Page 8

As soon as Sandrine had left them in the med-bay, an alarm had sounded, heralding critical patients from a three-car collision.

It was all hands on deck, so they’d gotten a dazed Rowan to his feet, and Finn had kissed Nix goodbye before promising that he’d see them at home as soon as he could get away.

There had been a unanimous sigh of appreciation for Dr. Merritt in his element before Jay had redirected them back out to the parking lot.

It’s going to be alright, Rowan, Leo had been whispering right before they’d put him into Gideon’s vehicle, which he’d taken to the studio; this time with Gideon behind the wheel.

Grayson’s wolf had wanted to point out how the Escalade had been parked haphazardly: diagonally in two spaces, with one front tire directly on the curb.

But Grayson held him back, pointing out that they couldn’t drive at all.

Nix had pulled him silently toward the Genesis, and once Jay had them on the road, he had fallen asleep immediately. Turns out being tired all the time is common when you’re growing another person, let alone two .

Grayson closes his eyes and presses his nose into the top of his sleeping soulmate’s head, his downy soft hair smelling of coconut shampoo, vanilla sugar, and freshly baked bread.

There’s also a slight scent of flowers, too.

Grayson doesn’t think anyone else can smell it, but it’s there.

Lily of the Valley, maybe? Or Hyacinths? Both?

The scent had started back before the-day-that-shall-not-be-named , and it had set the wolf off something terrible. He’d been sure there was another wolf in the den, and then in the rental house in the mountains, and then on the field, and then…well, everywhere Nix was.

Grayson can’t be blamed for not figuring it out right away.

Not really, because if he thought the time after they’d found Nix and before the bond had been stressful, the time since Nix’s heat had been a hundred times worse. He’d had his mind on other things.

The others think he’s been acting like a dick because his soulmate is carrying Rowan’s baby, but that’s not the real reason.

It’s that Grayson’s wolf was so sure it was his pup .

He’s seen enough Were romantic comedies about unplanned pregnancies to recognize crazed paternal alpha behavior; fuck, he can even see it in Rowan.

Grayson’s wolf could not accept that his omega’s child wasn’t his, and that’s what made him act like an absolute idiot.

Just seeing Rowan in his place, marking his soulmate over what he knew to be his child, had made the wolf determined to show them all the truth.

To be fair, Grayson-the-man had agreed 100% with the others: this was Rowan’s child.

But it turns out this had been one more thing he was learning about his new “partnership” with the wolf.

Just one more thing he’d had to figure out on the fucking fly—because until late last year, Grayson had been under the very, very mistaken impression that he was in control of a strong but mostly indifferent wolf.

Ha. How wrong he was.

So very, very wrong. The wolf had truly just been lying in wait for their soulmate to show back up so that he could do a lot of ridiculous shit. Almost like it knew Nix was coming back to them, and that all he had to do was bide his time.

That constant ache he’d felt since the day he presented; it hadn’t been the feeling of a piece missing, but the longing for it to return.

Returning from where, Grayson didn’t know. Maybe it was a soulmate thing.

The wolf liked to take Nix’s things, like earbuds, or his phone, or even that one time, a single shoe, and then hide them in his room, so Nix had to come find them there.

Then he’d waylay him with orgasms.

The wolf wanted to take and mark their mate so that everyone would know that it was the wolf’s child, but Grayson showed him he was still calling the shots.

He’d lay Nix out and slowly worship every inch of his perfect skin for hours.

Instead of the bites and marks he knew the wolf wanted to leave, Grayson would bring him over the edge slowly and sweetly, giving him a release that flowed intensely, like a wave cresting, and then flowing into yet a second and third.

Nix’s tears of pleasure and soundless cries were a balm to Grayson-the-man. Even if he and the wolf rubbed their release into the skin covering that growing belly.

Grayson considered himself weak for allowing himself the indulgence.

But now, in the back of Jay’s Genesis, the 3D photos of the two-pack babies in his hand, he has to admit that the wolf had been right. That tiny baby B was Grayson’s pup– child.

Tiny, long fingers and Nix’s turned-up nose, with full lips and a pointed chin. A baby made from the perfect soul bond he shared with his earthbound angel.

If he closes his eyes, he can see a beautiful tawny-haired child with freckles, running in the yard behind their house, bare feet flying after Tsuki, or squatting in their diaper over colored chalk drawings in the courtyard, just to watch as they wave a hand so the chalk butterflies take flight and disappear in motes of sunlight.

