Page 47 of Briggs (Paranormal Council Enforcers #16)

Todd

I wasn’t sure it would ever sink in that I was a daddy.

But the girls were five weeks old now, and I still found myself spending probably too much time just staring at them.

They were mine. I’d done that. Well, Briggs and I had done that.

And that thought made me realize that we’d not done that in quite some time.

Not since before the girls had been born. What was up with that?

I picked up a sleeping Willow and carefully placed her in the baby carrier I was wearing.

We were finally getting out of the house for a little while tonight, and I was more excited about it than I probably should have been.

But being in the house and basically sleeping in three-hour stretches, changing diapers, feeding babies, cleaning up diaper blowouts, cleaning up spit-up, and more diapers, all in rotation, well, getting out to the Winter Solstice Festival was something to look forward to.

Now to just find my missing mate and daughter.

“Briggs?” I called out through our bond. I didn’t want to wake Willow if I could help it.

“I’m in the nursery grabbing clean burp cloths.”

Ah, that made sense. I’d taken the advice that Cecil had offered, and the girls owned sleepers almost exclusively.

And we had three times the number of burp cloths than I’d thought we would need.

He had been right. We needed that many, and there hadn’t been a day that at least one load of laundry hadn’t been run.

I left our bedroom and walked the short distance to the nursery.

I still couldn’t get over how amazing it was.

Dr. King had been so incredibly kind and had gone above what I knew he did for others.

I couldn’t explain why. I had always thought Dr. King didn’t like me and was simply putting up with me until Cecil came back or the council found someone else to replace me.

But any of those thoughts had been erased as my pregnancy progressed, and I noticed how Dr. King did little things here and there for me. Things he didn’t have to do.

“Are you ready?” I asked Briggs. He turned, and I saw that Wrenley was in an identical carrier that Briggs was wearing.

“I am,” Briggs said. “Is that what you’re wearing? Aren’t you going to be cold?”

I looked at myself. I was wearing a long-sleeve thermal shirt, jeans, thick socks, and hiking boots.

“I’m planning on putting on a coat and hat,” I told him.

“I can’t fit the carrier over the coat though, so I was planning on leaving it open.

I’m going to tuck a blanket around Willow to keep her warm.

” It was December, and as expected for the Winter Solstice Festival, it was snowy and cold out.

There was at least a foot of snow on the ground, but most likely more.

It had been so long since I’d been outside the house for more than a few minutes.

Even Briggs had been home almost every single day since the girls had been born.

He was going back to work after the first of the year, as was I, and that was going to be a huge adjustment.

I’d sworn that I was going to go back to work.

I’d said I wanted to, but now that I was facing the reality that I’d have to leave my babies at the childcare center, I was starting to struggle with that.

“A coat is probably good. Are you ready?” Briggs asked. He picked up the backpack that we used as a diaper bag and put it on.

“Yeah. Do you think we really need the diaper bag?” I asked. He looked so weighted down with Wrenley on his front and the bag on his back. “We could maybe take a smaller pack? One that will let you wear a coat as well? Or a light jacket if you’re going to be too warm with a coat.”

“I’ll put on a coat,” Briggs said with a smile on his face.

“It’s just downstairs, and I only put the bag on so I had both hands free to get down the stairs.

” Briggs took my hand and led me to the top of the stairs, where he held my hand with one hand and the rail with the other.

It wasn’t until we were both at the bottom that he let go of my hand.

He didn’t go far though, and moments later, he was back with my coat.

“What about John?” I asked. “Should we let him know we’re going?”

Briggs tilted his head to the side and looked at me with a confused expression. “He’s already there. He was going to meet up with Maximus. I thought he had cleared it with you?”

“Cleared what? What am I missing?” I slid my arms into the sleeves of my coat as Briggs helped me pull it up onto my shoulders.

“He’s spending the night down in Honey Creek with Alpha War and Arik. They’re having this huge party with the den kids. There’s going to be a den run as well as an all-night movie marathon. I’m not sure I’m up for something like that anymore, but I know the teenagers are all for it.”

