Page 54 of The Baby Hex
“Pierce, we know you’re home, honey,” my carrier’s voice reached my ears, and I let out a sigh of relief. They’ve must’ve picked up on our trouble over the family link and came to help us out. “It’s time to come out. I know it’s hard to come back to the real world. No one wants to leave their matingmoon behind.”
“We’re taking a bit of an extension,” I said, tightening my grip on Crilus’s hand.
He squeezed mine back in agreement. He’d only been out of heat a few days. He needed time to rest and recover. We were working out what the rest of our lives were going to look like. What was the big rush?
“You said that last time,” my sire chimed in.
“The last time?” I asked, glancing at Crilus who didn’t remember it either.
“Do you think this is a trap? Like Sharon or someone is using magic to impersonate your parents?”he asked me over our mating link.
“Next, you’re going to make us prove that it’s really us,” Dad said on the other side of the door. “Pierce, it’s us, kiddo. You’ve been in there almost a month now. If Crilus is really still inheat, he needs to see a doctor. If he’s not, you two need some sunshine. His wolf will need the vitamin d at the very least. Some fresh air.”
“A pregnancy test,” Mori announced and Crilus growled.
“Either you tell us a time when you mean to come out or I’m knocking the door down,” Teddy called from the other side. “Every time I go home, one of these guys call me worried that you’re never going to come out. Which I tell them is ridiculous. Everyone comes out of their matingmoon eventually, but I’m starting to think they’re right.”
“It hasn’t been a month,” Crilus shook his head.
“It has, cousin,” Preston said. “Come to the window. Let me show you my belly.”
I tried to stop Crilus from inching toward the window. What if they broke the window and snatched him up? Then I’d have to eat them all. Pregnant or not. Tasty or not. He pulled away and walked to the window and peeked out the corner of the shade.
“He’s gotten bigger,” Crilus blinked.
I walked to the center of the room and stood next to the tree that was nearly as tall as I was now. Did we really need to come out? We could make our own food. Well, food for Crilus. I could probably last months without blood if I had to. Why were they so intent on starving us out? I could go out and hunt for my own but they were already out and about and Crilus was mine.
My arms wrapped around him. I didn’t remember crossing the room but it was nice to be wrapped around him. He turned in my arms and I kissed him. Someone knocked on the door again. Our family was always bugging us. It’s like they didn’t want us to conceive at all.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Mori
I had heard of folks who took months long matingmoons but they were usually better able to communicate their wishes with those who checked in on them. This wasn’t normal for either of them. A few days ago, Pierce told Medwin Moonscale to go fuck himself with his own tail. To which, Crilus collapsed in laughter and started to describe how it might work. There was something more at play here. At first, everyone blamed the elven magic that pulsated from inside the house. Little was known about elven magic in general because those who practiced it kept its secrets close to their chests. The tree growing through the beautiful kitchen floor was definitely elven magic. I’d parsed through enough conversations with Crilus and Pierce to know that it was a gift from Crilus to Pierce who had a random craving for peach cobbler when there were no peaches in the house.
Only, I didn’t think that Crilus would’ve ensorcelled himself like that. He loved being outside and he loved working at his bar. He loved his friends and being the center of attention. He also wouldn’t have missed so many appointments at his ‘upstairs job.’ I didn’t think Pierce would’ve done it on purpose either. Perhaps, their magic mingled in such a way that it stopped them from clearly seeing the outside world.
“What about Sharon Claudis?” Pierce asked and Preston’s scent turned hopeful. They hadn’t asked about her since we first arrived at his family’s estate.
“We haven’t found her yet,” Teddy grunted through the door, and I hated myself for not speaking first. I could’ve made the announcement gentler. Could’ve cushioned it in a way that sounded more hopeful.
“She can’t be that hard to find,” Crilus said a second later. “Come back when you’ve found her. In the meantime, you’ve got to get some blood for Pierce.”
A car stopped at the front gate, and I looked from Preston to Teddy, trying to discern who had arrived now. Hopefully, it wasn’t Medwin again. They were going to be so embarrassed when they came back to their good senses about how they talked to him when he tried to lure them out of the house.
Pierce’s parents, Cion and Beck, looked at the big black Cadillac looking car. Then Beck fiddled with his phone and the gate opened. A few moments later, the car rolled through the gates and pulled to a stop not far inside. A tall man exited the car. A bear by the smell of him. Teddy glanced at me and Preston, silently inquiring if he was a Nightshade Bear or not. As he grew closer, the answer was sort of.
Kodiak was a Nightshade Bear by birth but had left years ago to fight a war. Upon arriving in Old New York, he met Silas, his true-mate and one of his current partners. Kodiak was one of Crilus’s dads, even if he wasn’t one of his bio dads. I bit my lip. Everyone had tried and I didn’t think Kodiak would have any more luck than anyone else who tried had. Under his arm, he carried a meal prep dish big enough to feed two dragon shifters from.
He nodded at Cion and Beck, ignoring the rest of us as he stepped up to the door. Kodiak skipped knocking and said Crilus’s name softly. The mated pair whispered inside the house and one of them asked the other if they had pants on. The following ruffling around told me they probably didn’t.
“He comes from big magic too,” Beck said. “His grandmother, Miranda, was a force to be reckoned with.”
“Is he here to undo whatever they’ve done?” Teddy arched a brow.
“You’d have to ask him, but he asked if he could come and who am I to say no?” Beck shrugged. “Crilus is his kid.”
A second later, Crilus opened the door just enough for Kodiak to slip inside and I let out a long sigh of relief. I didn’t want to speak the words aloud and jinx it but the night before I had a vision of Crilus laying a little crow egg in a tiny little nest.
