“Yes, I’ve had donut holes,” he answered, shaking his head at his brother who was smiling indulgently at his soon to be wife.
“They are bloody brilliant! I could eat them all day! Jinger dropped them off on her way to work. Who would have thought of cooking the middle of a donut? You Americans are crafty, that’s for sure,” she giggled, retaking her seat on Cage’s lap.
Cage without a word resumed feeding her donut holes.
Conner raised his eyebrow at him and received a “What? She likes them, and whatever the mother of my cub wants, she gets,” Cage answered, placing a growling kiss on her neck. Sophie squealed in response but didn’t stop chewing.
They had announced the pregnancy last week, which had the boys’ mother in a tizzy as the wedding was two months away and she was worried at the rate Sophie was going, she wouldn’t fit into her wedding dress. Conner wasn’t about to guess if it was the growing cub or the penchant for donut holes that was the concern.
Conner knew Sophie was pregnant the minute she walked through the door at dinner last week. Wyatt and he exchanged glances and Cage had shaken his head, warning them not to spoil the surprise. She smelled pregnant and it was unmistakable. Her natural scent mixed with shifter DNA had changed her on a level only other shifters would notice.
They let Sophie make the grand announcement and even his parents played along, although his mother was fighting happy tears the entire time trying to not give it away. She told Sophie she had allergies.
The family was overjoyed. Conner couldn’t even be grumpy about it. He was happy for his brother, he even was happy for his parents. His personal feelings towards the cub were unclear, he would wait until he met the little monster before he formed an opinion.
Watching his brother and soon to be sister had a tiny microscopic part of Conner craving his own little family. He quickly squashed it when he remembered this was not the life he wanted. He didn’t want his bear picking a mate and forcing him to bite her to bond with her for life. He also didn’t want his decisions dictated by a large furry, bossy animal that liked to rub his butt on trees.
“Well I would give her what she wanted too, I heard pregnant women will scratch your eyes out,” he scoffed, dropping into the seat across from Cage.
“Smart man,” Sophie replied turning her open mouth to Cage to accept another donut hole.
“Anything new I need to know about,” Conner asked.
“Nope, quiet on the home front. Wyatt is still keeping a close eye on Jinger now that she is back to work. Her doctors have cleared her, no more appointments. She’s still losing words, but she has decided it makes her quirky,” he offered with a chuckle.
“Yeah, it is pretty funny. Yesterday she got mad because she couldn’t find her keys to the turkey to get back to work after lunch. Running around yelling that she couldn’t start the turkey without them. That’s funny shit,” Conner laughed.
“Oh, you guys are so mean, and I was the one that found the poor woman’s keys to the truck, thank you very much,” Sophie sniffed.
“Well, that’s because you are sweet and kind and make us better men. We are lucky to have you and Jinger in the family,” Cage said, giving her another noisy kiss on her neck.
Conner shook his head at them both, they seemed happy.
“So, what’s on the schedule?” Conner broke into their canoodling.
“New cut needs another week before you can head in to start surveying. Dax is coming in tonight from California. Hopefully he can recognize someone’s scent so we can start hunting down this fucker that’s out for us,” Cage growled.
This caused a giggle from Sophie.
“Baby, it wasn’t that kind of growl,” Cage replied exasperated. Clearly his mate was enjoying her spot on his lap.
“Still liked it,” she said saucily, shooting a smile and wink at Conner.
Conner cringed at the intimacy of his brother’s current situation. He wasn’t comfortable around mates, not that he’d had any experience before. But they seemed very touchy-feely. And when they started cuddling his bear started complaining.
“Well I’m happy to do the airport run, got nothin’ better to do,” Conner said, standing and heading to the door. Thinking of having a cougar so close to his family made his skin crawl. But the Rochon family had played nice with the Hayes family, a cougar clan for many a decade. The Hayes family had been experiencing their own sabotage problems up until recently and were more than happy to offer a hand to catch the bastard since it seemed to be adding up to the same person.
“Later,” he called as he hit the door and went out into the now drizzling overcast day. Don’t like the weather? Just wait a few minutes.