Page 27 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

But I was very aware of the men behind me, my lovers. The men I’d given my heart to. I wasn’t going to make them watch me tongue fuck a former enemy.

When I pulled away, Lucius’ eyes looked a little clearer, the wildness receding a little to the edges. “I think you might be the gift. I am going to get clean. I will see you tomorrow, Raine Baxter.”

He stepped back, but his eyes caught on Nico. “Brother.”

Then he was gone.

Well. Okay then. I took a deep breath and then turned around. I always felt like I was jumping out of a plane when I was close to Lucius. I wondered if that's how people felt when they swam with sharks. Like I was one accident away from being chum.

X was grinning, so I focused on him. I couldn’t look at all the angst on everyone else’s face right now. “That was hot, Love. Like watching a pretty girl put her head in the mouth of a lion.”

Walker sighed. “He’s not wrong, Raine. I don’t think you should, uh, be with him without one of us around. And always in a controlled environment.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Nico shook his head. “If Lucius went rabid, none of you would stand a chance.”

Judge looked over at Nico. “Are you volunteering for voyeur duty?”

X raised his hand. “No, pick me, pick me.”

Nico tilted his head. “I think he would be fine around her during an everyday setting. But I can’t guarantee he wouldn’t drain her dry if he got a taste of her blood. It is… enchanting.”

Well, that was a nice word for it.

“So he can babysit her so none of this year's Vampire Bachelors get any funny ideas, but if they are going to do the beast with two backs, either Nico or several of us need to be there too. You know what that sounds like to me?”

Judge kicked him with his boot. “If you say a good excuse for an orgy, I will crush your balls.”

X just grinned. “Maybe he’d let me tie him up. Can you imagine having a predator like that caught in my ropes?” He seemed to grow harder and I wasn’t going to lie, the idea of having Lucius bound beneath me was making me pretty goddamn hot.

“Well, uh now that’s settled, what do we do about the pups?”

I went over and sat on the armrest of Brody’s chair. He grabbed me and pulled me across his lap. He buried his face in my neck and licked. I think he was scent marking me or something, because the bond pulsed with possessiveness. My Alpha had a rough day.

Walker cleared his throat. “I can reach out and see if anyone listed them as missing. Three kids can’t just up and disappear right?”

Brody nodded his head sadly. “They are too young to be enrolled in school, so I doubt there is any record of them anywhere. If what Christopher said is true, they were sold off by the very people who’d list them as missing. Maybe we can ask some questions tomorrow and dig into their background a little, into their pack.” He looked down at me. “I can take them back to Nîso with me. Someone will adopt them within the Pack.”

I nodded. Maybe that would be the way to go. But I wanted them to have a choice. I want them to know that they have options, that they aren’t just objects we can move where we want them.

Tex hummed his agreement. “The other option is we keep them. Adopt them. They’d be safe here, they could grow up however they want. We wouldn’t force them to do anything or be anything they didn’t want to be.” There was a thread of pain in there, because he’d hidden his sexuality from his conservative Catholic adoptive parents for a decade.

When no one immediately protested, I looked around at them all. “Are you guys serious? What do any of us know about raising children?”

Judge shrugged. “I had kids in my human life. Doubt they've changed that much in two hundred odd years, right?”

I looked at X and he shrugged. “The little Omega likes me anyway?”

My eyes flicked to Brody who shrugged. “It is up to you and up to them, I guess. It is a lot of responsibility, raising three shifter pups. Would they be safe here? Perhaps. It is a town filled with vampires and shifters are like candy. But I believe that the fact they are under the protection of some of the Boogeymen of the vampire world would be a deterrent to just about anything with any goddamn sense.”

Walker and Nico seem a little more hesitant. Mostly because they are the responsible ones. "We’ll see if they do not have any family that aren’t sociopaths. If not… I mean. Kids would be nice, right?” Walker asked.

I blinked. Shocked would be an understatement. A week ago, he was worried about my succubus traits compelling him into loving me and now he’s like “Let’s adopt a bunch of traumatized shifter kids, ‘kay?”

What even was my life? Nico was the last voice. Well, the second last, but I wasn’t sure Lucius counted just yet. “I am content with whatever you choose, Raine. With whatever the shifter pups would like. It is a hard decision for a five or six year old, to decide, but they do not seem like children in the classic sense. They have seen too many things to properly be children. They deserve a choice, and some autonomy.”

I nodded my agreement. That was it. We’d ask the kids, and if they wanted to stay, we’d become a family of eleven?

When did life get this complex? I almost preferred being blown up.

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