When we finally arrived back at the compound, it was nearly midnight. Everyone went off in their own directions while Sammy and I headed to his house. We weren’t expecting much tonight, given that it had sat empty for so long aside from being used as an occasional guest house for visiting pack members that lived in other places.

“I’d say that I’m pleasantly surprised, but honestly, I should’ve expected it.” Sammy looked around with a smile. Not only was the heater on so the house was nice and toasty, but all of our things had been moved in during the weeks of our absence. My parents must’ve sent my things from our home in England, because I saw familiar items like my favorite throw blanket that was spread over the back of a cozy armchair and a leather-bound set of classic books that I treasured.

“I’m guessing this was our parents’ doing, based on the fact that I see some of my things mixed in with yours.” I winced when my voice came out louder than I’d intended.

Sammy looked nervously at Xander who was sound asleep in my arms, then smiled with relief when the cub didn’t so much as twitch an ear. Zane was wide awake, looking around the house with sleepy eyes while Sammy absently stroked his back as he walked around looking into the different rooms. Sammy stopped at the end of the hall, turning to me with what could only be called an affectionately frustrated look on his face.

“What did they do in there? Did they leave us a special surprise?” I asked, already knowing from his expression that our parents had done something in that room. I highly doubted that it had been made into a sex dungeon, but I wasn’t scratching it off my list of possibilities. I mean… a guy could hope? Not that I needed a sex dungeon, per se, but it would be a fun thing to scratch off the old bucket list.

“No, this room isn’t for us.” Sammy tilted his head to beckon me to follow him as he headed into the room. I walked around the corner and bit back a laugh. The room had been made into a colorful playroom, clearly intended for the cubs in our arms. Sammy set Zane down on one of the toddler beds, settling him into a nest of fuzzy blankets and soft pillows. “I mean, how? I guess my dad had a vision or something? Because we just found these guys this morning, and yet there is a full kids’ room waiting here for them.”

I carefully settled Xander onto the bed with Zane, knowing intuitively that they wouldn’t want to be parted, at least not yet. There was a matching bed with its own nest beside this one, but I was going with my gut that the twins wouldn’t want to be separated right now. The moment I laid Xander down, Zane snuggled up next to him and began licking and cleaning the back of his brother’s head. The little guy was purring, and I knew without question that he would fall asleep mid-lick.

As if reading my mind, Sammy slid his arm around my waist and rested his head against mine as we watched the cubs. He whispered softly, “It’s like he’s trying to soothe himself to sleep more than wanting to clean his brother, don’t you think?”

“That’s exactly what I was just thinking,” I whispered back as I looked around the room, my eyes taking in the picture books and brightly colored toys that were offset by a large scratching post and… “Sammy,” I whispered in a loud hiss as I pointed to the far corner. “Tell me that’s not seriously a kitty litter box over there?”

Sammy looked at the corner then put a hand over his mouth to smother his laughter. His eyes danced with humor as he nodded his head. He composed himself before speaking in a soft whisper.

“I mean, it’s not a bad idea if they’re going to be stuck in this form. They’re little boys, you know? I saw them both spraying the grass more than once today, so we probably should’ve thought of this necessity ourselves.”

“But do they really need it in their bedroom?” I wasn’t at all sure how I felt about that.

“I bet if we look, we’ll probably find a few other strategically placed litter pans around the house. It’s what we’d do if they were real kittens, right?” Sammy bit his lip nervously, as if suddenly doubting his own opinion.

That was all I needed to see. “You’re absolutely right, baby. I’m sure our parents meant well. Besides, who knows how long they’ll be stuck in cheetah form, right?”

Sammy held a finger to his lips and pointed out that Zane had indeed fallen asleep. His tongue was sticking out, as if licking his brother’s ear, but he was down for the count. I watched with a fond smile as Sammy bent down and fiddled with the nest a little until they were both covered with blankets before turning on a nightlight and pointing toward the door.

When we got out to the hallway, he turned off the room’s light and pulled the door almost closed, leaving it slightly ajar. He shrugged shyly as he led me to our new room. “I don’t want to shut them in like prisoners, you know? In fact, we should leave our own door open so they can find us when they wake up in case they are afraid.”

