“Family. It’s because they’re family, Maverick,” I tell him, patting his arm. He nods then goes in search of Connelly.
The trip home is uneventful. Esmerelda and Tabatha were both spent so they slept the whole way which gave me time to think of all the things that could’ve gone wrong. “But they didn’t,” Mav states, sitting down next to me. “Not only that, but we helped dismantle something that would've had terrible repercussions for humans and shifters alike.”
“You’re right. I’m glad to see both of them appear to be feeling better already.” With them both shifting plus whatever the fuck was in the tea that Tabatha and Esmerelda made them drink, it’s almost as if they’re back to normal. Ice is still thinner so I know they likely weren’t fed much, probably to keep them compliant, but I suspect that his mate, along with the other women, will get that turned around quickly once we’re home.
“Hopefully, Colton will let us know what ends up happening to that Boatwright fucker,” Mav growls out. “I’d have been happy to remove him from the breathing, that’s for damn sure.” I nod, thinking that even if the council decides that Boatwright deserves to be put down, their methods are far more humane than anything either myself or Mav would do for touching our family members.
“Well, we’ll just ask him periodically,” I state. “Otherwise, we’ll never find out.” Most missions, we go in, do our job, then return home none the wiser but as we have a vested interest, I’ll definitely be remembering to ask Colton whenever he reaches out to me for a mission.
“Oh, Kash let me know that your brother arrived safe and sound.” Mav starts chuckling then breaks down into full-on laughter, which has me looking at him as though he’s lost his mind. “Seems he and Charisma are off to a bit of a rocky start.”
“How so?” I can understand, though, because sometimes Charisma is a bit high-strung and prickly, but having been around her for months now, I suspect that hides a heart of pure gold so she doesn’t end up getting hurt.
“Well, all my father would say was we have to see it to believe it.” Maverick shrugs; daily things like that are beyond his comprehension since he spent so many years on his own. I hope like hell my brother hasn’t upset my mate’s best friend, otherwise my home life may take a sideways turn.
“I’ll check into it once we’re home.”
He tilts his head from side to side and I hear cracking sounds. When he catches me looking, he smirks. “Gotta work the kinks out.”
“Hey now, we don’t talk about our kinks in public,” Connelly teases, coming over and sitting in Mav’s lap. I watch his ears redden at her words and chuckle.
“You letting your mate tease you, brother?” Paxton asks Maverick, which earns him a glare. He tosses his hands up in a placating gesture. “Fine, fine. Mav, I think we’ve all earned a few days of rest, don’t you?” I glance over to my right to see Esmerelda still sound asleep and nod my agreement.
“Don’t see why not, Colton knows we’re coming home from a mission. Not only that, but we need to get Ice and Leigh both back in fighting shape,” Maverick replies.
“Esmerelda’s wiped out too; this took a lot out of her and Tabatha,” I state.
“Then it’s settled. Unless it’s an absolute emergency, we’re home for the next week. Minimal personal workouts, of course, but no training,” Mav declares.
Esme never stirred when we landed nor when I carried her to the SUV that was waiting to take us back to the compound. After we arrive home, I carry her into the house and undress her before slipping her under the covers, grateful we had the foresight to change the sheets. Since I was part of the actual mission, I head into our bathroom for a quick shower. I’m grateful we have the next week off, I feel as though I could sleep for most of it but know that I’ll also want to be buried in my mate. Once I’m done, I quickly dry off, swipe a comb through my hair, then brush my teeth before sliding into the bed and pulling her into my arms.
“Love you, Esme,” I whisper, gently kissing her head. She mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like I love you too before settling back into a deep slumber. As I drift off, her safe and secure in my arms, I smile.
