Our House Leo
Leo slides open the glass doors to the backyard, and Tsuki slips past him on silent feet. The night is warm, the thinnest sliver of the new moon casting just enough light to guide his steps toward the rose bench.
He adjusts Mari in his arms, settling onto the bench before bringing the full bottle to her lips. She’s not even a day old and already has the pack running in circles. Sleeping only a few hours at a time—normal for newborns—and eating just as often.
The rest of the time, she stays wide awake, studying whoever happens to be holding her. She seems to like it when Leo murmurs quiet bits of old songs, but she still prefers Nix most. Leo figures it’s because she spent so much of her beginning tucked up under his heart.
She’s a voracious eater, always managing twice what her sister does, even if her tiny tummy grumbles loudly afterward.
“You’re one day old now, Mari-my-girl,” he whispers.
She opens her eyes, and with a final suck on the bottle, she begins to fuss. They’re already learning that it’s not that she’s still hungry, but just annoyed she didn’t get to decide for herself to stop, and it’s just that the bottle is empty. How dare it be so rude?
To distract her, he shifts her up onto his shoulder, making sure the soft burp pad is in place before gently patting her back. Grayson had learned the hard way this morning that warm formula in your hair—and down your back—was a deeply unpleasant experience.
Leo chuckles at the memory, leaning into her soft scents. She smells like warm formula and fresh-cut summer grass, layered with the unmistakable notes of spiced rum and basil-patchouli.
Rowan’s wolf hadn’t settled much in the last twenty-four hours; the expectant alpha father behavior somehow been amplified since the girls were born. Surprisingly, though, Rowan had stayed in his person form the entire time.
As if summoned by the thought, a naked Rowan appears silently beside the bench, hands outstretched for his daughter.
Finn had warned them not to give in too easily when Rowan’s territorial instincts got out of hand. Said they needed to push back just enough so the Wolf would recognize them as equals in parenting. It had been a near-constant battle all day, but at least they hadn’t needed Jay to step in.
Yet.
Instead of Mari, Leo hands over the empty bottle and shifts to make space on the hard metal bench.
Rowan drops his naked butt down beside him, clearly still restless.
They really need to add something more comfortable out here.
It’s a testament to Leo’s restraint that he doesn’t immediately pull out his phone to start shopping for one.
“Give her to me,” Rowan tries again, but Leo stands (sits) his ground.
“No, Rowan. I’m on duty tonight, and you’re okay. Just sit beside me.”
“Leo.”
“I said no. Now tell me, when is your mom coming?”
With a sigh, Rowan lowers his head to smell Mari’s hair. She’d had her first bath after they’d all eaten dinner. “Wednesday, if Nix thinks he’s up to it.”
“Hmm. He’s doing great, yeah?”
“So great. I don’t get how someone can have two people inside them, do all that hard, painful work, and then be up and around like nothing happened. Is it an omega superpower?”
While Finn explained that people who have babies are built to recover from this life-altering event if everything goes smoothly, and omegas are more resilient and heal faster than, say, an alpha or beta might.
He’s also just Nix. Smarter, stronger, and more badass than anyone has a right to be. Thank fuck.
“I think it’s the Nix-ness.”
“Fu—uh, fudging yeah it is. He’s amazing,” Rowan says drowsily. He gives another snuffle of Mari’s soft head before sticking his pointy nose in Leo’s neck.
“Tired, big guy?”
Nodding, Rowan sighs, and Leo feels his long eyelashes tickle his neck. “Hmmm. The Wolf is on guard all the time. He wants out, but then I can’t hold them or Nix, or be in the nest when I’m him, you know? What if I need to be like…ready for something?”
Leo’s heart twinges at how forlorn he sounds. Balancing the two parts of himself can’t be easy. “You could be the Wolf out here with me if you wanted. I’ll take care of Mari.”
And of you.
“Yeah?” He doesn’t wait for a second invitation.