That sounded like fun…if you didn’t have newborn twins at home.

“I’m sure he mentioned it to me; I just don’t remember.

I’m glad he’s going to go hang out down there.

It’s about time he’s opened up a bit more to friendships.

” I wanted my brother to have friends. Most of the non-adults here on Treasure Ridge were either way younger than John or older and about to head off to college.

But Max was only a couple of years younger than John, and his sister, Val, was the same age.

They were tiger shifters, and I think that, combined with the fact that Arik was a tiger shifter as well, really drew John and his cheetah.

I was happy for my brother. He needed to have as much of a normal teenage life as he could.

Briggs was giving me a funny look. “What?” I asked. He grabbed his own coat now that I had mine on.

“You want to go hang out and watch movies all night?”

I snorted. “No.” I bent my head down and kissed the top of Willow’s hat-covered head.

“I wouldn’t mind watching a movie and eating junk food with you, but no, I do not want to go to the den and hang out all night.

” I sighed. “I know that with these two, watching a movie is not going to happen only because we would try, and both of us would fall asleep within minutes, most likely.”

Briggs laughed, and I smiled. I wasn’t wrong, which was why it was so funny. “We’ll get there someday. Probably before you know it, we’ll be able to do things that we did before we had the girls.”

I nodded. “I don’t regret them. Not even when they’re spitting up all down my back and onto the bed. Not even then.”

Briggs had his coat on and the backpack back on as well and leaned in and gave me a quick kiss.

“I love you,” he said. “I love the life we have together and the thought of the one we’re building.

I’m looking forward to spending many more centuries with you because you are absolutely perfect for me. You’re an amazing daddy and partner.”

I fanned my face and took several deep breaths.

I’d been doing so good. My hormones had started to regulate, and I wasn’t nearly as emotional as I’d been while pregnant.

“I love you too,” I managed to get out. I took several more breaths, but when Briggs pulled me into his arms, I felt a tear escape.

It was a bit awkward with both of us wearing a baby on our front, and I couldn’t get nearly as close as I wanted, but he’d tried, and that meant everything to me.

“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he whispered.

He kissed my hair, and I wanted more, so I looked up at him and waited.

Briggs didn’t disappoint—he never did—and I got my kiss.

Unfortunately, it was over before it could start, and I was left with a bit of disappointment.

I knew Briggs loved me. He was so sweet and loving toward me.

But since before I’d given birth, we’d not been intimate in any way.

I understood then because it had become uncomfortable and then painful.

But now? The girls were five weeks old. Dr. King had cleared me to resume all activities.

Yet…still nothing. I knew it wasn’t that he was repulsed by me.

He looked at me with nothing but love. I sighed.

It would happen when the time was right.

We both passed out within minutes of putting the twins in bed after their midnight bottle.

“What’s wrong?” Briggs asked.

“Nothing,” I told him. Because that was the truth.

I knew it would happen when the time was right.

“Are you ready?” I asked. “I don’t want the girls to get too warm with the blankets on them here in the house.

” Sure, they were babies, but they were also shifter babies.

They were tough, and both were in thicker sleepers, hats, and were strapped into a baby carrier with a blanket snapped onto the carrier to keep them covered.

“Sure,” Briggs said. We left the house, and although I caught my mate sending me looks frequently as we walked toward Council Square, he didn’t say anything. He held my hand, every so often giving it a gentle squeeze, but that was the extent of it.

When the council building came into view, moments later, the faint sounds of music and children’s laughter could be heard. I knew the celebration was on the other side of the council building, and I suddenly wondered if it bothered the single enforcers.

“When you lived in single enforcer housing, did the festival noise bother you?”

Briggs shook his head. “No. The houses are all soundproof. We can hear people knocking on the doors, but when Master Edison created the houses, they were all made to where we couldn’t hear our neighbors or outside noises.

Much like the house we live in now. The only way John ever hears the twins crying is when we both have our doors open. ”