She shrugs.“It felt more like a suggestion.I can see home from here.It’s not that long of a walk,” she contends while she finishes one cookie and goes back for another.
“Quinn!”Declan shouts.
I raise my eyebrows at our daughter.
Declan and a much smaller version of himself are in the doorway.“What did I tell you about leaving without me?”
Quinn pretends to think about it.“That I should do it if I felt comfortable because the world is a big and sometimes scary place, but it doesn’t do us any good to be afraid of it?”
I bite back a laugh and return to my painting.Mac races across the room to inhale cookies.
Declan remains by the back door, his arms crossed over his chest.“And what do you know about the van and the cop car by the side of the road?”
She shrugs again, mischief in her eyes, as she turns to fight her brother for the rest of the cookies.
I check the time on my phone.“I have another batch coming out in three minutes.Meanwhile...”I stare at Mac and tap my cheek.With a grin that mirrors his dad’s, he runs across the studio, gives me a kiss, then runs out onto the deck.
“Quinn, did you hurt whoever is in that van?”Declan asks, not ready to abandon the topic.
“I’m sure he deserved it!”Mac shouts from outside.He ducks his head in the door.“If I’d been with you, I’d have got him for you.”Claws shoot out of his little hands.He turns his head and his claws snap back.“Hey, Uncle Bracken.Mom made cookies.Do you want some?”
A few moments later, Bracken appears at the door behind Mac.“I’m here to collect my pupils.Have your cookies and something to drink, then we’ll start on your homework.”He looks down at Mac.“Do you have your list of spelling words?”
Mac nods and runs for the oven when the phone alarms in my pocket.
I awoke with a start, the alarm still ringing in my head.That hadn’t been a vision.I felt at my neck to be sure.No pearl.The necklace was still on my nightstand at home.I’d been touching Declan.I shouldn’t have had a dream like that.
Rolling off the bed, I grabbed a hoodie, stepped into slippers, and padded quietly down the stairs.I went out the back door and sat on a bench.The wind was cold, so I brought my knees up and pulled them under the oversized hoodie.
That had been an oracular dream.As my mother had been shown what her doomed Cassandra daughter would be like with a wicche father, I had been shown who my children with Declan would be.
Tears ran down my cheeks.I’d been terrified I wouldn’t be able to hold my own baby because of the visions.I hadn’t told anyone what I’d been thinking, but clearly the Goddess knew.She’d shown me two children kissing me and no visions.The tears poured as I watched blurry, moonlit waves.
The back door opened and Declan sat beside me.He wrapped his arm around me, then pulled me onto his lap.“What’s the matter?”
“Oracular dream.”I sniffled.“The Goddess showed me our children.”
“Children?We’re having twins?”Though he sounded shocked, he wasn’t displeased.
Wiping my face, I told him everything I’d seen.We both sat stunned for what seemed like an eternity, turning it all over in our minds, and then Declan was kissing me like our lives depended on it.
He took me back upstairs and showed me how much he loved me.Knowing there was a future where Declan and I stayed together and had a perfect family settled something sharp and wary inside me.
Soft kisses and urgent caresses, we explored and found each other like it was the first time, like every time.He was a wonder.I didn’t know how he always made me feel loved, desired, breathless, and needy.We soothed each other’s souls while inflaming one another’s blood.
“Siren,” he whispered as he claimed me.Clinging to him, I rode out the storm, wanting nothing more than to stay right here, safe in his arms.
Later, with me flopped on his chest, he coiled one of my curls around his finger absently.“Two, huh?Quinn and Mac?”He grinned.“I guess that decision’s made.”
Exhausted, I kissed the skin closest to my lips.“I think She took those names from my head.I was thinking about Quinn Corey for the little one.We can change our minds on that.The important part was our children were strong, healthy, and loved.”
“And both of them could selectively shift at an early age?”He shook his head in wonder.“That’s your wicche blood supercharging my wolf blood.”He huffed a laugh.“Quinn’s going to keep us on our toes.”
I smiled, the hair on his chest tickling my nose.“She’s so cool.My baby’s going to be a badass.”
He kissed the top of my head.“Just like her Mama.”
THIRTY-TWO