There’s just a glow, and in the next blink, a big red wolf is turning in circles before lying in the grass, his head on Leo’s bare feet. Tsuki joins him, pressing her back to the Wolf’s, and it’s not long before the two furry bodies are snoring softly under the starry sky.
“You can trust me, I’ve got you, baby,” Leo murmurs.
***
When Leo rolls out of the nest the next afternoon, he finds he’s alone for the first time in two days. The pack had been inseparable as they’d focused on bonding as a pack and recovering from a taxing day and night.
After a hot shower, he follows his nose to Nix’s room, where he finds shirtless Nix and Luca on the bed, curled around their daughters.
They’re asleep–all four of them–in the sunshine.
Both girls have a bit of jaundice, and the sunshine helps with something called bilirubin, or so Finn said before heading to work with new blood samples for processing.
The window is open, and a soft summer breeze stirs the white curtains, sending them billowing gently behind the bed. His mates lie there, beautiful and golden in the diffused light, and for a moment, Leo is rooted in place, a wave of love crashing through him with startling force.
It’s the kind of idyllic summer day that lingers in memory: the low rumble of Jay and Gideon’s voices downstairs, the occasional clink of glassware, and Rowan and Grayson’s giggles and playful growls as they head toward the Art House.
It’s foreplay, in whatever way works for them these days, and Leo silently appreciates their effort to keep it discreet.
Nix doesn’t need any extra reminders about the weeks he still has to wait.
“Don’t just stand there, silly. Come snuggle,” Nix whispers, holding out his hand.
Leo slides onto the edge of the bed behind Nix, who pulls his hand over his side so it rests between Rosie and his naked belly. Her little leg is so soft on the back of his hand that he almost can’t feel it, and Nix’s still-rounded tummy is smooth under his palm.
And even though he’s just rolled out of bed, Leo breathes deeply and lets the scents of his mates and daughters soothe him into a summer-scented doze.
***
The water in the bathtub in the nest room is warm but not too hot, and Leo cradles Mari against his chest as Jay runs a soapy hand over her back and under her tiny bum.
She loves water, just like her Daddy. Over the past four weeks, they’d discovered she had a bit of a milk sensitivity, and it was Beth, Rowan’s mother, who suggested using warm water to ease her digestive troubles.
Much to Rowan’s mortification, Beth had regaled them with tales of how he had pooped in the bathtub every time he was submerged as a baby. Any warm water would trigger it until he was nearly five years old. Turns out, their guess that Rowan had been a little shit even then wasn’t far off.
The newest batch of formula isn’t working either, and Mari’s weight has been slipping, little by little.
While Rosie has finally outgrown her preemie sleepers and surpassed her sister, Mari is still so small.
It’s been a massive source of stress for Nix, to the point where they had to convince the new dad to let Jay take over for a few hours so he could get out of the house with Grayson.
Mari sighs softly against Leo’s chest as Jay pours clean water down her back and over her tiny head, her red hair gleaming like a sunrise.
“We should get a diaper on her soon, Leo,” Jay says.
“Yeah, yeah. I hate that she’s hungry and hurting. The new formula’s supposed to arrive tonight.”
“Mmm. From Japan, right?”
“Yeah. All I want for my birthday is for her to keep her food in and not out.”
“Me too, poor mouse.”
Jay takes Mari from him, bundling her snugly in a towel and rubbing her hair until it sticks up in every direction. She squints at him, letting out a tiny cry—just as a low, ominous gurgle echoes from her tiny body, a clear warning of what’s coming.
“Oh shit.”
Literally.
“It’s like the fire-swamp in The Princess Bride, yeah?” Jay whispers.
With wide eyes, Leo scrambles out of the tub, grateful to have dodged that particular poopy bullet.
***
They finally settle Mari’s stomach with the innovative formula from Japan, and she starts gaining weight more quickly.
She’s happier now, though just as noisy.
