Page 68 of Eternal Light (Fated in the Stars #5)

I need another story

Something to get off my chest

My life gets kinda boring

Need something I can confess

Gideon

The front door beeps before slamming shut. Two sets of feet drop shoes in the foyer and start a whispering argument, and then, despite the previous noise, the pitter-patter of tiny feet quiets to a subversive, imperceptible tip-toe.

Hmmm .

Gideon may not be a parent (yet), but his senses are tingling.

While he has never had cause to sneak around as a teenager, he sure as fuck has the art of the undetectable entry down pat.

Even if he doesn’t do that anymore.

The sneaky vanilla-mocha-scented duo arriving from their outing with Artem are trying to go unnoticed even though they had permission—er, well, they’re not calling it permission , exactly, because their very pregnant omega does not appreciate that at all.

Nix prefers to tell them where he’s going, take someone (two someones, in Artem and Luca’s case) wherever he likes, as long as he takes his phone and leaves the microchip embedded in his arm for the time being.

The rest of the pack had had theirs removed before they’d even left Florida five months ago. Still, as soon as Nix asked to have his out, Finn started in about monitoring the babies and about optimizing pregnancy and paternal health modalities, blah-fucking-blah .

Gideon thought it was more about managing Finn’s anxiety and keeping track of Nix generally than keeping track of Nix’s health in specific terms. Nix had taken one look at the pale and agitated Finn and agreed.

No one commented on how Jay had visibly relaxed, dropping the arguments he’d been gearing up for, as well.

So how do they think they can sneak in, when Nix’s little yellow dot was flashing on his phone not an hour ago? That’s the real question.

What are they hiding?

Something huge and impractical for the nursery, maybe, which has so far been entirely Leo’s Modus operandi.

Or maybe they’d been to Sentinel and smelled of peaches, cedar, and moss when Jay and Nix had already agreed (argued) that Nix would wait until after the babies arrived before he began his physical training.

Gideon resists poking his head around the corner to catch a glimpse of them, instead enjoying the moment and perhaps giving them a little surprise, when the whispering intensifies, and Luca’s scent precedes him, all burnt coffee and worry.

He’s going to intervene because whatever they’re arguing about is upsetting Luca big time, and that’s where Gideon has to draw the line.

Fluctuations in his previously even-keeled mental health have been the state of affairs for the past few months.

Oscillating between anxiety about Nix’s health, fear about his ability to be a parent given his upbringing (Gideon can relate), and extreme excitement has meant weekly trips to see Ruthie, and a lot more time spent in Gideon’s room practicing Shibari ties.

Even now, Luca has on a rope harness under his hoodie that Gideon tied this morning before they left.

Luca says it helps settle his anxiety to feel Gideon’s knots and ties, especially when he’s out in the world.

It settles Gideon, too, knowing he’s wrapped in something he’s created with deliberation and care.

The softest ropes money can buy act as an extension of Gideon’s love and protection, and no one will hear it from him, but he’s thought about doing it to the rest of his mates lately for exactly the same reason.

Sighing, Gideon rests the wooden spoon against the side of the bowl and crosses his arms as the almost-soundless feet pass down the hall to where he can see the dynamic duo creeping toward the right-wing stairs.

Nix senses him first and startles, causing Luca to chirp.

Realizing the jig is up, Nix yells, “Gideon! Hey. I gotta pee really bad and then take a nap.” He waves over his shoulder, flying right by the main floor powder room—where last Gideon checked, there was a working toilet—and disappearing up the stairs, leaving his partner-in-crime staring after him, holding the proverbial bag.

“Shit,” Luca whispers before turning and pasting a smile on his face that is faker than the one Gideon wears when they visit his mother-in-law, Lauren. “Sugar, hey.”

It’s hard not to smile, especially considering how cute Luca is. Because his boy is about to lie his ass off, and there is nothing Gideon likes more than making Luca sorry. Almost.

Instead of a smile, he just cocks his eyebrow, waiting for his soulmate to fill the silence.

“Uh, whatcha doing?” Luca asks, and when Gideon is still not forthcoming, his little squirrel twitches his figurative-sweatpants-covered tail and caves.

It takes him less than thirty seconds. “I can’t tell you.”

Well, that doesn’t sound good at all, and what’s worse, his soulmate’s agitation means he wants to tell Gideon or, at minimum, he knows he should .

There aren’t any packages hanging from his wrists, and Gideon can only scent vanilla-mocha-patchouli and the tiniest scent of flowers.

Hmmm, odd .

It is summer, after all, but Nix and Luca aren’t ones for flowers beyond a cursory appreciation.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Well on his way to an agitated state, Luca sets himself into frantic motion.

Following him into the kitchen, Gideon watches Luca dig around under the sink for the big bowl they usually use for popcorn. He then fills the kettle at the sink and plugs it in.

Next, he pulls out scissors and the twine that Gideon uses to tie roasts (or on-the-fly-bondage for Leo).

He follows it up with a trip to the freezer, where he throws ice in a bag and ends up digging out the meat mallet to reduce it to tiny chips.

The loud noise from the impact makes him flinch with every downward stroke, but he persists, setting his jaw and forcing a tiny set of lines between his brows.

And still, Gideon hasn’t said a word. Not entirely because he is playing a game of cat and squirrel, but because he’s completely mystified.

What is all this shit for?

As if Luca had read his mind, he bursts out, “I can’t tell you because Nix asked me not to, and I promised. I mean, I shouldn’t have promised, I get that now,” he mutters, “ but you know how he gets when he makes those big eyes and then covers you in vanilla and baby sme–”

He breaks off, eyes wide.

With a shake of his head, he turns and heads into the pantry, coming out with a bag of chocolate chips and throwing them on the counter with the weird collection of other things.

