Chapter Three #2
He really didn’t deserve this man. He yawned and sat up straighter, stretching his back.
“Thanks for watching Aidhan, Ma. Becca really needed the break,” Aleks said, kissing the top of his son’s head.
“Oh my god, yes. Thank you, Ma!” Sebastian echoed. Ashby nodded.
Rhys smiled at the men. They looked exhausted.
“I had seven boys. Handling these three angels will be no trouble.” Ma bounced Aidhan on her hip and tickled Lucian.
“We are totally going to have some guy time, right?” Ashby asked Nic and Sebastian. They nodded.
“Yeah, we’re going to down some drinks, watch the ole boob tube and eat like pigs,” Nic said in a gruff voice.
“You mean you’re going to drink some of Gabriel’s best wine, watch reruns of Highlander and eat cheesecake?” Felix asked.
Ashby giggled. “Yup.”
“Wish I could join you but I have an appointment with my mate’s cock,” Felix said urbanely.
“Felix, geez!” Sebastian slapped his friend’s shoulder.
“Just saying.” Felix shrugged. Maddox shook his head and sipped his coffee.
“Okay I don’t want to jinx us, but do you guys feel that?” Nic asked, rubbing his chest.
“No. I am ignoring it. I want my cheesecake!” Sebastian pouted.
“Is it Rebecca?” Aleks asked, reaching for his cell phone. He quickly dialed home.
“Hey, baby, you okay?”
“I feel okay, except a little funny, okay a lot funny, but then I’m kinda funny you know, haha.” Rebecca’s ramble was strange even for her.
“Becca?”
“So, did you know I can see sounds? They are like swimming itty bitty dots in my eyeballs. Some are green. I like the blue ones.”
“Is she fucking high?” Rian asked, his eyes wide.
“I feel sad.” Ashby rubbed his eyes.
“Baby, are you sad?” Aleks demanded, clutching his cell phone.
“I’m not, but my chest is. Well, not the parts you licked earlier this morning, you know when you wrapped your tongue around…”
“Becca!” Aleks blushed to his hairline.
“Well, if you’re not talking about the happy outside parts, then yes it’s like my inside heart is sad. Cool, the green ones are whispering to me.”
“What the ever-loving fuck is wrong with her?” Felix looked concerned.
Nic’s phone rang. He looked down and answered immediately.
“Yeah Kate, we know something is wrong with Becca,” he said immediately.
“I am a horrible mother! Oh my god, why did I think I could do this? I can’t do this! I can’t! There’s four of them. Someone is always hungry or wet or crying. I don’t have enough time to cuddle them all! I’m not enough for my babies!” Kate’s frantic voice worked its way up in octaves.
“You are an amazing mother. It’s okay, Katie Bell,” Nic crooned into his phone.
“I don’t like the red ones! Fuck off, red!” Becca screamed.
Aleks gripped his gun.
“That’s it. Becca, what in the hell is going on over there?”
“Since my human body can’t even feed my own baby, I realized I could have coffee again. I made myself a pot this morning.”
Aleks visibly relaxed. “Thank god, it’s just coffee.”
“Aleks,” Connor called from behind the counter.
“Becca, honey, why don’t you get some rest like we talked about?”
“No, I want more coffee-e-e-e-e.”
“Aleks!” Connor yelled slamming his hands on the counter.
Aleks covered up the mouthpiece of his phone with his hand. “What!”
“Did you guys buy a coffee pot?” Connor asked, looking worried.
“No, we only have that thing you bought her for her birthday,” Aleks said and Connor’s face turned from a sick panicked look, to one of terror.
“Aleks, I bought her an espresso machine, it doesn’t make pots of coffee! How many espressos has she had?”
Aleks looked down at his phone as if it were a live snake.
“I should just die!” Kate sobbed into the phone. In the background they could hear Bran and Caleb trying to calm her down.
“Stay the fuck away. Your penises did this. We’re never having sex again!” Kate screeched. Caleb and Bran were now frantically trying to soothe their mate.
“Becca, go upstairs and lie down, I’ll be there soon,” Aleks said as if he were talking to a ledge jumper.
“No way! I have to defeat the Red ones. Die! Red! Die!” There was a pause. “But, if you’re coming home, can you stop and get me some cookies? Love you, bye bye!” she said sweetly, which added a whole dimension of scary to her color induced death rant. Then the line went dead.
