"Fine," he said as he thrust his body upward. "We'll keep our clothes on."

  We made out like a pair of teenagers in an empty house. I heard the door open, which ended things.

  "I see you've been having a good time without me," Quinton said. "I'll just put the steak in the oven."

  He didn't seem jealous at all, but I climbed off of Orion. "Sorry," I squeaked.

  "No, it smells delicious in here," he said, smiling down at me as he unpacked the groceries he had picked up. He turned on the oven.

  "But you haven't started cooking," I protested.

  "Who said he was talking about food?" Orion asked. I could hear the grin in his voice.

  "I can smell your arousal," Quinton said, which made heat rush to my cheeks. "It smells really good in here."

  I sat down on a kitchen stool and watched him cook. There was something about the easy grace of a man in the kitchen that turned me on even more. Within minutes, I could smell the delicious smell of frying mushrooms as he pan-fried them. The steak was put in a pan and shoved into the oven.

  "I'm starving," Orion complained.

  "You'll eat mushrooms and you'll like it. Your wolf may like raw meat, but your human teeth are too blunt." Quinton bent down to check on the steak. “It’s going to be a while.”

  “I stress-baked last night while I was waiting for you to come home.” Had they come home? I guessed that we’d spent enough time together to consider this one of their homes…temporarily, at least.

  “What do you have?”

  “Pineapple chunk cupcakes, brownies, and lemon bars.”

  “Can I have all of them?” There was a playful spark in Orion’s eyes, like a kid who wanted to keep putting his hand in the cookie jar.

  “You can,” I said. I went to the secret cupboard where I kept the cooling racks. “It’s probably what you smelled earlier.”

  “I’m sure that the scent was yours, mate.” Orion said. He made a move like he was about to stand up.

  “Sit back down!” I barked at him. Grinning, he dropped back on the couch. “I don’t want you to walk on that foot.”

  I started transferring what was left of the lemon bars to a plate, and then I piled brownies and cupcakes on top. I brought them to him.

  “Stay on the couch. I’m going to pour you a glass of milk to wash it all down.”

  By the time that I went to the fridge, got a cup, and poured out a glass of milk, the plate was halfway empty. And when I walked over to him with a glass of milk in my hand, all that was left of the baked goods I’d spent the night making were crumbs.

  “You’re a really good baker,” he said.

  “Thanks,” I said, shaking my head at the empty plate. “I can see that I need to keep you away from my bakery when you’re not rescuing me. You’d eat me out of business in no time.”

  “Have you heard back from the insurance company yet?” Orion asked.

  “Not yet. I filed a claim with the report the morning after it happened, but they’re sending some kind of auditor to make sure that there really was a lightning strike before they process my claim.”

  “So what will happen to your bakery?” Orion asked.

  I sighed, “I already posted on Facebook about the opening being delayed. Other than that, there’s not much I can do. I sank everything into that business and paid for extra insurance so that they’d cover everything for which I needed to get a replacement. As long as the money comes in, I should be able to take care of it.” I frowned. “All those years of work and saving…wiped out.”

  “If the insurance doesn’t come through, we’ll finance it.” Orion put the plate down on my coffee table. “Don’t worry.”

  “What do you mean about financing?”

  “You’re our mate.” Quinton broke into the conversation. “He’s just offering to help, that’s all.”

  “You don’t need insurance when you have us,” Orion said.

  I didn’t know if I should bristle or be really grateful. Both, I guessed.

  “I appreciate it, but insurance is my Plan A.”

  “That’s fine. The steak is ready.”

  The steak was still pink and cool in the center, but it was good. Quinton had rubbed it with some kind of amazing seasoning that made my tastebuds go wild. I liked how rare the meat was, too.

  I felt myself beginning to doze off. “The baby likes the steak,” I slurred, my eyes drooping.

  “So you’ll let us take you to a pack doctor tomorrow?” Quinton put his hand on mine.

  “If Orion will, too,” I said.

