That finally prompted Elain to open her eyes. “No. That’s not what I want, especially with Mai, Mom, and Lina living here. I like it here. I simply feel overwhelmed right now. I also hate sounding like a whiny, broken record about that.”
“You’re not whiny,” the three men said in unison.
That made her chuckle. “You are very sweet, adorable dads-to-be. I truly appreciate the effort on your parts that it takes to put up with hormonal me.” She stared out the window at the landscape speeding by as they drove south on I-75.
“Two years ago, I never would have dreamed I’d be here. A mate, a mom. A mom-to-be. My dad. A big sister.” She closed her eyes again. “I look back on it and it feels like the blink of an eye, and yet it feels like I’ve lived eons. No, I wouldn’t change most everything we’ve been through, although I know even the ‘bad’ crap helped get us here.”
Brodey reached across Connor’s car seat and laced fingers with her. “We’re always here for you, babe. You know that.”
“I know. When I think about everything you guys have gone through in your lives, I feel guilty for bitching and moaning.”
“Please don’t feel guilty,” Ain said.
They fell into a comfortable silence again for a little while. “I’d love for us to take a family vacation in the near future,” she said. “Just the five of us. Us and the kids. Go somewhere that doesn’t involve shifter political meetings or Seer shit or cockatrice kidnappings. Someplace normal. I want normal.”
“You have three mates, babe,” Cail gently teased. “That’s not normal.”
“You know what I mean. Someplace where we don’t have to look over our shoulders the whole time. Where I can have a conversation that isn’t interrupted twenty times by people coming up to me with their babies and asking me about them. Or asking me for my opinion. Or me having to hunt someone down because I realize I had a vision about them and need to tell them what I saw.”
She stared out the window again. “Or me being afraid to so much as shake hands with someone for fear of having a vision about them. I want a vacation where the only decision I have to make is what restaurant we are going to for dinner.”
A bone-deep weariness had set in. Rationally, she knew it was in no small part due to her pregnancy. That was a given.
The delayed stress reaction from fricking Bolivia. Rodolfo.
Worry about her secrets getting out.
Worry about Mai’s pregnancy.
Well, there was one solo burden she could unshoulder. “If I tell you guys something, will you promise me to keep it a secret?”
“Depends on what it is,” Ain said.
“Nothing bad, and nothing to do with the mega-Clan. It’s sort of funny. But you can’t tell anyone until the obvious time it’s okay to tell.”
“What is it?” Ain asked.
She turned away from the window. “Mai’s pregnant.”
Cail actually turned in his seat to look back at her. “She is? That’s great! Why hasn’t she told anyone yet?”
Elain smiled. “She doesn’t know yet. It just happened.” Elain decided to leave her part in the process out of it.
And who Mai’s baby had once been.
Brodey chuckled. “BettLynn will be a big sister. That’s awesome.”
Ain’s reaction was a little more guarded. “Why is this a secret?”
“Because I want her to find out first before anyone else knows. If she doesn’t discover it soon enough, I’ll tell her.”
“And our Clan grows again,” Brodey said.
“Yep.”
“What about Lina?” Cail asked. “Any surprises for her yet?”
“Not yet.” Her smile faded. “I wish we could get a handle on that damn nuclear bomb vision. Mai dreamed about it again.”
Brodey gently squeezed her hand. “Let’s not talk about that today unless you have to, huh? I want today to be a happy day. I want you to not be stressed.”
“I’m thinking about it even if I’m not talking about it. ‘Perk’ of the rank. It’s always there in the back of my mind. What do we have to do to derail that damn vision. It’s something I can’t not think about.”
“We’ll handle it,” Ain said. “I know it. I refuse to think in any other terms. Kitty said this morning that they have a line on another nest operating out in western Canada. They’re going to go take care of that. She’s supposed to give Lina a call tonight to see if she wants to come with and help them out.”
Elain smiled. “That’ll keep her distracted.”
“She’s not going to want to,” Cail said. “She has been talking non-stop about not missing the burrito’s grand entrance.”
“I wish she’d get more confidence in her poofy skills,” Elain said. “Then it wouldn’t be an issue.” That skirted close to—but still avoided—the topic of how she herself had apparently mastered the poofy skills already.
“You’ll all get there soon enough,” Brodey said. He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. “I wish there was a way I could protect you better.”
“You have to stop worrying about that.”
He grimly smiled. “I can’t. Perk of the rank.”
* * * *
When they returned home to Arcadia, Elain desperately needed a nap. Cail took over care of Connor while Brodey and Ain headed out to check on the ranch operations. They’d already lined up extra help and authorized overtime for the ranch hands for the two weeks immediately after the baby was born.
Elain wasn’t sure she could stand having all three of her men around and on top of her like that for that long. Her mom, Mai, and Lina, yes. Absolutely. They were moms who knew what to do, how to do it, and instinctively knew when to leave Elain alone and give her space.
But her guys would need that bonding time with their baby, so Elain would do her best to keep her hormones and emotions in check and let them have that time.
They needed it. Not just as dads, but to heal their souls from all the years of pain and loneliness they’d suffered.