She and Rosie are like yin and yang: loud and quiet, chaotic and peaceful, active and calm.
By the time Leo’s birthday rolls around, their personalities and preferences have already started to shine through.
Mari adores Lauren or Finn, and somehow, Leo’s mother even stops her endless picking on Gideon whenever she has her granddaughter in her arms. Rosie, on the other hand, clearly prefers Leo, and he couldn’t be more thrilled about it.
Rosie is easygoing and content to settle in her bouncer chair or anyone’s lap as long as they’re still and quiet.
But when she’s tired or fussy, it’s Leo she wants, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
That’s how he finds himself lying on a blanket under the big maple tree in their backyard with Rosie, while their extended family laughs and eats BBQ on the patio, celebrating his birthday.
He had always loved the excitement of outdoor parties—swimming in the pool, eating too much red meat, and soaking up the sun.
But his daughters had been passed from grandparent to grandparent and father to father all afternoon, and shy little Rosie had reached her limit about an hour in.
So Leo spread out a blanket from the family nest and whisked her away into the dappled shade for a quiet nap.
It might be his party, but she could cry if she wanted to.
He knew it was better for both of them to steal a little peace away from the crowd.
“It’s just you and me for a bit. Shhh-shhh.
” She’s a shhh-shhh-baby rather than an mmmm-hmmm-baby like Mari.
Don’t judge. It’s really a thing, and it works for Leo 100% of the time.
She prefers it when Leo lies her on her tummy and rubs her back exactly three times, before lying beside her where she can see him but not be touching.
She stops crying almost immediately, as if Leo has dialed the correct combination for her peace. And maybe he has. “That’s it. They’re all so loud, I can’t blame you.”
There’s a snort as Grayson appears suddenly on the blanket beside them. He’d recently buzzed his hair off, and Leo still can’t get the hang of it. He will always be hot like fire, but the change is still a surprise.
He told them it was because he kept getting baby vomit in it, but Luca had joked that the alpha liked it when they rubbed his head. Finn had called him a kiwi and then complained when Grayson had used Air to throw him in the pool.
Grayson sticks his tongue out so as not to startle his daughter, before rubbing a fingertip along her ear. “Then why is she here with you?”
Burn.
“She knows quality company when she sees it.”
“Yeah, she does,” Grayson agrees. He gently rolls their daughter over so they can both see her tiny face, eyes looking from Grayson to Leo while she lies still and calm.
She smiles then, her rosebud lips shaped into the smallest grin.
It wrinkles her nose, and in this moment, she looks just like Nix.
Right down to the tiniest heart-shaped freckle on her cheek.
Rosie’s soft breaths and coos mingle with the hum of crickets in the warm summer air.
Life has changed in ways Leo couldn’t have imagined, and not just because of the babies, though they are undeniably at the heart of it all. It is the weight of this new love that has shifted him. The kind that demands more, not because it asks, but because you can’t help but give.
He thinks of Nix, who had carried their girls with a quiet strength that left them all in awe.
Of Rowan, whose Wolf battles for dominance as he learns to balance love and instinct.
Of Grayson, who embraces magic as it changes him down to his cellular level.
Of Jay, Luca, Gideon, and Finn, each of them facing new challenges in new directions.
And of Rosie and Mari, who are just a month old and have already altered the axis of his world.
Before, Leo had thought he understood family.
He had the best of the best growing up, and even now, his destined family is a gift he treasures.
He thought it was about showing up, being present, and offering what you can.
But now, as Rosie stirs beside him, her tiny hand brushing against his arm, he realizes family is about becoming more.
It’s about pushing past your limits—not because you have to, but because you want to.
He’s always known he was strong, always giving the best of himself to the people he loves.
But now, he realizes he has even more to give—more strength, more love, more patience than he ever thought possible.
It’s not that he’s changed; it’s that he’s grown.
And for them, for his family, he’ll keep finding more.
Because they deserve everything he has, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.