My family dynamic is so fucked up.
“Sage?” Dexter closed the distance between us and gently took me by the elbow, guiding me back down the hallway towards my —no,our— bedroom. “What—”
“I…” Swallowing down a bubble of nearly hysterical laughter, I shook my head. “I just…Brandt’s mated to Micah.”
Dex and Serge shared a look before Dex drawled, “Yes…and?”
“I’m Brandt’s little brother.”
“I mean, Eric is—”
“Dex,” I interrupted him with a burst of irritation, still trying to wrap my mind around the genetic fuckery fate was putting us through. “I’m Bran’s younger brother.”
My mates shared another look.
“Yes?” Dex stretched the word out, still not following my logic.
I sat on the edge of my mattress and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Does it not seem strange to you that Micah’s biological father is my…uh…is one of my fated mates? When Micah is mated to Brandt and all, I mean? Like, our kids, should we have any” —and I really, really hoped we would— “will be both cousins and, like, uncles and aunts to Brandt’s kids. Genetically, anyway.”
Dexter did not seem as weirded out by this as I was. “Huh.”
I swiveled my gaze between my mates, both of whom seemed completely unflustered by my sudden revelation. I didn’t get it.
My hands flapped emphatically in the air. “You don’t think that’s…I don’t know…a bit of a clusterfuck?”
“It’sunusual,” Dexter acknowledged after a beat before sitting down beside me. He nudged my shoulder with his. “But we can’t change fate, baby. Serge is our alpha, and a damn sexy one at that.” He shot Sergio a wink. “Are you seriously freaking out over our hypothetical future children being related to their cousins in more ways than one?”
I felt a thrill run through me at the easy way he said ‘our’ children, including himself in the scenario. A spike of desire for him hit me deep in my belly, and I clenched against the slick which threatened to leak into my underwear.
Apparently, my mates wanting to be dads was a turn on for me.
Considering how badly I wanted to have children, this wasn’t actually surprising.
Taking a deep, calming breath, I released it through my nose and then answered begrudgingly, “Well, when you put it that way, it sounds dumb.”
“Because it is dumb,” Dex was matter-of-fact. “Whether our children and Brandt’s are related on just your side or both yours and Serge’s makes absolutely no difference to anything.”
And…yeah, okay. He was right.
I didn’t understand how he had become the rational one between us. It felt like the world had turned upside-down over the weekend and I was struggling to get a grasp on my new reality.
A reality where I had mates. Two of them. An alpha and my best friend.
A reality where I might be able to have the family I had been longing for for centuries.
A reality where Dexter was softer and sweeter and made valid, logical points.
Ugh.
It really did feel strange that I was being the ridiculous one of the pair of us.
Still, I didn’t think it was the right time to spring our news on my brothers. Not with Brandt having just given birth and the twins potentially needing neo-natal care. In a few days, when everything was settled, maybe. That’s when I would tell them.
“Is it weird that I forgot how tiny they can be?” I mused, cradling the eldest of my nephews, Patrick, in the crook of my arm. Both boys looked like they were going to take after Brandt, with tufts of dark hair and dark blue eyes which would probably change color as they got older. But they were still so small, not evenweighing seven pounds each, their itsy-bitsy hands only just able to stretch around my fingers.
“The girls were smaller,” Brandt replied, gazing down at Finlay who was nursing at his chest.
I nodded. “There were three of them squished inside you at once, though. So less growing space.” Then I smiled at him. “Have they met their little brothers yet?”
