by Kallie Frost
“Shall we go home?” Carrick asked me with a smile.
I knew that he meant our home. Not the house that he shared with his parents, but the actual home on Half Moon Island that I had yet to spend any time in.
“I'd love to.”
Chapter Sixteen
Carrick
I'd say that life went back to normal, but it was hardly normal having a mate and a baby in the house that I had lived in so long in as a bachelor. My once quiet house was now full of laughter. My mate and I immediately set about doing the nursery for Wane. I spent a little time in the skate shop, interviewing employees to find out what processes they used and get some ideas on what more technical things could help them. I also vowed to start spending a little more time with my employees and getting to know them, so that I could avoid another incident like the hunter working under my nose. I had been giving the asshole a paycheck for God’s sake!
When Brooks wasn't working on my new website, which he refused to show me until it was done, he was eagerly planning a big party with Elliott.
At last, one day in May, the whole family descended upon my parents’ house again. This time even the members who hadn't been able to come to Christmas showed up. Elliott and Brooks both decided that they’d like to have rings, so we held a brief ceremony in front of our family where Rion and I exchanged them with our true mates. Since it wasn't traditional for shifters to do that, we left the buying of our rings to our formerly human omegas. I was surprised and delighted that Brooks had opted for silicone rings, which meant we could keep them on even while we were playing hockey.
The party was in full swing as we celebrated not just my bonding with Brooks, and Rion with Elliott, but Verona's first birthday, which was drawing near. She was the first grandchild in quite a long time, so it was a big deal to celebrate. I suspected that the fact she was the first girl grandchild had something to do with it. Finch and Ford jokingly teased my mother that she had forgotten they were her grandkids first. Then demanded to know why my sister hadn’t thrown them a huge party as babies.
I was pleased to introduce Brooks to the remainder of my family and was glad he didn’t seem horribly overwhelmed by it.
Tessa outdid herself and baked an absolutely astounding set of cakes. There were two tiered wedding cakes, bigger than any I had ever seen. One was topped by a set of wolves, who looked remarkably like Elliott and Rion when they were shifted, all coated in beautifully smooth white frosting. The other cake was ice blue, and topped by a pair of wolves that looked like my mate and me. They were a little smaller than the two on my brother’s cake and I suspected it was so that they would match the little trio from the baby shower. Like Rion and Elliott's, each tier of our cake was a different flavor. There were cupcakes for Verona, all decorated with polka dots and drawings of characters from her current favorite TV show. Even though he was barely four-months-old, there was a set of cupcakes for Wane as well, decorated with little hockey pucks and sticks.
I was sitting with most of my immediate family members in a little circle, enjoying cake and watching Verona crawl around.
“I hear you’re doing Carrick’s website for his store?” Tessa asked my mate.
“Yeah.”
“What’s the going rate for web design and management? Ford has been hassling me to get one for my bakery.”
“Depends on what you need, who you hire…” Brooks threw some numbers at her as he thought.
“What’s your rate?” Tessa asked.
“What?”
She glanced at me and I grinned. “What’s your rate?” she repeated. “I want to hire you.”
“No, no,” Brooks started to protest.
“Yes, yes,” she said flatly.
“It’s no use arguing,” her mate, Kylan, said. I felt a hint of alpha aura and smirked. “Once Tess makes up her mind, that’s it.”
“It’ll be good for your portfolio,” I said with a grin, knowing he’d know I was behind it.
“I’m not taking charity or your money.”
Tessa snorted. “You rake in money from the bakery whether you like it or not. You might as well earn it.”
Brooks’s mouth snapped shut. There was no arguing with that. “Okay. We’ll talk it over and get you started.”
“I need one for my wedding cakes,” Ford said.
“Could you do one for my photography business?” Finch asked. “Mine’s pretty lame.”
“We’re trying to go into business together, so we’ll need a joint one or something linked together,” Ford added.
“Okay,” Brooks said weakly.
“The restaurant could use a website,” my mother said thoughtfully.
“My hotel site needs an update,” Dell added.
~~~***~~~
I soon found myself leaning against the door of the back porch, looking out at my family, as they bombarded my mate with website requests. He had gone from looking exasperated by the perceived charity, to eagerly taking notes as design ideas came to him. Someone kept handing me cake, and I kept eating it. I was certain that Tessa had baked more than enough for everyone. As I watched, Verona pulled herself up on a chair, while Rion and Elliott cooed to her. Then, she released it, turned, and took two shaky steps toward Wane, who was doing tummy time on a blanket by Brooks.
“She's walking,” Rion cried. “She's walking!”
Verona plopped down onto her butt, then rolled and crawled the rest of the way. Elliott scooped her up with a laugh and gave her a big kiss on each cheek. “You did it, sweet girl!”
Brooks looked over and caught my eye, with a small smile. I could hear Dell giving Rion grief about how excited he was about something so simple, but I knew I would be no less joyful when Wane took his first steps. I was ecstatic the first time I saw him roll over. I smiled back at my mate and puckered my lips into a kiss. He kissed back at me, before returning his attention to Wane.
