “Actually, I have something else to tell you.”

  Sean’s smile faded. “What?”

  “It’s not bad.”

  “The way you led into it makes it sound bad.” He sat back and laced his fingers through Emery’s. “Spill it.”

  “Ain Lyall called me yesterday.”

  “I’m liking this even less. That’s the head wolf dude, right?”

  “Sort of. He’s on the Maine wolves’ Clan Council, but he lives over in Arcadia. They’re planning a Gathering in Yellowstone in the spring. March. They’ve invited us.”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s sort of like a family reunion. They have two of them there every year, spring and fall.”

  Sean stared at him for a moment. “Why do I get the feeling this is more than just a family reunion?”

  “For shifters.”

  Sean blinked. “How many shifters?”

  “Several hundred.”

  “Several hundred wolves?”

  “Um, not exactly.”

  Sean blinked again. “Several hundred shifters of various kinds, you mean.”

  “That’s about right.”

  Sean fell back onto the bed. “I suppose this is something we really shouldn’t say no to, should we?”

  “Not really. They want to get as many shifter groups together as they can.” Sean looked anything but enthused. “Hey, Wyatt and Marisela will be there. Wyatt’s the reason Ain called us. He suggested it to Ain.”

  “Will that Callie chick be there?”

  “Probably. Her husband is head of the Maine wolves’ Clan Council.”

  Sean considered it for a moment. “You know, let’s not talk about this in front of my mom and dad, all right? I don’t want my mom asking about coming along with us to that. I know she’s doing a lot better with all this since she had that little mini meltdown before the superpod, but…” He shrugged. “I’d rather not deal with all that.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Are your dad and mom going?”

  “Nope. I’m the Alpha. You’re my mate.” He smiled. “Don’t you feel speeecial?”

  “That’s one word for it,” Sean muttered.

  Chapter Two

  Sean awoke before dawn Christmas morning more from nerves than anything. They’d soon have a houseful of people to feed.

  Their first Christmas together.

  He started to roll out of bed when Emery snagged his arm. “Where do you think you’re going?” he mumbled.

  “Lots to do, lots to prepare.”

  “Mom and Dad and your mom and dad, and everyone else, will help out. Relax.”

  He leaned in and kissed Emery. “You relax, Alpha dude. I want to make our first Christmas together, in our home, one to remember.” He pulled his hand free and headed downstairs to make coffee.

  Emery, naked, descended the stairs a few minutes later. “You’re taking more after your dad now, you realize that, right?” Emery snarked as he reached for a clean coffee mug.

  “How so?”

  “Stressing. It’s not even six in the morning yet. No one else is supposed to be here until eight.” He pulled Sean close and kissed him. “We could have had Christmas morning sex.”

  “How about Christmas night sex?”

  Emery smiled. “Wow. You’re turning down sex?”

  “No. I’m just postponing it. Besides, I want to make sure I have the side dishes ready.”

  Emery threw his head back with a resigned sigh. “Oookay. I’ll take a rain check.”

  Sean reached out and tweaked the ring hanging from Emery’s left nipple. “You won’t die. Besides, maybe I want to tease you all day.”

  Emery looked at him and grinned. “Ooh. Now you have my interest.” His cock twitched.

  “Watch it, or I’ll pack that thing in ice.”

  Emery shivered. “That’s just mean.”

  Sean kissed him. “You might be pod Alpha, but for today, I’m running this roost.”

  “At least until your mom gets here and takes over?”

  “Exactly.”

  Emery took a sip of his coffee. “Then I’m going to go lie down for a little bit and watch TV.”

  “You do that.”

  Emery was sound asleep when Sean went upstairs nearly an hour later. He nudged him awake. “Hey, Sleeping Handsome. Ass up and moving. Get a shower.”

  He headed into the bathroom and was standing under the spray when Emery walked in. “I’m sooo sleeping in tomorrow.” They’d both taken off until after New Year’s, giving their staff paid holiday time.

  “That’s fine. We can stay in bed and fuck like rabbits all day long.” He paused, hands on his head where he’d been lathering the shampoo. “Are there rabbit shifters?”

  Emery laughed but didn’t answer.

  “No, I’m serious. Are there?”

  “Why?”

  “Because now I’m wondering how they fuck? Do they really fuck like bunnies?”

  “Find one and ask them when we get to Yellowstone in March.”

  * * * *

  Sean finally relaxed as the morning and early afternoon went without a hitch. They were all sitting in the living room after lunch and talking when Joseph’s cell phone rang. He reached for it to silence it, then frowned as he stared at the screen.

  “What?” Louise asked.

  He gave a curt shake of his head before taking the call, stepping out onto the screened porch and closing the slider behind him for privacy.

