Chapter Twenty-Two
Alexandra
“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.”
- Richard Bach
Baby Blaze ignited and disappeared again. As usual, the kids, Zora, Apollo, and Drago, scavenged around the castle trying to find him. Watching paranormal kids running around using their powers trying to track a paranormal baby was hella funny. Every time one of the kids got anywhere near Blaze, he would giggle, ignite, and pyroport.
Baby Orion clapped and laughed every time that Blaze pyroported. His toothy infectious giggle was accompanied by long dribbles and more belly-deep giggles. He would kick his legs, throw back his head, and giggle until he shook with mirth, which only seemed to make Blaze even more mischievous. Orion was so damn cute. It was impossible to pass him without touching him, hugging him, or kissing him. There was just something about him, something adorable and something enchanting, that just drew you in.
However, Orion never displayed any gift or appeared as if he was anything more than a human baby. If it wasn’t for his fast growth rate, ability to crawl, and several teeth in his mouth, even at several days old, he could be any normal human baby.
The adults stared on in fascination at the two newest immortals.
“Blaze is communicating to Orion somehow, but all I can hear between them is baby babble,” I told Luna and Danika. “It is bizarre but so cute.”
“If this is what happens when we have our kids so close together, we should make sure to not do this again until we can understand what the hell they’re saying.” Luna waved between the babies. “They are only six days old, and they are already inseparable. They are hungry at the same time, sleep at the same time, and play at the same time. It’s cute, I give you that, but it’s also freaky as hell.” Luna laughed.
Danika laughed, too, and nodded in agreement. “Wait until they’re teenagers together, and then we’ll be in real trouble.”
We howled with laughter, and then my laugh turned into a smile wide and happy, so happy to be part of this sisterhood with two of the most amazing women I’d ever met. Although they didn’t have to work a day in their lives, they worked and gave back.
Luna, as a linguist who spoke twelve languages fluently, toured around the world to some of the poorest regions to teach children between the ages of three and seventeen. Danika, an accomplished dancer and choreographer, went along with Luna in those same regions to teach dance and nutrition on a budget. Despite the danger both women would be in if any of the Petrov enemies ever found out—and accompanied with their wolf bodyguards or sometimes their husbands—they never wavered. Amazing women.
The kids continued to play with the babies until their fathers came to collect them for daily training. If I had stayed the last time and not run away, I would have realized how dedicated to family everyone was. When the men were not in their offices working, they were in an enclosed battlefield that was at least the size of a football field, training for any possible attack. Even Xander took part, which really stunned me.
Seeing such a massive, strong man be so patient with his niece and nephews… Yeah, my panties got wet within seconds of observing him.
The brothers ensured that everyone was ready, including the children. They were gifted and, in some cases, more powerful than the adults, but they needed to be taught control.
I didn’t know why I was surprised by Xander taking the lead for everyone’s training. I was even more shocked when he told me of the human wars that he had fought in. Hell, the man walked around with a damn sword. That should have been a big clue. He was currently serving with the allied forces of Great Britain as a high-ranking combat officer. After that, it only made sense they be guided by his experienced direction.
Zora practiced how to shape and reshape her forcefield to fit around anything and everything and to even shape it into a ball, which would make it easier to use as a weapon. And because it could incinerate just about anything on impact, Tristan was showing her how to create ball forcefields that could fit into her palm and then how to throw them accurately at any target. Since the forcefield didn’t hurt anyone in the family, Zora had live targets in her father, her cousins, and her uncles. They just usually walked away with massive head and body aches.
Zora learned to stretch and retract her shield wicked fast. Apollo was asked to do the same, but Zora’s shield could stretch farther, and her shield was stronger.
Apollo practiced how to cloak and shield under the stress of battle. His cloak made a person invisible and protected them like Zora’s shield. The shield also could repel any orbs fired at it back on the attacker or incinerate the attacker if they came into contact with it. Tristan and Luka put him through numerous stressful and dangerous situations. The wolves and his uncles were the targets and the attackers.
Xander made him run drill after drill, trying to improve his speed and accuracy each time. It was imperative that Apollo could shield anyone who didn’t have the Petrov shield. And even though Alexi was a Petrov, he didn’t have the shield, so almost every drill was aimed at protecting Alexi, the wolves, and the fated-mates.
There were also the human relatives of Danika and Tristan and Luna, who were moved to cottages on the castle’s grounds. They would also need protection if an attack happened at the castle.
Luna’s relatives still didn’t understand how they were healed from the lethal virus no one else had recovered from. Since Xander had regained his healing powers, he had been able to heal and save them. As a doctor, I pretended to give them a shot, what was only a salient dosage. And they were none the wiser.
