Page 13

Chapter Thirteen

Aswan

I tipped the pizza delivery guy exorbitantly as I heard Hannah wrapping up the phone call with her lawyer.

“Yeah. Yeah. Okay…” She exhaled. “Okay, that makes sense. Perfect. …Thanks for working so late on a Friday.” A rueful smile twitched at her lips. “That would be nice. Thanks, Shonda. Have a good weekend.”

When she hung up, she stared down at the phone long enough for me to set out the boxes and cross the kitchen to engulf her hand in mine. “Good news?”

She took a deep breath and lifted her chin, her expression tight, but her nod firm. “Yeah. Shonda was on my side through the divorce and custody hearings, which she reminded me were pretty easy. The courts already know Travis is a scumbag. ”

When she glanced over her shoulder, I checked as well. All three kids were zoned out in front of the T.V., and I had to hope they were far enough away they couldn’t hear us. So I squeezed her hand.

“And now?”

Another deep breath, and she pressed forward, into my arms. “She says that he skipped parole in Nashville, stole a car, and drove for two days straight to get here.”

“That makes sense. Chief Ortiz says he was obviously under the influence of cocaine.” High as fuck was what the man said, but I knew what he meant. Simbel and Memnon—both my younger brothers were cops—showed up at the station to help run interference for my family. While Memnon had scowled and stomped around—so much like Abydos it was scary sometimes—Simbel had done his best to translate what was happening so we could understand it. “Does this mean he’s wanted back in Tennessee?”

She nodded, then turned her head so her words wouldn’t be muffled against my chest. “Shonda says since he used deadly force—the knife—in an attempted kidnapping of a noncustodial child, he’ll likely be headed back to prison for a long time. We won’t have to worry about him.”

I felt my muscles untense as I exhaled along with her. “And if he does get out of jail in the next decade,” I reminded her, running my hand up and down her spine soothingly, “I’ll be right here.”

Hannah tipped her head back to smile up at me, but it was a sad smile. “Mate.”

Mate .

“I love you,” I whispered. “I love all of you, more than anything in this world.”

And one day, I hoped the kitlings understood that. I would always be here, always keep them safe…even if it was just as their nanny.

We’d spent hours that afternoon at the police station, and I had no idea how Hannah had managed to be so strong, listening to Ben give his story again and again, especially with Travis yelling obscenities from the town’s single jail cell.

Eventually, unable to stand the pacing any longer, I sat beside him on one of the ridiculously small human-sized folding chairs to lend him my strength. To my surprise, he stood up and pressed against me. It was second nature to gather him up and sit him on my lap, the way I might his sister or brother, and he curled up and closed his eyes.

When I looked up and met Simbel’s gaze, he gave me an approving smile.

Knowing it had only been a few months since he’d found his own Mate and son, it made me feel like…like I was doing something right. At least at that moment.

After the ordeal at the station, we’d been sent home, and Hannah’s parents—Allison nearly frantic—had met us with the two younger kitlings, who’d needed reassurance as much as Ben. For that matter, so had Allison.

While the kids swarmed Hannah, I’d pulled her parents aside and updated them on everything we knew, and the plans. Charlie, her father, had been stoic as he asked questions, but Allison cried through it all until I couldn’t stand her pain—and, on some level, I knew, guilt—and opened my arms to her as well.

“We should have never pressured her to marry him,” she sobbed against my chest.

I met her husband’s eyes, and Charlie exhaled as he patted her back. “He’s a bad husband and a bad father…but if she hadn’t married him, we wouldn’t have Tova and Joshy.”

That was true. I nodded to let him know I appreciated the reminder. “And they’re worth a little heartbreak, right?”

Eventually, Allison had cried her tears—I tried to keep her distress hidden from Tova and Joshua, because I knew it would bother them—and I sent her and Charlie home with last night’s leftover ham and potatoes, which had been the plan for tonight’s dinner.

But tonight, in our house, wasn’t a night for ham and potatoes. It was a night for… “Who wants pizza?” I called to the kitlings.

“Piz-za!” yelled Joshua, rolling from the sofa, as Tova hummed, “And ice cream?”

Little scamp knew tonight was a no-rules kinda night, apparently.

The five of us sprawled around the living room to eat the junk food—yes, I made popcorn after the pizza, claiming it was a vegetable…but the chocolate candy I mixed in likely negated any miniscule health benefits—and watched old cartoon movies.