It’s fanciful, but Grayson feels tears prick in his eyes at how much he wants that.

The wolf had been right, and now he was beside himself with joy at the confirmation.

Self-satisfied like nothing else, except maybe when he could rub his come into Nix’s bond bite on his throat like it was perfume.

Right now, the wolf is pumping out fresh perfume-y basil-vanilla, and it’s quickly overwhelming the ventilation system in the car. He’s embarrassed to admit he has no more control over it than he had as a newly-presented fourteen-year-old enigma.

Jay sneezes and catches his eye in the mirror, offering a querying eyebrow, while Leo opens the windows a crack.

Nix rubs his nose on Grayson’s chest and slides a sleepy hand into the front of Grayson’s waistband, like he always does when they sit just like this; on the couch, or at the table when Jay is out looking for Gideon over dinner time, or sitting up in bed watching one of those Netflix dramas Nix has missed out on.

Grayson has learned that it brings him comfort as much as it does Nix, even if those tiny, talented fingers often have their own ideas.

“Hey. You okay?” Nix murmurs. “You smell funny.”

He smells funny? Ha . Says the person with several scents going at once. He doesn’t say that, though.

No, siree. Grayson does not want that angry, narrowed gaze turned on him.

“Funny?” Grayson asks instead.

“Mmm. Like happy.” Nix breathes deep again. “And a bit like that candle Gideon has in his shrine…patchouli? It’s nice.”

That’s new.

Grayson presses his nose into his shoulder, and there it is, a bit mysterious and alluring…but it’s gone in the next breath. “I guess I am happy.”

“You are?” The surprise is clear in his tone.

The car stops at the gate, and Jay leans out for a retinal scan and presses a thumb to the gate scanner.

Sentinel does not fuck around with security.

The Escalade follows in after them, and both vehicles roll into the open garage doors.

Nix drags Grayson over to the couch and takes the ultrasound pictures from him so he can lay them side-by-side on the table.

“Are you? Happy, that is,” Nix asks again when Grayson runs a fingertip over the images of both babies’ cheeks.

Is he happy? That feeling behind his ribs tingles, and he pushes some of that strange feeling along the bond, in hopes that Nix will be able to help him understand it better.

His eyes pop wide and a huge grins break over his beautiful face. “You are happy. And excited!”

Rowan comes out of the restroom, face wet and looking pale; he throws himself into Jay’s arms, who drags them both to the couch. “Gray’s happy? Since when?”

Since last fall, them’s would have been fightin’ words .

Just yesterday, that tone had Grayson holding Rowan down in the nest, Grayson’s chest to Rowan’s back while he’d worked him open so he could make Rowan beg to come. Which he always did, at least twice.

But this time, Rowan isn’t trying to get railed as much as he is genuinely curious.

Gideon and Luca come down from upstairs too, Luca in his new pantsless uniform of a giant hoodie and Gideon dressed in a T-shirt and pajama pants.

Not going out, then; huh, Grayson wonders what has changed.

They’re all looking at him. Maybe just as curious about his odd behavior as Rowan is.

He picks up Baby B’s photo and shows Nix. “She’s mine.”

She.

Baby B had been quite cooperative in sharing her current primary gender.

Baby A was still a mystery, but the tech had been optimistic that if all things stayed the same, they’d know in four weeks at Nix’s next appointment.

Apparently, Grayson’s news was food for thought.

His mates are frozen.

Gideon blink-blink-blinks, like he’s processing this new information against the last three months, as Grayson had done, and coming up with the same answer. He responds by laughing maniacally.

“Well, that explains a lot. How could we have missed that?”

Jay is right behind him in connecting all the dots and actually smacks his forehead. “Shit. Well, to be fair, twins are rare.”

Grayson looks at Jay then, gauging his mate’s reaction, unsure if, like Rowan, the alpha had harbored the hope (or worry) that the second baby might have been his.

But Jay looks as he always does when he’s got a problem to solve: a tiny furrow between his forehead, eyes distant as his genius brain is entirely caught up in having missed the signs about Grayson’s behavior.

Behavior Jay hadn’t been exhibiting at all.

Jay meets his gaze, like he’d known Grayson would be thinking about him.

He’s wearing that small smile he gets when he’s proud of them or happy for them.

Grayson wants to believe that Jay means it when he says their time will come, and that a Jay-and-Nix baby will be planned.

Just like they had dreamed, even before they knew it would be their child in body, not just in heart.