Page 1 of Interlude

Lila

I’m frozen on Silac’s lap, and his arms have tightened around me in his anger. I hear him hiss aggressively, but I stare down at the beautiful, deadly man in front of me, and I’m kind of speechless. I know Bubby said he’d been acting suspiciously, but I had never considered this was the reason why. Brannock’s eyes glisten with shame and guilt, and I really don’t know what to say or do. Thankfully, one of the others does.

Xavier waves a hand, and Brannock is wrapped in bands of light and dragged up off the floor until he floats in the air, completely trapped. He doesn’t struggle or fight, just heaves a resigned sigh at my warlock mate’s actions.

“Please let me explain,” he begs. Thankfully, Link is able to keep a cool head and organize everyone around me.

“Cas, do you and the cats want to take the kids back to our place and get them settled?” In the wake of the announcement, Ghosie, Max, and Echo hurried to soothe the crying toddlers. Each of them holds one of our babies, who blink wearily, their faces blotchy with tears.

Cas and Max look torn between wanting to comfort our kids and finding out what Brannock is talking about, but Ghosie and Echo are completely focused on the little ones.

“I’ll go,” Ghosie offers, “if the alpha doesn’t mind me accompanying his omega. You two look like you want to be involved.” A rush of warmth flows over me at the bear’s thoughtfulness. He really is nothing like how he portrayed himself to his brethren.

Cas bites his lip and looks carefully at the carevasta bear. He just joined us, and we don’t know enough about him yet to blindly trust him with our babies, but Xavier waves his hand.

“I fully interrogated him while we were on the ship. I even dug into his mind, and he isn’t hiding anything. Everything he told us about his faction of bears is true. They do love their children, and much like warlocks, they wouldn’t do anything to harm them or Echo,” he says to reassure the alpha and father.

“Are you okay with that, Echo?” Max asks our omega, who quickly nods his head.

“Yes, if Xavier says he can be trusted, then that’s good enough for me. He also helped our mate, so that gives him points in my opinion.” Echo smiles gently at the multicolored bear. There isn’t a single aggressive bone in his body. He’s so sweet and accepting.

“Cas?” I ask, and he stares intensely at the bear, his eyes flicking from his own lovely, stormy blue to the black of his beast. It’s like they are having an internal conversation. I know the feeling well.

“Yes, that’s fine, but if you do anything to hurt our babies or omega, we will eat you,” he threatens in the growl of his beast, his eyes are pure black.

Ghosie bows his head respectfully. “I would expect nothing less.”

Echo takes Jack from Max, as I push Silac’s arms away from me. He’s reluctant to let me go, but they drop away, and I give my children kisses, trying to soothe them, but they seem perfectly content snuggled into the bear’s and cat’s fur. I guess that is one bonus of having fur. I whisper to them to sleep well and then move out of the way so Cas can also do the same. The rest are too focused on Brannock to do anything, not to mention Saxon and Tirrian who are frozen, but the babies don’t seem to care.

The five of them take their leave, and Cas and I return our focus to the Aaz’axian. Eric and William look furious and are glaring at him, but John looks sad.

“We gave you a home,” he says mournfully. I think he feels disappointed. I know I am.

“Yes, and I’ve struggled since the moment you treated me with more respect than anyone who knew my race ever did,” Brannock tells my grandpa, who has sat back down, the toll from his illness showing in the strain in his face.

“I don’t understand. You told us you weren’t compatible with other races and that you never finished with your wife. How can there be a child?” Xavier asks, his confusion evident in his tone, but before Brannock can answer, Link steps in and puts his hand on my warlock mate’s shoulder.

“Why don’t we all take a seat and talk about this calmly?” He waves at all the chairs that were pushed back and overturned in everyone’s annoyance.

“Fine, but he stays contained until we get to the bottom of this,” Xavier argues as the rest of us return to the seats we were in.

“What about these two?” I ask, stopping between a frozen Saxon and Tirrian, and Xavier winces.

“I think I’ll leave them like that for now. Their anger is explosive, and they can’t think straight. They are likely to harm him before we can get the whole story.”

“They will be angry at you,” Max murmurs as he retakes his seat, the one Echo sat in next to him empty now.

“I don’t envy you,” William remarks, agreeing with Max, “but I think you are right. Can they still hear the story?”

“Yes, of course,” Xavier answers.

“Then leave them. All that growling and aggression won’t help now. We don’t want to trigger Brannock’s berserker mode. He seems calm and rational for now, and that’s how we want to keep him,” Eric says through gritted teeth. He is slow to anger, but when he does, it’s like the flames of hell are fueling his rage. “Plus, it will be easier to kill him if we don’t trigger it,” he adds, and I’m not even surprised. My family is all about protecting ourselves, so I’m surprised nobody popped him the minute he made that announcement. Maybe we’re maturing.

Xavier moves Brannock with a flick of his wrist, so that he’s now floating above the table we sit around. He makes him spin slowly so he can see everyone at the round table, and I’m going to guess to also keep him slightly off balance in case he tries anything. He looks like he’s not going anywhere though—Xavier’s bands of light are tight.

“Start with the child, and we will get back to Smith,” William demands.

I sit down, this time in the chair next to Silac that Ghosie had been in. I take his hand and give it a squeeze, because he keeps hissing violently and flaring his hood. I hadn’t even noticed he changed from his two-legged form to his half form. His large snake body is curled up under him, and his scales rustle restlessly in agitation.

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