“No. Don’t try to make me tell. I can’t. Not until…” His eyes flick toward the clock on the microwave before pointing at Gideon. “Not for another three hours.”

With a shake of his head, he drops his sweats and picks them up, disappearing down the right-wing hall toward the laundry room, his voice trailing behind.

“What is happening right now?” Gideon whispers to the empty room.

Luca never picks up his pants.

Once he’s worn them under duress, they cease to exist for him.

Or perhaps as a statement of protest against the tyranny that forces his perfect ass into them every time he wants to leave the house (his words).

It’s not unusual to find his soulmate’s pants in the foyer, on the pool deck, or once even on the stairs, which almost ended up with Rowan falling to the bottom and breaking an ankle.

The kettle signals that its boiled bounty has finished, so Gideon follows the noise of Luca humming Justin Beiber’s Baby to the laundry room, where he’s folding towels from the dryer—on Rowan’s laundry day.

The missing enigma had whooped out loud at being let off the hook so he and Jay could run in the woods. It had been funny to watch the expressions of both anticipation and frustrated disappointment flash across his face when he realized Nix would not be joining them.

Both enigmas had had a weird week, which has only gotten worse in the last twenty-four hours. It had taken a serious threat of ramen for a week if they didn’t leave his house for the day, because they had been well on their way to driving the pack into a disgruntled frenzy.

A similarly snarky Grayson had roped Leo into his magical tutoring session earlier that day. They’d caught a lift with Finn, who—fresh off earning his shiny new driver’s license and a car gifted by Leo—had gleefully declared Nashville’s public transit officially behind him.

Not that Leo couldn’t have driven himself, but Finn seemed unnervingly proud of his newfound role as chauffeur to his mates, ferrying them around the city with smug satisfaction.

So, Luca doing household chores without Gideon’s brand of incentive has never—not once—been Luca’s first choice. Even then, there were often hours of begrudging complaints.

That’s enough to cause a genuine frisson of concern to tingle in his belly.

“Luca Wilde,” Gideon says warningly.

For the second time, Luca jumps. His face pales before it flushes, and Gideon knows that there is something seriously up.

“Don’t make me.” He grabs his stack of towels and, holding them like a shield to his chest, disappears past Gideon and out into the hallway, where he deposits the stack on the stairs and beats feet into the kitchen.

Pouring the boiling water into the bowl, he fills the kettle again. “Please. It’s important.”

“Baby, if there is something you and Nix are hiding, or you’ve been somewhere you shouldn’t have been, I would rather you tell me now so we can deal with it.”

“No, we went to the mall with Artem to buy bab—er—some stuff, and then…uh…we had to come home. That’s it.”

“Maybe I should call Artem?” Gideon mutters, grabbing his phone from the counter. Dead. Of course, it had to die at the most inconvenient time. Shit. He groans, holding it up like a useless relic. “Give me your phone, please.”

“What?! No. No need for that. Artem doesn’t know anything. Nope.”

Gideon’s stomach drops, well on his way to freaking out.

Dropping his phone into the charger, he decides it’s best if he sees Nix for himself.

He’ll be quietly proud of Luca’s loyalty to his secrets once Gideon figures out his pregnant mate is alright and not somehow laboring alone in his roo—“Fucking hell.”

It’s Gideon’s turn to fly past Luca, who is now squawking like a wet hen, calling after him as Gideon takes the stairs two at a time.

Thundering down the hall, he’s met with Nix’s closed door.

Nix has always welcomed them with open arms and an open door, but has only asked that they knock before entering. He says the sense of control helps him feel less on edge in his daily life.

Before he can knock, Luca slides between him and the door. “You can’t!”

“Luc?” Nix’s voice sounds from behind the door, followed by his feet hitting the floor.

“It’s Gideon, Kitten. Can I come in?”

“No!”

Well, fuck.

“Kitten,” Gideon says, and he’s not ashamed to say it sounds more like a plea— whine— than a statement.

“Go away, Gideon. I’m not ready.”

“You’re scaring me.”

He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and he definitely hadn’t consciously felt it, but the words slipped out anyway, as the unease prickles down his spine and tightens his muscles.

The thought is swiftly followed by the sound of his phone ringing downstairs, and then Nix’s, hidden behind the door. Nix quickly silences it, but the phone rings again, followed by a curse, then—suddenly—dead silence.

“I’m sorry. But no. Go away. I—I–Ohhhhh, fuck . Shit,” he groans, before it’s followed by the sound of water hitting the floor behind the door.

“Kitten, you will have to forgive me another time, but I am coming in.”

“No! I want Luc,” he gasps again before his voice takes on that pleading tone Gideon has never been able to resist. “Please? I just need Luca.”

Luca finally meets his eyes. He looks determined, like he does when he’s in every stadium that has been lucky enough to have Long Road Home grace its stage. He looks confident. “You should go. Send Finn up when he gets here.”

“Tell me.” Gideon needs to hear the words.

And as he had thirty-eight weeks ago when he’d announced to the pack they were going on this journey, Luca smiles with the smallest curving of his lips.

“We’re having our babies and he’s…” Gideon can’t read what it means before he shakes his head.

“Nix needs to do this on his own, okay? For now…just keep the others out.”

Luca turns toward him and runs a warm hand over Gideon’s cheek before opening the door and slipping inside.

Keep the others out?!

Holy fucking shit, the babies are coming. Today. Three weeks early.

Making his way to the kitchen, he sees the twine, the scissors, the ice, the kettle boiling, and the bowl steaming on the counter. He figures out it’s everything that movies would tell you laboring parents need to give birth in an emergency.

Luca was giving him clues the entire time.

But while Gideon gets everything, even the twine, he has to wonder: what the fuck is the boiling water for?