Chapter Fourteen
Hugh
Hugh thrust his leg forward between the legs of Logan so he could tickle Julian's thigh with his toes.
Julian stirred, mumbling as he did. "Stop, Logan, I'm sleeping."
"Sabotage!" Logan cried out, jumping from bed with a burst of energy that Hugh envied. They'd spent the days following their fight isolated. As Lupe and Fern became accustomed to living with their grandparents, the three men were becoming accustomed to each other. More specifically, each other's bodies with no mental or physical limits. There was no talk of barriers, protection or running. They'd spent the days as if on vacation from their life.
So, when Logan's face scrunched up in horror, and he ran into the bathroom, Hugh figured it was about time for some calamity to break apart the perfect bubble they'd been living in.
Hugh found himself with his arm propped up on the bathroom door in nothing but his boxers with Julian by his side, wearing less than he was. Hugh knocked gently on the door as the sounds of gut-wrenching heaving reached his ears. He opened the door a crack.
"Get out!" Logan yelled a moment before throwing up the rest of what was in his body.
Julian shrugged. In this, they were just as inexperienced. They both rarely got sick. "We'll get you some water."
When they came back carrying a glass of water and a wet towel, Logan was at the sink, looking more like his old self.
"Thanks, but I feel fine now. That was weird, right?"
Hugh found Julian's face, sharing one of their many unspoken moments.
So soon?
His body's been changing since our first time together.
Logan slid between them, slapping a palm on each of their chests. "Stop, stop it. Whatever you two are saying to each other, you need to say out loud! To me! I'm in this triad, remember?"
Hugh smiled, curling his fingers over the hand on his chest. Fate had given them a fiery redhead as a mate for a reason. Only he would be able to stand his ground. An amazing feat considering how large the other two were. "We were discussing the possibility of you being pregnant."
The color drained from Logan's face, and his knees buckled. Hugh and Julian were, of course, there to catch him and gently lead him back to the bed. "Of me being who now?"
"Pregnant," Julian repeated, taking a seat next to him.
"So soon?"
"I have to admit it felt a little early to us as well, but your body has been changing since we first met that first night."
"But if I have morning sickness now, that means I'm at least a few weeks pregnant."
"Shifter pregnancies happen at a faster rate than humans."
Logan leaned into him. "I don't suppose Mrs. Santiago has a pregnancy test lying around."
"Probably not, but we can take a car to Coacoyulillo and buy one. I can't promise it won't be the talk of the small town."
Logan stretched his hand to the window and pulled back the curtains revealing a sheet of falling water outside. "Beautiful day for it."
"We can go later, there is no rush," Julian said in an unusual moment of dismission. "If you aren't pregnant now, you will be soon," he said then with a devilish wink.
Logan didn't throw up the rest of the morning, and when they joined the Santiagos for lunch, he seemed exactly like his chipper self. Hugh still needed to give Lupe the adoption papers but today was the day for that. He had avoided giving them to her earlier because he didn't want her to feel pressured into getting them signed.
"It sure is raining out there," Logan commented.
Rico sat at the head of the table, head down as he stared at a map of his land. Mumbling with one of his workers as they drew lines and markings. Hugh thought he heard Rico mention the Chupacabra several times and figured they were constructing a plan to hunt the panther.
Regina smiled warmly down at Fern who was making a mountain out of his eggs instead of eating them. "If you had left even a week ago, you would have missed the raining season, but it is on us now."
"Does that make your life harder or easier?"
"Depends on the severity. Some years, we get enough to make everything green again and then there are other years where the roads get washed away, and we are isolated until the floods clear."
"Do you think the rain will keep your cattle safer?" Logan asked, asking about the panther.
Hugh would be lying if he said it didn't irk him that Logan seemed so concerned about the panther. If it was another shifter, then he was likely a loner and wanted to stay that way. "We needed to go into town later, will that be a problem?"
"Not yet, but I would hurry."
