Page 239 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

I got home in time for lunch, and after feeding my little warrior, we went back to Bells room. Violet was curious about why I was on my phone so much, so I showed her what I had planned. She nodded at me when she saw the texts, and crawled back into bed with Bells, while Cory went to make the calls he needed.

People came and went throughout the afternoon. Some were unable to do more than cry with her. Others tried to distract her with jokes and stories. In the afternoon, Violet and I left to shower, and set up everything after dinner. Once everything was ready, we texted everyone it was time and went up to grab Bells.

“Come on. Put this on. We have a surprise for you,” Violet pulled her out of bed, while I handed Alpha Markus and Luna Celeste their clothes for the evening.

Alpha Markus chuckled a little, but humored us.

“Violet, I’m a grown woman. I’m not wearing this,” I heard Bells complaining as they changed inside. I chuckled and walked to my room to change quickly, before I made it back to the room. Bells walked out with Violet in their onesie pajamas, stopping short as they looked at me in my own pair. Bells burst out laughing and I grinned, despite my embarrassment. It was good to see her laugh.

“Where did you find those?” she asked.

“It was all they had in my size at the department store,” I defended, looking down at my solar system onesie pajamas. “You should see what the rest are wearing.”

“The rest?” she asked.

“Yep. Come on.”

I took her down to the conference rooms. There was one that had a partition connecting two of the rooms. With it drawn back, the room was huge. Over the last few hours, I’d bargained and called in favors from people around the two packs. They picked up and filled the room with a massive sectional that resembled two king size beds and then we had pull-out couches around it. They set up tables against the wall, where Violet and I had spread out all of the junk food and drinks. Elim brought his projector earlier, and set it up in the back of the room.

When I opened the door and let Bells in, she paused and took in the room and everyone in it. I could see the emotions warring in her face between sadness and laughter. Eventually, laughing won out. At least, I thought so, until she burst into tears right in the middle of it.

“You guys look fucking ridiculous,” she cried and laughed. “Are you supposed to be a bear?” she asked her cousin.

“Not just any bear. A mighty bear,” Miguel responded, flexing his arms at her, and sending her into more giggles.

It was a fascinating and heartbreaking thing to see, the way she was laughing so much, even as the tears flowed from her face.

I had sent a text to all of her family. Guardian Moon’s ranked and Crescent Moon’s ranked family were both here with their brood. I cleaned out three department stores of all of their onesies and essentially created a grown-up slumber party for Bells. The couches were all pull-out and were set up as closely around each other as possible. No one but Bells would likely sleep tonight. Everyone was going to be wishing they could spend these last hours with her, and her room wasn’t big enough to accommodate us all. So, I created a massive bedroom, so she didn’t have to pick who spent the night with her. My laptop was hooked up to the projector with every subscription I had at the ready.

“We wanted to have a sleepover,” I told her.

Much like the other day, her bottom lip trembled before she rushed over and hugged me.

“Fucking pregnancy hormones,” she grumbled when she pulled back, making everyone laugh.

Alpha Markus dragged his little girl over to the middle of the giant sectional, and had her sit in the middle. I brought over the brownies I bought specially for her.

“Keep these by your side or they’ll be gone quicker than you can blink,” I warned her.

She pulled them tight to her chest and nodded seriously at me. The rest of us settled wherever we could find. I grabbed my laptop and pulled the extension cord until it reached the spot I’d taken next to Violet.

“Oooh, one of my favorites,” she gasped as Lilo and Stitch came on.

Cory chuckled, having been one of the two people I asked about her favorite movies, to make sure I had enough of her favorites accessible on my laptop, to last us through the night.

After Lilo and Stitch, we moved on to Finding Nemo, the Homeward Bound series and Hocus Pocus. A few, I avoided, due to the content. Like Coco and The Family’s Stone. I knew what those would do under the circumstances.

People only stood to grab snacks or use the restroom, their spots usually taken by someone if it was close to Bells, who was in and out of sleep through the night, safely nestled between her parents and surrounded by her siblings.

‘Thank you for this, Chris,’Alpha Markus reached out halfway through the night.

‘It was the least I could do,’I told him.

‘No. The least you could do was nothing. Instead, what you’ve done is provide a shoulder to lean on to both my daughters and made them very happy. There are not enough thanks I can muster to tell you how much that means to me and Celeste,’he finished, his voice breaking at the end.

‘They did the same for me, sir. I’m just responding with the same support they’ve given me,’I barely managed to say.‘You raised amazing children.’

I sneaked a glance at the center of the room, doing my best to swallow back the emotion while I watched Luna Celeste combing her hand through Bells’ hair as she slept. The other hand was holding tightly to Alpha Markus’ hand while they both silently cried, as they watched their oldest daughter sleep. I had to look away before I started crying. It would end up being a domino effect, and I didn’t want Bells to wake up to everyone sobbing over her. I wanted this night to be a happy memory for her.

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