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CHAPTER 23:
~1 year later~
The older I got, the less I questioned the goddess’s divine vision.
“King! King, can you push really hard? Take a deep breath and-” I stopped as king, a little over one year old, fell onto his butt. I sighed, helping him back to his feet. “Don’t you want to be a big, strong wolf? Grrrr.”
“Grrrr.” King repeated back, giggling at me. “Grrrr Grrrr wof.”
“Yes, Kingy, Wolf.” I nodded, turning around. “Lordy, come here baby.” I held out my hand as my pup bounded toward us, knocking King off his feet again. “Lord, shift honey. Show King how you do it.” I urged.
Lord sneezed at me, turning as if he didn’t care to listen, but a second later my furry pup became a giggling baby. “Ta-da!” Lord cheered, raising his little hands in the air.
“So good, Lordy!” I praised, turning to King again. “Can you shift too, Kingy? You just take a deep breath and then ta-da!”
King stared at me, obviously not understanding. After a solid minute of what seemed like deep concentration, King threw his arms in the air and shouted “Ta-da!”
“Ta-da!” Lord repeated.
“Ta-da.” I chuckled, giving up for the day. “King and Lord are such good boys.” I praised.
“K-kin goo.” King repeated. “Lolo goo.”
“Right, baby. You’re so good at practicing words. Lordy, you should practice your words too. Can you say Lord?” I asked.
“No.” Lord declared. “Ta-da!”
“Stubborn, stubborn boys.” I sighed. “You get that from your father.”
“Ha! I caught you red handed lying to the children!” Noah jumped out from behind a pillar, making me gasp and the kids giggle. “Listen boys, Apa is the most stubborn of all.”
“Your meeting ended early?” I asked as Noah scooped both boys up.
“The Alpha from the East never called.” Noah informed me.
“That’s unlike him. He loves any opportunity to complain.” I chuckled as Lord yanked Noah’s hair especially hard. “Are you going to call him?”
“Ha! If he calls, I’ll answer. Otherwise, it’s not worth the stress.” Noah grumbled. “Any luck getting King to shift?”
“Lets see. Kingy, can you become a wolf for Apa and Dad?”
King clenched his eyes, took a deep breath and then thrust his fists in the air. “Ta-da!” He shouted, feeling extremely triumphant.
“Amazing.” Noah laughed, kissing his head. “He’s making progress.”
“He’ll be a pup in no time.” I agreed. “Are you taking King with you to the sparring quarters today?”
“Of course. Even babies have alpha duties, you hear that kid? You’ve got to start pulling your weight around here if you wanna be Alpha one day.” Noah cooed, coming to sit beside me on the floor. Finally, after hours apart, we settled together side by side. The babies crawled all over us, tugging hair and losing balance. Noah’s head came to rest on top of mine, gently placing a peck to my temple. “I missed you.”
“I was only downstairs.” I teased, nuzzling into his throat. “I missed you too.”
“You’ll never run out of snarky comments, will you?” Noah chuckled, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me even closer. “I demand you tell me you like me.”
“You demand? On what authority?”
“No back talk! Your Alpha commands it.”
I rolled my eyes, reaching up with both hands to squish his cheeks. “Forgive me, my darling Alpha. I-” I paused as the sound of the front door opening caught my attention. Would I ever live in a house that wasn’t freely used by the whole pack? Probably not. I released Noah just as a group of people rounded the corner.
“Alpha Noah, there’s an urgent call from the Alpha of the East.” Nico reported, followed by a handful of soldiers. “He’s extremely upset. He’s demanding All Alphas meet urgently.”
“He didn’t call for our scheduled meeting.” Noah countered. “What happened?”
“Unfortunately, he’s refusing to speak to anyone, but you about specifics. All he would say is it was urgent, life and death… his usual spiel.” Nico rolled his eyes. “Should I contact the other Alphas?”
“I doubt he’ll let it go if we don’t.” Noah sighed, standing up. “I’ll go call him now. See if I can talk him down from whatever catastrophe he’s cooked up now. Have all the Alphas brought in this week. Oh, and remember to hug your nephews so they remember who you are.”
Nico rolled his eyes again as Noah went back upstairs to make his call. The soldiers followed after him, leaving Nico and I alone with the boys. “Nico.” I greeted him.
