Chapter 233

#Chapter 233 – Camp “Mama!” Alvin cries again, tucking himself tight against me as one of my arms goes around him. Ian almost knocks us both over as he comes to my side, shouting “mom!” as he slams into me in his eagerness to hug my shoulders. Alvin snuggles against me, his eyes pressed closed in happiness, but Ian looks over my shoulder back towards the forest.

“Where –“ he asks, but Victor steps into view just then and Ian lets out a little screech, running for him.

“Papa’s here,” I whisper to Alvin, assuming he just hasn’t noticed yet. “Do you want to go see him?”

“In a minute,” he replies, opening his eyes and smiling up at me. “I am happy right here for now.”

My heart melts at this as I hold him even tighter against me. “You can be my favorite today,” I whisper, kissing my sweet boy’s head.

“And tomorrow?” he asks, keeping his voice low.

“Probably,” I murmur. “But we’ll see.”

“Ahem!” Victor says, coming to stand next to us, Ian gathered happily in his arms. He stares down at us, a mock frown on his face. “Don’t I have a second child?”

“No,” I say, grinning up at him. “This one’s mine.”

“Yes you do!” Alvin shouts, scrambling from my lap and wrapping himself around his father’s leg. I’m shocked, suddenly, to see how tall he’s gotten, remembering the first time I saw him hugging Victor’s leg at the Quiz Nation taping. Had that only been a few months ago? How did he grow so tall?

“I thought so,” Victor says fondly, stroking his broad hand over his son’s hair. “I missed you, kid.”

“We didn’t miss you,” Ian says, definitively.

“Don’t listen to him, Papa,” Alvin interjects, shaking his head. “We did miss you.”

“Don’t lie, Alvin,” Ian says, rolling his eyes. “Only liars lie.”

“I don’t want to hurt their feelings,” Alvin hisses back, making me laugh.

“It’s all right, baby,” I say, climbing to my feet and standing with my family. “We didn’t want you pining away all night after us –“

“Speak for yourself,” Victor interrupts. “I wanted yearning, a firestorm of grief. What did you two get up to instead?”

“The cottage was so much fun!” Ian shouts, throwing his hands up in the air.

“Yeah, it brought us so many games –“

“And we had a midnight feast!”

“The tub was filled with chocolate sauce!”

“And I thought we had a good night,” I say, raising my eyebrows at Victor.

Maybe, he says directly to my mind and smirking at me, next time we can combine the two, and put you naked in the tub full of chocolate sauce –

I smack his arm, laughing, and turn him towards the cottage, wanting to go inside.

“What else?” I ask, looking down at Alvin as I take his hand as we follow Victor and Ian towards the cabin.

“And then,” he tells me, his wide eyes eager. “Then the ghosts came!”

I blink at him, suddenly worried and glancing at Victor. “The ghosts came?”

“Yeah!” Ian shouts, looking over his father’s shoulder at me. “They were so much fun! We played hide and seek and…”

The boys continue to tell me all about their night. Apparently, they got just as little sleep as we did, playing all sorts of games with the phantom mists that came to care for them all evening. I had joked, earlier, that the cottage was their magical babysitter, but apparently I was more right than I had thought.

A few hours before dawn the cottage had produced a pair of beds for them and the ghosts had tucked them in for a little rest.

The boys continue recounting their evening as Victor ducks through the door and I follow, glancing around to see what the little cabin has in store for us. The two little beds are gone – no beds in sight at all, actually – but the table is spread with a hearty little breakfast. Victor and I eagerly turn to it as the boys finish their story.

“And then,” Ian says, hopping down from Victors arms and coming to wrap his arms around my leg while I use a knife to cut a warm loaf of crusty bread, “we heard a rooster crowing, and we knew it was time to get up. Because you would be coming home.”

“Really?” I ask, looking down at him. “That’s weird. Roosters really aren’t forest creatures.”

Alvin purses his lips at me. “It was magic mom.”

I laugh, shrugging and letting it go. He’s right – what’s the point of asking questions after everything we’ve seen. Just time to lean in and accept it. I butter a slice of bread, handing it to Victor, who slaps a piece of bacon on top of it and takes an eager bite.

Alvin watches his father chew, curious. “So,” he asks slowly, “are you two…better?”

Victor looks down at his boy with a bright smile, nodding. “Yes,” he says. “We met an old wolf in the forest who told us all sorts of secrets, and we learned how to fix ourselves. We had to take a bath in a magical waterfall.”

“Ew,” Ian whispers, wrinkling his nose. “Baths are for inside.”

“That’s my boy,” I mutter around a mouthful of buttered bread.

“Oh?” Victor asks, raising an eyebrow. “What’s grosser – a magical bath outside, or a bath in chocolate syrup inside? Because you two –“

“We didn’t bathe in the chocolate, dad,” Alvin patiently explains. “We just dipped cookies in it.”

“Oh,” Victor concedes, nodding sagely as if this makes all the sense in the world. “Well, you’re right then. But hey, we’re all fixed up! So that’s good news, right?”

“Yes,” Ian declares, reaching for a plate of sausages on the table. I hand him a fork so he can stab one.

“We were worried about you. We’re glad you’re not dead.”

Alvin nods in eager agreement.

“Us too,” I confirm, smiling at my sons and stroking Ian’s hair. “And now we get to go home and start our life again –“

“What!” Ian shouts, his mouth – unfortunately full of sausage – falling open in shock and dismay.

“No!” Alvin cries, his little hands shooting up to cradle his cheeks.

Victor and I look between the boys, confused.

“We want to stayyyy,” Alvin whines, his body going limp as he leans against Victor in despair.

“We love it hereeee,” Ian moans, picking up where Alvin left off. “Can’t we stay for just a little longer?

We can live here in the cabin, and –“

But the cabin itself interrupts him in that moment, giving a little tremor, the table shaking just a little bit.

It’s not an unfriendly gesture, and none of us are afraid, but we do look around with wide eyes.

“Um,” I say, keeping my voice light. “I think the cabin is finished with us. It would be polite to leave.”

“But can’t we stay in the forest for just a little bit longer?” Ian begs, swallowing his bite of food and wrapping his hands in my dirty shirt. “Just one more night? Pleaseeeee?”

I open my mouth to deny him but Victor interrupts. “We’ll see,” he says, meeting my eye. “We should go and find the camping equipment anyway,” he shrugs. “We’ll have to see how long that takes, and if the forest is…willing? Well, maybe one more won’t hurt.”

“Yesssss!” Ian cries, doing a victory pose next to me. Alvin gives a little hoot of joy and puts a fist up in the air.

I just shrug, smiling around at my three Alphas, one grown, two miniature. “Fine by me,” I say. “Let’s see if the forest has anything left in store for us.”