  “Done,” Orion said.

  Doctor

  RAVEN

  The next morning, the kitchen was spotless. I got ready to meet the pack doctor. There were butterflies in my stomach, because I had zero clue what to expect.

  “Relax,” Quinton said, his big hands settling on my shoulders and loosening up the tense muscles there. “Everybody is fine. Maybe they can do a sonogram or something.”

  The baby had barely been conceived, so it probably wouldn’t show up very clearly on a sonogram. But I didn’t say anything.

  “Are you ready?” Orion said. He wasn’t limping at all. I knew that the steak had done the trick.

  “Sure.” I marched out the front door and got ready to meet my new doctor. I buckled up and said a quick prayer to the powers that be that it’d go smoothly. The drive didn’t take long. I felt like I wanted to vomit. I didn’t know if it was morning sickness or nerves.

  We opened the door. I could smell the scent of hospital disinfectant. I didn’t want to be there.

  “Orion Wolfe,” Orion said to the receptionist. She seemed to know what that meant.

  “This way, Alpha.” She said it like it was a title, like Your Royal Majesty or something. We went into a small room. It was cozier than any examination room that I’d ever been in before. It had a big couch and the requisite bed covered in paper. The three of us sat down on the couch, with each of them putting a hand on my knee and squeezing.

  “You don’t have to be nervous,” Quinton said. “The doctor is here to make sure you’re okay.”

  When the nurse came in, I was glad that they had a hand on me. I answered all of her questions about my medical history and watched her put it all down on her tablet.

  “The doctor will be in shortly,” she said.

  “You’re okay,” Quinton said very softly as the door closed behind the nurse.

  “I want to go home,” I half-sobbed.

  “You’re okay.” Quinton stroked my back.

  “I don’t like doctors,” I said. I never liked needles as a kid, so my pediatrician was as terrifying to me as creepy clowns were to other people.

  “Just a little while longer,” Orion said. The door swung open as he was talking. A very petite lady walked in.

  “Hello, I’m Dr. Babson.” She shook hands with the three of us. “I understand that you think that you’re pregnant.”

  “Yes,” I said, my voice shaking. “With their were-cub.”

  “I’m mated to a shifter myself,” she said as it if were absolutely normal to be talking about shifters and not totally freaking me out. “But we haven’t had our own child yet. Why don’t you hop up on the table so we can take a look?”

  I stood and climbed up on the exam table. She did the normal thing with a stethoscope over different parts of my torso. She shined a light in my eyes and looked into my ears. I was a little more relaxed as an adult, but I was getting serious flashbacks to my childhood check-ups.

  “We can try to do a sonogram,” she said. “It depends on the species, but sometimes we can see the baby inside of you. Do you want to try?”

  I nodded. I wanted to see a picture of my baby. I’d definitely stick it to the fridge.

  “Lift your shirt, please,” she said. “I’m getting the gel.” She reached for a bottle that was in a little plastic container attached to the sonogram machine. “It’ll be a little cold.”

  What an understatement. The gel felt incredibly cold, but I tried to stay still as she rubbed it on my exposed tummy, smearing it on my smooth brown skin. I’d had sex with my mates, so I probably shouldn’t have been embarrassed, but I was. I felt really vulnerable with my stomach bare.

  She turned on the machine and began to move something over my stomach. I could see the sonogram’s feedback in real time. I saw a little blob inside of me.

  “That’s your baby,” she said, smiling at me. “Do you want a picture?”

  “Of course,” I said. She smiled. She was saying something else, but my brain was full of white noise. My baby was in there. Our were-cub.

  “The baby is healthy and we should schedule regular monthly check-ups?” Quinton asked.

  “That’s right,” Dr. Babson confirmed. “She sounds fine, but we want to keep an eye on her. I’ll write a script for prenatal vitamins suitable for a were-cub.”

  I was still half out of it, staring at the still image on the screen. It seemed incredible that a little life was inside of me. Craziness.

