Daeton's Journey (Wiccan-Were-Bear Book 10) (8 page)

“You’re doing great, honey kitten,” Ekho said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

She nodded and opened her eyes, smiling at him.

“I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Where else would I be?” he said, his eyes shimmering with love.

There was a harder pulling sensation and then she heard the very first sound from her newborn son as he cried loudly.  Daeton lifted her head to watch as Cyrene laid her baby on the blankets on her chest.  Ekho and Perseus let go of her hands and began to gently rub his skin as he kicked his four little legs and stretched out his arms with a loud wail.  Tears streamed down her face as they wrapped him in blankets, tucking his hooves under him carefully.  Perseus lifted him into his arms, his face beaming and his eyes shining with unshed tears.

“I love you so much, Daeton,” he said roughly.

He brought the bundle to her and she touched Adi’s cheek.  “Hi, little one,” she whispered.  He stopped squalling for long enough to blink brown eyes at her, and her heart clenched at just how much she loved her little boy already.

“Ekho and I are going to take him out to meet the herd,” Perseus said as he leaned over and kissed her.

“What?”

“It’s tradition.  The herd is gathered outside, and Ekho and I will introduce our son and then we’ll bring him right back so you can feed him.”

“The herd is outside?”

“You can’t hear them?”  Ekho asked.

Now that she wasn’t focused on giving birth, she could hear the herd milling around outside, speaking in hushed tones.  With a smirk, she said, “I was a little busy having a half-horse cut from my tummy.”

Ekho tweaked her chin.  “My feisty mate.  We’ll be right back.”

As they left, Adi started crying loudly and Daeton’s bear rumbled in worry.  Cyrene clucked her tongue.  “I know it’s hard, but it’s better for the herd to meet your little boy this way than for all of them to traipse in here while you’re trying to feed him and rest.”

“That wouldn’t be good,” Daeton agreed.  She looked at Perri, who was putting away the dirty blankets and getting clean ones.  “I don’t remember Dally taking Tanlin outside.”

Perri said, “I told him if he took my son away from me like that, I wouldn’t let him touch me for a year.”

Daeton chuckled.  “You did?”

She shrugged with a laugh.  “Well, I thought it was strange for the males to do that, but I do understand the point of it.  The herd celebrates every birth.”

A cheer rose from outside and Daeton smiled.  The herd was happy for her family and their new addition.

After Cyrene finished putting Daeton back together and had sewn up the incision, Perri raised the head of the bed and helped Cyrene put away the instruments and clean up.  “I’ll come back in a few hours when the manipulation to your nerves has receded.  We’ll move you into the other bedroom for your recovery,” Cyrene said.

“Thank you so much, Cyrene.”

“Your husbands are coming back in.  I’ll stop by tomorrow to visit, if that’s okay?”  Perri said.

“I’m glad you could be here with me,” Daeton said as she squeezed her hand tightly.

Perri nodded and left with Cyrene as Perseus and Ekho came back in, both beaming with pride.  “He’s so strong!” Perseus said as he stopped next to Daeton and laid Adi on the soft blankets that Perri had put on her chest.

Now that they were alone, her husbands helped position the baby as she undid the tie holding up one of the flaps on her top and freed her breast.  It took only a second for Adi to begin to nurse, his little body tucked against hers.  Touching the soft dark hair on his head, she smiled as happy tears filled her eyes.

“So you were the one who was kicking me,” she whispered.  He opened his eyes, gazing at her adoringly, and she rubbed her fingers lightly over the soft hide of his horse body.  He looked like the perfect mixture of her and Perseus, with the dark fur of his horse body, and her brown eyes and coppery skin.

“I’ve never been happier,” she said, looking up at her mates.

“Us, too,” Ekho promised.

“How do you feel?” Perseus asked, stroking her hair back.

“My feet are starting to become less numb, but otherwise I’m good.”

“When Cyrene clears us to take you home, you can shift to help heal your incision faster,” Perseus said.

Silence settled on them as they watched their son feed.  She had wondered if Ekho would feel left out because she hadn’t yet carried a child that was his, but judging by the loving look in his eyes as he watched Adi, she knew that he considered him his son as well.

“We’re a family now,” Daeton said.

“We already were, sweetheart,” Perseus said.

“I know, but now we’re parents.”