I sighed contently. Kessel squeezed past me to get outside.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Brooks invited me, he says it's weird not to have me hanging around all the time. Besides,” He held up a plate with a large piece of cake on it, “free food from Tessa? Done!”
I laughed as he started out onto the lawn. “Kessel?”
He turned back to me. “Hm?”
“Thanks, man. For watching out for us all those months and keeping my mate safe.”
“Brooks is the one who got him in the end, don't thank me.”
“Someday you’ll have a mate of your own and you'll know just how much that means.”
He smiled, but it was a little forced. Not one of his usual grins. “Maybe,” he said.
“It’ll happen,” I said confidently.
“I don't doubt that I'll meet my true mate someday. But it won’t matter, I’ve already turned an omega.”
“What?!” I blurted. “Who?!”
“My son,” Kessel said. Then, he nodded, and jogged across the grass to greet my mate, without elaborating. I frowned in confusion. If he had a son, his son would be a shifter and wouldn't need to be changed. That didn't make any sense at all. It was clear however, that he had no intention of explaining. All these months with him shadowing me and I guess I hardly knew the guy.
Brooks joined me a few minutes later and held out Wane to me. Wane reached both hands at me and giggled.
“You want to see daddy?” I asked him with a smile. I took the precious bundle from Brooks and gave our son a kiss on the nose, causing another round of giggling. “Having fun?”
“Yeah, you?”
I nodded. “You and Elliott planned one hell of a shindig.”
“Yeah, I'm really pleased with the turnout,” he said. “It's like your entire family is here.”
“I think they are,” I laughed. “Except…” My mood immediately dropped a little bit.
“I'm sorry Cambry couldn't come,” Brooks said softly. “I know how much that would've meant to you.”
“It's his year away
anyway,” I said, trying to conceal my disappointment. “I wouldn't have expected him to come. I just hope he’s okay…” I said more to myself than my mate, but Brooks nodded anyway.
“I'm sure he'll be just fine,” he said, putting a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Maybe the change will be good for him.”
I nodded. In my experience spending a year away just made you feel even lonelier. Maybe that didn't hold true for cats, but I knew a lot of Cambry's feline aloofness was just an excuse to keep us at arm’s length. For whatever reason, he never let himself be as much a part of this family as we all felt he was.
Brooks leaned forward and planted a gentle kiss on my cheek. “I’m running in to steal some more of your sister's wonderful cake. You want any?”
“I've already eaten more than enough of it,” I laughed. He gave me another kiss and headed inside.
I adjusted Wane my arms and kissed his little forehead. He blinked sleepily at me, then reached a tiny hand up and grabbed my nose. I snorted into it, sending him into a fit of giggles.
“Uh, Carrick?”
I turned at the sound of my mate’s voice, half expecting him to be offering a piece of cake anyway. To my utter shock he was standing there with Cambry by his side. And I wasn't the only one of us holding a baby.
~~~***~~~***~~~
Bonus Story:
A Half Moon Halloween
A Full Moon Mates Series Holiday Tale
By Kallie Frost
**This short story was written for the 2019 Special Delivery: Halloween anthology. It takes place during the events of Icing the Omega, but before Espresso for His Omega, so we have chosen to put it in the middle, instead of the end of this boxed set.**
The Special Delivery series is an on-going, limited edition holiday-themed set of short mpreg tales from multiple popular authors.
Special Delivery: Christmas
Special Delivery: Valentine’s
Special Delivery: Father’s Day
Chapter One
The sound of crying woke me from a sound sleep. I groaned, stretched, and then rolled myself out of the bed and leaned over the bassinet next to it. Little Verona was waving her tiny fists in the air and gearing up for some serious pre-morning-breakfast wailing. I scooped her up quickly and got her latched on, before she could get too worked up. My mate, Rion was already up, and nowhere to be seen, which was unusual. He usually slept in with me. We didn't exactly have anywhere to be, considering we were on house arrest, or maybe more accurately: island arrest.
A werewolf hunter had recently taken a shot at Rion's youngest brother, and everyone was in a bit of a panic. I tightened my arms around our daughter protectively, as I thought of it. The same hunter and his partner had been after the three of us and, thank goodness, never came close enough to actually fire a shot. The wardens – the police force of the shifter world – captured of one of them, but the other one escaped.
In the peaceful month that followed, we were all hoping that the hunter had moved on. But now that Rion's brother was a target, it was clear our enemy was here to stay. Fortunately, Rion's parents had a massive house on their own private island; just off the tip of a popular vacation destination, Half Moon Island, where most of the Silvanus family lived and worked. Since only family members had been targeted so far, the wardens had us holed up on the family island. And, after a couple of weeks, things were admittedly getting a little tight. There were a lot of siblings, not to mention the wardens. Fortunately, Rion and I had Verona to keep us occupied. She was only four months old, but quite a handful.
When Verona seemed satisfied with her morning nursing, I set her back in the bassinet, just long enough to put on some fresh clothes. I picked her up, rested her on my shoulder, and then headed downstairs. I was still ravenous most of the time, which I was told was a combination of breastfeeding and still being within my first year of being changed into a shifter. I was told that the hunger would eventually fade a little bit. But, watching Rion and his siblings eat, I was pretty sure they had no idea what a normal human appetite was.
