9. Rigg
9
RIGG
From my perch in the window, I watched Niles with heat growing in my belly. He was bent over and shirtless, with his shoulder blades pushed up under his skin like he was exerting all of his strength. Sweat coated his back, and the soft dirt left a stain on his knees.
Niles was taking to domesticity better than either of us imagined possible. After just a couple weeks of being part of our household, he’d cleaned the small cabin until it was spotless, perfected at least five meals that the kids loved, and was now talking about developing a garden.
The kids were out there with him, handing him seeds and squishing mud between their toes because they refused to wear shoes. He was the perfect omega. Truthfully, I didn’t care if he had a green thumb or could cook or clean. But being comfortable with the children was important, not just for helping me raise Connor and Lily but in case we decided to have children of our own someday.
As much as I’d never pictured myself as a father or mate, both of those roles had taken hold of my heart and were the most important parts of my identity. At least, the most important safe and public parts. The part of me that was still a secret from the world and probably always would be. But the fact that he was well-rounded and liked to be helpful made my omega even more attractive to me every day.
Besides, he’d mentioned to me on several occasions that he needed a purpose and had quickly found it with our little family.
Within twenty-four hours of arriving, Niles had fixed the wobbly boards on the porch and oiled the hinges on the bathroom door. I almost broke my neck one morning when I forgot that it didn’t stick anymore and yanked with my entire body.
As for the children, Connor and Lily immediately bonded with Niles. Their wolves seemed to instinctively know his was the boss, so they followed him around and loved to be by his side.
“I’m gonna make some banana bread, and I need helpers!” His voice carried on the breeze as he walked inside with four little bare feet chasing after him. Just before they entered the back door, he scooped them up into his arms and stopped them. “No muddy toes in the house. Let’s hose you off first.”
They giggled as he helped them get cleaned up and then ended up soaking wet when a quick rinse turned into a water fight, with Lily getting control of the hose and spraying down “the boys.” That’s what she called us.
It was her against a houseful of boys, and she loved it.
Eventually, the door burst open and my family came inside. Connor had wrapped himself around Niles’s left leg and was sitting on his foot as he walked, but Lily had her priorities and beelined for the cookie jar. The two of them were still streaked with dirt, and he just caught Lily before her grubby paw contaminated the Winnie the Pooh jar that was in the kitchen when I moved in.
Niles already had a wet rag in his hand that seemed to materialize out of nowhere. “Uh-uh. No way, missy.”
She just held out her hands and looked up at him with big round eyes. “Thank you, Daddy Ni.”
He and I both went still at the endearment. Neither of the kids had called us Dad. I didn’t want to put that pressure or expectation on them, but nature versus nurture was a funny thing, and when you treated an orphan like you were their dad, they considered you to be their dad.
I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling to keep my composure, but Niles was quick to respond. “You’re welcome, Lily bug.”
Connor was watching the scene play out, but he didn’t contribute. He had a wide vocabulary like his sister, but he was more likely to sit back and observe than to jump into the fray during emotionally charged moments.
I could completely relate to the kid.
After the bread was in the oven, Niles turned to me and mouthed the word, “Bath?”
I nodded and took a sip of my coffee.
Niles clapped his hands together and turned to the kids who were each shoving banana slices into their mouths. “Alright, you two. It’s bathtime so we can be nice and clean for dinner.”
“Wolves don’t take baths.” Connor looked like a squirrel tucking away food for the winter with the way his cheeks were filled with banana. “It’s a fact.”
“Yup. We looked it up on the internet.” Lily dropped to all fours and crawled around the kitchen like a puppy.
“I’m gonna have to call Mr. Internet and give him a piece of my mind, then.” Niles coaxed a ticklish shriek from Connor as his fingers relentlessly danced over the kid’s ribs.
Connor’s laughter filled the house with so much joy and love that I was back to looking at the ceiling again. It was something I’d been doing often since growing my little household from one to four.
Not wanting to miss out on the fun, I picked up Lily and threw her over my shoulder. “When you’re in your fur, you can run through the river to clean up. But when you have skin and toes…” I tickled the bottom of her feet and made her squirm on my shoulder. “It’s bathtub or shower. What do you prefer?”
“Bathtub!” they said in unison. That was something else they did a lot of. It was as adorable as it was creepy.
* * *
“Do you have to be human all the time?” Connor asked as Niles was pulling a clean shirt over the boy’s head.
“We like the wolf you better.” Lily was quite the charmer when she wanted to be. “But this you is okay too.”
Niles laughed and glanced up at me. “Not all the time, but as you two mentioned earlier, wolves don’t do baths, so I have to be in my skin most of the time.”
“Do you like being a wolf?” Connor wanted to know everything about being a wolf. Even though they were probably a decade out from shifting, they were both anxious to be in fur and able to go out in the woods by themselves. “Because when I get my fur, I’m never gonna be human. It’s so boring.”
“If you two eat all your veggies, I’ll shift afterward and give you rides.” Niles helped him into a pair of sweats while I was right beside them, brushing Lily’s hair.
As soon as they were dressed again, they ran to their scooters and started doing laps around the cabin. That was one nice thing about living in what was basically a two-room space. Except the bathroom and bedroom, they could play in every corner of the cabin.
Niles came at me and gave me a quick kiss. “I hate that you have to leave tomorrow.”
I pulled him into my lap and pressed my forehead to his shoulder. “Me too, but it’s just for one night.”
“We’ll miss you.” He turned and gave me a soft kiss. “But I know this is important for all of us.”
It was important. Our children would never be safe as long as there were labs hunting them down to turn them into weapons. And Dax confirmed there was a new lead they were strategizing about.
Even though his pack had more resources than I could imagine, I wanted to be involved. I’d been working too hard to just sit on the sidelines while they had all the fun. “You sure you’re ready for two full days alone with them?”
“No, not ready at all.” Niles chuckled. “But I’m fairly confident I can keep us all alive until you get home. And Gramps is just a phone call away.”
I smiled every time I heard Niles refer to my chosen grandpa as Gramps. Joel did too.
“You’re so good with them, Niles.” I pulled him flush to my chest. “They love you so much already.
His eyes got glassy, and he swallowed. “I love them too.”
Before he could beat me to it, I kissed his lips and then rested my forehead on his. “I love you too, ya know.”
He sucked in a shuddering breath. “I know, but I fucking love that you’ve finally said it.”
“Finally?” I nipped at his shoulder and scraped my teeth across his skin. “It’s barely been a few weeks.”
He shrugged and wiggled his hips over my growing erection.
“I was ready to say it that first night, but I understand that humans can be a bit slow on the uptake.”
My jaw dropped. “Slow on the…” I stood up with him in my arms and carried him to the bedroom. The kids were loud enough that we could hear everything they did and said. If it got quiet, we’d come check on them. But as long as they were noisy, we could get a little noisy ourselves. “I’ll show you slow on the uptake until you’re begging me to go faster.”