Epilogue
Riley
Valentine’s Day
“Dad, can I wake Daddy Gareth up now, please? I want to show him my pancakes.” Corbin was giving me a spectacular pout for making him wait to deliver this breakfast.
“I’m just finishing up with the strawberries, and I’ll have to carry the tray. You’re strong, but we don’t want to spill the coffee again, do we?” I said as gently as possible.
We had come a long way in the last few weeks with Corbin.
He was still small and skinny, though with how much he ate, he was filling out.
We had him enrolled in school. While he was behind, it was a lack of opportunity rather than any learning issues.
He was picking things up quickly, and despite his solitary upbringing, he was friendly.
Mom had done an amazing job with him in the year she’d had him, no matter what she thought.
Corbin was a sweet kid, well mannered, a little too polite, likely to avoid Boyce’s notice.
The therapist, a witch and empath, said it was a sign of trauma.
It was something they were working on in their sessions.
Mom was still in Westhaven. I’d received a couple of calls from her apologizing for leaving Corbin with me like she had.
I got it. He belonged with me. She was making substantial progress in her therapy, yet it was going to take many months, if not longer, for her to shift again.
Then, last week, she had found her fated mate.
The man was a bear shifter and held the position of alpha over a decent-sized pack within Westhaven’s territory.
Mom said he was looking forward to meeting us all when they made it official.
Austin, her mate, called me a couple of days later to introduce himself.
He seemed to really care about my mom, and not in the way that raised red flags.
He said he wanted to be a father to me if I was willing.
I liked the idea, but wasn’t ready yet. Austin wanted to be Corbin’s grandpa too, and I said I’d let Corbin decide when he met him.
“Okay, I’m ready. Here, take this.” I handed Corbin a red rose. I know, cliché. He took it and went ahead of me into the bedroom.
“Oh, hey Cor. What’ve you got there?” Gareth was sitting up, scrolling through his phone. He set it aside when we entered the room.
“Happy Valen… Valantine’s Day!” He stumbled over the words. Now he was missing a front tooth, he’d developed a teeny lisp.
I set the tray on the bed beside him, gave Gareth a kiss, and carefully climbed onto the bed, pulling Corbin onto my lap.
“Thanks, Cor! Did you make these pancakes?” Gareth asked.
“I did! Daddy helped me.”
“Did he now?” Gareth winked at me.
“I let him cut the fruit!” Corbin giggled.
“Here.” I handed Corbin his little plate, which held a pancake with a smiley face made of strawberries and a banana. I sliced the banana first, naturally. I’d learned plenty of parenting lessons in the last few weeks.
Gareth took a sip of his coffee and nibbled on a strawberry. “Ready?” he asked me.
I nodded. Corbin was too busy eating to pay attention. “Corbin? Gareth and I wanted to ask you something.”
He paused, sitting stiffly. He said nothing.
“Daddy and I wanted to know if you’d like to go visit Nana for spring break. There’s a healer there who might be able to help you.”
“I’ll get to see Nana?” Corbin lit up with delight.
“Austin too. He’ll be your grandpa one day,” I reminded him.
He considered it for all of a minute. “I like Austin. He’s a bear. Can we go now?”
My laugh burst out of me. “No, you’ve got school, and we want to take my camper. Let’s wait for the weather to get warmer, okay?”
“Okay.” Corbin scooped up a piece of banana, happy with our plan. He really was the sweetest kid.
“There’s something else I wanted to show you. Something special that people like us keep for only family.”
“What?” I had Corbin’s full attention.
“You know how you can be a hedgehog, a mouse, or even a puppy?”
Corbin had only displayed less than a dozen animal forms, all of them on the smaller side, except for the pony. We didn’t think he’d get any more since he was only half metamorph. He nodded.
“Well, I have a special form that you might have one day if you meet your fated mate. Daddy Gareth gave me mine,” I explained.
“He’s seen it, and sometimes at home I will want to let it out.
I don’t want it to be scary for you, so I thought I’d show you it now and let you see it with both of us here. ”
Corbin met my eyes, curiosity burning there. “I’m not scared.”
Gareth wrapped an arm around him and pulled him off my lap to sit with him instead. “It looks so cool when he shifts. You’re going to love it.”
Getting off the bed, I faced the pair and let the shift come over me without a form in mind.
It had taken me a long time to practice this.