We changed into the pajama pants that had magically appeared in the dresser, along with the rest of our clothes, then crawled into bed. I stretched to turn off the lamp on my nightstand, then Sammy and I snuggled up and prepared for sleep. We lay there quietly for a few minutes or so before I spoke softly in the silent room.

“What will we do with them, do you think? I mean, we have to keep them, right? I was totally joking about the finders keepers thing. But really, we can’t just give them away.” I blew out a breath. “I know it’s scary, but I feel like I had that vision for a reason. Whether it was to help them or to keep them, I don’t know.”

Sam’s back was to my chest as we spooned. He looked over his shoulder, his fair skin pale in the moonlit room. “I want to keep them, but I also don’t want to keep them away from any extended family they might have looking for them. If they have no one else, then you and I will figure it out. But if they do have family out there somewhere, we don’t have a right to keep them. Besides, if those poor parents have people who love them, they’ll need to know what happened.”

“I agree, baby.” I kissed the back of his neck and loosely wrapped my arm around his waist. “The thing is, are we really going to be able to handle having five little ones? All day long, I’ve had our triplets on the back of my mind. I haven’t thought about it too hard because I feel like it’s a panic attack waiting to happen.”

Sammy chuckled lightly. “Right? I think the trick is to not think about it. I feel like parents who have a lot of kids, like Uncle Maon and Aunt Effie, don’t get bogged down in the what-ifs and overthinking. Instead, I think they’re simply too busy in the trenches, dealing with the day-to-day issues to worry about how they’ll pull it off. As long as we can manage to stay a step ahead of them, I’m sure it will be fine.”

I smiled at his newly found confident tone. “If you’re sure, then I’m sure. Besides, isn’t this just the type of situation that grandparents are meant for?”

“Exactly.” Sammy giggled. “And don’t think I don’t already plan to play the grandparent card as often as possible. Besides, how hard could it be to watch a couple of cuddly little cubs?”

When we woke up the next morning, the house was fairly quiet, and I’d almost forgotten about the cubs for a moment. When I heard something crash in the other room, I sat up quickly, my heart racing as I wondered who was in the house until I realized that it was just the cubs.

Oh, shit! The cubs were out in the house alone?

I jumped out of bed and raced for the bedroom door. “Where are you going? It’s too early,” Sammy called out sleepily behind me.

Glancing back over my shoulder, I flashed him a grin. “I think we’re about to find out how hard watching a couple of cuddly little cubs can be. The two of them are apparently awake and loose in the house, because I woke up when I heard something crash in the other room. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go see if everything’s okay and make sure neither of them is bleeding out or anything.”

“Crap! I forgot about the cubs!” I heard Sammy racing after me. He ran right into my back when I stopped still in the middle of the hallway. My jaw fell open as I looked at the scene in front of me. The bathroom across from the kids’ room had the door hanging wide open with a long stream of toilet paper trailing through the door and down the hall. A few pictures that had been hung on the wall were hanging at odd angles as though something had bumped them, but how could the cubs have possibly bumped pictures that were a couple of meters high on the wall? I paused to look into the nursery, but it looked fairly intact, aside from a shred of carpet hanging from the scratching post, and an obviously used litter pan. Shaking my head, I chuckled as I continued down the hall.

“Is that laundry detergent?” Sammy moved around me, his nose wrinkling at the intense fragrance in the air. We passed the laundry room and saw a big box of Surf detergent had been knocked over on top of a shelf and spilled out onto the washer and floor. Another litter pan sat in the corner of this room, although it was currently filled with shredded dryer sheets.

My eyes widened as we kept moving. The living room was in shambles. My cozy blanket had been clawed into strips and Sammy’s leather couches had slashed claw marks on the arms. I noted with relief that my leather-bound books were still sitting on the shelf looking good. A lamp lay broken near the front door, which probably explained the crashing sound I’d heard. I scratched my head as we walked. I mean, how?

