Page 19 of A Clutch for Hutch
He shifted into human form, and we wouldn’t see his dragon again until much later in life. I was glad we had the wherewithal to take a picture. We wouldn’t keep it on film or any hard drive anywhere, but we decided to hire an artist to paint them. I couldn’t wait to see how beautiful each of them were on the wall.
The green egg hatched next, our first beautiful baby girl, and then another son, and another son, and another daughter. Our children were here, and they were absolutely perfect. Luckily, they were sleepy, giving us time to adjust.
We took turns holding them, my mate feeding them, me diapering, and we got in a pretty decent rhythm. But it was going to be rough until Burns showed up. And even after that, we were still outnumbered, but it was doable…I hoped.
We called Burns to give him the good news.
“What did you name the sweet babies?”
“Alina, Cadmus, Adelina, George, and Arrow.”
“Well, they’re all beautiful.”
“Wait until you get here and we can show you pictures of them in their dragon forms.”
“Really?” His eyes were wide.
“Really.”
We hung up with him, and once each of the babies was fed and asleep, the two of us snuggled in close, watching them so carefully.
“Thank you for our beautiful family.” My mate kissed my cheek. “I love you so much.”
“Not as much as I love you, alpha mine. Not as much as I love you.”
Chapter Seventeen
Dirk
Burns took longer to get here than we’d hoped for. His contract with the Johnsons required longer than usual notice in order to get his severance, and although he offered to leave and head our way without worrying about that, we insisted he work it out. He had a lot saved, but the severance Hutch had negotiated for him was a lot. We couldn’t in good conscience encourage him to do anything else. Besides, the company who had bought out my mate’s business had treated Burns well, and they deserved the notice they’d requested.
That meant, we had a few weeks of us against the babies. Or so it felt sometimes. Each of them was adorable and good-natured, but their sleeping schedule was impossible. It seemed the moment we got one down, another was up and between feedings and diaperings and everything else, we hadn’t had more than a couple of hours consecutive sleep since the first egg hatched. My mate was doing an incredible job of chest feeding, but with five, we had to supplement, so that meant mixing formula and sterilizing bottles and keeping track of who had what so all the children got their fair share of chest milk, which my mate and I were sure was superior to the formula.
It was all a blur after a while, and when the doorbell rang, I was standing in the kitchen, leaning against the wall while a bottle heated. One baby in a wrap on my chest, another on my back, and both were wailing. From the other room, I could hear the next one starting to wake up. My mate had just fallen asleep, and I was torn between rushing to grab the noisy one, finishing the bottles, which was what all three wanted, and falling into a coma.
Or answering the door. Since we had another order of formula being delivered, I had to detour on the way to grab Alina—I recognized her cries—to answer the door. Instead of the delivery, Burns stood there, looking stunned. “When did you last sleep?” he demanded, marching in and following the crying to the baby in the bassinet. “Little girl, you and your brothers and sisters have been very busy babies, and we’re going to get things in shape around here, aren’t we?” He scooped up Alina and looked around. I followed his gaze, wincing at the mess.
“We’ve ummm…I can explain.”
“No explanations needed. Karma said to call her when I got here if we needed more help, and while I think we’ll get things under control pretty fast, for the moment, we need this little girl’s daddy and Boss to get some rest ASAP.” Karma had also offered us help, but we hadn’t wanted to be a bother and had struggled through on our own. Until Burns got there, I’d thought we had it at least a little under control.
I’d been wrong.
He yanked out his phone and sent a text then marched into the kitchen for a bottle for the baby he held. “I would have come sooner. Screw the severance. Only because Boss insisted, did I even stay, but I want you to go lie down before you fall down.” He relieved me of the babies on my front and back, laying them down in their bassinets and going to get bottles. “Everything will be fine, Daddy. We’ve got to get you back to fighting strength if you are going to handle this menagerie.”
I was too tired to argue. “I’ll just rest my eyes for a few minutes,” I mumbled, stumbling off to bed. “Burns is here,” I told Hutch when he opened an eye and looked at me. “He says to nap.”
When I woke up, several hours later, I was alone, and something seemed strange. It took me a few minutes to recognize what it was.
Nobody was crying, but there was a low buzz of conversation from the living room. Stumbling down the hall, I blinked hard, wiped at my eyes, and stared. Seated on various pieces of furniture were people from Animals. A witch, a bear shifter related to Warren and Karma, someone I thought might be the giraffe shifter, a fae with wings fluttering, and, of course, my mate and Burns. Hutch was chest feeding George, and all the others were drinking bottles.
“We’re getting everyone in synch,” Hutch told me. Burns’ idea, and I think it’s working.”
I thought so, too. Contentment reigned, and while those who would be coming in shifts for a little while would be only temporary, it would give us the time to adjust so that the three of us could handle things ourselves.
Hutch always told me Burns was the best employee he ever had, and as I took a seat in our living room and accepted Arrow into my arms, along with a bottle of formula, I noticed that the room was neat and clean as well.
We might survive this.
