But in the interim, she would continue petting whatever form he presented her with. She trailed her hands back over his chest, threading fingers through the hair there, tugging slightly, and then down along his sides.

A rumbling snuffle of amusement met this action.

“That tickles.” But Conall did not make any move to prevent her continued explorations. Instead, he picked up his own hand and began smoothing it over her protruding belly.

The infant-inconvenience kicked in response, and Conall twitched at the sensation.

“Active little pup, isn’t he?”

“She,” corrected his wife. “As if any child of mine would dare be a boy.”

It was a long-standing argument.

“Boy,” replied Conall. “Any child as difficult as this one has been from the start must, perforce, be male.”

Alexia snorted. “As if my daughter would be calm and biddable.”

Conall grinned, catching one of her hands and bringing it in for a kiss, all prickly whiskers and soft lips. “Very good point, wife. Very good point.”

Alexia snuggled against him. “Did you manage to settle Biffy?”

Conall shrugged, an up and down of muscle under her ear. “I spent the remainder of last night with him. I think that helped mitigate the trauma. It is hard to tell. Regardless, by this point, I should be able to sense him.”

“Sense, what do you mean, sense?”

“Difficult to articulate. Do you know that sensation you get when there is someone else in the room, even if you cannot see them? For us Alphas, pack members are a little like that. Whether we are in the same room or not, we simply know the pack is there. Biffy, he isn’t a part of that yet. So he isn’t part of my pack.”

Alexia was struck with a moment of inspiration. “You should encourage him and Lyall to spend more time together.”

“Now, Alexia, are you trying to matchmake?”

“Maybe.”

“I thought you said Biffy did not need to be in love, he needed to find his place.”

“Perhaps, in this matter, Biffy is not the half of the equation who needs to be in love.”

“Ah. How did you know Randolph might favor . . . ? Never mind, I don’t want to know. It would never work. Not those two.”

Alexia took mild offense. Biffy and Lyall were both such good men, so personable and kindly. “Oh, I don’t know about that. They seem eminently suited.”

Lord Maccon looked up at the ceiling. Clearly he was trying to come up with a delicate way to phrase this. “They are both, uh, too much the Beta, if you take my meaning.”

Alexia didn’t. “I don’t see how that can be an objection.”

Lord Maccon obviously felt he could not go into the matter any further without spoiling what little was left of his wife’s feminine delicacy, so he grappled for a means of changing the subject. Only to recall exactly what night this was.

“Oh, bugger it. It’s full moon, isna it?”