Chapter Ten

Finally, Connor strode toward her and took the envelope. Without even glancing at the contents, he tossed it onto the seat of the couch she was standing beside and grasped her shoulders.

“Obviously, I said a lot of bloody stupid things. We took care of ye because ye matter ta us,” he growled.

Dana swallowed with an effort. “Yes. I know. You said it was your job, but I really felt like you went above and beyond and ….”

He shook his head at her. “I said way too much tha’ was bloody stupid,” he ground out. “I luv ye, lass. We took care of ye because we luv ye. We brought ye home because this is where ye belong—with us ta take care of ye and keep ye safe.”

There was such a roaring in Dana’s ears that she was sure she’d heard him wrong. “But … you said ….”

He caught her face between his palms. “Ferget tha bloody stupid things I said before,” he growled, jerking her close and capturing her lips beneath his to silence her.

The abrupt move sent a jolt of shock through her, but the feel of his mouth on hers was so very welcome it banished everything else from her mind. Warmth and desire flooded her. She reached for him.

He forestalled her.

Making like Rhett and Scarlett, he swept her into his arms and went up the stairs with her.

She gnawed on his ear while she was waiting to hit the mattress, giving him just a little more incentive to move faster.

Kiran beat them to the door and opened it and almost caught it with his face when Connor kicked it toward shut.

They were both naked before she hit the mattress.

It took a little longer to strip her—mostly because they were fighting over who was going to take what off and which of them was going to kiss it first. By the time they had her naked she was trying to climb, and mount, both of them—which ever dragged her closest at any given moment.

Connor shoved Kiran off the bed and made a spot between her thighs for his hips.

Dana coiled her legs around him immediately and began trying to mount the dick he was dragging up and down her cleft.

She’d just managed to ‘ring’ it when Kiran landed on the bed again, jarring her loose. Connor shoehorned his cock in and rolled with her, presenting her back to Kiran.

Shrugging, Kiran focused on her back while Connor stuffed her down over his cock and began to pound into her.

As soon as Connor was laser focused on reaching nirvana, Kiran slipped his cock between the cheeks of her ass and her thighs and began pumping.

Connor halted the first time Kiran rammed him with the head of his cock, glared at him, and then, apparently, decided to ignore him in favor of finishing.

Dana had gasped and panted until she thought she might pass out or throw up. Thankfully, instead of either unpleasantness, she came.

The moment she started bucking and groaning, Kiran came and then Connor.

The three of them lay panting for breath in the aftermath, slowly gathering their wits.

“I’m gonna beat tha fuck out of ye Kiran if ye pull tha’ bloody stupid stunt again,” Connor growled finally.

Kiran lifted his head. “Wha?”

“It’s ok, Kiran. Go back to sleep,” Dana murmured a little drunkenly.

“It is nae ok,” Connor growled irritably. “I’m alpha, gods damn it!”

Kiran lifted his bird finger and then dropped his arm limply to the bed, snuggled close to Dana and drifted off.

As soon as he was dead to the world, Connor got up, scooped Dana off the bed and headed into another bedroom. Settling her in the middle of the bed, he climbed in beside her, dragged her close and drifted to sleep.

Kiran was in the bed with them when they woke the following morning.

Roused by Connor’s departure, Dana got up, looked around for her things and finally left the room to widen her search to the other bedrooms.

Connor was still muttering when she arrived in the kitchen for coffee shortly behind Kiran—who as clearly a morning person if his cheerful attitude was any indication. Grabbing her the moment she was close enough, he bestowed a hearty kiss on her before he released her. “Mornin’, luv.”

It was enough to jumpstart her heart and make it possible to open her eyes a little wider even before she got her coffee.

Kiran pulled a chair out for her and then settled at the table across from Connor. “What? Nae breakfast?”

Connor glared at him. “I’m drinkin’ me coffee.”

“We need ta ….” Sending Connor an uneasy glance, he broke off abruptly, got up, and headed around the kitchen counter. “Ta feed our woman, ye know—now she’s breedin’.”

