As one, Kaya included, the assembly answered with the traditional reply: “You honor us well.”
Now, the baby was laid in the center of the white silk cradle, and next came the vow by Dmitri’s godparents. Lucan pivoted to Rio and Dylan. “Who pledges to protect this child with blood and bone and final breath should duty call upon it?”
The couple answered solemnly, “We do.”
And with that promise spoken, Rio sank his fangs into first his wrist, then Dylan’s. Together, the pair held their open wounds over the squirming baby, their blood spilling in droplets onto his bare skin to symbolize their vow to give their lives in order to keep him safe.
Kaya watched through vision blurred with welling tears and a throat thick with happiness for the four friends and the tiny child whose life would be immeasurably blessed by their love and protection. Little Dmitri would want for nothing, Kaya was certain. How she wished she could feel even a fraction of that confidence when it came to her sister and her unborn child.
Aric caught the tear that slid down her cheek. His solemn gaze was tender on her, even though this touch was the first he’d given her since leaving her bed in the early hours of the morning. As the ceremony concluded, they rose with everyone else seated in the pews.
It was humbling to be among the witnesses of the tradition-steeped ceremony. An honor to be welcomed as one of these people, even though there was a part of her that knew she was the outsider. An interloper who would never fully belong until she had brought all of her secrets out of the shadows of her past and into the light.
Including the secret she felt certain Aric already suspected, or was close to figuring out.
She had almost told him last night. But then he mentioned the likelihood that the Order was being betrayed by a mole who had not only warned Big Mack to evacuate, but alerted Opus to the fact the Order would be moving in on Lars Scrully last night. If she told him she’d been concealing the fact that she had gone to Angus Mackie’s bar the very day of the Order’s raid, why would Aric or anyone else ever believe that she had nothing to do with giving Opus the intel they needed to come to Scrully’s place armed with UV weapons?
All Kaya knew was that the pit she had begun digging for herself by withholding her shame about her past and the people who raised her was coming home to roost in ways she never imagined in her worst nightmares.
And in the center of all her regrets for those actions was Aric.
She owed him the truth.
The vague distance she felt from him today only fortified her resolve. He had to know why she was so terrified of her feelings for him.
Particularly after last night, when she’d been all but certain he had been just a hairbreadth from sinking his fangs into her carotid. One bite and he would know all of her secrets and shame. One sip from her vein and he would be bound to her forever.
It wasn’t fear she felt at that idea. It was a fierce longing. But she could never allow it to happen while she was betraying him with her silence.
“Kaya, would you like to meet my baby brother?” Mira beamed like a proud mama herself.
Looping her arm through Kaya’s, she excitedly tugged her forward without waiting for her reply. Aric loomed beside her, flanked by Kellan and Rafe.
“Why didn’t you bring Siobhan?” Mira asked, frowning. “I hope she didn’t feel unwelcome.”
“No.” Rafe shook his head. “She was awake most of the night again. Sometimes the nightmares of her roommate’s killing are too much. She was so exhausted this morning, I told her to stay in bed and rest.”
Mira gave him a sympathetic nod. “We’re all exhausted today, I think. Losing Bal on top of all the other setbacks we’ve had lately . . . well, at least we have Dmitri to celebrate. God knows we needed something positive to carry us through.”
Renata smiled as the group of them approached the Order elders standing at the front of the sanctuary. She was radiant in her white ceremonial attire. Nikolai seemed even taller today, and unabashedly proud. The cool Russian Breed male kept his muscled arm circled around Renata’s shoulders, his icy blue gaze shining with a joy Kaya had rarely seen in him.
“It was a beautiful ceremony,” Kaya told the commander and his mate. “Dmitri Jack is a lovely name. He would be delighted, I’m sure.”
With a small nod, Renata glanced down at the dozing baby in her arms. “I hope so.”
“Is Dmitri a family name?”
“My brother,” Niko answered. “He died a very long time ago, but I will never forget him.”
Renata turned a tender gaze on her man. “Love has no expiration date. Dmitri will be in your heart forever.”
He nodded. “I want my son to grow up knowing he was named for two great men, and that he now has the responsibility to live a life that honors them both.”
“I’m sure he will,” Aric said. “Dmitri’s got some of the best parents he could hope for. Not to mention excellent backup.”
Rio chuckled at the praise. “The bar is set fairly high by a lot of others in this room, but Dylan and I will do our best not to disappoint.”
The Spaniard’s red-haired Breedmate flashed a gorgeous smile as she leaned her cheek against his thick biceps. “What he means is, we intend to spoil this child as thoroughly as Niko and Renata will allow us to.”
Kaya laughed along with everyone as the conversation continued, but it was hard to focus on anything other than Aric, who seemed to regard her in an almost brooding silence.
“What about your godparents?” she asked him, searching for a way to bring him out of the sullen mood that had been clinging to him since they’d