  Sean looked from Louise, who wore a curious expression, to Emery, whose frown mirrored his father’s. Sean was about to ask Emery what he thought was going on when a tap on the sliding glass door caught their attention.

  Joseph pointed at Emery and crooked his finger at him.

  Sean didn’t stand to follow Emery as he stood and crossed the living room, stepping out onto the porch and closing the slider behind him.

  Now everyone watched, silent, as Joseph handed the cell phone to Emery and stood there.

  Unwatched, A Christmas Story played on in the background as the entire house focused on whatever was going on outside.

  Sean didn’t try to distract Emery with their mate-bond, even though he knew, at that close of a distance, his mate would be abl
e to hear and respond to his silent communication.

  Emery turned toward the water, his free hand rubbing at his forehead as he talked with the caller.

  From the slump of his shoulders, Sean suspected whatever the news was, it was bad.

  His first thought was maybe Erik wasn’t as dead as everyone else wished he was and had perhaps struck again. Sean didn’t care what Wyatt said. Sean knew that unless he personally saw Erik’s dead body, he wouldn’t be convinced the psychopath was out of their lives for good.

  Emery nodded as he spoke, a deep sigh making his shoulders rise and then fall again. Then he ended the call and, staring out at the water, said something to his father.

  Joseph met Sean’s gaze and crooked his finger at him.

  Now all eyes were on Sean. His face heating, and feeling more than a little like he’d been called to the principal’s office, he rose and slowly walked to the sliders.

  Joseph opened them for him, closing them behind him.

  “What’s going on?” Sean quietly asked the men.

  Joseph didn’t respond. He looked to Emery.

  The pod Alpha.

  “Em?” Sean said.

  Emery turned to face him, looking years older than he had a few minutes earlier. “We need to talk, babe.”

  “No conversation starting like that is ever good.”

  He nodded. “Seriously.”

  “Well, spit it out.”

  Emery glanced at his father before meeting Sean’s gaze again. “Were you serious when you said you wanted kids?”

  He let out an amused snort. “Dude, I can’t exactly get pregnant.”

  Emery arched an eyebrow at him and something told Sean his normally lighthearted mate wasn’t in the mood for his snarky humor.

  “Of course I was serious,” Sean said, now serious once more. “What’s going on?”

  “We need to decide this, today. As in right now. I know this isn’t the best of circumstances to make a snap decision, but this is a pod Alpha situation.” He glanced at his father yet again before returning his grey gaze to Sean. “There’s been an…accident.”

  Sean’s blood ran cold. “Erik?” he whispered.

  “I doubt it. A young dolphin couple was killed last night. I still don’t know all the details, something about a fishing accident.”

  “They were shifted?”

  Emery nodded. “Caught in a net. Drowned.”

  “Holy hell.”

  Emery took a deep breath. “They have a little girl. And their will leaves full custody of her to her godfather, their pod’s Alpha. That’s who I was talking to on the phone. But he’s older, and doesn’t really want to raise a young child at this point in his life. He wants to know if we would like to adopt her.”

  “He doesn’t want…” Realization dawned. “Adopt her? Us?”

  Emery slowly nodded. “We need to settle this soon. He has others who might take her, but he really wants to place her with us. He’s over in Orlando. We’re his first choice as alternate adoptive parents. Alexis and Carter told him about us, about me being the Placida Pod Alpha now. He said he can get their attorney to request an emergency hearing for Monday with a sympathetic judge over there to transfer her to our custody before word gets out.”

  “What do you mean before word gets out?”

  “Apparently he’s worried about the maternal uncle. He’s a non-shifting dolphin married to a human. The Alpha wants her raised by a shifter, since both her parents were shifters. And, frankly, the mother told the Alpha she can’t stand her brother or his wife and didn’t want them to get custody of her. Hence why they wrote their will the way they did. That also means—”

  “Yes,” Sean said.

  “What?”

  He looked to Joseph, then back to Emery. “I said yes. Can we go get her right now? We can be in Orlando before dark. And it’s Christmas Day, for fuck’s sake.”

  The ghost of a smile curved Emery’s mouth. He reached out and palmed Sean’s cheek. “You sure? I can say no.”

  Sean laid his hand over Emery’s and kissed his palm. “No, you can’t tell them no. Because I don’t want you to.”

  * * * *

  Emery called the Alpha back and gave him their verdict before the three of them returned to the living room. Sean’s mixed emotions over his initial acceptance were immediately tempered by fears about how his mother would take to the news that the grandchild she desperately wanted was only a couple of hours away.

  And a dolphin.

  Well, they didn’t know for sure yet if she was a dolphin shifter. That was something that wouldn’t be known until she was older. But with both of her parents being shifters, there was a better than odds-on chance of it.

