Page 59 of Blood of the Damned: Thorn
“The girls are coming, you need to relax your body,” Dacian had the audacity to suggest.
Ledger threw his back and howled, though it can out more broken cat than anything.
He hung suspended in a pain vortex. Then his vision blurred as his brain cut off the supply of neurons telling him what was happening. All he could register was the sting of Thorn’s fangs sinking into his throat and a wrist pressed against his lips.
Bite,Thorn encouraged and compelled him to do just that.
Ledger’s eye teeth pierced Thorn’s skin and at the first taste of his mate's blood, he slumped, his hands slipping off the arms of the chair as he became floppy. Then came the euphoric claim of their joint mating bond, and his soul rejoiced, leaving everything coated in a colorful glow of bliss.
Ledger surfaced groggily, blinking the room into focus as his sluggish brain worked to figure out what had happened. He ran his tongue over his teeth at a lingering coppery taste.Why…
Babies.
Babies.
Expecting pain in his lower body, he tensed.
“It’s over, Sweetling,” murmured Thorn, his lips brushing against the side of Ledger’s temple. “You were wonderful. Amazing.”
It was then Ledger realized he was no longer in the chair, but in bed. Their bed. Resting against his husband’s cool, naked chest. The love coming through their connection was heady, as was the memory of…
Had he… in front of Thorn’s brothers?
Heat scorched his cheeks.
They saw nothing, Sweetling, you passed out before…
Don’t say it!
Did that excuse what his husband had done? No! They’d most definitely be having words about everything that had happened today. For now, all he wanted was to see and hold his girls.
“The babies…” Searching the room, his heart set off on a race at how normal everything looked, aside from the absence of his girls. “Where are my babies?”
“Calvert and Dacian have taken them into the bathroom to… clean them up,” Thorn replied cautiously, blocking Ledger from his thoughts.
“Stop sugar coating things. And the whole not telling me about how a vampire baby comes out? We’ll talk about later, mister. Are they okay?” Ledger rolled carefully to glance upward at hishusband, only to breathe a sigh of relief at how all that came was an ache in his bottom. He caught the scent of the soap he used and how he was no longer a sweaty mess.
How long had he been out of it?
“About half an hour.”
“See, you’re handy at reading me, but you haven’t answered my question. The girls… are they okay?” They had picked names, Maeve and Penelope, but Ledger didn’t want to use them until…
“They are beautiful and look just like their daddy.”
“They do?” His excitement at that washed away the hours of torture.
“Yes, my love. They are as beautiful as you,” Thorn murmured against his lips as he gently brought Ledger to nestle against his chest.
“Don’t you pair dare traumatize us in that way, it was bad enough watching you chew the fu—heck out of Ledger’s neck mid—”
“If you want to live to see another sunrise, I’d stop there,” Calvert said to his twin.
Ledger rolled off Thorn, sitting up. His ass wasn’t so happy at that move, but he wanted the babies in his arms. He wiggled his fingers at both vampires, who each held a swaddled bundle in their arms. “Bring Maeve and Penelope to me.”
Ledger found it more than a little amusing how both vampires appeared reluctant to relinquish the children they had moaned about. They had insisted the twins would disrupt life in the house, but now they looked so smitten. He suspected the ribbing had all been for show.
Thorn shifted around him and moved Ledger to rest against his naked chest, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. Once the girls were placed in Ledger’s arms, it was like Thorn was cocooning all three of them.
