Free Hunted Down by His Alpha by C.J. Colton Page B

children and he’s going to look into the safest way possible for you to do so.”
    My mate had turned trusting blue-green eyes on me and laughed, telling me we’d better get started on making up a list of names then. That time I had stopped the truck and pulled him onto my lap though the fit had been tight. I kissed him and tried to not let him see my worries as he ticked off the names that’d definitely not be on the list. Births already held danger among our kind and with Tobias being a halfling the chances for something to go wrong could possibly be higher. I knew though that if it came to the decision between keeping Toby safe or keeping our pups I would always choose him, no matter that I was already coming to love the small lives growing within him.
    “I’m glad you made it!” Seth said as he pulled open the door, a squirming bundle in his arms. Wyatt stood behind him with one in each of his own arms. One was in shifted form and trying to climb over his shoulder while the other slept soundly, a thumb tucked into his small mouth.
    “I’m glad you found him, Hayden,” Seth said with genuine happiness as he stepped aside to let us in. “You must be Tobias, I’m so glad you’re here. That Hayden finally found you,” he said as he reached out and hugged Toby, careful of the wriggling bundle trying to escape from his hold.
    “I’m glad he did too,” I heard my mate answer shyly.
    “They’ve grown a lot since I last saw them,” I told Wyatt as I held out my arms, waiting for the male to trust me enough with his children, and eyed the small bundle clawing at his shoulder. “That must be Rune.”
    Wyatt grinned as he handed me the sleeping child and wrapped his hands around his daughter, pulling her off his shoulder. The small wolf made a chuffing noise and its little body rumbled as it nuzzled against the big shifter’s throat. “I swear when you have your own you’ll wish they grew a lot faster and a lot slower.”
    I laughed and followed him into the room where the pups slept, gently placing the small child into the cot. He made a small snuffling sound, his brow wrinkling and then smoothing back out, as he fell back into the lull of his nap still sucking his thumb. His two other brothers were already asleep in the cot and the sight of them made my heart swelled as I imagined looking down at Tobias and my own pups.
    “Lets go see what our mates are up to,” Wyatt said as he led me into his kitchen.
    I could hear the sound of my mate’s voice, his laughter, as he spoke with Seth.
    “Isn’t he adorable?” Toby asked as I leaned over his shoulder and brushed a kiss across his temple. I looked down at the chortling baby in his arms and smiled. His small chubby hand was wrapped tightly around my mate’s thumb as he gurgled in baby speak. “He looks like he likes you. I’ve got competition.”
    I could feel my mate roll his eyes and heard Wyatt bark out a laugh. I glared at him but couldn’t help laughing myself.

 
    CHAPTER FOURTEEN
     
     
    Tobias
     
     
    “So you didn’t know you were both mated?” I asked Seth a week later. When we’d left last time he’d been adamant that I come over to join his standing weekly lunch date with his best friend Gabby.
    “ I did, but Wyatt took a lot more time to come ‘round to the idea,” Seth said with a soft smile. The look in his eyes was far away, as though he were reliving the moment his mate came to his senses.
    “Kenneth and I, on the other hand, knew it was insta love and lust,” Gabby said as she made faces at the small baby in her arms. Jessie chortled back his dark gray eyes squeezed shut as he laughed outrageously swinging his chubby arms and legs in the air.
    “But mostly lust,” Seth cut in dryly. “Now make sure you don’t share that with the pups okay, sweetheart,” he told Rosie, Gabby’s daughter, as he handed her a banana. “If any of them get a hold of it, we’ll be finding it all over the walls and floor,” Seth told me