Taylor laid the sleeping baby down on the cot and tucked him in with a supple deerskin blanket. Henry reminded her a bit of Shadow, in how quickly he was adjusting to her rhythms. Whereas Fawn had more wolf-like sleeping patterns, resting often, but for only a few hours at a time, Henry slept for long stretches, waking only to feed. In only two short days, he had picked up on Taylor's nocturnal sleeping routine, would remain awake after evening feedings, and then go back to sleep during daytime ones.

He had fallen asleep early that morning, just after sunrise. Taylor had kept him with her as she'd helped Sarah with her pack's dinnertime routine. Sarah had given her a sling for the baby, but she still kept him tucked inside her shirt, with the sling tied tightly around her belly to keep him from falling, while keeping her arms freed up. She had kept both of her own pups in her shirts and against her skin for as long as they would fit, so it felt natural to keep him so close. With his skin against hers, she could feel his body temperature and his minute movements that indicated he needed a changing, wanted attention, or help with a feeding.

Putting him down felt bittersweet. She was glad to be free of the weight but also missed having him against her. Thankfully, she had another pup who'd been waiting his turn.

As soon as the baby was tucked in, Shadow wriggled under her shirt. Though tall in his human form, he was also lean and sinewy. He managed to fit, but just barely. Taylor gave it another week before he was popping the seams in even her widest blouses.

"Hi, puppy," she crooned.

For once, he didn't go for her breasts. Instead, he sat on her lap with his head popped out of her neckline, staring down at the pup contemplatively.

"What's on your mind?" She asked.

He hadn't nursed in two days. Not long ago, that might have crushed her, but now it was somewhat of a relief. Henry had gotten rather proficient at nursing and had gained quite the appetite. Keeping him fed was a full-time job and making enough milk for the both of them would have likely exhausted her.

Shadow had quickly adopted the eating habits of Sarah's older pups. Just as Taylor had worried, he had no interest in playing with pups his own age, or anywhere near his age. His favorite playmates were Carina and David, who were twelve and ten, respectively. To Taylor's utter disbelief, Shadow's wolf form was larger than both of theirs. Thankfully, Carina had gotten her mother's gentle, authoritative style of dealing with pups and she had no trouble getting Shadow to behave and play nicely with the others.

Earlier that night, she had told Shadow that Henry would be coming home with them. She had hoped to wait for Hale so that they could tell him together, but she had no idea where her errant mate had gone or when he'd be back, and she'd finally succumbed to Shadow's relentless line of questioning. He had taken the news pretty well though he'd seemed more confused than excited. She'd tried teasing out what was wrong but found that as was often the case, Shadow didn't know what was wrong either. He had just shrugged his shoulders and then shifted and scampered off to play.

Now that she had him to herself, she was no more likely to get a straight answer out of him, but he had had time to think, and sometimes that made all the difference.

He cocked his head up to look at her. "He doesn't look like you, or Pa."

"Is that what it is?" she said, smoothing his hair back. "He doesn't look like us because we didn't make him, not like we made you. He had a different mama and papa, but they couldn't take care of him."

"Aunt Sarah and Uncle Cain?" He asked, his little brows furrowing.

"No, no one that you know. They live far, far away from here."

"Why couldn't they take care of him? Because of his arm?"

The kid was nothing if not astute. "No, but that's an excellent inference."

She pressed a kiss to his head as she considered how to explain something she'd often wondered herself, having grown up without a family. It had taken over twenty years, and becoming a parent herself, but she thought she equipped to put in terms that he might understand.

"You know how Holly is the very best at finding mushrooms, nuts, and berries?" She asked.

His head bobbed. "And eggs, too. One time, she found a duck's nest that was hidden in a tree log that was half underwater. And turtle eggs that were under the underground."

"Just 'underground' is fine," she corrected. "And that's because Holly is a very good forager. In fact, she's the best in the whole pack. And do you know who the best hunter is?"

"Pa," he said, without hesitation. Then, a look of concern flashed across his face. "Don't tell Papa."

Taylor chuckled. She doubted Alder would take offense, but she humored Shadow with a nod.

"Pa might be the best hunter, but Papa is the best tracker, isn't he?"

Shadow's eyes lit up. "He is."

"Foraging, hunting, tracking, they're all skills. Nobody can be good at everything, and most of the time if you want to be really, really good at something, you have to settle for being kind of bad at another thing.

"Being a parent is also a skill. Not everyone who has a pup can be really, really good at being a parent. I'm sure that Henry's mama loved him very much, she just didn't think she would make a very good mama."