We walked around the corner into the kitchen where one of the little cheetah cubs was racing around the room at top speed. Sammy’s eyes popped wide open when we saw Xander run sideways and halfway up the wall before he fell. The little guy had made it a couple of meters above the floor. That explained the pictures.

Zane was sitting in the middle of the table with an apple between his paws as he nibbled at it. Sammy and I took one look at each other, then burst out laughing. Xander stopped his running and stared at us for a moment as if he were trying to figure out what was so funny. Zane just kept eating his apple. The doorbell rang, and Sammy waved a hand toward the cubs. “Make sure they don’t break anything else, I’ll get that.”

Lulu, Lei, and Aurora came in behind Sammy when he returned. The three of them were laughing at the state of the house and shaking their heads. Lulu scooped Xander up, snuggling him too close so that he growled as she hugged him. She simply laughed and stroked a hand along his fur to smooth it where it was sticking out at weird angles, in almost indignant spikes.

Aurora turned to Sammy. “I thought I would try mindspeaking the cubs, unless you’d rather try it yourself in shifted form?”

“No, you go ahead.” Sammy shook his head. “That’s actually a really good idea. I don’t want to take them out with all of us shifting until I know they’ll stay with us and not run off where they’d be hurt. Especially after seeing the state of our house when we woke up today.”

Lulu rolled her eyes. “That’s not their fault, that’s on you guys. Any idiot knows that you can’t leave little ones unattended. My g-mam will have a field day when she hears about this one.”

Aurora scooped Xander from Lulu’s arms then walked over to the table to pet Zane. She set the two cubs side by side, opening a banana and feeding them small bites as she stared into their eyes as though having a private, mental conversation—which was precisely what she was doing.

“You know,” Lulu bumped my shoulder and spoke conversationally while we watched, “they really do have beautiful auras. Even if they’re not from founding families, they still have bright, purple auras which is indicative of creativity and high intelligence. I think they’ll fit in quite nicely here with us.”

“If they’re meant to stay here,” Sammy reminded her gently.

Aurora stood, giving the cubs a last bite of banana and wagging a finger at them as if giving them an instruction before pushing her chair back and walking over to us. She turned to look at Lei, who was waiting expectantly with an open laptop. “Their parents’ names were Landon and Carrie Ashford, from what I could tell. Xander knows the most, but he has a bit of a lisp. They’re from all around, whatever that means.” Her face brightened as she turned to look at me and Sammy. “Oh! And I found out the age question—the twins are four. Their birthday is June fourth, if you want to mark that down for next year.”

“Oh, hell,” Lei said softly. “Dammit, I found them. Carrie kept an online journal, and she was lovely.” She glanced over at the cubs who were sitting quietly in the middle of the table cleaning each other. Sammy didn’t look thrilled about them being on the table, but he was leaving it for the moment, as far as I could tell. We walked over and sat down on either side of Lei, crowding in to read her screen so the cubs wouldn’t hear us talking.

“Shit,” I said succinctly as I saw Carrie’s bio. She and her husband had been orphans and were all alone in the world. They’d been traveling around looking for a place to put down roots. Her journal was filled with notes about her hopes and dreams for her sons to have a good future. Sammy was crying as he read the screen while Lei slowly scrolled to show us all the different pictures the woman had taken.

Happy family photos were prominently shared that showed the pair with their adorable twin boys. In their human forms, the two had bright blond hair and beautiful, hazel eyes. It was easy to tell who was who, even in the pictures. Xander had a mischievous glint to his eyes while Zane looked pretty chill.

I reached around Lei to rub Sammy’s back. “See? They’re ours to keep, baby. The goddess wouldn’t have put them in our path if we weren’t meant to take them and give them the life that their parents dreamed of providing for them.”

Sammy gulped. “I want to keep them and love them. But holy shit, have you seen the state of the house? And we have three more on the way? Were we insane to think that we could handle five cubs? And all under the age of five? Goddess save us, but we’re screwed.”

Lulu chuckled. “Yeah, you are, except for the fact that you have three crazy aunts right here to help, and that’s not even mentioning the rest of the pack here on the compound. You guys will be fine, you’ll see. As for the house? This was a rookie mistake. You’ll do better next time. Good grief, just shut them in their bedroom at night, if you have to.”

