Page 40 of Pleasantly Undead in Dark River

Nell gave her the softest look, so full of love and acceptance I wanted to cry. “Welcome, Carmen.”

Finally, Brody stepped aside and Christopher was under the scrutiny of the Matriarch. He held her gaze, and then dropped his eyes, tilting his head slightly to the side.

Nell reached out, and caught his chin. Christopher flinched, but looked up. “You are part of the Alpha Pack, Christopher. You bow to no one unless they’ve earned your respect. I hope that one day, you’d like to consider us part of your Pack too, but until then, welcome future Alpha.” She nodded at him, showing him that she respected him.

Gah. Tears. I loved Brody’s pack before, but I think I could hug his grandmother for a month after this.

Nell straightened. “Well, now we’ve gone through all that, are you kids hungry? Brody, please go and save our food from your uncle, because otherwise we are all eating rubber tonight. Bobby?” She called, and all the kids playing on the lawn stilled and looked up at the deck. Bobby, the brave little dude from my last visit, who Brody had slated to be the next leader of Nîso, trotted up the stairs. He smiled at Christopher, and waved at Enit and Carmen.

“Yes, Gran?”

“These are Brody’s new pack mates. Do you want to take them and introduce them to the other children?”

Bobby grinned and nodded. “Sure I can.” He looked up at Carmen in Nico’s arms. He didn’t even shy away from the powerful ancient vampire. He held out a hand. “Hey, wanna come and play hide and go seek? Only, we play it blindfolded and you gotta use your nose to sniff people out.”

Carmen stared at his hand, and then at Christopher. Bobby looked at Christopher, his face so hopeful and reassuring. Finally, Christopher nodded, and Carmen reached down and grabbed Bobby’s hand as Nico lowered her to the ground.

He smiled sweetly at her. “I’m Bobby. What’s your name?”

She blinked up at him. “Carmen,” she said so softly I thought maybe I imagined it. Bobby’s smile got bigger. “Cool name. Let’s go play!” He looked over to make sure Christopher was following. His feet stilled when Enit slid from Tex’s back. “Oh, you’re an omega! I’ve never met an omega before. Suze is going to be so excited. She’s never met an omega before and she thinks you guys are just the most amazing…” I couldn’t hear what he said as they all walked down the stairs, the pups following along behind him. He still held onto Carmen’s hand.

Brody looked over at me. “She spoke.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t believe it either. “At least we know her silence doesn't have a physical cause.” That was reassuring. I remembered Ghost’s story about his pack cutting out his tongue, and that being the reason he didn't speak.

Brody kissed my cheek and walked off to remove the tongs from Uncle Terrance. Annie grabbed my hand and dragged me away to talk to a bunch of the other women, including Brody’s sister Kelly. She looked between the kids and me, a single eyebrow raised, but didn’t mention anything. They talked about starting a food co-op here, sending out buyers to get certain items wholesale and lowering living costs in the town. I settled into the pleasantness of the whole thing, so different from the first time I was here. Everyone seemed to accept that I was Brody’s mate now with little to no upset. Or at least none that anyone voiced. If anything, the pups helped that too, because if we could have three small kids around and we hadn’t eaten them yet, then we couldn’t be the savage monsters that we’d been painted as for centuries.

I thought about the heads on my doorsteps. Well, most of us anyway.

I kept one eye on the pups, but after a little while, and much coaxing from Bobby and his friend Suze, they began to play, and their smiles made my heart swell.

Arla, Tye’s wife, nudged me with her elbow. “I know that look. Kids are a wonder. They will likely send you to an early grave-” Kelly snorted and Arla realized what she’d said. I laughed as her cheeks flushed bright red. “Uh, you know what I mean. They are stressful. But they are so worth it.”

I could see what she meant. She seemed perpetually stressed, juggling one child or another, and passing them back and forth between their father and other relatives, but when she looked at them, it was with such heartwarming love.

Eventually, Brody called to everyone that the food was ready, and I went and gathered the pups. I got them all hotdogs and juice, sitting them down at the same picnic table as Arla and Tye’s kids, Bobby continuing to talk a mile a minute, and Enit happily conversing for all of them. Christopher even seemed more relaxed.

I had a sudden moment of self doubt. Maybe raising them here among the Pack was the best option? Maybe with someone who’d parented shifter children before. Who hadn’t been considered a baby themselves less than a decade ago.

Nico’s eyes found mine across the grassed area, where he was talking to one of the Elders. And when I said Elder, this guy was older than dirt. But he laughed along with Nico, who looked eighty years his junior but was in fact thousands of years his senior. What did age matter in the end? If I loved them, kept them safe, provided them with a home filled with love and support, wasn’t that enough?

Tex wandered over, kissing the top of my head. “You okay?”

I shrugged. “Parental doubt.”

Tye laughed from where he was cutting up the errant toddler’s food. He was sitting perfectly still now. Strange that. “Ah, we had that with Bobby. Pretty sure we did everything wrong but he still came out okay, didn’t you Bud?”

Bobby snorted. “You fed me gummy bears in my cereal.”

Tye shuddered. “I learned that lesson the hard way. Unless you want four hours of demon possessed children, do not feed them candy in their breakfast cereal.”

Chapter Twenty-One

The rest of the night was gloriously normal. Eventually we said our goodbyes. Brody was driving back to Dark River tonight, and he’d spend a couple of days. I was looking forward to my run back with Nico. I said goodbye to everyone, promised to come back soon, and the idea that they even wanted me back still blew my mind.

I put the sleepy kids into the back, knowing they’d probably sleep the whole way home. I kissed Tex and Brody, and watched their tail lights disappear down the road. I started to jog a little with Nico, who held my hand. Once we got over Nîso’s warding, I pulled him closer and kissed him. “This was nice.”

He cupped my face, tracing his thumbs over my cheekbones. “It was. I’m glad I came.” He kissed me softly. “I’ll race you back to Dark River?”

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