CHAPTER EIGHT
Micah leered at his mate over coffee in their garden the next morning. "Thanks to your suggestion right before I nodded off, I dreamt about our claiming, it was a montage of sexy images, but done like an ESPN highlight reel." He sipped his coffee. "I got extra points for claiming you midair, then it got weird. We got stuck above the platform and my gran's next-door neighbor Mr. Compton had to get us down." He shook his head. "I don't know whether the dream was arousing, humiliating, or disturbing." He heard a thump and when he looked around he couldn't see his mate. Her cup of coffee was balanced precariously on the arm of the platform bed, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Serenity?" he called.
He heard a gasping noise under him and he leaned over the side of the bed. His brilliant healer of a mate, had, once again, fallen over while laughing at him.
"Congratulations, I now have a complex," he chided.
"Micah, stop!" she yelled, while gales of laughter echoed throughout his normally tranquil oasis.
He smiled at her antics. He loved how she gave herself over to her mirth and joy. She held nothing back when she laughed, he just wished it wasn't because she was laughing at him.
After a couple more minutes, she finally dragged herself back up on to the platform and took a sip of her coffee. "I needed that," she said, still smiling.
"I do aim to please." He leaned back. "What are our plans for the day?"
She looked at him funny. "Don't you have to patrol or do unit work? Back in Storm Keep the units were constantly running patrols around the city."
He shook his head. "Eta was assigned to Level One to rotate in guarding the mates." He grinned at her. "I'm your guard."
Behind them in the house the clock chimed and he stood. "Come on, my one and only. Time for breakfast." He rubbed his hands together. "I can't wait to see what Sebastian made, I hope we're having waffles, his waffles are legendary."
"So, everyone really does get together for meals?" She drained her coffee cup and followed him inside. "I hope Vivi has an update about Aiden's blood. As much as I would like to help in the lab all we can do as healers is make patients comfortable, we're useless when it comes to human science."
Micah took her cup and rinsed it out before putting it in the dishwasher. "That's why we take meals together. It's just easier to keep everyone on the same page. Not only is the food amazing but lately it's come to feel like home on Level One."
Micah couldn't wait to tease Radclyffe about his ear. The witch had been giving him the evil eye ever since he announced Serenity was his mate. Maybe he'd slip it into conversation and see what happened.
"Why do you have an evil smirk?" his mate asked.
"Me?" he asked innocently.
She just shook her head. "Let's go, you have me craving waffles."
He walked over and took her hand. "Onward to waffles!" he announced pointing to the front door.
Serenity giggled and pointed. "Onward!"
*****
Her mate was such a goofball, but she loved that about him. He made something as simple as heading to breakfast fun. When they arrived, Micah opened the door to the Rioux quarters. "Honey, we're home," he announced. They walked into the antechamber and closed the door behind them.
"In here darling," Declan replied in a falsetto voice.
Micah swung the dining room door open. "Did you miss me kitten?" he asked the lion shifter.
Declan chuckled. "Someone is in a fine mood," he arched a brow at them. Serenity blushed but Micah just gave his brother two thumbs up before sitting down next to her.
Aiden turned to Adriel. "You know, I think you do have it worse. At least I only have Colton to deal with."
Meryn shook her head. "And Sascha and Keelan when he's better." She waved her fork at her mate. "Didn't you men install a freaking fireball alarm system at the Alpha estate."
Rheia nodded. "They had to confiscate the explosives from Graham."
Adriel's eyes were wide and he swallowed. "I think Declan and Micah are just fine."
"Oh yeah, we're fine," Micah said in a sultry voice.
Declan leaned back in his chair to give Micah a high five.
Adriel pinched the bridge of his nose. "Then again..."
Declan righted himself. "You invited us to live you with, you're stuck with us now," he reminded the unit leader.
Adriel gave them a satisfied smirk. "It also allows me to visit my godschildren more often." He looked over to Etain and gave a short nod.