Gareth had pulled all the information Greyhaven had on metamorphs so that we could teach Corbin about his abilities better.
I often wished for Fen’s notes on my species, but he’d taken them with him.
The form, when it came, was as black as a void.
I knew my eyes glowed an eerie amber color, the only light on my body.
I had fur, scales, and feathers running all over me.
My wings were both batlike and had longer flight feathers, like the one I’d gifted to Gareth.
I had paws with wicked claws for hands and clawed feet like a bird.
My legs were long and slender. Instead of a nose, I had a beak, but also fangs.
My neck could turn all the way around like an owl, and I had a mane like a horse.
My ears moved independently of each other. I was all and not just one thing.
Our son let out a breath of wonder, his eyes wide. “Can I touch?”
I made a chirruping sound, then nodded for good measure. I stood patiently while Corbin poked and asked Gareth questions. I caught a look at the time and shifted back. “We need to get ready for school! Oscar will be here any minute.”
“Fu—dge!” Gareth recovered from his mistake. “Have my pancake, Cor. I better hurry.” He rushed into the bathroom, and I heard the water turn on.
I sat eating with Corbin while he peppered me with questions. “Daddy, I don’t like using Daddy Gareth’s name, it’s a lot of words.”
“We can be Dad one and Dad two?” I suggested. Corbin laughed and shook his head. “No, you’re right, that sounds silly and it would hurt Gareth’s feelings to be Dad two all the time. Obviously I’m Dad one, because I’m the best.”
“You can be Dad and Daddy Gareth Baba.”
“Baba?”
Corbin blushed. “A girl at school calls her daddy Baba.”
“I like it. Now come get ready for school.” Gareth was going to lose his shit when Corbin used his new title.
Our morning routine was already out the window, so I just let Cor pick whatever he wanted to wear to school as long as he actually got dressed.
I got him washed in his bathroom while Gareth finished up in the shower.
Once Corbin was at school, I’d clean up the house and shower.
Maybe I’d work on his room some more. Over the last week, I’d been painting him a mural in his room.
I was rocking the stay-at-home parent gig.
We had plenty of time for me to decide what to do with myself.
The doorbell rang, with Oscar on the other side of the door. He didn’t wait for me to answer, just walked in. Greyhaven residents didn’t really lock their doors. I still did it out of habit sometimes, but had unlocked it when I’d started breakfast.
“Hey, Oscar,” I called. “Gareth’s running late.”
“Uncle Oscar, hi! We’re going on a trip!”
Ah, so he hadn’t forgotten after seeing my true form.
Oscar crouched to speak to my son. He loved being called uncle. “That’s amazing! You are so lucky, Cor!”
They hugged as Gareth exited our bedroom and picked up his coat from the entryway.
He came over and kissed me quickly before ruffling Corbin’s hair.
“See you later? No magic lessons today.” My mate and Riku were in charge of his magic lessons.
His seizures were gone thanks to the work he was doing with them and the magic he was giving to the wards.
Tonight, they were taking the night off. We had dinner booked for just us. Oscar was on babysitting duty.
“Yeah. Have a good day.”
They were halfway out the door when Corbin called, “Bye Baba, bye Uncle Oscar.”
Gareth stumbled a bit, looked around, and nearly walked into the doorframe, but I’d never seen him happier. He was going to ride that high all damn day.
“We better get a move on too. Want me to shift today?” Corbin liked me to walk in animal form alongside him. I’d been a bear, a tiger, and in my German Shepherd form. The kids at school loved it.
“Can you be a pony today? I’m tired and don’t want to walk.”
“Are you okay?” I felt his forehead. He seemed normal. Just a little pale, likely because we’d been up early to cook. He wasn’t always sleeping through because of nightmares and bedwetting. All things that would pass with a lot of love and safety. “Sure thing, little man.”
When we got outside, I shifted into a Shetland pony so Corbin could climb on easily. He held my mane all the way to school. We were a big hit when we arrived. All the children from his class were late inside because I had to let them have a ride around the playground.
Gareth
“Are you sure you’re okay babysitting?”
“Relax, Gar, I’m going to have a great night with my little dude.
We’re going to get pizza delivered and watch a movie,” Oscar said with an edge of excitement.
I worried after his last relationship blew up and he had to leave his coven that he would be down on such a romantic holiday, but he really didn’t seem bothered.
He genuinely seemed to want to spend it with our son.