Page 48 of His Unicorn Alpha
Also, this pretty much cemented my parents’ suspicion that my dad wasn’t biologically my father. It didn’t change how much I loved my dad, but I had to admit that I wish I had known earlier, that I could have researched, or tracked the shaman down, or…something.
Because being blindsided by being an entirely different breed or species of shifter was something else.
“Do you think you’re the only one of your kind?” Beck asked me as we sat on his back porch, each nursing a bottle of beer as his kids ran around on the grassed area in front of us. “Or do you think there are more unicorns out there?” He snorted and shook his head. “Unicorns. Jesus, that sounds outrageous.” He shot me an apologetic grimace. “Shit, sorry.”
I waved him off as the sound of toddlers battling waged on in the background of our conversation. “Nah, I get it. It feels outrageous, even though I’mdefinitelya unicorn now.”
I’d tried shifting twice more, just in case the first time was an anomaly or a shared hallucination. Both times, I had shifted into the golden-colored unicorn, wings and all.
“So…is this just a you thing, do you think?” Beck repeated his question, then leaned forward in his seat and called out, “Rory, we don’t sit on our brother’s head! Let Duke up, please!” After his daughter reluctantly complied, he slumped back in his seat. “They’re little savages.”
Case in point: as soon as he was able to get back to his feet, Duke roared and crash tackled his sister back down to the grass.
I laughed.
“Oh, sure, laugh it up,” he sighed as Rory screamed and wrestled her twin with a vicious sort of energy that fascinated me. “Just remember, you’re gettingthreeof these. Good luck, I say.”
“Yeah, well, maybe mine will be docile.” I winced as Duke cried out when his sister sank her teeth into his arm.
“Shit,” Beck sighed again and pushed to his feet. “Anyone who says they get easier as they get older is a lying liar who lies.”
“Daddy!” Duke cried, shoving his sister to the ground and making a break for Beck. “My bited! My ouchie!”
“I know, bud,” Beck scooped him up and kissed over the tiny toothy imprints in the otherwise soft, unblemished toddler’s skin. “I’ve kissed it better.”
“Awe-y mean!” From his perch on Beck’s hip, Duke glared at his sister, who poked her tongue back out at him.
“Rory was a little mean, yes,” Beck agreed, rubbing his son’s back, “but you were both playing rough.”
“Awe-y mean!” the kid repeated.
Beck nodded again, then looked my way. I didn’t love the glint in his eyes before he adopted an excited tone, “I know what will make it better,” he declared to his whimpering toddler. “Who wants to see a unicorn?”
Ten minutes later, I was cursing my new pack alpha and both of his hell spawn. They couldn’t hear me, though, because I was in my shifted form, but if Beck didn’t stop them from tugging at my tail and wings, I was going to run him through with the pointy weapon permanently fastened to my forehead.
“Ooh-nicown!” Rory shrieked happily, her pudgy little hands smacking down on my back, courtesy of the fact that her father —myformerfriend— had put both toddlers there like I was one of those pony rides.
The only one riding me like a pony is my mate, I grumbled to myself, immediately feeling better at the images the thought brought to mind.
“Yes, he is a unicorn,” Beck responded to his daughter with the patience of a man not currently being treated like a fairground attraction, “and you have to be gentle with him.”
“Pity,” Duke added.
“He is very pretty,” Beck agreed.
“What are you…Beckett,” Oliver’s exasperated voice came from the house and I turned to find Beck’s omega scowling down at us, “did you even ask Micah if it was okay before you turned him into their latest distraction?”
I couldn’t contain my nicker of amusement as Beck’s shoulders slumped guiltily. “He loves them, though,” he argued. “Plus, he’s going to have triplets. Think of this as practice for his future.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Ollie’s response was accompanied by a shake of his head, but even I could hear the fondness in his tone. “It’s nap time now, anyway” — he pointedly ignored the dual cries of ‘No nap!’ from my back— “so you can stop torturing your friend.”
The kids cried and stomped their little feet as they were hauled away and up onto the porch, and I took the opportunity to shift back to my human form and hurriedly put my clothes back on. By the time Beck returned from handing his offspring to his mate, I was dressed again, standing in the middle of the expanse of yard space with my arms folded and an eyebrow raised.
Beck gave me a sheepish smile. “So…your unicorn form is awesome,” he started, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Thanks,” I said as I chuckled. “But that’s still the last time you volunteer me as your kids’ pet for the day.”
“Aww, but Brandt always goes dragon for them.”
