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the bundle in his arm, holding the bottle again instead of catching the end of it under his chin. Seeing such a big man hold such a tiny being so gently caused a fluttering warmth, like sun-touched butterflies, to alight in Jihu’s stomach.
    “I wasn’t the winner,” he admitted, before he could stop himself. “Except for him. I got him.” Jihu slowly reached out to touch his son’s brow, furrowed as he sucked deeply on the nipple. “He’s all that matters. How did you get him to calm down?” Jihu was finding it hard to be scared of Gilbert even those his brain told him he should be. His body craved another touch, a deeper touch, and his languid leopard was more alert than it’d been in days, or even weeks.
    Gilbert smiled and Jihu experienced another wave of dizziness. Perhaps Gilbert really was his mate. No one had ever affected him so. “Man, I don’t know. I’ve held my nieces and nephew a few times when they were babies, but really, I just kind of did what felt right. What’s this little guy’s name? He’s your brother?”
    That was twice Gilbert had referenced the baby being his brother. Jihu swallowed and sputtered, his throat gone dry in a heartbeat. He leant back and struggled for an answer, not sure why he was so loath to admit the truth. And that realisation angered him, not at Gilbert but at himself. What the hell was wrong with him? He wasn’t ashamed of his son. He was ashamed of having been forced to have sex, though. That was something he was going to have to deal with.
    Gilbert waited patiently, no judgement in his pretty eyes. He seemed content to sit and hold the babe and watch Jihu.
    Which made it somehow easier and less painful for him to admit what he’d been forced to do. “Has Bae ever mentioned the practice of forced breedings?” Gilbert’s eyes widened and he paled, his golden brown skin turning an off shade of grey. “I don’t know what he’s mentioned, you see. I’ve never met Bae, but he’s my half-brother. And the baby…” Jihu warmed with pride as he looked at that angelic chubby face. “I am Jihu Warren, and he’s my son.”

Chapter Four
     
     
     
    Gilbert tried to keep from letting his shock show in his expression. “Your son? Does he have a name?” he asked a little flippantly, trying to cover his unease. Not because Jihu had a son, but because of how the baby had likely been conceived. His attempt at being lighthearted failed miserably when Jihu answered him.
    “No. I haven’t had the chance to pick a name, and I don’t know what he was being called in the nursery. I don’t care what he was called. I will choose his name, not the damned lepe leader.”
    Jihu’s scowl was deeply etched into his fine-boned features. Gilbert thought he’d never seen a lovelier man before, and he burned with need for his mate. But knowing what he did about the forced breeding programme, knowing Amur shifters were required to have sex and reproduce with whoever their lepe leader ordered them to, Gilbert was afraid to act on the desire that was an integral part of his shifter nature. His leopard wanted Jihu, and didn’t have the patience Gilbert feared he’d need.
    “He’s my son, not the lepe’s.” Jihu had tears dried on his cheeks, his eyes were red-rimmed, the irises so dark a brown as to nearly be black, and he had choppily layered black hair sticking out all over the place. His full lips were thinned and his ebony brows almost meeting above his small nose. He might have only been about five and a half feet tall, but he was the fiercest thing Gilbert had seen in possibly ever.
    “They won’t take him from me. I won’t let them do—” Jihu faltered and looked away. He rubbed at one eye and gulped. Gilbert’s heart broke for him. “He won’t be raised among them. If I have my way, he’ll never know about where he came from. Not any more than he needs to know.”
    “Hmm.” Gilbert had so many questions and none of them were ones he could ask. He thought,