Gran’s eyes sparkled.
“Twins?” Vicki felt lightheaded.
“Boys, the first set at least. Then after the others, you’ll have another set of twins. Little monsters, sorry to say. Gonna give you fits unless you spank them. It’s not your fault, really, but a combination of Ravager and Morely genes are going to turn your daughters into really powerful little beasts. I’m hoping to live long enough to see more than your first set, but we’ll see.”
Gran had never predicted the deaths of anyone in her family. Then again, she’d never been so forthcoming with what she knew before.
Vicki had a hard time wrapping her head around it. “But, but… Three husbands? Mates? They’re not human, Gran,” she whispered harshly.
Gran whispered back, “Neither are you.” In a louder voice, she added with a chuckle, “Don’t be so stubborn. You have men who love you. What could possibly be wrong with your situation? Not as if you don’t have strong feelings for them, is it?”
She opened her mouth to reject the idea but couldn’t.
Gran smirked. “Thought so. You’re going to give rise to a new generation of Ravagers. You’ll be the perfect queen they need, Vicki. A new namesake.” Gran’s eyes shone with happy tears. “Name your first girl Vicki, okay? For me.”
“I love you, Gran.” Vicki hugged her great-grandmother, understanding so much more, now.
“I love you too, sweet. Well, would you look at that? The Lawless prime is no more. Pity they let Will live though. That’s going to bite them in the ass later.” Gran dashed the tears from her eyes as she started on a fight summary that amused everyone around them.
Vicki tried to process it all, but the best she could do when her mates left the field, bloodied and battered, was to demand they return home.
Eric didn’t know what to think. Once back at the compound outside the city, he felt he could at least breathe again. His clan celebrated their victory with his grateful permission. Tomorrow he’d round up the Lawless Ravagers still skulking about the border and offer them the chance to join the Savages or die. He still didn’t like letting Will live, but Dom had insisted. Stupid foresight.
Tonight should have been one big party. Instead, Vicki and Dom moped as if they’d lost something. Dom, he could understand. His guard had a past with Nev, and no matter that it hadn’t been pretty, with Nev’s death, one more piece of Ravager history departed this world. Nev was the last in an ancient line of Ravagers, one that would never be known again.
Good riddance. But Eric didn’t say that to Dom. Instead, he left Malcolm with his somber guard in their room. He continued past the revelers, searching for the guer that had entwined with his not so long ago. He sensed Vicki before Rule pointed to a dimly lit path leading to a secret garden several of the females had a hand in tending.
Vicki stood over a rose bush, staring without seeing at the receding bloom.
“Okay, that’s it.” Eric glared at her, pleased when she jumped and glared back. He much preferred her angry than sad, and it bothered him that he couldn’t seem to take care of her issue. “What the hell is your problem?”
“My problem?” she repeated, her voice dangerously quiet.
He tried to temper his arousal, but her fury prodded his desire.
“Just a few days ago I was a woman working for a successful firm living a successful life.”
“A dangerous life,” he muttered, still not liking the thought of Tommy Chen anywhere near her. When he’d felt her fear in that football stadium, it had taken all his energy not to go to her when she denied needing him. Chen bothered her, and thus the Voider bothered him.
“But it was my life.” The angry tears in her eyes froze him to the spot.
“Vicki, don’t—”
“Don’t tell me not to cry.” She glared at him, and he felt a surge of energy immobilize his legs. By the Void, her power made her so incredibly sexy. “I can do all sorts of things now. Fuck!” Then she said a few other things, stunning him.
He’d never heard her swear so much in such a short span of time. And then he realized she’d been rubbing her belly while standing in front of the roses. He felt the blood rush from his head.
“Vicki?” he said hoarsely. “Is there anything you want to tell me?” Dom’s blond head appeared behind Vicki at the mouth of the trail, followed closely by Malcolm. A subtle wave kept them both back.
“Yeah, I have something to tell you, you big jerk. I’m pregnant with puppies,” she snarled. “You kidnapped me, you bullied me, and somehow—because God knows I have no clue how it happened—you made me fall in love with you and the other two idiots pretending to be invisible behind me.”
The enormous grin splitting Dom’s face thrilled him.
Vicki was carrying his babe—babes. Eric wanted to howl with joy.
But Vicki wouldn’t let anyone move. Her anger was a thing of beauty as she took it out on the three of them. “I have a life, you know. And now I’m stuck with three Ravagers who know shit about romance, shit about how to treat an independent woman, and shit about love.”
“What do you mean stuck? You should be honored to be chosen to serve as queen,” he said to stir her wrath. He needed a moment to gather his emotions. To his shock, he felt his heart shatter and fall at her feet and had to blink back tears of pride and happiness.
And horror.
This grand affection, this love, he felt for the woman would be his undoing. Like the other females in his clan, she’d soon learn she ruled the pack. Talk about a nightmare.
Dom and Malcolm shared a wide-assed grin before Dom said, “Eric, I told you. Humans are different.”
Malcolm smirked at Eric before blinking his big brown eyes at their mate. “Vicki, I love you.”
She opened her mouth then snapped it closed. “What?”
“Since you first knocked me out. You’re stubborn, beautiful, and your guer is the most powerful force of feminine energy I’ve ever experienced. Remember, I felt you in the forest, when you helped me defeat that Lawless pack. I believe what I feel for you is the equivalent of human love.” He looked too nervous to be a six and a half foot tall predator. Mangy bastard. Malcolm was trying to win Vicki over with a false show of vulnerability.
For fuck’s sake. It was working!
Vicki smiled through tears and let him gather her up in his arms.
“We can’t know what love is,” Dom added in a quiet voice. “But we feel it all the same. Why do you think I told our prime to mark you? Because I felt it even then.” He whispered something to her Eric couldn’t hear.
The blasted woman pulled Dom to her and hugged him tight.
Then the three of them turned to him.
“What?”
“Out with it,” Vicki demanded. Hell, she even growled like a proper mate. His queen.
His gaze centered on her belly, and he licked his lips. “Puppies, eh?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Eric Savage. I want to hear it.”
“Actually, they’re Ravagers.” He focused and smiled with satisfaction. “Two of them.” My sons. He studied his pack and amended, our sons.
“Eric?” Her yellow eyes blazed with anger, with love, and with an uncertainty that made his teasing no longer amusing.