Parts littered the floor. Will said, “Mayhap we should no’ have used our claws in the beginning?”
“Aye. But failure is no’ an option here tonight.” The laddies were arriving in just fourteen days.
Munro had worked out the logistics for Kereny’s labor—the operating room was set up to the doc’s specs, and Deshazior was on call—but the cribs . . . “I need to have all of this stuff done before she wakes.” Kereny required ever more rest and would sleep like a hibernating bear.
As another young immortal, Chloe too slept more than Will. So Munro and his twin had spent a lot of time together talking—as they hadn’t since tragedy had marked their young lives.
Over these past months, Munro had grown much more at ease with his twin. Will, in turn, was growing more at ease with everything.
“How about this?” Will connected one random piece of the crib to another, and the match looked promising.
“It’s a start.”
As they worked, Will asked, “Any ideas about names?”
“Nay. Lady’s choice on that. She said she’d know when she saw the babes together.”
Will grinned. “I still canna believe you’re having twin lads. Remember that time you and I let the herd of sheep into the house?”
“Aye. Mam told us she wished twin boys on us. And here we are.”
Over all these ages, Munro and Will had rarely spoken of their mother. The subject had only dredged up pain in his twin, so neither brother ever brought her up. This must be another sign that Will had come to terms with the past.
“If I’m this excited about my nephews”—Will slapped Munro on the back—“you should be over the moon.”
I’m trying to be. I want to be. “I’ll be more excited once Jels is defeated.”
After Munro and Will’s first frustrating skirmish with the archwarlock, they’d continued to get leads on his whereabouts. Diligence demanded that the brothers track down each one. Yet Munro got the sense that Jels was testing them or keeping them busy while he planned something bigger.
Kereny had hatched a plan of her own for the archwarlock, one so crazy that Munro had wanted to implement it immediately. . . .
But maybe their luck would hold, and everything would remain quiet until after the babes were born. Hell, stranger things had happened in the Lore. He told Will, “In the meantime, I’ll feel better once we get this surgery behind us.”
Kereny was confident in their c-section plan. And as she grew more comfortable with her pregnancy, this time, and her new species, she struck him as not only powerful, but bloody dazzling. She was blooming.
Munro? Not so much. His dread was serrated, dipping and peaking, but it always had the bite of a blade.
That fear was a breath away from resentment. Did he want his sons? Aye, of course. But he needed her.
Though Kereny had been training rigorously to control her beast, the threat of the fork in the road loomed. He knew one thing for certain: his fate was tied to hers. If she became lost to her beast, so too would Munro to his. Where your mate goes, you follow. . . .
“What’s on your mind?” Will must’ve read his pensive expression.
Might as well get this over with. “If anything should happen to me and Kereny—”
“Wheesht, Munro. No talking like that.”
“It must be said. I would expect you to raise the twins as their father.”
As Will accepted the import of all Munro was trusting to him, he had to clear his throat. “Me, then? No’ Lachlain or Garreth?”
“You. You and Chloe are the godsparents.” Before, the idea of Will raising two babes would have struck Munro as ludicrous. Now he knew Will could do anything he set his mind to.
Because he’d done the impossible—total control of his volatile beast.
Will swallowed. “Aye. You’ve my word on it. Chlo and I would raise some good, braw lads.” He caught Munro’s gaze. “But it canna come to that.”
“No’ planning on it. Yet that’s the thing with bairns, you have to anticipate things you never did before,” he said, glad they’d gotten this conversation behind them. Lightening his tone, he asked, “So when do you and Chloe plan to spawn?”
“She says a century or so. I’m thinking she’ll fold sooner. After all, who can resist Hotter?” He slapped Munro on the back.
“Hotter?” Munro rolled his eyes. “My arse.”
Once they’d finished the second crib, they unboxed the car seats and headed to Kereny’s new SUV. She loved driving the back roads of the settlement and was eager to take to the highways once the warlock threat had ended.
Outside, the night was warm. Katydids sang in the light breeze. The moon was waxing, would be full again in four nights. He scowled up at it. “Here’s hoping I can control my beast this month.”
For each of the past full moons, he’d attempted to without success. His beast had been gentler with Kereny, but Munro couldn’t imagine the creature taking her this late in the pregnancy.