by T. S. Ryder
"Bella-Bella!" Olivia bounced over to her and threw her arms around Arabella's knees. "I's missed you!"
"I missed you, too." Arabella knelt and pulled the twins into her arms. She kissed them both and didn't release them until they squirmed out of her grasp to give her the pictures they'd drawn. "Oh, these are very beautiful."
"We's drawed them for yous, Bella-Bella," Olivia said.
"They're beautiful."
"Bella-Bella," Hudson said, tugging on her sleeve.
"Arabella," she corrected. "Say it with me. Ara-bella."
"Airy-belly," Hudson said. "I'm glad you're not sick no more."
Arabella's jaw dropped. Grayson jumped a little, startled. Hudson rarely spoke in anything but grunts. This was the first time they had heard him say a full sentence. With a laugh, Arabella hugged him again. The little boy cuddled against her chest, resting his head on her shoulder.
"I am, too, sweetheart."
"Who's hungry?" Grayson asked. "We have soup or hot dogs."
"Hot dog!" Olivia shouted. "Hud and me get hot dog!"
"No," Hudson said. "I want soup."
Grayson smiled, and while Arabella got the children sitting at the table and Henry got out plates and silverware, he made sure the food was, in fact, ready. He hummed while he worked, feeling lighter than he had since before the twins were born.
Senator White was on trial for corporate fraud and every company he was connected to was under investigation. Moreover, the legislation that Grayson had been pushing was now moving forward in leaps and bounds, and it looked pretty certain that what happened to Christine would never happen to anybody else again.
But most importantly, Henry's symptoms were almost all gone and Arabella was home. His children were with him, his mate was safe, and his best friend was well on his way to recover from his poisoning. Everything he had been worried about for the past few months – years, even – was being resolved, and it looked like he might have a happy ending after all.
After lunch, they read stories and played games with the children until it was their nap time. Henry, though recovering, was still wiped out from the day and returned to his camper to rest as well. Arabella tucked the twins into their beds before coming to help Grayson take care of the dirty lunch dishes.
Arabella cleared her throat as she scraped the leftover food into a container to put into the fridge. "I never thanked you for coming after me."
"You don't need to."
"I do. It was a stupid thing to do, for sure, but things would be much different if you hadn't."
Grayson laughed, wrinkling his nose at her. "Are you calling me stupid?"
Arabella pinched her thumb and forefinger together. "Just a little. Maybe crazy is a better word."
"Crazy in love." He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Because I love you."
She grinned at him, such a happy smile that he hated to take his eyes off of her. "I love you, too."
"Dada, Bella-Bella, I'm not sleepy," Olivia called from the bedroom. "Story! Story!"
"She's a demanding one," Arabella laughed. She stuck the container in the fridge. "What do you say? One more story?"
Grayson smiled and nodded. There would be time to put them back on a strict schedule. Right now he just wanted them all to be together. Arabella held his hand as they walked to the twins' room. Before they got there, though, Olivia started wailing.
Grayson's heart jumped to his throat. He dashed inside, visions of mercenaries and blood flashing through his mind. "Olivia!"
She jumped, falling silent instantly. Her eyes widened. She was on her bed, books spread all around her. Grayson swooped down and picked her up, checking her over.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "Where's Hudson?"
"He's here," Arabella said from behind him.
He turned to find her holding a tiny dragon. Hudson's scales were blue-black like Christine's had been, with her slender snout and wide eyes. Grayson patted Olivia's back as she started crying again.
"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice gentler.
"My wings don't grow like Hud's."
Grayson sighed in relief. There was nothing wrong, it was just Olivia's nature shining through again. His children might not be in any more danger, but that didn't mean that he was going to be less vigilant. He foresaw more of these moments in the future. But that was par for the course.
"You'll grow them in time," he assured his daughter. "Now, Hudson, you need to be a little boy again, okay?"
Hudson put his head on Arabella's shoulder. He looked so much like Christine that Grayson didn't have the heart to insist that he shift back. Instead, he tucked Olivia back into her bed and took Hudson and put him to bed, wings and scales and all. Arabella kissed both of the twins' heads.
"What story should we have?"
"Dis one!" Olivia picked up one of her favorites.
Grayson reached for it, but Olivia pulled it away.
"No," his daughter said. "Bella-Bella read it."
"Why don’t you call me Airy instead?" Arabella suggested as she took the book. "That might be easier for you to say. I don't like being called Bella. It makes me sound like a toad."
Olivia giggled. She shook her head. "Nope! I's gonna call you Mama now."
Arabella froze. Her eyes flickered to Grayson. He tensed slightly. Emotions washed through him, going from happy to sad to back again. Tears burned his eyes. Olivia and Hudson were only toddlers; he knew their memories of their mother would fade. Soon she'd only be the person he told them about.
But if there was anybody Christine would want to take her place, it was Arabella. Someone who liked the children, and would protect them with every fiber of her being. He settled down next to her and stroked Hudson's scaly head while Oliva pushed her book into Arabella's lap.
"I think it's a great idea for you to call her Mama," he said quietly.
