Chapter 11

Chapter

Eleven

W ade and Daniel were off doing god knew what—undoubtedly trying to find a way out of this maze they were so well trapped in.

Morgan thought it was incredibly unfair that his brothers weren't here, and he was stuck in this house that he didn't even really like. They should be here to keep him company and to be all grumpy and uncle-y and?—

"I'm not sure where you guys went, but you're assholes for deserting me," Morgan said to the air.

He trailed through Max and Marcus's hoards, straightening up here and there, then messing things up a little, hoping that that would irritate them enough that they'd come back. It was easy to get lost in the piles and the familiarity of his brothers' collections.

So he wandered. Rested and gathered energy. Bumped things with his enormous belly. Got up and wandered some more.

He yammered to his brothers the entire way.

"I know you guys would love this. I know that you would. Why aren't you here? You could tease me and tell me I looked fat and…you're going to be uncles.

"I just know you're going to give me shit about Wade. I know it, I just… I denied him for a long time. I guess I finally just got tired of running.

"Of course, now I'm stuck here. I blame you."

Morgan found a dusty old chair that looked comfortable amongst a pile of gold coins from, well, he didn't have any idea where to be honest. He cleaned the chair off and made sure there was absolutely zero trace of animal poop or scary insects.

Once he was satisfied, he plopped down and then curled up and closed his eyes.

He went right to sleep, dreaming about the laughing baby boy that was growing inside him.

Strong arms lifted him out of the chair, where he hovered for a moment, then someone let him down easily into their lap.

"You'd better be Wade."

"Mmmhmm. I am. Hey, love. Took me forever to find you." Wade nuzzled his cheek, warm and good.

"There's gold all over."

"Is there? We were dealing with Daniel's diamonds."

"Are you all done with that?" Daniel's diamonds had a nice bit of consonance.

"Yes. I needed to find you." Wade tilted his chin up to kiss him, which woke him up good and proper.

He wrapped his arms around Wade's neck. "Oh, hello."

"Hi." Those near-black eyes twinkled. "I missed you."

"I know. We seem to be orbiting each other."

"Not anymore. I need to be with you." Wade stroked his hair, his cheeks, the callused hands making him hum with pleasure.

"Oh, good." He hiccupped, the tears surprising him. "I want you with me too."

"I have my priorities straight now. I know what I need to do." Wade kissed his neck. "You two are it. Daniel is on his own for a bit."

"You're done buckling your swash with him for a while?" He understood. Wade and Daniel lived to one-up each other.

"I am." Wade laughed. "Old habits die hard. Now, what have you discovered?"

"Gold, mostly. A lot of gold. They have gold hidden behind all sorts of things." He didn't approve. He wanted the precious metal stacked and orderly, accounted for so that they knew exactly what there was. His brothers played altogether too fast and loose with important things. "And very many comfortable chairs." He glanced up at Wade, feeling a touch vulnerable. "I missed you."

He realized that the irony of this—given that he had been the one leaving for almost all of their hundreds of years of relationship—was vast, but he also didn't care.

He'd spent an enormous amount of time in Wade's company now, and he wanted that attention back. He wanted to touch and kiss and snuggle.

"Yes, I'm sorry. I had gotten distracted with other things. I guarantee you that I am focused on what I need to be."

Morgan liked to hear that, and he found his mate a real smile. "Well, that's good. I would hate for you to be…ill-focused."

And while he didn't intend to share all of his worries, he had them in spades. For instance, none of them knew anything about having babies, about delivering babies.

And worst? He wasn't sure what they were going to do when the time got there. He supposed people had been doing it for millennia. He'd figure it out, but it was still a touch unnerving.

He did want Wade to understand that he would miss his mate if they were apart.

"Mmm. I have you, love. I promise. I've got it now." Wade grinned down at him. "And we'll figure out the baby thing."

"You seem unconcerned." He poked Wade in the chest. "This is because you are not the one carrying the baby."

Wade sobered. "I am supremely concerned, love. I am. But I am also confident we can handle this."

"We can," Morgan said it in a firm voice, because maybe that would make him believe it. Then he sighed and leaned his head against Wade's chest. "I'm a little freaked out."

"I can tell." Wade just petted him with long strokes of one big hand against his back. "And I'm sorry I left you alone so long to be with your thoughts. I'm going to have to remember that you're not running from me anymore. Old habits and all that."

"I'm not running. I mean, where am I going to run?" he teased. "The house ate us."

"Ha-ha." Wade pinched his hip, just hard enough to make him jump a little. "Be good."

A bit of the devil that he had in him raised its head. "Now why would you want that?"

"I don't." Wade's words almost—almost hurt his feelings. "I don't want you to be anything other than you are right now."

Morgan didn't think that anybody had ever said anything sweeter, and that was the truth.

"Tell me you're not mad at me about getting you trapped in this house." He peppered Wade's face with little kisses.

"It could be worse." Wade winked, offering him a little half grin. "It could be in that damn condo."

"Hey! I loved that damn condo."

"I know. I was shocked when you sold it." Wade frowned a little. "You could always have gone back."

Morgan drew patterns on Wade's chest with his finger. "I had to sell it. It's one thing not to age. They can blame that on plastic surgery. But a preggers dude?"

"Yeah. That qualifies as more than eccentric."

"At least those two loved it as much as I did. They were very excited." He'd seen how the couple who bought it had glowed.

"This house is…well, I think we'll find our space in it. Not Max's place, you know? It's butt ugly."

Morgan burst out laughing. That tickled him to his toes. "It so is." Then he glanced up at Wade. "You really think it will be okay?"

"I really do." Wade shrugged. "It doesn't feel ugly. The magic, I mean, and it hasn't let us do anything dangerous. It hasn't tried to trap us."

One of Morgan's eyebrows winged up. "Oh?"

"Stop. I mean, keep us apart from one another, any of us. One of the easiest things for magic to do is to lose something, right? That's part of the most basic magic, but when I misplace you, I know exactly where to find you, even when I don't know where you are in the house. It just doesn't feel like it wants us to be harmed. I have to go with that."

"I hate when you make sense." But Wade did. It made perfect sense that the house was helping, not hurting.

"See? I do have a good thought now and again. Can you guess what I'm thinking about right now?"

Morgan pondered. "Cookies."

"I could go for cookies. I was thinking about food, so bonus points there." Wade chuckled, lifting him as he stood. "We should totally have food."

He hummed, wrapping his arms around Wade's neck. "Can we eat in another comfy chair?"

"Of course, love." Wade nuzzled his ear.

"Are you going to love me forever?"

"Longer than that. You've made all my dreams come true." Wade's smile spoke of nothing but true pleasure, and of love.

"I'm good that way, you know." Morgan hugged his neck, the tension in his spine relaxing.

Wade was right. They were going to figure this out.