Chapter Twenty-Three

“Hades’ garden, this is just incredible!” Kolton was flying – well, technically not him, but zooming across the waste lands tucked under Simon’s arm, as the gargoyle’s huge wings beat effortlessly, was a buzz Kolton was sure no hellhound had ever experienced before.

“What’s in those caves over there?” Simon’s voice was so much deeper in his bigger form. “Is it safe to land?”

“Yep, it’s fine.” Kolton yelled back as Simon swooped and turned, making Kolton’s stomach lurch. He laughed out loud, causing Simon to do it again. He was still chuckling when Simon landed with barely a bump, taking the time to make sure Kolton was firm on his feet before he let go.

“That was just amazing.” Kolton flicked his fingers through his hair, settling the waves and tugging through a few knots. “I have run across these sands more times than I can count, both alone and with my pack, but flying with you is the best time ever.”

“You are special to both of us, precious hound,” the gargoyle said, cupping his cheeks and bending to brush a kiss in Kolton’s hair. “We’ll do it again soon,” he promised as he receded, and Simon reappeared.

“I can’t get over this place,” Simon said, giving Kolton a hug before going over to the edge of the ledge they were on. “Who would’ve guessed a red sky and no sun could be so…it’s beautiful, in a weird and barren landscape way. You say no one lives here at all?”

“There’re creatures – snakes, lizards, nasty big scorpion things… the furies blast through here sometimes.” Kolton went and stood by Simon’s side. “These are the lands where the wendigos and other monsters live, but they are all farther away from the populated areas than here. Something about Lord Hades’ power and the realm itself, which is a living entity, keep the various factions of this realm apart so everyone can live safely.”

“So no wendigos running amuck in a demon village?”

“No,” Kolton laughed. “No one in a demon village is silly enough to try and summon one and even if they tried, it wouldn’t work. Spirits come out here sometimes, if they’ve escaped their work party and think they can find a way off realm. It’s like they imagine a road leading to Earth or something equally silly.”

“Is that what the hellhounds do? Chase those spirits and drag them back?”

“Among other things. There’s not a spirit here that wants to be the focus of a hellhound pack.” Kolton sighed. “Happy days, but then they were simpler days then. We didn’t have to worry about making a living or following any laws except the rules from our master.”

Realizing he might be coming across as a negative nelly, especially when Simon had given him such a gift through flying with him, he added, “But if I’d stayed down here, I wouldn’t have met you, we wouldn’t be building a life together, and we wouldn’t be planning our travels and having fun. So it was a good thing in the end.”

He smiled at Simon, but then noticed his mate wasn’t smiling back. “Is something wrong? Did someone upset you at dinner?”

“No, no. Your friends, their mates, and even Lord Hades and Consort Ali were a lot of fun. I’m a bit blown away I got to actually meet an ancient god. All of the men were delightful company.” Simon turned and fixed Kolton with a look that made him want to squirm. “What’s the story with all the kids?”

“The little ones?” Kolton wasn’t sure what the question was. “Beau and Blue have their son, and then Cain and Ollie have a daughter.” He chuckled. “Did you think they were getting a bit carried away showing all the pictures? I thought most parents did that.”

“No, that was sweet. It’s clear that those two couples are great parents. I noticed Lord Hades is expecting…”

“Yes, he is, although they already have two children, but they must’ve decided to have more. It’s all to do with intent, from what I’ve heard.”

“What has to do with intent?” Simon’s hands were firm on his shoulders. “What am I missing here? How did Cain and Ollie, and Beau and Blue get their babies?”

“Oh. Woah. Okay. Didn’t we talk about that?” Oops. “It’s okay, it’s as I said, you have to want children to have them.”

“How did they have them, Kolton? I saw Lord Hades is clearly pregnant, but he’s a god, so that really wasn’t surprising. But Blue is a shifter, Ollie is a fae/elf mix and they’re both mated to hellhounds. So how did those little ones come to be?”