Sammy shook his head. “I can’t imprison them like that, I won’t. I mean, it just seems so mean to do that to them.”

Lulu shrugged, waving a hand toward the cubs. “Well, I’d suggest a baby gate across the door, but I think we both know that won’t hold your little Xander there. And where he goes, Zane will follow. You’re going to have to put down rules and let them know what they’re allowed to do and what’s not okay. Even in this form, they’ll understand you when you tell them no. They didn’t know that this wasn’t okay. Have a chat with them, and simply tell them what they’re allowed to do and not, and take it day by day, that’s my advice.” Lulu ran across the room just then, pulling our attention to where Xander was batting at the cords to the blinds and pulling one with his claw that had gotten stuck in it. Poor Zane had his paw wrapped around the other cord and as Xander pulled, Zane was being lifted high in the air.

Before Lulu could get to them, Sammy simply waved a hand and freed the pair of troublemakers, gently lowering them to the floor telepathically. Once his paws touched the ground, Zane began jumping around looking spooked as he bounced up and down on all fours like the ground was made of molten lava. Xander looked up at the ceiling and hissed, as if threatening the air itself.

I started laughing. “You scared them, baby. There’s your answer. When they act up, just use your powers. If you freak them out, maybe you’ll scare them into minding.”

Sammy gasped at the idea while the girls all laughed. I shrugged. I figured it was worth a try, if nothing else.

I walked into the kitchen where Sammy was cooking dinner. “You sure you don’t want help, baby? I like cooking, but I’m equally willing to do the dishes if you’re determined to do this by yourself.”

Sammy blew out a breath and nodded toward where the twins were rolling around on the floor, wrestling with each other and tumbling back and forth as they hissed and growled playfully. “I’m trying to keep my mind off the cubs. I know they’re just playing, but I’m so afraid they’re going to get hurt, you know?”

“They’ll be okay.” I slid my arms around his waist and kissed the back of his neck while he added some garlic to the sauce he had simmering. “Give me some sugar, baby.”

Sammy turned to kiss me, wrapping his arms around my neck and stepping so close that we were chest to chest. Distantly, I heard the sound of a cabinet door rattling but ignored it, assuming the twins had just rolled into it during their tumbling.

We kissed a little longer, our tongues sliding playfully against each other, when a rainfall of kidney beans poured over our heads. The beans made quite the racket as they rattled and spilled over the stove, countertops, and the tiled floor.

We jumped apart and looked up to see what the hell had happened. The cubs had managed to get on top of the cabinets. Zane was lying at the far end, one paw hanging over the edge with his chin resting on the lip of the cabinets as he calmly watched his brother prance along the top of the cabinet and knock things off with a swipe of a paw or a swish of his tail. Sammy and I ducked as tins fell off while the large bag of beans that he’d managed to push over was still pouring its contents out. When a tin of flour popped open and a cloud of white powder began to spill, that was it.

Suddenly coming to his senses, Sammy held out both hands. “Enough,” he said firmly, making everything stop midair. With a push of his hand, the flour righted itself without further mishap while the beans began pouring backward up into the bag, in a reverse waterfall. Once the bag was filled, it sat itself back up and leaned against the wall as if tucked there by an invisible hand. I leaned back against the refrigerator, crossing my arms over my chest with an amused smile as I watched the cubs’ eyes widen while Sammy confidently did his thing.

Everything that had fallen off made its way back up while both cubs were pulled firmly from the top and left levitating a couple of meters over the floor while Sammy took care of the cleanup. Zane began to whimper first, a soft mewling coming from his throat. Xander soon joined him, the two of them wailing louder by the second as they floated in the air, their little paws batting and scrambling for purchase but unable to move from where Sammy held them.

Once everything was clean, Sammy walked over to Zane first and tucked him under one arm before turning to Xander and putting him under the other. He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Make sure the sauce doesn’t burn, honey. I need to have a talk with our boys here.”

