Chapter Three

Blake

The living room was empty. So I made a dash for the kitchen. Even as teenagers Duke and Blithe mostly lived in the kitchen of whatever house they were currently at. It didn't surprise me that they and their mates still spent a lot of time in the kitchen.

Syre, Duke's mate, rocked their baby girl in the dark wood rocking chair. My heart leapt into my throat, and inside his inner sanctum, my wolf's tail wagged. It took all my self-control not to try to pick up Duchess right then and there. Instead, I waved hi to Syre and made a b-line for the sink. I washed my hands twice before drying them just to be sure they were clean enough for Duke's liking. I loved how protective he was over his little baby.

"Let's move to the living room," Duke said, walking back into the kitchen as Jonah washed his hands. "That way everyone has somewhere comfortable to sit."

We all shuffled into the living room with Duchess and her two kitten cousins in tow. I wanted to hold all the babies. After all the kittens were Lee's grandbabies. So many little babies being born in to our family while we were still having babies of our own. I wondered how many generations we'd get to see before our doors showed up.

"Many, many more," Jonah said over our mating link as we sat down on the sofa.

Syre kissed Baby Duchess's head before passing her off to us. My heart skipped a beat when my granddaughter looked up at me blinking. Jonah smoothed down her thick, dark hair. She looked so much like Duke. She was perfect. I'd never met an imperfect baby, but until I was a granddad I secretly thought our babies were the most perfect. I couldn't imagine what would keep Fred away from this tiny baby. He knew all about her. Duke and Syre told everyone about her. She was rightfully the center of their universe right now.

"She's so precious," I said, finally glancing up at Duke and Syre.

"She's perfect," Syre grinned.

"They always are," Jonah nodded.

"We were hoping for a small favor," Syre said and Duke bit his lip.

"Bring back my stuff if you want me to get the checkbook out," Jonah laughed.

"Oh! No!" Duke shook his head fast. "We're good. We just wondered if you'd watch her while we took a nap."

"Oh!" I laughed. "You know we will."

"We didn't want to assume you'd just be free babysitting," Syre said.

"We're here to visit and help," I said.

"We know. We just --- We don't want to be those parents. We love her to death. We love all of them to death," Syre glanced at Blithe and Cord's sleeping kittens.

"We're just tired," Duke laughed.

"Go on then," Jonah waved them off. "Sleep. We're here and she'll be fine."

"Our milk is in the blue. The pink is Cord's," Syre said as Duke wrapped an arm around him and started to lead him out of the living room. "They've crossed before, but we try not to because we don't know if they have the right stuff for each other and---"

"We have it," I grinned. "Really, rest. Take all the naps you can squeeze in."

Before long, Blithe and Cord took their kittens off for a nap too. With the baby cuddled up in my arms we went for a walk. When I first visited Heartville, everyone thought I might be a little pissed off that Bobby and Liam lived in my parents' home. I wasn't. Mostly because after my crazy stalker attacked in the middle of the night, Fred crashed through the roof to save Jonah. Only that meant a large portion of the house was remade. It wasn't the same house my parents had lived in. It wasn't the same house I'd loved and grown up in. Besides, I was just happy that a happy family lived there. I'd never know for sure, but I figured my parents would like that better than the house sitting empty. Still, my feet carried me to their backyard. It was the last place I'd seen my parents alive after all. I waved to Liam through his kitchen window and stretched out on the grass with Jonah beside me and Baby Duchess on my chest. This was how I visited my parents now. Lee had met our carrier in the afterlife and assured me our parents moved on, but some very Earthside part of my brain couldn't wrap itself around that fact. So, I still had to visit them. Besides, all traditions surrounding the dead were really about the living. Once a soul moved on, I figured they didn't care much about if they were honored or not. Sure, they still cared about their loved ones, but I hoped they were beyond worrying about the rest of it. I hoped my parents were reborn and had found each other all over again by now. If they hadn't, I still hoped they were happy. I needed them to be happy as much as I needed my kids to be happy.

"I wonder if they met in the afterlife," Jonah said, rolling onto his side to face me. "My parents and yours that is."

"I bet they did," I grinned up at him. "I bet they at least met in passing. They have to have some connection of their own, right? They're practically family."

"Not even practically, mate. If they were all alive now, they'd be here too," Jonah said and kissed my forehead.

We both fell silent, comfortably into our own thoughts and Baby Duchess dozed off as babies are like to do. Jonah nuzzled his chin onto my shoulder and whisper-sang to the sleeping baby. It was the song he wrote about Baby Joy coming into the world. My eyes stung with tears as he sang. Even after all these years it was like he sang straight to my heartstrings. I turned my face and kissed his forehead. Soon, we'd have another baby. I knew that soft, tender expression taking over his faced as he sang to our grandkid. I was ready for another one too. Lee wouldn't be thrilled about it. He was starting to joke that the kids outnumbered us, but we were a happy family.