That night I had trouble falling asleep. I tossed and turned every which way until I took my pillow and blanket out on the sofa so that I didn’t keep waking up Wess and Andy. After I hadn’t fallen asleep on the sofa in over an hour, I headed into the kitchen and ate more leftovers.
“Annila is pregnant. That’s what Wess found out while he was in and out of it. That’s what you can’t make sense of. She hurt Annila. No matter what she told anyone. Everyone keeps secrets. Some people get hurt and they can’t voice the words. Annila is a woman not on a mission but on a vendetta. Now, she’s not only trying to get revenge but to protect her baby. Some people wouldn’t bother, if you know what I mean. And that would be okay too but I think Sharon underestimated who she fucked with. I think Annila is the sort of mother who would die for her children – any of her children. It’s not like her first son’s father stuck around. She raised Nic all on her own. She’smade a choice and now Sharon’s going to die for her own choices. We’ve slowed her down. Well, Wess slowed her down.”
I massaged the heel of my hand into my forehead. Poor Annila. Poor everyone who had been hurt by her. Now, in a few hours, I’d go to Venal’s funeral. We were burying him in the woods in a small ceremony. It was so strange to have someone I’d been so intimate with be dead now. It wasn’t like we were super close or anything. We met on the Pheromone Swap app. Still, he was inside me – kissing me, touching me, living and breathing – so fucking alive and now he was dead.
A door opened down the hall and I scanned for Wess on our mating link but he was still out cold. It was Mori padding down the hall with his puppy tucked against his chest. He came into the kitchen and without saying a word, he hugged me with his free arm and I leaned in against him. We’d probably cuddled up like this in the womb too. Our carrier liked to joke that we were so cozy that we had to be cut out. I could believe it. Life was probably simpler in there.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t like him, but I’m sorry,” Mori said, sitting down in the chair next to me and keeping his arm around my shoulders.
I told him Wess’s suspicions about Annila being pregnant. Mori swore under his breath and took a bite of my left-over pineapple and ham sandwich.
“You know, I have to go back then, right? Back to London? She’s crazy now but she wouldn’t be the first dragoness to have someone force themselves on her and then stop at nothing to kill them. Shit,” he said and rested his forehead against the table. “If she said something we could’ve gotten her therapy or a doctor or…”
“No,” I said. “It’s not on you or anyone except for Sharon and I don’t think therapy would’ve solved her problem. Her dragoness is in charge now but you can’t leave until we figure out what’s up with Lero.”
“Shit! With everything going on I’d almost forgotten about his invisible boyfriend,” Mori groaned.
“Are we sure it’s a boyfriend?”
“More like man friend. I saw him for a few seconds. He’s not shacking up with some astral Sharon, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Mori said, not looking up. “Still he doesn’t seem to want my help either.”
“Well, we’re family. We gotta be here when he needs it,” I sighed.
“Yeah and I need to be here until the twins are born at least. How the hell did we end up in this mess?”
“Eh, hormones. That’s what went on with me and Wess anyway,” I chuckled.
“I’m going to heat up some more food. We need our energy to trek out into the woods today,” he said.
“Poor Venal.”
“Yeah. You know what sucks the most about this? Usually if an asshole dies you can be happy about it. Like when they finally got Grady Moore, the notorious breeding farm vampire, I bet they were happy about it. I can’t even be happy about this because of Andy. Like I hated him, but had he never existed we wouldn’t have Andy.”
“I know,” I nodded.
“Andy has Wess too now,” Mori said as if I needed reminding.
“Andy had Wess since the moment he walked into Lero’s house,” I chuckled. “He’s out cold and I’m not in the bed. You’re not in the bed. I say he’s accepted Wess as an okay adult.”
“Someone has to be the adult around here, brother, because I’m not sure we’re prepared for all of this,” Mori laughed.
“I don’t think anyone ever is.”
Epilogue
Wess
Nightshade Bear Territory
Six weeks isn’t very long to prepare for twins when the holidays are unfolding and you’re attacked a few times. Add in Mori traveling between home and Dern’s house to prepare to help someone who tried to blow him up and things get odd and chaotic. Still with a lot of work and a little help from our family we were ready on that cold morning in early January when the sun had barely peeked above the horizon and Preston’s water broke while he was standing in front of the fridge, informing Mori and me that there was nothing to eat. The fridge was full. Only nothing sounded good to my mate. The twins let us know they were on their way by flooding the hardwood in front of the fridge. That was enough for Preston to settle for more peanut butter fudge because he was going to need the energy to deliver two babies into the world.
We’d skipped finding out what our babies might be. Barry took over Preston’s care after the attack, worried that the stress would have an effect on his grandchildren’s health in the future. While he took care not to tell us the information we were avoiding, he checked in on the twins almost every day, and they had developed into healthy little polar bears. They shifted to their bears and headed south exactly four days before the great January kitchen flood.
While Preston had his little snack Mori rushed off to get their parents. Preston and I had a plan for the birth of our babies. We’d talked it in circles for hours and at the heart of it my mate mostly wanted to be left alone unless it became a medical emergency. So, that was my job. It was just another extension of my lifelong goal to keep him relaxed and happy. Nothing about delivering twins was relaxing, especially with his carrier worrying that he might need an ultrasound because of his own experiences.
So while Mori was gone, Preston shifted and headed into the bedroom. We had toyed with the idea of the back porch but in the end decided that if I froze a neighbor or two everyone would get their thongs stuck up their butt cracks about it. I stayed with Andy until Mori arrived back with their parents and I explained the situation to them. I’d be going in. They’d be staying out here with the baby. Mori was on snack duty because snacks would most likely be needed until things moved further along. Barry and Xenos looked skeptical but didn’t argue.
I hadn’t expected them to need to spend two days in the living room while my mate labored but that’s what fate had in store for us. With each passing second the tension built and dripped down the back of my neck. I was about to recommend medical intervention and then as if by magic everything began to move. With the first roar the others rushed into the room as if Sharon Claudis had busted her way in through the wall. Preston didn’t roar at them or chase them off. So I let them stay. Lero had dropped by and was watching Baby Andy in the living room. I hoped the little guy wasn’t afraid. He’d seen enough crazy stuff to last him a lifetime.
