“Y-you th-think, babe?” I joked dryly and Mae laughed again. Needing to take her lips once more, I did, wrapping my hand in her long black hair. Mae moaned into my mouth and her hot tongue met mine. My cock throbbed in my jeans, and I had to force myself to pull away or I’d be taking Mae on that bed. Not that any fucker in this hospital would stop us, they wouldn’t dare, but Mae wouldn’t want to be embarrassed. She was still pure. Still somehow uncorrupted by this fucking outlaw life.

Pulling away, I pressed my forehead to hers and breathed deeply. “I . . . I fuckin’ l-l-love you.” I lifted up the photograph. “That’s our f-fuckin’ b-baby.”

Eyes glistening, Mae took hold of the photo and stared at the image. Her finger ran over the curve of our baby’s head and body. “He or she is so beautiful,” she said. I could already hear the love for him or her in her voice. She sighed. “I wonder if it is a girl or a boy?”

My head raced with the same question. Mae looked at me and I shrugged. She laid her hand on my cheek. “A little boy who looks just like his papa. Hazel eyes and dark hair. Handsome and strong. A born leader.”

I swallowed and stepped back. I knew I wouldn’t be able to speak without stuttering through every damn word, so I signed, “Or a little girl like you. Black hair and wolf eyes. Most fuckin’ beautiful girl in the world, besides her mama.” My damn black heart missed a beat at that thought. Another little Mae. She’d wreck me the second I met her.

Two fucking women to worry about.

Mae’s smile faded. She looked at the picture again, a small frown on her face. “W-What?” I asked. Mae took a deep breath. She didn’t say anything, so I lifted her head with my hands and demanded, “T-Talk to m-me.”

Mae’s eyes closed for a moment. “I just think it is safer in the world if you are born a boy. If we had a girl, if she looked like me . . . ” My chest tightened. I understood where she was going with this crock of shit. “I would look at her and worry about someone hurting her.” Mae’s face paled. “I could not bear that, Styx. I could not bear our baby to be hurt. If she was beautiful . . . the sinful thoughts some men have . . . ”

My hands shook as I lifted them to sign. “It’d never fuckin’ happen. I’d kill any fucker that tried to touch a damn hair on her head. I’d rip off their sick cocks if they even glanced at her. I’m the fuckin’ prez of the hardest fuckin’ club in the States. She’d have an army of protectors ‘round her.”

Mae watched my hands, and color began returning to her cheeks. “I know you would,” she said quietly. She pulled her black tank down over her slightly rounded stomach. “I just keep worrying that something will go wrong.” She let out a quiet, frightened cry. “I have no idea what I am doing. Every day I wonder if today will be the day I somehow fail at this. I could not bear to be a bad mother.”

Reaching out, I made her stand and pulled her into my chest. Mae’s slim arms wrapped around my waist. I felt her begin to relax, and I almost fucking melted when she said, “I love you, River. More than life, do you know that? You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”

The sonographer came back into the room. I wanted to shout and tell her to get the fuck back out. But Mae stepped back from me, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders instead. “If you’re ready you can leave, Mrs. Nash,” the sonographer muttered. “Everything is fine.”

I fucking loved hearing my surname on Mae. It wasn’t legit yet, but I was hoping that one day soon it fucking would be. Mae nodded and I led her out of the room. I barely noticed the wide berth everyone gave us as we passed. The only reason I noticed at all was because Mae was laughing lightly into my chest.

I sighed. I couldn’t have prayed for a better bitch to stand by my side.

I cranked the music high as I drove back to the club, a little black metal to lead us home. Mae spent the entire time staring at the picture, a breathless fucking smile on her face and her eyes shining with tears. A fucking dream.

A girl. I wanted that kid in her stomach to be a girl.

An hour later we pulled up to the compound, Smiler waving us through from the new watchtower. Since the clusterfuck that was the cult freaks last attack, we’d made this place into a motherfucking fort.

We got out of the truck and made our way inside. The minute we entered the clubhouse, I heard a loud squeal, and Beauty came gunning for Mae. The bitch practically tackled the brothers in her way. “Did you get it? Let me see! Was everything okay?”