Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 60198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 301(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
“You deserved it,” Karl says, stepping back into the room with our baby in his arms. She is sleepy and snuggly, and quite content for the moment. I look at her and I wonder how anyone could ever fail a kid the way our parents did. It seems utterly unthinkable. I love my daughter more fiercely than I have ever loved anyone. I would die for her in an instant, and I know Karl would too.
My mother licks her lips.
“No, Mom!”
“I’m not going to eat her!” My mother sounds offended.
“You’re not going to hold her either,” I tell her. “This is as close as either of you get for a good while.”
“I just wanted to see her,” my mother says. Orion nods along, approving.
“She’s beautiful,” he says. I feel myself softening because he said something nice about my baby, but it’s only a temporary thing.
“Well, we plan to keep her that way,” I say, subtly reminding him of the scar on his son’s face.
“You know what’s funny?” My mother speaks up. “It’s that the two of you think you are better than us, when the truth is you are exactly what we are. You are brutal, ruthless murderers, and she will be too.”
“Maybe,” I agree. “But we’ll look after our own. Because that’s what family does.”
“Exactly,” she says. “And that is why the two of you are in this lovely house, with all this money. Because family looked after you.”
Karl
If you’ve ever seen a postpartum woman shift into a wolf and attack a woman wearing a cornflower blue pantsuit, you know how fucking funny it is.
Margaret doesn’t know what the fuck hit her. Of course she shifts into her werewolf form just to survive the altercation, but she still ends up pretty savaged. To her credit, she manages to avoid attacking back until Ellie can be pulled off her, butt-naked, her human form covered in blood and screaming blue murder.
I look down, certain that this will be scaring the baby, but Yvie lets out a little giggle and stuffs her fist into her mouth with glee.
“I needed that,” Ellie says when the rage has subsided a little.
She struts out of the room, shameless and bloody. I follow her to the bathroom where she showers and I play with the baby before she feeds her.
“Do you think I overreacted?” She asks me the question as she sits in the rocking chair in our bedroom, baby drinking happily.
“Not at all,” I say. “If anything, I think you under-reacted.”
She smiles at me broadly. “I love you,” she says. “You always back me up.”
“Always, baby,” I assure her. “Always.”
“What are we going to do about them?” She gestures with her head to downstairs.
“I don’t think your mom wants to eat the baby. But I don’t think that means she won’t if the mood takes her.”
“Yeah. I mean, she didn’t eat me,” Ellie says. “And I guess she didn’t eat Connor either. Overall, she has eaten zero babies.”
“Doesn’t mean she’s proved herself,” I say. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of them.”
I go to see what the elders are doing. Margaret has managed to procure another pantsuit, this one in a sort of fawn beige that does a good job of hiding her heinous strength. Baldwin has assisted with the bandaging.
“You need to get your mate under control,” my father says.
“Oh, relax, Orion,” Margaret says. “It was barely a scratch.”
“I won’t be getting my mate under control. In fact, I think I’m going to let her off the leash more often,” I say.
My father looks taken aback. He got used to me being his yes man before he left. He probably expects deference now, but I am alpha now. He bows to me.
“Well,” Margaret says, straightening her pants. “The two of you could certainly do with some pointers on hosting.”
“We’re not hosting. You weren’t invited.”
“True,” my father says, rising to his feet. “We wanted to see the baby. We saw the baby. It’s a baby.”
“Hm,” I agree.
He helps Margaret to her feet. “We’re proud of you, son,” he says. “This house feels like a home again. There’s two things that make an alpha an alpha, and that’s babies and blood.”
“Alright, Dad. Enjoy your… honeymoon?”
“Oh, imagine if we got married, Orion!” Margaret laughs. “It would make these two step-brother and sister.”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I growl.
“I could be your mommy,” she says brightly. The chaos in this woman is not contained. I am sure my father thinks he has her under control. I could tell him he does not, but he’s got the silly smile of a man who thinks he knows better. He is about to live out the consequences of his taste, and nobody can save him from that fate.
CHAPTER 15
Ellie
Putting a baby into a real car seat is like doing origami with the most precious thing in my life. Yvie doesn’t like being confined, and reacts to the straps like she’s being water-boarded. Her shrill cries of fury only abate once the car starts moving and the world becomes a mobile for her amusement.