Besides, how many women are lucky enough to have three dang guys who want to help raise their kids? I’m lucky, and I need to quit bitching.
She closed her eyes and tried to get comfortable in bed, but it was difficult. Everything felt difficult now, with her enormous baby belly and barely constrained emotions.
Another thing she wasn’t fond of, the feeling of being just on the edge of out of control.
Especially now that she knew a fraction of what she was capable of. If she could kill with her powers…
It terrified her. She never wanted to accidentally blow her cool and hurt or kill someone who didn’t deserve hurting or killing.
Especially her friends, family, or her men.
Or her children.
Or someone like Brighton who, while she’d originally gone to bat for him with her men for them to accept their slightly off-kilter brother and not give him any grief, she was now ready to make him disappear.
Something about the way he acted, and especially the way he gave her father dirty looks, was really beginning to grate on Elain’s very last nerve.
I have to take up meditation or something.
Elain eventually dozed. When she awakened, she smelled something good cooking and heard voices out in the living room. After barely making it to the bathroom in time, Elain waddled out to find her men and her parents fixing dinner and taking care of Connor. Joss was asleep on a blanket on the floor.
“There’s our sleepyhead,” Cail said with a smile as he pulled a chair out for her at the dining room table. “Dinner’s almost ready.”
“Has he eaten yet?” She pointed to where Connor was asleep on Ain’s shoulder.
“Just did,” Cail assured her. “And you missed Brodey getting a lesson in careful diapering.”
Brodey was shirtless, she noticed.
“Squirted?” she asked.
Brodey shrugged, but his playful smile told her he didn’t mind. “Lesson learned. I wasn’t quite fast eno
ugh. Hey, I’ll take that over having my arm buried inside a cow up to my shoulder.” He returned to the kitchen.
Elain realized she missed it when Mai, Micah, Jim, Lina, and all of the dragon brood weren’t there for meals. Sometimes, yes, she needed peace and quiet.
But times like this, it was nice to have their extended family all together. It was a mentally and emotionally comforting feel to be surrounded by the people she loved.
“What’s wrong?” Cail asked.
“Just…thoughts.” She offered him a smile. “Lots and lots of thoughts rattling around in my brain.” That’s when she realized who was absent, the person whose presence she hadn’t initially missed. “Where’s Brighton?”
Cail shrugged. “Said he had stuff to do. He left a while ago. Told us he’d grab dinner out.”
“Oh.” Elain felt slightly guilty that she was more than a little relieved he wasn’t home. “Okay.”
Cail cocked his head. “Babe?”
“Pregnancy hormones.” That was a good loophole, and not even technically a lie, either.
Cail leaned in. “If he’s getting to be too much for you—”
“I’ll tell you,” she promised.
“I know he can be difficult to tolerate. I honestly can’t believe you haven’t asked us to throw him out yet.”
“He’s your brother.”
“He’s a nut.”
She reached out and gently squeezed his hand. “I’ll be fine,” she assured him, bound and determined to take the high road. “Brighton is family.”
“So’s Marston Hill,” Cail griped. “Doesn’t mean we need him around.”
Elain quickly changed the subject. “What’s for dinner?”
Another cock of his head. “Babe?” he softly asked.
She forced a smile she didn’t feel. “Pregnancy hormones.”
At least she’d still have that excuse for a little while yet. Once she’d delivered their baby, she’d have to come up with another loophole.
Or maybe, if she was lucky, Brighton would move out into his own place once there were two loud newborns in the house waking everyone up for middle of the night feedings and make it a moot point.
Somehow, she suspected it wouldn’t be that easy.
Chapter Seven
Over the next few days, Brighton—fortunately—made himself scarce around the house. If he wasn’t accompanying one of the brothers, he was off doing his own thing. He said he was looking at houses, but Elain got the distinct impression he was hiding something.
The other annoying thing to Elain about this stage of being pregnant—well, other than dealing with Brighton, and not being able to see her feet, and feeling like she was carrying a blimp in her stomach—was that no one would let her do anything.
That, and she could accidentally pee herself without even breaking a sweat.
Now less than a week until her due date, Elain realized her men were hovering closer than ever…and at the same time saying as little as possible around her.
Probably because she found herself practically growling every other word out of her mouth in irritation. She was over being pregnant, and she was over the near constant attention and total lack of privacy.
It was only a welcomed surprise distraction that morning that took Elain’s mind off her immediately pressing issue.
And by pressing she meant what felt like a two-ton baby squashing her bladder while playing kickball with it.
Elain was seated at the kitchen table, sipping her second cup of coffee of the morning, when Mai appeared in Elain’s kitchen.
Simply…appeared.
Poof.
Seemed to surprise the heck out of Mai, too, because she was facing the wall and let out a sudden cry of shock that made Juju and Bea both come running, sliding around the corner into the kitchen.
Fortunately, Elain had already set her coffee mug on the table, so when she’d flinched she didn’t spill any.
“Well, hello, there, stranger.”
Mai turned, her eyes wide, making Elain laugh. Mai held her hands up and stared at them. “I’m…here.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Here!”
