Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91636 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 458(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Suddenly, it’s actually quite exciting for them to know. I don’t know why I didn’t tell them right away. I made this so difficult for everyone, including myself. But I needed time to do what I needed to do. To think. To make a nest. To eat toast. To turn into a psycho and bite Conroy. These are probably all integral to the process of having babies. Who am I to question them?
“Alright, you need some fish oil,” Tailor says. “And vitamins.”
“Yes, and you need exercise, and…”
Oh, right. That’s why I didn’t tell them. They’re fussing over me instantly. Obsessively. They’re giving all the attention that makes me want to bite them. Or claw them. Either one would be fine.
“Get off me!” I snarl at all of them. “Stop touching me!”
They back off instantly. This is a new power I have, a sort of mom voice that seems to be emerging from me intermittently. I never used to be able to tell them what to do, but now, sometimes, they listen.
“Okay. Alright. What do you want?” Tailor asks, his hands held up in surrender.
“Cake. I want cake.”
“Alright. We’re getting cake.”
Damon is already gone on the quest for cake. Tailor is headed to the kitchen. Conroy remains, shaking his head in front of me with a big smile on his face, the kind of smile that changes his face entirely.
“You’re happy?” I venture the question.
“Yes. I’m so happy. This is everything I ever wanted. Everything we all ever wanted. You’re going to be such a good mother.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.”
I feel a swath of guilt running over me. I know I’ve been hell to live with. I know I’ve been kind of crazy in some ways. It’s been hard to adjust, and my instincts make me want to do animal things, like build nests and sleep in them.
“I’ve been acting crazy. What if I’m a crazy mother? What if I only eat cake and attract evil vampires?”
“You can eat whatever the hell you want, and no evil vampires are going to come anywhere near you ever again.”
“You can’t know that.”
“Yes. I can. You think we have been doing nothing all this time?”
“You’ve been putting the port back together, haven’t you?”
“Yes. But that’s not all we have been doing. We’ve been ensuring an ongoing income, a safe home, and destroying threats. Eradicating vampires. Ensuring that nobody fucking dares to suck blood within a hundred miles of this place.”
“When were you destroying threats?” I cock my head to the side. “I would have wanted to destroy threats.”
“Well, you were eating cake mostly. And destroying the furniture.”
“I’m sorry. It just felt right.”
“To rip open the bed?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m glad you did it,” he says simply. “Can I hug you, or are you going to bite me if I try?”
“You can hug me,” I smile.
He draws me into a deep, loving embrace, and I feel his care rushing through me.
“I am going to look after you, no matter what,” he says. “And you are going to be safe. Trust me.”
I’ve never trusted anybody, but in this moment, hearing those words, something in me tells me that I can trust him. He means it. This is going to be safe. I am going to be okay.
EPILOGUE
Conroy
“Benson! Bailey! Inside! Now!”
Two black and brown streaks tear across the lawn, not paying the slightest bit of attention to their mother’s cry.
Damon grabs one of the pups by the back of the neck. I snatch the other one up and wrestle him against my chest as I carry him back for dinner.
These two are precocious shifters. Just five years old and already able to run faster than a human in their animal form. They’re also feral as all hell. We don’t know which one of us is the father, but there are times they remind us of all four of us.
Kita steps out onto the porch, her belly full and round with another two pups. She has baby Talbot on her hip, and our two-year-old is spy-crawling out the kitchen door before she is scooped up by Tailor.
“Enough, Casey,” he says to the curly-haired, blue-eyed girl who giggles with glee.
“We’re going to be outnumbered when these two are born,” Kita says. “You know that, don’t you? We’re not going to be able to stop them from doing absolutely terrible things. Benson, put the knife down!”
Benson has immediately grabbed the biggest knife he can off the kitchen counter, because he’s tall and drawn to sharp objects.
I grab his wrist and remove it from his hand. He kicks my shin.
Our eldest boy is going to be trouble.
“Go to your room,” I growl.
He goes with a flick of his head that reminds me intensely of his mother. This house is always busy now, always full of life. The twins have started school, the port is even more busy than it used to be, bringing in real legitimate business, and Kita has become quite the homemaker.