Chapter 272

The boys then throw their heads back, wailing harder and I…

Well, I do something that, in retrospect, is probably very dumb.

But I gasp and smile broadly, my eyes shining as I lean forward, my voice breathless with joy. “Girls!?” I ask Alvin, thrilled. “They’re girls!?”

“See!” he shouts, staring daggers at me and leaping up from my lap. “You are happy they are girls! You will love them more!”

“No, I –“ I say, trying to wipe the smile from my face and failing.

“Mamaaa,” Ian moans, like his life is ending, slipping bonelessly from his father’s lap to fall in a puddle on the floor. “You will love them – you will forget about us –“

“I won’t, I promise I won’t!”

“You still have me!” Victor offers to the boys, putting out a hand towards him.

Betrayed, I spin on him, my mouth falling open. “What!” I gasp.

“Oh come on, Evelyn,” Victor says, raising his eyebrows seriously at me. “You’re totally going to love two little girls more –“

“What!?” I screech a hand going to my heart, honestly betrayed. “Not more!” I insist, working to say more, but my argument is drowned out but the growing cries of my two sons.

And then, I lose it. I just burst into laughter at the ridiculousness of the whole thing – about finding out that I’m pregnant with a second set of twins because my genius children can hear their sisters’

heartbeats, about being accused of keeping secrets, about Victor taking their side –

I’m shaking with laughter, unable to help myself, and I feel Victor’s arms warm around me, feel him laughing too. The boys continue to cry, but we just…

Well, maybe it’s bad parenting, but we just let them. They are in for a big change – maybe it’s normal for them to feel a little grief over it.

But a few minutes later, I feel little paws against my leg and open my eyes, my laughter abating a little, to see my Ian’s tear-stained face close to me.

“Come on, baby,” I murmur, helping him up onto the bed and into my lap. “Don’t be sad – I promise not to love them more than you.”

“Do you promise to love them less?” he asks, sniffing.

And I can’t help it. I lie. “Sure, baby,” I whisper, smoothing a hand over his hair. “Just for you, I’ll love them just a little tiny bit less. You’re my first babies, after all. It’s only fair.”

“Good,” he says, smug, and leans his head against me.

Alvin, still angry but wanting to be part of the crew, climbs up into his father’s lap silently. And then we all sit for a minute, catching our breaths, Victor and I looking at each other with happy eyes over the heads of our kids.

I can’t believe we’re going to have double this, I say to his mind, shaking my head a little. Double the crazy – double the emotions – what if we get pregnant again and then have to convince four kids that we’re going to love them more than the next two –

Victor’s eyes go wide at the suggestion. Stop – he says to me with a fervid little push. Let’s just –

handle these two, and the two on the way, and we’ll worry about all of that…much, much later.

Smiling, I nod, resting my cheek on Ian’s hair, giving him a sniff and basking in the warmth of my little boy’s unique scent.

Suddenly, though, something occurs to me.

“Alvin,” I say carefully, not wanting to set him off again. “How did you know?” I ask.

He looks at me curiously, his eyes drying up now.

“That they’re girls,” I explain, watching him. “You can’t hear that in a heartbeat.”

“Oh,” he says casually as if it’s obvious. “We tried to mind-link with them, and –“

“What!” Victor exclaims, looking sharply down at his son. “You can mind-link with the babies!?”

“But they don’t even have minds yet –“ I say, disbelieving it.

“Well if you would let me finish –“ Alvin interrupts, rolling his eyes at us. I press my lips together to keep from laughing, not imagining that he’d take that well in his current mood. I nod to him, letting him know that we want him to continue. “We tried to mind-link with them, but we couldn’t do it, because they’re just…”

He hesitates, thinking.

“They must be too small,” Ian postulates, turning to look down at my belly. “We could…touch them. We knew that they felt…good, I guess? It wasn’t really a feeling.”

“And we could tell that they will be girls,” Alvin says, assured. “I don’t know how we know. But we could tell.”

“Amazing,” I murmur, shaking my head a little and looking between them. “I thought that you two could connect with each other because you were…well, because you’re twins. You’ve always been connected. I never thought that this kind of connection would extend to more siblings, if you ever had them…”

Alvin shrugs, not knowing and perhaps not really interested.

“We don’t want to mind-speak with girls anyway,” Ian offers, disgruntled.

I roll my eyes, deciding not to fight about it right now, though I’d be sure to make sure they were nice to their sisters later. “Well,” I say, conciliatory. “Maybe you’ll change your mind.”

“Never,” Alvin grumbles. Then, he looks up at Victor and me. “Can you go away now?”

“What?” Victor asks, confused.

“We need a minute.” Ian says, his voice aloof as he sits up. “We have had a hard morning. We would like some alone time so that we can figure out how we feel.”

I press my lips together and squeeze my eyes shut so that they can’t see just how cute I think that is. I don’t want them to think I’m being condescending because, in reality, I think it’s wonderful that they’re asking for space when the need it. The therapist in me is thrilled.

But the mom…she just wants to squeal at the cuteness of it all.

So, briskly, I nod my head and lift Ian off my lap, standing up. The boys move to the other side of the room, talking softly, and I take Victor’s hand, heading for the door.

Before I can leave, though, he stops and calls to Ian and Alvin. “Boys?”

They turn to us, listening.

“For a little bit, until we’re ready, let’s all keep this a secret, okay? A family secret. Just between us four.

All right?”

The boys grin and nod eagerly, glad to be in on it this time.

“I love you!” I call to them as they turn away. Victor and I head out the door, me pressed to his side.

As soon as the door snicks shut Victor sweeps me up into his arms, spinning me around in the hallway, burying his head again against my shoulder. I give a little squeal of happiness, pressing myself close to him and laughing with my joy.

“Evelyn,” he says, looking at me and shaking his head in awe. “This is…the best news of my life.”

“Mine too,” I reply, staring into his eyes, grateful for this perfect moment.

“You lied to them, though,” he says, softly lowering my feet to the floor. I look up at him, worried.

“What?”

“You’re totally going to love two little girls the most out of anyone in this house.”

“Oh!” I say, surprised. But then I blink and answer with total honesty. “I mean, yeah, I definitely will,” I say, nodding seriously. “You guys are all screwed – it’s me and the girls forever now – you’ll all be forgotten and we’ll have girls forts like your stupid boy forts and no boys will ever be allowed in –“

Victor laughs, opening his mouth to tease me further when we hear a noise on the stairs – the clearing of a throat.

We both stop and turn towards the noise, surprised to see Rafe standing there.

“I hate to interrupt…whatever this is…” he says, his face confused. “But the car is here? To take us to the jail?”

My stomach drops at his words.

Because, of course, I forgot that today is the day we go to deliver the news to my father and to Joyce:

that one is free, and the other locked away for life.

I feel almost as if a bucket of cold water has been poured all over me – one of the happiest moments of my life almost completely overshadowed by one of the darkest.

Victor turns to me then. “Do you still want to –“

I look up at him and nod briskly. “We told Emma and my mother we would –“

“All right,” he says, taking my hand and turning back to Rafe. “Sorry, Rafe,” he says, “we got…

distracted. The boys were upset. Give us ten minutes, and then we’ll be down.”

Still looking at us suspiciously, Rafe nods and heads down the stairs.

Then, with a big sigh, Victor and I head into the bedroom to get changed.

No rest for the Alpha and his Luna, after all.

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