Etain stood. "I do not mean to interrupt breakfast, but I have something important to announce." He looked down at Vivi who reached up and took his hand. "As you all know, Vivian and I are expecting our first child." Around the table everyone clapped and whistled. "What may not be more widely known is that we almost lost our daughter," his voice broke and he cleared his throat. The table quieted as the men frowned fiercely at the thought of something happening to one of their children. Etain continued. "We would have lost her, except my fae brothers here in the city contributed their light and gave her the strength to pull through. But they might not have made it in time had it not been for Micah."
Serenity turned to her mate who had a flush working up the back of his neck. "You saved her?" she asked softly.
Micah shook his head. "I just got help," he refuted. "The fae warriors did the saving."
Etain walked over to stand by their chairs. "You saved my daughter," he glanced over to Adriel who was grinning before looking down at Micah. "And I would be honored if you became her athair."
Micah's mouth dropped as he looked from Etain to Adriel to Declan and Grant. "That's not what we agreed on," he protested weakly.
Etain gave him a wicked grin. "I spoke with Adriel and he said he is looking forward to being an uncle to one of our children." His eyes softened. "Will you brother? Will you watch over my baby girl?"
Micah swallowed hard and kept blinking. Finally, he nodded and stood. "It would be an honor and a privilege to be athair to your daughter." They clasped forearms in a warrior shake before Etain pulled him into a hug. When they stepped back Micah still looked a bit dazed. Chuckling Etain gently pushed him back into his chair then sat back down.
"What a wonderful way to start the day," Magnus said smiling broadly.
"That was just beautiful," Sebastian said dabbing at his eyes with his towel. Hal sniffed loudly as he pushed the serving cart in from the kitchen. "My baby girl's baby girl now has an athair." He stopped beside Meryn. "Waffle?"
"Hell yeah," Meryn said holding up her plate.
Hal smiled and piled up a stack of waffles four high. Meryn set her plate down. "Now that's what I'm talking about." She picked up one of the syrup dispensers and drenched her waffles.
Aiden looked at the growing amber puddle. "Maybe that's enough," he suggested.
"No. All the little squares have to have syrup," Meryn said turning her body slightly to protect her syrup.
"She's right Aiden," Micah agreed. "Each square needs its own pool of yummy goodness."
Grant shook his head reaching for the jam. "That's way too sweet for me."
"What do I do?" Pip asked Aiden looking from the syrup to the jam. Serenity noticed that although Pip adored Meryn, he looked to Aiden for advice and protection.
Aiden thought for a moment. "Try just a little bit of syrup and if you like it you can always add more," he suggested.
"Caiden sings your praises all the time saying how strict and diligent you are in training and creating drills. But you're kind as well," Serenity said complimenting the large commander.
Aiden shrugged. "He reminds me of Ben when he was younger."
Micah blinked. "I keep forgetting you have a younger brother."
Rex smiled. "Younger brothers are one of life's biggest joys and the biggest pain in the ass you can experience."
Aiden, Kendrick, Magnus, and Etain nodded solemnly. Declan rolled his eyes. "Older brothers are great for being there when you need help," he eyed Rex. "Whether you ask for it or not."
Again, Aiden nodded, this time along with Rheia, Caspian and Serenity.
Laelia looked to the unit commander. "You have three brothers, don't you?"
Aiden nodded. "Two older and one younger."
Laelia looked impressed. "Your family is truly blessed."
He smiled. "I think the true blessings are my parents."
"They are relatively close in age too," Declan pointed out.
Rex nodded. "Having a lot of siblings is getting rarer these days."
Etain chuckled. "You never know. My parents surprised me with a set of twin siblings when I was a thousand years old. I went from being an only child to having a brother and a sister."
Meryn took a huge swig of coffee. "Y'all will have it easy with three squires. I mean, they could rotate babysitting duties and still run all three households."
Hal and Sebastian paused in their serving and looked at each other. Hal grinned. "Well now."
Sebastian nodded. "Well now, indeed."
"I can create a schedule and rotations," Kari offered. "I will be grateful for any help you can provide."
Rex tapped his chin. "We can interview for a squire for your household. Lionhart is a Founding Family after all."
Sebastian frowned. "That would mean we would get less time with the baby," he argued, then shook his head. "No. Hal, Pavil and myself are more than enough for Level One." He inclined his head to Ryuu. "And, of course, Ryuu when little Meryn visits."
