The Lycan Hunter (The Gardinian World Series) (47 page)

“There, all is restored or whatever. I have to go. My summons is being yelled at me,” he said with a laugh as he disappeared.

Kyran turned to find Alexis leaning against the wall. Emotions
rushed across her features, but two fought for dominance: happiness and anger.

“What’s wrong, Alexis?”

She shook her head. Kyran swore to himself. If she said she was
fine, he just might lose what little control he had. She wasn
’
t fine,
because he wasn’t.

“
I don’
t want you to misunderstand where my head is at, but I’m kind
of pissed off.”

“Why?”

“I get why he did it, but thinking you were dead really fucking
sucked. Planning a life without you – trying to understand how I was
s
upposed to live in a house full of Lycans with the war still going strong
and you not here to,
I don’
t know, make it tolerable for all of us – was
hard. Nobody has to remind me that I’m the odd man out. I know it
every time one of them shifts. So knowing that I had to make living
here a long term arrangement just…sucked.”

“You
’
re pack, and I
’
m not just saying that just because you
’
re my wife. If you believe for one minute any of them would
’
ve let you leave
just because I was no longer here, you underestimate the value you have
to them. Are there some of them that are still nervous around you
?
Sure, but we live long lives, and some things are hard to forget. Remember
this
though: The pack is a family, complete with people you love, like, and
just tolerate. There are those who love you, those who like you, and those
who simply tolerate you. You’re family. Accept it and move on.” He wrapped her in a hug. “Now, what else is bothering you?”

“Nothing. At least nothing that a week-long coma can’t cure.”

“I doubt they,” he motioned to the crib, “would let either of us
sleep a week, but if you want to go to bed, go. I
’
ll take over. It
’
s about
time I got to know them.”

She hedged, her thoughts a panic of images mirroring the emotional
turmoil playing out on her face.

“Alexis,”
he said mentally,
“I’m right here. Do you feel me? Do you
feel me here,”
he pointed to her heart.
“You are mine. Now, tomorrow and
however many tomorrows the gods give us. I’ll be right here, I swear.”

Doubt still lingered in the corner of her thoughts, but she nodded.

“Just a quick note. They get pretty pissed off when you separate them. For any reason.”

“What about diaper changes?”

“
They aren
’
t
exactly reasonable
about their intolerance for separation,”
she said with a laugh. “And sleeping doesn’t mean unaware. They will
know if the other is taken away.”

Kyran cast a glance at twins who were now engaged in back and forth gurgled conversation.

“How long have they been doing that?”

“They started it today. It’s weird, so I try to ignore it.”

Kyran laughed.
He could appreciate weird. The scientist in him
would more than likely end up charting all of their oddities.

“Okay, well I think I can handle them. Go to bed or rest.”

“You sure?”

“I’ve wanted this for most of my life. I'm as prepared for this as I can be. Anything I don’t know, experience will teach me.”

“Point taken. Well…”

He kissed her, picking up where he left off when Lykil interrupted
them earlier.

“I’ll be here when you wake up,” he said after breaking the kiss.

She nodded and left the room, leaving him alone with what could
only be described as two miniature versions of himself.

His daughter frowned and turned her head towards her brother.
She gurgled a few times before turning her attention back to him after
receiving a grunt from her brother. That notion that he’d had earlier
about not ignoring the weirdness, voted for the sake of his sanity to
ignore what appeared to be vocal communication.

Instead he reached down, scooped his daughter up, and prepare
d himself for the oral reprimand.

What came from her brother could only be described as a protective
growl. Kyran smiled down at his son, adjusted his grip on his daughter
before he picked up his son. Carrying them over to the recliner, he sat
down and rested the now quiet siblings on his lap.

“I hope you keep that attitude the older you get. Protect her, and you,” he said, looking at his daughter, “do the same for him.” Kyran was silent for a few moments as he studied their faces. “This is going to be a lopsided conversation, but that’s okay.”

For not being there when they needed him, he spent the next few
hours apologizing for the way they came into the world. Then he
prepared them, as much as he thought they could understand, for the
naming ceremony that would take place in the morning.

The ceremony could be performed at any point after the child’s
birth. Some waited a week, paying homage to a time when medical
intervention wasn
’
t as great and children died frequently. Others chose
to name their children immediately and waited mere hours. Kyran
felt that the three days that the twins had gone without a name was long enough.

Eventually it became evident that they were hungry, so he carried them
downstairs to the kitchen where he fed them. Trinity took over
so that he could eat, which he had managed to neglect to do since
he’d woken up. When he finished, he took them back upstairs where he talked to them until they fell asleep.

Falling back into the routine of going to evening prayers should
have been easy enough, but the thought of going to his room to shower
,
change, and go out to the pool house for the service wasn
’
t the least bit
appealing. It didn’t help that he could see his faith being tested. He was tempted to flip the Gardinian gods the finger and move on with his
life.
Unfortunately, the fact that he needed to pull the pack out of mourning
for him forced him to drag himself to his room and get ready.

“I canceled the prayers for today and sent out a blast email to
everyone. I told them you were okay and we
’
d explain everything
tomorrow. I made sure they understood that you needed the night to acclimate yourself with your children and get some rest,” Ronan said from the open door of the office.