“Luna.” He answered, picking up King as he waddled toward him. With that, the conversation ended. Nico and I were still not on speaking terms. Von and Nile remained in their comatose state and Nico remained icy with me all the while. Unfortunately, the damage was done. No amount of ‘sorry’s’ would fix it. In fact, Nico refused to hear anything I had to say about the matter, sorry or not.
So weeks turned into months and those months turned into a year. We were cordial as we saw each other often, but that was it.
We were connected by blood and nothing more.
Was this the goddess’s vision as well?
——————–
Screaming. So loud I could hardly hear anything.
“Ama, please take the children. They shouldn’t be hearing any of this.” I sighed, putting a twin on each of her hips. The Alphas upstairs were far too rowdy, tossing around expletives as if they knew no other words.
“Do not worry. I have them. Now… go handle those children.” My mom looked up the stairs where the yelling was coming from. “They sound like they need some parenting.”
I helped her out the door, closing and locking it behind me. What I was about to do did not require an audience. I stormed up the stairs, slamming the office door open and halting the yelling. “Are you rabid dogs?” I screamed, charging into the room. “You all don’t have any home training? Screaming like a bunch of jackals with little babies in the house? The babies are better behaved!”
“Excuse me? Watch your mouth!” The Alpha of the east snapped at me.
“Make me, old man.” I growled. “But be warned, I’ve knocked stronger men than you on their ass.”
“Enough. Micah, come here.” Noah held out his hand to me. “Let’s have a civilized conversation like our Luna commands.”
“Fine.” The Alpha of the East begrudgingly agreed. “Respectfully, Alpha couple, we need to kill it.”
“Kill it?” I looked to Noah. “What ‘it’? Are you arguing about the blood slave again? It’s been over a year and you’ve yet to kill it. Maybe we should give it a break?”
“You think so, Luna?” The asshole Alpha smirked at me. “And what of the demon spawn inside it?”
“The what?” I looked to Noah again.
“The King Cyan… well apparently it was discovered that he might be with child.” Noah explained.
“What? Human males don’t get pregnant. Blood Angels can’t reproduce at all.” I informed what seemed to be a senile Alpha.
“He was swollen with a child.” The Alpha insisted. “We have photographs, videos!”
“Maybe he has a medical condition.” I argued. “There’s no way he could be pregnant.”
“Except he most likely is, darling.” Noah sighed. “The Alpha of the East left out some important information. He sent men to burn down their castle and kill the blood slave. Unfortunately… during that battle, the pregnancy was all but confirmed.”
“You’re kidding?” I cried, waiting for Noah to tell me he was joking. When he didn’t, I took a deep breath. “Well… okay then. So you want to kill a baby?”
The room broke out in yelling again. I turned to Noah, pulling him down to whisper in his ear. “Tell them no.”
“Micah, it’s not that simple.” He whispered back.
“It is that simple. You are The Alpha. Tell them your decision.” I insisted. He pulled away from me, shaking his head at me as if to say ‘stop’. “Are you kidding me?” I cried. “We are not killing a baby!”
The room fell silent as all the Alphas turned to stare at me. “If it is a baby…” The Alpha of the North spoke, “what danger comes along with it?”
“With a baby?” I reiterated.
“We have no idea what kind of monster he will spawn.” The Alpha of the East spoke up. “It’s not if we kill it, but when. Perhaps we wait for the blood slave to give birth. He’ll be easier to separate from the baby that way.”
“Absolutely not.” I snapped. “We are not monsters who hunt babies!”
“Forgive me, Luna, but perhaps your sensibilities are too sensitive for this conversation. We’ll be more quiet. Tend to your children.” The Alpha of the South spoke.
“I will shove your own cock down your throat if you ever belittle me in that way again.” I warned, turning to Noah. “No one is going to attack The King Cyan or his child.”
Noah and I stared at each other for a few seconds before he sighed and looked away. “For now… let’s keep this conversation open. Shall we meet next week?”
My blood boiled as the Alphas spoke their agreements.
What the fuck was Noah on? He wanted to kill a baby? He wanted to anger the people we’ve mutually agreed not to fuck with for the safety of our own children?
No. Never.
