Hell's Wolves MC: Complete Series Six Book Box Set

by J. L. Wilder

  “You’re amazing,” he countered. “I can’t believe you’re okay with us riding again.”

  She opened her eyes. “Of course,” she said. “It’s what makes you happy, Emmett. Of course, I want you to be happy. More than anything.”

  He gave her feet a squeeze.

  Hazel let the sounds of her packmates talking to each other wash over her. Being part of a family like this was so comforting, so safe and secure. She couldn’t believe she’d gone her whole life without this feeling. All the years she’d spent among the Coywolves had been marked by a constant, low-level feeling of anxiety. Even when she’d been happy, she had always known that her future held something difficult and probably unpleasant, something completely out of her control. She had always known that she would be given away to a member of the pack for breeding.

  She had never expected to have a choice.

  Now, lying here with Emmett beside her and her family all around her, it felt almost surreal to be so happy.

  Hazel felt a faint twinge of pain deep in her belly and grimaced slightly.

  Emmett’s hand came to rest on her forehead. “What is it?” he asked, hyperattentive to her every expression as always. “Is something wrong?”

  “No,” she said. “I think one of the babies is kicking, that’s all. It’s just a little harder than they’ve done it before. But that’s probably normal. They’re getting pretty big.”

  “They sure are,” Pax said. “I don’t know how you’re doing it.”

  “She’s tough,” Emmett said, a note of pride in his voice that made Hazel feel like she was glowing inside.

  Then the pain hit her again and she let out a gasp. It was much stronger this time. Too strong to be the fluttering of a little hand or foot.

  Emmett leaned anxiously over her. “What’s happening?” he asked.

  “Something hurts—”

  “She’s going into labor, Emmett,” Judah said suddenly.

  “You think?” Emmett looked from Judah to Hazel. “Is that what it feels like?”

  “I don’t know! I’ve never been in labor before!” She bit her lip. “It hurts.”

  “We should get her upstairs,” Emmett said to the others. “Up to bed.”

  “I’m not so sure moving her is the best idea right now, Emmett,” Judah said. “How about just down to the floor?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I have a feeling she’s going to deliver pretty quickly,” he said. “Omegas usually doing, and the fact that she’s a Cavallon...”

  “Right,” Emmett said. “Help me get her down.”

  Hands took hold of Hazel’s arms and legs, and she felt her family carefully ease her down onto the carpet.

  “Emmett?” She gasped as another sharp pain hit her.

  He took her hand. “I’m here,” he said. “I’m right here.”

  Chapter Twenty

  EMMETT

  Judah had been right. The labor went by surprisingly quickly.

  Of course, quick was a relative term. Hazel had given birth to twelve babies. They had been on the living room floor for about four hours all together. She had been incredibly strong, he thought.

  Now, she was taking a much-deserved nap. He had carried her up to bed and tucked her in, kissing her forehead gently, carefully positioning the new babies in bed beside her. He sat with them now, marveling at the perfect faces of each of his newborn children.

  Twelve babies!

  Nobody had won the betting pool his packmates had created. Nobody had seriously guessed there would be this many. Emmett had heard of big litters before, but never in the double digits. No wonder everyone wanted her, he thought, not for the first time. What alpha wouldn’t want to swell his pack this much?

  But even though Emmett was thrilled to have twelve new little additions to the Hell’s Wolves, he was more excited about having twelve new members of his family. I’m a father of twelve, he thought, flabbergasted at the very idea. I’ve got twelve children.

  They had acquired the necessary baby supplies in the last few weeks of Hazel’s pregnancy, but since they hadn’t known how many babies to expect, they had skipped on several things. Dart and Judah had gone to the nearby town to pick up essentials. Now, as Hazel slept, Emmett carefully dressed each of his new children in little onesies and put little knit caps on their heads. Eight of the caps had flowers embroidered on them. Eight girls. The boys’ caps were forest green.

