Page 65 of Duke's Baby Deal
“Cell phone?” Bax mused. “I think I lost it.” He winked at me.
I laughed, but smothered it quickly when Duke looked my way. “I’ll take the babies in if you’ll get the bags, Duke?”
“I’ll help,” Bax offered, and came forward to take Isolde when I pulled her, seat and all, out of the van. I got Jedrick’s seat out and we carried them into the apartment, with Duke coming right behind with our bags.
I led Bax over to a quiet corner of the living room to set the seat down and we lifted the pups out of the straps that they no longer needed to keep them safe.
“They’re bigger than I thought they’d be, from the stories I was hearing,” Bax said as he cradled my daughter.
“They’ve grown a lot since we moved to just formula.”
Bax looked at me with sympathy, as if he was expecting me to break down over it or something. But I’d already made my peace with all the ways I’d failed my babies so far, and my plan was never to fail them again. Which meant doing what Duke wanted me to, and making sure that we had plenty of credits, and that if they ever got sick, I knewexactlywhat to do.
“Yeah,” I added, just to make the point. “Duke really likes being able to help out with the feeding. It’s kind of a relief not to be completely responsible, especially with school this fall.”
His eyes widened, then narrowed again, and a thoughtful look grew on his face. “Do you want me to watch the babies while you put things away?”
“Sure,” I said and smiled at him to show I hadn’t meant anything mean by it. Well, maybe a little. I didn’t want to be a target for sympathy I didn’t need. Duke and I were just fine. “They’re going to wake up and be hungry soon. I’ll put some bottles together and you and Duke can feed them while I take the laundry up to the laundromat and made some supper.”
He smiled and went to sit on the couch with Isolde. “That sounds like a fantastic idea.” He gazed down at my little girl and smiled like he’d already fallen in love with her. It was a power she had, that even the humans seemed unable to resist her. “Yes, we’ll just get to know each other, won’t we, little girl?” And he began to rock her like he’d rock his own.
I handed Jedrick over to Duke and snagged the baby bag on the way to the kitchen to make the bottles. When I looked back over my shoulder, my mate and my friend were sitting on the couch together cooing over my babies. And I realized, despite everything, that I was happier than I’d ever been in my life.
CHAPTER FIFTY
Work had already begun on the new houses. Cement slabs had been poured and the frames of the houses were going up like so many wooden cages. Except, in this case, the bars meant freedom, and space. Duke had already been by to visit the site of his and Bram’s house. Close to Abel’s and Mac’s, but on the other side of the wall. They’d have a yard behind the house and a bedroom for each of the pups. Plus, a dining room for Bram. The other half of their duplex would be left empty, only the floors in place. If Bram finished school—when Bram finished school—they’d turn it into a clinic for him.
Duke had no doubt that Bram would succeed.
He was running the electric saw, cutting boards to the right lengths while other packmembers distributed them to the half-dozen worksites around him, when he saw something that nearly made him lose control of the saw.
Justin. Fucking Justin Montana Border was in Mercy Hills. What the fucking fuck was going on? He damn near put the saw down and walked off, but stopped himself barely in time. Justin wasn’t important. Not in public, anyway.
But maybe this was Lord of Wolves’ way of giving Duke the darkest wish of his heart.
He put his head down and kept cutting, but a part of him paid close attention to Justin, to where he went, what he did, who he talked to. Once, Justin looked over at him speculatively, but he never approached, and Duke was glad of it. His feelings, when it came to what Justin had done, were a snarled mass of thorns and fangs. While Justin had been out of sight, Duke had been able to ignore the prick of anger in his heart. But with Justin thrust under his nose—and he’d like to know who the hell thought that was a good idea—all his fury came rushing back. It was a foregone conclusion that he’d dosomething. He just needed some time to think about it before he decided what to do.
And he needed to warn Bram.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
One tiny advantage to bottle feeding was being able to feed the two of them at once, if I didn’t mind sitting on the couch with my knees bent so that I could keep an eye on Jedrick and help him hold the bottle while I held Isolde in my other arm. They were good eaters and gaining weight like crazy, and if I still felt guilty that I wasn’t enough on my own to feed my babies, their obvious health and happiness reminded me that it wasn’t about me at all.
Isolde stared up at me with that eerie focus that she had shown almost from the moment she was born. Even in the hospital, when they’d put her in the incubator, there’d been something more than just baby wandering eyes in that face. Now, it was almost like she was trying to memorize mine, like she knew how close we’d come to losing each other.
Jedrick, on the other hand, was an independent tyke. He was already crawling and pulling himself up on the furniture. It wouldn’t be long before he was walking, and then running. But for now, a bottle and some playtime, then a cuddle and story time, because Duke and I both agreed with reading to them, and they would be ready for a nap.
Isolde finished her bottle and I sat her up on my lap to make sure she didn’t need to burp. Neither of them seemed to have much of a problem with that, but it never hurt to be careful. I rubbed her back patiently while she waved the bottle around, turning it upside down and trying to pour it out on top of us.
“Sorry, honey. When it’s empty, it’s empty.”
She looked at me and let out a tiny, ladylike burp.
“That’s my girl.” I picked her up and kissed her tiny forehead, then her nose, then her belly. She laughed at me as I did it, and grabbed for my hair. “Nope. I’ve already learned my lesson there, kiddo. Keep that up and I’ll shave it all off.” Duke would have a heart attack, but the pups never managed to get hold ofhishair.
I set her on the floor and watched her barrel off on all fours, headed for the toy box. She pulled herself up on the edge and I groaned internally. Now I was going to havetwoof them running around the house. Literally running, if the stories I was only now hearing about Duke’s childhood were to be believed.
Well, you mated him.And I wouldn’t give him up for the world.
