Page 34 of The Baby Hex
“Did you get a hold of her son?” Teddy said, breaking the silence.
“Yes,” Preston said. “Venal doesn’t know where his mother is. She’s done this before when he was in high school and had a pregnancy scare with his then girlfriend. She’s obsessed with the bloodline. He won’t practice magic with her, and she thinks she deserves a second chance. His father left when he was an infant. Not her true-mate of course.”
“Shit,” Teddy frowned. “Sounds like she just doesn’t want to be alone. If she wasn’t batshit, I’d say she needed to adopt a baby.”
“See, killing her isn’t necessary,” Preston groaned.
“She tried to kill you,” Mori countered.
“No, she didn’t. She just wants to scare me into coming to stay with her. It’s not working. When she realizes that, she’ll back off,” Preston sighed.
“No, she won’t,” Crilus shook his head. “That sort of crazy doesn’t back down.”
“I thought you were going to the bar?” Mori snapped at his cousin, and it took all my might to stay out of it.
“I’m having breakfast that MY dad cooked,” Crilus said.
I bit my lip and tasted blood. Preston met my gaze and flashed me an apologetic look. He hadn’t done anything wrong but he looked as if he had burnt Moonscale London to the ground and the remorse was eating him alive.
“Guys, Preston’s pregnant,” Teddy said, leaning back in his chair and stretching out his legs under the table. “Stop arguing around the pregnant man.”
“And with the pregnant man,” Preston added. “Crilus, do you think I could ride back to the city with you two?”
Crilus bit his lip, but I told Preston of course he could ride back with us before my mate said no. Sure, I wanted Crilus all to myself but Mori and Preston needed some time apart.
“And I’ll catch a ride back because it’s closer to the Other World gateway,” Creon announced. “Well, if you don’t mind.” He glanced at me for the last part.
“Not at all,” I smiled at my father-in-law.
It was going to be another long day.
***
Several hours later, after we’d driven back to London, seen Creon to the portal, and dropped Preston off at a bear-owned restaurant, Crilus and I finally arrived back at the Raven’s Perch. Teal Moonscale must’ve spent countless hours here ensuring that every window was replaced and the wards put back up. It looked almost as good as new except the lettering and decals were obviously missing.
Crilus stood akimbo in the middle of the street, frowning at the building as if it called his father a dirty name. He shook his head and then crossed his arms over his belly.
“It’ll be days before I can reopen. That damn lettering took me a week last time to get right and the guy who did the rest of the artwork isn’t even in London anymore,” he said, his brows knitting together.
“Do you want me to put my feelers out for an artist?” I asked, walking up and hugging him from behind.
A car slowed down to drive around us but since I was still in my uniform no horns were blown. I needed to change soon since I was technically on leave, but I wasn’t about to take off on Crilus when he was so damn crestfallen.
“How about we make a list,” I offered.
Crilus twisted around in my arms to face me.
“It’s so hard to think straight. It doesn’t help that this is all bullshit. All of it. This is not how to have a relationship with your grandkids. Though, I can’t speak. My grandma did kidnap me,” he sighed.
“Well, while my parents might watch the kids some weekends, as far as I know they have no desire to raise another kid. It took four rounds of IVF to conceive me.”
“I know how rare omega and omega conceptions are,” Crilus chuckled. “Both of my parents are omegas too. No IVF as far as I know. Good to know they won’t kidnap our kids, though.”
“How many kids do you want?” I asked.
His eyes lit up and he wrapped his arms around my neck before answering.
“I always used to say I wanted a houseful. That was before I really thought about it, though. I run a bar. I plan to keep running a bar.”
