Chapter3

#Chapter3

I didn't want him to grow up with nothing but rage and bitterness as his companions. I didn't want the joy in his heart to clear out, replaced by an emptiness that not even the bottom of the whisky bottle could fill.

I didn't care about this world, or whatever bullshit Kenai had spewed, but I cared about him.

/"But you were so excited, beebee,/" I murmured, holding my arms open. He didn't need to be asked twice. He climbed up me like an escaped zoo monkey, his mucky paws leaving a trail of evidence against my clothes, and forced my arms closed around him. His nuzzlies, as he liked to call them, were instant, and my head fell against his.

/"Stay wiv daddy,/" he mumbled, licking at his index.

/"But daddy is hiding away from all the noise and diseased beasties,/" I murmured. And just to prove how serious I was about staying away from everyone, my eyes fell towards the door. It was deadbolted. Gave out the clear warning of 'leave me the fuck alone'.

It was a message that applied to everyone, except for Lumen, who lived by his own laws.

There was also a tortured stuffed monkey pinned to a dartboard on the door, limbs spread out at an X. One of his eyes was missing. Lord only knew what happened to her tail. Don't even get me started on the stuffing issue.

I smiled at it fondly. The thing was oddly therapeutic.

/"Lou hidey too then,/" the menace said.

/"If I come down with you, will you play with the other kids?/"

Fluttering his eyelashes in a snowfall of cute blinks, pausing to pick his nose and inspect his findings, the birthday boy eventually nodded. /"An we steal more cakey?/"

/"As long as we blame it on Clarke and Axe./"

Our first stop was to the bathroom. He was grimey. I could partially live with that, especially from a safe distance, but today was different. Today, he was the centre of attention. The pack was here, looking at him, judging him, and as my son and heir, we both had a duty to make sure he was clean and presentable. Lou sure as hell wasn't making it easy; this was his third clothes change of the day.

Our next stop was to the kitchen. The cake had been hidden. After helping ourselves to an unauthorised slice earlier, upsetting Jonathan to the point that he'd told Lou he wasn't even allowed to blow out his candles at the party anymore, we were no longer trusted.

What a fucking killjoy.

It wasn't a big deal to me. I didn't like cake. I didn't like sweet things in general. It was an overwhelming attack on my already maxed out senses. Sour foods were better. Spicy. I'd even take bland over sweet.

But for Lou, I suffered. It had become our thing. We'd smuggle goodness from the kitchen and chow through our loot while nuzzling and taking five minutes to quietly appreciate one another's company. It was the same whenever I restocked his treasure chest with new milk chocolate coins— I had to accept he would want to share them.

Apparently it was one of the many sacrifices of fatherhood: his happiness triumphed over my own wants or likes.

Luciana Amber was a fireball of a woman. She was tough, firm and as unbending as they come. Excellent ally to have. Probably wouldn't want her as an enemy. She fell among the few that actually warranted my respect— it wasn't sexism. I tended to disregarded all living beings as a collective.

It was easy to see why Axe Custer had chosen her as his Beta.

But then again, that was only valid if we were basing it off her characteristics. If we were going by the stupid grin on his face and the goo-goo eyes, then there was a chance her position had nothing at all to do with strategy and everything to do with winning Ember a new mommy.

Ember, Lumen's identical twin, was nuzzled into the cat-man's side, his eyes shut. It was still whacky and hard to accept— I'd only just grown used to the idea of Lumen, and then he'd duplicated like a gremlin that had snacked after midnight.

/"Burr!/" Lou squealed upon entering. He bounced forward so fast the crown atop his head toppled. He scuttled backwards for it, falling to the floor like a crab.

Upon hearing his name, the clone's eyes sprang open. They were the exact same blue as Lumen's, but somehow I managed to find them ugly. Or unnerving. Hard to say which. Jonathan said I was a disgustingly petty person; I could live with that.

Axe faltered mid-sentence, adopting a sweetened smile. /"Lumen,/" he said warmly. /"I was wondering where you'd gotten to. Clarke's not long arrived and he was looking for you./"

Lou had managed to pry his brother away from his daddy. Managed to — and I still don't know why— insert a finger into Ember's mouth. But he froze at the news, his face falling blank before it rebirthed into the most breathtaking of smiles, dimples and all.

/"Clarke come ta see muh wabbits?/" Lou asked.

/"Talk properly, Lou,/" I instructed. It was only when comparing him to Ember that Jonathan had realised just how bad Lumen's pronunciation of words could be. He'd recommended a speech therapist, but that was a human kind of doctor. It wasn't an option until sabrina-the-fucked-up witch learned to undeerstand that using his magic wasn't always acceptable. We tried to limit his interaction with humans.

We weren't too concerned about it anyway. We'd noticed that his speech yo-yoed. Some days he would fall into the habit of mispronouncing words we knew he could say properly, or he would over exaggerate the breakup of his syllables. Johno had started correcting him. Bullied me into doing it too. It was working to a degree. He wasn't doing it as much anymore, but like anything Lou did, he made our efforts as difficult as possible.

/"Clarke comed, daddy,/" Lumen squealed, taking his finger back from his brother's mouth, jumping up and down on the spot. /"Burr! We show Clarke an Hi-rus muh bunnies? And Clarke say 'Wow Lumey! Dat so 'mazing!/"

When Ember frowned in reply, it was where the creepiness started for me. They were mirror images, but the way their expressions and mannerisms were either identical or acted as complete strangers to the other's, it had always icked me out. I couldn't even understand why.

/"Clarke and Cy-wus have already see'd the bunnies, Oomen./"

/"They see gen!/"

/"And if you promise to be gentle,/" I cut in, catching sight of a few familiar faces out of the window that ran the length of the furthest counter, /"You can show Victor and Luca too. Mommy's outside with them now, rat. Why don't you go out and say hi?/"

Bouncy-bounce-bounce. Squeal. Falter. And then he threw that same frown Ember had only moments ago been wearing, adopting a seriousness that aged him centuries. /"Daddy stay? No go way?/"

/"I'll be right in here, Lou. But you need to be outside having fun. All those people out there have bought presents for you. They've all come to see you. They want to wish you both a very happy birthday, so you're both being quite rude hiding away here./"

/"Oh./" Ember frowned. /"I not wanna be wude./"

Lou seemed indifferent. /"Lou not care./"

Snorting, trying not to show him a reaction, because the drama queen fed off that, I tried to manipulate my expression into a stern one. It might have worked if my lips hadn't been plagued by a vagabond twitch. But for the sake of mine and Johno's talk, I followed the look through with a threat.