“We’ll be the best parents in the realm,” Ekho promised, and she knew they would be.

Adi fell asleep nursing, and so did Daeton.  The lack of sleep over the last few weeks had taken their toll.  When she woke several hours later, she found she had been transferred into the other bedroom at Cyrene’s and Ekho was holding Adi and speaking quietly into his ear.

“I’ll teach you how to hunt like a leoneman,” he said.  “You’ve got a little sister to watch out for in the future.”

Daeton smiled. “Hopefully more than one.”

Ekho grinned.  “I hope so, too.  He’s so handsome, honey kitten.”  He brought her son back to her and she spent the next few hours getting to know her little boy.

The next day, Cyrene let Daeton go home.  The incision had healed well thanks to her accelerated healing.  Unlike the human wives, who needed days to recuperate and would retain the scars of their C-sections, Daeton’s was disappearing quickly.

She left Adi with Perseus that evening and walked into the woods with Ekho.  She hadn’t been in her shift in months, and she barely got her clothes off before her bear pushed free and she shifted.  It felt so good to be in her fur again, to feel the ground under her paws.  Ekho stayed with her for hours and they roamed the woods together, chasing small game.  He talked to her about their future and she listened, offering growls and chuffs whenever she could.  It would be helpful if she could speak in her shifted form, but since she couldn’t, she offered what she could.

When they returned and she shifted into her human form, her body was completely healed and the scar was gone.  They walked into the house together and she found Perseus sitting on the floor next to Adi’s nest as he slept soundly.  Daeton lifted her top and showed Perseus her healed stomach.  He smiled and his eyes flashed with heat.

She didn’t think her son would sleep long, but maybe he’d sleep long enough for her and her husbands to enjoy each other for a little while.  They left Adi’s bedroom door open, but closed theirs, and got reacquainted in the way she loved best.

When her son cried an hour later, she smiled as Ekho got up and returned with her squalling son in his arms.  Her husbands settled on either side of her as Adi began to feed, and she smiled at the sweet scene.  Someday she’d have a daughter and, hopefully, more children.  She really couldn’t wait for the future to unfold.

Chapter 7

Perseus had thought the most amazing thing he’d ever seen was when he watched his son being born, but this – watching Adi take his first steps four days after his birth with his head held high…topped that by a million.  His horse body was black like Perseus’s and he knew that when the boy reached maturity he’d have a big, strong body, just like every male in Perseus’s family did.  What set him apart was the pretty coppery color of his skin, a herald of his mother’s family line.  He loved that Adi was part of him and part of Daeton.

“It’s amazing and weird,” Daeton said softly as she knelt and held one of Adi’s small hands.

“I get the amazing part, but why is it weird?” Perseus asked.

She glanced up at him and smiled.  “Babies where I’m from don’t walk until they’re closer to one year old.  It would be one thing for him to hold his head up, but he’s only four days old and he’s tripled in size.  He still acts like a baby, but he looks like a toddler.”

Perseus shrugged and grinned as Adi stamped his hooves and took a few steps away from Daeton before scurrying back to her side.  “It’s the way we were made.”

“I like how you’re made,” she said, her brows wiggling.

He flashed her a grin and she returned it.

Perseus’s parents watched from nearby, his mother’s cheeks shining with tears.  Daeton stood, but bent over so she was very close to Adi.  “Come on, little boots, let’s go show your grandmoman and grandpapan how amazing you are.”

Adi babbled, his adoring gaze only for his mother.  Perseus turned to look at Ekho.  “Ask me what’s been on your mind since our mate told us about her vision before the battle in Cholas.”

Ekho raised his brows.  “You’re so sure I’ve held onto a question for that long?”

“I know you well enough to know when something is on your mind.  Plus I’d be an idiot not to have that same question myself if our situations were reversed.  Besides, Ekho, you’re my closest friend.”

Ekho smiled.  “You’re mine, too.”  Exhaling loudly, he said, “I didn’t know anything about Centaur babies.  When Daeton said Adi talked to her while I held a little girl, I assumed that it would be a few years before he could talk.”

Perseus nodded, looking over to see his son trying to prance while he held onto Daeton with one hand and sucked his thumb with the other.  “Our young grow fast.”

“Right.  So now I wonder when I’ll hold our daughter.  If the time isn’t soon.”

