Page 60 of Oracle
Pounding footsteps came from directly above where Morgan's room was. With shifters having heightened hearing, I was positive she was listening to this conversation. My eyebrows rose as Luca and I shared a look, knowing full well how this was going to go.
Lowering my voice so it would stay between us, I said, "You should have just used my idea. Tell her she can go without chaperones and then we'll stealthily follow at a distance. She'll never know," I ended with a small shrug. It was clearly the best decision.
"What're we discussing on this fine morning?" Seth asked as he strolled in from the pool deck behind me, done with its upkeep for the week. His skin was golden from the sun we'd been soaking up this summer.
Luca whispered, "Morgan's date with the human boy tonight."
I'd once dreamed of going somewhere tropical, and my mates had made our dreams come true. We'd moved to Florida and bought a house just a few miles from the beach. Before I was uncomfortably pregnant, Morgan and I had our alone time every morning down at the beach as we watched the sunrise. We talked about everything and nothing, depending on the day.
At first, I was concerned that our location would force us to stay in our human form, making our wolves restless. Thankfully, we had a few acres of private land around our house that had a high privacy fence to keep unwanted eyes off of us when we'd shift and play around in our wolf forms. The nearest neighbor was five miles away, so we felt pretty secure here.
However, we definitely got the itch to run within the trees, so, once a month we'd pack up our RV and travel to the Ocala National Forest to "camp". Really, it was so we could run for miles in the forest under the light of the full moon.
Without fail, every time I felt the rays of the moon on me, I felt Lux's presence as if she were channeling her energy from Selene's temple through it. I missed her fiercely and knew she felt the same way. No amount of time and distance would separate the bond we had, but imagining her shit-eating grin helped me get through those hard moments, like she’d instructed.
As Seth came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me to rub my belly and rest his head on top of mine, he asked, "How's my favorite little guy doing this morning?"
I patted his hand and chuckled, "They're doing good. Kicking my ribs, restless to make their debut into the world."
And that was true. It felt like sleep was an elusive idea at this point, and I was so ready for Lux to come into the world. She was living rent-free in my body right now and it was getting a little bit too cramped in there. It was time to give her her eviction notice, effective immediately.
Despite Morgan being half Luca's size, she managed to stomp down the stairs even louder than he had. Like a herd of elephants resided here. Her huffing and puffing was clear as day and I quickly picked up my decaf tea and sipped on it as she came to join us for breakfast. This gave me an excuse to not break the tension first.
Pulling the chair out from our farmhouse style dining room table, she plopped down loudly with a dramatic sigh, wanting us to know how annoyed she was with the decision to chaperone her date, without actually saying it.
"When will Tian be back?" she asked as she pulled the bowl of yogurt and fruit I made for her every morning closer to her.
"Why? We can help you with whatever you need," Seth was quick to ask, a bit defensively, as he rubbed my stomach.
Morgan rolled her eyes and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she took a bite of her food. As she chewed it, she glanced between the three of us like she was summing us up. It made me fidget uncomfortably and I pushed myself out of Seth's embrace and off the low barstool.
I needed to pace, or else I was really going to give in to what she wanted. I was putty in her hands and she knew it.
She swallowed and finally answered, "Because he's the only one that sees situations rationally."
Luca and Seth scoffed, but didn't deny her statement, because it was undeniably true.
Setting my mug down on the counter, I answered her question, "Everyone will be home from the Summit this afternoon. I just got off the phone with Wes, and they were about to board the jet in a few minutes."
It was the first year we weren't all present at the Summit, which we had blissfully changed to the summer time so we didn't have to deal with the frigid winter on the West Coast. Luca and Seth had stayed behind just in case I went into labor, which had been a fight amongst them all. They had settled it like adults—rock, paper, scissors. One round each until we had two winners, and five sore losers.
I was concerned that we would lose respect if we weren't all in attendance, but everyone had been very understanding when we'd told them I couldn't travel this close to my due date.
Instead, they sent their congratulations and small gifts for the baby. Her nursery was stacked full of presents, and we'd decided to infuse all of the packs in a way that was neither masculine nor feminine to decorate it. We'd hired a mural artist to come and paint the different climates of the seven continents of the world into a seamless landscape that stretched across all of the walls.
Seeing as how our family was blended from multiple different backgrounds, it was important for us to give our children a glimpse into them all. Eventually, all of our kids would travel with their dads to the different continents for their check-ins with the alphas, but for now, we'd teach them how much love and respect we had for the different packs of the world.
Morgan's spoon clanged against the empty bottom of her bowl, bringing me out of my thoughts, and she pushed her chair back to bring it to the sink. Flicking her long hair behind her shoulder she said, "Good. That means I have time for him to talk some sense into you all about how overbearing you're being."
As she began washing her bowl, Seth sat at the barstool I had been on and narrowed his eyes at her. "Morgan, you are seventeen. There is only one thing boys want at that age and I can't be held liable for ripping their throats out when they eventually hurt you."
Luca let out his signature growl as he leaned against the counter by the fridge. "They think with their little dicks and not their heads."
Oh my Goddess. He went there. A part of me wanted to crack a joke that they were thinking with their head—just not the right one—but I knew it wasn't the time.
Peeking at Morgan out of the corner of my eye, she looked mortified to be having this talk with Luca and Seth. We'd already had a discussion about sex and that, of course, I wanted her to wait until she found someone she loved. I made sure she knew if she needed condoms or birth control, she knew she could come to me and I wouldn't judge her. We made sure she knew her worth and how she deserved to be treated every day, and we could only hope it would help her not settle for anything less.
As she dried off her bowl and put it away, she murmured, "I'm going to pretend like I didn't just hear that from both of you, because I'm likely to vomit if I don't."
