“He will always be my baby, not matter how old he is,” Annabelle declared. “Now, tell your mother what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.” He let out a deep sigh and ran his fingers through his hair.
“Ah, you’re concerned about Joanna and your pup.” Lowell patted his shoulder. “Absolutely understandable, my boy. When your mother was carrying you, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight.”
“He kept hovering around me. All the time.” Annabelle rolled her eyes at her husband. “Despite the fact that I was practically indestructible, as I kept telling him.”
Females who were pregnant by their True Mates could not be harmed, that was a known fact. Reed’s mood sank, and it must have been written all over his face.
“I didn’t mean—”
“It’s no bother.” He pursed his lips together. Although Joanna was a Lycan and carrying his pup, they were not True Mates. There was always that feeling that his parents were disappointed he didn’t marry the one who was supposedly the other half of his soul. But to Reed, that never really mattered. He’d fallen in love with Joanna from the moment he laid eyes on her.
Annabelle looked despondent. “Reed, I’ve always treated Joanna like my own daughter, you know that,” she insisted. And Reed knew his mother tried hard, she really did.
“And so what if you’re not True Mates?” his father added. He put an arm around his wife. “What happened to your mother and me is rare. I mean, who ever heard about a Lycan who could immediately tell who her True Mate was?”
She smirked at him. “Ah, after all these years, you still don’t believe me, mo ghràdh?”
Reed had heard the story a million times: that the Lycans of the Caelkirk clan knew their True Mates upon meeting them. It had caused quite a stir when Annabelle MacDonald, Alpha of Caelkirk, had met Lowell Townsend at a gathering of the Alphas of Europe and declared him her True Mate. They fell in love instantly and married only days after knowing each other. Growing up, he asked his mother what it was like to know one’s True Mate. She would only smile at him and say, “Oh, you’ll know, my wee boy, you’ll know.”
Perhaps if she had bloody told him how, he wouldn’t have fallen in love with Joanna so quickly. But, blinded by her beauty, his feelings had run away. When his mother had asked him if he felt ‘it’ upon first laying eyes on Joanna, and he had only stared at her blankly and asked what ‘it’ was, the disappointment on her face had been obvious.
Though his father wasn’t ecstatic about the news, being English, he was at least glad he was marrying a member of the ton and another Lycan, which should at least guarantee him a suitable heir to both the dukedom and the Alpha title.
As his father and mother continued to stare at each other with love and admiration, he cleared his throat. “In any case, I’m loath to disturb her sleep if I were to come home at dawn.”
“I’m sure she’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness, my boy.” Lowell patted him on the back. “And just so you know, son, I’m happy for you. Being a father is one the best privileges I’ve had in my life.”
Reed smiled at his normally stuffy father whose eyes were shining with tears. His mother, on the other hand, placed a hand over his, her expression warm.
“I know we said we thought you were too young to marry at twenty-one,” Annabelle squeezed his hand. “But I’m glad you don’t have to wait much longer to hold your pup in your arms.”
“I should warn you, it will be difficult for you and your wolf,” his father warned. “It won’t want to be away from her. Mine would growl at me if I stayed away from your mother too long.”
Huh. Reed thought that was strange. His wolf, at the most, was lukewarm toward Joanna, which he thought was normal, as that’s what it felt for most people and Lycans around him, save for his parents and sister.
“You’ll do well,” Annabelle assured him. “I know it.”
“Thank you, Mother.” He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “If she’s up for it, I’ll have Joanna invite you over for tea.”
Her smile was genuine. “That would be lovely.”
“Grandmama will be invited as well.”
His mother winced, though to her credit, not as severely as she used to. According to his father, the relationship between the current and dowager duchess of Huntington had mellowed over the years. If that was the case, Reed wasn’t sure he wanted to have seen what it was like in the beginning, especially after his father had broken off his engagement to the Belgian Alpha’s daughter when he met Annabelle. Miranda Townsend was probably not happy, but she didn’t have a choice. In Lycan society, True Mate pairings trumped any other type of arrangement, sometimes even marriage. And knowing that True Mates conceived upon their first coupling, he wouldn’t be shocked if that was the reason his father had procured a special license to marry his mother right away.
“Try to be surprised when Joanna announces her condition, Mother,” Reed said. “You know Grandmama will be cross at me if she found out you knew first. Don’t vex her, please? Or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“I’ll try.” But the expression on his mother’s face said, not very hard.
“Shall I bid Ellie goodbye?” His younger sister, Eleanor, was only fourteen years old and was probably upstairs in her bedroom. Growing up, he’d always doted on her, but since his marriage, he hadn’t spent as much time with her.
“She should already be fast asleep,” Annabelle said. “But I’ll let her know you asked after her.”
He nodded goodbye to them and pivoted on his heel,