Esmerelda
I wake up disoriented but quickly realize that we’re home, in our own bed and Beast’s arms are firmly wrapped around me. It dawns on me that he tucked me in naked, which I personally detest. Even after we’ve made love, I always wear something to bed. Typical man, I muse before I flick my fingers. Now in a comfy nightshirt, I snuggle back into my mate only to hear a low chuckle. “Esme, you keep that up and I’m going to forget you’re exhausted,” he murmurs, his voice husky with sleep. I can feel his dick as it hardens against my ass and low back, which has me grinning.
“Go back to sleep, sugar bear, there’s time enough for that in the morning,” I reply.
“Are you saying no, my sexy sorceress?” he asks, lightly grinding against me.
I turn in his arms to look at him. “I’ll never say no, sweetheart. But I know you’ve got to be tired as well.”
“You can do the work if you’d like,” he replies, grinning at me. Deciding that two can play this game, I throw my thigh over his hips so his dick is seated at my core. Reaching between us, I guide him inside me then groan at this new position. Lazily, as if we have all the time in the world, we both begin to move, him thrusting upward while I use my hands on his shoulders to press down. “Fucking perfect,” he proclaims, leaning down to kiss me. As our tongues duel, he flips to his back as his hands go to my hips. My rocking motion combined with him moving me up and down soon has me nearing my climax. When it hits, he captures my moans with his mouth while increasing the speed of his thrusts. Soon, he’s calling out my name as his hands run up and down my spine to cup my ass.
“Goddess, that was so needed,” I say. I can feel our combined release leaking from me but am feeling too sated to move. Flicking my fingers, we’re both magically cleaned up which has him chuckling beneath me, causing my pussy to clench on his still-hard dick.
“What’s on your mind, sweetheart?” he asks, looking at my face. “I know the mission took a lot out of you, so I expected you to be exhausted, but this is more.”
“I’m pregnant, sugar bear,” I whisper. “We’re going to have a baby, which excites and terrifies me.” I know I told him just a few days ago that I wasn’t expecting, but our babe made themselves known to Gara, who told me while the rest of my family were on the rescue mission.
“A baby?” he questions. “You’re going to have my baby? You’ve made me the happiest man alive, Esme. Why are you terrified?”
“Because what if our child ends up being hunted because it’s a hybrid like Leigh and Maverick?”
“Our children will be safe here, Esme,” he emphatically decrees. “Besides, that shit’s been worked out.”
“I know. Just silly worries from a pregnant woman.”
“When… how did you find out?” he inquires. His hand is cupping my abdomen.
“I didn’t. It was Gara. She saw the baby’s aura when we were all together. Said our child is going to be the best parts of us both and very, very powerful.”
“I hope it’s a boy,” he fervently states.
“How do you feel about the name Clementine?” I retort, letting him know that it isn’t a boy, but a little girl.
“I’m so fucked,” he whispers, making me giggle.
Esmerelda
My pregnancy has flown by with hardly any issues. I say hardly because the only true issue I’ve had is an overbearing, controlling bear. I’ve rolled my eyes so much over the past few months I’m surprised my head hasn’t disconnected from my body!
As I finish folding up the tiny outfits that were gifted to us during the shower Charisma held, I hear him stomping into the house. “Esme! Where are you?” he bellows.
“In the nursery,” I reply. I don’t have to raise my voice because his shifter hearing means I could whisper, and he’d find me.
“Did you carry that?” he asks, po
inting to the laundry basket sitting by my feet next to the rocking chair. While I did carry it, I shake my head instead. “I’m calling bullshit, Esme. You ‘prefer to do things the normal way’ so I suspect you carried it in here but are trying to get me to believe you flicked your fingers or something.”
“Sugar bear, do you know how long women have been having babies?” I inquire. “Centuries. Eons. Forever. Some women have them while working in the fields then get up and continue working.”
“I don’t care what other women do, I care about what my woman does, and I’ve told you not to lift anything,” he retorts. “Can you give me that, please?”
