He shrugged that off. “The city police captain.” Or at least he had been. Some of the older predator Wyr held chauvinistic attitudes toward herbivores, and Dragos had every intention of firing him when he got the chance. “I want you to consider taking Niall back to New York for now.”

At that, she lifted her head to give him a long, level look. She asked evenly, “Are you quite certain that’s what you really want?”

The way she asked made him reconsider his own words. Scowling, he clenched his hands into fists. If she returned to New York, it would mean a bigger separation than they had ever faced before.

And staying in New York would be no guarantee that she and the baby would be safe. He would not be able to see personally to their protection. If something happened to them, he wouldn’t find out about it for days, and from the look in her eyes, she had already realized that. She was just waiting for him to come to the same conclusion.

“No,” he growled. “What if you and Niall went to stay at the guard station with Malan?”

She raised one eyebrow and waited patiently.

He thought through that one too. Again, if something happened to them, he would not find out about it for hours. He hissed, “Damn it.”

Gently, she said, “What you really want is for us to remain close by and safe. Now that I’ve had a chance to calm down, I’m not sure we were in any danger.” At that, he started to speak, but she rested fingers against his lips. “I’m not sure we weren’t either. My bottom line is, we absolutely need to do everything possible to protect the baby. I propose we stay as long as we keep alert eyes on him at all times. If whatever that power is could slip past Bel and Gray, it might be able to slip past even you. And we don’t know if it would hurt a child, but we don’t know that it wouldn’t. Until we find out more, we don’t take any chances.”

As she spoke Graydon and Bel, carrying Giselle and Niall, walked into the living room. Bel said, “I agree one hundred percent. No baby should be unattended until we find out for sure that the unseen won’t hurt them.”

Graydon handed Niall over to Dragos as he added, “And, believe it or not, we’ve just had something of a breakthrough. Pia is the first person we’ve found who has sensed anything. We should see what else she might be able to discover.”

Dragos’s eyes narrowed. Like Pia, he had been in reaction mode and hadn’t yet come to that realization. “Good point.” He looked at his mate. “Are you willing to play detective?”