Page 6 of His Atonement

"Oh my gosh!" Cora squeals in front of us. "You look so fucking cute."

Ah yes, and I absolutely wear the most idiotic t-shirts just to see the smile she is giving me now.

Apparently, my gem and Milos have bonded further due to their shared love of stupid t-shirts, and though he mostly purchases them for himself, Cora buys them for everyone.

Her eyes shift between Andrej, myself and Havok before she claps her hands while bouncing on the balls of her feet. "So fucking cute! Oh my gosh, I cannot even stand it."

Havok is wearing hisSuperdadshirt, the one that will match their twins’ once they are born. Andrej is wearing a shirt that proclaims him to be theDad you don't want to fuck with, though it is censored and was a gift from my sister when his second daughter was born. And I am wearing a shirt that says,You might call me Asshole, but the little people who love me call me Uncle.

Cora decreed we wear these shirts as our uniform while we shopped for baby things, and because we are all suckers for a pregnant female—especially one named Cora—we put them on like good little soldiers for our outing today.

It probably helped her demand that the three of us, along with Kai, were deeply engrossed in playing Mortal Kombat in the living room of the mansion at the time, and hardly heard what she said. The king somehow managed to avoid this trip though, something about having to help Karel and Hank with some mindless task that probably didn't require three dragons to complete it, but oh well.

I am her brother, Havok is her mate. And Andrej, well, he is a secretly soft-hearted beast who couldn't tell Cora no if his life depended on it.

I should know, I watched him let her get away with everything short of murder the two years she was with Havok originally.

* * *

An hour later, and the four of us are standing outside the baby store—Pottery Barn Baby—us males looking at it as though it is a bomb waiting to go off any second while my gem practically vibrates with excitement.

"Can I just say, I am so fucking pumped to buy two of everything!" She beams at us, her joy almost unable to be contained.

Havok winces with a sigh. "Thank the gods I was smart enough to save damn near billions over the last four hundred years."

Cora scowls, albeit playfully, and swats him in the gut. "Oh, shut up. You're going to be a hundred times worse in there than I am."

He nods with a silly grin. "Absolutely. Why do you think I'm so grateful?"

She giggles as we move toward the entrance, but as I hold open the door and wait for her to go in, Cora stops and grabs my hand.

"Thank you.” She smiles up at me. "For coming with me today, for stepping into your role as big brother so wholly. It really means a lot to me to have you around for all of this."

I smile down at her and give her hand a squeeze. "There is nowhere else I'd rather be than here with you, my gem. It is the one thing I've always wanted and I'd be a fool to do otherwise."

Her bright blue eyes sparkle, glimmering with unshed tears before that devious little smile spreads across her face. "Try not to be too big of an asshole to the employees this time. I don't want to have to ground you again like I did after that incident at Bill's."

"I am deeply offended.” I gasp in mock appall. "How dare you think I would act any differently from my normally charismatic and pleasant self?!"

"Yeah, ok.” Cora rolls her eyes and tugs me into the store. "You may not be a gigantic dickhead to me, and you might even tone it down some when you're with your besties, but I have yet to see you interact with anyone outside of our clan and be anything close topleasant."

"You have cut me deep, my gem. Cut me right to the bone.” I chuckle as I lean down to whisper, "It is rather unfortunate you restrict me now though, I had a wonderful narrative for this exact situation."

Cora arches a brow at me and waits.

"A dragon, a vampyr, a demon, and a fae walk into a baby store…"

My gem blinks once before she dissolves into a fit of giggles and my chest warms at the sound.

To be on the receiving end of that laughter, that smile... Gods, how I would kill to be where I am now.

It is just an unfortunate coincidence that I have killed—many times—my sweet sister herself in order to be here now.

Something I will be eternally grateful for, something I would gladly change and yet keep the same as long as it led me to this exact moment and brought me to the last ten months of my life.

And now, with a smile on my face, I shall prove to my precious gem that I am, in fact, the asshole she warned me not to be.

My tenderness is reserved only for her.