Page 96 of Knot Our Reality

“Why do you talk weird?” Jasper asks, ignoring the map, to look between the twins. “Both of you.”

“Jasper,” I hiss. “Not appropriate.”

We’re still working on what he can and can’t ask people he’s just met. He’s always been a curious kid, and it only gets worse as he gets older.

“Why not?” he asks, hands on his hips. “I met them before.”

Alexei grins. “He is right. He met us almost a year ago.”

“That doesn’t matter—”

“But it does.” Nikolai lowers himself to the ground so he can be on the same level as Hawk and Jasper. “We were born in another country—Russia. We come here as adults. English not our first language.”

Jasper’s eyes widen. “You were born in Russia? I know where that is! On a map anyway.”

“That is good,” Alexei says. “Now, we choose where we go?”

Both boys look at the map, choosing two different slides they want to ride. It happens every time.

“Okay, boys. You know how this works. We’ll do one first and then the other.”

“Nyet.” Nikolai shakes his head. “There are four adults. I will take one omega and one boy. Alexei take other omega and other boy.”

The boys nod enthusiastically. I should say no, but what the hell?

“Sure, let’s do it. Who am I going with?”

“Nikolai,” Alexei says. “Camden, come with me.”

Camden grins. “Oh, am I now?”

I snicker, which turns into full-out laughter as the twins narrow their eyes at us. I’m fairly certain the joke went right over their heads.

“I’ll explain it on the way,” Camden assures Alexei, slipping his arm through the beta’s. He pats the muscles there and his smile just grows. “Now, which of you are coming with me?”

“I’ll go with Mom,” Hawk says quickly, keeping his eyes on Nikolai. “Jasper, you go with Camden.”

“Okay.” Jasper skips over and slips his hand into Camden’s. “Let’s do this.”

I shake my head, running my hand through my eldest’s hair. “You don’t always have to look out for me, baby.”

“I don’t know this alpha. I need to,” is all he says before stepping up to Nikolai. “Tell me about Russia.”

Which is how I end up trailing one of my potential alphas and my son around the water park. I do eventually ditch them to ride around the lazy river. It doesn’t take long for Camden to join me.

Is it weird for me to leave my boys with the twins? Maybe for some people, but they’re no strangers to my kids. Plus, they’d never hurt a child.

I’m working on trusting them with my heart, but I trust them with something even more precious—my kids.

I can’t believe it’s already Christmas Eve.

Since the mall is only open for a few hours because of the holiday, we hit it up first. There are way more people here than I thought there would be, but luckily, having cameras with us has people giving us a wide berth.

It still takes us four hours to finish up our shopping, and by then, the kids are exhausted.

“Crap.” I sigh, running my hand through my hair. “I should’ve planned this better. Boys, do you just want to head home? We can try to do the winter carnival next week.”

“No.” Jasper’s little face wrinkles up, and he’s about two seconds from blowing up. “Santa won’t know where to find us. We’re not at home. We won’t have any presents.”

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