SoCal Cuties Box Set: An MMM, Shifter, Mpreg Romance

by Grey, Aspen

  It had been a strange thing, picking out names for our children, as none of us had any real connection with our fathers or families and didn’t have anyone to name them after. We’d basically just sat around throwing suggestions around until we stuck on Eric and Shane. They just felt right.

  We’d shot down Graham—as Garrett suggested that everyone would call him Graham Cracker—Perry, Timothy, Charles, Chuck—which Billy said sounded like an old fat cowboy—Tony and a few others. Wendell had even suggested Wendell Junior as a joke.

  “You go ahead and have your own little ones, big boy,” Garrett had told him with a laugh. “You can have Wendell Junior, Wendell the Third, Wendell the Fourth…”

  “Penta-Wendell,” I’d laughed. “That’s five right?”

  Sid had passed out on the couch and Wendell had gone home to rest. He was coming back tomorrow with a splint for Sid and a crutch and to check in on Billy, me and the kids, but I was sure everything was going to be okay. I felt as though after everything all three of us had been through that the universe was finally on our side, making up for all the crap it had thrown at us over the years.

  I have a family, I thought as I looked around the room. As before, Garrett lay between us, and Billy lay on the other side of him. This time, however, Garrett had little Eric in his arms. He was fast asleep, swaddled in a blanket and looking like a little baked potato. But despite all the joy I was feeling, I simply could not keep my mind quiet. I couldn’t stop thinking of all the possibilities that lay ahead of us and where our lives could end up.

  Garrett would, of course, go back to work soon, as he would have to to keep Taco-Gasms running, and I sensed the desire for him to expand had grown enormously in the last few hours since the boys had come. He wanted to conquer San Diego with his taco trucks, and I wanted that and more for him.

  I thought about our home and how long we’d be in our current apartment. Garrett had mentioned, semi-jokingly, about moving to Serra Mesa or La Jolla and getting a house, but that would take a lot of work and a lot of tacos to get us there. La Jolla was where all the rich people lived, and Serra Mesa wasn’t cheap. Our apartment would do for now, though.

  I thought about buying the boys clothes and dressing them up in cute little camo cargo shorts, bright-colored Polo shirts and giving them goofy haircuts that would draw smiles from people when we went out to coffee shops across town.

  Would they be athletes? Would they want to play sports? Or would they be nerdy and want to play video games and study math and science? Or maybe artists! Maybe Shane would grow up and want to do design for his fathers and redo the company logo or the menus! Maybe they’d take after him and become chefs and end up taking over the family business, or maybe they’d go their own ways completely. Either way, I didn’t care. At the end of the day, all I wanted was for them to be happy, but thinking of all the possibilities was exciting.

  “You look like your mind’s working overtime over there, Billy,” Garret remarked as he brushed a piece of hair from my face. I smiled up at him and leaned my head against his shoulder.

  “Yeah, I can’t help it,” I told him. “I feel like I’m in overdrive right now.”

  “I thought you’d be exhausted,” he replied. “After everything you just did.”

  “So did I,” I chuckled. “But I think I’m sort of riding a high right now. I’m sure I’ll end up crashing at some point though and you’ll have to take care of Eric for me.”

  “Have to?” he replied as he leaned in and kissed me on the lips. “I don’t think that’s the right way to say that. Get to would be more apt.”

  “Okay,” I smiled. “Get to watch Eric for me while I pass out for eighteen hours.”

  “I’ll try to coordinate with him,” Tommy said. “That way you won’t have to be completely sleep-deprived while you cover for both of us.”

  “Don’t you worry, boys,” Garrett said, puffing out his chest like a bodybuilder. “Your big strong alpha is here to take care of you both!”

  We all laughed and cuddled up together. I lay there feeling as though I might be able to fall asleep soon, but it just wasn’t happening. My mind wasn’t going to stop and I’d only just become a father—I wanted to be present with my children and my family for as long as possible.

  I simply couldn’t stop looking at my children. They were little miracles, untouched by the world, brought into a home filled with nothing but love. It all seemed so serendipitous as well. If we hadn’t been out that night, if Garrett hadn’t smelled us and run into us, we never would have met each other and Garrett would never have discovered who he truly was. Then these beautiful little creatures in our arms would never have existed, and that just didn’t seem like a possibility.

  Fate. I thought. It was fate.

  “We did it,” I said softly. It didn’t require any more clarification. Everyone instantly understood. “We did it, guys.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Garrett

  “Excuse me?” a woman wearing a gray corduroy jacket said as she came back up to the window. I recognized her from a few minutes ago. She’d ordered two fish tacos and a carnitas to go. “Excuse me, are you the chef?”

  As I handed Sid another order for him to finish off, I glanced over and smiled at her.

  “I’m one of them, yes. What can I do for you?”

  The woman grinned and flashed me a thumbs-up. “This is the best Mexican food I’ve ever tasted!”

  “Thank you so much,” I replied.

  “Are you from Mexico?”

  “I’m not,” I said, shaking my head. “Just a big fan of the food!”

  “Well, I guess that’s all right,” she chuckled as though she and I had just become lifelong friends. “I can tell you that you’ve made a customer for life. I will be back!”

