Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Corbin was hungry.
No, that didn’t cover it. He wasn’t just hungry, he was starving. His belly was empty—at least, the parts that held food. The part that held the baby was starting to stick out pretty good. Not “oh my God, I swallowed a basketball,” but obvious, nonetheless.
And right now, said baby was telling him they were hungry. His stomach growled, in fact, like a giant dragon in its own right.
That would serve Evander right, having the baby pop out looking like a giant dragon, like Hawk.
Evander spent a lot of time sparring with Hawk, so it stood to reason that it could happen. Magic was a weird thing.
He headed down to the kitchen, knowing Evander was off with his brothers running after saying he needed the exercise.
But he thought maybe Evander was enjoying bonding with his brothers again.
Somehow the mating and the strange thing that they had all endured together with the vampire woman, had mended the brothers’ relationship quite a bit.
Corbin approved. He only wished Alyster was there to be in on it, but apparently, he was the one who was the easiest to get along with anyway.
“Hey, bro.” Cullen popped into the common room kitchen just as Corbin walked in the door, and that doorway hadn’t been there the last time he’d been in the kitchen, so he had a feeling Cullen and Orion were coming back from the Glade.
Sure enough, Orion came in the door right after him and raised his eyebrows at Corbin.
“Hey, you two. Where’s the kids?”
“We left them with their granddads. They’re taking them for the night. Having some sort of odd G lade slumber party that involves lots of weird creatures.”
Orion sighed. “They are not weird, Cullen. They’re just myriad.”
Cullen opened the fridge to peer inside. “See what I said? Weird.”
Corbin bit back a grin. “So, who’s gonna make me food?”
“Why can’t you make yourself food?” Cullen asked, pulling out a jar of something he couldn’t identify.
He rolled his eyes. “The morning sickness is better, but I still can’t make food and eat it. If I cook it, it makes me sick.”
“Well, that sucks.” Orion grinned at him. “What would you like to have?”
Cullen stared over his shoulder, glaring at Orion. “You’re not really going to cook for him, are you? He has a mate for that.”
“Yes, but his mate is off in the Land of Summer running with the Wild Hunt brothers.”
Corbin was the one to frown at Orion now. “How do you know that?”
“He told me he was going to.” Orion started rummaging through cupboards.
How weird. He knew Evander and Hawk were becoming good friends, but he had no idea Evander and Orion spoke to each other without the rest of them around.
Cullen went to him. “Orion is just jealous of Evander’s horns.”
“Antlers.” Orion intoned very seriously, but his eyes were twinkling. “He has antlers. My horn doesn’t shed during the year.”
“Can you make me grilled cheese?” Corbin begged. “I miss grilled cheese.”
That and a can of soup were his go-tos when he was all by himself. But right now, just putting the cheese between two slices of bread made him gag. Spreading on the butter, and it was all over. In fact, right now he was feeling a little queasy.
“Of course I can.” Orion went to the fridge and pulled out bread, cheese, and butter. “Do you want soup to go with it?”
Cullen was already pulling out a can of chicken noodle. “I don’t know about you, but when I was pregnant, tomato was too acidy.”
“It is.” He rubbed his belly. “And you know I rarely eat chicken soup, but now with this baby being Evander’s, I’m totally eating meat.”
Cullen gave him a patently false smile. “You ate plenty of meat anyway, you’re half-dragon. I mean, I know you like plants, but don’t retrofit it.”
He pulled out a chair at the kitchen table to sit down. “Yeah, yeah. You’re right. I shouldn’t try to rewrite history, huh?”
“You can rewrite it, you just can’t make anybody believe it’s true.” Orion put a pan on the stove and started hunting the can opener. He never could seem to find it. Corbin thought maybe the house spirits moved it, so Orion couldn’t dig it out right away. It was like a game.
Corbin loved this. He loved family time. No matter what happened… One of them would get down, one of them would get mad, some of them would fight. It didn’t matter. They always came back together in the kitchen. Where all things were equal and all slates were clean.
Orion and Cullen moved around each other, making grilled cheese in a hot pan and heating up the soup. Cullen made himself some kind of charcuterie board with cheese, meat, grapes, and God knew what else, and it looked really good. They all liked snacky food.
Hawk wandered in, his nose working. “Do I smell soup?”
Orion grinned. “Cullen, would you get me—”
“Another can? Absolutely.”
“You mean you didn’t sacrifice a chicken carcass to make fresh soup?” Hawk’s huge grin told them he expected to get no end of shit for that.
“Oh, God, don’t say carcass.” Corbin felt like he was far greener than usual all of a sudden.
