Page 100 of Hunted By Her Demon Wolves

She bit her lip, wondering what that red scarf was for. “What is it?”

“Your wedding present,” Helius answered with a wink.

Her wedding present? She clutched her throat, realizing she hadn’t gotten them anything. She didn’t realize they were exchanging gifts. “Hold on,” she said to them, and hurried to her sister.

She knelt beside Daeva who was sitting in a rocking chair under the shade of the balcony, her sleeping infant in her arms. Hector was the cutest cherub, with little spiked horns and a thick mop of dark hair just like his birth father, Horatiu. His skin, though, seemed to change from silver to bronze depending on his mood, silver when he cried for his mother’s breast, and bronze when his belly was full of milk.

“Go with your mates,” Daeva said to her. “Dragomir and I have to get ready for our visit to the top.”

Phoenix clucked her tongue.Careful you don’t get pregnant up there, she projected to her sister through thought.

Her eyes flashed with mischief.That’s the plan. We’re returning with them after the wedding and staying a few days.

Phoenix gaped at her sister. Hector was only a few months old. “So soon?” she blurted.

Daeva flashed a serene smile and kissed the top of her infant’s head. “We want our children to be close in age.”

“Oh.” Since her sister’s pregnancy had only lasted five months, just like all Amaroki females, this meant she’d have two babies in under a year. Yikes! Good thing her gamma was such an attentive father.

“You and Helius should come, too.” Daeva waggled her brows. “Then the cousins could grow up together like our mates.”

She pulled away from her sister. “Not yet.”

Truthfully, she didn’t know if ever their pack would grow, though she desperately wanted children, especially after holding little Hector in her arms. There was just one problem, she had a terrible feeling her mother’s soul would resurrect in her baby. Jezebeth’s soul lamp was full of twinkling lights, which meant her soul would be reborn any day. What if her soul went into Phoenix’s baby? She knew she would love the child, but the thought of her mother’s soul inside a demon with so much power didn’t settle well with her. She appreciated the sacrifice her mother had made for her, but it was the one selfless act among thousands of selfish ones. She couldn’t risk the chance that her baby turned evil, so she denied herself and her mates until after Jezebeth found another vessel. Of course, there was the chance that Daeva would also birth the resurrection of Jezebeth. She’d tried to talk about it with Daeva, but her sister waved her off, saying the creator knew better than to put Jezebeth’s soul in her child.

Hector stirred in his mother’s arms, letting out a wail that rivaled a screaming tea kettle.

Daeva handed him to Phoenix. “Hold him while I get settled,” she said as she dropped her loose-fitting top and took out her breasts.

Phoenix cuddled her nephew. He smelled of sweet milk and baby powder and had the cutest button nose and dimple in his chin, a warm little bundle of love. She both craved and feared holding him, for he made her long for a child of her own.

Daeva draped a blanket over herself right before Helius stomped into the room.

“Phoenix!” he called, then stopped as if he’d hit brick wall when he saw Daeva getting ready to nurse. “Oh, sorry.”

“It’s perfectly okay.” She laughed, holding up her hands to Phoenix.

Phoenix reluctantly handed Hector over to her sister.

Helius folded beefy arms across his chest, a wolfish grin spreading across his face. “You looked enchanting with a babe in your arms.”

Phoenix feigned indifference as she brushed past him and returned to the edge of the balcony. He’d been giving her a lot of baby hints lately, some so overt they would’ve been laughable if she hadn’t been inwardly crying.He’s a lot of fun,she projected through thought,but I’m happy to give him back to his parents when he starts crying.

She thought she saw a flash of regret in Helius’s eyes as he lifted her into his arms.So that means you’re not ready to have your own?

She splayed a hand across her heart, forcing a smile.I want to get reacquainted with my mates first.

After all, they’d only spent seven months together after being separated for almost three thousand years. Surely, they needed more time to get to know each other again. She kept telling herself that lie. Phoenix and her mates spent their first month together in the second and third levels of hell, battling demons and looking for that damn crystal shard. By the time they’d dropped off Tigress and her mates in the second dimension (the feline pack refused to go with them to the top dimension) and flew back to the top, bedraggled and depressed, they’d discovered her grandmother Abera had given Hecate a crystal. Well, she hadn’t actually given it to her. She’d extorted her freedom and a vault full of gold from Hecate first.

For the next month after that, Phoenix’s pack and her sister’s pack hunted down every last gargoyle, casting them to the second dimension of hell. Tigress hadn’t appreciated gargoyles stinking up her dimension, so she’d miraculously produced the missing shard in exchange for an agreement that the second dimension would be off limits. Cadmus grumbled that the demon cat deserved no favors, but now they had a backup crystal in their possession in case one was lost.

Phoenix and her mates spent the next five months recovering and relaxing. They’d earned the time off. Their days were filled with fun, making sand castles and swimming at the lake, and their nights were spent making love. She didn’t mind the monotony. She thought her mates were all she needed. And then Hector had come into their lives. She loved her nephew, but she wished Daeva hadn’t had a baby yet. Now she craved a babe of her own.

She was barely aware of Helius’s gaze boring into hers. “You okay?”

“Of course.” Forcing a smile, she smoothed hands down her robe, a midnight blue with gold trim.

“Good,” Helius said. “I need you to wear this.” Cadmus blew that red scarf toward them. It whipped in the wind like a twisting serpent before Helius caught it.

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