When he pushed his forehead into mine, yawning, he whispered, “We shouldn’t sleep out here tonight.”

I yawned back. “Why not? I don’t want to move,” I said with a pout, enjoying his laughter.

Each chuckle of Austin’s wasn’t hard won like it was with Eli and Ethan, who were my more somber mates, but equally, the sound of his joy always lit me up inside like a Fourth of July fireworks show.

I ran my fingers down his spine, humming as I felt the muscles contract—Kali Sara, I loved how stacked he was—and when he shivered, I smiled because I loved his responsiveness to my touch.

“Why? Because it’s winter,” he said dryly. “You’re pregnant. You need your den.”

“I like it here,” I complained, then I shivered, my nose crinkling as suddenly, the totem circle contracted then relaxed in a way I’d come to know meant someone was joining us.

The fact that Austin hadn’t pushed away from me to cover me told me it was one of my mates, and I let the walls in my mind, the few barriers I’d learned how to construct, fall as I reached out to connect with the mate who was here to hustle my ass into moving.

When I felt Eli’s dominance, I shuddered, because even though I was used to it, his power would always overwhelm me.

In the best possible way.

I loved his strength, was nourished by his dominance, and felt secured by his power—no one could or would touch me.

Even though I knew some were plotting to try.

Like she knew what I was thinking, the alpha bitch and my protector, Berry, howled, which set up an orchestra of songs from the packs.

The two had merged, one from the very natural world, and the other that hailed from our little sojourn on ‘planet Lidai,’ the place where I’d claimed my mates.

They worked as a team now, and I knew their primary directive—I knew that was insane, since they were wolves, not trained operatives—was to keep me and my family safe.

I was surrounded by protectors. People who’d lay down their lives for me and mine, and that was another reason I slept so well now.

Safety was a precious commodity, and it came infrequently to people like me.

Ever since I’d become theirs, I’d always felt secure, even though there were political issues within the pack.

“Come on, it’s not good to sleep out here,” Eli rumbled, making me heave an impatient sigh because I got this crap every night.

Hey, just because I was mated and fated to be with these dudes didn’t mean we always agreed on everything.

“My back aches less out here.”

“You need your den,” Austin reasoned.

“I think I know what I need,” I muttered with a huff.

“No, that’s what we’re for,” Austin told me with a laugh. “We know all, didn’t you know that?”

“Considering I can read your minds, nope, I just know that you like to ogle my tits when I’m meditating, and that Eli loves watching me bend over the dining table.” A chuckle escaped me. “I’m more than down for you taking me over that obnoxious thing.” Obnoxious because I was pretty frickin’ sure Washington had eaten on it. The thing was ancient and not to my taste at all.

Eli groused, “Don’t hand out promises you can’t keep.”

My nose crinkled again. “I totally would go down for two in one night.”

Ever since the knots had started taking less time to bind us together, and with the start of my pregnancy making my hormones out of whack, we’d all been screwing more. But I was heading out of that phase, to the part where I was beginning to waddle.

I remembered this time from Joshua—how awkward it was to suddenly have a basketball glued to your belly. Oddly enough, I loved it.

I loved being pregnant, even though I was getting cankles, my tits ached, and my belly was starting to stretch to the point where it was getting uncomfortable.

The disadvantages more than outweighed the advantages, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t happy as a clam to be pregnant, to be carrying one of my men’s children—and I figured it was Eli, as there was a single child in my womb. A boy. Not that I knew how I knew about that, just that I did.

Sometimes, when I tried, I could hear his heartbeat, and other times, I got the vaguest of impressions that he was starting to know what was happening outside the womb.

Of course, if I thought about that too much, I’d stop having sex period, so it was easier to shove aside the knowledge that even in utero, shifter babies had better senses than regular ones.

When Eli bent down and hauled me up, uncaring that I was dirty, uncaring that my hair was tangled with leaves and that I was probably dripping the last remnants of spent seed down him—God, I loved how earthy they were—I grumbled, but let him hold me like I was a child.

As he started toward the circle, I muttered, “Can’t believe you brought in the big dog, Austin.”

My mate snickered. “He knew you’d twist me around your finger.”

I peeped a smile at him over Eli’s shoulder. “That’s how it’s supposed to be. You’re supposed to keep your mate happy.”

Eli snorted. “I have ways of making you happy that don’t involve you freezing your ass off out here. I know the temperature is regulated in the circle, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t drop below freezing.”

I heaved a sigh. “I’d come in if I was cold.”

“You wouldn’t if you’d already turned into an ice cube,” Austin pointed out.

“When would that happen? People don’t turn to ice when it’s just above freezing,” I argued. “Anyway, you’d take me home if that was the case.”

“This way, you get to wake up in a feather bed with all your mates,” Eli reasoned, not even with a drop of his tone indicating that he’d been zapped by the totem as it relinquished us to the woods.

It was a strange thing to say, but I was pretty sure the line of the circle that separated the totem and the forest was a portal. But that was too The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe even for me, so I grumbled, “Now it is cold.”

“You’re naked,” Austin commented dryly. “Of course you’re cold.”

“Why you come out here bare is beyond me.”

I ignored Eli’s annoyance to reply, “I like to feel the rays of the moon on my skin.”

I tipped my head back and watched the full moon as I was carried back to the packhouse.

The dimples and divots, the shadows and crevices were a welcome and soothing sight.

When Austin and Eli started talking about a conversation they’d been having at dinner, I tuned them out and focused on Berry.

She was the she-wolf Ethan had managed to save in the other realm. She was my guardian, and while I could hear disjointed thoughts from other animals, sense their locations if I focused on them, hear their heartbeats if I ‘tuned in’, she and I were on a direct line. A strange wavelength that meant I could understand what she was feeling.

“Something in air.”

I arched a brow at that, because if that was her first greeting with me outside the totem’s circle, I figured shit was weird tonight.

“Storm brewing?” I asked.

“Something brewing.” She huffed, then howled, long and clear enough to tell anyone and anything in the vicinity that she was nearby.