“I’ll clean the floor; I’ve texted Oriana too.” Lia comes in wheeling a mop bucket. Thank the Goddess she and Ember were sorting the charity comforters with Alma today. I can hear Nikoli yelling into his phone as Alma and Ember get me to the downstairs room set up for delivering babies.
It was an office with an en-suite, but between Ember and Oriana, they decided to switch it. The office was never used anyway, and Alma was happy as she was fed up with dusting the boring room.
“Let's get you out of your wet things.” Alma peels my wet leggings and panties down my legs, ‘modesty really goes out the window during childbirth,’ then sits me on the edge of the bed while Ember switches my t-shirt and bra for one of Mika’s old button-ups.
“In the bed, Mother dearest, wiggle to the middle.”I glare at her,
“Let’s see you wiggle when it’s your turn, brat.”She just smirks at me as she lays a sheet across my legs,
“Feet up to your bottom, Lily,” Alma says as she sticks her head under the sheet just as Xander walks in. I feel like I should be embarrassed, but at the same time, a contraction hits,
“How’re things looking, Alma?” he asks, smiling at me while setting a case down on the side table as if they are talking about a cake, not my vagina.
“Good, not fully dilated yet, which is also good,” Xander nods, then heads towards the bathroom to wash his hands.
“Let’s do a quick ultrasound to check that the babies are in the correct position and get heart monitors on.” I don’t see what happens on the scan as another contraction hits,
“Hold my hand, Mother, but wait until it is Dad’s to squeeze hard enough to break it, yeah.” Says Ember with comfort and humor in her voice. Oncethe contraction is over, I chuckle at Ember’s words. My contractions come thick and fast, and I don’t notice when Ember leaves my side until Mika whispers in my ear.
“Time to push my love, time to meet our babies.”His voice is full of emotion as he speaks against the shell of my ear, and I manage to kiss his lips before a more intensecontraction hits.
EMBER
I watch as my dad talks Lily through bringing my siblings into this world, Oriana arrives with the bag Lily had prepared for the babies and I start setting everything up on the side next to the changing table, yes there are custom-made swaddle blankets that would make the average human cry at the cost but Primark vest and baby grows in true Lily style, Alma sets a baby bath on the counter the other side of the changing table with warm water in and lays a towel over the table
“One more push, Lily.” I turn and watch as Lily reaches down with her free hand and strokes the head of the new life she’s bringing into the world, my eyes filling with unshed tears, then she screams and squeezes Dads hand, too busy watching them I don’t see Xander guiding the baby out and putting the clamp on the cord but I do see Oriana guide Lilys hand to cut the cord, just as a little scream burst through the room,
“Wow, guys, my little brother has a set of lungs.” I chuckle as Alma carries him over to be washed off, then places him on the table so I can dry him. I wrap him in a clean towel and take him over to Lily, placing him against her chest,
“Here we go, Dad, meet baby Luka, don’t drop him, we don’t need another Brayden, even if he only has one wolf” Dad is crying, but he chuckles.
“I heard that,” is yelled through the door and I mouth ‘Whoops?’ which has us all chuckling.
I swipe Luka back up and head over to get him dressed as Lily starts to yell again, Luka starts to fuss as his sister's cry pierces the room.
I pass Luka to Dad as Alma washes baby number two, then I dry her off, wrap her in a blanket and take her over to Lily.
“It's okay, Luka, Nikita is coming,” I whisper. I step back and take a photo of the four of them. While Lily feeds Luka, I quickly get Nikita dressed. She’s a Hybrid, both wolf and succubae, and strong on both sides. Then I hand her over to Dad before stepping into the hall, my brothers and Uncles are all sitting on the floorstaring at the door, and Grumps has dragged a chair over to join them.
“At 1430 and 1438 on the nineteenth of September, Luka Nathaniel and Nikita Bunica came screaming into our lives, and all four are doing well.” I open the photo and turn it so they can see, then, at their demands, I send it to the family chat, which is just us, Dad and Lily. Grumps pulls me into his arms,
“This is the welcome you and Brayden should have had” Thankfully, Xander steps out, which halts the emotions warring in all of us,
“Both babies are feeding, and all is well.” He kisses the crown of my head before heading off. There is a tenseness to him, so I ask one of my guys to check on him.
“I’m going for a shower, then some food,” I say, my nerves are raw after Grump's words, yes, we should have had this welcome, but I can’t think that way. As then would Ren have killed his father? Would he still have ended up here? Too much is linked to how we came into this world.
After we have eaten, Brayden and I carry some food for Lily and Dad and of course have some cuddles, which are cut way too short when Dec and Bas turn up, then again Dec doesn’t even get sat down before Grumps stomps in demanding his great-grandbabies, after a few photos I usher the grown-ups out, getting tantrums from Dec and Bas when they try to curl up on the couches. I fall asleep to Kodi peppering kisses on my tummy, humming a lullaby.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
EMBER
Amelia follows suit on the twenty-sixth of October and brings a perfect baby girl called Raven into the world. Unfortunately, the labour was brought on through stress as her mother found out about her mating and yelled a lot down the phone. Esmeralda turns up two days later, and Jake goes on the full defensive and won’t let her in the cabin. Lucky for us, the guys were at our place. Ren and I then banished her from the pack lands as she didn’t request permission to enter them in the first place.
After Liam and Nate got her back to one of their properties, she denounced her association with Amelia, claiming she had no daughter and that she wanted nothing to do with the abomination the imposter gave birth to. To say Jake's mother took offence when she overheard, well, they will never be in the same country, let alone state, again.
My guys all went on guard especially the closer we got to Christmas, Dad disappeared on the twenty-third and turned back up at 10 pm on Christmas Eve and a video of Jameson being handcuffed and then it cut to him being put in a jail cell with no chance of parole, after seeing my old social worker like that I didn’t want anything else for Christmas, I was happy with his twenty-five year sentence and then fifteen with a magic cuff that stops him from using his magic plus he’s been put on a watch list for life.
