Epilogue Wyatt

Six months later

I 've never been so scared in my entire life. The entire house was on eggshells. No one, not even the damn snakes, was making a sound. I crept into the kitchen, trying to find something to eat. I'd had a particularly exhausting session today and my arm throbbed, but I'd be willing to tattoo someone else for a few hours just to hide in the studio a while longer.

I found an apple in the fridge and grabbed it, freezing when I heard loud footsteps sound behind me.

"Are you kidding me right now?" the voice growled, and I cringed, rising up slowly from behind the fridge door.

"What? I'm hungry," I grumbled, holding the apple protectively.

"What if Addy needs that apple? It's the last one, and we won't have time to go buy more before the babies come!" Cain snapped.

Addy was due any second, and Cain was going insane with worry over it. He'd been insufferable for weeks now, snapping over every little thing. We'd turned Piper's room into the nursery since it was the closest to Addy's room, but then Cain had insisted on bassinets in the master bedroom because of night feedings.

Piper had offered to kill him last week, and I was mad at myself for rejecting the offer so quickly.

"Cain, leave him alone. I don't need a fucking apple," Addy snapped, coming down the stairs. She was huge. It looked physically painful. Her stomach was so stretched it stuck out from under her shirts, even the special maternity ones we'd bought her.

Cain ran to her, offering an arm, which she swatted away in annoyance. She'd started maternity leave only last week, much to Cain's distress. Addy had told me she'd stopped going in only because Cain had started to scare her coworkers with his obsessiveness about lurking outside the lab door.

"You're only supposed to walk around small areas! No stairs!" Cain snapped, and Addy bared her teeth at him, causing him to back away immediately.

"I love you, dear husband , but if you don't calm down, you'll burn through your last good shirt, and they won't let you into the hospital shirtless." Addy replied, rolling her eyes, waddling up to pat his cheek. Ever since she'd found out that Cain had gone ahead and forged a marriage certificate for them when we moved here, the word husband was thrown around a lot - and not usually in a nice way.

It was almost comical to see the struggle on Cain's face, his body at war with itself as he tried to relax while still on high alert. "Babe, I love you, but I'm begging you-"

"I'm only three centimeters dilated, it's not even that big of a deal!" she huffed.

"You're nearly halfway dilated?! You could go into active labor any minute!" Cain insisted, his eyes wide.

"Want to help speed it along? Orgasms are supposed to help speed up labor," she smiled, batting her eyelashes at him. Cain's face went from stormy to white as a sheet, and he shook his head, mumbling about warming up the car and heading downstairs.

"That was mean," I told her, smirking. She smiled back, but then her face creased with pain and she gripped her waist, panting quietly.

"What? Are the contractions worse?" I asked, moving to her side immediately. The moment I touched her hand, I doubled over, swearing so violently Cain would've been proud.

"I told you not to do that," she snapped. "I need to know how far apart they are."

"Oh my god, please, go to the hospital now," I groaned, clutching my stomach, the apple laying forgotten on the floor.

"I'll be fine. Piper says I've got another hour until we need to leave," she replied primly, resuming her pacing around the living room.

"Piper wanted you to have a home birth. Are you really going to trust him on this?" I asked, giving her a sharp look. Her face blanched, and I raised my eyebrows in alarm.

"Oh fuck," she murmured, glancing at the stairs.

"Okay, it's fine. Don't panic!" I exclaimed, thanking the gods that Cain had been sleeping in the car for the last two weeks, just in case this happened.

I helped her down the stairs, and just as we reached the bottom, something just… came out of her.

"Oh no," she murmured, glancing down at the puddle on the floor.

"Please tell me you just peed," I begged. She shook her head grimly, grinding the bones of my hand in a death grip.

"Don't panic." I smiled wanly, turning to shout up the stairs. "ASSHOLES! Get down to the fucking car now !" I held Addy around the waist and we walked down to the car, footsteps thudding down the stairs behind us.

Cain was white knuckled in the driver's seat, and I avoided his gaze as I helped Addy into the passenger seat. "Um, no worries… but drive fast," I told him gently. Austin all but threw Piper into the back seat, piling in on top of him as Cain peeled away from the studio, breaking several laws as he sped to the hospital.

Addy's doctor handled the four of us crowding the birthing room pretty well, only commenting when a black snake stuck its head out of Austin's hoodie, scaring one of the nurses half to death.

One hour and a lot of screaming later, Cain was fast asleep in the hospital chair, mainly thanks to the mild tranquilizers the doctor had given him. Cain had reacted… poorly when they'd approached Addy with the epidural needle.

Addy was sitting up in the bed, going to town on a giant sandwich that Piper had ordered to the room, full of all the lunch meats that Cain had banned from the house months ago.

Austin was holding our baby girl with Piper at his side, looking at her like she was the only thing that existed in the world. She'd been the first one out and screamed so loud my eyes had watered. Meanwhile, I held our little boy, who'd followed his sister only ten minutes later and had let out one gentle cry before settling down immediately. I'd watched in awe as he'd opened his eyes and had looked around the room, taking in the freaks surrounding him with a stoicism few ever managed. We'd all checked the babies carefully, looking for scales, or freaky eyes, but so far they looked like normal, healthy, slightly potato-y newborns.

I walked over to Addy, careful not to jostle the little King I held in my arms. She smiled up at me, her hair still damp with sweat. "Feeling okay?" I asked softly, and she nodded, her face pinched with exhaustion. "You did good, sweetheart. Even when Cain threatened to kill the anesthesiologist for trying to see your pussy." I smirked, and she rolled her eyes, holding out her arms for our son. I passed him over gently, trying not to disturb him. They both had dark hair like their mom, and I was excited to see who they'd take after in terms of special abilities.

"Hey Shades?" she whispered, as the little man's eyes started to close. "You know I love you, right?" Her eyes looked pained, almost guilty, and it made me smile.

"Of course I do. I feel it every time I touch you," I reminded her, and she gave me a relieved little smile. "I love you too, sweetheart. I'd die for you." She opened her mouth, a frown creasing her forehead, and I stopped her with a kiss. "But I'd much rather live for you," I clarified, grinning.

I looked around at the five of us, now seven with the little ones. We didn't have a good set of parents between the lot of us, but I knew for a fact that these kids would be the most loved and protected little weirdos in the world.