It was late, well after one o’clock in the morning if she had to guess, and the alcove dark. Sam lay on her back, one arm across the pillow above her head, the other idly playing with the blanket while she watched her mate pace back and forth. His long legs took him four steps across the room before he turned with a little jiggle and retraced his steps. There was something incredibly sexy about such a powerful male doing something as domestic as walking the room with his young. Of course, after weeks of no sex just about anything Nafarius did caused her body to tighen and warm with desire.
Bare chested, a pair of low slung jeans hanging off his hips, Nafarius cooed quietly to his infant daughter. The small young wiggled in his arms, staring up into his face and knawing on a fist. If he didn’t know any better Nafarius would have sworn that there was a look of accusation in those too knowing eyes.
“I’m well aware that I don’t have what you want,” he whispered, a touch of humor edging his voice. “But I think we both agree it’s best to let mommy sleep, unlike you she’s not much of a morning person.” A sqwack followed by more furious sucking was the only indication he got that his daughter disagreed.
Sam chuckled and pushed herself up. “I’m awake.” A quick peak into the bassinet beside their bed confirmed that Zane slept peacefully, dead to the world while his sister shifted restlessly in their father’s arms.
“She’s hungry,” Nafarius said, coming to stand beside the bed.
“What’s new?” Sam asked with a smile and reached for her daughter.
“I thought to let you sleep,” Nafarius said, “but it’s not me she wants.”
Sam laughed softly as Nafarius handed the young to her. Sensing her mother, Kaysen grew eager, rooting around until she found what she was looking for.
Sam’s labor had been fast and furious with Kaysen arriving several minutes before her brother. The running joke was that Kaysen had grown impatient, pushed her brother aside and forced her way into the world with Zane following only to stave off loneliness.
The two couldn’t be more different. Kaysen was constantly in motion, rarely slept and ate like a piglet while Zane seemed content to watch the world go by. Opposite even in coloring, Zane had his mother’s black hair while Kaysen was all red fire like her father. The only thing they shared was their mother’s green eyes.
In the weeks since the twins were born life had taken on a dream like quality, the days and nights moving with the flow and needs of the new babies. Sam had easily adjusted to the twins’ schedule, sleeping when they slept and catching meals between their feedings. Nafarius was shouldering most of the responsibilities as leader, allowing Sam to spend her days with the twins and the other mothers within the pack. Eventually she would start to hand off some of the duties for the twins’ care to one or two carefully chosen pack members and return to Nafarius’ side as leader. But until then she was content to spend her days driven by the needs of her young.
“Nervous?” Nafarius asked. He stood leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest and his bare feet crossed at the ankles.
“No,” Sam said. Looking up from where Kaysen nursed, she couldn’t help but admire her mate. He was all tall, long and lethal grace. Just looking at him made her pulse race and her mouth water.
Nafarius caught his mate watching him, saw the want and the invitation in her eyes and felt his body harden in response. Flush from sleep, her skin pink and hair mussed, Sam looked warm and inviting. She had always been beautiful but her recent pregnancy seemed to have added a lushness to her curves that made her down right edible.
“Sam,” Nafarius growled warningly.
“What?” she purred, not even bothering to try for innocent.
“Stop looking at me like that before I toss you on your back and part your pretty thighs,” he said, his voice low with the onset of desire. His body was hard and tense, every instinct in him urging him to lunge, to take down his mate and remind her who she belonged to.
“Promises, promises,” she asked, feeling her body warm and start to go soft.
Nafarius bit back a reply. She was baiting him and they both knew it. Sam had tried to entice him back into their bed and into her body for the past few weeks. Only his committment to see her fully healed had prevented him from taking what she so readily offered. Pushing images of his mate spread out naked and open before him aside, he said, “You’ll have to wait. I want to talk about tomorrow.”
Sam frowned. “I don’t.”
“Too bad,” Nafarius said and sighed. “Tomorrow is a big day and we need to talk about it.”
“You’re right,” Sam said. “It is a big day but I don’t want to talk about it – not tonight. I want to enjoy one last carefree night with my mate and our young before tomorrow changes everything.”
He frowned and watched as Sam slipped Kaysen back into the bassinet beside her brother. Zane instantly shifted until he was snuggled up close to his sister. Nafarius had never thought about it like that, never once thought that Sam might have doubts or fears. She was always so strong, so certain of herself and everyone around her that it was hard to believe she might be worried. “It doesn’t have to change anything,” he said.
“No,” Sam agreed, “but we both know that it will.”
“Nothing important,” he said. “Besides, you might not be able to shift.”
Sam gave him a look, it was the same look she gave him when there were others around and she wanted him to stop being an ass.
Sam had decided to wait after the twins’ birth before attempting to shift for the first time. Most werewolves changed within hours of giving birth. After months in human form it was necessary, it also helped in the healing process. But Sam had healed well on her own and decided that she didn’t want to try changing until she was ready to try shifting into a new form for the first time.
Over the past several weeks they had talked, often times late into the night, with the sound of the twins sleeping softly beside them. Sam was certain she could shift. It was a certainty she hadn’t shared yet with Nafarius. Not because she didn’t trust him but because she knew that once she shifted, once it was a certainty, things would change.
“Will it matter to you?” she asked quietly. “Will it matter to you if I’m not a werewolf? If I’m something… else?”