——————–
“You’re angry.” Noah declared as if it wasn’t obvious. We had walked to my parents house to pick up the boys in silence and had almost arrived when he seemed to realize I wasn’t speaking to him on purpose.
“Perceptive.” I grumbled. Let’s be honest. Noah was handsome… much more handsome than he ever was smart.
“If I told them no… there’d be fights. Tabling it was the best thing to do for now. It keeps them still and quiet.” he reasoned as we stepped onto my parents porch.
“It makes you look-” The word ‘weak’ was on the tip of my tongue when voices from inside took me by surprise.
“He still smells like a runt.” I froze, grabbing Matthews hand to keep him from walking any closer. Whoever was inside hadn’t smelled us yet. “Your son is still insisting he be next in line for the alpha title?”
“He is the first born.” My mother spoke. “It’s common for Runts to shift later in life. It shouldn’t be a problem.”
“But by comparison Lord is doing much better. He learned to shift quite early. That shows promise.” The woman whose voice I didn’t recognize continued. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to focus attention on the younger twin? For Goddess sake, the eldest is lucky not to be left in the forest for the-“
“Watch your mouth.” Noah and I both jumped, shocked at the force in the voice that spoke. This voice I recognized. “My mother is too kind to kick you out, but if you continue to disparage my nephew in front of me, I’ll report you to the Alpha. Or better yet, how about I request negotiations for the two of us?”
There was banging and shuffling and then the door in front of us flew open. I stepped back just as Nico stormed out, a baby on each hip and a diaper bag over his shoulder. “Woah.” Noah pulled me back as Nico skidded to a stop, avoiding a collision.
“Took you long enough! Don’t abandon your children here! The old ladies around are toxic! I have better things to do then watch babies too!” Nico started lecturing, shoving a baby into each of our arms.
“Excuse me?” I cried, grabbing hold of Lord instinctually, struggling to hold him as he reached back toward his uncle.
There was a moment of awkward silence before Nico took him back, grumbling that he would walk us home.
For a short walk, I had a brother again. Nico made baby voices and silly faces at Lord, making him giggle. He was animated, jovial… happy. He hadn’t looked happy in so long.
And that was my fault.
As we approached our home, Noah took Lord from Nico. “Are you heading home?” I asked as Nico stood awkwardly for a moment.
“I’m going back to Ama’s. I sleep there now.” Nico responded. “Sleeping in that house… I can’t…” He trailed off, seeming to realize he was opening up… and he just didn’t do that anymore. Nico shook his head and walked away without so much as a goodbye.
I could have chased after him. I had before. Most of the time he ignored me. A few times he physically attacked me. The last time he simply turned around and looked me in the eyes and shook his head. The answer for him was still no.
We weren’t brothers anymore. We weren’t anything at all.
——————–
News came every few days about another attack on the sun people. Everytime I told Noah to order them to stop, he would insist it was safer to put off the conversation. I would tell him to listen and he would tell me to trust him. Eventually, the child was born and word of efforts to kill him seemed to double. The number of attacks grew and I became more and more uneasy. How many times would they simply fight back? When would they decide to punch first? I told Noah all of this and he assured me he would protect us.
Round and round in circles we went, never seeming to find a way off this track.
“King and Lord sitting in a bathtub, scrub a dub dubbing their little paws.” I sang to the kids as they splashed in the tub water. It was moments like this I could truly decompress.
Goddess was I blessed. My children were blessings on earth. Identical little heart shaped angels with curly hair and dimples. “Apa, bu-buuu- bubbuh.” King stuttered out, motioning to the bubbles in his hand. “Pop!” He smacked his hands together, giggling as the soapy bubbles splattered me in the face. I sighed, using my sleeve to dry my wet cheeks when a strange smell floated up into the second floor restroom window.
“You guys smell that?” I asked the kids, sniffing the air again. “Is someone having a barbeque without us? Say thats not nice.” I chuckled as the kids began to babble along as if to add to the conversation. I stood up from my kneeling place beside the tub and went to the restroom window, trying to get a view of where the smokey smell was coming from. As I reached the window my blood went cold. “Oh goddess…” I whispered, my stomach turning. I slammed the window shut, panic filling my body as I rushed to the restroom door. “Noah? Noah!”
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