"Mama, read the story," Olivia demanded.
Arabella smiled as she opened the book. He smiled back, a feeling of peace sweeping over him. This was something he never thought he'd have: to be with his mate, their children nested between them, full of excitement for the future.
But he did have it, and he wouldn't trade it for anything.
*****
THE END
The Shifter's Secret Twins
Description
What do you do when your one-night stand turns out to be your new shifter doctor?
Single mom Lana Flores needs a distraction. Badly. So when she meets a hot and bossy guy twenty years her senior at a ball, she doesn’t think twice. Shame she’ll never see him again after their hot night together.
Until she meets her new doctor.
Simon Wolfe is a world-renowned doctor leading a breakthrough study using shifter blood. Plus he’s a shifter himself. An incredibly gorgeous one. In the bedroom, he is king. The only women he doesn’t sleep with are his patients. That would be so unprofessional.
Until Lana.
She’s way too young for him. Not to mention his patient. But she makes his Wolf howl.
She needs his help though. And not only because he’s the best doctor. Her cute little twins have starting shifting into wolf pups. Apparently the sperm donor was a shifter. Maybe the doctor can help track him down?
But Lana and Simon are in for a surprise. And before they know it, all bets are off…
Chapter One – Lana
When did walking start being so difficult?
Lana dragged her feet up the sidewalk to her step-sister's modest bungalow, feeling like a puppet that had its strings cut. After the day she had just had, she was surprised that she had mustered up the strength to drive back there. All she wanted to do was curl up in bed and cry. She had known something was wrong, but this . . . This was exactly what she had been praying would not happen.
The roses under the bungalow's windows were all in bloom, and Lana took a moment to soak in the life around her before squaring her shoulders and entering the house. Kar
i might have been ten years older than her, but she was still emotionally fragile, and it wasn't going to be easy to tell her. And the girls . . . She needed to tell them, too. But how could she explain cancer in a way a three-year-old would understand?
Kari was in the kitchen, wrapping up the little handmade soaps that she liked to make as gifts for the neighbors when Lana entered. The room was perfumed with mild floral scents. Kari smiled brightly, though worry was in her eyes.
"Hey. How was the doctor's?"
Lana wasn't ready to tell her what the diagnosis was right away. She had already cried herself out at the doctor's and felt too tired to say it out loud. "She's referring me to a specialist."
Kari's eyes widened. "It's that bad?"
"Were the girls good?"
"Little angels, like always," Kari said after a beat. "They're just watching TV right now. I know you don't like them having a lot of electronic time, but we just got home from the park and we were finger painting all morning. They looked about ready to go to sleep but wouldn’t lie down, so I let them watch some old Care Bears."
"I bet Peter loved that," Lana said drily, referring to Kari's three-year-old son.
Kari shrugged. "That's what the girls wanted to watch, and he didn't fuss about it."
It was odd to hear about all three children agreeing on something. Normally Evie and Elaine were at each other's throats about everything. For some reason, they thought they should do everything together, including eating the same foods and wearing the same clothes. Yet, the two of them couldn’t be more different. Evie liked science as well as discovering things and preferred sensible clothing. If Elaine had her way, she'd wear princess dresses all the time while playing in the mud and telling stories about how she was actually a fairy godmother. Why they thought they always had to match was beyond Lana. As for Peter, he was easily overstimulated and the twins could be exhausting for him.
Kari set her soaps aside and grasped Lana's hands. "Okay, we're finished beating around the bush. I can see something's wrong. Don't try to change the subject. What did the doctor say? Why are you being sent to a specialist?"
Lana's stomach churned. She took a deep breath, hoping that her emotions would stay in place long enough to get this out. The last thing she wanted was to be a wreck and scare the children. "It's cancer."
The already tense atmosphere got even tenser. Kari slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes watering. Lana swallowed hard. This was what she didn't want to feel right now. She'd already cried; she was already exhausted. She didn't want her girls to see their mother in this emotional state. She needed to be strong for them.
She opened her mouth to reassure Kari that the prognosis so far was encouraging, but couldn't get it out. Lana's mother had died of breast cancer when she was twenty-six, three years younger than Lana was right now. Her mother found out right after Lana was born. The pregnancy had made her case worse, and though she fought, eventually she had lost the battle.
"We caught it early," Lana said, repeating her doctor's words. "It's stage one breast cancer, and it's practically a hundred percent survival rate over five years when it's caught this early. I'm just glad I insisted on getting more tests."
Kari put her arms around her stepsister. "It's going to be okay. You've caught it, right? That's the first step. And you're being sent to the specialist. He'll know what to do."
Her voice shook, and Lana squeezed her a little harder. Kari's mother and Lana's father had married almost nine years after Lana's mother passed away so she never knew Lana's mom, but it was still a terrifying thought even if she didn't know anyone who had passed from cancer herself. Lana shuddered.
"Stage one," she repeated. "I have good odds."
"What are you going to tell your girls?"
Lana pulled back and forced a smile to reassure her sister. "Just that I'm sick right now. Until we learn more."