Kate had just dissolved into sobs, and Nic was sobbing right along with her.
Felix looked at Maddox, they sighed. Not saying a word they both stood and each placed a balled-up fist on their palms.
“One, two, three.” Maddox threw paper and Felix threw rock.
“Thank goodness. You get to deal with Rebecca.” Maddox let out a relieved sigh.
“I’ll trade you for a blow job,” Felix offered.
“It’s Rebecca.”
“Two blow jobs.” Felix held up two fingers.
“It’s an over-caffeinated Rebecca, who is hallucinating and possibly armed, as she tries to defeat the color red!” Maddox exclaimed.
“Three blow jobs, a rim job and I’ll do that thing you like when I do you know what,” Felix countered.
Maddox took a deep breath. “Deal. But if I get shot, you get tied up all weekend.”
Felix’s eyes lit up. “Aleks, does she have her gun with her?” he asked eagerly.
“I don’t know! Fuck!” Aleks looked like he was two seconds away from crushing his phone.
The sound of hands clapping together had everyone looking at Ashby. “Okay people, here is what we’re going to do. Aleks, Maddox and I will head to the Arkadion Ranch. We’ll do whatever it takes to get Rebecca back to normal.”
“Normal?” Rian snorted. Ashby glared at him.
“Nic, Sebastian, Felix, you three head to Kate and see what is wrong. It’s not like her to get depressed. That woman doesn’t know the meaning of ‘self doubt’.” Ashby bit his lower lip worriedly.
“You boys go and don’t worry about these little ones. They can stay with me, unless Gabriel, Kent and Liam want to pick them up later,” Ma said, standing beside the car seats.
Rhys stood. “What can we do to help?” Beside him Moe stood nodding.
“Moe, can you go to Kate? She likes you and always smiles at your nickname,” Ashby asked.
“Sure.”
“Rhys, you’re with us. We may need your vampiric speed to catch Rebecca and scrape her off the darn ceiling.” Ashby sounded exasperated.
Rhys turned to Moe.
“Have fun.”
“You too, don’t let Rebecca shoot you.” A smile twitched on Moe’s lips. Rhys leaned forward and kissed his mate, surprising him. Moe leaned down and whispered.
“Love you.”
“Love you too.” Rhys brought Moe’s hand up and kissed his knuckles before heading out with Ashby, Maddox and Aleks.
“Dammit, Rebecca, I could be eating cheesecake right now!” Ashby said, sounding surly.
“I was winning, why did you take my coffee?” Rebecca demanded.
“Because you’re about to go into arrhythmia!” Maddox exclaimed.
“I didn’t want to have to do this.” Ashby turned to Maddox. “Sedate her.”
Maddox looked over to Aleks who nodded.
“Maybe she can just sleep it off,” Aleks said.
Rhys could see that the man was worried for his tiny mate.
“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Rebecca protested, struggling in Aleks’s arms.
“You were trying to shoot red dots when we got here!” Ashby yelled.
That was when Rhys began to get concerned. This was not how his sweet prince normally behaved.
“Maddox,” he said, in an urgent whisper.
“I know, I’ve noticed too.” He put the syringe away.
“I have a better idea. Rebecca, Ashby, I think the two of you need to go visit Kate. She sounded really upset don’t you think? She could help you out with the colors, Rebecca,” Maddox said reasonably.
“I do want to make sure she’s okay,” Rebecca admitted.
They all piled into Aleks new Suburban and drove to the pack house.
“My breathing is funny,” Rebecca said, from the passenger seat.
“That is because you drank enough caffeine to stun an army platoon. How you’re still standing and conscious is a medical mystery.” Maddox shook his head.
They got to the pack house and Aleks didn’t even bother with knocking. By this time Rebecca had turned morose and lethargic. Ashby was just weeping silently. Aleks kicked the door in and carried Rebecca inside. Rhys followed carrying his prince.
“Aleks, what in the hell is going on? Sebastian and Nic got here then all three of them started crying.” Bran’s hair was sticking out at every angle as if he had pulled on it and it had stayed that way. Caleb looked worried sick.
“I don’t know, but these two started to get that way when we hit the bottom of your driveway. Where are they?” Aleks asked, shifting Rebecca in his arms.
“Family room. We pushed the sofas and ottomans together to create a huge bed,” Caleb said, leading the way down the hall. He opened a heavy wooden door and the sounds of sniffling and crying could be heard.