  “You all need names,” he said quietly. “We’re going to have to come up with some names, aren’t we?”

  One of his sons, the biggest, yawned and stretched.

  “I bet you’re an alpha,” Emmett said, giving the baby his finger to hold. “You’ll rule this entire pack one day, I bet. I’m going to have to teach you how to do a good job of it. There are some bad alphas out there, little guy. You’ve got a big responsibility. But I know you can do it.”

  He cast his eyes across his infant daughters speculatively. One of them would no doubt inherit the omega gene from her mother. But there was no way to know which. That wouldn’t be clear for several years yet. He would make sure they were all raised to know how much they were worth, he thought firmly. He would make sure they all valued themselves and felt confident enough to go after the things they wanted.

  And he’d teach them self-defense too. Nobody would kidnap his girls.

  He picked up two of the babies, a boy and a girl, one in each arm, and carried them over to the bedroom window. They blinked sleepily out at the forest beyond.

  “Look,” he said. “These are our woods. You’re too little now, but one day, I’ll take you out to run and hunt and climb trees. You’ll learn to be real wolves, just like me. Just like your mama.”

  The baby girl yawned.

  “Yeah, I know, it’s a lot to deal with on your first day of life,” Emmett chuckled. “You’ve got a lot going on right now, huh? Don’t worry. All you need to do is eat and get bigger. Mama and I will take care of everything else for a while. And all your uncles, of course. Uncle Pax is going to want to teach you how to curse as soon as you start learning how to talk, probably. Uncle Dart can show you all kinds of different foods once you grow your own teeth. Uncle Xander knows all the best ways to get into trouble. He’s going to love having you guys around to play with. And Uncle Judah tells great stories.”

  The baby boy kicked his foot sleepily.

  “And then there’s your mama,” Emmett continued. “You’re awfully lucky to have her. She’s the bravest woman I’ve ever met in my life. She’ll be able to teach you all kinds of things, and when you’re a little older, she’ll tell you the story of how she and I met. It’s a good one. You’re going to like it.” He rocked his children slowly. “She’s always so happy,” he said. “She’s so enthusiastic about life. A lot of people would be beaten down after all the bad things she’s had to go through. Not her. She’s tough. You’ll be tough too.”

  “Who are you talking to?”

  Emmett turned. Hazel was watching him. Her hair was a sleepy halo around her face. She had pulled one of the babies into her arms and was adjusting her shirt so that he could breastfeed.

  Emmett returned to her side and helped her arrange herself so that she had a baby in each arm. “You think you can feed all twelve of them?”

  “Well, not at once,” she said, grinning. “Probably, though.”

  “That’s a lot of milk.”

  “Have you looked at me lately?”

  “Fair enough.” Her stomach was considerably smaller, of course, but her breasts were still enormous, and he figured there might just be enough milk for twelve hungry babies. It wouldn’t be the most miraculous thing he’d seen his omega do, although it would come close. “Are you comfortable?”

  “Yes. You were talking to the babies, weren’t you?”

  “Yeah. I was showing them the forest.”

  “You know they can’t see that far,” she said. “Their eyes don’t really work yet.”

  “I know.
I can’t help it. I’m just so eager to start showing them everything in the world.”

  She smiled. “Me too.”

  “We need to name them.”

  “We’re going to have to put bracelets on them so we can remember who’s who at first,” Hazel said. “I hope telling them apart gets easier.”

  “We’ll give them different haircuts,” he suggested.

  “They don’t have any hair!”

  “When they’re older. And for now, we can dress them in different colors.” He took the two babies out of her arms and replaced them carefully with two more. “Still good to go on the milk?”

  “Oh yeah. I think there’s going to be plenty for everyone.”

  “You’re amazing, you know,” he said, leaning over to kiss her, careful not to jostle any of the babies. “You’re superhuman.”

  “I’m a wolf.”

  “Yeah, you are.”

