“Bless you.” Aurora smiled when I sneezed. The dry, dusty air was tickling my nose, despite how close we were to the Nile. She looped her arm through mine as we trekked onto Kyle and Jude’s ancestral family lands. She lifted a brow when I started to giggle.

I shook my head. “Sorry, it just occurred to me that if any humans are watching or a satellite happens along overhead, it will look mighty odd to see a group of naked people walking through the dirt. We really didn’t think this out too well, did we?”

“Hey, at least I brought a bag of sandals for us,” Sammy commented with a glance at our feet. That only made me giggle harder. Something about a bunch of naked people wearing shoes was just a joke needing to happen. “Are you feeling okay? It’s not the baby, is it?” Sammy asked softly when I winced and rubbed my belly.

“I’m fine, just laughed too hard, probably,” I said quickly before Connor could pick up on our conversation. While our shifter ears could hear things a mile away, he was fortunately engaged in an animated conversation with Kyle and Jon. Truth be told, I’d been having twinges ever since we’d stepped off the plane, and they’d been growing worse as the day progressed. But I wasn’t about to prove my baba right.

As if reading my mind, Aurora smiled gently. “I know your baba was concerned about you traveling so close to your due date, but you’ve still got nearly two and a half weeks left before he arrives, right?”

“Exactly, no worries here. If I were having multiples, I’d be concerned about them coming early, but I’m not, so everything is copacetic.” I shuddered as we drew closer to the old pile of rubble. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but the place had a feeling of malevolence to it.

Connor slowed and turned back to see where I was, then stopped to wait for me to catch up. “I’m sorry, sugarbear. I got caught up in conversation and ignored you; that was rude of me.”

I took his hand with a smile and resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “We are mates, Connor, but we aren’t joined at the hips. You’re allowed to talk to our friends sometimes without me right there with you.”

He lifted my hand to kiss my palm. “But there’s nowhere else I’d want you to be, sweetness.”

“Gag. Do you have any of those ginger candies on you?” Kyle joked. “Those things taste nasty as fuck but they’d be better than having to swallow hearing Connor gushing over you. Nope, guess not. Nowhere to hide them now, I suppose. At least, nowhere I’d want to put my mouth. Now Connor, on the other hand…”

I wiggled my pinky at Kyle, because his comment wasn’t worth giving him the full bird—he only got the tail feather. He grinned at our old joke. “You missed it, I was just telling your man here about how amazed our dads were to hear about this place. They plan to make a trip here in the near future to see it in person. Father will have to decide what to do with the land, because leaving it sitting here fallow like this is just sad.”

“Especially when you remember the dreamscape and how it looked in its heyday. It’s crazy when you see it now,” Jude commented as he looked around. “Take a deep breath, gang. You can literally smell the history.”

I was growing more uncomfortable the closer we got to the pile of rubble. No offense to my friends, but this place had bad auras. There was a murky black cloud over the building. I realized that Lulu and the trips could see it too when I noticed them each looking askance at it, then glancing away. Lulu’s zany streak was dialed way back; she seemed almost more timid with every step that took us closer to the dark rubble.

Jude surprised me when he spoke. “I think when our dads come to see this, they need to see what can be done to reclaim the property and put it to a better use. Maybe we can find a way to wash away some of the bad juju I’m picking up.”

Even Kyle seemed subdued. “Yeah, why don’t we grab that prize you’re seeking and get the hell out of Dodge. That seems like the best plan to me.”

Connor slid a stabilizing arm around my shoulder when I stumbled over a rock, anchoring me against his side to steady me. When we reached the corner of the building we were seeking, everyone stopped and formed a semi-circle around me and the trips. I had no idea why I needed to be involved, other than being Connor’s mate. But he insistently took my hand as he and his brothers joined hands.

The trips stared at the dirt that hadn’t been disturbed in centuries. Almost instantly, the dirt began lifting up and pouring aside as if being tumbled through by an invisible auger. I forgot all about the black cloud and bad juju as I watched the dull, dirty, golden apple emerge from the ground. It flew up from the hole in an arc. As it fell toward me, I instinctively stretched my hand out and neatly caught it.

I trembled from the powerful vibes coming from it—both pure and evil—and fumbled it. Before it hit the ground, my sister sprang forward and caught it. Her eyes rolled back as her retrocognitive powers read the object’s history in a flash. I knew from hearing her speak in the past that she was seeing flashes of every person who’d held it. Her eyes fluttered back to normal and she gave a violent shiver before tossing it toward the trips.

Connor caught it first, his eyes closing as he used his own powers to absorb whatever information it was giving him. He tossed it in the air and levitated it toward Jon, who did the same object reading before passing it up and levitating it to Sammy.

