11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Jack stared at the illustration. It was hideous, and then again…it wasn’t. Sure, the beast was snarling and bloodthirsty looking, but any animal or human could be.

Ms. Tempest dispelled many myths with her words. Still, Rodney’s reaction told the story of what others would see him and Maltin as.

“It looks like a dragon!”

“We don’t breathe fire, Rodney.” Maltin stopped and turned to Jack. “Do we?”

“No, not that I saw in my dreams. I just…ate someone.”

“Ate them? Is that how you…take them to hell?”

Maltin shook his head and told his uncle, “No. I mean, I don’t know.”

“I didn’t get that far in my dream,” Jack told them in a voice so low he barely heard himself.

The three of them stared at the book some more.

The hellhound itself was hideous. There was no getting around that. Two long, curving horns like a bighorn sheep above the ears. Long fangs and flaring nostrils in the snout. The thing's shape was like a dog, but scaly instead of furred, and a long tail that came to an arrow at the end.

And the entire thing was red, including its glowing eyes…

Finally, Jack turned the page, and they all let out a breath when they saw another depiction. This one was no less frightening, but it looked more like a regular dog, only bigger. It had fur, no horns, and was black, not red.

“Which one is it?”

“I don’t know,” Maltin told his uncle. “I’m seeing all this for the first time like you are.”

“You don’t have, I don’t know, instincts?”

“Obviously, that’s why we had to get a book. Will you be quiet, Rodney?”

“Geesh, invite a guy to the party only to tell him he’s not dressed for it.”

Jack and Maltin stared at him after that, and he yelled, “Okay, you think of a better analogy!”

Jack turned the page again, and they all began to read. Maltin finished first, but he read twice as fast as Rodney or Jack.

Jack learned quickly that the librarian was right. They weren’t evil beings, no matter their appearance. They didn’t hurt good people. They didn’t terrorize villages or go after good, kind people.

They only got called up when those who shouldn’t still be in the world were running around alive. The evilest, who got past those grim reapers that took most souls away from their earthly bodies. Those were the people hellhounds went after and took to the underworld.

The calls were like dog whistles, and only hellhounds could hear them. Some force most knew as gods would call out, and the closest hellhound would go after the prey and kill their bodies and retrieve their souls.

As they read, Jack calmed down, knowing that one day, he’d be called, that Maltin would. Maltin’s fingers threaded through his and he could feel his mate’s relief combining with his own.

“I don’t know about you two, but they seem okay to me. They are…scary things.”

“Rodney, you do get that they…go after folks like you and Mother, right?”

“We’re not evil!”

“No. You’re not.”

“We’ll go when we go. I don’t believe we’ll go to hell. Your mother has too good of taste to be sent there. And mine? I’m impeccable.”

“Taste isn’t the issue, Rodney,” Maltin laughed.

Jack flipped through the book, and sure enough, he found the chapter he was looking for. “Pups.”

“Dear god, we are having pups,” Maltin whispered.

“Pups? Like puppies? You cannot be serious!”

Jack laughed. “Let me read before we go out and buy chew toys.”

There were graphs and more illustrations, and Jack subconsciously set his hand over his stomach when he saw what his insides must look like. “I have a uterus?”

“I’ve been checked. My mother took me to the doctor when I was very young, and then, well, once X-rays were invented, she made me go. I have none of this. And, well, I knotted.”

“I’m pregnant?”

“Well, I’ll be damned. She’s going to be a grandmother, after all. She’ll have parties, and the children will be so spoiled. This will give her a reason to go on. Another piece of her late husband, her son. Trudy will be thrilled.”

Jack heard that and felt a scream rise in him. He wouldn’t have anyone to tell that would be thrilled. “Jack, please, don’t. You have a real family, remember?”

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

“I saw it on your face, my darling. Never worry about the Pengroves. I’ll plan for our travel soon. For now, we’ll find out more about your real kin.”

“What if they hate me too?”

“Perish the thought,” Rodney told him. “I will put such a spell on them if they so much as look at you wrong. Jack, regardless of your past and your family ties, real and adopted, you do have a family now, and it’s a fabulous family with a lot of money and influence! Oh, the grand wedding we’ll have!”

“W-wedding?”

Maltin growled, “Slow down, Rodney.”

“Oh, it’s inevitable, Malty! The white lilies and real Irish lace, Asian silks, pearls from the seven seas! I must plan!”

“Not yet! Can I at least ask him first?”

Jack leaned on him and whispered, “Not yet. Let’s…I don’t know, find out more. Please?”

“Anything you want, Jack.”

He sighed audibly and squeezed his hand. “I guess I should make an appointment with my doc. See if I have…a uterus. Where will the baby come out?”

“Babies,” Rodney said, pointing to the part of the page that states it. “Being very rare for two hellhound fated mates to find one another, nature compensates for this by giving the parents multiple births.”

“That could just mean…”

“No, dear,” Rodney said. “Look here. A litter. Literally a litter.”

Jack’s hand on his stomach pressed in a little. “Gosh…”

“Baby don’t worry right now. It says that it takes a few tries even to get pregnant. We’ll go to the doctor, and then we’ll go to your families. The former and the biological.”

“It’s a lot,” he said, and I noticed his voice was shaking.

Rodney slammed the book shut and placed it out of their reach on the coffee table, then went to the bar, poured them all a drink, and then thought better of it. “Perhaps, only for Maltin and myself?”

Jack nodded, unwilling to risk his…babies. Puppies, Litter. He felt queasy and didn’t know if it was fear, nerves, or morning sickness. “This is a lot.”

“Go up and lie on the bed for a while, baby. Rodney and I will order some food, and I’ll make the necessary appointment with my doctor.”

“I have a doctor.”

Rodney laughed and said, “Pish, posh, young man! I can’t imagine the roach-infested clinic you must use. Go to Maltin’s doctor. He was always a snob about his health.”

“Fuck off, Uncle Rodney,” Maltin told him as he helped Jack off the couch. “Go, sweetheart. I’ll fetch you when the food is here.”

Jack went up to the bedroom and lay on the bed, but his mind was spinning. He thought crazily that he could feel things in his stomach, like tiny creatures moving around in there. Crazy, he thought. Even if he was pregnant, it was much too early to feel anything.

Still, he lay with his hand on his belly, and he suddenly felt warm, thinking that little ones would grow there and they’d be his.

His. Unlike his family, who hated him for not having their powers, the children he bore would be his, and he’d watch them grow and never, ever place expectations on them. They would grow to be whatever they wanted and if they weren’t hellhounds, then fine! They could be human or shifter turtles, for all he cared. Whatever they were, he’d love them so much it would make up for all the parents in the world who judged and disowned their own kids for not being what they wanted.

“I’ll love you, no matter what. If you’re in there, know that first. I’ll love you no matter what.”