CHAPTER FOURTEEN #2
“Mate, maybe I’m wrong about the world because I haven’t seen much of it but I think it’s what most decent, capable people would’ve done.
Maybe they wouldn’t have been able to because ice doesn’t just bounce off of them but they’d have tried.
At least, I like to think so. I’d have protected any baby at that point.
He’s a baby. Sure, he’s your baby – our baby, but he’s still a baby.
They have the survival skills of drunk raccoons and it’s the job of adults to protect them. ”
“Not everyone would. The world isn’t as decent as you think. I think most people here probably would but---”
“He’s a cub. I’m a bear. What else was I going to do?”
“I’m trying to say thank you,” he said, shooting me a mock-exasperated look.
“Mate, sooner or later you’re going to have to accept I’m not here just for a good time and that you’re not in this alone anymore,” I met his gaze before leaning over to kiss him on the forehead.
“I’d die for you two and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you two safe and happy.
If that means I’ve got to hunt down the shebear, so be it. ”
Preston didn’t say anything for a long moment. A crash sounded through the house and I was on my feet out the bedroom door before my brain wrapped around what Preston called after me.
“That’s Mori coming back through the bathroom mirror. He has one in his room, but he always uses the hall bathroom to travel back and forth for some reason!
A second after I processed his words, I found myself standing in front of a red-eyed Mori.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, pulling him close and glancing at the mirror to make sure no one followed him.
“Dern didn’t know she was here,” Mori whispered. “She’s done something to make herself unscryable and that extends to all divination types and now we can’t find her or Annila at all.”
“I’m sure your friend is fine,” I whispered.
“No, no, she’s not!” Mori shook his head. “She’s the one who left the bag! She thought it would lure Sharon into opening it – signing the card ‘Grandma’ and all. She was trying to off her but using our house to do it! She’s lost her damn mind!”
“So, now we have to watch out for a crazy dragoness too! Great!” Preston walked out carrying the baby.
“Preston! It’s Annila! She’s just…” Mori started but Preston shook his head and finished his twin’s sentence in his own style.
“Dangerous. Mori, she’s dangerous now. There is a baby in this house! We’re in this house! If she’s willing to risk us to get revenge on Sharon for keeping her in some sort of astral prison--- She’s just dangerous! You need to go tell the dads or I will!”
“Fine!” Mori yelled and the baby cried, shifting back into his human form. “Shit! Sorry! Double—” he turned and ran from the house without finishing.
“I’m not an asshole,” Preston said. “I’m a lot of things, but I’m not an asshole.”
“Mate, I never said you were,” I said, reaching out for the baby.
He passed Baby Andy off to me and headed into the kitchen.
I followed behind him and sat at the table while he pulled out another tray of fudge.
Preston always ate a lot but I knew enough from the claiming vows to know how hungry he was while he was pregnant with Baby Andy.
I’d been here a few weeks now. Was that long enough to know?
I knew that literally once was enough sometimes and it’d definitely been more than once.
How long did it take? I hadn’t taken omega studies courses because my education was anything and everything except traditional.
I hadn’t thought to ask my carrier how long snow demon pregnancies even last, and would his pregnancy be a bear pregnancy or a snow demon pregnancy?
Which variables determined which path it followed anyway?
Preston met my gaze across the room as he bit into a big piece of peanut butter fudge. He swore under his breath through his full mouth and walked out of the kitchen. I winced. Yeah, this wasn’t the best timing, but we knew that going into this. We had the kid talk. We had it more than once.
“I’m not mad at you!” Preston called from down the hall.
“I’m digging out a pregnancy test because you’re probably right!
It is a good thing! For me, babies are always a good thing, but Annila better go crawl up Frost’s a-r-s-e-h-o-l-e before I get my hands around her neck.
We were her friends. We helped her son and this is how she repays us? ”
Baby Andy cried again and I got up to pinch off a tiny piece of fudge and put it on his tongue.
He stopped crying and blinked up at me as if wondering what black magic witchcraft was melting deliciously inside his mouth and wiring his brain to be happier?
When it was gone, he opened his mouth for more.
I gave him another miniscule taste while the sound of Preston peeing tinkled through the house.
“Do you want to be a big brother?” I asked, giving him another little taste.
“Brov.. Brov!” he nodded. “Mi.”
“Milk? Do you want a bottle?” I asked.
“Bov!” he nodded fast.
“Let’s make one while Daddy has a minute to himself. Gotta have some real food after all those sweets.”
By the time Preston emerged from the bathroom with his pregnancy test in hand I had settled into the rocking chair with the baby who was dozing off to sleep. He held up the test in front of my face. It showed a little baby all wrapped up in a green blanket.
I blinked. I knew we planned for a baby. I knew that’s what happened if you participated in enough unprotected romps but the information sank into my brain slowly and I couldn’t stop smiling.
“I’ll swing by the clinic tomorrow,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “I should’ve known with how hungry I was. I… I can’t believe today is the day we find out.”
