Amanda Knight, Ester Carpenter, and Lila Carpenter-Knight had a nice, if quiet chat after all made sure everything within the Knight estate was as well as could be expected at the moment.
The children were safe.
The bodies of the deceased robbers had been hauled away, although there were still representatives of the Sheriff's department on the premises.
When Amanda made arrangements for Lila's brother and family to be taken home before wondering where her husband Benton was, that was when Lila realized she hadn't seen her own mate in quite a while.
Despite the fact that she had to stay in her human form until after their baby was born next Spring, Lila quickly tracked her husband down by scent and found Lance Knight sitting cross-legged on the floor in a first floor hallway, staring at a closed door while nursing a cup of coffee.
"What are you doing honey?" asked Lila, while gently sitting down next to him. She was still mad at him for getting drunk earlier that day with the other men in her life, but at least his incident didn't have as many potential consequences as Benton's or Rick's could have if things turned out differently at the Knight estate.
"Thinking about a lot of stuff," replied Lance.
"Like?" prompted Lila.
"Do you know that used to be my bedroom, growing up here?" he asked, pointing at the closed door they were now sitting in front of.
Lila made a move to look inside, but Lance said, "Don't bother. Benton's seriously remodeled the place over the years. About all that's left of my old room is the original wall paint on one wall of what is now nothing more than an utility closet."
"I see," said Lila, resuming her place next to Lance.
Lance took another sip of coffee and then said solemnly, "I blew it today, didn't I?"
"Kind of," conceded his wife. "It could have been a lot worse than it turned out, even without the attempted robbery here. But why..."
"Part of it was a feeble attempt on my part to fit in, especially with your brother," confessed Lance.
"Rick's become a lot more accepting of you over the past months than he was when you two first met," pointed out Lila.
"I said part of. The main part of it was stress."
"Over what?"
"You. Me. Us. Our unborn child," answered Lance, before reaching out to put a hand on his wife's belly, although Lila was not quite showing yet because it was just the end of her first trimester.
"You're going to have to explain this one to me in more detail," she requested.
"Normally, if I have a single beer within a month it's an event, because alcohol and weres don't mix," began Lance. "I've noticed that my beer consumption has started to increase around Rick, and that does concern me, but there have only been two times in my life when I have ever gotten totally rip-roaring drunk beyond belief. The second was today, and the first was the night when I wound up winning The Were Club in what was supposed to be a crooked poker game in the dealer's favor because he wanted whatever he could get from a Knight."
"And stress is the key?"
"Yes. Then, it was Benton already starting his takeover attempt of what is now Knight Media, even though our father left all those businesses for me to run as I saw fit and hadn't even left for that tropical were retreat him and mother are living at most of the time now."
"And today?" wondered Lila.
"I know what kind of father Benton's been to my niece Frieda. He's starting to change for the better now, but there is still a lot to make up for," pointed out Lance. "Thankfully I've never been like that even before we first met. Yet the best example of fatherhood I've ever seen has been my own dad, and I honestly don't know if I can live up to his high example."
"Then don't."
"Huh?" said Lance, looking at his wife in disbelief.
"Don't worry about being the best kind of father Anton Knight ever was. Be the best kind of father Lance Knight can be," explained Lila, while putting a loving arm around her husband.
Lance just smiled and leaned in close to his mate. "Do you know how much I love you?" he asked.
"I know," said Lila, returning his smile while leaning against him. "I'll talk to Rick when I get a chance about cutting back on the beer, although I'm sure he'll be getting an earful about it from Ester too before long. Otherwise, I know you're a good man Lance, and you'll be a great father to our cubs."
"CUBS?" Lance repeated, looking at Lila.
"Don't worry. There's only one in here right now," she said, putting his hand back on her stomach, "but it isn't the only one we'll have in the years to come," Lila added seductively, before giving him a kiss.
They were still sitting on the floor in the first floor hallway, kissing, when a Sheriff's deputy tentatively approached them.
"Are you Lance Knight?" he asked.
"Yes," replied Lila's husband, after breaking their latest kiss and looking up at the man.
"Good. There's a Tachibana no Akane, a Daisuke Tachibana, and an Evan Lawson Senior at the front door asking for you," replied the deputy.