Of course, the relatives had no idea that they were being protected by a group of immortals from an attack of dangerous immortals.
It was kept carefully from them, and we all had to act human whenever they were around. It helped that the kids treated those encounters as part of their training to one day live in the real world. The rest of us were pretty apt at it. The only real risk was the babies. So, the humans were only allowed to see them when the babies were asleep.
Drago practiced mimicking everyone’s powers. His most powerful gifts were telekinesis and the ability to project fire from his palms. So, Drako insisted that he practice those for battle and only use mimicking Apollo’s shield to protect himself if he had to.
They worked as a team, and I was impressed and awed by their determination and commitment.
The fated-mates were not excluded from training either. It was decided that during battle each fated-mate would remain close to their mate, so we also trained with our mates. Xander and I were more powerful as a couple because I was powered and we had already fought together, but neither Danika nor Luna was a slouch. They were complete badasses. Both were pretty efficient with guns and knives and were skilled martial arts fighters as well. Hell, I was even impressed that, less than a week after giving birth, these two women were rocking skinny jeans and kicking ass.
For weeks, we trained, we sweated, we fell on our asses, and we laughed and cussed in equal measure.
Through it all, Xander and I continued to make love and skirt around the issues in our relationship, but we never really discussed the serious stuff. I couldn’t resist or deny him anything, no matter how much I hated our impasse. Xander was too devastatingly gorgeous, and I was more than addicted to his seductive scent and oh-so-magnificent masculinity.
Pregnancy had changed my shape drastically in these past few weeks. Now almost eight weeks pregnant, everything was bigger, more enhanced. My breasts, usually a double D, were the size of melons. My bottom had even more padding than before and was blatantly more curvaceous and rounder. My stomach looked as if I was six months pregnant and not two human months. For a dhampir, the baby would be full-term at three human months.
Xander loved my increased volume. He would spend hours kissing, caressing, and simply exploring every lush curve.
And then he would make love to me, sweetly. His lovemaking would usually bring me to tears at his tenderness and just how much pleasure, incredible pleasure, he could wring from me.
Xander absolutely adored the baby already. Whenever he touched my stomach, which was often, his eyes glowed with affection and his touch was gentle with reverence. There was no doubt that he loved his offspring, and he had no problem showing that.
I couldn’t help wishing that he expressed even a little of that toward me.
He spent hours talking or singing to the baby. I would often fall asleep to his soothing baritone voice either in speech or in song. Xander had a crooner’s voice, and he loved singing to the baby. Because his niece and nephews loved the Mulan song by Christina Aguilera “Loyal, Brave, True,” Xander sang that song the most. The baby also became even more active whenever Xander sang that song.
“He’s going to be a warrior like his daddy,” I would tease him.
Xander would only smile.
I thought that I had reached my capacity to love Xander. That there was no way that I could love him more. But every day, every hour, and every minute with him made my affection grow stronger. My initial admiration of his loyalty to his family, his stoicism, his strong personal ethics, and his raw masculinity became even deeper and morphed into pure adoration.
These were the happiest and best days and nights of my life, even if I wanted to strangle my mate one moment and make love to him in another.
It was maddening.
And then an attack happened that none of us anticipated.
We expected them to hit one of the places that the relatives had been living in, New York, Bermuda, or even Antigua. Our training had planned for a one-place attack.
No one expected them to hit all three places and St. Petersburg at once.
“Fuck, none of you can go in without Alexandra and me,” Xander muttered in frustration.
We—the adults, six of the elite werewolf bodyguards, and the children—were on the training field to discuss strategy. The other five elite werewolf bodyguards were watching over Owen’s Pack, which had been relocated to a secret site. As soon as it was confirmed that the mysterious virus had surfaced again, Alexi had convened the meeting.
The plan had been for a neutralization and elimination team of Luka, Drako, Tristan, Xander, and me to go into whichever place was hit next. Xander and I would do our thing and neutralize Malachi’s powers by intercepting the deadly mist. Xander would freeze time, and I would move the particles with telekinesis. The rest of the team would eliminate whatever immortals they encountered because we expected that this would be an ambush attempt on us.
However, with multiple places hit at once, there was no way that we could save everyone and protect ourselves.
“They are obviously hoping to divide our forces,” Alexi said quietly. “We cannot be four places at once, not full force. They know this. So, if they have any chance of defeating us, they have to divide us. Once they know who is at which location, they can realign their forces to hit their real target.”
“Perhaps we don’t need to be,” Xander said softly, deep in thought. “We have a way of going into each place without them being aware of us being there.”
“How the fuck do you propose doing that?” Luka asked suspiciously.