Page 35 of Our Haunted Omegas (Moonscale Heirs Duet #1)

Ambry

“Cade Moonscale! I told you not to break my territory! How difficult is it to bring those boys home without exploding Moon Rocks?” an angry voice I only heard on the television shouted over the family link and I covered my ears reflexively.

“I didn’t do it. I’m not sure who did. I’m not sure---” Cade tried to explain the situation to his sire, but I did my best not to pay attention.

The world was on fire again. It was happening all over again.

Was this another attack? Maybe Guardie hadn’t done it at all.

Maybe one of the journalists planned to blow up the building and my father-in-law chased them off just in time.

None of us moved until the fire burnt itself out. Seconds ticked by in little eternities but when all that was left were embers only ten minutes had passed.

“Stay here!” Cade ordered but Teal was already moving.

“Everything’s still there! That’s why the glass didn’t blow out!” Teal shouted.

I tried to get up, but Indigo was still on top of me with his wings out ready to protect me from every angle. I tried to locate Odell but couldn’t see him either. We were both pregnant. Someone set the world on fire while we were pregnant.

“It’s okay,” Indigo cooed to me. “Just a little longer. Then I’ll buy you a whole ice cream shop if you want.”

“Guys,” Teal called from outside, barely audible to my buried ears. “It’s clear.”

“Is it, though?” Indigo called back.

“It is. I think—Just come and see. Well, you and Cobalt should come first. Just in case. Uncle Nicky’s out here too. The guards are okay. The truck is okay. Everything is okay.”

Indigo and Cobalt told us to stay inside but there was no way in the name of Juda, Frost, and all their little babies that we weren’t going with them. It wasn’t safe to be without them. My hands shook as we stepped back outside into the sunlight.

“Guardie!” Odell rushed forward and skidded to a halt at the last second. The murder dog sat happily next to the passenger door of the truck wagging his tail. In his mouth was a charred arm and there in the severed arm’s hand was clutched a grenade.

“Okay, back inside,” Cade ordered but Odell didn’t budge.

Cobalt and I stepped forward at the same time, but Indigo dragged me back into his arms.

“The murder dog may not get blown up, but you can,” Indigo hissed in my ear.

“So can Odie! Don’t make me kick you in the shin, you overgrown brute!” I said, trying to decide whether or not elbowing him would free me without dislocating the joint.

“Everyone, stay still!” Uncle Nicky shouted about the chaos. “I’m going to get it.”

“What did that damn dog thing do, Nicky?!” Cade demanded. “Can your fire magic manage this?”

“I think he blew up the bad guy with some sort of magic that only blew up the bad guy. I mean, if he’s made of war trauma, the ancestors know that he has a lot of explosions inside him,” Uncle Nicky sighed. “And I can manage any damn thing I need to. You know that!”

“He’s a good boy, though,” Odell insisted. “Guardie is a good boy! It’s not his fault that he was born because of a war! He didn’t start it. He didn’t—”

“Odell,” Cobalt said his name gently, stepping between him and the grenade. Indigo’s heart skipped over itself and then Teal was in front of Cobalt. For a second, I thought they’d fight over it but Uncle Nicky stepped in front of all of them.

“He is a very good boy. He stopped a would-be assassin. I bet the security footage will be incredible. Now, we just have to get the grenade and make it not so dangerous anymore,” Uncle Nicky explained. “I can do that but first he has to hand it over very carefully. Do you think he’ll do that?”

“Tell him what you want, Odie!” I shouted, giving in and letting Indigo hold me in place. I wanted Odie to be okay, but I had to think about my baby now too. If I got myself blown up, my baby went with me. My wolf whined inside his inner sanctum.

“Everyone take a breath and a big step back,” Cade said. “Just one big step back. Not you, Guardie. You stay right where you are.”

Guardie’s long, shadowy tail gave a thump against the parking lot and it was my heart’s turn to skip a beat.

Indigo held me tighter, trying to turn me away from the scene.

When I wouldn’t budge, he settled for sliding his big hands over my belly.

I wasn’t even showing yet. The baby inside me was inside of the tiniest egg to ever exist. Scales popped up on my mate’s hands as if he beckoned them out because I was being too damn stubborn.

The Moonscale guards stepped back but no one in the family budged.

“Nicky,” Cade said, his voice low but steady.

“You three back up too,” Uncle Nicky said without glancing back at Teal, Cobalt, and Odie.

Uncle Nicky suited him. I’d never heard him called anything else because any time someone spoke of him, it had been one of the triplets.

“What do you need him to do?” Odie asked a second later. “He’s a good boy. He usually does what I need him to.”

“Will he let me take the arm? Hold onto it until I have a good grip on it?” Uncle Nicky asked.

“Be careful,” Teal said.

“Teal, love, I survived the Wildlands before you were born. This is pup’s play. So, take your blue undertone highlights and take a big step back. Your carrier will kill me if I come home without one of you three,” Uncle Nicky said, squatting down to be eye level with Guardie.

“He’ll kill us if we come home without you and you’re pregnant,” Teal pointed out.

“That’s exactly why you’re going to give me space to work.

The sooner you all let me do this, the sooner the guards can look at the camera footage and we can go back to Moonscale Manor and eat.

I’m ravenous. Ravenous enough that if this guy were alive instead of dancing in the breeze as ash and bone shards, I’d eat the motherfucker, okay?

So, be a good pup, back up and let me work. ”

I held my breath as Nicky took the arm from Guardie.

The murder dog didn’t budge from his spot as Uncle Nicky removed the grenade from the clenched hand and one of the Moonscale guards brought over an explosion-proof box for it.

Uncle Nicky took a deep breath and glared at the guard before relenting control of the explosive.

“In the limo now!” Cade said, his tone on the edge of a bellow.

“I don’t want to hear how old anyone is or anything about ice cream or snacks or the truck.

I want everyone in this family to put their behinds in the damn limo right now before I throw you all in the dungeon when we get back to Moonscale Manor for safekeeping! No arguments go!”

Indigo picked me up before I had time to locate the limo. He carried me across the parking lot toward the shiny, black stretch limo waiting for us.

“You too, pup,” he said, and a second later dog paws padded toward the limo.

“I’ll get your pill,” Uncle Nicky said from the middle of the group as Cade brought up the rear.

“What pill?” Teal asked.

“The pill that’s going to keep me from burning down every journalist in the city before the guards have time to question anyone,” Cade said, as the driver opened the door and Indigo put me inside.

I scooted over so that he had room to slide beside me. Next came Odie and Guardie. Then Teal and Cobalt. Finally Nicky climbed inside rummaging through a tiny bag hanging from his hip I hadn’t seen before.

“I didn’t know Uncle Nicky carried sedatives,” Teal said a moment later and Cade shot him a dirty look before laughing.

“I wish,” Cade said, holding out his hand to Nicky and then swallowing a little pink pill whole.

Cade Moonscale was doing his best not to have a panic attack.

Sure, his panic attacks seemed to make him tear things apart from his own reporting, but Cade Moonscale was trying not to have a panic attack.

I glanced at Odie who seemed entranced by his father-in-law.

I hoped this cleared up any of his worries about being a good parent.

“These only happen when my kids get themselves into deep shit,” Cade said, leaning his head back against the seat as the driver closed the door behind us.