Page 137 of Labor of Love

Had he… in front of Thorn’s brothers?

Heat scorched his cheeks.

They saw nothing, Sweetling, you passed out before…

Don’t say it!

Did that excuse what his husband had done? No! They’d most definitely be having words about everything that had happened today. For now, all he wanted was to see and hold his girls.

“The babies…” Searching the room, his heart set off on a race at how normal everything looked, aside from the absence of his girls. “Where are my babies?”

“Calvert and Dacian have taken them into the bathroom to… clean them up,” Thorn replied cautiously, blocking Ledger from his thoughts.

“Stop sugar coating things. And the whole not telling me about how a vampire baby comes out? We’ll talk about later, mister. Are they okay?” Ledger rolled carefully to glance upward at his husband, only to breathe a sigh of relief at how all that came was an ache in his bottom. He caught the scent of the soap he used and how he was no longer a sweaty mess.

How long had he been out of it?

“About half an hour.”

“See, you’re handy at reading me, but you haven’t answered my question. The girls… are they okay?” They had picked names, Maeve and Penelope, but Ledger didn’t want to use them until…

“They are beautiful and look just like their daddy.”

“They do?” His excitement at that washed away the hours of torture.

“Yes, my love. They are as beautiful as you,” Thorn murmured against his lips as he gently brought Ledger to nestle against his chest.

“Don’t you pair dare traumatize us in that way, it was bad enough watching you chew the fu—heck out of Ledger’s neck mid?—”

“If you want to live to see another sunrise, I’d stop there,” Calvert said to his twin.

Ledger rolled off Thorn, sitting up. His ass wasn’t so happy at that move, but he wanted the babies in his arms. He wiggled his fingers at both vampires, who each held a swaddled bundle in their arms. “Bring Maeve and Penelope to me.”

Ledger found it more than a little amusing how both vampires appeared reluctant to relinquish the children they had moaned about. They had insisted the twins would disrupt life in the house, but now they looked so smitten. He suspected the ribbing had all been for show.

Thorn shifted around him and moved Ledger to rest against his naked chest, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. Once the girls were placed in Ledger’s arms, it was like Thorn was cocooning all three of them.

Blonde heads peeked out of the fleece bundles. The girls were identical to each other, as far as Ledger could tell. Honey-colored eyes the same as his, more focused than he expected, stared back at him from the cutest faces and his heart melted. With a surge of joy, he realized he could feel the connection a part of him had secretly worried wouldn’t be there because he was divergent. It was more beautiful than a rainbow appearing through sunshine on rain-soaked clouds. It was bold and perfect.

A shudder of relief ran through him at how wrong his parents had been. They had rejected him, told him it was because he was divergent. That divergents were inherently different and therefore couldn’t create the same bond with a shifter child.

They are wrong, my love. You are the most precious thing, and our babies already know this.

As he listened, his nose twitched, and he smelled baby powder and…blood.

“Have you fed them… blood?” he asked with concern. Thorn had already explained how the girls would feed from him, taking his milk and blood together. However, with Thorn keeping secrets from him, his temper was about to be unleashed if they’d carried out some other ritual type thing without his knowledge.

“No. No, most definitely not. The blood you scent is yours and mine,” Thorn rushed to reassure. “I bit you to seal my bond, to them and you, and you had to bite me as the first child…”

His pulse stopped doing a tap dance on the wall of his chest at the truth. “Ate her way out of my ass,” Ledger supplied with more amusement than he’d ever thought he’d have after… Okay, he couldn’t quite remember that part, which was probably for the best.

Thorn winced internally at his description, and Ledger grinned at his girls in delight.

“Yes.” Everything about that one word conveyed Thorn’s awkwardness.

“I think that’s our cue to leave them to it, brother.” Calvert pushed Dacian towards the bedroom door.

“Thank you for everything.” Ledger glanced at both vampires, meaning it, though exactly what they did during that ordeal, he didn’t want to think too hard on.

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