Randy’s POVI continued my pacing, running my hand across the back of my desk chair on the way by. Part of me wanted to shove it into the desk and watch everything fly apart, but I resisted the temptation to lose my temper.My thoughts had come back to the danger they’d put Helen in. What were they thinking? Justin and Helen had a full two months of unchaperoned sex while Justin was in a lethal lycan form. She still had unknown side effects from having absorbed a half-demon’s power.Those two could sugarcoat her sex with the Huntsman any way they wanted, but it didn’t change the fact that we had no idea what the long-range effects were going to be. I just hoped the doctor who was coming this evening was smart enough to double-check everything and put those two in line with reality.As Beta, I could really use to relax about everything with this pregnancy so that I could focus on all of the other work that had piled up.The intercom on my desk crackled. “Beta Randy?” our receptionist s
Randy’s POVAt the idea of her leaving, my wolf started to panic. He leaped around my chest, demanding I take action to try to win her. Good Grief. One whiff of her pheromones and he was bouncing around like a teenage boy with his first hard-on.But maybe he had more control of me than I liked to admit because I blurted out, “Is that at all?”“Was there anything else?” she asked, pausing at the door and looking confused.“Not unless you wanna have dinner with me?” The words popped out of my mouth before I could stop them, and my eyes shot wide open. That had fully been the fault of my wolf.The doctor giggled, putting her hand on the doorknob. “I guess dinner with you might be all right,” she said. “Normally, I don’t mix dating and patients. It’s not good practice. But since you’re technically not my patient . . .”Her smile at me turned my stomach gooey. “I guess I won’t be going back to your practice now that your father’s retired,” I joked.She giggled again. “If you are one of his
Randys POVI set my phone down on my desk and leaned back in my desk chair, making a mental note to fix the squeak. Inside my stomach, butterflies or some sort of squirmy things wriggled all over. I had a date with the good doctor.Friday, after Helen’s appointment, I had a very difficult time making myself wait to call Emily, but I forced myself to. I didn’t want to sound desperate, especially if her wolf hadn’t chosen my wolf for a mate. If this were simply an exploratory date, then calling the same night I got her number would just come off as weird.But despite waiting, I couldn’t help the anticipation that built inside me. In agony, I waited as late into the day on Saturday as I could before finally giving in to the impulse to call. Thankfully, the phone call went smoothly, and she had agreed to meet me for dinner tonight.Because Emily was Helen’s doctor, and I was Justin’s beta, the last thing I wanted to do was have any awkwardness on our first date. So I’d made the reservatio
Randy’s POVDespite all the time I’d spent reasoning with myself that Emily was someone else’s choice for me, I spent well over an hour poking around in shop after shop until I finally found a set of clips that I absolutely loved. The hair ornaments had been enameled in a deep forest green and set with gold sparkles. Along the top edge ran a row of tiny pearls.“Those are perfect,” my wolf practically sang inside me.“That’s what I thought,” I agreed.The clips were a little more expensive than I had intended on making the gift, but they were the only thing I’d seen which were so obviously perfect for Emily. So, I went ahead and coughed up the extra money for the purchase.Besides, even if things didn’t work out between us, I wanted to keep the channels of communication with her open so that regardless of our standing together, I could help her focus on Helen’s pregnancy. Emily had been kind enough to take my advice seriously, making sure that she posed the real risks to Helen. And I
Justin’s POV“Oh my,” Dr. Peterson muttered.She adjusted the ultrasound wand again and then a third time.“Is something wrong?” I asked.“No. Not at all. It’s just this here is your second pup.”“What?” Helen and I both yelped at the same time.She looked at each of us with a wide smile. “Congratulations. You’re having twins.”“Twins?” I gasped.“Twins!” Helen gushed out.“They’ll be fraternal twins,” Dr. Peterson explained. “Look. See, this one has its own amniotic sack, which means that they’re not identical twins because the same egg didn’t divide into two embryos. You have two fertilized eggs, and they’re each growing in their own sack. But they’ll be born about the same time, within a few minutes, I’d say.”We must have looked worried because she gave us an even wider smile. “Don’t worry. All of this is perfectly natural, especially for werewolves. It’s very common for a female werewolf in heat to ovulate more than once and send off multiple eggs for fertilization.”The news was
Justin’s POVAfter cleaning her hands off, Dr. Myles placed two fingers in the center of Helen’s abdomen and started muttering. I waited to see if I could visualize the magic, but whatever she was doing wasn’t something that was apparent on the outside. The only indication that the doctor was doing anything was the changing look on her face.She kept her fingers there a minute before she pulled her hand off, cleaned her fingers again, and replaced two fingers on the other hand on Helen’s stomach. The same display of unreadable emotions, or rather, disconnected emotions, flitted across her face.I couldn’t pick out whether it was good or bad or what was going on, but whatever it was, she must have found something interesting. Otherwise, why bother doing whatever she was doing twice?“Well?” I demanded when my patience ran out.She waved me quiet with her free hand. After a moment, she washed up and handed Helen a cloth. “This is to clean the herbs off your stomach. Would you like priva
