Moonlight (25 page)

Chapter Forty-Five

Lana

Malcolm’s body rested on top of the large pyre. I stood with Adam at his head, and Aren to Adam’s right. The rest of the Pack took places around Malcolm and waited. I looked up at Adam and wished I could ease his pain. His eyes looked older, heavy with the weight of this task.

Adam took a deep breath and looked at each Pack member with a slow sweep of his gaze. He cleansed Malcolm’s face with oils, and then lifted his head toward the stars. “Tonight we celebrate the life of our Alpha, our leader and friend, my father, Malcolm. He was a counselor, a peacekeeper, and a fierce protector of his own. Now that he has crossed over, I accept his responsibilities to the Pack. I will carry the burdens of our safety and battles on my shoulders.” His voice softened. “I will always keep his memory alive in my heart, and I only hope that I will make him proud of our progress. We offer his spirit back to the moon and the night. May his soul be lifted, free to run with the Pack of our ancestors and watch over those he has left behind.”

Aren stepped forward. “I call to our mother, Martha. Please welcome your mate, and guide our father to the other side.”

One by one the Pack members shared a story of Malcolm and touched the pyre with a torch before passing it to the next. When the torch finally reached me, the fire was already blazing hot. I didn’t realize I would have to speak. I wasn’t ready. I barely knew him, but when the weight of the torch was placed in my hand I called out.

“Thank you for accepting me. I wish our children could know their grandfather.” At that moment something inside of me fluttered. I dropped the torch in surprise. Adam picked it up and tossed it into the fire.

“Are you all right?” he whispered in my ear.

“I think they just kicked.”

He slid his arm around my waist and pulled me in close to his body. Together we watched his father’s body burn until his ashes floated up into the night air, stolen away by the wind. As the fire crumpled into embers, the Pack chanted a melancholy farewell.

With the ceremony over, I helped Aren back up to the house while Adam and the others buried the embers to quiet the fire. Once I had Aren settled on the couch I elevated his ankle and went back to the kitchen to get him some water. On my way back I felt movement inside of me again and nearly dropped the glass. Aren sat up on the sofa, ready to spring into action.

“Everything okay?”

I nodded, rubbing at my stomach with my free hand. “Yeah. I keep thinking I feel the twins kicking, but I know it’s too soon for that.”

“How do you figure?” Aren looked like he was fighting back a smile.

I handed him the glass of water. “Because if I’m actually pregnant, I could only be a couple weeks along. Adam thought he could hear a heartbeat, but even so…”

The door opened behind me, and I smiled when Adam walked in. Jason was following close behind. Funny thing to meet a man when he was naked, now it seemed surprising to see him dressed. I hoped that would go away eventually.

Adam kissed my forehead and smiled over at Aren. “I felt like Dad was there with us tonight. Did you?”

“I think so. I was dreading the ceremony, but once it started…” His voice drifted off, and he shrugged with a slight nod. “It did feel like he was with us. I didn’t feel so much sad as I did proud.”

I looked up at Adam, relieved to see him smiling again.

“Me too,” he said as he glanced down at me. “I brought Jason with me to check on the babies.”

“What?” I frowned, suddenly feeling nervous. I looked over at Jason and then back up at Adam. “Sorry, but I haven’t even taken a pregnancy test yet. And even if it is positive, I’d rather go see an obstetrician.” I peeked over at Jason. “No offense.”

“None taken,” he said with a smug smile.

Adam shook his head. “You can’t go to a regular doctor. You’re not having a regular pregnancy. Besides, the hospital is how Nero found you, remember? All it would take is a red flag on a test that comes out irregular, and they’ll know where you are.”

“They already know,” I argued. “I want a real doctor, Adam.”

Jason stepped forward. “Excuse me, but I am a real doctor.”

“What?” I looked up at his hazel, almost-orange eyes, half expecting his hair to be a mane around him like it had been last night at the lake. He looked tame now with it all tied back. He appeared to be…professional. I sighed. “So you have a medical degree?”

“I do.” He nodded with a sparkle in his eyes. “I even have an office at the hospital. You can come inspect my diploma if you’d like.”

“That won’t be necessary.” I looked down at my hands. “I’m sorry. This is all happening so fast, I can’t keep up.”

Jason nudged Adam. “You haven’t told her, have you?”

“Told me what?”

Jason’s gaze met mine. “I can hear the heartbeats now. We all can.”

