by Jae
“Do you want Helen to think we’re a horde of uncaring monsters who don’t even celebrate when they learn that their daughter is pregnant?” Gus shouted back.
Brian’s hand slid from Helen’s back. “Daughter? Pregnant?”
“Don’t look at me,” Leigh said. “No sperm in this relationship either.”
“Ky?” Brian’s booming voice was now a whisper.
Kylin nodded, the liger-size grin still on her face.
Brian stormed across the kitchen and whirled Kylin around until Rufus growled at him too.
A shell-shocked Helen still stood in the doorway. “I think I need a drink.”
“Sorry,” Griffin said. “Wrasa can’t drink alcohol, so we don’t keep any in the house.”
Jorie walked over to them. “I’m sorry we sprang this on you today, Mom, but I don’t think there’s an easy way to tell you that I’m married to a shape-shifter.”
Married. Griffin flinched. They hadn’t wanted to tell Helen that just yet. “Um, sweetie...”
But Helen just chuckled. “Relax. Brian already told me that his...his pride considers you married.” She stood watching Kylin and Rufus for long minutes. “They look as happy as your father and I when we brought you home.”
“Ky and Rufus always thought they weren’t able to have children together,” Jorie said. “They tried for over a year, but the Wrasa doctors didn’t give them much hope.”
Understanding shone in Helen’s eyes.
Jorie’s parents had gone through the same before adopting Jorie.
“The Wrasa...they are good people,” Helen finally said.
“Most of them,” Jorie answered. “Just like us humans.”
Helen turned to Griffin. “I don’t think we should have pasties together tomorrow morning.”
An iron fist squeezed Griffin’s heart. “Oh?”
“Judging from the way your family ate at dinner, I think we should go for bacon and sausages.”
Relief swept through Griffin. She regarded Helen with a grateful gaze.
Jorie rushed into her mother’s arms.
“You know, this was the weirdest Christmas I ever had.” Helen sighed.
“Mine too,” Griffin said.
Smiling, Jorie reached out and touched her hand. “This is the first Christmas you ever celebrated.”
Still wrapped in Jorie’s embrace, Helen turned toward Griffin. “You won’t try to top this next year, will you?”
Griffin chuckled. “No.”
The old warmth filled Helen’s eyes when she extended one arm to include Griffin in the embrace. “Then Merry Christmas.”
###
Babysitter Material
Kylin put down the phone.
“And?” Eagerness lit up Rufus’s brown eyes. “Will they take them?”
Ky sighed. “They can’t. Jorie needs to meet with Jeff Madsen in Boise tomorrow evening, and Griff is going with her.”
“Oh.” Rufe’s face fell. He gnawed on his lip. “Hm. Leigh and Rhonda still aren’t back from their negotiations with the Canadian prides?”
“No. I bet it’ll take all week. Remember that they are negotiating with a bunch of stubborn cats, not canines who can be bribed with—”
“Hey!” Rufus protested.
“—food and sex,” Ky finished.
Rufus barked out a laugh.
Ky’s tight lips eased into a smile. Mission accomplished. She had made him laugh and chased away the disappointment from his face, at least for a moment.
“If we can’t find a babysitter, there’s not going to be any food and sex for us,” Rufe said. A sigh tousled a lock of thick, brown hair that fell onto Rufus’s forehead. “At least not as part of a nice evening with a romantic dinner for two and a long run through the forest.”
He was right. It seemed they’d have to spend their two-year anniversary at home. Ky longed for some uninterrupted time alone with Rufe, but even after moving to Michigan, it wasn’t always easy to find someone with enough time and energy to take the triplets off their hands for a few hours. It felt like months since they had last run through the forest together in their animal forms. Just the thought of it made her blood sing with the rush of the hunt.
A loud wail interrupted her daydream.
“That’s Ry,” Rufus said. “I’ll go.”
Seconds later, Kylin heard him talk to their six-month-old son. Contented babbling answered.