  I was in a dazed state as she handed Quinton the prescription, smiled at all of us, and left. Orion paid at the front desk before all of us walked out.

  “Do you want to keep the sonogram?” Quinton asked. He put the picture in my hand. The baby was clear in it.

  “We’ll put it on the fridge,” I said.

  “Which fridge?” Orion asked.

  “Yours, of course.”

  “You’re moving in?” Quinton sounded surprised.

  “Well, we’re having a baby together.” I tried to sound nonchalant.

  “Is that the only reason?” Orion asked.

  “I love you both. Is that a good enough reason?”

  “Yes,” they said, leaning down to kiss me on each cheek. I felt like one of the luckiest people in the world.

  Epilogue

  “Get back here, Liam!” I screeched. “You’re not supposed to touch Mommy’s mixer!”

  The mixer that I had at home wasn’t an industrial mixer like the one I had at my bakery, The Sweetest Sass, but I liked to back small batches at home for my family. I’d had identical twins the first time and I was already pregnant again. I couldn’t run after Liam as fast as I wanted to.

  Liam had one of the attachments to my mixer in his mouth, a whisk attachment. He wasn’t at risk of cutting himself, but it was never good to have something metal in his mouth. I knew that he’d stolen it to lick the sweet cookie dough off.

  “Quinton,” I shouted. “Get in here and help me with Liam.”

  Zac wasn’t a little rocket like his brother. He had to be part owl, sitting there with literal puppy dog eyes.

  “You wouldn’t steal part of Mommy’s mixer, now, would you, Zacky?”

  He shook his little wolfy head.

  “That’s right, baby,” I said. “You’d let Mommy sneak you some.” I reached into the bowl, took a pinch of dough, and dropped it into Zac’s waiting mouth. He was an angel.

  Sometimes it was hard to believe that Liam was just a shifter, because he had to have a drop of demon in him. While Zac was placid and calm, Liam was a ball of mischievous energy. He was constantly getting into things that he shouldn’t.

  Quinton came down the stairs. “What has he done now?”

  “He stole part of my mixer. Could you get it back?”

  “Sure thing,” he said, stealing a kiss. “Where’d he go?”

  “Outside, through the dog door.”

  Quinton shed his clothes quickly before shifting into wolf shape, trotting outside. His wolf could keep up with a puppy.

  “Are you making cookies?” Orion said. I hadn’t heard him come down the stairs. The twins had woken me up at the crack of dawn. I’d let their fathers sleep in, since we were all a little short on sleep.

  My sons preferred to wear wolf-skin, since they could do much more as wolf cubs than human babies.

  “Yes, if your son hadn’t interrupted.”

  “Why is he my son when he’s in trouble?”

  “He’s always your son,” I said, tilting my face up for a kiss. He dropped a hard, fast kiss on my mouth. “But he’s also always in trouble.”

  “What about our other one?”

  “Zac’s right here, aren’t you, precious?”

  Zac trotted over to his father and pawed at his calf. Orion scooped him up in his arms and kissed his little nose.

  I loved looking at the two of them together. Honestly, I had no idea how other families did it with only two parents. The three of us could barely keep track of two little boys. Sometimes it felt like six of us wouldn’t be able to handle two boys, especially when one was a constant explosion like Liam was.

  I washed my hands and went back to scooping up little chunks of cookie dough and popping them onto a lined cookie sheet. The oven had been pre-heated, so it was just a matter of waiting.

  “What kind of cookies are those?” Orion said.

  “Reverse chocolate chip. White chocolate chips with chocolate dough.” I finished scooping out the cookies. “You can lick the spoon.”

  I popped it into his mouth and slowly withdrew it. The look in his eyes as he ate it meant that the two of us would be doing something very adult later tonight.

  “Tastes delicious,” he said, jostling Zac, who was beginning to wiggle. Zac liked affection, but he also liked to walk around on his own. Orion crouched down and let our son go. Zac went out the dog door, probably to observe his brother’s antics and analyze them. He was already a scientist while Liam was a perpetual-motion machine.

