Chapter Twenty-Seven

Scott

The days leading up to the full moon of our fate were busy ones. We both received a lot of calls from friends and family to congratulate us. We made a rule that we’d only take unsolicited baby advice from our parents. Terrick’s mother had little to offer in the way of advice or she knew how it felt when everyone told you how to be pregnant or how to take care of your future babies. She did insist that once the babies were born she was going to send a guard. She said he didn’t have to stay with us and she’d work out his accommodations with Bobby and Liam, but she didn’t feel comfortable with her grandchildren unguarded. I would’ve said no, but Terrick gave ground. I respected that because his relationship with his mother was already so fragile. Plus, the guy was a guard not a nanny.

“He won’t even touch the babies, probably,” Terrick said after that phone call. “Unless we ask or something happens, he’s just there to make sure nothing happens. It might be nice to have a guard around when they’re little to get rid of the twins if they show up to start drama. We’ll be tired and I don’t want to argue with our families while the babies are little. They’re only going to be that small once and I don’t want to miss anything. My mom was always busy and my dad died – so I saw it all with Salta. I love my mom and I love Salta, but I don’t want our kids to grow up preferring their siblings to us.”

“That’ll happen anyway,” I laughed. “Maybe not as a caregiver, but do you know how many secrets we all keep about each other and for each other? Even now there are things I could tell my dads about the twins that would make them see red, but they’re my siblings.”

“Crappy at that job, though,” Terrick shook his head.

Unlike High Priestess Arrakia, my dads had lots of advice and we listened patiently with them both on speaker phone while they gave it. Not only did they have plenty of kids of their own, but they delivered more babies than anyone else I knew. Plus, they were the lead researchers in vampyric medicine. They called Dara almost as much as they called us to assure that we had access to everything we might need for the pregnancy and the delivery. With them on board, my wolf trusted Dara just a little more.

In between shopping and rearranging things around the house for the babies, Terrick and I talked a lot about his dad and what his leaving might mean. Being gone for good seemed so final. I couldn’t imagine my dads not being around. I wouldn’t know what to do. I couldn’t imagine what Terrick must’ve gone through at just fifteen years old. I did a lot of listening and eventually so did Marcus, the therapist of Heartville.

When we weren’t on the phone, shopping, or planning, we spent a lot of time in Duke and Blithe’s witch room basement. There was something cozy about being down in the den with them. Duke’s egg still hadn’t hatched but every once in a while we heard the baby move inside the egg. Their birthday was growing closer and closer. The closer the baby came to hatching the less Duke left the basement.

As the night of the fated full moon rushed towards us, I didn’t let Terrick out of my sight. If Frost came to take him away from me, he’d not only have to fight the hound, he’d have to lower himself to fight a pregnant omega. Despite the short time I’d been pregnant I was quickly growing a baby bump. I’d force him to choose between his honor and keeping the magical contract. I prayed that if it came down to that, Frost was as honorable as the lore said he was. I hated the thought of playing the pregnancy card, but with four pups growing inside me, what other defense did I have?

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