“It’s as good of a day as any other,” I said. “Today was crazy but let’s face it, it was a good day. We’re all alive and unharmed outside of Mori’s feelings. Plus, we know who actually left the bag.”
“Was I an asshole to Mori?” Preston asked.
“You could’ve been gentler but that doesn’t make you an asshole. Sometimes when there is physical danger you have to do stuff even if your feelings are hurt,” I said. “The only thing I’m worried about is I don’t know how long snow demon babies take to bake.”
“To bake?” he arched a brow as he crossed the kitchen and washed his hands again before resuming his snacking on the fudge.
“You know what I mean. To grow and be born.”
“I think we’ll find a lot out at the ultrasound tomorrow. If it hadn’t been such a crazy day, I’d call Colt and have him swing by to do it now. I think he’s still here which is only because it’s been one helluva a day.”
“Want me to lay the baby down and help you relax?” I asked.
Preston didn’t answer right away. He ate some more fudge and thought about it long enough that I thought the answer was going to be no. Then he nodded.
“He can sleep in his crib for now but when we go to bed properly, he’s coming back. Shit! Am I a bad parent?”
“No,” I shook my head. “I don’t think Sharon or Annila can get by whatever your dad did to the house and we could wait for Mori to get back.”
“That would make me an asshole!” Preston laughed and the sound wrapped around me like a warm melody. “Hey, Mori, I know you just found out your friend turned evil but here watch the baby and---”
The back door swung open and Mori walked inside, a Yuletide-green envelope in one hand.
“I’ll watch the baby,” Mori said, having overheard some of our conversation on the way in. “I told them. They’re all having some big meeting with the guards.”
Preston frowned.
“Yeah, I know,” Mori nodded. “Walking around in the woods is going to get a lot more interesting with all the guards on high alert. It’s almost Yule! Literally almost Yule and they pick this time of year to pull this bullshit?”
We all glanced at the baby to make sure he wasn’t awake to hear all the dirty words being tossed around. Baby Andy was out cold and his bottle, now sitting, on the floor beside the chair was empty.
“And I’m fucking pregnant,” Preston said. “I’m fucking pregnant and find out on the same day Annila tries to blow me up!”
“She probably thought Sharon would come and go before we did and she was right. She just didn’t open the bag,” Mori said.
“She didn’t fall for the bait that she was being replaced.
She probably figured that it was from Wess’s mom.
Sharon was here, though, and she did leave something.
” Mori passed the envelope off to Preston and it took all my self-control not to snatch it from him.
Yuletide things from older women were not being kind to us this year.
It was a holiday card with a cartoon baby reindeer on it with a snowflake background. Preston opened the card and several universal dollars fell out in large denominations.
“Happy Yuletide, Preston! Baby’s first Yule is always expensive!
Hope this helps! If you see Venal let him know I’m looking for him.
It’s Yule after all and he should see his mama.
I’ll race you to get Annila! She could’ve wasted all that magic that is destined to me if Andy died without my being there.
She’s going to pay for that one! Enjoy your time with your baby! He’ll be mine soon!
All the love in the universe,
Grandma Sharon!”
“I hope they kill each other,” Mori rolled his eyes. “This means she came… After the bag? After we found the bag but she didn’t find her son?”
“I have no idea,” Preston sighed. “Okay. I’m done with the fudge for now. Mori, take the baby, please and thank you and I’ll owe you one later. Wess, bedroom!” He pointed down the hall, and I didn’t need to be told twice.
I handed the sleeping baby off to Mori, whispering a thanks, and following Preston down the hall to the bedroom.
Once inside, he shut the door behind us and pushed me onto the bed.
I fell onto my back, laughing and pulled him down on top of me.
Our mouths crashed together and a second later, our tongues met between them.
He kissed me hard that night, taking his aggression out in affection.
I found his hands and pulled them to my chest, holding them together as we kissed.
I held them there until some of the muscles in arms and shoulders relaxed.
Keeping this bear of mine relaxed was proving to be a full-time job. Albeit one that I loved.
Our clothes came off one piece at a time, being slung this way and that because this time Preston couldn’t be bothered with folding them up.
He pressed his palm against my chest when I tried to flip him over so that I was on top of him and sank lower onto the bed.
His warm, nimble tongue traced the throbbing head of my dick.
He was going to be my undoing with that giving mouth of his.
My head sank into the pillows as my pulse thrummed against his tongue.
I ran my fingers through his hair as his mouth sank down over me, his tongue pressing hard against the underside of my shaft.
My breath caught in my lungs at his swift movements up and down.
My mate wasn’t playing around tonight. Pleasure spiraled over my dick, chasing his warm, moist mouth as he sucked on me.
His warm, nimble fingers cupped my balls and rolled them from digit to digit as he worked on my cock.
I lost track of the rest of the world and only his affection mattered as he sucked the pleasure out of me until it escaped in warm, sticky streams. He collapsed next to me, his head resting on my belly, panting and grinning up at me.
He’d never been so beautiful. He was practically glowing and I couldn’t get enough of him.