“The normal way I guess?” Kolton stared deep into Simon’s eyes. “I’m not sure what you’re asking. Those two couples are fated mates, they have sex fairly regularly I’m sure, and well, in Beau and Blue’s case it was Blue who got pregnant, and then in Cain and Ollie’s case, it was Cain that wanted to carry their child, so he did.”

“I’m a doctor. Men don’t get pregnant, Kolton. They aren’t built with a womb.”

“Men from the god line can.” Kolton was trying to remember what he’d heard. “The Mother of All allowed it, back…it was ages ago when the gods started finding their mates. She said…well, I wasn’t there but apparently she said that because some of the male gods were finding male mates, she wanted them all to have a chance to build a family of their own. So she made it so males who are mated to someone in the god line, or male gods and their line could get pregnant.

“But the sex has to be with intent.” Kolton definitely remembered that bit. “I remember Blue complaining when he found out he was pregnant that it must’ve have been Beau who was all ‘want to give you a baby’ sexy talk they were having while he was balls deep, and Blue got pregnant before he even knew it was possible.”

“That was hardly intent – that was just a man spouting off sexy talk.” Simon dropped his hands and turned, his hands in his pants pocket as he paced over to the ledge’s other edge. “Kolton why didn’t you tell me it was possible?”

“I forgot?” Kolton followed Simon, feeling he had done something wrong, but he wasn’t sure what. “You’ve never mentioned children - if you wanted them or didn’t. I didn’t even know gargoyles gave birth to eggs until tonight when you were talking to Cyril about it. I feel like you’re angry with me, but I don’t know why, and you said to tell you if there’re things I don’t understand. I don’t understand why you’re” - he flicked his hands in Simon’s direction - “you’re shutting me out.”

Simon’s shoulders slumped. “That wasn’t intentional, babe. I’m sorry.” He came closer, wrapping his arm around Kolton’s shoulder and hugging him tight. Kolton quickly put his arms around Simon’s waist wanting that feeling of closeness.

“Children are a bit of an iffy topic for me,” Simon said slowly. “There are so few gargoyles, and I disappointed a lot of people when I left the clan and struck out on my own. I was expected to bond mate with a woman they’d picked for me in the clan – she’d been chosen for me from before I was born, and she’d been waiting for me to reach adulthood, watching me all that time and I didn’t know about it. Everyone in the clan seemed to know about it except me – I wasn’t aware until I was told I was due to be claimed.”

“That sounds…creepy. Especially if she was watching you all that time.” Kolton hated the idea of some strange woman eyeing up his mate, probably sizing up Simon’s crotch wondering what he was packing, her fingers itching to unzip him the moment he became an adult.

“That wasn’t the worst part. I probably would’ve gone through with it if I’d been told what was happening earlier. The woman wasn’t horrible. But from as far back as I remember, I knew I didn’t want to raise my kids in the clan. When I was born, I barely saw my parents at all. I was kept in this nursery, not in the family home, but in the clan hall. There was just a rotation of people who came in and changed and fed me, but no one was there when I cried, or if I felt alone and frightened. It was…it was…”

“Noooo.” Kolton grabbed Simon tight, plastering their bodies together, his heart aching at the thought of a poor little child crying alone in a crib left in an empty room. “That’s horrible. They were assholes!”

“It’s fine.” Simon’s hand was warm and firm in his curls. “I’m fine. That was the gargoyle way – it was supposed to encourage a clan spirit rather than family bonds, which could threaten the clan as a whole.”

“It wasn’t a clan, it was a cult. I’m sure other clans aren’t like that.” Kolton still couldn’t get the lonely image out of his head.

“I wouldn’t know, but I grew up and one could say that I became an independent functioning adult. But that experience…can’t you see? What I went through made me determined no child of mine would ever be raised that way.”

“Our child would be loved from the second they were born,” Kolton said fiercely, starring off at the barren landscape as he thought about a baby. “Probably before if that’s possible. They’d have me being the fun dad doing random silly things with them, and you’d be the sensible one who’d make sure they had proper bedtimes and didn’t eat too much junk food.

