Page 70 of His Unicorn Alpha
Beside me, Brandt snorted. “Our faithful leader is afraid of children.”
“No,” Beck corrected him primly, throwing his shoulders back and raising his chin, “I am afraid of goingallthe way back to sleepless nights and diaper explosions.”
“But look at her,” Ollie snuggled into Beck’s side and lifted Rita higher. She snuffled in her sleep and curled further into his hold. “Isn’t she precious?”
Beck’s expression softened and he nodded. “She is. All three of them are. Really. But we have our hands full with the twins, don’t we?”
Ollie pouted and sighed as he looked back down at my baby, crooking his index finger on his free hand before running it over her soft cheek. “I just miss this feeling, you know? Rory and Duke are three now, and they’re getting so big and independent…”
“Independent?” Beck repeated incredulously, but he was smiling. “Did you miss the part where we are still trying to potty train them? Or where they still wake up and call out for usrightwhen we’re trying to enjoy somealone time?”
I had to smother a laugh as I leaned in to Brandt’s side, murmuring, “Five bucks says he caves soon.”
Brandt nodded.
Beck chuckled. “You know I can hear you.”
“And you’re not denying it,” Sandy cut in, wandering over with Lucia cradled in the crook of her elbow. “I think our house could definitely use the pitter patter of more baby feet. It’s been kind of boring since Brandi moved in with Lena.”
“Maybe you should be voluntold to babysit more often,” Beck argued. “Rory and Dukelovetheir Aunt Sandy.”
“Oh, it really issucha pity that I have to travel back to New York to work so often,” Sandy widened her eyes with faux innocence. “You know I would love to look after the little monsters —I mean, sweethearts— more.”
Beck’s chuckle turned into a laugh as he shook his head. “You just said we should have more, but agree that the first two are too much to handle sometimes.”
“Maybe they need siblings to entertain them? Little buddies to love on?” Sandy suggested, and I knew her well enough to understand that she was just trying to stir Beck up. They had been foster siblings, after all. We all knew she didn’t actuallythink ‘as entertainment for older kids’ was a valid reason for Beck to have more children.
“Micah and Brandt have just made three little buddies for them to play with,” Beck argued back. “And the bonus there is that we don’t have to deal with the not fun side of their babies.” He shrugged at me and Brandt. “No offence to your girls.”
“Dude, I’ve babysat your hellhounds,” I replied with a smirk. “I’m aware of the not fun side of kids.”
“Where are the twins, anyway?” Brandt looked around our living room cautiously.
“Lena and Brandi are babysitting so we can visit you guys without distraction,” Ollie answered. “It is nice to have a break.”
I shook my head at Beck when he opened his mouth, probably with the intention of using Ollie’s enjoyment of some kid-free time as proof that they shouldn’t give in to his cluckiness. Even I knew that would land him in the dog house. Wolf house? Whatever.
“Well, that’s nice of them,” Sandy ran her hand through her purple pixie cut and grinned at Beck. “You’ll have to thank them for sparing Micah and Brandt’s house from certain destruction.”
“Okay, stop, they’re notthatbad,” Beck grumbled, taking the bait.
Sandy winked at Ollie, before saying, “Then there’s no reason not to give in and have another one, right? Look at how sweet this baby is…”
“I hate you all,” Beck sighed, but he couldn’t hide his amusement.
I sat back and hugged Brandt closer, enjoying how right this felt. Being with my pack, seeing them welcome and faun over my babies, snuggling with my mate…I could hardly imagine what life had been like before I gave into the instinct to return to Shifters Sanctuary.
And, despite the pack’s unrelenting vigilance against newcomers or passers-through the town, nothing scary or dramatic had happened since I had been there. Beck and Rex still spoke in low tones about the Moonmusic organization and their leader’s ongoing campaign against us and ‘our kind’, but there hadn’t been any attacks or kidnap attempts. Not since prior to Beck and Ollie’s wedding, anyway.
When I mentioned as much to Beck, though, after the party had died down and he and I were seated on my back porch, each nursing a beer, he shook his head. “The rumblings and dissent are definitely still escalating,” he told me. “One of the frat house guys,” —he explained, referencing the large homestead housing people who had come to Shifters Sanctuary in the hopes they might be potential alphas themselves— “Matthew, is like a hacker or something. I didn’t ask many questions about that. But we pay him to trawl the web and keep an eye on everything Morstein is up to…and we know he’s keeping a close eye on us. Every time a new alpha pops up, he panics.”
“But I’ve been here for months now and nothing’s happened.”
“Well, he’s aware we have three dragons and that even bringing rocket launchers—yeah, I know, that sounds farfetched, but it doesn’t make it any less true,” he cut himself off at my wide-eyed stare. “Even bringing them didn’t work in his favor. So now he’s trying to convince his following that he’s still got all the power and that we are the freaks.”
“And the old-school packs really don’t see how much better off they’d be without him? Like…what, exactly, do they get out of handing over their tithes and following his arbitrary rules?”
Beck shrugged. “Who the fuck knows? Ollie says that his pack firmly believe that their life is better because that’s all they’ve ever known. Day agreed that his old pack didn’t trust anyone who wanted an external education…and why would they? Leaders like that Morstein guy are scared of their followershaving critical thinking skills, or of seeing how different things could be if they tried things another way. A way that doesn’t financially and socially benefit him.”
