27. Epilogue: Teresa

Eight years later…

“On guard!”

I watched as my seven year old daughter Luisa brandished a sword at Boris’s son. He was only five and a half, but as the son of two bears shifters, Elmo could easily pass for twice his age. Built like a linebacker, he towered over my daughter and was twice as broad.

The two kids played with their plastic swords, both of them dancing around and attacking as if they were really in battle. Elmo got past Luisa’s defenses, then pulled his sword at the last minute, trying not to hurt her.

My daughter pouted. “Don’t go easy on me, Elmo!”

She smacked the flat edge of her sword against his shoulder in emphasis.

“Papa says I can’t hurt a girl!”

“I’m not a girl, I’m a vampire!” Luisa ran toward me. “Tell him, Mommy!”

Before I could answer Flora interjected from the seat next to me. “You’re both, sweetie, a girl and a vampire.”

Satisfied, Luisa went back to her battle, viciously stabbing her sword towards Elmo, just like I’d taught her. She’d make a fine fighter someday. Then I noticed something…

“Is she wearing lipstick?” I asked Flora.

She shrugged. “Probably.”

“And why is there glitter on her eyelids?”

“It’s part of Meyer Beauty’s spring glitter eye shadow line,” she said proudly. “It’s our top seller of the year.”

I suppressed a smile. Sword fighting and make-up – our daughter was the perfect blend of the two of us.

Over the last eight years, Flora had continued to thrive in her role as CEO at Meyer Beauty. She’d implemented higher levels of sustainability and carbon neutral production that had increased profits while producing ethical products.

I’d moved into the mansion not long after we were mated. At first I’d hesitated, but after seeing my one bedroom apartment in downtown Seattle, Flora put her foot down. She’d made several excellent points about the security levels of her mansion and the convenience of the basement gym and outdoor pool. She’d even agreed to build me a basketball court. I couldn’t argue with that.

The nice thing about having a giant house was that we always had space for guests or the occasional strays we seemed to pick up.

My job at Sapphic Security still kept me busy. We’d had so many kids between us that Lois had finally agreed to rent out some space on the bottom floor to a daycare company that specialized in caring for supernatural infants and toddlers. I wouldn’t say that Lois had softened over the years, but she definitely believed in taking care of her agents, trying hard to ensure that we’d stay with the company.

Flora groaned next to me, her hand coming to her enormous belly. She was eight months along in her second pregnancy, and soon we’d be welcoming another daughter, who we planned to name Henrietta after Flora’s godfather. Henry had passed away last year. His son Jake was still in prison after being convicted of a myriad of charges from drug possession to stalking and kidnapping.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. “You’re not having contractions are you?”

Flora shook her head. “No, your little vampire child is kicking on my spine.”

She was totally having contractions. Sometimes Flora forgot that with the mate bond I could always tell when she was lying.

My mate had been eager to carry our children, but she didn’t have a lot of viable eggs, so we’d extracted mine to mix with donor sperm for implantation in Flora’s womb. We had a few friends who’d done the same thing and been happy that they did. It made the baby feel like they were biologically part of both of us.

We’d worried that her endometriosis would prevent Flora from carrying a child, and I’d been ready to step up and do it, even though I wasn’t super excited about carrying the baby myself. But her illness had improved dramatically after a laparoscopic procedure she had shortly after we got together, and the doctor cleared her to carry our children.

The chair next to me creaked as Boris dropped into it, his hair slicked back from a shower.

“Where have you been, Boris?” I asked. “The party started an hour ago.”

When his mate arrived with little Elmo all she’d said was that he was tied up at work.

“I help Angie with bad guys,” he said. “She is coming after she drops off at police. Brothers too.”

“Well your son has been a perfect guest,” Flora told him with a sunny smile. “We sent your mate to take a nap.”

Like Flora, Boris’s mate Elena was heavily pregnant, although she was much more miserable about it than my own mate. Probably because she was carrying twin bears.

Over the years the original Sapphic Security team had stayed good friends with Boris and his brothers, and any new members were immediately adopted into the fold by the bears. We all made one big messy but happy family.

Flora groaned again, and then I saw the liquid seep out from between her legs.

“Damn it, my water broke.”

“Boris?”

“I watch your cub my friends,” Boris said, knowing immediately what I was going to ask. “You go have baby now. Make me godfather.”

After telling Luisa goodbye and extracting a promise that she would listen to Boris and his mate, it was time to go to the hospital. I pulled Flora up out of her chair, putting my arm around her and leading her around to the garage.

“Come on Mama, let’s go expand our perfect little family.”

***