"But she could have gotten better at it if she tried, right?" Shadow said. "Like, how I used to be bad at talking, but I tried and I got better. Or how Fawn always fell down a lot, but now she never falls down when she walks."

"You're right, but it took a lot of time, practice and hard work, didn't it?"

Shadow shrugged.

Taylor said, "Maybe Henry's mama had other things she was good at, or things she wanted to become good at, so she decided that it would be best to give him to another mama, your Aunt Sarah, who's already a very, very good mama. And now, your Aunt Sarah gave him to us."

"Because you're a better mama than her?"

Taylor grinned. "No, though I appreciate the vote of confidence. Can I tell you a secret? But you have to promise not to tell any of the other pups?"

Shadow looked shocked, and then quickly recovered, affecting a serious expression that made him look just like Alder. Secrets were his kryptonite. He loved hearing them, and God love him, he was great at keeping them, better than any adult Taylor had ever met. She would sometimes make up silly little things for him to keep a secret, tidbits of information that were the sorts of things that came up in casual conversation, like her favorite color or the name of her childhood goldfish.

"Yes," he whispered.

Taylor looked around for dramatic effect, and then whispered, "Aunt Sarah has a lot of little boys, and some of them are pretty good big brothers, I guess. But when she heard about you, and what an awesome big brother you are to Fawn, she knew that Henry had to come live with us. That's because Henry needs the very best big brother to help take care of him."

Taylor couldn't remember seeing her son look so thrilled and so thoroughly pleased with himself.

"I get to be his big brother?"

They spent what must have been an hour just sitting beside the sleeping pup, talking about the new responsibilities Shadow would be taking on once Henry got a little bigger. He had a lot of ideas, and it was clear he'd been thinking about having a new pup for a while. Though he and Fawn were twins, he'd taken on the role of an older brother quite early, as he'd developed so much faster than her. Unlike most young children, they had almost never fought, if you didn't count play-fighting, and Shadow had always been attentive to Fawn's needs, often placing them above his own. Taylor wasn't lying when she told him that he was the very best big brother, and just knowing that he was on board made the prospect of raising another pup seem that much less daunting.

She was facing the doorway when Hale returned. Shadow noticed him first, by scent. He scrambled free from her shirt, yelping excitedly just as Hale appeared in the entrance. She could tell he'd come straight to them. There was still unmelted snow on his clothes and his shoulder-length hair was wet and clung to the sides of his face. She could see outlines of fatigue on his handsome face, but they shrank back as a broad smile stretched across his face.

"Who are you and why do you smell like my pup?" He said, scooping up Shadow and dangling him at an arm's length.

"I am your pup," Shadow said in between excited giggles.

Hale eyed him with mock scrutiny. "I don't know about that. My pup has way more fur than you."

Taylor couldn't wait for him to finish his game. She sprang up and went to him, squishing Shadow between them as she wrapped them in a bear hug.

"You're back." Her face was against his chest, her voice muffled by his wet furs.

"I'm back," he said, running a hand through her hair.

"I hate it when you run off without telling me where you're going."

"In my defense, I didn't think I'd be gone all that long."

Fingers knotted in her hair, he pulled her head back and claimed her lips in a swift, dizzying kiss. It went on for longer than she was comfortable with, with Shadow being there, and she had to push him back.

Having patiently waited his turn for Hale's attention, Shadow announced, "The new pup is coming with us and I get to be his big brother."

"I've heard something about that," Hale said, setting Shadow down. "Do you think you're up for it?"

"Uh huh," Shadow said, nodding vigorously.

Hale scratched his chin. "Well, you should probably go tell the other pups. On the way in, I heard a few of them saying that he's their little brother."

Shadow's mouth fell open. "Who said that?"

"Sorry, don't know their names. You should definitely go get to the bottom of it, though."

Without waiting for further instruction, Shadow dashed off, calling out that he would be right back. Hale told him to take his time.

"You diabolical bastard," Taylor said, without an iota of malice.

Hale gave her a wicked look. "Is the pup asleep?"

Taylor didn't bother answering. She grabbed him by the cheeks, pulling him down to resume their kiss. This time, his mouth moved against hers with unbridled aggression, his tongue thrusting into her while his teeth scraped at her tender lips. His hands grasped her hips, lifting her up so that her pelvis could grind against his erection. She was whimpering as she broke their kiss.

"We should probably wait a couple minutes, make sure he's not going to come right back."

She knew what his response would be, but she had to do her due diligence.