  “While we’re alone,” Orion said, “let me take advantage of a few seconds.” He kissed me hard and deep. The passion between the three of us hadn’t faded during the months of our marriage. I’d had a quick and easy birth, even with two kids, and we’d agreed to have babies soon after so that they’d be close in age.

  I broke the kiss when I heard paws hitting the porch.

  “I think Liam is back,” I groaned.

  Quinton was nudging Liam into the kitchen with his nose. Zac was in the rear, just observing. Liam whined as he went in front of me and put the attachment on the ground.

  I bent down to pat his head. “It’s okay, baby,” I said. “Mommy forgives you.” I picked up the attachment with my spare hand.

  He licked my hand and then immediately raced outside to get into more trouble. Quinton chased after him. We couldn’t leave Liam alone for a minute. One time, he’d gotten into poison ivy. The entire household had been purely miserable alongside him. The incessant howling meant that we’d never let him go into the woods solo again. Zac began to investigate the extremely interesting pattern in the kitchen’s wood floor.

  “You’re going into work today, right?” Orion leaned against the counter.

  “Yeah, just for the afternoon and evening. Karen got sick, so I have to cover her shift. Do you think that you can handle the afternoon? You need to take the cookies out of the oven in 20 minutes and let them cool.”

  “Piece of cake,” Orion said.

  Famous last words.

  * * *

  When I drove home that night, tired from helping customers during the extra shift at The Sweetest Sass, all the lights were on the house. I could see Orion holding Liam in his arms. He wasn’t cuddling him. He seemed to be scolding him. I parked and got out.

  “What’s happening?” I asked as I pushed the door open.

  “Liam stole my wallet, and we can’t find it.”

  I sighed. Other puppies chewed shoes. Liam stole things. He wasn’t at the stage where he understood the concept of theft and property. We also knew that he would dig holes for things. Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem. His fathers could sniff out where he’d hidden stuff.

  Except Liam loved to bury things in the mud of the pond that was behind our house.

  “You can call the banks in the morning to get new cards.” Even if we found Orion’s wallet, odds were that everything inside would need to be destroyed. Everything would be too muddy to use.

  “I will,” he said. “Who knew that were-cubs could be so mischievous?”

  “I think we got lucky,” I said drily. “But according to your mother, you were just the same.”

  “I was as good as Zac,” he protested.

  “Uh huh,” I said. “I’ve seen the pictures of you smeared in mud. Liam isn’t the only one in this family who likes to play with mud.”

  “But you love us anyway,” he said, bringing Liam’s muddy body close to me as he swooped in for a kiss on my temple. I didn’t mind the mud on my clothes. I could was it. I snuggled my baby close and kissed his furry little head.

  “Where’s Quinton? Zac?” I gave Liam back to his father.

  “Quinton was upstairs giving Zac a quick bath. There was splashing involved.”

  Zac loved bath time. He especially loved getting everyone and everything in the room wet while he played in the water.

  A few seconds later, I could hear the thuds of Quinton’s footsteps coming down the stairs. He was holding Zac in his arms, a big fluffy brown-streaked towel around him.

  “Someone else was playing with mud,” I see.

  “It was mostly his paws, not a full-body smear like Liam.” Quinton brought him to me. I breathed in his clean baby scent and kissed his nose.

  “No matter how much mud there is, I wouldn’t trade our little family for anything. I love you all so much I can barely contain it.”

  “Same,” Orion and Quinton said.

  THE END

  From Alyse

  I love writing about hot guys and the women who love them. I’m always working on new and naughty books. There are so many sexy men to write about!

  For more books, find Alyse online:

  www.amazon.com/Alyse-Zaftig/e/B00VF6YSGU/

  twitter.com/alysezaftig

  www.facebook.com/alysezaftig

 

 

  Alyse Zaftig, Sassy Ever After: The Sweetest Sass (Kindle Worlds Novella)

 

 

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