Because what is a child without a parent in that child’s mind? Their lives are shaped, constrained, and created by the adults around them. Their little egos are still forming in response to us. And Rick, for whatever reason, had helped shape my son. His fingerprints stayed long after the bruises had healed.
“If you… When you’re older, you could—”
Kade shook his head with a gleam in his eye. “This is home now. We’ll stay here forever?”
I smiled, something that came out a bit watery. I brushed his hair away from his face.
“Sure, love. One day, you’ll grow up and find your own mate.”
He looked at the two men surrounding him and then nodded.
“So, if you’re my dad now, you don’t have to ask Mum for permission to let me watch movies,” he said with a smile.
“Oh no, you are not getting me in trouble there, but…” Aidan looked up at me. “An afternoon sitting on the couch watching cartoons might be in order. It's customary after a mating that the families put on a big celebration.” He shook his head when he saw me tense up. “Mum will be halfway through the preparations now. But I’ll give her a call, see if we can’t set it up for tomorrow or the next day.”
“How would she know?” I said, frowning.
“They know,” both men replied. “They always know.”
22
We spent a quiet afternoon watching yet more episodes of The Clone Wars until we fell into a kind of half sleep. Our eyes were still open, we were still conscious of each other, lying tangled up as we were on the couch. Hair and limbs were stroked, like stoking a fire, keeping the low embers of comfort and closeness I now associated with pack going. When we were forced to, we ordered some pizza from the mess kitchens, and then watched a bit more TV until we fell into a deep sleep.
Kade slept with us again. I noticed he was very tactile with Aidan now, snuggling up to him whenever he could. I looked over at Peter, who watched all of us.
“It’s OK,” he whispered to me. “It’s often like this with our kids. You have a different relationship with each dad. I know I did with mine.”
“Me too,” Aidan said. “You’ll meet them tomorrow night, but Cooper was always the one I went running to when I was upset.”
“Rob was mine, though Frank was the one who used to patch up whatever was wrong.” Peter’s arm slid around my waist, pulling me tighter against him. “No one has the exact same bond with every member of the pack. We’re all different. It’s good to see Kade bonding with Aidan like this. He needs it. Now what do you need?”
Sex and heat was hot and all, but there was something about the complex layers of being in a relationship that I’d always loved. That mix of need and love and attraction and affection I could hear in his voice was always my preferred state. I had to admit, the concept of going into a heat, of experiencing total and utter sexual surrender, had given me some very
interesting dreams of late, but doing so with my mates by my side, with the prospect of adding others…
Adding others…
“Shit! Sen!” I gasped.
“It’s all good. I let him know what was happening after you bit Aidan,” Peter replied. “No man’s gonna try and get between the newly mated. He’s still keen if you are?”
He watched me squirm on the bed as I thought about the idea with hooded eyes.
“Good,” he said, brushing his lips across my ear. “I for one am looking forward to trying out your little scenario.”
A shiver went down my spine, sending a wash of heat through me, but Kade shifted groggily in his sleep, drawing my attention back to him. I stroked his hair back from his face and then looked into Aidan’s eyes, ones that watched my child with a wonder I remembered well. It was that stunned, ‘I have a baby’ look I’d found myself sporting all the time when I was left alone with Kade. I studied his expression hungrily, finally, finally seeing what I’d always wanted on the face of a male partner—reverence.
“Thank you,” I said, yet more bloody tears forming.
“No, Flick, thank you.”
23
Chaos descended on the house as soon as morning came.
“Oh, Flick…”
Aidan’s mum, Renee, was standing in the doorway, looking at a very bedraggled me, while I just stood there in one of Peter’s discarded shirts and nothing else. She swept in and grabbed me in a hug.