Page 43 of These Little Heirs
“Where is my Cade?” Dad called back.
“With my Medwin and Teal’s Ciro. I’ve brought home your son. He’s a little worse for wear and put through the wringer,” Clarence called back.
“Stay here---” Dad started but Indigo was already on his way down the hall.
“Go!” Odie said. “Check on him! He wouldn’t have missed this for nothing!”
I followed on Indigo’s heels. Dad frowned at me. Even now he wanted to be the one to clean up messes and keep us from seeing the worst parts of the world. I paused long enough to give him a quick, soggy, one-armed hug and to thank him forshowing up to help us. I grabbed a towel and made my way into the living room.
Granddad had shut and locked the door behind them but Teal hadn’t sat down or even taken his shoes off. The whole living room smelled like blood. Indigo was already sniffing the air open-mouthed like a cat. I froze in place for a long second. Did the blood belong to Morvan or Torvan? Were we mourning or did we need to congratulate Teal on winning a battle? Everything coming over our triplet link was murky.
Teal’s bottom lip trembled. Somewhere in the background Dad asked about our sire and Ciro. Only I didn’t hear the answer because Indigo and I both rushed forward to our brother. He collapsed in our arms. Even his scent was a jumbled mess that we couldn’t untangle.
“I missed the baby being born and I failed everyone on both sides of the ocean,” he managed to gasp out.
“No,” I said. “You didn’t ---”
“Don’t do that! Yes, I did!” he growled, trying in vain to push us away but Frost himself couldn’t have pried us away from our brother. “I went to save him and wasn’t here for Odie and --- It still happened!”
“What happened?” Indigo asked and a sob tore through his chest as the memory played out.
Poor fucking Torvan. Of all the dumbasses to end up fraternal traitors I wouldn’t have marked him as one. Poor Patrica and poor Morvan. What the hell had happened? How the hell did this happen? I glanced at Granddad but he only shrugged. He had lived and ruled long enough that this wasn’t his first surprise traitor. Granddad nodded at Teal as if I were the one who was supposed to right the world.
“Hey now,” I said, taking on the gentle tone used with Odie when his anxiety reared its ugly head. “Our babies are okay. Odieis a damn superhero. Baby Steel is this tiny puffball of a wolf. Morvan is alive. That’s the important part, right?”
“I thoughts so,” Teal sniffled. “But he won’t answer his phone.”
“Grief,” Indigo said. “You remember how out there Duke and them got when Lotus passed away. Losing their mama nearly killed those kids. Not to even mention how Fred acted. He slept for so long. Seriously, so long. He’ll come around.”
“What if he doesn’t?” Teal asked.
“Forever is a long time, brother,” I whispered. “If he hasn’t come around, it means he’s not ready to yet.”
“What happens to us now?” he asked.
He wasn’t asking about the three of us or even our family. He meant the warehouse people.
“You all keep doing what you do whether Morvan comes around or not,” Indigo said. “We’ll help if we need to. He’s Morvan, though. He’ll get it together. He’ll realize what Torvan did and know that in Patrica’s shoes he’d have done the same thing.”
“He wouldn’t have,” Teal shook his head. “It’s like Grandpa said, he could live with dying but not without---”
“Okay, let’s say he doesn’t come around,” Indigo said. “We’re still here. He’s still alive out there somewhere. He’ll have a chance to have a real life that doesn’t involve Torvan trying to sabotage everything he does.”
“Teal,” Odell’s soft voice reached my ears.
“I’m so sorry, Odie,” Teal said, trying to reign in his tears.
“We’re okay. That’s why we have such a big family. Someone is always around to help. Do you want to hold the baby?”
“I’m blood covered and---” Teal started but Odell didn’t let him get far.
“Then take a shower. There’s like six of them in this house. Take a shower and wash up and I’ll make someone get food.Soup? Brownies? We ate our weight in crisps and brownies when everything happened. When our people died. Whatever you want. This is freaking Heartville and Clarence Freaking Moonscale is right there. He’ll make it happen or I’ll call Medwin because we all know he’s really running the show,” Odie said. “Now, I have to sit down. I have a wound the size of a dinner plate inside my womb. I might have shifter healing, but I need to sit down. Everyone do the work. You come sit with me or I’m going to eat you. Bring Baby Robin if Ambry will let you. We can do that much. We can hold their baby too. Someone has to help him in the shower, but I need you right now. I’m tired and ravenous and the baby is ravenous too an---”
I crossed the room but stopped short of scooping him up afraid of hurting him more. His description of his womb left me a little jarred and ready to resurrect and re-assassinate Torvan. Instead, I wrapped an arm around Odell’s waist and led him to the sofa. He sat down gently and once we were settled, Ambry passed off Baby Robin to us and kissed his friend’s cheek.
“I’ll run to Bad Wolf 2.0 and grab some stuff,” he whispered. “Do you want one of those million sugar coffees that you’ve been eyeballing since we got here?”
“Please,” Odell nodded and managed a smile.
