Erik has wanted to be a father for as long as he can remember -- but now that the day is finally here, he's terrified. Surely a ham-fisted Viking of a man like Erik shouldn't be allowed to handle things as tiny and delicate as his new baby girl?<br><br>But it's not just his daughter that's come into Erik's world. His partner has finally returned too. After nine months of watching Andreas struggle with the mental and physical toll of being a man and being pregnant at the same time, the birth of their daughter is both a beginning and an ending.<br><br>Erik is a father for the first time -- but not everything that comes next is new.

Erik the Pink

Even if his T-shirt was stuck to his back with sweat. Even if his side was exploding in a stitch. Even if there were black dots dancing at the edges of his vision, and he could feel the air in his lungs like knives.


“Christ, look at that lass go. That’s motivation for you.”


He gritted his teeth, reached out, and bumped the speed just a little higher.


Things went to hell in a handbasket just before Beatriz reached five months old.


Their happy, bubbly baby was transformed into a demon from the ninth circle of hell. The nights—which had been slowly quietening down as she began to sleep in heftier clumps—exploded into mayhem, with screaming on the hour, every hour, enough to bring the house down. Even the neighbours started complaining.


“Isn’t this a bit early?” Erik asked when—on only the fourth day of the screaming—Andreas called Lauren and she appeared within an hour with a box of various teething rings.


Chapter 32