Chapter 141

Caelion did not let me leave the cave for three days.

The hot spring was only part of his sanctuary. Deeper in the rock, through a narrow passage that required swimming to access, lay an underwater chamber that took my breath away the first time he showed me. The water there was cool, fed by underground rivers that never saw the sun, and the air above it was fresh and perfect for resting between bouts of passion.

We spent our days in the cool and our nights in the heat. He took me everywhere. Against the smooth stone walls of the hot spring. Floating in the buoyant warmth while he moved inside me. On the ledge above the pool where the steam curled around our bodies. And in the underwater chamber, where he laid me on a bed of soft moss and showed me what it meant to be loved by a creature of the deep.

My merman was relentless.

The first day had been hunger, the desperate need of long denial. He took me in the hot spring until I could not stand, then carried me to the cool chamber and took me again, his body covering mine in the darkness, his voice whispering filthy promises in my ear as he moved with the patience of the tides.

The second day was thoroughness. He mapped my body with his hands, his mouth, his cock, learning every spot that made me gasp, every angle that made me beg. He took me from behind in the water, his hands gripping my hips, his thrusts creating ripples that spread across the pool. He took me on my back on the moss bed, my legs wrapped around his waist, his eyes intense in the dim light as he watched me come apart beneath him.

The third day was determination. Single minded focus. The absolute certainty that he would fill me, mark me, ensure that when I left this cavern I would carry his child.

"Caelion," I gasped on the third morning, my voice hoarse from crying out, my body throbbing with a delicious soreness that made every movement a reminder of what he had done to me. "I cannot... I need to..."

"You can," he whispered against my throat, his cock already hard against my thigh, his fingers already finding me wet and ready despite my protests. We were in the cool chamber, the water lapping at the edges of our moss bed, his body cool and perfect against my heated skin. "One more time. Please. I can feel it. You are ripe. Ready. One more time will seal it."

He was inside me before I could form another objection, and my objection died anyway, transformed into a moan that echoed off the cave walls. He moved with the rhythm of deep ocean currents, endless and powerful, his sea glass eyes locked on mine in the dim phosphorescent glow, his blue hair dripping water onto my breasts as he braced himself above me.

"I love you," he groaned, his hips working with mechanical precision, hitting that spot inside me that made my vision blur. "I love you. I love you. Give me this. Give me a child. Our child."

I came with his name breaking from my lips, my body milking him, my nails leaving fresh marks on shoulders already scored with evidence of our passion. He followed, his roar drowning out my cry, his release flooding me with heat that seemed to burn even in the cool air, his arms crushing me to him as if he could merge us into one being.

"That was..." I panted, unable to finish.

"Seven," he counted, his voice smug with satisfaction, his cock still twitching inside me. "Twelve times in three days. In three different places."

"You are going to break me," I whispered, but I was smiling, my body singing with endorphins and the profound satisfaction of being thoroughly claimed.

"Never," he promised, pressing kisses to my temple, my eyelids, my lips. "I would never break you. I only want to fill you. To give you everything."

We finally emerged from the cavern on the fourth morning, my legs trembling, my body thoroughly used and deeply satisfied, my womb full of his seed. Caelion carried me through the tunnels, refusing to let me walk, his arms wrapped around me like precious cargo.

I had never felt more cherished. Or more thoroughly exhausted.

The household was chaos when we returned.

They left each morning before dawn, Veylan leading them out in their lion cub forms, small golden shadows padding behind him into the forest. They hunted smaller animals. Rabbits, squirrels, something in that nature. Like their brothers before them, they learned to be predators before they learned to be men.

Veylan promised to teach them "the proper way to move through the world without being seen." And each evening they returned, dusty and triumphant, with their catches held in their jaws and stories spilling from their mouths faster than I could follow.

I found a note in Veylan’s careful script waiting on the kitchen table one morning. "The boys are doing well. Niku has good instincts. Sikai is impatient but learns quickly. We will return before dark. Try not to worry."

I smiled at that. Try not to worry. As if I could stop.

That evening, as the sun painted the sky in shades of amber and rose, I heard them returning. The padding of small paws, the excited voices, the triumphant yips that preceded them through the door.

Sikai burst into the kitchen first, his golden fur full of twigs and burrs, a rabbit clutched in his small jaws. He dropped it at my feet with a growl of pride. "I tracked it myself," he announced, his chest puffed out, his tail high. "Daddy Veylan said I moved like a shadow."

"Like a clumsy shadow," Niku corrected, following more sedately with a squirrel hanging from his mouth. He dropped it beside the rabbit and sat, his ears perked forward. "You stepped on a branch. I heard you from ten paces."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Enough," Veylan said, entering last, his gray eyes warm with amusement. "Both of you did well. Sikai’s tracking is improving. Niku’s patience is..." He paused, considering. "Developing."

"We brought dinner," Sikai said, nosing the rabbit toward me with his bloodied muzzle. "We hunted it. For the family."

I looked down at the small golden cubs, my heart swelling with pride and something like sorrow. They were growing so fast. Too fast. Soon they would shift to human form, learn weapons and strategy, go off to real battles, facing real dangers. But for now, they were still my boys, still excited by rabbits and squirrels, still eager to show their mother what they had accomplished with teeth and determination.

"Thank you," I said, crouching to their level. "I am proud of you both. Now go let Theo brush you. You are full of burrs."

They ran off, already arguing about who had tracked better, who had been quieter, whose pelt would clean up faster.

Veylan watched them go, then looked at me, something soft in his usually guarded expression. "They are good boys," he said. "Quick. Eager. They remind me of..." He stopped, his jaw tightening.

"Of you and Eryx?" I asked gently.

