Page 166 of The Aurora Marelup Complete Saga Omnibus

Alaric and Jayce almost choke on their drinks as we watch Tia walking around like a tiny general examining each of us in turn. I watch her move slowly, examining everyone, then she stops in front of Alaric. “Did you do it again, Daddy?” Tia stands there with her fists on her tiny hips, tapping her foot like Aurora does.

Alaric kneels before Tia, getting eye level with her. “I was with you, Grandpa, and Grandma when it would have happened,little one.” Alaric raises his eyebrows, waiting for it to make sense to Tia.

Tia’s little dragon comes to the surface, and scales ripple up and down her arms as she looks at all of her mother’s mates. “Who did it?” she screams, and a small burst of frost shoots out in all directions from her.

Everyone’s eyes widen at her display, and jumps back. “Little one, calm down. Some of your daddies can’t survive your frost,” Aurora says softly, trying to calm Tia down. She’s scary powerful for such a little person.

“Sorry, Daddies. I just want to know what babies are coming.” Tia pouts and sighs, then flops onto the ground with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Little one,” Aurora says, then sits next to Tia. “I believe I’m carrying Dimitri’s and Klaus’s. So a bear and a Lycan baby,” Aurora says with a sappy smile on her face. Her hand absently goes to her stomach and touches it lightly.

Tia pouts a little. “So we get a teddy bear and a puppy?” She raises an eyebrow looking at everyone to see if she’s right.

Slowly, I move past the frost and kneel near Tia. “Baby bears are called cubs. If I’m not mistaken, Lycan babies are called pups,” I say gently to Tia so she can learn the differences.

Her lips form the perfect little “O” as the information sinks. “So, does Daddy Jayce and Daddy Dom have puppies?” Tia asks innocently.

Dominik double blinks as he registers what Tia called him. He looks at Aurora, who’s now white as a sheet. Then back over to me, hoping for me to fix the innocent slip up. Alaric is beside himself, Jayce and Arnulf are giggling with Klaus. I shake my head slowly and try to figure out how to fix this faux pas.

“Little one, how about we call Daddy Dominik by his full name. Momma and the rest of us call him Dom.” I raise myeyebrows and look at Tia, trying to be gentle and serious at the same time.

Tia huffs and rolls her little eyes. “If I must.” She smiles, then turns around, grabs hold of Ladon, and starts walking home.

We watch the twins walk off, apparently done with the family outing. It makes me wonder what the next set of babies will be like. I know those two are insanely close because they are both dragons. But a Lycan and a bear cub, I wonder how close they will be? I guess only time will tell. Everyone except Aurora grabs stuff to carry back. By the looks of it, she’s going to need a nap sooner rather than later.

CHAPTER 130

Jayce

I’m soexcited about the new babies joining the family, it’s not even funny. With the help of Dominik, I set to converting one of the spare bedrooms downstairs into a nursery. We also planned to do a nursery for upstairs so we can stay with the pack while the babies rest.

There are so many plans that need to be made in the short period of time that we have left. I race around, gathering all the necessary items that will be used in both rooms. I try to do it when Aurora’s either sleeping or out of the house to be a great surprise for her. Right now, she’s out with Alaric and her two older children, so my brother and I sit here working on painting the walls and redoing the trim. We’ve already built two cribs upstairs and the two cribs downstairs.

We went with neutral colors in both rooms just in case of a little boy being born or if they’re both little girls. I know that Dimitri and Klaus would be happy either way with whatever gender they end up with. I get that dreamy look in my eye apparently because Dominik comes over and places his hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay, bro? You looked like you were off in your own world.”

“Yeah, just daydreaming about one day having my own pups,” I say and smile. Never in a million years did I think I would be a dad. Things thankfully improved with Tia and Ladon after the discussion Aurora had with them. So I kind of get to experience the dad thing now.

“Trust me, I’m right there with you, Jayce. I can’t wait to see our babies.” Dom comes over to me and hugs me tightly.

“We’ll get there, little brother, don’t worry.” We break the hug and go back to work on the walls, making the two shades of forest green perfect. We wanted a warm woodsy feel to the bedroom.

Periodically I still get lost in my thoughts as I paint the walls. “We have much better odds next time, Dom,” I say, shrugging my shoulders while I paint. To me, it honestly doesn’t matter which of us fathered the next litter. Either way, the pups would be of my bloodline.

“Very true. I like these odds much better.” Dominik smiles and winks at me. We work in relative silence for the next couple of hours, ensuring that the room is absolutely perfect. We return back upstairs to go over the other nursery making sure that the paint dried properly and didn’t require a second coat.

Once all the paint is dry, we go out into the garage to grab the boxes for the babies’ dressers as well as the changing tables. We acquired the help of other pack members to get all the boxes into the rooms they need to be in. Painstakingly slow, we assemble each of the items while assisting each other the best that we can.

It is late afternoon when our work gets interrupted by Aurora and the children. I was just putting up the last of the stencils on the wall, decorating it with different animals. One wall is done as a forest scene; another has the animals that each of us shift into. The third wall we are saving to put the babies’ names on. The final wall we would leave for Aurora to do with whatever she wanted.

Tears shine in Aurora’s pale-grey eyes as she looks on. Slowly, she enters the room and turns in a slow circle taking in all that my brother and I have accomplished while she was gone. Silently, she comes up and hugs and kisses both of us passionately, whispering her thanks.

Through the mate bond, she reaches out to everyone, summoning them into the room that she was currently in. As each of the guys enter, their eyes go wide as saucers as they take in what Dominik and I have accomplished. There is a series of high fives, back claps, and bro hugs to go around. Everyone was very impressed with what we did in the afternoon while they were gone.

My heart swells with love and affection from my bond mates. I didn’t think this small gesture would mean so much to everyone. Dimitri gets bashful and crooks his finger, leading us out of the room that we were in.

He brings us down the hall to the last door on the left that now suspiciously has a lock on it. He unlocks the door, and oddly Arnulf enters first. We bring Aurora to the front and push her into the room before us and as if on cue, the lights flick on. In the corner of the room is a den with a nest inside. Aurora squeals with delight as she runs up and jumps into the pillowy softness that was made for her.

Her actions concern the rest of us. We are worried she will injure herself and or the babies she’s carrying. We rush over and move the curtains aside to find her curled up in the middle of the nest, looking super comfortable.

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