When the evil stepmother locked Cinderella in her room, no matter how much she begged, I noticed Ben’s breathing growing shallow, and I snatched up the remote, jabbing at it with my claws. “Let’s watch something else?” and everyone agreed.

We stayed up too late, and all the sugar meant the kids should’ve had meltdowns, but they didn’t have a chance. One by one, they fell asleep right there on the couch, and one by one, I carried them into their rooms and Hannah tucked them in.

By midnight, we were standing in the center of our room, our arms locked around each other again. My chin rested on her head, and I could feel her heart beating against my chest.

“Today…” she whispered, “I was so scared.”

“Me too,” I admitted.

“But you went after him. You risked your life to save my son.”

I pulled away far enough to meet her eyes. “I love him. No matter what happens, dkaar , he’s mine in the same way you are. Of course I went after him.”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you for trusting me with him.”

Another rueful smile tugged at her lips as she nodded and pressed her cheek to my chest again. “When Mom called to tell me what you told her, I ran out of my meeting. I jumped in my car, and I just started driving. I didn’t know it was Travis who’d taken Benny, I didn’t know anything . I just knew…” She took a deep breath and held it. “I knew you were going after him. So I focused on you.”

When she didn’t say anything else, I dropped my chin to her head again and hummed in encouragement .

“I felt you,” she whispered so low I had to strain to hear it. “I just… knew where you were, Aswan.”

Slowly, my lips curled. “There is a knowing.”

“That’s the Mate bond? I knew where you were, and I knew how to get there. I had this feeling that if I could get to you, I would get to Benny, but…I knew where you were, and I drove right to the ferry dock.”

My Kteer purred in satisfaction. “That’s the Mate bond, Hannah. And it will only get stronger.”

She nodded, bumping my chin, then glanced up at me. “Would you mind if…tonight, could we just…”

Maybe it was the Mate bond, but I knew what she was asking. “I’ll hold you, dkaar ,” I whispered, “for as long as you need.”

But when I woke in the middle of the night, Hannah was no longer wrapped in my arms. I pulled on a pair of sweatpants and padded down the hall to the open door of Ben’s room.

She was lying in the twin bed beside her son, her arms wrapped around his small frame, her face buried in his hair. And I couldn’t blame her.

If I had the right to hold him like that, the right to claim him, I would. I would roar to the world that he was mine , my son, and I would protect him from all the dangers and fears that threatened him.

But I couldn’t.

Not until Hannah was ready .

Sighing, I backed out of the room and gently shut the door. Unable to help myself, I poked my head into Tova’s room. She was sleeping innocently, face down in that spread-out ungainly way of hers that was her way of tackling everything one hundred and ten percent.

Smiling, I knelt beside the bed so I could lean over and kiss her cheek.

“I love you, d’pin ,” I whispered, pressing my forehead to her temple. “So very much. And one day, you’ll know that.”

When I went to check on Joshua, he was whimpering in his sleep. I scooped him up and paced in the small room with him until he calmed, and my eyes grew heavy. After tucking him back in with Mr. BunBun at his side, I sat on the twin bed—the bed where my Mate had slept for so long—with my elbows on my knees, watching him.

So sweet, so innocent. So full of life and love and energy. And I was helping to raise him. I was…I was creating a human, who would one day be a grown man. Even if I was only ever his nanny, I would one day stand before the gods of the ancestors and know I had done something good, something right with my life.

I had helped raise Joshua and Tova and Ben to be good people, and wasn’t that all I could ask for in a life well spent? A Mate and knowing I’d helped make the world a better place?

Yes.

Even if that’s all I ever had, it would be enough.

Hannah

It felt as if I’d been crying all night, but today?

It was Saturday. The sun was shining, the air was warm already, and it was a perfect day to do something special as a family. Something to wipe away the horror of yesterday and the struggles we’d have to face in the future.

Struggles we’d face together.

I propped my shoulder against the door of Joshy’s bedroom and watched Aswan sleep. I guess he’d been as restless as I’d been last night and found his way in here. Watching over my children even in sleep.

No.

Not my children.

When I accepted Aswan as my Mate, when I trusted him with Joshy, Tova, and Benny, we’d become a family. He cared for my parents as if they were his own. He took pride in our home. We were a family now, and deep in one another’s hearts.

They were our children now.

And they needed to know that.

I was rattling around the kitchen— Coffee. Need coffee. Lots of sugar and ridiculous special-occasion creamer flavor. Eggnog? That’ll do— when a yawning Aswan joined me. “Breakfast?” he mumbled.