“Beast, you hardly let me do anything at this point,” I remind him, glaring. If he’s around, do I walk anywhere? No, no I do not. He carries me. He hasn’t let me go out on any missions that have come up and when he goes? Charisma is tasked to stay here to ‘keep an eye on me’ for fuck’s sake! “I’m getting really outdone with you, sugar bear,” I advise. “I’m not helpless, I’m pregnant. Not only that, but your penchant for barking orders out is annoying. If I want to cook, I’m going to cook. Same with carry a laundry basket that doesn’t weigh much at all. You’ve been with me at the doctor appointments, so you know that all normal activities are permissible if the woman isn’t having any problems. So I’ll ask you one time, why are you being so damned unreasonable?”
He drops to his knees in front of me, his hands cradling my burgeoning abdomen. As he rubs, I feel Clementine reacting. “Shhh, little lemon, I need to explain to your mother why I’ve been acting the way I have before she turns me into a toad or something.” I quickly hide my grin when he looks up, interested in hearing why he’s been insufferable. “So you know my family is close, right?” I nod, having heard tales of his younger years filled with a lot of laughter. “When I was about eight or so, before Baldwin came along, my mother was pregnant. She didn’t change anything she did, still handled everything in the house like normal, carried my baby sister, Bianca, on her hip. Esme, she ended up losing the baby.”
My heart breaks for the little boy he was who lost a sibling. Instinctively I know that when it happened, it skewed his beliefs as to what a pregnant woman should or shouldn’t do. “How was she when she was pregnant with your brother?” I inquire.
He sits back on his haunches and closes his eyes as though he’s thinking back. I patiently wait, our daughter now doing calisthenics on my bladder, for him to tell me how his mom was that time. “She did the same things,” he mumbles. “She didn’t change anything, Esme. Not one thing.”
“And obviously, Baldwin wasn’t affected, was he?” I prod.
“No he wasn’t. Dammit, I’ve been an idiot, haven’t I?” he asks, his gaze coming to mine.
“Not an idiot, sugar bear. Just a man who had a trauma as a child thinking that he didn’t want his mate going through that same thing. But, honey, as sad as it is, miscarriages happen and outside of an auto accident where the mother is injured, there’s really no rhyme or reason for them. I’m perfectly healthy, Clementine is almost ready to arrive, so can you loosen the leash a bit? If you can’t this will be our only offspring because I can’t do this again with you. That’s a guarantee.”
“I’m sorry, Esme. I’ll try to do better, okay? Although I don’t mind carrying you now that your equilibrium is so off.” I giggle because I can no longer see my legs or feet, my stomach is so out there. Thankfully, as a witch, I can use my magic to take care of shaving my legs and painting my toes.
“It’s a learning curve for us both, honey. Now can you give me a hand up so I can take a nap?”
He does one better, scooping me up then carrying me to our room. After he gently lays me down, he removes my shoes then his before sliding in beside me. “How about I join you?” he asks, kissing my nose.
“I’d like that. Hey, why did you come home so early? I thought you had training,” I ask, suddenly realizing he came home in the middle of the day.
“Maverick gave us the afternoon off because he got a call from Colton about Boatwright,” he responds.
“Oh? What ended up happening?” I knew the trial for Boatwright was approaching but have been so busy getting ready for Clementine, it hasn’t been my priority.
“He was put down after the council reviewed all the evidence. They also had a dream walker examine his thoughts to see if he’d be able to be rehabilitated.”
“And?” I prompt when he goes silent.
“Esme, he already had plans to start it all up again,” he whispers. “That was a threat the council couldn’t allow.”
“I’m so glad that mess is over,” I reply. It took Ice a few months to regain what he lost, but both he and Leigh are hale and hearty once again.
“Sleep, sweetheart.”
Beast
I wake up soaked and immediately sit up to see Esmerelda’s abdomen continually contracting then expanding. “Esme? I think your water broke,” I say, lightly shaking her shoulder.
“Hmm? Oh, how mortifying,” she replies before flicking her fingers to clean everything up. “Let’s go have our baby, sugar bear.”