“It may very well be,” Perseus said.  “I started to take
shenloroot
right after Adi was born.  It makes me temporarily infertile.  If I had to go without making love to our mate until she became pregnant again, I think I’d go mad, but the
shenloroot
, will ensure that you’re the only one who can get her pregnant.”

Ekho relaxed.  “That’s good news.  Thank you for thinking of me.”

Perseus shook his head.  “Holding Adi when he was born…that was the most significant thing that’s happened to me since I met Daeton.  I want you to have that feeling, too.  Even though Adi is as much your child as he is mine, because we love his moman, and each other as brothers, I understand your longing.”

Ekho nodded and then laughed as Adi tried to rear onto his hind legs but stumbled off balance and fell against Daeton.  She lifted him into her arms and he snuggled against her with a happy sigh.  “He’s ready for a nap,” she said to Perseus and Ekho after she said goodbye to his parents.  “I’m ready for my husbands.”

“Are you, honey kitten?”  Ekho said, purring.

“Definitely,” she whispered, her eyes darkening with promise.

* * * * *

The preparations for taking Daeton and their son to the Mortal Realm were nearly complete.  That night, they’d be traveling to the realm through a portal hidden in the hillside that overlooked the lake in the settlement.  Perseus hadn’t traveled to the Mortal Realm in many years.  Once he’d begun to have the shared mating dreams about Daeton, he could feel in his bones that his mate would come to him in Cholas, so he’d ceased his annual trips in the hopes of finding her.

Daeton sat under the tree that covered the grassy area behind their home with cool shade.  In her realm, she said the area was called a “backyard” and she enjoyed sitting under the tree and working on her embroidery.  In the months since the battle, she’d spent her free time making clothing for all of them.  Her first pieces were lovely, but she’d never been quite happy with them, and seemed to fuss a lot about straight seams and smaller stitches.  As the days wore on, though, her work became even better and more beautiful.

“Come here, little boots,” she said to Adi.  He was never far from her side, but had been several feet from her as he hopped and pranced.  She held out a vest she’d made for Adi.  She’d caught the beast for the hide herself, and, like the vests she had made for herself, Perseus, and Ekho, Adi’s had intricate embroidery on the front that Daeton said was their names in her people’s language.

As Perseus watched Daeton put the vest on Adi and check her work, he smiled and joined them.  “It looks great, sweetheart.”

“Thank you,” she said, looking up at him.  “Our son is very handsome.”

“I think he’s beautiful like his moman.”

“Aw.”  Daeton beamed.  Removing the vest from Adi, she pulled their son into her arms and kissed his cheeks while he giggled, tickling his ribcage before setting him on his feet and patting his haunches.

Perseus sat next to her and wrapped his arms around her.  She leaned into him, resting her head on his chest with a sigh.  “Is there anything I can do to help you finish getting ready?”

They were leaving at midnight.  When they ventured through the portal, it would be dawn in the Mortal Realm and they would be in the Centaur city.

“Is the city there similar to this one?”

“Pretty much, although while we share Cholas with other supernatural creatures, the Centaur city in the Mortal Realm is only for Centaurs and their mates.  It’s far from humans.  They travel to human cities to search for their mates.”

“Do they ever come to this realm for their mates?”

“Sometimes.  I was very lucky because my mate came to me.”

She tipped her face up and smiled at him.  “I’m very lucky, too.”

He kissed her lips.  “I hope your parents like us.”

“Why wouldn’t they like you and Ekho?”

“They sent you here to keep you safe and you ended up mated to two males who aren’t from their realm. Because of us, you can’t go home to live with them.”

She shook her head.  “You and Ekho saved my life, more than once.  My parents want me to be happy, and I am.”  She touched his chin.  “My home is here with you and Ekho and our son.  They understand and accept that, I promise.”

The day passed quickly as they prepared for their journey.  Along with Daeton, Ekho, and Adi, Perseus’s brothers Casper and Abrax, and his parents were coming, as were Draya, Fontaine, Rysk, and Tyrant.  When the time came, the small group said their goodbyes and headed to the hillside to travel to the Mortal Realm.

Perseus hadn’t been nervous often in his life.  There were times when he could recall worry streaking through him – the first time he’d had a mating dream about Daeton and didn’t know where she was or how to find her, when they’d faced down the white-haired wizard to protect Daeton, and even recently before Adi was born, when they’d faced the wizard’s brother.  But this fear that slithered through him as he prepared to pass through the portal – it was a different kind of feeling.  He wanted Daeton’s parents to like him, to be proud to call him their son through marriage.