Kyran walked over to his brother. “Thanks, Ro. You look tired
yourself, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

That phrase had to be one of the more irritating phrases he
’
d heard,
especially used in conjunction with obvious clues that the person saying
it wasn’t “fine.”

Kyran wrapped his little brother in a hug and held him until Ronan
returned the hug. They stayed that way for a few moments before
Kyran felt the first inklings of Ronan’s composure breaking. When it
broke, it was something that Kyran never wanted to experience again
.
This depth of sorrow, obviously buried for the benefit of Alexis and the
pack, wracked through his brother, the pain breaking Kyran’s heart.

Kyran did the only thing he could. He held on while his brother
bared his vulnerability in the purest way he knew how. Ronan showed
his agony, the misery-filled days that he’d spent mourning his older brother, and Kyran absorbed the weight of that pain.

After more than ten minutes, Ronan pulled back, turned away, and
wiped his face.

“Thank you for being the strength of this pack, my wife, and my
children when they needed you most. I owe you everything for the pain
you buried for their benefit; know that it won't be forgotten.”

Ronan nodded and went to step away, but Kyran stopped him with
a hand onto his shoulder. He wanted to tell his brother everything one
never said to the ones they loved and regretted it when they found out it was too late.

“I know, Kyran. I do, too,” Ronan said, his voice just a touch shaky.

“See you tomorrow. Oh, and get out of my office.”

Ronan laughed. “Gladly. I just left my phone.”

“Night, Ro.”

“Night, Ky.”

KYRAN WOKE UP
and turned on his side to watch his still sleeping
wife. She actually looked at peace, which she hadn
’
t when he came in
last night. Her brows had been creased, and her body tense, but the
minute that he slid onto his side of the bed, her features and body relaxed.

He reached out and pulled her against him. He was kissing the
top of her head when she sighed and smiled at him.

“How did you sleep?” he asked her.

“
Good.” She glanced at the clock and bolted out of the bed. “Crap,
I need to get the twins fed, dressed, and…” she looked down at him. “What?”

“Trinity has them. She came in an hour ago and told me that we should sleep in.”

A frown creased Alexis’ brow. She placed her hands on her hips, frowning deeper before she sighed and the agitation left her features.

“What am I supposed to do now?”

He held his hand out to her. “Get back in bed.”

“But…” She studied his still extended hand. “This is weird.”

“What is?” Kyran asked as he dropped his hand.

“I want to be the one taking care of them. They’re mine.”

“And that’s weird because?”

Alexis sat on the side closest to him, nuzzling into his side. She
grabbed his hand and ran her small fingers over his much larger ones.

“I didn’t notice it before. I guess I thought that I was just on autopilot.
I needed something to do to keep my mind busy and taking care of them gave me a distraction. Or so I thought. I didn't think that it was possible…”

“What was possible?”

She shook her head and met his gaze.

“Sorry. I didn’t think I could feel maternal. I have the shittiest
example of what it is to be a mother, and then I never wanted kids.
Not to mention I was pissed off when I found out that I was pregnant
.”
She stood and started pacing. “I guess now I feel like my day has a
crappy start, because somebody else is doing what I am supposed to be doing. I’m their mom, and now someone else is filling my spot.”

Kyran studied her before he wrapped her in a breath stealing hug.
“She isn’t taking your place, and I wouldn’t let her if she wanted to try. Trinity is just trying to be nice and give us time to ourselves.” He
kissed her long and hard before he spoke again. “But if you want them
, go get them.”

If he wasn
’
t so relieved that she had quickly acclimated to motherhood
, Kyran would have been offended at the speed at which she extracted
herself from his grasp. Alexis threw on some sweats, a sports bra, and
a tank top; tossed her hair in a finger-combed ponytail; and raced to the door. With her hand on the door, she glanced back at him.

“You aren’t mad, are you?”

He shook his head in negation. “I love you, Alexis. I’ll go get you
something to eat and start getting things ready for twins
’
naming.
Think of a name for our son; I’ll do the same for our daughter.”

She ran back to him, pulled him down, and kissed him before she l
eft the room.

Kyran took a shower, dressed, and started working on the naming
ceremony. He was facing yet another long day, which apparently wasn
’
t
uncommon given how many he’d had since meeting Alexis.

He set Trinity to the task of readying a menu for that night. Ronan
and Marcela were sent to relax somewhere together, because Kyran could
see his brother was still on edge, and Marcela wasn
’
t too much better.

Naming Ceremonies were generally low key, so a lot of fuss wasn’t
put into them. It ran somewhere between a baby shower and christening
. First, a ceremony welcoming the children into the family and giving
them their names would take place, which was followed by a party,
where gifts were given to the baby, and a formal toast offered to the
parents in congratulations and wishing them well on their journey int
o parenthood.

Kyran went to the pool house and began setting up the chairs. The wooden altar that Omar had given them was still at the center of
the room, which gave the room a more regal feel and simplified his
decoration plans. At some point, Kyran planned to take the floor of the
altar out and use it to extend the top. When it was complete, it would be a new king size bed for his bedroom.

Trinity and various members of the Harem had already gone to
work, blowing up the multitude of balloons and tying them to chairs
and pinning them to the wall. The colors were the same gold and blue
that had been at the wedding, because the children
’
s soul colors were
unknown. He checked to see if there was anything he needed to do
before he went upstairs to check on some of the pack business that
had occurred during his “death.”