While Sammy read it, I huffed with exasperation. “Seriously. Aren’t you guys getting a little old for these parlor tricks? Is somebody going to tell us what you’ve seen? All I picked up was a mix of good and evil.”

“It is Atalanta’s golden apple—the warrior’s prize,” Lulu said quietly. “I’m not sure whether I’m happy or sad for her. She was thrilled when her love won the race and she knew that not only could they be together at last but she wouldn’t have to kill him. However, she was equally heartbroken. The moment he won, the power in her body dissipated and she lost it all for love. And you don’t want to know the half of where it went between her time and Alexander the Great. Let’s just say that this thing has always been used by people with ulterior motives or stolen by people like Kesi.”

“I don’t care about all that, I suppose. But tell me one thing.” I glanced at her curiously, ignoring my mate and his brothers who were playing some form of levitation-style catch with the apple. “How the heck did it get into the hands of Alexander the Great?”

Connor glanced over his shoulder with a grin before she could answer. “Believe it or not, he won it in a bet with Caesar himself.”

“Enough playing around.” Lulu shivered again as she hugged herself and rubbed her arms. “Can we maybe move things along?”

Connor and his brothers had left the apple floating in midair while they were distracted by the house. They’d righted some of the fallen pillars with their powers and put some of the stones back in place. They’d worked fast, the stones moving into place with just a thought from them, it seemed, and it was already beginning to resemble the house we’d seen in our dreamscape.

Sammy walked over and plucked the apple out of the air, tucking it into a woven bag he’d worn around his neck even when we’d shifted to make the excursion here in animal form since the place wasn’t easily accessible. He’d no sooner put the apple away when all of a sudden, the ground began to shake.

“Earthquake! Everybody move your asses, we need to get away from the building!” Connor shouted as he ran over to lift me protectively into his arms while we all ran away from the precariously balanced pillars and stones. As we ran, the dirt was rolling like waves on the ocean and dirt geysers were blowing up from the ground and blocking our path as they blew straight up in the air in columns of dirt so high they could easily rival Old Faithful.

Connor stood me up and pushed me behind his back as everyone instinctively huddled together in a circle, standing shoulder to shoulder, facing outward with me kept protectively in the center. Connor and my sister stood directly in front of me, which didn’t surprise me a bit.

I’d nearly forgotten my friend, Phoenix, was there until he yelled over the noise of the rumbling earth. “I thought Mr. Sandman was supposed to bring you a dream! These monstrosities are the stuff of nightmares!”

Some of the larger shifters in our group switched to animal form and began growling as an army of sandmen rose from the ground. From what I could see between Connor and Lei’s shoulders, the fuckers had to be at least seven feet tall.

“What the actual fuck are those things,” Lulu breathed in horrified fascination.

“Fuck me, but I think we’re dealing with bloody golems,” Ian answered. As the army of sandmen grew closer, the two bears in our group jumped protectively forward to start battling. I wanted to shift to my lion, but the cramps in my stomach were so bad now that I was afraid I’d hurt the baby if I shifted. I had no idea whether or not that was a good idea and I hadn’t thought to ask my dad, the one person I knew who was an actual doctor.

While the larger shifters in our group fought the sandmen, more sprang forward before the ones they’d wounded fell to the ground. “Fall back,” Jon shouted as the other trips lifted their hands to pull a wall of sand out of the ground. “Shit, I don’t think it’s gonna hold, guys.” Jon’s face was red from exertion as he held his palms out toward the wall.

Connor shook his head, grunting his words as if straining with all his might. “No, there are already cracks forming. Look at it, some of the suckers are breaking through already. We won’t be able to hold it long, we need to figure something else out. You think we could levitate everybody out of here?”

“Fuck, no. I know I’m not the only one who saw that black-ass cloud overhead,” Jon answered. “There’s nothing good about that shit.”

“What cloud?” Aaron asked nervously.

“Forget the cloud or whatever, I think I have an idea,” Jude said as he pushed his way around to the trips. “You need to lower the wall. Do you trust me?”

Jon and Sam shared a smile while Connor rolled his eyes at them and answered Jude’s question. “You know we do. Any one of us would trust you with our lives. I hope you have a better idea than we did, because I’m at a loss.”

The wall dropped at once, sand fluttering to the ground like a magician’s silken cloth. The huge golems began charging forward again until Jude held up a hand and confidently called out a single word. “Pavo.”

