He slid his hand up into my hair, tucking my forehead back into the side of his neck as he shared, “You’re safe with that and you’re right. I don’t catch anything; I don’t carry anything.” He paused and his voice was quiet, his hold strong, when he finished, “And sucks, baby, hate to share this with you, but you gotta know, if you want, you can go off the Pill. I can’t get you pregnant either.”

I blinked at his throat. “Yes, you can.”

“Bao bei,” he said gently, giving my head a squeeze, “I can’t. Won’t go into specifics of how I know, but trust me, I know.”

I pushed against his hand to look at him. “Werewolves can get humans pregnant. Sonia told me so.”

“Vampires can’t get them pregnant and I’m half vampire.”

“Then why are Lucien and Leah prophesied to have a brood of kids?”

His big, hard body stilled under mine.

Completely.

And when he spoke, I actually felt the effort it took for him to force out the word.

“What?”

“Uh…you didn’t know?”

“Fuck no,” he snarled.

“Abel—”

He cut me off by knifing up, forcing me to right myself in his lap, and his fingers clamped around my hips.

“Are we prophesied to have kids?” he asked.

“Um…when Leah told me that, she said we weren’t mentioned. I mean, obviously, they’re only going to be able to do that if they both survive this mess, which they will. And she also told me that normally vampires have trouble procreating, and never with humans. But things are changing and—”

“You and me bein’ special, we might be able to have kids,” he finished for me.

“Maybe,” I whispered.

Staring into his eyes, both of them brown, I was warmed to my soul by the light shining there.

“A family. My own family, my own blood. Sons and daughters who could be that for eternity.”

I stared at him.

God, how he’d suffered.

God.

I lifted my hands to his jaw and whispered, “Not a definite, honey, but maybe.”

“Go off the Pill now.”

I felt my eyes get huge.

“Uh…what?”

“Now,” he clipped, then declared, “We got a shot, we’re takin’ every shot we can get.”

“Just a reminder, the state of the world is kinda shaky,” I told him.

“It’s gonna get un-shaky and I’m gonna plant my babies inside you and we’re gonna have a family.”

Wouldn’t that be awesome?

I slid my thumb under his cheekbone and asked softly, “You want that, don’t you?”

His eyes narrowed in a way that was kind of frightening even as his fingers clenched the flesh of my hips.

“Don’t you?”

“Fuck yeah, you’re hot. Your kids’ll be gorgeous.”