Ky grinned. He was such a good father. She wondered whether her own fathers had ever talked to her like that when she had been a cub. Had Brian and Gus even seen her every now and then when she had been that age?
A sudden thought shot through her. It’s crazy. Then a broad grin darted across her face. But why not? “Rufe,” she called over to the nursery. “We could call my fathers and ask them to babysit.”
Silence answered her. Even Ry’s babbling stopped for a moment. “Great Hunter, no. I just got used to being a father. I don’t want to lose them this soon.” She heard Rufus blow raspberries over the baby’s skin. “We won’t throw you to the big, mean lions, will we, Ry?”
Ky laughed. “It won’t be so bad. My fathers are big softies at heart.”
“I’m not worried about Gus, but Brian is not babysitter material.” Rufe wandered into the living room, bouncing Ryan on his hip. “I bet he’ll say no anyway.”
“What if he says yes?”
“He won’t.”
“But if he does?” Ky asked.
In the nursery, Quinn began to cry. Mia immediately joined in.
Rufus grinned. “Then he’s in for quite a surprise, and we get to celebrate our anniversary in style.”
* * *
“You agreed to do what?” Slack-jawed, Gus stared at his brother.
“I hear humans call it babysitting,” Brian said.
“Babysitting? You?” Gus drew out the pronoun as if it had at least twenty syllables.
His brother’s wide-eyed amazement rankled Brian. “Why not? They’re just little cubs, so they’ll probably sleep the whole time anyway. How hard can it be?”
Gus just laughed.
Narrowing his eyes to his most intimidating glare, Brian glowered at him. “We’re ruling a pride. We’re descendants of a long line of proud Kasari alphas. Why shouldn’t we be able to keep three little cubs in line for a few hours?”
“When was the last time you babysat, Brian?”
“We have three daughters, and they all turned out pretty well.” Brian’s chest swelled with pride.
Gus snorted. “You weren’t around when Ky and Griff were babies, and Leigh...she spent more time at Martha’s house than over here when she was growing up.”
The truth of his words pierced Brian with merciless claws. He ducked his head but then straightened. “I probably wasn’t the best father,” he said, his voice low. “But now is our chance to do better with our grandchildren. So are you in or not?”
“Of course I’m in.” Gus grinned from ear to ear. “The great Brian Eldridge changing diapers and burping his grandkids. Wouldn’t want to miss that.”
Brian blanched.
* * *
They look so small. So helpless. Brian’s protective instincts flared as he stared down into the collapsible baby bed that Kylin and Rufus had carried into the house twenty minutes ago. The three babies were sleeping, snuggled up to each other like lion cubs. And they’re handsome. That was a given, of course. They were his grandchildren after all.
Gus leaned over Brian’s shoulder to watch the babies too.
“See?” With a satisfied grin, Brian pointed at the sleeping children. “Nothing to this babysitting stuff.”
One of the babies opened its amber eyes. It glanced around until its gaze landed on Brian.
Brian grinned down at the baby. “Hey there, cub.”
The baby scrunched up its face and started to cry. The shrill noise woke up baby number two, who promptly started to wail too. Seconds later, all three of them were crying at a volume that made Brian’s eardrums vibr
ate.
“Yup,” Gus said. “Nothing to it at all. Want me to call Martha and ask her to come over?”
“No!” No one would ever be able to say that Brian Eldridge, ruling alpha of the Ottawa National Forest pride, wasn’t able to keep his grandchildren in line and had to call for help. But, Great Hunter, they’re loud! How can someone with such tiny lungs cry so loudly? Brian covered his sensitive ears. What now? He tried to remember what he had done when Leigh had cried. I woke up Leigh’s mother. All right, I wasn’t exactly father of the year, but that was then and this is now. A brilliant idea popped into his mind. “Time for a bedtime story.” He rubbed his hands and bent over the bed so that they would be able to hear him over their incessant crying. “Once upon a time, there were three little Kasari cubs. They lived deep in the woods. One day, they decided—”
“Brian.” Gus cleared his voice. “This is not a children’s story. Don’t you remember what happens when the humans find the three little cubs?”