  “I never would have been happy with the Coywolves,” she said. “Eventually, I would have been miserable. I was fooling myself there, letting myself believe I had something good.”

  “I’m just lucky I found you when I did,” he said. “I was fooling myself too. The idea of a pack of men traveling around alone, never mating, never having someone to love...”

  “You love your brothers.”

  “That isn’t the same. What’s between us...I didn’t know that existed, Hazel. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”

  She leaned into him. “I hope the others find love,” she said. “They deserve it.”

  “They will. Now that we have a permanent place to stay, they’ll be able to see the same woman more than once without uprooting her whole life right away. That’ll make it easier.”

  “Why haven’t they started dating yet?”

  “Don’t be too sure they haven’t. I’ve definitely seen Dart disappearing after dinner more often lately. Something’s taking up his time.” Emmett suspected Dart had met a girl at the biker bar in town and had been spending his spare time with her. He’d ask Dart about it, he thought, but not right away. Let the kid have his secret romance for a little while. Emmett knew firsthand just how exciting that could be.

  Hazel leaned back slowly against her pillows and handed her babies off to Emmett, who helped her get two more situated to feed. One was the boy Emmett had suspected would be the alpha of the group, and he wasn’t at all surprised to see that boy latch on right away. Hazel laughed. “Someone’s hungry.”

  “Well, he’s got a busy schedule,” Emmett said. “He has to eat quickly so he can get started on sleeping.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Hazel groaned. “Have you thought about how hard it’s going to be to get any sleep with twelve of them? Someone’s always going to be awake.”

  “Good thing there are six of us,” Emmett said. “We’ll need you for mealtimes, but otherwise, the rest of us can take shifts. Twelve is a lot of babies, but most families don’t have such a big parenting team.”

  “That’s true.” Hazel said. “Oof, I’m already exhausted, and we’re only halfway done here.”

  “Need to take a break?”

  “No,” she said firmly. “I’ll keep going as long as they’re hungry.”

  He shook his head in admiration. “You’re an amazing woman. You really are. What can I get you? Are you hungry?”

  “I’m starving.”

  “Xander’s making oatmeal.”

  “Oatmeal?”

  “Yeah, I think he read in one of his books that women should eat oatmeal after they give birth.”

  Hazel laughed. “Oatmeal would be great.”

  He kissed her on the forehead and went to fix a bowl.

  ALL TWELVE BABIES WERE healthy and happy, and as the weeks went by the Hell’s Wolves grew accustomed to the little newcomers in their midst.

  Emmett had never imagined this future for his pack. They were nomadic, trackers, fighters. Now, without giving up any of those qualities, they had become something else. Something altogether more fulfilling.

  He watched Pax walk around the dining room with a baby in his arms, tossing and catching her as she squealed with joy. Pax had always had a zest for life, but his smiles had never been this youthful. It was a side of his packmate he’d never seen before.

  Dart, usually so defiant and cynical, had also shown a softer side. He liked to dip his finger in the sauces he prepared for each meal and allow one of the babies to taste the food. “How else will they develop their palates?” he asked when the others laughed. “We don’t want to raise kids who will only eat plain pasta, right?”

  “As long as they eat the food we bring back from hunting trips,” Xander agreed. He was packing his duffel bag, rustling around in the dryer for clean clothes to stuff in. He and Judah were planning to leave in the morning and ride for Oregon, looking for work on the way. It would be the first time any of the Hell’s Wolves had left home since the birth of the babies.

  “Pack your phone,” Emmett said.

  “I thought you didn’t like the phones,” Xander said, grinning.

  “I don’t like you going off by yourself either. Pack it. It’s an order.”

  “It’s already in my bag,” Xander laughed. “You worry too much.”

  “I worry the exact right amount. Have you already forgotten what happened the last time we took a job?”

