Page 35 of House of Kallan
Tyrus laughed merrily. “Dumbasses. Thinking they could take on a family of sun gods and win. I hope they try again.”
A quick scan of the article had me smiling as well.
“I suppose that’s a bit refreshing,” Iker said.
“Definitely a nice change of pace,” I agreed as I sent my email to Taylour. “I get discouraged with all the nasty things that come through this system.”
“At least someone is doing something to change it now,” Tyrus said. When I looked up, it was to find him staring down into Bael’s face with a soft smile. And Iker was watching him with a very similar smile.
This would work out just fine.
Tatum
I was dedicatingthis afternoon to checking in on a few different patients. First stop was Suzanne and her winged quads. I tapped on the door, waited a second, and then gently pushed it open.
The suites were like studio apartments. One wall had a small kitchen and a couple doors—one to a closet and one to the bathroom. The rest of the room had small sections—a queen bed close to the nursery, a sitting area, and a place to eat.
Suzanne looked up at me from the bed with a big smile. She had three of the infants laying on their backs surrounded by pillows as if they were in a little nest. The fourth was laying with his stomach along her legs while she stretched and massaged the baby’s wings.
“There was a man who stopped in yesterday,” she told me, “and he showed me how to help them be able to control their wings. He said it’s not innate like birds unless there’s something that makes them feel unsafe, in which case they might wrap themselves up again to protect themselves.”
I sat on the chair by the bed to watch her. “That was nice of him.”
“He was very nice,” she said, nodding. “He told me a lot of things that will help them, especially in these first few months.”
One of the things that was important to me when I began staffing Haven was that we had a wide diversity of species available. When it became apparent that the offspring forced upon these women were experiments, it became incredibly vital that there was someone around that we could have talks with the new mothers to educate them on their children.
Well, as best they could. I was sure it wouldn’t be long before we saw something completely and totally brand new. Like our little toothy girl. I honestly wasn’t sure where she fit into the classes, never mind species. I felt bad for her.
“Miss Taylour stopped by the other morning,” she told me.
I frowned. “Yeah?”
Suzanne nodded. “My paperwork is in the preliminary stages, but she wanted to meet me and my boys so she can begin looking for placement.”
Maybe I was going to need to speak to Taylour. It was far too early for Suzanne to be having to worry about this stuff. And she was definitely worrying. It was written all over her face, even as she concentrated on the baby in her lap and moving his wings gently.
She looked up, meeting my eyes. “I don’t want my babies split up and I don’t want to be apart from my babies. Miss Taylour thought that wasn’t going to be a problem, but… I worry. Who is going to want to take on five additional people?”
Sighing, I slid my chair forward to rest my hand on her ankle. “One thing you should know about the supernatural world is that our families tend to be large polyamorous groups. There can be as few as three or four, but on average, families tend to range from six to nine. Then there are even larger families—twelve to sixteen adults.”
Suzanne’s eyes widened. “That’s… a lot. Are they all mixed gender?”
I shrugged. “It’s all facets of the rainbow. All male, all female,one male to a lot of females, and vice versa with one female to a lot of males. Then there are various mixes as well. It depends on the people and their preferences.”
She nodded thoughtfully.
“Families grow all the time,” I said, causing her gaze to flicker to mine. “The Harem Project—which is the larger umbrella organization that Haven is a part of—has a branch that we refer to as the ‘happily ever after’ division. Basically, it’s a matchmaking service, but you’re not on the market for a partner but a whole family.”
A smile had begun to form on her lips as I told her this. “That sounds really great. I think the supernatural world is more tolerant of different lifestyles than humans are.”
“Absolutely. Don’t get me wrong; we certainly have our own issues to deal with—Silence, for example. But when it comes to basic rights and freedoms? I definitely think we’re a step ahead.”
“It’s not like humans haven’t dealt with people such as those in Silence,” Suzanne said. “We could talk about the concentration camps of WWII. There were some sick people who came up with the torturous methods that they used to keep prisoners in those places.”
“Fair enough.”
She sighed, looking down at her baby. Her motions paused as her gaze roamed over the other three. They were laying there contently, their eyes moving lazily around the room but settling on her more often than not.
