Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
Corbin sat in his garden, testing the soil and getting the ground ready to be worked. Spring was coming and everything was about to grow. As if the babies heard his thoughts, they started kicking and rolling inside of him.
“Yes, you both are going to grow too. You’re growing and growing.” In fact, he was kind of the size of a houseboat. He felt like he had a huge prow.
It was nice to be outside, even if he still had to have a heavy jacket on.
“What are you doing out there in the cold?”
He glanced over at the fancy shed that stood at the side of the garden, smiling at the familiar face that peered out. “Getting everything ready to plant. How are you, Yarrow?”
“Mmm, sleepy still.” Yarrow yawned wide, exposing his two big upper teeth. “But starting to wake up. Would you like to come in and have some tea and warm up? It’s still chilly out there.”
“I would.” He slowly stood up from where he was crouched down, his hips screaming at him.
Lethean, are you well?
I’m fine, worrywart. I’m going to have a cup of tea with Yarrow. It’s just a little cold to be sitting on the ground.
Very well. Call me if you need me.
I will. He thought maybe Ev was working with Hawk again, making another cradle. They would need it.
He sort of waddled to Yarrow’s shed, easing himself down onto a comfy chair. As he got in, he noticed how lovely it was in here, sort of like a TARDIS with cottagecore.
It was cozy but not tiny, and comfortable and rustic, but kind of beautiful at the same time.
“You’ve been doing a lot of work.”
“I did. I had time on my hands in the wintertime. It was too cold to venture out.” Yarrow winked at him, smiled.
“Well, it’s beautiful. Seriously.”
“Thanks. What kind of tea would you like? I have a selection.”
“Something without caffeine, please. It just makes the babies wilder.”
Yarrow chuckled and shook his head. “Leave it up to you to be the one who has multiples.”
Corbin winked at the beaver and stretched up tall, his back popping. “I am the one who grows things, right?”
Yarrow poured water into a teapot and measured tea. “You are. And there will have to be an ‘of the Third’ to take over when you retire.”
“Yes, except I think there’s only going to be one of the two.”
Yarrow blinked at him, frowned. “No. I don’t think so. I think there has to be one of the Third.”
“Have you become a seer now?” He wasn’t even being sarcastic. It could happen. He’d seen it happen.
“No. No, but the ground knows things. This is your ground. Yours and Cosmo’s and Cullen’s.
You balance it out. It’s your ground. There has to be ‘one of the Third’.
” Yarrow blinked at him, stared. “You know that that’s why the vampires came in before, don’t you?
The house was here, and there were three, but they were not of three.
They were not one made into three. They were just three.
Hawk, Orion, and Evander cannot hold this house. ”
He blew out a breath and then fanned himself. “You’re making me queasy.”
“Why? Aren’t you happy?”
“What do you mean?” Was he happy? He didn’t know. He was worried right now.
“Your children will have a place, a duty. Before they take over from you, they will have amazing lives. Flipping in and out of dimensions that I can’t even begin to imagine.
One day, they’ll have mates, homes, and children, and you’ll be retired.
It’ll be amazing. Isn’t that what everyone wants for their children? To have an amazing life ahead of them?”
Corbin sat with those words for a minute. He’d been so worried about the bad things that he’d sort of let it slip from his soul that his life was amazing.
He’d traveled. He had friends. He had brothers and a mate and nieces and nephews.
He’d seen and done things that only he and his brothers could say that they had seen and done.
His life had been amazing, and he was just beginning it.
Soon he would be a father, and that was an entirely new adventure.
“I kind of hate you.”
Yarrow winked at him. “You wish.”
“How did a beaver get so wise?” he asked, toasting Yarrow with his tea.
Yarrow raised an eyebrow and whistled through his two front teeth. “I sit around out here all winter by myself and think about things.”
He had to laugh at that. “True. You don’t have the constant noise of the kids and my brothers like I do.”
Yarrow nodded sagely. “Also, I’m not a guardian; I’m just a dude. I can thump people with my tail, but that’s about it.”
“Your tail is epic.” Corbin put a hand on his belly. “I just think I get obsessive about one thing right now. Can I blame hormones?”
“Absolutely. You might as well. Hell, you can milk it for all it’s worth.” Yarrow raised an eyebrow. “How’s your mate?”
“Good. He’s good. You know he was fully recovered, right?” It really had been that long since he’d talked to Yarrow for any length of time.