  “We’ll be here!”

  “And I’ll tell everyone I know!” she added before heading away.

  “Appreciate it,” I chuckled as Chrissy, a fiery-haired SDSU girl we’d hired a few days after the boys were born, called out an order.

  “One burrito bowl with chicken! Two carne asada!”

  “Got it!” Sid replied.

  Everything was working like clockwork. My dream of being my own boss and owning my own business had not only come true, but was better than I ever could have imagined.

  Sid was a fantastic right-hand man and was well on his way to being able to run his own truck. We were making money, people were loving our product and Sawyer couldn’t be happier, as we were well on our way to paying off his investment. We opened just before lunch and closed just after dinner, which gave me enough time to spend the early mornings with my mates and my kids, and they were all there for me when I came home at the end of the day.

  Talk about living the dream!

  Tommy and Billy were both happy too. They loved being fathers, and despite being exhausted, couldn’t stop going on about how much they were in Heaven.

  Giving them what we never had—that was basically our motto and something we repeated to each other constantly.

  There had been talk about Billy trying to get back in touch with his father, Joseph, but so far it had been just that—talk. Drugs had taken his father from him once, and if he was going to bring him into his sons’ lives as a grandfather, he was going to make sure he was clean and the same thing didn’t happen all over again. And on top of that, there was still the matter of finding him, as he’d been living on the streets for years.

  “If it’s meant to happen, it will happen,” Tommy had told him. I’d agreed with that. After all, who was I to argue with fate? It had brought us together and given me the life of my dreams. If Joseph was meant to be in his son and grandsons’ lives—he would.

  “Last orders!” Sid called out to the rest of the line. The sun had begun its slow descent toward the ocean and it was getting to be that time. A total skater-bro at the end of the line sighed, but I nodded and waved to him.

  “Don’t worry, bro,” I told him. “We got you!
”

  “Aw, thanks, brah!” he called back, throwing me the hang loose sign. I grinned at Sid as we put our heads down and started with the rest of the orders.

  We worked well together. Chrissy brought the tickets in and we banged them out, and it wasn’t long before we were handing out the last of the orders, watching as our satisfied customers made their way down the block towards the beach with their tacos, burritos and bowls, smiling and chatting with each other beneath the San Diego evening sky.

  “Another day, another dollar,” Sid remarked as we began to pack up.

  “More than a dollar,” I smiled as I removed the cash from the register. We’d made a killing again and that didn’t even take into account the money made from people paying with cards—which was a good many. I was doing it. I was providing for my family and moving up in the world all on my own. It wouldn’t be long before we’d be able to move again into an even bigger place. Hell, maybe one day we’d have a house in La Jolla on the beach! As far as I was concerned, the sky was the limit.

  “Well, look at these hard-working motherfuckers right here!” a voice called out from behind me. I turned to see Sawyer, dressed casually in a gray suit with a white t-shirt underneath, step up to the window and drum his fingers on the counter. “Making that bank?”

  “You know it,” I chuckled as we shook hands. “Come by for some grub?”

  “I know this is sacrilegious,” he chuckled. “But I already ate. I just was on my way home, and being the proud business owner that I am, wanted to come by and admire things.”

  “Well, you can admire us packing up,” Sid joked.

  “Or help out if you’d like!” I suggested. Sawyer simply shook his head.

  “I’m the money man! I’ll leave the work to you boys,” he said. “I think you can handle it just fine. How are the boys?”

  “Which ones?” I asked as I helped Sid pack up the leftovers and organize the sauces for tomorrow.

  “Either,” Sawyer shrugged as he leaned up against the truck.

  “Billy and Tommy are good—tired but good,” I replied. “And the little ones…well, they’re a handful.”

  “But in a good way, right?” Sawyer asked.

  “You’d know,” I smiled. “How’s your fam?”

  “Doing well,” he replied. “We should all do dinner sometime soon.”

  “That’d be nice,” I nodded. “But I think Billy and Tommy could use another week at least before they’re up for being sociable.”

  “I understand,” Sawyer agreed. “Being a new father can be exhausting.”

  “The best kind of exhausting,” I added.

  “I dunno,” Sid joked. “I can think of at least one better way to wear yourself out.”

  “Gotta find this guy an omega,” Sawyer remarked. “Before he pulls his pecker off!”

  “Oh, don’t you worry,” Sid smirked. “Finding an omega’s the least of my problems.”

  “Finding one for more than one night, though?” Sawyer replied, causing Sid to shrug like a crook who’d been caught in the act. He was a horny little fellow, and at this point in his life, working as hard as he did, he wasn’t looking for a commitment. But when he finally did decide to settle down, he’d make some omega very happy.

  “All right, all right,” I said as we stepped out of the truck and started to pack it up. “I’d love to stay here and shoot the shit for another hour or two, but I’ve got two tired omegas at home that need me in more ways than one.”

  “Hey, I’m not here to hold you up,” Sawyer grinned, patting me on the back. “Just wanted to come say hey. Have a good rest of the night, and let me know when this one’s ready to go out on his own for us!”