"Taylor, it's been over a week," he all but growled. "Unless this den starts collapsing on top of us, I'm going to be inside of you in the next minute."

"Minute?" she repeated, careful to hide her excitement.

"Quit talking."

Hale silenced her with his mouth. He let her down, only so that he could rid himself of his wet clothes. His clothes fell in a heap on the floor, seconds before he had her pinned to the bed. She waited for him to flip her onto her knees and take her in his favorite position, but at first, he didn't kiss her and didn't touch her. He just stared at her.

She was starting to squirm under his gaze when he finally began removing her clothes though that in itself was weird. Economical to a fault, he didn't bother getting her any more naked than she needed to be for his purposes. Tonight, he removed each piece of her clothing, so slowly and methodically that she found herself analyzing his face, looking for the telltale signs that he was Hale and not his brother.

The last piece of clothing to go was her undershirt. As soon as he removed it, Taylor was fumbling for something to cover herself with. She feigned cold, but really, she just didn't want him looking at her stretch marks. Though she'd lost a considerable amount of weight since the twins were born, the marks on her belly and upper thighs were stubbornly persistent. It never bothered her to have Alder see them, he'd even traced them a few times, playfully teasing her. But around Hale, she deliberately hid her midsection. The last time he'd tried fully undressing her, she'd actually smacked him. There was a small, sad little part of her that believed after all this time, after everything that had happened between them, that Hale would stop being attracted to her. He made so damn insecure.

“I love you,” he said.

Taylor could count on both hands how many times he'd said that to her, and almost every time she'd had to nag it out of him. In response, she did the only reasonable thing. She sat up and placed a hand on his forehead.

No fever.

Scowling, Hale removed her hand and brought it to his chest.

Slowly, he repeated, “I love you.”

Blinking back tears, Taylor said, “Are you sure you're Hale?”

“I love you,” he said, stroking her cheek. “I love you, and I will never leave you.”

“Four times,” she said, a slight hitch in her voice. “You said that four times now.”

He leaned in to kiss her, but she placed two fingers over his lips.

“You have to stop saying shitty things to me when you're angry. I know you think you can just apologize and everything will be okay, but every word chips away at me.”

“I can only promise that I'll try to do better.”

“You scare the hell out of me, Hale. You have no idea how many time a day I wish I could crack your head open to see what's going on in there.”

She felt his lips curve beneath her fingers. “Usually, I'm just thinking about how I'm going to get you alone.”

They both laughed. He started to advance on her, brushing her fingers aside with a flick of his hand. In an instant, he had her backed against the furs and she had to place both hands on his chest to stave him off. He could have easily maneuvered her into submission, but instead, he loomed over her, looking annoyed.

“Do you need me to say it a fifth time?” he said, lips twisting wryly.

Taylor shook her head. “I might start crying if you do.”

“Then what is it? You have ten seconds.”

“I think I might need at least a minute for this.”

“Six seconds.”

No turning back, now.

Taylor took a deep breath, and then said, “One more. We can have one more.”

Hale cocked his head. “What?”

“One more pup, silly.”

She had expected him to look thrilled, but instead, he leaned back, eyeing her warily.

“Taylor, you don't have to do that.”

Taylor pushed herself up and climbed into his lap. She grabbed a fur, and he helped her to wrap it around them. To her relief, he wrapped his arms around her. She settled her head against his chest.

“I'm not just saying it to appease you,” she said. “Although, that is a big part of it. I can't expect you to respect my feelings while I'm dismissing yours. Still, if that was the only reason, then having another baby would still be a really crappy idea.”

“Then, why?”

“I've thought a lot about it, and I've decided that maybe, now that things have settled down and I'm slightly more secure in myself and our lives together, maybe it won't be so scary to have a baby. I won't lie. The thought of being pregnant again still scares me, but maybe knowing it's the last time, I'll be able to enjoy it a bit. And regardless, when it's over and with a little luck, we'll have a healthy pup. And I really, really love your pups.”

Her last words were muffled by his mouth. He was panting as he kissed her, and she could feel his heart hammering in his broad chest.

“You're not taking it back,” he said into her mouth.

“I'm not going to take it back.”

He pushed her down onto the furs, insinuating himself between her legs. “I swear to God, Taylor. If you even think about changing your mind—”

“I'm not gonna, ahh...”

Her protest died as Hale pushed into her, filling with a hard thrust. He let out a sharp curse, and Taylor had the presence of mind to clamp a hand over his mouth.

“The baby,” she breathed, nodding towards the cot.

Hale winced as she pulled her hand back.

“Fuck,” he said quietly.