Connor looked like he was contemplating throwing his coffee cup at his head, but after looking at the contents, he decided against it.

The comment was enough to really jumpstart Dana’s heart, though. “Breeding?” she asked faintly.

He grinned at her. “Full of cubs, darlin’.”

Dana choked on her coffee and spewed it all over the table. She felt her face heat up. “Oh! I’m so sorry! I strangled.”

Leaping to her feet she raced around the counter and grabbed a towel to mop up the mess. By the time she had, Connor had stalked around the counter and laid Kiran out. “Tha’s tha most annoyin’ habit ye’ve got, Kiran an’ tha’s a fact!”

“Well, gods damn it, Connor! Ye think she ain’t gonna figure it out?”

“Figure what out?” Dana asked sharply, afraid of the answer.

“Doan pay him nae mind, darlin’,” Connor said soothingly.

“Yes, but ….”

He grasped her by her shoulders. “Do ye luv me, lass? Even a little?”

Dana felt her chin wobble. “I love you so much it scares me,” she said.

He swallowed audibly and very slowly and carefully pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her and tightening them. “Then we’re both of us scared ta death,” he muttered.

“Me, too,” Kiran growled.

Connor ignored him. “Wha’ tha’ fool’s sayin’ is we want a family with ye, darlin’.”

Dana felt a thrill go through her at that. No man in her life had ever wanted her to have their baby. “Really?”

He pulled away to meet her gaze. “With all my heart,” he murmured, leaning close to kiss her.

“Me, too,” Kiran growled.

Connor lifted one hand long enough to shoot him a bird and then coiled it around Dana again. After a few moments, he resolutely set her away.

“Breakfast,” he said sternly.

* * * *

Dana was so thrilled when she realized she was pregnant that she went around on cloud nine for days, trying to decide just the right time to break the news to the guys.

And then, when she finally did, they acted thrilled and stunned.

And she knew it was an act.

And that made her recall the conversation she’d dismissed.

“You already knew.”

They very carefully didn’t look at each other.

Connor cleared his throat.

Dana held up her hand. “Nope! Don’t try that on me. You already knew.”

Connor looked uncomfortable. “We’re bears, luv. O’course we knew.”

She hadn’t actually forgotten they were … were-bears, she supposed. It just wasn’t something that stayed in the forefront of her mind.

She cut her eyes at Kiran, who was contemplating his fingernails with complete focus she thought was unnecessary. “And the comment about me being full of cubs?”

Connor and Kiran both reddened—Kiran with uneasiness and Connor with irritation. “Figure of speech,” Connor muttered.

She didn’t believe it, but she decided to dismiss it.

She could see them knowing she was pregnant because they had … enhanced senses beyond anything humans still had—maybe had never had. But she knew pregnancy caused chemical changes in a woman’s body and that that was probably what they sensed.

But she didn’t see any chance she was giving off specific numbers or the gender, either.

She dismissed it and focused on her search for a job.

She loved the house.

She loved the guys.

But she just couldn’t get ‘in’ to housewife. She didn’t mind doing some of the cooking and some of the cleaning and she was looking forward to being mommy, but she had to be ‘her’. She couldn’t just be there for everyone else. She had to have her own life.

The fact that she didn’t really need a job to survive didn’t matter.

What mattered was that she felt a need to achieve … something, to make a difference—beyond producing another generation.

She finally realized that she could actually afford to do something she’d always wanted to do, but didn’t because there was no real money in it—unless you became a star. For the vast majority, it had to be a labor of love.

Her grandmother had taught her to tat. She hadn’t done it in years and years, but she knew she could remember and it was almost a lost art.

It was also very soothing to work with her hands on something that was intricate enough it required her entire focus—making it impossible to think ‘bad’ things at the same time.

She needed it when she discovered that Connor was leaving.

It was only supposed to be a few days to take care of business, but it made her uneasy that he thought he needed to leave Kiran with her to protect her. That instantly convinced her that whatever he was up to was dangerous.

And that connected in her mind to Brandon.

She shook the thought.

She’d contacted the company and they had discovered she was right. Brandon had been embezzling—millions. And she was cleared and they were looking for him.