Magnus cut up his waffles. "The boss has spoken," he said. Kari then Beth began to chuckle. Magnus shrugged. "It is okay my dears, we all know Sebastian runs Level One."
Sebastian flailed his tea towel about Magnus' head. "I do not!" Magnus just stared out at the table as the tea towel bounced off of him.
Aiden nodded. "Marius ran our house growing up and I'm pretty sure Ryuu will be the only thing keeping us alive after the babies are born."
Ryuu gave a modest shrug. "Every house gets a bit chaotic when a baby arrives."
Kari sighed. "I am not looking forward to doing all the laundry."
Sebastian moved away from Magnus. "Do not worry I will be there to help." He dismissed Magnus with a hand wave. "I am sure Magnus can manage making his own meals a few nights a week."
Magnus stopped chewing. "What now?"
Kari stared up at Sebastian with huge eyes. "You would help us that much?"
"Of course! And I will babysit whenever you need me," he offered.
Magnus rubbed his chin in thought. "I do enjoy cooking shows," he admitted.
Broderick looked at Magnus in horror before turning to Rex. "I think a Lionhart squire is a wonderful idea."
Magnus looked offended. "This could be a great opportunity. I do not even know what the kitchen really looks like or how things are laid out. I may have to change things a bit."
Sebastian's smile faltered. "What?"
Magnus looked over to his brother. "We could try new dishes together." He turned back to Meryn. "Meryn, can you be a dear and look up the recipe for that dessert where you use a mini flame thrower," he asked excitedly.
Sebastian paled. "I am sure I can manage our kitchen and helping Kari, you do not need to cook Magnus," he backtracked quickly.
Meryn's fingers were already moving. "Magnus will you buy me a real flame thrower."
"Of course, dear," Magnus answered.
"See! That! That right there!" Aiden exclaimed. "We need parameters."
Meryn stuck her tongue out at her mate. "He already said yes."
Sebastian wiped his hands on his towel. "I will ask Pavil if he knows of any squires that he trusts to move down to Level One. We can conduct interviews after the virus is cured."
"But..." Magnus protested looking crushed.
Sebastian shook his head. "Stay out of my kitchen." He looked around the table. "Looks like we are out of coffee. Be right back." He hurried through the doors to the kitchen.
The moment the door closed Meryn's fingers stilled and she put her laptop away beside her chair. She and Magnus exchanged winks.
Beth gasped. "You..." she covered her mouth with her hands and looked around making sure Sebastian couldn't hear her.
Magnus took a sip of his juice. "What a truly amazing morning," he said to no one in particular. He looked over to Kari. "I think getting you a squire is an excellent idea. Babies are a lot of work and you will need someone you can rely on around the clock to assist you."
Sebastian slunk back into the dining room looking defeated. "I still want to help babysit," he said quietly, holding a carafe of coffee to his chest.
Kari stood and hurried over to the squire. "Of course, you can! In fact, I will not take on any squire unless you approve of them. They must pass every test you can think of. Getting someone you recommend is the second-best thing to having your help. I trust you implicitly."
Sebastian looked overwhelmed. "It would be an honor to help." He kissed her forehead and she walked back to her chair. He glared at Magnus. "That was mean."
Magnus shrugged. "You will be busy arranging things for our Bethy even after she returns to Lycaonia, do not be greedy and try to monopolize all the babies."
"That is true, I already have things on backorder for her." He reached down and plucked at Magnus' sleeve. "And you need an entirely new wardrobe," Sebastian said staring at Magnus' rolled up cuffs again.
Magnus eyed his shirt in disgust. "I could understand if I gained height like Gavriel or even noticeable bulk like our commander here," he said pointing to Aiden. "But to only grow enough so that none of my clothes fit is ridiculous." He blushed slightly. "I will not even go into how my underthings chafe."
"You should totally wear sweats and free ball it," Meryn suggested.
Magnus' eyes narrowed. "Does that mean what I think it means?"
Around the table the men nodded and a chorus of 'yeses' sounded off.
Sebastian shuddered. "Just. No."
Gavriel nodded in sympathy to Magnus' plight. "Do not remind me. It took months to replace all my leather."