My hands went to my abdomen. Was it getting bigger? I looked down, my brow furrowing. I’d hardly eaten anything, but my stomach was definitely pooched out. In one day? Holy crap!

“What are you guys trying to tell me?”

Adam took my hand. “I’m trying to say I want Jason to check you over because—”

“Because why?” I could feel my blood pressure rising. “Talk to me, Adam!”

He chuckled and knelt down in front of me. Holding my hands in his, Adam looked up at me with the most gorgeous green eyes. No one should be that irresistible. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“The babies will be born in about four months.”

I would’ve fallen down if I wasn’t already sitting. I felt my jaw go slack. I glanced over at my new doctor. “Is this true?”

Jason opened his hands the way doctors do when they’re trying to calm their patients. I wanted to jump up and shake him.

“Well, for our Pack the average gestation time has always been four months. Since you weren’t converted”—he glanced at Adam, then back at me—“we’re wandering into uncharted territory here.”

I clung tighter to Adam’s hands. “Did Adam tell you I wasn’t bitten by a jaguar either? I was born into my power.”

Jason lifted a brow. “He did, although I still don’t know how that’s possible.”

“I’ve been changing for years, not knowing that’s what was happening.”

Adam straightened up. “Nero was experimenting with psychic women, trying to breed female jaguars who are born into their power. Sebastian smuggled the records out and gave them to Lana.”

Jason rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know the standard gestation for jaguar females. I’ll need to do some research.” He met my eyes and offered a smile that spoke volumes. “I’m sorry I don’t have all the answers yet, but we’ll get through this, Lana. I’ve got my bag out in the truck. Do you mind if I have a listen?”

I shook my head, and he disappeared outside. Adam rose up and kissed me tenderly before the pacing began. Jason came back in with a stethoscope around his neck and a bag in his hand. The doctors on General Hospital would kill to look so good.

He knelt down beside the chair and popped the black rubber plugs into his ears. “Can you lift up your shirt?” It was actually Adam’s T-shirt, but I slid it up over my stomach anyway, making a mental note that I had a major shopping trip coming soon.

The metal was cold on my skin, and I felt a flutter of movement again.

Jason grinned. “Did you feel that? They don’t like the cold.”

I smiled and nodded. “I felt it.”

“Do you want to hear them?” he asked.

I nodded, and he carefully put the earpieces in my ears. I could hear the whooshing of not one, but two small hearts. My eyes welled up with tears as I looked over at Adam. He froze, staring at me. I held up my hand and gestured for him to come over. When he did, I started to take off the stethoscope, but he shook his head, placing his hand, fingers splayed, over my abdomen.

“I hear them,” he whispered.

In that one single moment, I had a family. My family.

I pulled Adam to me and kissed him with every bit of love that was in my heart. I knew the future was uncertain. I was a medical anomaly, but I didn’t care. I felt safe and loved and a part of something larger than myself. Whatever the future brought, Adam and I would face it together. Two parts of one stronger whole.

We both drew back from the kiss, and Adam rested his forehead against mine. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Aren launched a pillow at us. “Get a room you two.”

Adam got up and retaliated, knocking his twin in the head with the soft projectile while Jason tucked his stethoscope back into the bag and shook his head. “Ignore them. They’ve always been like this.”

I grinned. “I hope they never change.”

Epilogue

Adam

Bruce loped around the arena while I worked the reins to get him to drop his neck. The wind blew past my ears, biting my skin with the fall chill in the air. Billows of fog floated by, giving the illusion that we were flying, racing through the clouds. The past three months had been quiet. Although we’d been patrolling the city nightly, there was still no sign of any jaguars lurking. Since taking out Cyrus and sending the surviving members of his team running, Nero had to be regrouping. It was obvious the Pack wasn’t going to relinquish Lana to them, and now that we knew they existed, we’d keep watch.

If they showed up in Reno again, we’d be ready for them.

I was glad for the respite. Alpha senses I never had before kept flooding me when I least expected the interruption. I wish I knew how Malcolm made it all look so simple and seamless. When I suddenly knew one of my Pack needed me, I felt like I’d just seen the Bat-Signal. I wanted to jump in my Batsuit, fire up the Batmobile, and race off to the rescue, but I was still learning my new role. The Alpha wasn’t supposed to fight every battle. I needed to make my interference in Pack affairs as minimal as possible. But sometimes that was easier said than done.