I stirred the sauce and checked on the meat he had in the oven, all the while proudly watching my mate out of the corner of my eye. He sat on the floor in front of the table with both cubs on his lap as he waved a chiding finger and explained to them that even when they were in cub form, they still had to obey little boy rules which meant no running in the house, no climbing on the cabinets, and definitely no clawing your brother. As for everything else, we’d figure it out. Both cubs stood on their hind legs with their paws on Sammy’s chest as they rubbed their heads against the bottom of his chin.

After dinner, Sammy wiped the boys down with a wet towel rather than make them take a bath. As cat shifters ourselves, we knew better than to put those cubs in a tub of water. After I read them a story, we tucked them into their little nest and Sammy told them that when they woke up in the morning they were either to stay in the room and play quietly or come wake us—but under no circumstances were they to run loose in the house unsupervised. Xander made a soft mewling noise, as if in agreement, then yawned widely. Zane was already half asleep as the brothers cuddled into their nest.

We’d no sooner tucked them in, pulled their door almost shut, and turned on the nightlight, when there was a soft knock on the front door. Sammy waved a hand to unlock it and the door opened wide. I quirked a brow. “If you can do that, why have we been running to answer doors?”

Sammy laughed as we walked down the hall to greet our friends who’d begun spilling into the living room. “Manners, I guess. It seems nicer to greet people at the door than to just open it, but I’m pretty tired after our adventures with the cubs today.”

Lulu looked around as we walked in. “I see the place has been cleaned up. You’ll have to tell me your tricks sometime. I can’t clean up after us this fast, let alone two hyperactive cheetah cubs.”

“It helps when you have those famous triplet powers.” I wiggled my fingers and smirked at the trips as Sammy and I dropped onto the couch and fought matching yawns.

“Okay.” Faith flashed us a sympathetic smile. “We won’t keep you guys, because you look exhausted. I wanted to meet in person because I can’t say the name out loud, right? Anyway, using the clue that Jonny and Connor shared after your last meeting with Easton, I figured out who’s trying to fight us on your quests.”

I sat up, suddenly wide awake. “Who is she?” My phone pinged in my pocket, as every other phone in the room started making similar noises.

“If you look at your phones, you’ll find that I’ve texted you all a link,” Faith admitted with a sly grin.

Swiping the screen to unlock my phone, I held it up so Sammy could read along with me. Holy shit, we were dealing with a fucking goddess? As I read the link that told us all about Eris, the goddess of strife, it suddenly clicked why the woman in my vision had looked familiar.

“Guys, I just figured out why the hunters in my vision looked familiar. Well, the guy didn’t, but the bitch with him sure did. It was that same chick we saw in Arizona, and she’s the one who shot the cheetah couple.”

My brother leaned to the side, digging in his pocket before pulling out a familiar disc. “There’s a picture of this on the link Faith sent. This is an ancient coin with that bitch’s image on it. We had a clue all along and didn’t know it. It’s too bad we never researched this, right?” My brother gave a low growl, obviously as disgusted as I was by the shifter couple being killed the way they were. He shook his head. “I don’t understand. Why did she just kill those innocent people?”

“Because she’s an evil bitch, duh.” Lulu waved a hand as though it were obvious.

Oni chuckled at Lulu but shook his head in disagreement. “No, that’s not it. I feel like she did it to distract you guys. If you’re busy trying to solve the mystery of their parents and care for the cubs, then you’d be too distracted to focus on the quest. I think our goddess sent you the vision so you’d know the truth.”

“Are you shitting me right now?” I shook my head and growled low in my throat. “She killed two people for distraction? That is beyond disgusting; it’s just… it’s… deplorable.”

“Agreed,” Connor said quietly. “I think my mate is right, though, and it really is as simple as that, fucked up though it may be.”

“Remember, gods and other minor deities operate on a different scale than we do. They don’t have the same morality or view of life and death,” Jude said thoughtfully. “I’m not sticking up for her, I’m just saying what was disgusting to us was simply a means to an end for a creature like her.”

“Fair enough,” I said after a moment’s thought. “But I’m pretty sure that none of you will argue with me when I say that obviously, the bitch needs to die.”

“Oh, well, that goes without saying,” Connor agreed.