  “Merry Christmas to us,” Sean muttered under his breath so only Emery could hear. “Talk about an immaculate conception.”

  Emery laced his fingers through Sean’s and cleared his throat. “Um, we have an announcement to make.”

  Sean didn’t miss how his mom suddenly sat up straight.

  He was also desperately glad Emery took point on this. The conflicting emotions swirling through his head made it difficult to put his thoughts into words.

  They were going to be parents.

  Yippee!

  Unfortunately, two people had to die to make it happen, and it meant a little girl was now orphaned.

  On Christmas Day.

  Not so yippee.

  When Emery broke the news, silence, except for Ralphie plotting on the TV how to get his Red Ryder BB gun, settled over the gathered throng.

  Then his mom let out a sob as she stumbled to her feet and over to the men, throwing her arms around them both.

  Emery smiled down at her. “I guess she’s okay with it,” he silently told Sean through their mate-bond.

  “Ya think?”

  Helen Morita wasn’t about to let her son go pick up his new daughter without her, either. She immediately demanded Sam take her home so she could pack an overnight bag while the rest of the Nadel family and friends gathered around the men to congratulate them.

  Sean slipped away and upstairs to pack overnight bags for them. A cloud had settled over him.

  Am I up for this? Am I qualified to raise a child?

  He didn’t have a choice now. He wouldn’t back out. Yes, he did want to be a father with Emery. He just thought they’d have a little more time to figure out how to do it.

  As well as a little more time alone together in their new house.

  He immediately hated himself for the selfish thought.

  The plan was for Sean, Emery, Joseph, Louise, Helen, and Sam to caravan over to Orlando immediately and meet up with the pod Alpha at his attorney’s office. They’d spend the weekend there and appear in the judge’s chambers bright and early Monday morning for the emergency hearing.

  There were also other grim chores to attend to, such as gathering personal belongings, mementoes, and arranging financial paperwork handing things over to Emery and Sean for the little girl’s benefit. The parents had lived just north of Orlando.

  Emery came upstairs a few minutes later to check on Sean and found him frozen over whether to pack a white or light blue business shirt for Emery for the hearing.

  He slipped his arms around Sean’s waist. “You all right, babe?”

  Sean turned and held up both hangers. “Which one?”

  Emery took them from him and tossed them onto the bed. Then he pulled Sean close and kissed him, tenderly, deeply. With his forehead pressed against Sean’s, he whispered, “This will be okay. Your parents, my parents, everyone will help us.”

  A choked laugh escaped Sean. “I don’t know her name. I don’t even know our daughter’s name.”

  “Isla Shorlin. Soon to be Isla Shorlin Morita-Nadel. He texted me a picture of her. Want to see?”

  “Duh.”

  Emery pulled his phone from his pocket and brought up the picture. A beautiful little girl, a toddler with dark brown curls and grey eyes the same shade as Emery�
�s, smiled into the camera. “She’s almost three,” he said.

  Sean took the phone from him. “Her hair’s the same color as mine.”

  “I noticed that.”

  He looked up into Emery’s gaze. “And her eyes look like yours.”

  Emery nodded.

  Sean’s focus returned to the picture. “Isla Shorlin Morita-Nadel. She could be our daughter for real.”

  “She is our daughter for real. Well, she will be by this time Monday.”

  Chapter Three

  In less than an hour, they were heading north. They stopped by the Nadels’ home so Joseph and Louise could pack. Sean and Emery had left Wyatt back at their house with the rest of their family and a set of keys, everyone promising to clean up when they finished and that they’d lock up.

  Sean felt grateful Emery had volunteered to drive. They drove Sean’s truck because it had a large double cab.

  Sean had immediately nixed Emery’s plan to bring his Mustang for two reasons, the first being they’d need room for her things.

  We’re going to need a new car. Sean loved Emery’s Mustang, but he wanted a smaller SUV to drive their daughter around in. Something safer, but with better gas mileage than his truck.

  He giggled.

  “What’s so funny, babe?” Emery asked.

  Sean looked at him. “I think I just became my mother.”

  He grinned. “Then get her brisket recipe. I never can make one as good as hers.”

  “That’s not what I meant. I meant worrying and clingy.”

  They made it to Orlando less than three hours later and found the attorney’s office without any trouble. The standalone one-story building sat just south of downtown on the edge of an older, upper-crust residential area.

  It was also about fifteen degrees colder in Orlando than Englewood, leaving Sean wishing he’d brought a heavier jacket, as well as a blanket for the baby.

  A Lincoln, a Range Rover, and a Mercedes sat parked in the small private lot outside the building. When they walked up to the front door, an older man Sean had never met before opened it for them.