Beth lowered her fork. "What leather? I've never seen you in leather before."
Gavriel turned to his mate. "Before our uniforms were designed to mimic the human military, most units wore leather pants, vests and jackets. It is a long-lasting material and can be hardened to act as light armor."
Beth's eyes traveled down his body. "Hmmm."
"Beth!" Gavriel exclaimed, looking shocked.
Caspian hid a smile behind his napkin. "I have days when I wonder how much I influenced Bethy growing up, then we have moments like this and I am like, "oh, there I am'."
"Y'all are leather daddies!" Meryn declared, her eyes wide. She reached down and pulled her phone out of her bag.
Around the table Rex, Law and Grant spit out the juice they had just sipped. Rheia pounded on Colton's back, as he choked, while he tried to stop laughing long enough to breathe.
Aiden looked down at his mate. "Do you know what that means?"
"Yeah, it means that y'all wear leather." She gave him an exasperated look. "My furries talk about leather daddies all the time. And bears." Her face grew thoughtful. "I didn't think that many of them were bear-shifters though."
Aiden snapped his mouth closed and took a deep breath. "Pass the syrup," he said, pointing to the dispenser. Meryn handed it to him and turned back to her waffles while she checked her phone one handedly.
Declan stared at him in awe. "I think he just deleted that from his memory."
Grant nodded like that made sense. "I think that's how he survives."
"Wait until my furries find out y'all are leather daddies," Meryn said her thumb moving a mile a minute.
Without even looking up from his waffles Aiden simply plucked her phone from her hand and threw it up in the air behind them. Ryuu caught it easily and tucked it away in his jacket.
"Rude!" Meryn bellowed. Aiden continued eating his waffles.
"Good job Aiden," Beth said in admiration.
Aiden glanced down the table at her and winked. He shoved another two waffles in his mouth and reached for his coffee.
Grant turned to Declan. "We are in the presence of a master."
Meryn pulled her laptop back out. "Okay, so obviously if I am banned from Facebook then I misunderstood what a leather daddy was."
Aiden eyed her closely. "What are you going to do?"
"Google it," she replied.
"No Facebook," he warned.
"No Facebook," she agreed.
"I'm spending the day with Kari and uncle," Beth said quickly.
"Vivi and I will be in the lab," Rheia added.
Anne turned to Ellie. "We'll be busy on Level Six with the children."
"I'll be in meetings with Stefan all morning," Eva added.
Serenity watched as the women effectively called 'not it' in response to Meryn's sudden thirst for learning.
Micah turned to her and raised a brow. She nodded. Someone had to watch over the odd human and if she were completely honest with herself, she was dying to see what she said next.
"My one and only and I can keep the midget company today," Micah offered magnanimously.
Around the table the men exhaled in relief. Serenity could tell that each of them envisioned fielding questions from Meryn all morning about different lifestyles choices.
"I'm not a midget," Meryn protested sounding distracted. She tilted her head sideways to look at her laptop.
Aiden looked over at them. "You have my thanks."
Serenity turned to Ryuu. "Can you watch over her later, so I can do rounds up at the hospital."
Ryuu nodded. "Of course. Let me know whenever you need to leave, looking after Meryn is no hardship." Serenity had a feeling there wasn't much Ryuu would consider a hardship.
Serenity turned to Vivi. "Did you make any headway with Aiden's blood yesterday?"
Vivi nodded. "Thanks to Kendrick we can see the virus now to run different tests. We found out that whoever created this thing based it on Hepatitis C, which is why the warriors were immune, they all received the vaccine for it. I'm trying to backward engineer a cure based on that, but it's going to take a while."
Colton frowned. "Can't you just give them the vaccine?"
Ellie shook her head. "A vaccine is a preventative measure not a medicine," she said sounding sad.
"We are a step closer than we were yesterday," Adriel reminded them.
Vivi brightened. "You're absolutely right. We're light years ahead of where we were even earlier this week."
Kari held up her iPad. "Do not forget we have the meeting with the Founding Family and Noble Heads this afternoon to update everyone concerning Warrick's elevation in rank and to let them know Magnus is cured."
Around the table groans went up. Kari ignored them. "Personally, I am looking forward to it. These changes are a long time coming," she said, grinning evilly.
