This was my family. This ridiculous, chaotic, beautiful family.
Hunt spotted me in the doorway and raised his head, feathers sticking out of his hair at odd angles. “Alpha! Thank god! Call off your attack dogs!”
“We’re not dogs, we’re wolves,” Rowan corrected seriously.
“Oh my god, they’re correcting me now. This is what I get for teaching them things.”
I laughed out loud, the sound escaping before I could stop it, and both twins’ heads snapped toward me.
“DAD!”
They abandoned their assault on Hunt and came running at me full speed, crashing into my legs and nearly knocking me over. Their arms wrapped around me as they bounced with excitement, both talking over each other in their rush to tell me about their victory.
“Dad, we built a castle!”
“Hunt was the bad guy and we beat him!”
“I got him in the face, Dad, did you see?”
“We used ALL the pillows!”
I scooped them both up, hugging them tight, and pressed kisses to their foreheads. The fear and tension from the past few weeks faded just a little as I held my children. This was why I was fighting so hard to keep them safe. This moment right here.
“I saw,” I said. “I recorded it. You were very brave warriors.”
“Hunt said a bad word earlier,” Rowan informed me seriously. “The S word.”
“Which S word?”
“The really bad one.”
“Snitch,” Hunt muttered from his position on the floor.
The twins squirmed out of my arms and ran back to continue tormenting Hunt, who groaned dramatically as they piled on top of him again. I stepped over the chaos and made my way to Lina, who was wiping tears of laughter from her cheeks.
She looked beautiful. Exhausted and cranky and absolutely done with being pregnant, but beautiful. Her belly was huge now, straining against the soft fabric of her shirt, and she had one hand pressed to her lower back in a way that told me she’d been on her feet too long.
I walked to her and gave her a quick peck, really wanting to kiss her properly but not sure what mood she was in. We’d been fighting so much lately that I never knew if I was going to get warm Lina or angry Lina. Either way, I loved her, but I preferred the warm version if given the choice.
“Hi, baby,” I whispered against her lips.
“Hi,” she said, her voice softer than I’d expected. She cleared her throat and turned to the chaos in the living room. “Alright, everyone! Pillow fight is officially over. Time to find cleaning supplies and deal with this mess before I lose my mind completely.”
“But Mom...”
“No buts. You made the mess, you clean the mess. That’s the rule.” She pointed toward the hallway. “Kitchen. Now. Hunt, you too.”
“I’m a grown man,” Hunt protested.
“You’re a grown man who participated in destroying my living room. Move it.”
Hunt grumbled but got to his feet, herding the twins toward the kitchen with promises that cleanup could be turned into a game if they were creative enough. Their voices faded as they disappeared down the hallway, leaving Lina and me alone in the feather-covered disaster zone.
“Here, let me help you,” I said, guiding her toward the couch. I pushed aside a pile of pillows to make room and settled her down carefully, then sat next to her.
She sighed and melted into me immediately, burying her face in my neck. Her whole body seemed to deflate as the tension left her, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her as close as her belly would allow.
“You good?” I asked quietly.