“Benny wants chocolate chip pancakes,” I confessed, having asked our son this morning. “And a day at the beach. ”

“Then he’ll get chocolate chip pancakes,” Aswan agreed, bending to pull out the griddle. “And a beach day.”

As a family . That’s what Benny had said, but…what did he mean?

Joshy stomped into the kitchen, dragging Mr. BunBun. Luckily, he hadn’t seemed to understand what was going on yesterday, so it was simple enough to pretend everything was normal as I strapped him into his high chair and cut up the first pancake for him. A glass of cold milk, a sliced banana, and he was delighted.

“Keep it off the floor, young man,” rumbled Aswan from where he stood at the griddle, waving a spatula in mock sternness, “or you’ll help me clean it up.”

“Otay, ‘Swan!” Joshy was grinning as he deliberately dropped a piece of pancake on the floor. “I like oozing da boom!”

Well…I guess if he wanted the consequences… “Better make him another one, just to be safe,” I murmured to Aswan as I passed him.

Tova, as well, seemed to have shaken off yesterday’s scare when she came skipping into the dining room. “Good morning! Are we going to the beach? Benny said we were. Can I bring Emmy? She has a new boogie board that’s really cool, and I want to try it. Did you know she doesn’t get sunburned like me? I don’t think that’s fair.”

I couldn’t help grinning as I passed her a plate piled high with pancakes. “I think today is going to be family only,” I said gently. “Although the boogie board sounds cool. Maybe your brother will teach you how to body surf instead. ”

“Okay. Do I have to wear sumscream?” she asked as she began to saw at her pancakes.

I’d never bothered to correct her adorable mispronunciation. “You do. Emmy’s skin is different from yours, and yours needs protection.”

Aswan placed a jug of orange juice on the table. “Orcs don’t sunburn easily , but we do sunburn. I’ll bet Emmy’s dad makes her wear something to protect her skin if she’s out too long.”

“Nuh-uh, that’s not what she said. She said sumscream makes her itch.”

Aswan shared an amused glance with me over her head, and I mouthed, “ Pick your battles .” It was something every parent had to learn, and his answering smile told me he understood.

I was plating the last of our breakfast feasts when Benny slouched into the room, rubbing his eyes and looking worse for the wear. I wanted to gather him in my arms, to rock him back and forth…but I also didn’t want to push him. I was learning that preteen boys had a lot of emotions, and yesterday he’d needed me. Did he still need me today?

He didn’t speak to anyone as he picked up his plate and slogged to the dining room, but I should have known his sister wouldn’t pick up on his mood.

“Hi, Benny! Mom says we can go to the beach, but not bring Emmy, unless you say I can bring Emmy. Can I bring Emmy?”

Shaking my head, I joined the kids at the table. “That’s not what I said. I said today was family only.” I shot my oldest a cautious glance. “If you still want to go to the beach?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled, staring at his plate. “But just family, Tova. Just us…” He finally lifted his gaze. “Where’s Aswan?”

“Here.” My Mate was suddenly at the boy’s elbow. “I warmed up the syrup the way I showed you. Want some?”

But instead of answering, Benny stared up at him, his eyes serious. “Are you coming with us? To the beach today?”

I winced as Aswan’s expression carefully shuttered. He placed the syrup near Benny’s plate without dropping his gaze. “Do you…do you want me to?”

“Yeah.” Benny swallowed. “You’re part of our family, aren’t you?”

“He’s our nanny ,” Tova announced without looking up from her apparent attempts to mutilate her pancakes with her fork and knife. “Emmy says that means he’s not really family, not like Nikki is her stepmom.”

Benny hadn’t looked away from Aswan, and seemed to be waiting for him to deny or agree with his sister. My Mate finally swung dark eyes—with a speck of green in them—toward me.

And I knew it was time.

With a deep breath, I pushed away from the table and moved to his side. I wrapped my arm around his waist, and when Aswan tucked me up against him, I saw our son’s eyes follow the movement.

I smiled softly. “I’m sorry, Benny, that I’ve kept a secret from you. ”

He didn’t say anything, but Tova’s knife suddenly clattered to the table. “I love secrets! I’m real good at keeping them!”

She couldn’t keep a secret if her life depended on it, but I’d always loved her openness. So I smiled at both of them, glad Joshy was occupied trying to feed Mr. BunBun.

“I love Aswan,” I told them simply. “We’ve decided we’re…” How to explain? In Aswan’s eyes—in my eyes, we were already committed. “We’re going to get married.”