Magnus sat back. "I find that I am looking forward to it as well," he admitted.
Meryn picked up her laptop and rotated it ninety degrees. Magnus frowned. "Meryn, what is the matter?"
"Do you think naked men look weird? I mean, the gods or whoever were on the right track creating man. Chest muscles, forearms, chiseled eight pack and then. Bam! Penis, kinda stuck on like an afterthought." She turned her laptop again. "Looks detachable."
Aiden's head snapped around. "What are you looking at!" He grabbed her laptop, shut it and handed it to Ryuu.
"I'm studying art!" Meryn protested.
"Naked art?" Aiden asked. "How did you go from leather daddies to naked art?"
Meryn blinked. "I don't know. I just kept clicking links and before I knew it..."
Rheia gave Meryn a sympathetic looked. "I've done something like that before. I Googled homeschooling curriculums for Penny, which led me to this site about homesteading, then canning, then disaster prepping. I logged off when I realized I had spent an hour reading about cult suicides."
Aiden paled. "The Google is dangerous?"
"That happens to me all the time, it's how I learn," Meryn said. "But usually it's about blood splatter, serial killers and corpse farms."
Declan leaned forward. "What on earth is a corpse farm?"
Meryn's face lit up. "It's where research facilities put out a whole bunch of dead bodies in like a field with cages around them, so scavengers can't get to them and they study stuff like rate of decomposition and how long it takes for bugs to get in the body, and maggot growth, stuff like that."
Aiden spit out his waffles and covered his mouth with his hand. Serenity heard dry heaves and saw that Colton was hanging on by a thread. Laelia popped up out of her seat and placed a hand on his back. Serenity sent soothing magic around the table to settle the more delicate tummies.
Sebastian sighed. "Now that breakfast is over, I will bring in extra coffee, lattes and espressos to fortify everyone for their day."
Ryuu patted Meryn on the head and looked around the room. "Isn't she adorable?"
Colton looked up at Aiden a bit wild eyed. "Thank the gods Keelan wasn't here for that." Aiden nodded.
Meryn squirted ketchup all over her scrambled eggs. Colton and surprisingly Rex bolted from the room. Meryn chuckled and kept eating. Laelia shook her head and sat back down. Radclyffe rubbed her back. "You tried, dearest."
"Adorable," Ryuu repeated.
Kendrick chuckled. "That she is."
"Thank god the twins weren't here," Rheia said leaning back in her chair as Hal started picking up plates.
Serenity watched as Meryn got really interested in her eggs. She wasn't the only one who noticed.
Aiden leaned in. "What are they doing Meryn?"
"Hmmm?" she looked up at him eyes wide.
"Meryn," he growled.
"It wasn't my idea," she started.
"What wasn't your idea?"
She took a deep breath, then hesitated. "Do you really, really want to know? I mean later you won't be lying when you tell the council you had no idea what was going on."
Aiden's eyes bugged out. "What in the gods' names are they doing?"
"Wellllll," Meryn dragged out the word.
When Aiden fumbled at his waist for his walkie-talkie she grabbed it and started talking fast. "The twins and I didn't like how DeLaFontaine hurt Pip so much. And he's our brother now, so we're sort of legally obligated to defend him and make sure that it never happens again."
Pip's eyes filled. "They are doing something for me?"
Meryn turned in her chair to face him. "Yup. Your bio-dad did very bad things that hurt a lot of people, but one of the worst things he did was mistreat you.
"Your parents and guardians are supposed to take care of you and feed you and make you feel safe and teach you how to make your way in the world. But he didn't do any of those things and he hurt you. He will eventually pay for his crimes against the city and her people, we just wanted to make sure that he paid for what he did to you too."
Aiden sat back. "I can't even get mad over that. I'm sure whatever you do will be worth whatever lecture the council comes up with."
Magnus cleared his throat. "Part of the council is sitting right here." Meryn gulped, and he continued. "Considering the severity of his other crimes I cannot see you getting too stern of a lecture." He eyed her closely. "What did you do?"
Meryn beamed. "Diarrhea."
Magnus turned to Ryuu. "Simply adorable."