Kari wiped her eyes and turned back to the soaps she was wrapping. Her lips wobbled but, fortunately, her voice remained steady as she continued. "Who are you being sent to?"
"Dr. Something Wolfe. I don't remember his first name." Lana snorted.
"What's funny?"
"His name. Dr. Wolfe. I did some reading up on him in the doctor's office. He's a world-renowned doctor leading a breakthrough study on improving cancer survival rates with shifter blood. And he's a shifter himself. A Wolf shifter."
Kari broke down into giggles, the irony breaking the heavy tension. Or at least, allowing a small distraction. "So Dr. Wolfe is a Wolf? That's a bit on the nose, isn't it? What, did he change his last name to be ironic or something?"
"I don't know. He's supposed to be doing some groundbreaking work, though. And with the money Dad left me, I might just be able to afford his treatments. It's not going to be cheap, though."
She reached out to help with wrapping the soaps. Part of her wanted to say that she had already decided to have it removed surgically even if Dr. Wolfe suggested they just try chemo and radiation. She wasn't going to risk leaving her girls behind without a mother just for her body's sake. Besides which, she had enough money to get plastic surgery to reduce the scar that would be left. Being the daughter of a multi-millionaire who left half of his money to her and half to her sister had its perks for sure.
"I'm more worried about the girls than anything else," she said, her eyes darkening as she considered what this meant for them. "My mother got breast cancer and now I have it. That's a pretty heavy coincidence. I'm going to have to make sure that they know about it and that they make sure they keep an eye on their health in the future."
Kari nodded, looking troubled. "If I had known this would happen, I never would have asked you to surrogate for me and Robert."
"If I didn't have the girls, I probably would still have cancer. It was a crazy mix-up, but I don't care. I love them and I wouldn't give them up for anything."
They lapsed into silence, and Lana smiled as she remembered how her twins came into her life. Four years ago, Kari had approached her, asking her to be an egg donor and surrogate so she and her husband could have a child. They'd been trying everything they could ever since they married to get pregnant, but nothing was working. How it was supposed to work was that Lana would donate her eggs, since Kari's were declared to be 'unaccepting' of the process, and they would be joined with Robert's sperm and implanted back in Lana's uterus.
Somewhere along the line, something had gone wrong. Instead of being fertilized by Robert, Lana's eggs had been fertilized by 'Donor 431.' By the time the mix-up was discovered, Lana was already pregnant with the twins. She had already been having doubts about giving up the babies to Kari, and, after the fact, it was discovered that Kari had miraculously gotten pregnant herself. The sisters came to a mutual agreement that Lana's children would be raised by her.
How the mix-up occurred, Lana was never able to find out, but it actually came as a relief. The tension caused by the planned surrogacy had caused a strain between the sisters. But the shared pregnancies and the agreement that Lana's babies would be hers was all they needed to smooth out their relationship again.
"Do you want to move in with us while you're having the treatments?" Kari asked, breaking the silence again.
Lana shook her head. The bungalow was nice, but as close as she and Kari were, she always felt like an intruder in her home. She wanted somewhere with lots of comfort and memories, somewhere she could be at ease. She chewed her lip. Kari hadn't been back to their old home since their parents had passed away in a car accident just before the children were born.
"I was hoping that we could move into the mansion together. I know that it's still painful for you, but I just want be some place where I can have all the wonderful memories of being a family. It's bigger, too. More room for the kids to be kids. Please?"
Kari hesitated a moment but nodded with a sigh. "I'll talk to Robert about it."
Lana embraced her again, grateful for her sister's willingness to go back home. She never told Lana why it was
so painful to be in the house where their parents lived, but her discomfort was evident. It felt like a weight had been lifted off of Lana's shoulders, though. Now that their living arrangements were decided – or, at least, being considered – she could focus on the more difficult discussions that her diagnosis brought up.
"I need you to do something else for me."
"Anything. You know Robert and I are here for you. Always."
"I know. And so if something happens, if the treatment doesn't work, or if I'm part of that one percent that just doesn't make it—"
Kari squeezed her hand. "Don't talk like that. You're going to be fine. The odds are in your favor."
"I know. I know they are." Lana looked at her seriously. "But I need to make sure that you'll look out for the girls if everything goes wrong. I'm a single mother and you're my only family."
"What?" Kari pulled back, eyes wide. "How is that even a question? Of course I'll look after the girls. I love them and Robert loves them. I'd never let anything happen to them."
Tears flooded Lana's eyes. "I know. I just needed to hear you say it."
Kari embraced her again. "Of course. Now, are you still going to come to the benefit ball tonight? It might be good for you to get out and have some fun – forget about your troubles. You do look fabulous in that dress you bought. It really shows off your—"
She cut herself off, but Lana nodded. She poked her breasts, frowning at them. "Yeah, I'll go. These girls don't look good that often, and I've got to take them out before it’s too late, right? Even if they are dirty little traitors."
"That's one way to put it." Kari wiped her eyes and smiled brightly, though it was clearly strained. "But I'm glad. No need for life to grind to a halt, right?"
"Right." Lana swallowed hard. "I'm going to go watch the show with the girls."
