Page 65 of Ice Devil

“Just like you and Georgia.”

“Yeah, but we’re mates.”

“Yeah, you are.”

We were quiet for a couple of minutes, maybe enjoying the wild partying going on or maybe locked in our own thoughts of why being a shifter could be a pain in the ass.

“Sorry you missed the interview this morning. That was fun.” When he didn’t respond right away, I tossed him a look.

“You did great. You’re like some freaking actor in front of the camera.”

“I was sweating bullets, man. Wow.” I wiped my brow, acting as if I was flinging sweat. “Incidentally, why did you miss the interview? I thought you were dropping by.”

“I was,” he said then blew out a deep breath.

“Okay. What’s wrong?”

“Who said anything is wrong?”

I arched my brow, hanging my head as I did.

“Okay, fine. I have something to tell you,” he finally said, his tone entirely different than before.

My pulse increased. We’ve been close our entire lives, give or take being teenagers when one always tried to one-up the other. “Spill it. What is going on?”

He was suddenly nervous, glancing over his shoulder. I couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed or searching for courage. “I’m going to be a father.”

The news wasn’t anything that I’d expected to hear. “I’m going to be an uncle?”

With his face lighting up, he rolled his eyes. “You would think of yourself first. Yes, you’re going to be an uncle. But I’m going to be a dad.”

“That is amazing. Congratulations!” He could tell I was ready to announce the amazing news to the entire bar and placed his hand on my arm to keep me from drawing any attention. “What? Aren’t you excited?”

Ford’s face was suddenly pinched, the concern in his eyes close to terrifying me. “I am.”

“But? You don’t think you’re ready or that you won’t be a wonderful father? Because you will. Besides, you’ll have an entire family of people to ensure everything goes well. Unless that’s not what you want.”

It had been a very long time since I’d seen him so uncomfortable. “She’s my mate just like you said.”

“Yes, we just went over that. What am I missing?”

“I don’t know about the babies.”

“Whoa, hold on. There’s more than one?”

He held up two fingers. “We’re not sure that… I mean Georgia is freaking out that she’s… You know Georgia. She worries, which means that I’m worried. She’s still in medical school and you do know that her concentration of studies is on shifter molecular structure? Right? We did tell you that?”

Wow. I’d never seen him so freaked out in my life. “Hold on. Just slow down. Take a deep breath and a huge swallow of your drink. Jake. Two more drinks over here.”

The look he shot me was that he’d drive a sharp implement into my gut if I said anything.

“What is really going on?” I pressed.

“What if they’re wolf cubs?” He wiped sweat from his face, immediately rubbing his hand on his jeans.

“If you mean instead of being shifters, then I highly doubt it. However, they could also be more human and not have the ability to shift.”

“What if they’re deformed?”