How can she be so damn calm? I feel like I’ve run a marathon while fighting off an unknown enemy. Instead of asking, I get up then pull her into my arms to cradle her against my heart. “Where’s your bag?”
“In the truck already, Beast. We’ll call Charisma on the way since she’s my other birthing coach.”
“You know good and well she’ll scare the hell out of the nurses,” I murmur, chuckling.
“No, they’re all shifters, remember? So unless they have something against vampires, we should be okay.”
Once I have her secured in the truck, I start driving toward the clinic she’s been using. “Do we need to call the doctor?”
“That would probably be a good thing.” She makes the call to both Charisma as well as the clinic so by the time we arrive, a nurse is waiting at the door with a wheelchair. After I’m assured that Charisma won’t leave her side while I park, I go to handle that chore then hurry inside.
“She’s beautiful, Esme,” I state, looking down at the not-so-little pink bundle in my arms. “She’s got your nose, your eyes, your hair color.” I’m feeling a bit left out wondering if there’s anything of me in her.
“She’s got your height,” she teases.
“Should we let the masses in?” Charisma asks.
“Yeah,” Esme replies. I lean in and kiss her.
“You did so good, Esme,” I whisper. I’m amazed after watching her labor that she maintained her calm. I think Charisma and I were more stressed than my mate.
“You were there too, sugar bear,” she says. The door to her birthing suite opens and I watch as Maverick, Connelly, Paxton, Landry, Rowina and Kash all pile in. When I see Baldwin try to walk inside, Charisma shuts the door in his face. What the fuck? I glance down at Esmerelda only to see her with the same confused expression that I know I’m wearing. She leans up and says, “There’s a story there. I’ll see what I can do to figure out what’s going on.” I nod then watch as my brother waltzes inside, giving Charisma a wide berth.
“Congrats, brother,” he says, pounding me on the back. Looking down at Clementine, he states, “It’s a good thing she took after her mother in the looks department.”
“Shut it, fucker. You look the same as me.” I speak the truth since we could be twins despite our ten-year age difference.
“Nope. I’m the handsome one,” he replies, preening.
“Then that person was blind,” Charisma calls out.
“It’s my turn to get up with her, sleep, Esme,” I say as she tries to get up to get our wailing daughter.
“Gotta feed her, Beast,” she mumbles.
“Let me get her changed then I’ll bring her in so you can feed her, okay?”
“Okay.” She flops back, exhaustion trying to pull her under. Seems our girl doesn’t want to be on any set schedule so sometimes, she’s down for four hours, sometimes for two. After
I have her changed, I carry her back into our room then hand her over to Esme. Watching her take care of our daughter in this way fills me with awe. “You’re staring, sugar bear,” she chides, switching Clementine to the other side.
“Hard not to when our girl has unfettered access to one of my favorite places,” I tease. Deciding to change the subject since we have a few more weeks to wait, I ask, “Were you able to get Charisma to talk?”
She practically growls while shaking her head. “That insufferable vamp refuses to tell me anything. And I can’t compel her because she’s immune! But I think that she and your brother are mates. Did you notice how they kept watching one another that day in the hospital? Not only that but every time one of them is here and the other shows up, one of them makes an excuse and leaves.”
“You may be right,” I muse. “Wouldn’t that be interesting?”
Her giggles soon have me laughing as we picture our eclectic family. “Never expected this, us, you know?” she asks, waving her hand between us. “Always thought I would only ever be a caretaker like Granny said I would be according to the cards.”
“You are a caretaker. Of our home, our daughter, my heart,” I assert. “Plus, this community that we’re a part of; you’re an integral part of making sure everything runs like clockwork which is a good thing since Mav will never really be a people person.”
“Then I have the best job in the world, sugar bear.”
“Love you, my sassy sorceress,” I tell her, kissing her bare shoulder.
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