Randy’s POVA fresh blanket of gloom had settled itself over the office area inside Juden’s mansion. I hadn’t expected Justin to come back for the day after he left to go to Helen’s appointment. We still had work to do, but it was early in the evening, after all.Yet he busted into the office, all worked up, barely controlling his temper. He didn’t even have to tell me that anything was wrong. Simply by the way he was acting, I could tell that we weren’t through with the Huntsman. Something had happened during the doctor’s appointment with Helen.My only question was what.After I had asked Justin that very question and heard the explanation, I wished I hadn’t.Knowing that Helen was carrying that beast’s child made me physically sick to my stomach. My first instinct was to tell him to abort the pregnancy. They could conceive another lycan child. Whereas they only had this on
Randy’s POVI stepped outside into a sunny, late winter day, and my breath came out in a puffing cloud. Thank goodness, from just down the street, I could see the little white car which had been parked in Emily’s driveway the other day coming towards me. At least I wouldn’t have to wait outside in the freezing cold for very long.She waved as she pulled up in front of the mansion to pick me up. I opened the door on the passenger side and flopped into the seat, shutting it behind me.“Hi, Emily.”“Hi,” she said. “Looks like you heard.”I nodded. “As far as doctor-patient confidentiality goes, you don’t have to hide anything from me, at least not about the fact that one of the twins is actually a part demon. How could that happen?”I tipped my head back, closing my eyes.“Just bad luck,” she said. “Instances of twins with two differen
Luke’s POV I knew my sister had run off to hide again after I heard her arguing with Dad. I wanted to find her and make sure she wasn’t sulking. Aurora liked to do that when things didn’t go exactly her way.But it seemed I wasn’t the only one who had that idea because halfway to her so-called “secret” place in the garden, I caught sight of her current boyfriend, Jay, sneaking out there, too. Jealousy prickled at my stomach.Aurora was my twin. I was the closest one to her. If she needed cheering up, it should be me doing it, not some random guy. What could he ever offer her that her twin couldn’t?Besides, Jay wasn’t worthy of her. He was a single-color coated wolf, the son of some gamma in my father’s ranks. If she was going to date and seriously consider finding a mate, I didn’t think Jay was anywhere near worthy of her.Jay was a consolation prize, at best. Some poor lady wolf could end up with him, but not my sister. Still, if she was just killing time by fooling around with him
Aurora’s POVAs the oldest of my mother’s twelve children, everyone expects me to be responsible. And as the first lycan born to my father, everyone looks to me to continue the lycan race.That’s a lot of pressure to put on an eighteen-year-old. Don’t get me wrong, as the future luna and heir to my father’s throne. I get where the pressure is coming from. Not that I particularly enjoy it.At the moment, I was hiding in the garden. I had many happy memories of this space, and on many days when I needed to think for myself or to get away from my many siblings, particularly my twin brother, I snuck out here and hid. Luke was way too over-protective of me, and it got annoying.When I was small, I used to make forts in the hedges surrounding the rose garden. I’d carved my hiding spot out into a hidden alcove that nestled inside the hedge behind a veil of ivy. Sunlight could dapple through the vines and illuminate the inside.And as long as I kept it free of cobwebs, it was a nice space to
Helen’s POVEach of the twins had gotten to choose party clothes for the event, and they were quite excited about it, probably because I let Luke have a tie that had a dinosaur print all over it. And because his little suit wasn’t anywhere near as fancy as Aurora’s poofy dress, or I guess it was just as fancy but less to his taste, I let him pick out a little undershirt and underwear with dinosaurs on them, too. That way, he felt he had a satisfactory number of dino garments on and was much easier to coax into his little gray suit.Aurora had chosen a dress perfect for a budding princess, all tulle and lace and sparkles in a vivid teal that complimented her dark hair, each accentuating the color of the other. I had just finished pulling on her tights and buckling her sparkly little shoes when Celine joined us.“Why don’t you come and help me greet the guests, Luke?” she suggested. “While your Mama finishes doing Aurora ‘s hair.”“Okay.”He took his nanny’s hand and left, and I fussed