“Yes?”
“In your kitchen!”
“Yes, you are. Congratulations. And where’s BettLynn?”
“How’d I get here? I was standing in my kitchen, and thinking that I needed to check in on you this morning and see how you were doing and—”
“You must have poofed. Here you are.”
“Here I am.”
“And where’s BettLynn?”
“She’s…” Mai’s gaze widened even more—which Elain didn’t think was possible—and she let out a horrified gasp.
“Congrats, sweetie.” Elain lifted her mug in a salute. “You can do the poofy thing now.”
Mai bolted out of the kitchen while Elain softly chuckled.
Well, that was fun.
Elain’s cell phone was sitting on the kitchen counter and started ringing, Jim’s ringtone. Presumably he would sound panicked and be asking if she’d seen Mai. But Elain didn’t want to haul her fat butt up out of her chair to get her phone, and it was too far away for her to reach.
She also didn’t dare risk poofing it to her, even though she’d practiced that a few times, too. Poofing items to her, when alone, so she wouldn’t have to haul her pregnant self up from whatever comfy position she’d finally managed to get herself into.
After three rings, her phone went silent.
Good, because I didn’t feel like getting up.
Her mom walked in. “Did I just hear Mai in here?”
“Yep.”
She looked around. “I never heard the front door open when she came in.”
Elain leaned back. “I think Mai just figured out she can do something new.”
“Do I want to know?”
“I have a feeling everyone will know shortly.”
Which was a relief, because it meant she would finally be able to start doing it, too.
Well, openly doing it.
Brighton chose that moment to walk into the kitchen, making Elain suppress her groan. She forced herself onto her feet. “I need to go check on Connor.”
“Oh, he’s asleep, sweetie,” her mom said. “I just checked on him and Joss, both.”
“I also need to go to the bathroom,” Elain said, not meeting Brighton’s gaze.
He, above everyone else, was getting on her nerves. But after the fuss she’d made upon his arrival about her men not picking on him, it would be just a touch hypocritical of her not to try to tolerate him.
Cail walked in. “Did I hear Mai?”
Elain turned sideways in the increasingly crowded kitchen to ease herself through the doorway and past Cail. “Yes.” She headed for their bedroom, Cail doing an about-face to follow her.
“Don’t need your help going tinkle, Cail.”
She sensed him come to a halt behind her.
Elain reached for the bedroom doorknob just as Brodey opened the door on his way out. “Hey, ba—”
“Move. Move. Move!” She was dancing back and forth now, the bathroom excuse no longer an excuse as Brodey seemed incapable of getting.
The fuck.
Out of her way.
She finally plowed past him and charged toward the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.
The code all her men understood at this point in her pregnancy meant do not come in unless they politely knocked and asked first.
And even then, maybe not.
Maybe I should get them all neutered.
As she finally made her goal in time, she sighed with relief. No, she didn’t want to neuter her guys. Yes, she did—probably—want more kids in the future.
But this part of the pregnancy she was enjoying…not at all.
When she finally emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later and returned to the kitchen, her mom had Elain’s cell phone in her hand.
“Mai called. She’s back home.”
&
nbsp; “Of course she is. She only lives on the other side of the yard.”
“She said she poofed?”
“That would be my guess, based upon what I saw, yes.”
“Jim is understandably freaked out.”
“I would think so.” Elain slid back into her chair and picked up her mug of coffee.
Brighton had, unfortunately, taken the chair directly across the table from Elain. She gave him a wide, fake grin, using lots of teeth. “Good morning.”
He nodded. “Good morning. How are you?”
“Haven’t pissed my pants yet, so still a good day, so far.” She’d opt for thinly disguised antagonism and blame it on pregnancy hormones.
“What is it, exactly, that Mai did, then?” Brighton asked.
Elain sat back and wondered if this was the verbal jousting part of whatever point Brighton seemed to refuse to want to get to.
“Back in Maine, when Aliah shot Mai while we were rescuing Lacey, Callie threw her energy into Mai to save Mai’s life and heal her. It passed Callie’s powers to Mai as a result. One of the things that Callie, Gigi, and Baba Yaga can do is what we dubbed the ‘poofy thing’. Materialize when and where they wanted. It’ll take Mai a while to learn how to do it reliably. Lina can already do it as part of her goddess gig powers, but she hasn’t mastered that yet and still can’t do it reliably, or over long distances.”
“What about you?”
His direct gaze unsettled her, but she didn’t flinch. “What about me?”
“Can you do it?”
“Eventually, I’m sure I will.” She lifted her coffee mug to her lips without breaking eye contact with him and took a sip. “It’s only a matter of time.”
She didn’t know if it was her imagination or if Brighton’s gaze really narrowed a little.
He was about to start tap-dancing on her very last nerve, though.
Killing Brighton, baaad…self-control, goooood…
Just because his brothers couldn’t lie to him didn’t mean she had the same problem.
Plus Brodey and Cail were watching her like a couple of hawks, their gazes bouncing back and forth between her and Brighton like it was a tennis match.