Page 89 of Out of Peril

It was odd feeling like she expected me to have all the answers to life or something. Me? I'd been in captivity for so long, I had no idea how the real world functioned anymore. It was absurd to think anyone would like to come to me for help.

But soon, Lucy, Shelby, and I were all sitting in Walker's living room.

“So what's up?” I started.

They both started talking at once and then stopped and laughed.

“I don't know how much you know about our children, but they could be like you,” Shelby explained.

“I was held in a Raglan facility too,” Lucy surprised me by saying.

“You're an Experiment too?”

I wasn't alone? There were others that had survived and found their way back to humanity too? I suddenly had so many questions.

“Not exactly,” she said, bursting the bubble of excitement that had started to form. “I was artificially inseminated with an embryo that was though.”

“My triplets’ mother was experimented on before they were born, too,” Shelby explained.

“But they look perfectly normal, so what's the concern?”

“We don't know what will happen or what they'll be when they come of age and shift for the first time,” she explained.

“What if they're monsters?” Lucy said. “No offense.”

“None taken.”

“We've heard of the Experiments, but everyone says they have no humanity whatsoever, yet here you are. Were you always like this?”

“No, I wasn't. For a while I was lost within my beast.”

“But you broke free from it,” Shelby insisted.

“I learned to work with my beast. I learned to control her, and I learned to live in harmony with her. Just like every shifter must learn to do. It was harder and took longer, but it is possible. I can’t believe I'm the only one to overcome it.”

The two women hugged and cried.

“They have a chance of a normal life,” Lucy cried.

“It's possible. That's all we needed to hear. It's possible,” Shelby said.

Walker

Chapter 24

The weekend did not go as I had planned. Where I thought we would be happily celebrating our mating with family and friends, we instead opted to heed Kyle's warning and lie low. We didn't even tell Maya and Dante, though Lindsey had wanted to. We’d even argued over it—makeup sex afterwards was totally worth it.

There was no way those munchkins didn't realize something had changed with us, but they were too distracted to say anything. With the triplets living right next door, the five of them spent the weekend running between houses and enjoying their new friendships and freedoms.

Most of the weekend it had rained, though, so that had certainly put a damper on things.

Shelby had given the kids a couple of outfits each to get them through their first week of school, but I knew they were going to need a lot more. My house was kid friendly enough, but as the fun godfather next door, not as a full-time living space.

I had been a bachelor living on my own for a long time and after just one day at home with the four of us, they were already starting to change everything.

The thing was, I really didn't mind.

Instead, I embraced it. And despite the rain on Sunday, I packed everyone up in the car and headed down the mountain and into the city to take them shopping.

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