My brother, for example, was never easy. I knew he was hiding something, but regardless of how often we talked, he never offered me a clue that anything was wrong. But I could feel it. I knew. Yet there was nothing I could do until he decided to share.

My best guess was that it was something to do with his concern over his ankle healing to full strength or something like that. It’d make sense for him to have those kinds of fears. While he was finally off the crutches, he still favored his good leg, and Jason still wasn’t sure if he’d ever get back his full mobility again. The Pack needed him for patrols anyway, but I couldn’t let him go out alone anymore. His bruised ego came across in a short temper and overall bad attitude, but I didn’t know what else I could do. Being the Alpha, he had to obey my order, but he didn’t have to like it.

I understood my father more and more every day.

And then there was Lana.

I stopped Bruce as we came around to the chair underneath the tree. Lana’s fingers slowed and finally rested on the laptop keyboard as she looked up at me. “I thought you were training the horses.”

I put my hand on the saddle horn and grinned down at my wife. She’d married me just over a month ago, making me the luckiest bastard in the world. “I am, but my wife keeps distracting me.”

She laughed and closed her laptop, exposing her enormous round belly. My heart swelled in my chest. Our babies were due any day, and I was eager and terrified all at once. Jason seemed confident he could deliver the babies without a problem, but Jason always seemed confident. I was pretty sure doctors had to pass a class in confidence.

“Your wife is the size of a house at the moment.” She rubbed her belly with both hands. “Ripe and ready to burst.”

I jumped off of Bruce and lifted the reins over his head. Leading him over to Lana, I took her hand and helped her up from the chair. As soon as she was vertical her face went white. Her grip on my hand squeezed until I felt my knuckles popping.

“Luke,” I screamed. “I need you.
Now
!”

He poked his head around the corner. “Yeah?”

“Come get Bruce. Lana’s in labor.” Luke snatched the reins from me quickly. “Call Jason.”

Luke nodded, and took the horse back to the barn while I scooped Lana up into my arms. She winced, her brow already beading with sweat.

“Jason’s on his way. It’ll be okay.”

She nodded, blowing out her breath the way we’d been practicing. It hurt me to see the pain etched in the lines of her face. Guilt weighed on me, and I wished I could take the burden from her. But all I could do was lay her out on the bed and hold her hand. For the next half hour I kept watching the clock, timing her contractions. Jason had said it could take hours, but the contractions were already under five minutes apart. These babies were ready. I did my best not to panic.

She met my eyes. “I’ll be all right.”

“I know you will. Those babies are lucky they have such an amazing mom.” The corner of my mouth curved up, and I wiped her brow with a cool washcloth. “
I’m
supposed to be reassuring
you
, remember?”

She shrugged. “I don’t like to see you worried.” Her hand reached out to caress my face. “I like to see you smile.”

I kissed her palm. “You have that effect on me.”

Another contraction hit, and her hand slapped the mattress. “Oh God, it’s getting worse.” She tried to breathe, but a sob escaped her throat instead.

Where the hell was Jason
?

During the next half hour her contractions came more rapidly, and I called Jason’s cell again. Right to voicemail.
Shit
.

I knelt at her side again, holding her hand and wiping her brow. “You’re doing great,” I encouraged her. As the contraction faded, she took a deep breath and opened her eyes again.

“They’re coming. I can feel it.”

I could hear the panic in her voice. “Jason’s on his way.”
Or he damned well better be
.

She shook her head. “He won’t make it, Adam.” Her eyes locked with mine. “I need you to help me.”

My pulse skyrocketed, pounding in my ears as I shook my head. “He’ll be here…”

Her next contraction interrupted me with the force of a hurricane. Lana leaned forward from the pillows and pulled her knees up. The bed linens were turning crimson. I pushed the sheet up from her feet, just as the top of a tiny head crowned. All my panic vanished, and my adrenaline kicked into high gear.

“I can see the head, Lana. You’re almost there. Push.”

She closed her eyes, moaning as she strained. Her hands gripped the sheets, tugging until the contraction ended. A tiny wail interrupted Lana’s exhausted panting. Her eyes widened as I scooped up the baby in my hands. Tears ran down her face when I showed her our little howling son.

“He’s beautiful,” I whispered.

She nodded, reaching up to touch his cheek. “Let’s name him Malcolm.”