“They don’t understand what I’m saying anyway,” Brian answered. He turned back toward the babies. “So, the little cubs decided to visit—”
“No.” Gus pulled on Brian’s arm until Brian looked up and glared at him. “These three are not going to grow up seeing humans as enemies. This is a new era, and they are part of a new generation. Get used to it.”
Annoyance prickled along Brian’s skin. Okay, so no bedtime story. What then? Ah! He opened his mouth and started to sing. He didn’t remember the complete lyrics of the annoying human cartoon movie, but the line about “the lion sleeps tonight” sounded good to him.
Not to the cubs, apparently. They started to wail even louder.
Frustrated, Brian stopped his singing and let out a growl.
The crying stopped. Wide-eyed, the babies stared up at Brian.
“Uh-oh! Now you’ve done it,” Gus said. “You scared them.”
One of the babies let out a delighted laugh.
Brian blinked. Just to test it out, he growled again.
Baby number two and three giggled.
“Ha!” Brian grinned proudly. “They like that. They are Kasari, so they’re not afraid of a little growling.”
Baby number one pulled itself up into a sitting position and reached its little arms out.
Not sure what the kid wanted, Brian bent down.
Small hands grabbed his beard and pulled.
“Ouch.” Brian flinched back and growled.
The beard-pulling baby clapped its hands and laughed.
“Oh, yeah.” Gus chuckled. “Nothing to this babysitting stuff at all.”
* * *
The spoon landed in the baby food with a splash. The gooey stuff splattered all over Brian’s shirt. He grimaced.
Across the table, sitting on Gus’s lap, baby number two was busy dripping juice all over its chin and down on the table.
Ugh. Brian’s neat cat side shivered inwardly. “Are we sure they are Kylin’s?”
“Maybe they take after their father,” Gus said while he tried to convince the child on his lap to hold the cup with both hands. “It’ll be interesting to see what they’ll be able to turn into once they grow up.”
“This one’s going to be a coyote,” Brian said, nodding down at the kid who was scratching at his pant leg like a coyote digging for leftover food.
“She just wants you to lift her up on your lap.”
Brian looked at the kid already sitting on his lap. Ah, well. The shirt’s already ruined. He bent down and settled baby number three on his free thigh. A horrible stench drifted up to Brian’s nose. He sniffed carefully, first one baby, then the other. Ugh. They both stink. “Uh, Gus...”
Gus barely looked up. He was busy bouncing the baby on his lap. “What?”
“I think these two need their diapers changed.” Brian wrinkled his sensitive nose.
“Yeah, little Mia too. You do remember how, don’t you?”
“Of course I do.” Wrapping a diaper around a baby’s behind couldn’t be so hard, could it? Two brilliant doctors who performed complicated, life-saving surgeries for a living should be able to figure it out. “All right. Let’s do this.” Brian stood and plopped one of the kids down on Gus’s lap. “You take baby number one and number two. I’ll take baby number three.”
“Why do I have to change two?” Gus asked.
“Because I’m the dominant alpha.”
“Ha! Coward.” Grumbling, Gus followed him into the living room. “And besides, they have names, you know? They’re not just baby number one, two, and three.”
Brian peeked at his brother and imitated his moves when Gus pulled off the babies’ little pants. “They all look alike. How do you tell them apart?”
“They don’t look alike at all.” Gus took off his babies’ soiled diapers.
Brian followed suit and pinched his nose at the stench.
“Quinn is the one with the reddish hair,” Gus said. “Mia’s eyes are green. And Ryan, the one you have, is the only boy—which is why you should cover him up after you take off his diaper, or he’ll...”
A stream of warm liquid trickled over Brian’s shirt.
“Ooops.” Gus laughed. “Too late. Sorry, brother.”
