"Can we listen?" Rowan asked.
"Yes," I said, knowing what he wanted. It was becoming their favorite way to be around me.
They shifted, and I watched in awe as their bodies transformed. Bones restructured. Muscles reformed. Fur sprouted. Within seconds, two massive wolves flanked me, one dark as midnight, one lighter brown with hazel eyes.
Rowan and Kellan in their wolf forms. They pressed close, their noses against my stomach, and I felt their focus shift. They were listening to the heartbeats of our children.
I ran my hands through their fur warm and comforting. Both wolves made sounds of contentment, their tails moving slowly.
"Can you hear them?" I whispered. "The babies?"
Rowan's wolf huffed in affirmative. Kellan's head tilted, pressing more firmly against my belly. I lay there, surrounded by my mates in their truest forms, and felt peace settle over me.
Chosen and fated. Complicated and simple. Perfect in its imperfection.
"I love you," I said quietly.
Both wolves shifted back to human in a shimmer of magic.
"We love you too," Rowan said, pulling me against his chest.
Kellan added, pressing a kiss to my temple, "we're never letting go."
"Good," I said. "Because I'm not going anywhere."
I fell asleep wrapped in their arms, the bond humming contentedly in my chest, my hands resting on the small swell where our children grew. Because I was loved. Chosen. Home. And I’d claimed them just as much as they’d claimed me.
SIX MONTHS LATER…
The learning center opened on a Tuesday. Months after I’d originally planned, because the rebuild had taken longer than expected. But it was perfect. Better than I'd imagined.
Bright, open classrooms. State-of-the-art security. A curriculum designed to help children heal, grow, and learn. Everything I'd dreamed of.
I was so pregnant I could barely see my feet, but I’d made it.
"You should be resting," Rowan said for the hundredth time that morning.
"I'm fine. The babies are fine. Stop hovering."
"I'm not hovering."
"You're absolutely hovering," Kira said, appearing with a box of supplies. "Both of you are. It's adorable and annoying."
Kellan grinned from where he was hanging artwork on the walls. "Can you blame us? She's eight months pregnant with twins and insisting on being here for the grand opening."
"Because this is my dream," I said, rubbing my enormous belly. "And I'm not missing it because you two are overprotective."
The bond hummed with their concern and love.
We just want you safe, Rowan's voice in my head.
I am safe. I'm with you.
That seemed to settle them, at least temporarily.
The doors opened at nine. Within an hour, we had fifteen children enrolled, ranging from eighteen months to five years old. Their parents were a mix of wolves, humans, and other shifters, all looking for quality care and education.
All finding exactly what I'd set out to create. A safe space. A new beginning. A chance. By noon, I was exhausted but happy.
