Jealous family

When Lara finished washing and changing Jaden, Scarlet was already asleep on the sofa. She snuggled in a corner, as far as possible from Nate. Yet, she lowered her guard enough to fall into slumber.

«I would bring her in the room, but she could wake up if she senses it's me,» the man explained.

His face was calm as if he didn't just crumble down like a mountain of dust. He even managed to smile at Lara.

«You don't need to carry them back. Stay for the night, and I'll bring you home early in the morning if you need anything from there.»

Lara nodded. After all, she was also tired.

At the thought of carrying the cubs back, settling them on the bed and preparing to get up early, she felt exhausted.

She could just do everything in the morning. She would have woken them to go home early so that she could shower and go to work.

«You don't mind waking up early?» she said. «You don't have to see us out: we'll just leave silently.»

«Oh, no,» he said. «I have a day off.»

«One more reason to sleep longer.»

«I mean, I have the morning off. I was going to ask you if I could keep the kids until you're done with work.»

Lara straightened her back, worried. She wanted to say no.

She was afraid to lose them to their father. But she had no right to do so. In the end, they were also his.

«Fine then. You know where to find me if anything happens. I will leave them with you...»

Scarlet opened her eyes just when Lara said those words. She jumped off the bed, cursing Nate with the few words she learned when the cartoon was over and some other show had started.

She hugged Lara's thighs and started crying.

Jaden did the same, and Lara found herself in between two loud, crying cubs.

Nate observed how she sighed, and he wondered whether the pups always cried in synchrony.

He wouldn't be able to act as calmly as Lara if it happened to him.

«Hey, hey,» Lara chuckled, pulling them in the direction of the room. «What's up with you? Someone here hasn't slept enough today.»

She winked at Nate and walked away, followed by the kids who clenched her shirt and had no intention of letting go.

«Mommy, don't leave us!»

«We love you more than him!»

«We will be good!»

«We won't eat much!»

As they cried their souls out, maybe disturbing the neighbours with their whining, Lara picked them up, one by one, and she sat between them on the bed. She hugged each with an arm and pecked their heads, alternating.

«Mommy isn't going anywhere,» she said. «I'll stay here with you. We'll sleep together, like always.»

«You won't leave us here and run away with that man?»

«No! How can you think about something like this? Mommy loves you more than anything else in the world.»

She lay down, caressed and pecked the children for more than half an hour.

Nate sat on the couch like an abandoned puppy, waiting for the turmoil to calm. Only when no sob came from the room, he walked to them and observed from the hallways.

He didn't step in, not even breathing so that the children couldn't sense him. Either way, they were too focused on their mommy to notice.

His heart skipped a couple of beats as he observed his mate while she cuddled his pups. At that moment, she became even more beautiful in his eyes.

Somehow, her face was radiant as she murmured sweet words and let the two kids fall asleep on the big, comfortable bed.

Their little hands clutched her clothes as they shut their eyes. They were clinging on to her even while sleeping, still afraid she would disappear.

Then, Lara slipped out without alarming the twins. With the same silent steps she must have used with him six years before, she walked out and closed the door. She leaned on it and sighed, waiting for Nate's comments.

Yet, he said nothing.

«I brought something for you,» she said, then.

She walked back to the living room and collected an album from the bag. She sat on the sofa and waited for Nate to sit next to her.

«These are all the pictures I have of them,» she explained. «From when they were born. Do you want to see?»

He nodded by reflex, and she opened the first page.

«This one is from the hospital, the day after they were born. I couldn't walk for a couple of days, but a nurse was so kind that she made the pictures for me. They were so small, right?»

«Even now,» Nate commented. «They're rather small.»

«I know, right? I don't know why, though. I thought it was related to their nature... And the doctor in the hospital said every kid is a special story...»

«Wolves do get born smaller than human kids, but then they grow faster. But ours are hybrids. It's not very surprising they're taking their time.»

«Are you sure it's not for something I've done?»

«No, Lara. You've done everything right till now. You would have noticed if they suffered. You would have felt it with your motherly instinct.»

«How are you so certain? I am human, you know that, right?»

«It doesn't matter. You carried them for nine months. Even human mothers develop their instinct after so much time of sharing... well, sharing everything.»

His eyes stopped on the picture for a few seconds. He realised that, even soon after birth, the twins took more after him than after Lara.

He wasn't lucky. He would have preferred the other way around.

«What did your parents say when you told them? Or you ran away before they knew?» he continued.

After talking with Scarlet, and with Jaden the day before, he was starting to form a bleak picture in his mind.

«My father felt sorry, but my mother was ruthless,» she sighed. «They threw me out of the house. Well... My father did give me some money in secret for an abortion. He told me that a young girl with a child had a difficult life.»