“Aleks, Rhys, just lay them down with the others,” Maddox advised.
Aleks walked over and lay Rebecca next to Kate and Rhys put Ashby next to Rebecca. All five wept and sniffled for about thirty seconds before they all fell fast asleep, curled around each other. Maddox motioned to Felix and Moe and the six men left the room closing the door behind them.
Just as the door shut, one of the younger wolves came bounding down the hallway.
“Hey Alpha!” he called out, waving, oblivious to the day’s turmoil.
Maddox’s hand shot out and he grabbed the pup by the throat. “Your Alpha, Alpha Mother and the Inner Court are in there asleep and exhausted. You wake them up and I will eviscerate you,” Maddox threatened.
“Oh fuck, that got me hard,” Felix moaned.
Maddox released the young man who took off in the opposite direction at a run, passing Riley and Logan as they walked up to them.
Riley Conrad glided toward them with the grace Rhys usually associated with one of the lions.
Despite his lean build he was a beta to be reckoned with.
His vicious fighting skills had kept more than one would-be troublemaker in line.
As usual his brown hair was shaggy and cut at different lengths.
Rhys could imagine the man simply taking a pair of scissors to his hair and cutting it whenever it got in his way.
The beta’s hazel eyes that were normally more jovial looked worried.
Beside him one of the pack’s enforcers moved silently next to his beta.
Rhys had to admit he was impressed. He had never seen a man his size move that silently unless he was a vampire.
Logan Tiernan stood shoulder to shoulder with Caleb, putting him well over Bran’s six foot four inches.
He reminded Rhys more of a bear than a wolf.
Logan’s shoulders seemed to fill the hallway.
Despite his size there wasn’t an ounce of fat on him.
Like Moe, the man seemed to be made of pure muscle.
His brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his brown eyes seemed to look past the group as if constantly evaluating the threat level.
Bran’s raised voice brought Rhys back to the discussion at hand.
“Doc, what’s wrong with them?” Bran demanded.
“It’s the Inner Court. Medical science goes out the window with them.
But, if I had to hazard a guess, it would be postpartum depression, times five.
It threw Rebecca into a manic state and Kate into a depressed one.
Rebecca’s case was exacerbated by the caffeine.
” The men just stared at the doctor in a confused, dejected horror.
“Look at it this way, gentlemen. It will never be boring.” He turned to Bran and Caleb. “I’d make up guest rooms for Gabriel, his guard, Liam and Kent plus a few lions. Looks like everyone is crashing here tonight.”
“We’ll take care of that Alpha,” Riley said, motioning between himself and Logan. Bran nodded his thanks.
Maddox turned to Aleks. “You might want to let your Ma know she’ll have the boys overnight.”
Aleks rubbed his hand over his face and grabbed his cell phone.
Rhys almost flinched with the doctor turned to him.
“Can you call Gabriel? He’ll be worried about Ashby.”
Rhys winced. He was hoping he wouldn’t be the one to call his prince. He nodded. “Sure.” He reached for his cell phone and dialed Gabriel’s direct number.
“Rhys? Is everything okay?” Gabriel’s concerned tone for him was warming.
“I’m fine, but Prince Ashby…” That was as far as he got.
“Where is Ashby?” The melodic voice turned dark.
“He’s at the pack house with the Inner Court, looks like they all got whammied by postpartum depression and espressos. He’s sleeping it off with Rebecca and the others in the pack’s family room,” Rhys explained, and even though he witnessed the morning first hand it still sounded impossible to him.
“He’s sleeping?” Gabriel sounded relieved.
“Yes, out like a light.”
“I’ll be there soon. Where is Arthur?”
“Ma is watching him, Aidhan and Lucian for the night.”
“Gods bless that woman. Rhys, stay with Ashby until I get there.”
“Of course, My Prince.”
The line disconnected.
When he turned to face his mate he saw that Moe was leaning against the wall next to the family room door acting as a guard.
“Crazy day huh?” Moe asked.
“You know, last night I felt like you deserved so much more. That I was destined to be a burden on you for all eternity.”
“Sounds like you changed your mind.”
“You have it better than Aleks. Even with my addiction.” Rhys smirked.
“Hey!” Aleks whispered harshly.
Moe simply covered his mouth and walked away. In the distance Rhys heard the faint sounds of booming laughter. Felix simply cackled lowly, leaning against Maddox whose mouth was twitching.
Best. Morning. Ever.