And, no thank you. She didn’t want to go back anyway.

So there was no reason that she could see that Connor would feel the need to protect her by tracking him down and ‘eliminating’ the threat.

She was still uneasy and she couldn’t shake it.

Her mind was redirected shortly after his departure, however, by the realization that, although she was absolutely certain she knew when she’d gotten pregnant, her belly was just growing so fast it seemed … almost ominous.

Within a few months she was already starting to look late stage pregnant. She’d been thrilled with her baby bump until it dawned on her that it was getting really big really fast and, even though she hadn’t had a baby before, that just didn’t seem to ‘fit’ what she’d read up on it.

When her first doctor’s appointment rolled around she discovered why it didn’t fit.

Because she was having quads.

The doctor was convinced she’d gotten her dates screwed up until she did an ultrasound and discovered four.

It was a good thing for Connor that he wasn’t home at the time.

And she realized it was hardly reasonable to take it out on Kiran when he’d actually told her straight out that she was ‘full of cubs’.

So they didn’t know and or she’d been warned and she’d ignored it.

By the time Connor got back she was just so relieved to see him it didn’t cross her mind to chew him out about the quads—because it wasn’t as if he could help it. It was her own damned fault and she knew it.

She had to have produced the four eggs or there wouldn’t be four.

Or two that had promptly divided.

She didn’t understand how that had happened. She didn’t recall ever hearing of any multiple births in the family—her part of it.

But, she supposed, it could be something she’d inherited from the bastard that had knocked her mother up and promptly took off like the lowlife coward he was.

Figured.

She was sad to think she was going to have her entire family in one wad and it was going to be hard to enjoy it and then she wouldn’t get to spread the ‘fun’ out.

Considering her age, though, she thought it was really for the best.

She had to spend the last two months in bed because she couldn’t get up without having contractions and they all wanted the babies to stay put until they were ‘done’ enough to see the world.

When the day finally arrived, Kiran delivered the first two in the backseat of the truck before they even got to the hospital—the boys. The girls waited until she had a nice clean hospital table under her before they made their début.

Both Connor and Kiran were allowed in the hospital delivery room because both of them insisted they’d fathered the babies—which thoroughly confused the hospital staff.

When Dana was finally able to walk down to the nursery where the guys had, more or less, permanently stationed themselves, she arrived in time to hear a couple of older people ask Connor which was his baby. He grinned and pointed to a blue bed and a pink one. “Tha’ girl and tha’ boy.”

Kiran grinned. “An’ tha’ boy an’ tha’ girl are mine.”

The two elders stared at them, clearly horrified since all of the basinets had the same name on them, and then took off, but she couldn’t see that either of the guys looked particularly perturbed by their reaction.

Dana had mixed feeling about it, but she was happy to see Connor and Kiran seemed to be very proud of their efforts. “I see you guys can’t wait to get them home,” she murmured teasingly.

Connor chuckled and hugged her. “Aye. It’ll be nice ta have them tucked in safe at night. I’m nae too keen on hospitals.”

“Me neither,” Kiran agreed, dragging her away from Connor to give her a squeeze. “I’m tha’ proud of ye, lass. They’re fine cubs, tha lot of them. Did I tell ye today how much I luv ye?”

She frowned, pretending to think it over. “I don’t think so,” she said teasingly.

“I’m thinkin’ I’d rather show ye,” he murmured.

Connor punched his shoulder and dragged her back into his arms. “Dunce! She just had tha’ babies! I’ll cut yer dick off and choke ye with it if ye stick it at her.”

“Connor!” Dana gasped chidingly. “Don’t even think about hurting his pretty thing!”

He looked down at her. “Ye’d still have mine, luv.”

“Oh! You’re right ….”

Connor and Dana both laughed at the look on Kiran’s face as he struggled for a retort.
“I never thought I’d see tha day,” Connor said with a chuckle. “He’s speechless.”

Dana relented. “He didn’t mean it, Kiran.”

“Yeah I did,” Connor countered. “Doan test me on this, Kiran.”

 

The End.