  “Have you?” Judah asked. “We defeated the Savage Rangers, you fell in love, and now, you’re a father to twelve babies. It would be hard to imagine a better ending. Don’t worry, Emmett. Xander and I will be fine. When we stop for the night, we’ll call and let you know where we are.”

  Emmett sighed. “I know you’ll be fine,” he said.

  “Do you want to come with us? Is that it?”

  Emmett hesitated. He couldn’t deny that the road called to him. It had been easier to ignore before, when everyone was focused on the impending arrival of the babies. But things were different now. Judah and Xander were going. When they got back, no doubt, Pax and Dart would want to go.

  Hazel was watching him. “You should go with them,” she said. “I’ll be fine here. Pax and Dart are here. That’s plenty of us to take care of the kids for a couple of weeks. It’s been forever since you’ve been on a run. I know you want to.”

  Emmett expected to feel relief at getting her blessing. Instead, there was only an increased sense of turmoil.

  Why, though? He wanted to go. Didn’t he? Didn’t he want to be out on the road again, to feel the wind against his face and the sensation of speed? Didn’t he want to feel the power of his motorcycle swallowing up road, leaping forward, the engine growling beneath him?

  Yes.

  Yes, he wanted all of that.

  But he didn’t want it enough.

  Because even more than he wanted to give in to the call of the open road, he wanted to be here. With his family. He wanted to fall asleep every night and wake up every morning knowing that his children were safe, that they were within arm’s reach and that any threat to them would have to go through him first. He wanted to watch them learn to laugh and respond to their mother’s voice as she told them stories at night and sang them to sleep. He wanted to be the one to hold them when they cried.

  He was a father now. The most fundamental thing about him had shifted. It was no longer simply a question of being wild or tame, animal or human. His life belonged to his family.

  So, he shook his head. “I’ll stay here,” he said. “I want to be with you and the kids. Going away right now would drive me crazy.”

  And he could see by the look on Hazel’s face that she was glad.

  HE HAD BEEN RELUCTANT to ask Hazel to sleep with him since she’d given birth, not wanting to do her harm. But that night, she came to him.

  The babies were all, miraculously, sleeping. Hazel crawled naked into bed beside him and wrapped her body around his. He turned toward her, welcoming her embrace. She was so much smaller than she’d been the last time he’d held her this way. Although h
e’d relished her pregnant body, he felt now that he was closer to her than he’d been in a long time. The bulk of the babies no longer sat between them.

  He kissed her slowly, luxuriating in the taste of her lips and the feel of her hands sliding up and down his body. God, he’d missed this. He’d been so focused on everything else that was going on—all the work that the new babies required, the stress of his packmates going out on the road again—that he’d hardly had time to think about it. But now, he wondered how he could ever have thought about anything else. How could he have been in the same room as Hazel every day without hungering for her body? How could he have become distracted from his insatiable attraction to her?

  Right now, it just didn’t seem possible.

  He crawled to the bottom of the bed and licked and kissed his way slowly up her body, stopping at every sensitive area he found. Hazel wrapped her fingers through his and held on, her body writhing beneath him, gasping with arousal. By the time he reached her head, pausing only to kiss her lips deeply before guiding himself inside her, she was shaking.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist, angling her hips to deepen their connection. “I missed you so much,” she breathed.

  Emmett ached to move, but he summoned his willpower and held himself still, enjoying the feeling of being joined with her. God, it had been too long. He was going to do this every night now. Probably twice a day, if she was up for it.

  Unable to control himself anymore, he began to thrust.

  He kept things slow at first. He massaged her breasts gently, careful not to cause her any pain. A bit of milk leaked out onto her chest and he bent to lap it up. She let out a soft sigh of pleasure and threaded her fingers through his hair. “You’re so hot,” she whispered. “You’re so fucking hot.”

  “You’re mine.”

  “I’m yours,” she agreed, her eyes sliding shut blissfully, hips rising to meet his. He felt her body shudder around him and joined his own orgasm to hers, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close.