Page 131 of Pucking the Enemy

I shrugged my shoulders, laughing lightly. “I’m not that surprised. That’s the kind of person she is.”

“Well, she won’t be going anywhere near you. You’re my daughter now, and I’ll be damned if I let a toxic creature like that around my family. Social-climbing, two-faced bitch.”

My eyebrows rose at her swearing, but I held back a laugh.

The rightness of the situation settled into my chest. Caroline was far more maternal than my mother had ever been. I was lucky she was claiming me as her own.

“So… I’m guessing you rejected her demand?” I asked, biting my lip.

Caroline sat up straighter, a mischievous grin creeping onto her face. “Of course. I may have also alerted all my friends that she wasn’t a very nice person, and that I personally would refuse to attend any event, gala, or ball she was in attendance at.”

I gaped at her.

She had assassinated my mother’s social life.

Don’t get me wrong, she had been doing a stellar job of that herself, but this would have been the final nail in the coffin.

If someone had the opportunity to have my mother or a Kingswood at their event, they would pick a Kingswood every time.

I barked out a laugh. “You are evil, and I love you.”

Caroline beamed at me, then down at Henry. “I’ll happily be evil to protect my family. According to our lawyers, her petition for custody was thrown out almost immediately, so there’s no need to worry about that, ever again. Now!” She turned back to me. “We should discuss Henry’s baby shower. Seeing as we didn’t get to have it, we need to do something with the gifts.”

“Actually, I have a friend who’s a single mother, and her baby is almost a year old. She’s the sister of one of the guys’ teammates… I was wondering if she could make use of any of the stuff I don’t need?”

Caroline gave me a pleased smile. “You’ve got a good heart, Hazel. You’re going to make an amazing addition to the Kingswoods.”

Chapter 47

Seb

If someone had told me a year prior that I would be bonded in a pack, with Hazel as my omega, and have a son, I would have given them the phone number for the psych ward.

Yet, there I was. The first few days with Henry had been a learning curve, but we had all been united in our efforts to ensure that Hazel didn’t have to do anything. For every night feeding, we would get him up, change his diaper, and give him to Hazel.

We would also work together to make sure Hazel never wanted for anything. She hardly left the bed, other than for bathroom breaks and one heavily supervised shower.

Picking up my fussing son, I held him in my arms, bouncing him lightly. Sometimes he settled on his own with a bit of attention, but other times, he wanted to eat, and I didn’t want to wake Hazel until I knew it was needed.

She was healing from childbirth. That was some intense shit that I would never have been able to endure.

In my opinion, she was a goddamn superhero.

“Come on, little man,” I cooed quietly, walking around the nest where Hazel slept. Cormac and I were the ones on Hazel and Henry duty. We were taking turns when it came to who slept with her in the nest and did the waking up; that way, none of us were completely sleep deprived.

After ten minutes of fussing, I gave up trying to settle him and carried him over to the nest, where Hazel was already half awake.

“Hey, Hazelnut,” I said softly.

“Hey.” She smiled sleepily at me and carefully sat up. “Does someone need feeding?”

“Well, now you mention it, I am somewhat peckish.” I smirked.

Hazel’s eyes never left Henry. “If you weren’t holding our son, I would be throwing a pillow at you for that remark.” She kept her voice sweet and gentle because she was focused on the baby.

“I know. He’s a good little shield.” I chuckled, handing him over to her as she settled in to feed him. “Water?” I asked. Hazel always got thirsty when she fed Henry.

“And a juice, maybe?”

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