Helen’s POVI bustled around the kitchen with our nanny Celine helping me. On her back, my two-year-old son, Wilson, kicked his legs happily, asking nonsense questions about what we were doing.Inside me, our new baby, another daughter, kicked and squirmed, looking for more room inside my womb. Celine and I were busy frosting cupcakes for the twins’ birthday. They were turning five today, and it was a big birthday party because we were doing their official reveal.Today, they would reveal their wolves and begin to learn about them and grow together. Justin and I had spent the last five years working furiously to repair all of the damage his family had done to the reputation of the multi-colored coated werewolves in anticipation of this very day.The last thing I wanted to do was have my children reveal the color of their wolves only to find out that they were multi-colored, or at least that’s the way it would have been if we hadn’t put in the effort. By now, everyone in the True Mates
Justin’s POVIf anyone said “honeymoon” to me, I would assume plenty of sex on the first night. But that was not at all what our first night in Tahiti was like.We arrived at the airport late and got shuttled straight to a hotel. We were exhausted and then had to get up early again to catch our inter-island flight to Bora Bora.Neither one of us was in the mood to do anything that night. So, thank goodness we had gotten a chance to fool around on the airplane. And I have to admit, fooling around on the airplane was so fucking hot.Ever since I found out that she was carrying one of the Huntsman’s twins, well, actually, that’s a lie. Ever since I found out that she was the Huntsman sex slave, and then when I found out that she was carrying his child, my feelings of desire for Helen wavered up and down.Sometimes I felt like everything was normal between the two of us, and I wanted her just the same as I always had, or at least the same as I had since I’d gotten my lycan and she’d gotte
Helen’s POVMy stomach buzzed in anticipation. Even the rumbling of the jet engines through the seat in my rear end didn’t dispel the feeling. Next to me, Justin adjusted his seat belt, putting his books and such within arms reach for the flight to Bora Bora.I’d finally gone with that as the location for our honeymoon. The twins were safe with Randy and Emily, and our nanny. Outside, snow swirled around the plane, but in about fifteen hours, we would be out in warm sunlight. Well, we were arriving at night, but we’d be out in warm weather anyway in Tahiti. And from there, first thing the next morning, we were catching a small flight over to Bora BoBora.“Are you excited?” I asked, poking Justin in the shoulder.“For the hundredth time, I am. And I can tell you are, too, annoyingly excited. You’re going to drive me crazy.”I poked at him again. “I don’t wanna drive you crazy, but I have an idea.”“What?”I tugged on his shirt, so he had to lean close so I could whisper in his ear. “I
Russo’s POVWhen we arrived at the hospital, the nurses thought it would be amusing to put us in the exact same room that Helen had been in while she was waiting for her C-section. Being a witch, Lisa shooed the nurses away as much as she could because she brought her own herbs to help with the delivery.In fact, after she’d taken some at the start of the contractions, she didn’t seem to be in much pain at all. Her body was going about its business without really disrupting her. It confirmed my suspicion when one of the nurses walked out, grumbling about how it must be nice to be a witch.“How come you didn’t offer the same herbs to Helen?” I asked, sitting at the bedside by Lisa’s head.She glanced over at me. “Because the mixture that I took includes wolfsbane, which is hard enough on adult werewolves, poisonous in large portions, and deadly to a newborn or an almost newborn. I would have essentially poisoned her and the baby.”“Not babies?”She shrugged. “I don’t know what would h
Helen’s POVWhen I got to the door, sure enough, Randy stood outside. I opened the door, and I held her finger to my lips.“The babies are napping?” he whispered.I nodded. “Like angels.”“Sweet,” he said, stepping inside. “Now, what did you need to see me for that was so urgent?”“I need your help with something,” I explained. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Justin hasn’t been as affectionate with me as he was before all of this went down. He’s done a pretty good job of coping with the fact that one of the twins isn’t his, worse, that he’s a part demon. But it’s kind of left a quiet wedge between us, and I wanna get over that.”Randy nodded. “I did notice. He hasn’t said anything to me. Though, I know he’s trying.”“I realize he’s trying,” I agreed, “but that doesn’t mean that he needs to try all on his own. So . . . I have an idea.”A wide grin spread across my face just thinking about it. “Before we found out that one of the twins belonged to the Huntsman, Justin was planning
Helens POVI thought, when I fell in love with Justin, that I knew what true love really felt like. That was until I met my babies. The love in my heart for my twins surpassed anything I’d ever felt before.I wanted to protect them, and at the same time, I wanted to take them out and show them to everyone I met. I wanted to have them seen, for the world to know that I had created perfection.And they were perfect. From their tiny little lips to their little button noses, they were utterly adorable. They each had ten teeny fingers and ten petite toes. Their downy heads of hair were so soft that I could help but smooth my hands across them, reassuring them that their mother loved them.Everything about them was indescribably perfect.We knew from the moment that they were born that my daughter was the lycan and my son was the child of the Huntsman. If Justin was disappointed in not having a son of his own, he didn’t say anything. And I wasn’t worried about having a male lycan pup just y