“You’d teach them to read and write and do their math, and I would be the one wanting to go outside and play ball. Our child would have stories read to them – I know Cain does that with Poppy – and the house would be safe for them and warm and full of all the fun things that children enjoy.” Kolton could see it all so clearly in his mind’s eye. “They would be loved, cherished, and protected.”

He leaned back and looked at Simon’s face when the man’s shoulders trembled. “Babe, you’re crying. Are you all right?” He reached out gently, brushing at the stream of tears falling down Simon’s cheeks. “What did I say?”

“Only the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard coming out of your lovely lips.” Simon blinked rapidly and sniffed. “Does that mean you want for us to have children?”

“Yes,” Kolton said hesitantly, and then he said, “Yes,” again more strongly the second time. “Yes, we should. I can see it now. A cute little gargoyle with fur, or…”

“Gargoyles are only ever born to two gargoyle parents,” Simon corrected gently.

“Hey. We’re dealing with godly genetics here.” Kolton puffed out his chest. “Who’s to say we can’t have a furry gargoyle baby, or a hellhound puppy with wings? It’s not like it would matter because we’d love that baby no matter what.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Simon slumped in his arms and Kolton had to brace his knees to hold him up. “I kept thinking these weird things and feeling this sort of heaviness in my belly, and I didn’t have a clue what it is…”

“You’ve already been intenting? Without me?”

“Intenting is not a real word, and you were there.” But Simon was nodding. “It’s not like I was having those thoughts while tugging myself off. I didn’t know that was what I was doing at the time, but occasionally when you’ve had your cock deep inside of me, I’d have this pang, you know, feeling a bit off because I didn’t have the right bits and how I wished our love could make children happen.”

“So you’re pregnant already?” Kolton leaned back farther, although he couldn’t see anything different in his mate’s body.

“I’m not sure. It could’ve just been my stomach getting used to eating meals more regularly than when I was working long shifts at the hospital. But then… Do you remember what Lord Hades said when Consort Ali introduced me to him?”

Kolton frowned, thinking back. He did remember still buzzing out over his packmates’ congratulations. “Something about welcome to the family I think. Why?”

“His exact words were ‘you and yours are welcome here anytime.’”

“That’s weird. Who is the yours? You don’t have anything to do with your family, do you?”

Simon shook his head. “Not since I left the clan. As far as I know, I’ve been disowned. Which got me thinking, because Lord Hades is a god - like Lord Zeus who knew about my attack ten years ago – that maybe Lord Hades knows something we haven’t picked up on yet?”

They both looked down at Simon’s stomach and then back up at each other.

“So you could be pregnant?”

“How would we know? It’s not like I’m a shifter who can pick up a change in scent, and even though I know you probably could, that might not work if I’m carrying an egg. And I’m fairly sure peeing on a stick won’t work for a gargoyle.”

“They work for wolf shifters. Blue had one when he confirmed he was pregnant, although his wolf…” Kolton slapped the middle of his forehead. “Duh. My hound! I might not be able to tell if you’re pregnant while in my human form, but my hound would surely know. Hang on. My brain’s still buzzing from flying. Hang on.”

His hound burst forth, eager for the lovely scritches Simon was good at giving him. He bounded around, always happy to stretch his legs, running from one side of the ledge to the other, barking madly to make sure any lurking creatures knew he was on the job, protecting his mate.

Mate! Oh, baby. The hound was already fairly certain Simon was carrying, but if Kolton wasn’t going to listen to him… He sniffed at Simon’s stomach as his mate scratched him behind the ears. The hound had to sit down for that, because those scritches were so heavenly …

“Do we have a verdict, my beautiful hound?” Simon was smiling. The hound could hear it in his voice, and he looked up, tongue hanging out of his mouth as he nodded eagerly. “We’re having a baby?”

The hound nodded again, and then unable to contain himself, he ran back to the edge of the ledge at it’s farthest point and howled long and loud, followed by some short yips. We’re having a baby!