The sandmen froze in place like statues. In the center of the line, the largest golem’s mouth fell open and a massive, earthen tongue rolled out. Sitting in the curl at its tip was a dull metal disc. We all cringed when Jude matter-of-factly stepped forward and retrieved it. As soon as he’d removed it, the entire army disintegrated into a giant cloud of dust. It was like a mini sandstorm blew over the place before it all slowly settled back to the ground. Before the air cleared, I happened to glance across the field to where a familiar woman stood on the southern end, watching with a frustrated scowl.

It took me a moment to place her before I realized that it was the waitress who’d been so rude to us that morning back in Greece. I started to say something to Connor, but Jude was trying to hand him the disc. “Check it out, it’s some sort of ancient coin.”

Connor shook his head and held up a hand. “Keep it for now, it might be a clue of some sort, but I feel like you were the one who was meant to find it since you were the one who was shown what to do.”

I was about to mention the waitress, but I noticed she’d gone. Before I could say a word, I started to choke from the dust in the air and began coughing, just like everyone around me. I was mid-cough when a gush of water splashed my bare legs. “No! Not here! And definitely not now, I’m not ready, dammit!” I was freaking out, trying to quit choking while I stared pitifully at the ground. It was too late; my water had broken.

“It’s okay, Oni-bologna,” Phoenix said softly. “We can deliver the baby right here; Aaron and I have had to help our dad deliver more than one baby during our travels over the years. You’ll be fine, I promise.”

I bent over double from a massive pain spasm, clutching my belly protectively as I shook my head from side to side. “No. I don’t care what it takes, but my baby will not be born on land with bad juju.”

“Easily solved, my darling.” Connor scooped me up and jogged across the field toward where the Nile flowed on the west side of the property. Once we’d stepped off the land, I felt immediately better. Connor carried me over to the riverbank and lowered me to the ground as another pain racked my body.

Phoenix gently nudged Connor aside. “Don’t kill me for getting all up in your man’s business, but someone needs to deliver your son.”

As I gave birth beside the ancient river, most of our group washed the dirt off their naked bodies in the river. Phoenix pulled my son free and passed him into my arms, while Aaron pulled the cord taut as Connor extended his finger and transformed it into a claw to cut it. Sammy conjured a bandanna from the bottom of his bag and got it wet to clean some of the muck from the baby.

I blew out a breath and shook my head at Connor. “I really hate it when my baba is right. This little shit couldn’t have waited to go full term? You know we’re never going to live this down, right? And now we’re cleaning him with filthy river water?”

Connor chuckled as he rested a hand over the back of our son’s head and kissed my cheek. “We have things on the plane to clean him properly, my love. This is just getting the worst of it off him. As for your dad being right? I can live with that, since our son is healthy. Just listen to those lungs.”

I smiled at our screaming little alpha lion. It seemed as though he was declaring his rage at having left the nurturing warmth of my womb to anybody who would listen.

“I still can’t believe you didn’t have multiples,” Jon said with a grin. “You rebels are like the black sheep of the family now, you know that, right?”

“Screw that, if they want multiples, then they can carry them. I’m good with one.” I shivered at the idea of giving birth to multiples right about now. One had been bad enough.

Connor shrugged. “Hey, maybe the fates finally decided it was cool to let us chill with overpopulating the world from our family alone, you know?”

“What are you naming my nephew? I think that’s the important topic to discuss.” Lei dropped down on the ground beside me to admire my son. “I think you should go with Kojo because he was born on a Monday.”

“Please don’t,” Lulu laughed. “It sounds too much like Kujo. I mean, can you imagine the jokes? Every time he shifted, the other kids would be checking him for rabies drool.”

Connor laughed. “But just think about the rabies pranks he could pull; I could totally hook him up with some ideas there.”

“How about a normal name?” I frowned. “I don’t know, maybe something like Clyde or Horace.”

Connor quirked an eyebrow. “What I’m hearing is that you want me to name him and any other children we have. Is that what you said? Because that’s what I heard.”

“You know, I know a cool Nigerian name that means born on the road or born during travel. What you think of Ode?” Jude smiled gently at the baby as he spoke.

“Definitely not.” Lei shook her head. “I remember hearing that also means dumb in Nigeria, so we’re not doing that to my nephew either.” She paused for a moment, her eyes lighting up as a thought occurred to her. “Oni! What do you think of Dylan? That name comes from a sea god, so it literally means son of the sea. And since he was born on the bank of the Nile, it kinda fits. Plus, it’s normal like you wanted.”

“Yes! I like it. What do you think, Connor?” I searched his eyes for any sign of his agreement. Naming our son was pretty important, after all. We’d thought we had more time to figure one out before he arrived, but apparently the brat had other ideas.

“I love it.” Connor bent to kiss our son’s head. “Hello, Dylan. Welcome to our pack.”