Perseus lifted Adi into his arms and fell into step behind his parents, and the small group moved through the portal single file.  Daeton gasped as she moved through the portal, and Perseus, who had made the trip many times in his life, understood that reaction.  The portal was invisible to all but Centaurs, and to Daeton and the others, it would appear that they were just taking a step into the hillside, when in reality they would pass through to the other realm.

“Holy crap,” Daeton said as she gripped Perseus’s arm when they’d moved through the portal.

Because she used the term frequently, Perseus knew that she was simply stunned by what had happened.  “Amazing, isn’t it?” Perseus said.

She moved to stand next to him and Ekho took up her other side.  “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to how different the times are between our realms.”

He smiled down at her.  “I’m sure you will adjust.”

A group of Centaurs waited for them, and Perseus recognized the king of the herd, Arsen, and one of his warriors, Bry.  Perseus’s dad stepped forward and gripped the extended forearm of the king.  “Thank you for opening your home to us, Arsen.”

“It’s good to see you after so many years, Cosmo,” Arsen said.  Cosmo made the introductions, and the king said, “If you’ll follow me, we have guest homes set up for you. I’ve gotten word that the bear shifters from the South are a few hours away, so your family has time to freshen up.”

“Thank you,” Elektra said.

Their group followed the Centaurs around a large lake that shimmered in the early morning light.  A forest surrounded the lake, and they followed a wide path through the trees and into the Centaurs’ city.

“The Centaurs have lived here for generations,” Perseus said.  Like their own settlement, the Centaurs in the Mortal Realm lived in homes large enough for them to be in their shifted forms.  The homes were arranged in concentric circles around a central marketplace.  Unlike in Cholas, the Centaurs didn’t have a town nearby where they could trade for goods, but instead had to travel to human cities several hours away.  The Centaur city was self-sufficient for the most part – they farmed the land and raised animals for their hides and meat – but there were always things that couldn’t be grown that were needed, like some types of medicine.

Arsen stopped in front of a home and said, “This home and the one next to it are yours for the duration of your stay.  When you’ve freshened up, we’ll take you to meet up with the bears.”

“Thank you,” Perseus said.

Arsen nodded and kicked off, heading away with the guards.  Daeton said, “I really have to pee.”

Elektra said, “Let’s check out the houses and you can choose which one is best for your family.  We’ll take the other one.”  Daeton kissed Adi on the cheek and followed Elektra into the first house.

Perseus put Adi on the ground and he bounced around, stamping his hooves and racing between the adults’ legs.  Daeton and Elektra left the house and walked into the second one. After a few moments, they came back out and Daeton said, “We’re going to take this one.  It has three bedrooms, so Adi can have one and the girls can have the other.”

Draya and Fontaine smiled brightly.  Fontaine took Adi’s hand and said, “Let’s see your room, little one.”

Adi pranced alongside the girls as they walked into the house and Perseus and Ekho followed, shouldering their bags and carrying them inside.  The house was about the size of their own, with a large kitchen and living area, three bedrooms, and one bathing room.  In one of the bedrooms, a nest had been set up, and Daeton knelt next to it and patted the blankets.  Adi made a face and let go of Fontaine’s hand to buck and leap his way toward Perseus.

“No nap for you, young one?”  Perseus smiled at his son.

He shook his head and Daeton chuckled.  “It was worth a shot.”

After they’d all cleaned up and unpacked their belongings, they met with Arsen.  Unlike their own settlement, which was governed by a group of elders, the Mortal Realm Centaur city was governed by King Arsen and Queen Sophie.  He’d been king for at least a hundred years, and his father had been king before him.  Perseus thought both ways of government had their benefits.  He suspected that if their Realm had a king for their settlement, it would be his father, who was well respected among their people.

Perseus and his family stayed in their human forms.  The Centaurs around them were in their shifted forms and walked slowly with their group as they made their way back to the lake and over the hillside that kept the lake hidden from view.

“Oh, is that their van?” Daeton asked as they crested the hill and began their descent.

“What’s a van?” Ekho asked.

“It’s a vehicle.  Like a covered wagon, but it doesn’t use a beast to pull it.”