Silas stepped out calmly as if nothing was amiss. He had a baby in his arms and two young pups pressed close to his legs. On his other side stood an older pup with Silas’s beautiful dark eyes. All of them were completely covered in black soot.
Dean scented the air frantically, but the only blood he could scent was likely from small cuts and scrapes. Relief flooded through him.
Silas gave him a sheepish look. “I hope you wanted a large family.”
Dean closed the last two steps between them and threw his arms around Silas and the pups, pulling them all into a huddle together so he could hug his new family.
A sob of joy escaped him and he clutched them tighter. Everything had worked out perfectly. He had everything he had ever wanted. He was blessed.
Chapter twenty-nine
Delilahmadeasoftwhining noise from her cot. It wasn’t a cry, but it was definitely getting there. Silas grinned as he blearily opened his eyes. It had only been a few months, and she was doing so well.
“I’m coming, little one,” he assured as he hauled himself out of bed. He would never be a morning person.
Dean’s side of the bed was empty but Silas wasn’t surprised, the alpha was an early riser. Probably already stuck into pack business or out for a run.
Silas picked the baby up and gave her a little snuggle, sniffing in her adorable baby scent. As he had for the first time yesterday, he caught the faintest hint of alpha. He grinned in delighted pride. He didn’t think had Dean had caught it yet and Silas decided not to tell him. The look on his face when he realized was going to be priceless.
“Our secret for now,” he whispered to Delilah.
She just stared back with an unimpressed look. Silas chuckled.
He carried her over to the changing table and quickly changed her nappy.
“Are you a hungry pup?” he asked her.
She stared back at him with wide brown eyes. Silas grinned and picked her up again. Together, they crept next door to Ash’s room. The boy was fast asleep. Only the very top of his head peeking out of the covers. His dark hair was growing back quickly and was at the crazily sticking-up-everywhere stage. Silas smiled fondly. It was lovely to see the boy sleeping so peacefully.
Silas quietly crept away and went to the girls’ bedroom, on the other side of his and Dean’s room. He softly opened the door. The girls were all tucked up in their bunk beds, also still fast asleep. Iris had kicked her covers off again. Silas gently tucked her back up one handed, whilst holding the baby on his hip with his other.
Silas quietly shut the door again. “Seems like you and Dean are the only morning people in this family,” he told Delilah.
The pup stared back at him solemnly. Looking unbearably cute. Silas smiled at her before yawning. Sleepily, he headed downstairs to the kitchen. The kitchen in the family house was far more homely and domestic than the industrial sized one in the main pack house. It was also fully equipped for families.
He grabbed a made-up bottle of formula from the fridge and popped it in the warmer. Delilah was old enough to eat solids, but she still liked bottles. Silas thought that with everything she had already been through, she more than deserved some pampering and indulging.
Next, Silas went to the coffee machine and felt a wave of love for whoever had already run it. He poured himself a much needed coffee. Just then, the bottle warmer beeped. He handed Delilah her milk, plopped her in a high chair and watched her guzzle her bottle greedily as he leaned on the counter and drank his coffee. The sight of her little pudgy hands holding the bottle was almost too cute to bear.
The wonderful beans did their thing, and Silas felt his brain wake up. He pondered at how well all the pups were settling in. Even Ash. Though he could be a mouthy little shit. But Silas loved him for it.
Silas hadn’t pressed any of them for details of what the humans had done to them, but he hoped he had made it clear to the pups and he and Dean were ready to listen whenever they wanted to talk.
He had tried to find any relatives of the girls, but hadn’t had any luck so far. It was looking like their only family had been in the pack the hunters had wiped out. The girls had not talked about that either, merely seeming to accept their new home and parents unquestioningly. Pups were so resilient. Silas prayed that they were too young to really remember anything. That would be best, for their sake. But if trauma emerged later, they would deal with it as a family.
For the other important issue, Silas had most of the Council working on investigating the research lab. So far, they had discovered that it had been run by a group of well-funded hunters. Some wealthy eccentric had given them a heap of money. It hadn’t been military or government. Human leaders still didn’t believe in the paranormal. If that was definitely true, it was a huge relief. It made the whole thing far less of a threat.
Though sadly, it seemed hundreds of paranormals had been captured by them and met grisly deaths. It was just a fluke that the pups were the only ones there at the time of the attack.
Silas’s thoughts turned to the report he had read last night. There were only a handful of humans who had been involved in the lab left to hunt down. Then all knowledge of it would be eliminated from the face of the earth.
Silas took another swig of his coffee. They needed a way to track what other hunters were doing, to make sure no one else got a similar idea. Though if they could find hunters to track them, they might as well just end them.
As his thoughts wandered and he woke up more, all of a sudden he remembered what day it was, and a wave of giddying excitement washed through him. All thoughts of hunters were completely banished.
“Wedding day!” he exclaimed to Delilah. The pup just stared at him and continued to drink her milk.
Dean had convinced him to have a human ceremony in the garden with all the human pomp and even a human celebrant. Silas was far more delighted and thrilled by it than anyone was ever going to know. As far as the world was concerned, he was just putting up with it to humor Dean.