* * *
Half an hour later, babies and Brian freshly changed, they settled down on one of the rugs in the living room for some playtime. Brian handed them the rattles and toys that Kylin and Rufus had left, but the babies weren’t interested in them. They kept escaping from the rug to explore the living room. Even crawling on hands and knees, the babies were amazingly fast.
“Oh, no.” Brian caught one of the kids as it made a beeline to his desk. “This is my territory, and that is yours. Back on the rug you go.” He settled down on the rug and stretched out his long legs to both sides, forming a fence to keep the children away from his desk. Pain flared up his foot. “Ouch!”
The kid with the green eyes looked up at him, still gnawing on his socked foot.
“Gus!” Brian gestured. “Make it stop!”
Laughing, Gus lifted the baby away. He rolled onto his back and settled the kid on his chest. He put a finger in her mouth. “She’s just teething. Chewing seems to soothe the pain.”
“Not mine.” Brian rubbed his toe.
“Brian,” Gus shouted and pointed wildly.
A smug grin spread over Brian’s face. “What? Is the kid biting you too?”
“No! Stop her!”
Brian whirled around.
The redheaded kid had crawled into the forbidden territory and reached for the cord of Brian’s printer.
Brian lunged across the room and snatched up the baby just before the printer could topple from its shelf—and on top of the baby.
Clutched in Brian’s arms, the baby stared for a moment and then started to wail.
The noise vibrated through Brian’s bones. “Forget about wondering what kind of shifter they’ll be as adults. If they continue to be that annoying, they won’t make it to puberty.” Brian’s heart pounded in his ears. He let out a deep, rumbling growl.
The red-haired baby stopped crying and laughed in delight. It threw its small arms around Brian’s neck and said, “Baba!”
The growl died in Brian’s throat. His heart melted. “Did you hear that?”
“What?”
“The baby...it...she said ‘baba’—that clearly means Grandpa.”
Gus smirked. “Clearly.”
The baby patted Brian’s cheeks. “Baba,” it repeated.
“See?” Brian’s chest swelled. “She means me. She knows I’m her grandfather.” Babysitting his grandchildren wasn’t so bad after all. There clearly was a bond between him and the kids. He purred in contentment.
“Yes, dear, whatever you say.”
* * *
“Will wonders never cease?” Rufus looked into the rearview mirror. Ry and Mia slept peacefully while Quinn studied her fingers. They were diapered, fed, and happy. “I thought Brian would greet us at the door, ready to
hand over the children as quickly as possible.” He’d clearly underestimated his father-in-law. The old lion seemed to have fallen in love with his grandchildren.
“I’ll call Gus later,” Kylin said. “I’m sure he’ll tell us how the triplets managed to wrap Dad around their little fingers.”
Rufus halted the car at a red light. A family walking a dog crossed the street in front of them.
In the backseat, Quinn pointed excitedly at the large, black dog. “Baba!”
“Dog,” Kylin said.
Quinn pointed again. “Baba.”
Rufus shrugged and leaned over to kiss Kylin. “Happy anniversary.”
###
When the Cat’s Away
A jarring scream woke Griffin from her catnap.
Jorie! Griffin leaped from the bed and bounded to the living room, where the scream had come from. A fierce hiss rose from her chest, and a burning sensation flared along her skin as her need to shift increased. Ready to protect her mate against any danger, she burst through the door.
The sight before her made her slide to a stop. Squinting, she took in the scene in the living room.
There was no attacker and no visible danger. Jorie’s coconut-and-forest scent was the only human smell in the room. Griffin’s gaze slid over Jorie, taking in every inch of her.
Jorie sat in front of her laptop, her bare feet tucked beneath her and the sleeves of Griffin’s favorite shirt rolled up a few times to keep them from hanging over her fingers. Her gleaming black hair, disheveled as if she had run her hands through it, fell into a paler than usual face.
“Hey,” Griffin said. “Everything okay?”
Jorie’s scent said something had startled her, but the odor of fear was missing. Her eyes wide and darkened to black, Jorie stared at her and pointed to something on the floor.
Griffin looked down.