Tears obstructed my vision, but I nodded. “I’d like that.”

Suddenly her hand fell away. Oh God, I’d forgotten there was another baby coming! Panic was back in full force. While one tiny life cried in my hand, another was fighting to be born. I couldn’t put him down, but I couldn’t leave the other one. Lana needed me.

“Got your hands full?”

Never in my entire life had I been so happy to see Jason. He took over, helping Lana to deliver Malcolm’s twin while I stayed beside her, doing my best to encourage her. When we heard the second cry I rested my forehead to Lana’s, and we both laughed and cried. Two healthy babies. She did it.

But Jason was quiet.

I turned toward him, my brow furrowed. “Is everything all right?”

He nodded and looked up at us holding a tiny, wriggling, wailing baby, but Jason no longer resembled the calm and cool doctor. His jaw was slack and his gaze unsure. “It’s…a girl.”

Lana smiled, holding out her arms to embrace her new daughter, but Jason and I just stared at one another for a second.

“How can that be?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, but there’s more.” Jason tipped his head toward our new daughter. “She’s not a werewolf.”

I raised a brow. “But little Malcolm is… I caught his scent right away.” I leaned closer to Lana and our baby girl. I inhaled and realized what had confounded Jason. “She’s a jaguar.”

Jason nodded and started to smile. “No wonder they were moving around so much in there, Lana. They were already fighting.”

She looked up at me with an exhausted smile. “Dogs and cats chase each other, isn’t that what you told me the night we met?”

“Yes, but what did I know, huh?” I settled Malcolm into the crook of her other arm and nodded as I kissed her. “They’re beautiful.”

“What should we name her?” She smiled at our new daughter.

“How about Madeleine?”

“Madeleine.” She kissed her forehead and looked up at me. “I like it.”

Jason helped cut the umbilical cords and finished cleaning Lana up before he quietly vanished and left me with my new family. I laid beside her in the bed and stroked her hair back from her forehead.

“You’re amazing.”

Lana smiled up at me. “You weren’t half bad yourself.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t more prepared.”

She kissed each new baby. “I think we did a pretty good job anyway.”

“We did. I’m not sure any werewolves have ever been born without an identical twin, let alone a jaguar. We didn’t know that was even possible.”

Lana laughed, nuzzling the twins. “And they said
I
was amazing. You two were just born, and you’re already one of a kind.”

“They’re incredible.” Gradually my smile faded away. I sat up and sniffed the air, my brow furrowing with worry.

“Adam? Is something wrong?”

I didn’t want to scare her. This was an amazing night, filled with two tiny miracles she cradled in her arms. I buried my concern and leaned over to kiss her brow.

“Everything’s fine. Just rest. I’ll be right back.”

She began to nurse the babies as I closed the door and went down the hall. Aren and Jason went silent when I walked in the room.

My brother grinned and got up to give me a tight hug. “Congratulations, bro.”

“Thanks.” I clapped his back and pulled back to meet his eyes. “But we need to be careful.”

Aren’s smile vanished. “What’s wrong?”

“I thought I caught Sebastian’s scent.”

I opened the door to scan the property and froze. Sitting on the doormat was a flower arrangement and a card. I picked it up and opened the card.

Take care of your new family. –S

I crumbled the card and dropped it on the floor. “I think Nero is going to be back… if they aren’t already here.”

Aren crossed his arms over his chest. “We won’t let them near Lana.”

“I don’t think Lana is what they’ll be after.”

Both of them looked confused. I stared over at the door to my bedroom knowing that Lana and our babies were inside. They were my world now.

“The babies… Our daughter…”

Jason ground his teeth together, and Aren’s shoulders tensed. “We’ll stay on alert,” Aren growled. “No one is coming near my niece and nephew.”

Jason added, “We’re on it Adam. I’ll gather the Pack.”

I gripped each of their shoulders. “Thank you.”

Aren started to smile. “Go keep your wife company, and get some rest while you can.”

I watched them go and took a deep breath. I was the Alpha now, and I wouldn’t live my life in fear.

Lana’s eyes opened when I came back in the room. I’d never seen anyone look so beautiful.

With two tiny lives resting in her arms, her eyes sparkled up at me. “Look Malcolm, Madeleine, your daddy’s back.”

The weight of the future lifted from my shoulders. This was my family. I got into bed beside Lana and kissed each cheek of our tiny twin babies. “Welcome to the Pack.”