He looped an arm around her midsection and cradled her head with his free hand as he began to move inside of her.

Making love with Alder was like an elegant dance; when he moved, she moved in turn, sharing in the rhythm. With Hale, it was hard and fast, much too fast for her to keep up. She had long since learned that he only needed for her to hold on and enjoy the ride.

She clutched at his shoulders, her nails digging in for purchase as he slammed into her. He didn't have to stroke or pet her to release. There was something in the way he moved, something in the way he smelled and the in the sounds he made that always had her hurtling to a swift climax. She had almost reached her peak when he started to talk.

“The next time you're fertile...”

Taylor whined her next words. “I never said it would be the next time, now please shut up. I'm so close and I know you're going to say something dumb and ruin it.”

“...you aren't going to leave my bed for a week. I won't eat. I won't sleep...”

“That's physically impossible.”

“...not going to take my cock out of you...”

Taylor could feel her nerve endings begin to light up. “I think your brother might take issue with that.”

“Like I give a fuck,” Hale grunted. “Alder already agreed. I get you to myself next time, he gets you the time after that. I'm not letting him renege just because you've only agreed to one more pup. You're mine this time. All. Fucking. Mine.”

She could tell that he was about to come, which made it all the more satisfying when she slapped him hard on the shoulder.

“What?” she asked in a harsh whisper. “What do you mean he agreed? When did the two of you negotiate on getting me pregnant and why the hell did you think I didn't need to be included?”

Hale growled at her.

“Do we have to do this now?” He bit out.

Throughout her griping, Hale had not stopped or even slowed the pace of his thrusting, and furious as she was, Taylor could still feel herself on the brink of climax. She didn't want him to make her come because it was going to be very hard to argue with him afterward. But at the same time, she'd been waiting over a week for this, and she knew she'd probably be waiting another two while both of her mates were in the doghouse.

“Dammit,” she groaned. “Can you please just stop talking and make me come?”

As Taylor had predicted, she was in no position to argue once they were done. She laid stretched out in his arms, her body tingling with aftershocks of pleasure. Either because of the long wait or his excitement at the prospect of getting her pregnant, Hale had come harder than he had in months. In spite of her anger, Taylor had laughed watching him practically smother himself in a pillow to muffle his snarling.

Once they'd both settled down, he started stroking her hair, as though it would somehow soothe her anger. It totally worked, and she had to try very hard to keep the base in her voice.

“The two of you can't be going behind my back like that, making decisions that concern me, or the pups—current and future pups.”

“This, from the female who routinely manipulates my brother to take her side over mine,” Hale said, his words coming out in a rumbling purr. The best time to argue with him was right after sex because he was virtually incapable of becoming upset.

“I don't manipulate Alder,” Taylor grumbled.

Hale was nuzzling the top of her head, his big hands absently massaging her thigh. “So when he doesn't agree with you and you start crying, and then he takes your side, what do you call that?”

“That's... Ugh, stop, I can't think when you're touching me like that.”

“You don't have to think about the truth. It just is.”

“I didn't realize coming made you such a philosopher.”

He had moved to her neck, sucking hard enough to leave a mark. He loved leaving marks on her. It was one of the few things he did that he and Alder still fought about on a somewhat regular basis. Hale kept her neck covered in his suck bruises, and would become irrationally angry if Alder put his mouth on any of his marks.

“We decided it a long time ago,” Hale said. Taylor had almost forgotten what they'd been talking about, and she'd been certain that Hale would deliberately change the subject. “After the first mating thrall, when I nearly killed Alder.”

“You didn't nearly kill him. Don't be melodramatic.”

He nipped her shoulder, enough to make her flinch. “Don't assume you know what was going on in my head. I told you I'm usually thinking about how I'm going to get you alone. I was then, too. Only, I knew Alder wouldn't back down if I tried taking you away, so killing him seemed like the only alternative.”

“I...didn't know.”

He licked the tender spot that he'd bitten. “I'm not like Alder. Sharing you, it doesn't come easily to me and I don't think it ever will. When it's just he and I, I can't imagine being closer to anyone. But the second you're between us, you're all I see, all I want, and fuck anything that gets in my way. Make no mistake, Taylor. You're my mate. I let him fuck you.”

Taylor said a silent prayer, hoping that her son was still actively interrogating every pup in the pack and that Henry remained asleep because she was going to have to have her mate again.

Hale rolled her onto her belly and mounted her. He slid into her easily this time, his hips working to pump into her in a steady rhythm as he continued to devour her neck, branding her with his lips, his tongue, and his bite.