Page 89

Story: Cullen

Cosmo looked over. “You mean it’s not Martin?”

Cullen’s eyes went wide. “Iknow!I asked him that too, but no. Roderick.”

“I like it.” Cosmo smiled. “Can I pet you?”

Roderick offered Cosmo his head. Hawk watched them, kind of rocking back on his heels a little bit.

“So wait. In Lunastra, we have bears, giant cats, even fierce otters. But they have bears. And yet somehow here, we have a bird and a weasel?”

“Don’t be insulting,” Cullen whispered. He wasn’t sure whether or not weasels and marten were copacetic or if there was some kind of weird specist West Side Story thing going on, but he didn’t want to risk it. “We should find you some food and a nice place to sleep.”

Yarrow was leaned against the doorframe. “Okay, well. You guys are weird, so I’ll talk to you later. I’m gonna go back to my house. Bye.”

Cullen blinked as the door shut.We’ll need to figure out what Roderick likes to eat best and make sure that he’s got a nice place to live.

Cullen rubbed his belly, and their little girl kicked.

Bang.

It was hard enough that it made Roderick jump.

“Oh! Easy!”

“Mate?” Orion came over, frowning. “Did he hurt you?”

“Of course he didn’t hurt me. He’s here to be with the babies. Stop it.” Roderick was going to be great. “No, she kicked. Serena kicked.”

Cullen put Orion’s hand on his belly, and Serena kicked again. Bang.

“Serena, huh?”

He nodded. “Serena. She told me her name is Serena. Our little girl. Like Tisi told us his name.”

Suddenly, like in a rush, Cullen needed Tisi. He needed to hold his son. His son. The thought gave him shivers. Both of Orion’s dads had assured him this little one’s parents must have been destroyed. There was no way they would have allowed anyone to take their baby while they still lived.

And so now Tisi was their son. And he was tired of dealing with shit that wasn’t loving on babies.

He could handle all the rest of the nonsense on earth later.

Right now, there was Elliot and Emily and Tisi, and he just wanted to go. Just be a dad and an uncle. A normal life—if there was such a thing with the dragon-fae, a unicorn, and a pegasus.

Oh goddess, his head hurt.

Love, it doesn’t have to be this complicated.Orion walked with him. “Let’s go play with the babies. Maybe we’ll have some ice cream. But your little gargoyle misses you, and I know that Tisi needs a snuggle.”

“Don’t forget my Emily.” Cosmo hooked his arm with Cullen’s. “Come on, Corbin’s very busy being Corbin. You and I can be very busy being dads.”

He nodded, and they wandered back toward his house. It was nice to have the babies over here because there was always golden light coming through the windows and warming everything up. When they got to where Ed watched the babies, everyone but Elliot was sound asleep.

Elliot was doing one of his wooden puzzles that had dragons and fairies and one unicorn. Elliot was singing to himself. “Dwagon, dwagon, dwagon. Here is a dwagon and a fairy. Hooray, unicorns!”

They cracked up, all of them. It was Cosmo who caught his breath finally. “Absolutely, son. Yay unicorn!”

Elliot beamed. “Wuv all.”

“You are pure love, my boy. Shall we sit and play with you?”

“Uh-huh.”