Page 98 of Axton

She looked around the room. “You no more love me, daddy.” She whimpered, and we all knew that was the trouble all along. She hadn’t had a year with Creed and Morgan after everything she went through and a few times in foster care during her lifetime

“Do you love mommy and daddy less because you love your aunts and uncles so much?” He asked.

She shook her head no.

“I’ve told you time and time again. Love grows and there’s always enough for everyone. Today, you’re about to meet your two bestest friends ever and they are going to love you as much as mommy and daddy do.”

I could see the moment Addie gave in and decided she would at least meet the two little intruders. Creed gave her a hug then stood. “Colton Darren Creed was born first, and he came into the world at a whopping eight pounds three ounces, and Cole Tanner Creed came five minutes later at eight pounds five ounces. Morgan and the babies are healthy and everything went very smoothly. Her mother is with her now and she’s trying to breastfeed, but Zoey said everyone can come back and meet them soon.”

“Those are huge twins!” Wrenly said.

“No wonder she was so miserable.” Bolton said.

“Any word on her gastrointestinal issues?” Magnus asked.

Creed chuckled and shook his head. “So far, so good. She’s overwhelmed and so am I, just this is crazy.”

“It’s the hardest you’ll ever fall.” Granger said.

Creed nodded. “Intense to say the least, they’re absolutely perfect with a lot of dark hair and they have all their fingers and toes.”

Everyone hugged him and congratulate him, then he announced he was taking Addie back and would come back for us when it was time.

Chapter Thirty-One

Belle

Iwoke to lips trailing down the back of my neck and a hand squeezing my breast. Five minutes later he was cursing the promises he made himself not to allow himself to sink into my warmth until we were spiritually married. I was stroking him as he made me orgasm to his fingers again. I didn’t understand why he was so determined not to be inside me. We did everything else, so why not? His reply was always the same. He said I would soon understand. I concluded that it had nothing to do with his need for a real wedding, and it wasn’t about me. I thought it was possible it had to do with Natalie. I heard the story about the night they slept together, and I heard a lot of regret in his voice. He explained that he grew up with a mother that didn’t have much respect for her own body. He laid in bed at night trying to drown out the sounds of his mother giving herself to random men, and when Natalie took his virginity he felt like she made it about something physical that meant nothing, just like his mother. He spent years in love with the girl next door and would day dream about their first time. I believed with every part of me that Michael was truly in love with Natalie, even at that young of an age. She crushed his dreams of their lives together that night, and from that day on he treated sex like aphysical act, and he felt no emotion toward anyone he shared a bed with again. He was disconnected emotionally. He didn’t want that with us, he was doing the same thing with me as he did with her, daydreaming about the first time he came inside me. He needed to feel security in the ultimate commitment, and he felt I would eventually regret not waiting for a spiritual wedding. Like somehow it would be a spiritual connection between us. That might have been my fault. When he first came to me with the idea of marriage for the sole purpose of stopping Jeremy, I did say a legal marriage wasn’t a real one and I could walk away from it. I made it sound easy to leave, but now I was in love with him, and I wanted our legal marriage to be as real as a spiritual one. I didn’t know I would distance myself so much from our practices and beliefs back home. I ultimately believed that Michael was grasping back onto the boy he once was because his hopes and dreams were coming to life again.

His lips were on mine as he laid on top me and I rocked my hips to rub against his hardness. He came on my stomach then recovered for a moment before carrying me to the shower.

He was saying goodbye. The night before, he told me he thought he found my mother’s location and would be heading out with a large group of operatives in the morning. Magnus, Granger, and Irons were heading out with them. I was scared for him and my mama as he kissed my tears. His hands clasped my face as the warm water of the shower ran down our naked bodies. My fear for him and my mama only grew the closer it came to his time to leave. My stuff was packed, and I was going to Wrenly’s house to stay with her while they were gone.

“I’m going to do everything I can to bring her back safe.” He promised.

“I’m not just scared for her, Michael. I love you.”

He pulled me into him and held me in his arms. “I love you too. Are you sure you’re going to be okay here without me?”

“I’m not scared of the boogie man anymore, Michael. I don’t need a dark room to feel safe. I have Creed, Wrenly, Baros, Drakos, and Addie.”

He chuckled when he kissed the top of my head. “I’d say close to Addie, she’s the toughest one of all.”

An hour later, I was standing with Wrenly as all the trucks pulled away in a convoy. He said he would probably be gone a few days at most, but maybe not even that long. They needed to do some of what he called recon before they made any moves. He left his personal cell at home and only took his business phone with him, but he would be in contact with the command center.

Wrenly and I made our way to Morgan’s house to pick up Addie. She said she had enough of the crying and daddy was suffocating her. He was wanting too much cuddle time, and it was getting gross. I guess he wanted her right beside him and Morgan at all times, so she didn’t feel left out, but it was getting to be too much for a little girl that liked some independence.

I gushed over the twins when Wrenly and I held them. They were so adorable, and already looked like their daddy. They didn’t have Morgan’s intensely light blue eyes, they had Creed’s. They had so much fuzzy black hair it was almost too cute. Creed hovered like a protective daddy that thought nobody ever held a baby before, and that was just as cute. He also hovered over Morgan, barely letting her do much of anything. He was even changing diapers, which never would have happened back home. My dad had nearly fifty babies and never changed one diaper. I even wondered if he held every single one of us. I was sure it wasn’t easy keeping all of our names straight too.

“Which one am I holding?” I asked as I placed his tiny little hat back over his fuzzy black hair.

“That’s Cole.” Addie said. “He doesn’t cry as much as Colton.”

I smiled, but didn’t point out that Addie said all that without a hint of a speech problem.

I glanced at Wrenly, and I saw something in her eyes that was different. She was sad and I could tell she was uncomfortable holding Colton. I wondered if she maybe never held a baby before or maybe she knew a baby that died, because the expression I caught told me looking at him was painful. Colton began crying and she quickly handed him off to Creed. The baby looked so tiny in his arms, and I imagined Michael holding his own child. Creed was hands on with his children, like nothing I had ever seen before, and I wondered if Michael would be the same. I had a feeling he would, especially after I learned how he was always taking care of others. He was the problem solver, the one everyone relied on when things didn’t go as planned.

After gushing over the twins, Wrenly and I took Addie ice skating, then I watched a movie in a theater for the first time. It was fun and Addie was very well behaved. We had dinner at the mess hall, then we went bowling with Stephanie and her kids, which was a blast.

---