“I did know that. I haven’t seen him, though. Is he allowed to come into this part of the world still?”
“Yeah, he comes into the garden. We should have some kind of a cookout once it’s a little bit warmer.”
“Sounds good. I love nut roast.”
Corbin laughed, thinking of his Lord of the Hunt. “Nut roast it is, at least for you and me. For Evander, not so much.”
“Yeah, that was the way he was before the whole vampire thing, though? Right?”
“It totally was. He’s a hunt guy, which is weird for somebody with antlers on his head.”
“We don’t question the old ways. We just go with it.” Yarrow slurped the rest of his tea down.
“I like that, man. Although it seems like you question everything in the long winters when you’re here by yourself.” He winked and then drained his tea. “I guess I should get back to the house before he starts worrying about me.”
“Well, don’t be a stranger now that the growing season is pretty much on us.” Yarrow stood, reaching out a hand to help him up to his feet, which was good because he was starting to get to the point where it was tough to do that by himself.
They walked together outside to the garden where he had been before, and he lifted a hand as he headed inside the house, letting Yarrow know how much he appreciated the time spent.
The baby kicked and rolled. One of them did anyway. Maybe more than one. Now he had to think maybe there were three. Perhaps that was why he was so huge. Twins were bad enough, but he wasn’t a big dragon like his dad. Triplets was wow. He couldn’t imagine what his mom had looked like.
Did I hear you think triplets, lethean?
Somehow, he knew from the sound of Evander’s mental voice that his mate was coming to look for him.
You did. Yarrow is convinced. He has a theory. I’ll tell you about it when we’re meeting in the kitchen.
There was a soft, warm chuckle. Didn’t you just have tea with Yarrow?
I did, but it just made me hungry. Yarrow’s a little stingy.
I think he doesn’t understand what it takes to feed four of you. Four, three children and you. That’s insane.
They met up at the door to the kitchen, and Evander took him into those strong arms, kissing him on the forehead. “I love all of you, no matter how many there are.”
“I love you too. But three is at least one more than we bargained for.” In fact, it was a tiny bit concerning. He couldn’t believe his Mom had managed somehow. And they had not been easy.
Like, at all.
“I bet Aspen’s gonna be biting a lot of babies.” He was trying to go for charming. He wasn’t sure it was working.
“Aspen is excited about the idea of many babies.”
“Really?” He liked to think that she was excited, and fond of him, but really, while he loved Aspen dearly, she was absolutely Evander’s.
Lare appeared in front of him with a pop, and he squealed, “Lare, you scared me!”
“Sorry, so sorry, so sorry!” He was given a crookedy grin. “Hello, there, I just came to see if you wanted lunch. I was thinking about making pasta. I like pasta.”
This little guy just cracked his shit up. Corbin nodded. “I also like pasta, so I imagine that would be a great thing to have for lunch.”
In fact, his stomach growled, proving exactly what a good idea he thought it was.
“Wonderful, I will make pasta. I will see what you have in the cabinet for me to use.”
“What we have, Lare. You live here now, and you are part of our family.” Corbin wanted to make sure their new friend felt absolutely welcome.
“Oh, thank you so much. You just sit down and have a little drink of something sparkly and lemony, and I will make lunch.” Lare began puttering around the kitchen, opening cabinets and the refrigerator, pulling out wildly incongruous items. Hopefully, they would come together and make a good meal.
He couldn’t watch, though, so he glanced at Ev. “Do you want to go sit in the front room?”
“I do. I think that’s a fine idea.” Ev wrapped an arm around him and steered him toward the living room. As they were out of Lare’s earshot, Ev began to chuckle. “He is something else, isn’t he?”
“We’re not sure what.” Corbin laughed, too, because Lare was wonderful, and he was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, no matter what that gift horse looked like.
“So tell me about Yarrow.” Ev sat him down on the couch, cuddling up with him, and it was amazing because his mate smelled like pine and musk. He was warm and perfect, and Corbin just wanted to rest his head on Ev’s chest and not think too hard about things.
“A lot of it was long-winded, you know how he is, but he was telling me how no one else had produced babies that were of the Third like we were.” He plucked at the laces on Ev’s shirt, which looked like something out of a medieval blacksmith fantasy.
“Well, that’s true I suppose. I mean, it’s one thing to have three children, but it’s another thing to have them all at one time.”