Page 35 of Eternal Light

“Right here. What are you two conspiring about now?” Rowan opens the fridge door to grab a canned cold brew coffee. Nose in the air, he notices the chocolate chips straight away. “Hey, did you eat those?” He points to the open bag on the floor with a frown.

“Uh…” Nix waffles. “What’s the right answer here?”

Rowan scowls. “That’s not nice.”

“Sorry, Ro, but a man’s gotta feed his children.”

“Yes, he does.Mychildren. We had a deal, Nix. Next time, just tell me. I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and get you something.”

“Excuse me, Rowan Foster? I am awhoever, not awhatever.And you were begging me not to stop only thirty minutes ago.”

Rowan rolls his eyes so hard it looks like it might hurt. “You know what I meant. It’s my privilege to do this. Please.”

Aw, look at his baby daddy being all sincere and shit.

“Sorry, Ro. Next time, I’ll shout out, ‘I’m eating,’ and you can decide,” Nix soothes, getting up to hug his shower-fresh mate. He really does feel bad for letting anxiety win over his promise to Rowan.

“Better yet, be in bed with us next time, and I’ll feed you whatever you want.”

“Whatever I want?” Nix presses his belly against the front of Rowan’s sweats.

“Hey, you had your chance not an hour ago. Now I can feed you for real. My wolf won’t let this go, so…what do you want? Pancakes?”

It’s Rowan’s go-to ever since Gideon showed him how, but he can also make—

“Tacos?”

Tacos sound okay, but the babies are craving brownies now, and it won’t let up. It seems, too, that Luca can read his mind—or maybe he’s passed his craving along their twin bond.

“Nix wants brownies and ice cream, but we don’t have the stuff.”

“I can go get it across the street, yeah? I still have Lauren’s card.”

He flashes it from his back pocket and gives them both a sly grin. Rowan might love spending his mother-in-law’s money almost more than he enjoys spending Leo’s.

“That’s an idea. Gideon didn’t make him promise to stay here.” Luca taps his red lips with the tip of his finger. A technicality, because Rowan had escaped into the bathroom after Jamie had kissed him goodbye—probably to hide his anxiety.

“That’s true.” Rowan runs a hand through his hair. “Write me a list, and I can get the stuff and be back in twenty minutes.”

“Wait—” Nix’s voice catches in his throat, but Rowan is already slipping on Jamie’s flip-flops. His fingers twitch at his side, resisting the urge to grab Rowan’s wrist and hold him back. “Just…don’t take too long, okay?”

Luca already has a pen out and has written the ingredients they’ll need from memory.

There’s a mollifying kiss to Nix’s cheek, a tweak to Luca’s nose, and Rowan is out the door.

“Ten bucks says he takes an hour,” Luca says, picking up his tea towel off the floor. “Come talk to me while I wash his spunk out of my hair. His aim is still terrible.”

Luca is fast in the shower, though when he gets out, he still smells as much like alpha come as he did when he got in—at least his hair is mostly clean. By the time he’s pulled on a long t-shirt and a pair of fuzzy socks with rainbows on them, Nix has only managed to talk about one of his ideas for naming the girls.

Fifteen minutes later, there’s a heavy bump against the front door.

“Figures he forgot the key,” Luca chuckles and gets up off the couch to open the door without checking the peephole.

“Luc! Wai—” Nix shouts, but it’s too late as the door is forcefully shoved wide, and two strange men are in their apartment.

The first, who has to be larger than Logan Frost by at least a hundred pounds, has the resisting Luca pulled tight against his chest—one arm firmly around the beta’s neck and the other clamped on his upper arm. He’s Were, and more than a match for Luca.

Nix’s beta is so angry his face is red, his clawed fingers digging into the big guy’s forearm as he bucks and kicks his feet.