Jordan was over the moon when they could finally return to the cabin. Ellie and his pups greeted them. All happy and healthy, ready to take on the world together. As they missed tradition with David, the Elders insisted that Jordan and Ellie uphold the recognition ceremony. Malcolm could understand the need for it in the past, but right now, it was just something that would exhaust everyone further. But Ellie begged it to take place. In private, between the four of them, she explained it would make or break her and her pups’ acceptance into the pack. If she really wanted to go through with it, he wouldn’t stop it now. A happy mother and healthy pups were the best outcome. Malcolm upheld his part in it, but he knew enough to keep everyone’s turned to hold the pups and check them out for the traditional medical issues that would in the past have proven fatal thanks to the Fae wanting only a ready and disposable army. In this day and age,
Three weeks later, Malcolm and Jordan had to leave again for business meetings in the city. Melody, by this point, was in no state of mind to care all that much about business, because she was too busy making space for another new being to enter the world. They again amazed her how each one came into the world with nothing and completely reliant on others to keep them alive and provide everything. She and Ellie had been nesting for months now. Even though they’d had everything ready weeks before, she’d given birth. That was the annoying part of pregnancy. You know everything is fine, but you can’t stop yourself from rearranging everything one more time. So here Melody was standing in the pups’ bedroom reorganizing a drawer of onesies. With the lack of rooms in the cottage, the pups needed to share until they had time to put an addition on the cottage. The thing they were waiting for was the penthouse floor’s construction completion. That was an enormo
The Toronto Council of Alphas was meeting again for the third time that month. The difference this time was that NARC requested the meeting. They wanted to ensure that the concerned councils in all the cities affected by the Fae were updated. They figured we would be the ones that would face the crowds of shifters and humans alike to assure them the Fae were dealt with permanently. Again, they met at the hotel where the first conference took place. This time, the protesters were oddly missing from their line at the front of the building. Malcolm and Jordan entered through the secured underground parking garage, though. As they settled into the usual waiting game, they mixed with the other alphas of the city and their staff. Jordan came back to Malcolm’s side after he’d been lured to speak with a few other Betas from the other packs. “Well, if the gossip is true, it looks like the Moon Goddess or fate has seen fit to make a good start on the next generati
The Toronto Council of Alphas sat at the request of the Ruling Council. The men listened as they gave them the good news that they removed almost all the Fae over the last day. But they would need everyone to be on their guard because no one could be sure whether they removed them all. The Ruling Council admitted that their people now possessed the ability to find the remaining Fae should they be hiding. But the larger threat was gone. When a member of the press asked how many losses had there been. The answer horrified them clearly. “We’re still working out the official numbers, but it’s high.” “How many humans died to stop this?” “The number of humans involved were less than one percent of the forces sent to push them back if you have looked at the narrow view that only people without a magical genetic component are human. You have your stories of married couples dying within hours or days of each other because they couldn’t live without the other?
Melody watched Malcolm leave for the city with mixed feelings. Her logical brain told her that with three more weeks of pregnancy, he’d have lots of time to be home before she had this pup. But her pregnancy mind was telling her to panic. He would miss this birth, too. There were no facts to back this up horrible sinking feeling. She’d done it without him before and what could he do that would help during the labour or the delivery? There she went again, thinking it’s better if he just missed it all. No one would have to make everything look pretty and acceptable to him. She’d be able to concentrate on her labour and delivery without worrying about Malcolm wanting to kill someone every time she grimaced. “Is it safe to come out?” Ellie’s voice came from the crawl space under the stairs. “What are you doing under there? You’re supposed to be in bed and cuddling you two.” “They’re sleeping like they should be. I’m looking to see if there’s a ch
Ellie tried to focus on her pups. They were little miracles, and she didn’t want to let them out of her sight. Now, though, with their temporary home full of well-meaning people, she was at a loss. Everything was done and then some. Now she was being pushed to look after herself and all that. She just wanted to chill here with her pups and Mel. Watch little David play, then nap while the pups napped. That all changed with the parade of handmade frozen meals, the laundry, and the dishwasher coming on. The placed hummed with life and it felt intrusive. One look at Melody told her she was as off kilter as she was. Neither planned for this much attention. At least, David enjoyed the extra attention. Her two weren’t readying to demand such attention yet. They just happily existed right now. Ellie knew enough from being there for when David was born to enjoy this if she could, because it wouldn’t last. The idea was to give her time to heal, someone experi
The healer insisted on staying the night, and Ellie was thankful for that. The healer was correct. Melody didn’t last until morning, and Ellie was waking Jordan up with a panicked phone call. They needed to get home. Melody was in labour. Jordan promised Ellie that he’d see her in three to four hours. Just make sure that Melody didn’t have her pup at that time. “The call has been made. Jordan promises they’ll be here in three to four hours. The roads are good and free of most of the traffic. They should be good to get here with time to spare.” “Yes, well, everything looks good here and I doubt anything will change too fast at that time. So everything is going to plan. He was coming home tomorrow, wasn’t he?” “Good, then I can kill him twice. Once for David and now for this one. Geez, how did I forget about this part of the entire process?” “Dear, you’re just starting right now. Soon enough, I’ll help you with the pain and it’ll go much
Jordan had woken Malcolm up to tell him their time was up. Melody was in labour, and they must drop everything into other people’s hands, then head home. Malcolm peppered Jordan with questions about Melody and the situation there, between making decisions on who would step in for them. So while making the drive back to the cottage, Jordan was settling those matters. The feelings of conflict went so much beyond guilt at pawning his work onto others, to the hurry and wait as the vehicle they drove in only moved so fast. Malcolm struggled to keep his head in the game again, and this time it wasn’t because he was neglecting anything. He rambled off information to Jordan about things that must be followed up. A list of reports, files, and documents formed with lists of people who needed to get them. He’d added a few for himself just so he had something to do in the quiet moment. “Ellie texted me to say everything is fine and so far, there appears to be plenty