I got downstairs into the large, welcoming foyer and stopped in my tracks. It was… different. In fact, I was pretty sure I had just stepped into the Addams Family House. I slowly went down the last couple of steps and pivoted around a few times, taking it all in. On second thought, it looked more like the Martha Stewart's Halloween catalog spread than anything else. Every inch of the foyer seemed to have been transformed for Halloween, which I realized abruptly was today.
It was decked in all kinds of spooky orange and black things, and cobwebs, and mice shadows, and bats hanging from the ceiling. But all, of course, somehow tastefully done. Verona, my daughter's namesake and alpha matriarch of the Silvanus clan, had impeccable, albeit unique taste. Even though every inch of the foyer was decorated for Halloween, there was nothing garish about it at all. Overdone perhaps, but all pulled together in a way that I had only ever seen done in magazines. I had a feeling that even more awaited me on the other side of the doors that led into the great room. And I was not disappointed.
The vast living room and adjoining kitchen were equally decorated for the holiday. I've been told that Verona's favorite holiday was Christmas. So, if she went this far out of her way for Halloween, I couldn't imagine what the upcoming holiday season was like. Even though she was usually in the kitchen, Verona was nowhere in sight, and I had a feeling she was probably sleeping. It must have taken her all night to do this.
Rion and his siblings were in the kitchen, mostly hovering around Tessa and a giant spread of cupcakes that she was icing. Tessa owned a popular bakery on Half Moon Island and had trained with some of the world's best pastry chefs. While I had the pleasure of eating far too many of her concoctions, I never actually got to see her decorate them. I closed in for a better look, watching as she expertly piped black frosting onto one of the cupcakes, shaping it into an impressive little black cat.
“Good morning, Elliott,” she said.
“Those are beautiful.”
“It's nothing really.” Everyone snickered at her reply. Tessa narrowed her eyes, then went to wipe her nose and accidentally smeared icing across her cheek. “Of course, it would be done already, if Ford would get his butt out of bed.” Her youngest son had followed in her footsteps, and the two of them worked in her shop together.
Rion rounded the counter and put his arm around me. “Good morning, my love.” He kissed me on the cheek and then pressed a kiss to Verona’s head. “Good morning, my sweet little puppy.” She cooed and wiggled a bit. “How did you sleep?” he asked me.
“Just fine,” I said. “Your mother sure is going all out for Halloween. Isn’t it just us here? I mean, we're kind of on house arrest.”
Rion shrugged one shoulder helplessly.
“That's what I said to Mom,” Carrick, Rion’s youngest brother, said. “She said that she's not going to let a hunter stop her from enjoying Halloween. And she wants us to enjoy it too.”
I suddenly felt a little out of place among the group that had been born as shifters. “This isn't some big shifter holiday, is it?” I asked nervously. “I mean, Halloween and werewolves… are they a big deal?”
They all burst out laughing, and I flushed with embarrassment. “No,” Rion said, trying to cover his amusement. “It's not any more of a big deal to shifters, than it is to humans. My mother just has a great affinity for holidays. And decorating her house for them.”
“And,” Carrick added. “Making sure that her family enjoys them as much as she does.”
Tessa set down her icing bag and grabbed a plate out of a cupboard. She loaded it up with several pastries, that I knew she had baked herself, and presented me the plate.
“Here you go, Elliott. Knock yourself out.”
“I could get used to this, thank you,” I laughed as I took the plate from her. Rion gently lifted Verona off my shoulder. She wiggled a bit and then settled contentedly down on top of his.
“Oh, I wish Finch had been th
at calm,” Tessa said, watching enviously, “He cried forever.” We all laughed, and she swatted a towel from her waistband playfully at Carrick. “You don't get to laugh. We don't know what yours is going to be like yet.”
He winced at the reminder, and then playfully bowed to her. “My apologies, sister. I don't suppose you could load up a tray of goodies for my mate?”
“I'd be happy to, but not for you.” True to her word, Tessa began making a second plate for Carrick’s mate.
“Is Brooks still sleeping?” I asked, my own pregnancy still fresh in my mind. I was sure that the newly pregnant Brooks was taking his sweet time upstairs.
“Yes,” Carrick said.
At the same moment, a voice from the other side of the room said, “Not anymore.”
Carrick’s face positively lit up at the sight of his true mate. He was across the room in a flash. “How are you feeling?” he asked, as he kissed Brooks on the cheek.
“Starving,” said Brooks.
Carrick practically hovered over him as they crossed the room together. I cleared away a little space next to me on the counter and sat on a stool. Brooks gratefully sat down on one next to me.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” we all replied.
Tessa sat the plate down in front of him. “Thank you,” Brooks said, before eagerly biting into a danish.
Until the baby was born, Brooks was technically the newest member of the Silvanus family. Carrick had just turned him a couple of weeks ago. The two of us were getting to know each other and hitting it off quite splendidly. We were after all, the only two members of the family who weren't born as shifters. Granted, Rion's father had been human at one point, but I didn't really count him, seeing as that had been well over a hundred years ago.