Chapter 13 #2
“Ah, Ev is back.”
“Unca Vanderr,” Elliot intoned.
“It is! It’s Uncle Evander.” Corbin stood up and scooped little Isabelle. It was odd. He was noticing that the babies here in the house were growing slower than the ones that he’d known out in the human world.
They seemed to be maturing at the same rate as the dragons in Lunastra. Not as slowly as humans, but not quite as fast as they had before. It was fascinating.
Evander opened the door and stepped in naked and wet. He grabbed a towel as he walked in, absolutely unashamed. “Hello, family. Hello, my love.”
“Hi, I invited everyone over for the day. We just had lunch. There’s grilled cheese.”
“Excellent. I ate with my brothers. We feasted in the forest.”
Corbin held up one finger. “Don’t talk about forest feasting.”
“No forest-feasting talk here. Let me go get some real clothes on, and I’ll be down. We can sit. I can hold my niece and nephew.”
Elliot looked over from where he was rolling on the floor with Blaze, and he got a warm smile. “Love you!”
“I love you too, Elliot. Grandpa Archer says to tell you hello and that you should come and visit someday soon.”
Corbin thought that was so sweet, how Evander’s father had just wrapped all the children in. Not even Mom and Dad had really managed to do that somehow.
Corbin wondered if it didn’t have to do with some long-term pain that they had.
Dad had never been able to leave the Land of Summer, had never been able to visit his own people again, and Mother was always going to be the woman who had fallen in love with a dragon.
It wasn’t as if they could be invited to court.
She had to rule her own little place with an iron fist, and she couldn’t relax even for a moment. It had to be difficult.
It was a challenge for them too, because Hawk couldn’t go to the Land of Summer, and Evander couldn’t go to Lunastra, and then there was Orion who could do whatever the fuck he wanted to.
Which seemed incredibly unfair.
“Does it ever make you angry that Orion can go anywhere?”
Cosmo blinked at him. “What?”
“Okay, so Hawk can’t come to the Land of Summer with us. Evander can’t go to Lunastra with us. Orion just gets to go everywhere. It’s not fair.”
Cosmo stared at him like he was crazy. “It’s not fair,” he said. “If you’d wanted to fall in love with a unicorn, you should have fallen in love with a damn unicorn.”
“I’m in love with a Lord of the Hunt.”
“Who has great antlers that Orion is incredibly jealous of?” Hawk pointed out. “So why are you fussing?”
He looked at everybody. “You all are not being very nice. I am hormonal and weird, and I want you to acknowledge the fact that I’m right.”
“Okay, it’s probably not fair. On the other hand, we don’t have to live with Orion. And Cullen does.”
Corbin pondered Cosmo’s words for a second. “You know, you have a point.”
Orion was amazing but absolutely an acquired taste.
Sometimes, he was great to have around, and sometimes, Corbin just wanted him to shut the fuck up.
Evander came back down and stared at Corbin. “Does it bother you that I can’t go to Lunastra?”
“Well, no, it bothers me that you can’t meet the boss and all of our friends there. And it bothers me that Hawk can’t go meet Mom and Dad, really, and all of our friends there. I mean, you can talk to them, but it would be nice if you could shake the boss’s hand.”
He didn’t know why this made a difference. Maybe it didn’t make a difference, but right now it sure did.
And he wanted somebody to pet him and tell him it was going to be okay.
“Your mother comes to the house.” Evander pointed out, sounding eminently reasonable, which was really not what he wanted.
“But Dad can’t. And I would really think that Hawk and Dad would be the ones who got along.”
“We’ll build a patio like Cosmo has for the dragons.” Evander took Isabelle in his arms. She cooed and patted his hairy face.
Elliot was sitting on his feet in no time, and Corbin had to laugh because they were so cute, those kids. He hoped his were even a fraction as adorable.
Evander arched an eyebrow at him. Our children are going to be magnificent.
And he chuckled, his cheeks going hot because Evander always had this look for him. It was his and his alone, and it was so fucking hot.
“We’re having family night tonight. Orion and Cullen got rid of their kids, so they’re going to have alone time. The rest of us are going to have a slumber party and watch movies in the front room. Is that okay?”
“By got rid of them, one assumes you mean that they got someone else to watch them, perhaps Orion’s fathers?”
“That’s exactly what he means.” Hawk’s deep voice boomed with laughter. “I had invited them along, but they looked incredibly panicked at the idea. I imagine there’s going to be another baby soon, just like you said, Corbin.”
“We’ll play cards.” Evander had taken to spades like a cat took to milk, or a duck took to water, or something that was a real saying.
“Cool. I wanted soup. Or, I guess I should say the baby wanted soup.”
“Now, we must give the baby what they want, no?”
And all of a sudden, Corbin knew. It was she. Their little girl. She wanted soup.
He put a hand on his belly, beaming at Evander, whose eyebrows went flying up. A huge grin broke over Evander’s face, his horns growing out some.
Cosmo stared at the two of them. “If you two are fixing to have a busy time, let us know and we’ll take the kids and go.”
“No, our little girl just spoke to me for the first time, Cosmo.”
“Oh my God, that’s so cool.” Cosmo got up and hugged him, kissing his cheek. “Did you hear that, Hawk? Isabelle is going to have a little girl to play with.”
Elliot grunted. “Boy too.”
“Oh, honey, I know you want a boy to play with.” Corbin reached over and stroked his little gray head. “That’ll happen sooner or later.”
Elliot rolled his eyes and blew out a breath as if he was blowing away little pixies, which he liked to do when he was in the Glade. “Boy, also,” he said again.
Evander’s eyes widened even more. “I think he means you’re having twins, love.”
Stunned, Corbin sat back, checking in with his body, seeing if anyone else was talking in there. He heard just the faintest voice, but it wasn’t the one he heard the first time.
Breathless, he reached Evander’s hand. “I think he’s right.”