“Sorry, my brother.” Hawk grabbed a glass out of the cabinet and poured Sprite into it from the fridge before handing it over to him.
“Thanks.” The bubbly drink always calmed his stomach down. It was better than peppermint tea or even Mother’s tea for the nausea right now.
“The least I could do since I’m the one who made you feel that way.” Hawk settled in his chair, staring intently at him. “Has your mate found out anything?”
The guy really didn’t like the idea of vampires getting through to the Land of Summer.
“Not yet. He went to have a nice, long run with his brothers today. He hopes that will help loosen somebody’s tongue.”
“He’s enjoying having his brothers.” Hawk grinned, and Corbin shrugged.
“Hey, it happens. Some of us enjoy having our brothers…” It was a gentle tease because everyone knew that Hawk had lost his family. Corbin wasn’t even a hundred percent sure Hawk remembered his family, but it didn’t matter because they were his brothers now.
Hawk snorted. “Speaking of which, I don’t suppose you guys want to have family night tonight?”
Orion and Cullen looked at each other wide-eyed, and Corbin came to their rescue.
“Tisi and Serena are spending the night over in the Glade tonight, so I think maybe you and me and Cosmo and Evander could have a supper, maybe play spades?”
You so rock. Cullen sounded utterly panicked. I mean, I have plans as in like bom chicka wah wah plans, and I love you guys, but damn.
No worries. I really don’t want to hear about your bom chicka wah wah plans.
Hawk’s cheeks pinked. “Oh? Oh, that’s… Oh yes, of course. No, we’d love to, right, Cosmo?”
As if he’d been summoned, his pink brother popped in with a baby in one arm and a toddler on the end of his other hand. “Why, I think that’s a great idea! We can have a slumber party with the kids in here.”
Cosmo sounded a tad stressed.
He tilted his head. “Something happen over at your house?”
Cosmo nodded, eyes wide. “Bakli is in a very bad mood, so yes.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. They can play with the puppy. Blaze is getting big enough to want to play for hours.” Luckily, potty training a guardian puppy was way easier than potty training a dragon child. Aspen was a bit persnickety, and she wanted Blaze to act appropriately in the house.
Sometimes, it even worked.
“Cool.” Cosmo grinned. “Are we having soup?”
Orion tugged out another can without a word. Corbin grinned at how smoothly they all moved around each other. Even the kids seemed to know where to be, who to sit on… He loved that.
His food came first, then Hawk’s, but they fed the kids next. They loved soup and grilled cheese.
Soon Orion and Cullen slipped away, waving and offering them all grateful smiles as they escaped from the house.
“What do you want to bet there’s another baby soon?” Cosmo teased, waving after them.
“Do you figure another baby would look like one of them? You think it would be winged again?” He loved how they were all so unique, so different from one another.
Hawk glanced up from his soup. “I don’t think there’s any other option, is there?”
“Well, Orion doesn’t have wings,” Cosmo pointed out, and Corbin had another bite of sandwich as Hawk shrugged.
“Orion could have wings if he wanted to.”
“Then he would be like a unipeg,” Cosmo argued. “And he’s not a unipeg. He’s just a peg. I mean a uni.”
“Yeah, he’s kind of magical,” Hawk huffed, “We’re magical too.”
“You created a gargoyle.” Corbin had to wonder if Elliot was ever going to be able to fly. If he could fly, how big were his wings going to have to be?
Of course they didn’t really fly like birds; they flew like dragons. So maybe Elliot would will himself to be light, sort of like the way he willed himself to be heavy.
Maybe he would just go through the ground and move that way, like he was sliding through rocks.
Was it one of the boss’s house spirits who could do that—slide through rocks? In fact, he was sure it was one of them.
“Cosmo, do you remember when one of the Gavin’s guys got trapped in a pocket of stone or something before they crossed over to Lunastra?”
Cosmo nodded. “Puck, when he was pregnant, it was the kids. And yeah, he’s got rock gnomes.”
Corbin cracked up, tickled to death. “You say it like it’s a disease. He’s got rock gnomes.”
“Cosmo’s just irritated because Bakli got insulted.” Hawk pointed out. “It was an accident; it was just a miscommunication. But they can make life very difficult if they’re unhappy.”
That sounded awful. “Can’t you make it up to him?”
Cosmo nodded. “I’m trying. I left goodies and beer. Apparently, that’s a start. And I wrote a letter apologizing for doing whatever it was that I did.”
“It had something to do with forgetting to leave the flue open so he could get out when he needed to,” Hawk explained. “That’s very important.”
“Oh, man. That’s wild. I would always be forgetting it.”
There was a wild sound outside, the beating of hooves making Isabelle squeal and Elliot grunt and clap his hands.