  He pointed to Sid, who flexed jokingly as he hooked up the hitch to my car. “Any time, Sawyer!”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Billy

  “Daddy’s home!” I cooed to Eric as I held him in my arms and got up from the couch to greet Garrett as he came in the door. Tommy was beside me with Shane swaddled up in a blanket and nursing at his chest. It had been a generally relaxing day at home, as far as days with newborn babies went, and we were all excited to see daddy.

  “Hey, guys!” Garrett said happily as he stepped inside. His face lit up as we both presented his babies to him like the little gifts they were. His eyes shone with paternal love as he bent down and kissed each of them on the forehead, inhaling deeply. “I just love the way they smell still.”

  “Right?” I agreed. “If humans only knew what they were missing out with when it comes to scents, am I right?”

  “You’re right,” Tommy chuckled. “Maybe then they would all actually know when they’ve found their mates for life!”

  “I feel for them,” Garrett agreed as I handed Eric to him. He took him and spun him around, cradling him in his arms with incredible strength and care that seemed to come so naturally to him. I was constantly in awe of how incredible he was as a father and how he managed to juggle his work and home life together without dropping either one.

  We were also lucky in the fact that there were three of us and only two of them. If this was a more “traditional” arrangement, with an alpha and a single omega, it wouldn’t have been so easy for Garrett to go out to the truck and work on growing his business. But with two omegas at home, no one was dropping the ball when it came to watching the kids.

  “He’s so small,” Garrett mused.

  “But he’ll be big one day,” I replied.

  “Yes, he will,” Garrett said, more to Eric than to me. “He’ll be a big, bad, strong alpha like daddy.”

  “And Shane will be a sweet, handsome omega like his daddy!” Tommy chimed in. “And we’ll have to keep all the alphas off of him!”

  “Oh, I can’t wait for that!” Garrett said sarcastically. “All those sweet-talking alphas looking to get my baby pregnant.”

  “Let’s not go there right now?” I laughed. “We already have enough to worry about already.”

  “Very true,” Garrett said as he took a seat on the couch with a heavy sigh. He was working hard—maybe too hard—but it was what he was willing to do for his family and it made me feel warm and buttery inside, like one of my grilled cheese sandwiches I’d been making when I was pregnant. Not a day went by where I didn’t feel incredibly lucky and blessed for what my life had become.

  I mean, shit, I’d been a working boy! I’d been out on the streets with Johns, crazy homeless guys and drunk assholes, doing whatever I had to do to make a living, never knowing where my life was headed.

  Now I was living in domestic bliss with two mates who came together like three sides of a triangle to form a beautiful space in the center filled with nothing but love and security. And then when our children grew, that triangle would become a pentagon, and—

  Relax, Billy. You’re going too far with this metaphor!

  I sat down beside him and Tommy took his usual place on the other side and we both just watched happily as Garrett cradled Eric in his arms. After a few moments, he let out a little hungry squeal and started moving his lips in that telltale way that let me know he was getting hungry again.

  “Oooh, I think he wants something I can’t give him,” Garrett chuckled, handing him back to me. I took him and smiled as he latched on and began to feed again. There was something so primal and satisfying about caring for him in that way. In a way it felt as though I was finally taking back the power and control of my own body.

  For so long, I’d been used to others taking advantage of my body for their own needs and gratification, but nothing about it made me feel special. I was just one of countless working boys servicing countless Johns—I was interchangeable. But to Eric, I was his father. My chest sustained him. He drew life from my body and gave me love in return. It was the way things were meant to be and was such a sharp contrast to what I’d grown accustomed to that I almost felt as though I was a new man.

  My old life, although not that far behind me in terms of time, felt like another
lifetime. It was as if there were two Billys: the pre-Garrett Billy and the post-Garrett Billy, and they really had nothing to do with each other. If any of the boys I’d worked with could see me now, they wouldn’t believe it, and I loved that.

  I’d even started thinking about my father, which was something I’d sworn a thousand times to never do again. He was out there on the streets somewhere, if he wasn’t dead by now, using and stealing money to feed his habit. Although I’d done everything I could to stay away from him and keep that toxicity out of my life, becoming a father had changed things inside of me and I felt myself wondering more and more about him every day.

  I don’t know if it was me wanting to show him what I’d been able to do with my life—if it was a sense of pride and accomplishment that I wanted to throw in his face—or if it was simply something much more positive: wanting to introduce my father to his grandchildren and make our family even more complete. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do just yet, but the seed had been planted in my mind and I knew it was something I’d have to confront sometime soon.

  “This one’s tired,” Tommy said about Shane who had dozed off while nursing and was now lying there sound asleep and peaceful looking. “You think we could put them down soon?”

  I looked down at Eric, and saw by the way he was feeding that he would probably be ready to sleep soon as well. “I think so. Why don’t you start to put Shane down and I’ll do the same in a few minutes?”

  “That sounds like a great idea,” Tommy said with a smile, running a hand across Garrett’s inner thigh as he got up. “Because I think daddy has had a hard day’s work and could use a nice four-hand shower, don’t you?”

  I smiled, leaned in and kissed Garrett on the neck.

  “Totally.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight