He kissed her cheek and stroked her shoulder. “You wouldn’t want me to be anything but.” He let out a heavy sigh. Hell, he was an alpha male and his mate was already dictating to him. If word got out, he’d never live it down. But he wanted her to be happy. Whatever it took. “All right. The judge can marry us.”

“All right,” she said grumpily, then gave him a smidgen of a smile.

He tightened his hold on her, giving her a somber smile back and loving her all the more. She hadn’t had a family to call her own. He and his family would be there for her in any way that she needed, even if they had to bend or break a few golden werewolf rules in the process. “All right.”

Never in a million years would he have thought he’d be the only one in the family or the pack ever forced to get a marriage license. Then again, he could just get the judge to sign off on one. No need to go through any kind of ceremony, even if he knew it would just be in the judge’s chambers. All she had to want was the paper proving they were man and wife.

The whole notion grated on him, no matter that he tried to think of it as important to her and meaningless to him. He squeezed her tighter against his body. Well, not so meaningless to him because it meant so much to Alicia. And her happiness was paramount to him.

When they arrived at the hospital in Silver Town, everyone on staff looked Alicia over curiously, and she avoided their inquisitive gazes. Doc Weber dismissed Jake, even though he wanted to be with her in the room. Instead, he was left to pace in the staff lounge.

Peter and Tom stayed with him while Tom broached the subject of Alicia’s fainting at the bank. “You said she got some upsetting news?”

“We need to learn everything we can about an Antonio Frasero.”

“I’ll get on it,” Peter said. “How does she know him?”

“He’s her father. And it appears he may be the one who Constantino had killed.”

“I’ll let you know what I find out.” Peter hurried out of the lounge, looking like a man with a mission.

Tom studied Jake. “The name Antonio Frasero sounds Italian.”

“Yes, it sounds that way.” Jake glanced back at the doorway to the lounge, wondering what was taking Doc so long in determining if Alicia was pregnant or not.

“If she’s pregnant, is it Massaro’s baby?” Tom asked.

“Most likely,” Jake said, trying to keep his voice even.

Tom nodded.

Then Doc poked his head in through the doorway. “Looks like the lupus garou population of Silver Town is going to increase by another three early next year. I understand Silva’s struggling to knit a pair of booties for the first of Lelandi’s triplets. She’s going to have a lot of practice in the next few months.”

Jake couldn’t say anything. The first thought he had was that Alicia’s babies were his. He was a triplet. Darien was having triplets, although Lelandi had been a triplet also, whereas Alicia had been an only child. But still, what were the chances that they were Massaro’s?

Tom looked just as stunned.

“Thanks, Doc. Thanks,” Jake finally managed to get out.

Doc smiled. “She’s worried they’re not yours. But I have the sneaking suspicion they are. If I were you, I’d check out the guy who turned her. She said he had been murdered. The police would have done an autopsy, and if he’d had sex with a woman sometime before he was murdered—which would have been the case if he’d raped her from the timeline she gave me—the doctor who examined the body would have learned of it. Alicia said he’s the only one who could have made her pregnant. But we all know there are exceptions to every rule.”

“They’ll be mine, no matter what, Doc,” Jake said firmly.

“I understand. I’ve prescribed some vitamin pills for her. Just make sure she gets plenty of rest and plenty of nutritious foods to eat. Otherwise, she’s healthy and the babies will be fine. I’ve got other patients to see, but…” Doc uncharacteristically slapped Jake on the shoulder, smiling broadly. “You’ve got your hands full.” Then he headed out of the lounge.

Tom looked like he was dying to leave the staff lounge. He wasn’t the town gossip, like Silva was, so Jake wasn’t sure what was eating at him. Tom finally said, “I’m looking into this Ferdinand Massaro.”

Jake took a deep breath. His brother wanted to know the truth of the matter as much as he did. “Peter probably can get further with questioning the police than we can since he’s a member of law enforcement. Have him check to see if in the autopsy that was done on—” Jake paused when he heard footfalls approach the room.

Alicia peered into the lounge, then seeing Jake and Tom alone, she joined them. “I heard your voice,” she said, as if she was afraid they’d think she’d been eavesdropping.

Jake hurried to take her arm, alarmed that she still appeared pale and unwell. “You still look peaked, Alicia.”

“Deep down I expected to be pregnant. But I never thought I’d have a whole family in one fell swoop.” Her teary eyes studied his. “Doc said because they’re triplets, they’re probably yours.”

“That’s what he told me, too.”

She took a deep, steadying breath. “But if they’re not…”

He pulled her into his embrace. “We’ll have three lovely girls to adore.”

Tom gave a small smile as if to say that was wishful thinking and headed out of the room. He hoped Tom would tell Peter to see if an autopsy on Massaro revealed he’d had sex with a woman before he died.

If Massaro hadn’t, Jake would rethink the story Lelandi’s brother, Leidolf, had told them about the woman who was the product of her human grandmother and a werewolf’s intimate liaison.

“Let’s go to Darien’s place,” Jake said, but more than ever, he wanted a whole lot of answers to lots of new questions.

***

Standing in his living room and staring out his window at the brick wall surrounding his back courtyard, Mario listened on the phone as Danny ranted, “Someone was here… in my place. Looking through stuff.”

“How do you know?”

“I know, all right? I leave things around, just in case. But the house wasn’t broken into. Nothing taken as far as I can tell. But things aren’t… the same.”

Mario shook his head. Danny was becoming obsessed with being watched. “How aren’t they the same?” he asked, trying to hide his exasperation with his cousin.

“I… I leave pieces of hair glued with saliva across my desk drawers. The hairs were broken or no longer there.”

Hair? Saliva?

Mario shook his head. “Are you sure they didn’t just drop on the floor? Fall off? That you opened the drawers and forgot to replace the hairs?”

“No. I check them every time I get home.”

“Did you have anything important in the drawers?”

“No.”

Mario let out his breath. “Then no problem.” He figured Danny was just being paranoid. That nothing had truly happened.

“I found a bug in my phone.”

His face heating, Mario said slowly, “Which phone?” It had better not be the one Danny was talking on now. Or if it was, he’d better have gotten rid of the bug.

“It’s gone,” Danny said, reassuring him. “But the Feds have been here.”

“How did they find out about your place?”

Danny didn’t speak for a while, then said, “Hell, I don’t know. Cicero said something about Tony getting my key and making a copy of it. But I didn’t believe it. And anyway, even if Tony did get a copy of my house key, he wouldn’t have known where my house was.”

“Why didn’t you tell me Tony had gotten a copy of your key?”

“I changed the locks. The key wouldn’t have worked even if he had found the house.”

“You should have told me Tony got a copy of the key to your house, Danny. What were you thinking?” Mario watched the oak tree’s leaves flutter in the dry breeze. “All right. So you didn’t have anything in the place that could cause any problems. Right?”

Danny didn’t say anything.

“Right, Danny?”

“The gun I used to whack Missy Greiston and Tony? It’s gone.”

***

When Jake, Alicia, Tom, and Peter arrived at Darien’s house, Lelandi greeted them looking so anxious that Jake was afraid something more was wrong.

But Lelandi quickly asked Alicia, “Are you all right? Peter said you fainted at the bank.”

Jake was glad that was all that was the matter.

“I’m fine.” Alicia explained the situation about her father and the birth certificates, but although Lelandi listened, Jake could tell that wasn’t what was concerning her.

“You look awfully pale,” Lelandi said, and Jake suspected she knew Alicia was pregnant but was trying to prompt her to tell without being asked.

“Jake and I are going to get married,” Alicia said, taking hold of Jake’s hand and pulling him closer. “Right away. We’ll get the justice of the peace to do it.”

Lelandi’s lips parted, but she didn’t say a word, her gaze quickly shifting to Jake.

Jake tried not to react in any way, yet he tensed. He couldn’t help it. His kind just didn’t get married. And he didn’t like the inference that he couldn’t be faithful without a marriage license, although he had to remind himself that probably wasn’t bothering Alicia as much as having a name for the babies. He planned for Alicia to be a Silver anyway. Once she was one of the Silvers, no one would question her about getting a new driver’s license or anything else she might need in her life.

“Marriage? By the judge? No way,” Lelandi said, her red brows furrowed.

Jake wasn’t entirely surprised by her reaction. But he would marry Alicia in the judge’s chambers, no matter what Lelandi or his brother said about it, since that’s what Alicia felt she needed.