With a growl of satisfaction, his arm tightened around me. “Your mother is everything to me, Ben.” His gaze included Tova and Joshua as well. “To an orc, the bond that we share is unbreakable.”

Slowly, Benny stood, his gaze flicking between us. It meant that he still only came up to Aswan’s chest, but he tipped his head back to frown up at him. “Mom’s been married before.”

My heart clenched, but Aswan nodded. “And the man she was married to, the man who helped create you, do you respect him? Do you think he put you and your mother before anything else? Do you think the bond they shared—the bond you and he were supposed to share—was unbreakable?”

I held my breath until Benny shook his head, his jaw hard. “Even before he went away, I knew there was something wrong. He didn’t act like a normal dad. He didn’t…” Finally, he dropped his gaze to Aswan’s chest. “He didn’t love us.”

It wasn’t that simple, but I didn’t want to explain drugs and selfishness and jealousy right now. Ben likely had years of therapy ahead of him, and I’m sure this would all come out then. For now, the ten-year-old needed black and white.

So I nodded. “He didn’t love you the way Aswan loves you.”

“He saved me,” Ben whispered, gaze wide on me. “Yesterday, I was so scared, and there he was.”

“And he’ll always be there for you,” I agreed. “We both will.”

I felt Tova move to my side, and I wrapped my free arm around her without dropping Ben’s gaze. “I need you to understand that. Aswan and I are partners now.”

“That means he’s not the nanny anymore,” Tova announced, full of certainty. “He’s our stepdad.”

Benny didn’t look convinced. “Sometimes adults change.”

I hated that he’d had to learn that.

But Aswan pulled away from me to step up to Benny, placing his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Do you think your mother is going to change enough to stop loving you? To ever stop fighting for you? To stop protecting you?”

Our son was already shaking his head by the time Aswan stopped speaking. “Of course not.”

“Then I want you to believe that I will never stop either. I love her, and I respect her. And Benjamin, I love and respect you.”

His eyes were wide, staring up at the huge, gentle orc who held him. “You do?”

Aswan nodded once, solemnly. “I claim you, Benjamin Woods, as my son. My d’pin . I will love you and protect you until I die. And one day, when I am old, it will be your turn to protect me, because that’s what parents do for their kitlings, and what grown kitlings do for their parents. But no matter what, you have my oath that I will not abandon you. I will not hurt you. I love you.”

I saw Benny’s lips form the words parents , but no sound emerged. Then, in a sudden surge, he threw himself against Aswan, hugging him fiercely, as Tova punched the air. “My turn! Do the oath on me now!”

Laughing, Aswan scooped her up against his shoulder with the hand not currently holding Benny to himself.

“I love you, Tova Woods, and I claim you as my daughter. I will not abandon or hurt you, because I love you.”

“Yay!” She gripped his cheeks between her hands and kissed his nose. “Now do Joshy!”

“Doshy want more pa-cakes!” yelled the toddler, banging his fork against the tray of his chair. “BunBun hungee!”

Laughing with joy, I wrapped my arms around my Mate and our children. “I think Joshy understands,” I managed, as Tova pulled me into a chokehold. “Are we still on for the beach?”

Benny beamed up at Aswan. “Family only!”

“That means me too,” my Mate rumbled happily.

I stretched up on my toes to kiss his cheek. “Of course it does.”

“And Nana and Papa!” announced Tova. “She’s gotta wear her big floppy hat.”

“Is that okay with you?” I asked Ben, who nodded. “I think that would mean a lot to them.” To see their grandson so happy, and to see Aswan welcomed into the family. “I’ll call her.”

Aswan gently untangled us. “And Ben and I will make the picnic lunch.”

“Paninis?” our oldest asked eagerly, and when Aswan nodded in agreement, I was amazed—yet again—how the children had blossomed under his care.

Benjamin had found someone who could teach him woodlore and had fostered a newfound love of cooking, a male role model he could be proud to claim.

Tova had found someone with infinite patience, with enough time to make her a priority, and teach her what she was worth.

Joshua had found a gentle father, one who was stern enough to teach him what he needed, and nurturing enough to ensure he learned to grow into a good person.

And me?

I’d found the most perfect Mate a woman could hope for: one who put our family first, one who took pleasure in my happiness, one who I could trust to never hurt me in any way.

“But first,” Tova announced, skipping back to her table, “we gotta find some sumscream. And finish breakfast.”

“Mo’ pa-cakes!” demanded Joshua, pounding his heels against his chair. “Doshy hungee!”

Aswan was the first to break into laughter, and we all followed. Because that’s what family was about.