He nodded, once, sharp. "Before. When we were young." He was quiet for a moment, lost in memory. Then he shook himself, returning to the present. "I will teach them properly. They will not suffer what we suffered. They will know they are valued. Both of them. Equally."

I reached out, touching his arm. "I know you will."

He covered my hand with his, a rare gesture of intimacy from my guarded wolf. Then he too went to wash, leaving me with the rabbit and the squirrel and the profound gratitude that they had returned safely.

Again.

And would again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Levy and Jasper had appointed themselves guardians of the egg chamber. I found them in the nest when Caelion finally released me long enough to check on my other children. The two of them sat in a solemn circle around the seven serpent eggs, cross legged and serious as judges. Tavren, Kaizen, and Zarek were there too, three months old and full of chaotic energy, crawling and tumbling over each other as they tried to imitate their older siblings’ serious patrol. Tavren had managed to climb onto a cushion and was attempting to guard it with tiny growls, while Kaizen and Zarek wrestled near the basket, their small paws batting at each other in mock combat.

"Mommy," Levy announced without looking up, "we are guarding."

"I see that," I said, leaning against the doorway, my body still thrumming with the aftereffects of three days with my merman.

"The eggs need protection," Jasper added, his wooden sword resting across his knees. "Daddy Soryn is sleeping. We are in charge."

Soryn was indeed coiled in the corner, one eye cracked open, watching the children with amusement that he tried to hide behind a facade of sleep.

"And what exactly are you protecting the eggs from?" I asked.

Jasper looked at me with the gravity of his seven years in his man form. "Everything. Bad guys. Cold air. Loud noises. Theo said eggs need quiet and warmth. We are providing."

"Theo is very wise," I agreed.

"He is our advisor," Levy confirmed. "He carved us each a sword. Real ones. Well, wooden ones. But he says they are practice for when we get real ones."

I looked at Soryn, who finally opened both eyes and gave me a small, helpless shrug that said he had given up trying to control any of this.

"They have been at this for two hours," he hissed softly. "They take shifts. Levy guards while Jasper patrols. The little ones..." He gestured toward the three month olds, who had now abandoned their wrestling to crawl toward the eggs with determined expressions. "They provide moral support. And chaos."

"And you?"

"I supervise." He paused. "And try to keep the cubs from climbing on the eggs. They are very... enthusiastic."

I laughed, the sound drawing Levy’s attention. She finally looked at me properly, and her golden eyes widened.

"Mommy! You were gone!"

"I was," I agreed, pushing off the doorway to enter the nest, my body aching in places I had forgotten existed.

"Were you getting a baby?" she asked, with the directness only she has. "Like when you and Daddy Caelion go away to make babies?"

I felt my face flush. "How do you know about that?"

"Atlas told me. He said when mommies and daddies go away alone, they are making babies. He said he is waiting for a new brother or sister. He has a bet with Ryder about whether it will be a boy or a girl."

I closed my eyes. Of course Atlas had organized a betting pool about my reproductive activities. Of course he had.

"Where is Atlas now?" I asked, already dreading the answer.

Soryn’s tail twitched. "Last I heard, he had declared himself General of the Northern Territories and was commanding his troops in a campaign against the dust bunnies under the eastern stairs."

"Dust bunnies?"

"He has a very active imagination."

I found Atlas, Ryder, and Chase in the eastern courtyard, exactly where Soryn had described. They had recruited their new friends, who at three and four were easily impressed by their new friends obvious authority. The five of them were armed with sticks and makeshift shields, facing off against an enemy only they could see.

"Charge!" Atlas screamed, his voice breaking with excitement. "For glory! For honor! For... for..."

"For snacks!" Chase supplied.

"For snacks!" Atlas agreed. "Charge!"

They ran at the staircase, sticks waving, shouting battle cries that echoed through the courtyard. Their two friends Lumis and Norton ran with them, their little legs pumping, their faces serious as they followed their friends into imaginary combat.

I watched from the doorway, Caelion coming up behind me to wrap his arms around my waist, his chin resting on my shoulder.

"Our children are insane," I observed.

"They are creative," he corrected. "And fierce. And loyal." He paused. "And possibly a danger to themselves and others."

"That too."

Atlas spotted us and immediately abandoned his campaign, running toward us with the single minded intensity that defined everything he did.

"Mommy! Did you make a baby? Is it in your tummy now? Ryder owes me three stones if it’s a girl. I bet on girl. He bet on boy. Chase bet on twins but Chase is stupid because you can’t just bet on twins, they have to happen naturally, everyone knows that."

"I..." I started.

"Also," Atlas continued without pause, "Theo is teaching me to carve. I made you something. It’s a bowl. It’s not very good. It looks like a lumpy rock. But Theo says if I practice, someday I will make beautiful things like him. I want to make beautiful things. Also I want to be a warrior. Can I be both?"

"You can be anything you want," I said, my heart overflowing with love for this chaotic, brilliant child.

"Good. Because I also want to be a good cook like you mommy. And a hunter. And possibly warrior like daddy. Theo says I have the energy for all of it." He paused, finally taking a breath. "Did you make a baby though? I need to know for the bet."

Caelion laughed, the sound rumbling against my back. "We tried very hard," he said. "Now we wait to see if the trying worked."

Atlas nodded seriously. "Trying is important. Theo says everything worth having requires effort. He says this about carving, but I think it applies to babies too." He looked at my stomach with intense focus. "I hope it’s a girl. Girls are scary and I want more scary sisters."

He ran back to his troops before I could respond, already shouting orders about flanking maneuvers and strategic retreats.

"He is going to rule the world someday," I observed.

"Or destroy it," Caelion agreed. "Possibly both."

We stood together, watching our children play at war, while somewhere in the forest Veylan taught our other boys the reality of what they pretended. The sun was warm on my face. My body was thoroughly satisfied. My heart was full.