After lunch, Hugh, Logan, and Lupe decided to go into town while Julian stayed behind to help Rico with reinforcing the fences. The panther sighting that they'd experienced had been the closest that an animal had gotten attacked to the home and Rico was afraid the beast was getting braver.
The townspeople stared at Logan and Hugh with curiosity but seemed to accept Lupe as one of their own as they drove into town and parked outside of the store. Hugh figured word traveled and with a farm as big as Rico's, he likely employed most of these people at some point in the year. Lupe and her brother would be like royalty here. After all, they had been through, that was a nice thought.
"I wanted to ask you, would you like to have your grandparents sign your adoption papers?" Hugh asked.
Lupe froze for a moment. Hugh thought he understood. Getting the adoption papers signed was just another step toward accepting her current reality in a world where her mother was no longer around. "Yes. Abuela is good to Fern, spoils him rotten. And Grandpa Rico seems strict but kind."
Hugh pulled out the envelope and gave it to Lupe. It was always going to be her choice.
"Does that mean you guys are leaving?" Lupe asked, her tone uncharacteristically soft.
Hugh imagined Logan in a few months. His body would grow quickly with the baby. They might be able to stay a while, but Hugh didn't want to have to explain why his male mate was pregnant with Rico and Regina. They already were pretty cool with the idea of three men shacking up together on their property. "Soon, our own family is expecting us. We were sent out with a mission that got a little waylaid when we met Bryce."
Lupe snorted. "That's an understatement. Did you know that when he met me, he said he was sorry for my loss? Just like that, like I was the only one to lose something. Like he had never loved her and didn't care she was gone." Lupe took a deep breath, but when she looked at the other two men, there were no tears. "I couldn't tell anyone that before, not without breaking down. But being with my mother's parents helps me. And I think it is helping Fern as well."
At least one thing had worked out. As good as it felt to secure petroleum for their community back home, it felt better to find a stable, loving home for the two kids. Lupe disappeared in the store. Hugh and Logan took that moment to snag a pregnancy test.
While Logan waited outside with his bag, clutching it like it was contraband, Hugh went back in for a few more things they might need. When he came out, his arms full of shopping bags, Logan gave him a side eye but said nothing, probably preoccupied with the concept of being pregnant.
When they piled back in the car, Logan with his test shoved in his armpit and Lupe with bags of magazines and sweets, the sky opened as the rain poured.
Hugh pulled the car out onto the road, glad he had shifter sight to see through the sheet of water in front of him. A human wouldn't have been able to see through the windshield. Which meant Lupe and Logan couldn't either.
With each mile, the rain continued.
"Where's the road?" Lupe asked, her voice high and frightened.
"Don't worry where in a valley now but there is a hill ahead that should—oh." Hugh spotted a puddle ahead of them right at the base of the hill. On a different day, he would have thought nothing of the puddle. But with the way it had suddenly begun raining, he worried that to drive through it would mean he was getting them stuck in a sinkhole. Pulling the car to a stop about fifty feet in front of it, he got out to inspect the road ahead. He didn't bother asking Logan or Lupe to stay behind since he knew both would ignore his instructions anyway. Logan, because he was obstinate and Lupe because she was a teenager.
As the three of them stood on the edge of the puddle, staring at it like it was a potential black hole, a loud rushing sound grew closer. At first, Hugh thought it was simply the sound of the rain falling against the dry Mexican countryside. He instinctively grabbed for Logan, bringing him closer as the sound grew louder.
The spot where they were stopped was a small, kind of valley. With hills on all sides, it was the worst place to be when there was the possibility of a flash flood.
Hugh turned with horror when he was finally able to see what exactly was making that sound. A wild river of water rushed toward them from the left.
"Get up the hill," Hugh ordered Logan and Lupe, pushing Logan in the right direction as he ran back to the car. The water was nearly on him by the time he got inside, and as he slammed on the gas, the back tires swerved, finding it difficult to get traction in the sudden flood.
They must have caught a rock because one moment the car fishtailed and the next, Hugh shot forward, driving the car as far up the hill and off the road as it would go.
When he got out and looked for Logan, his heart stopped. He wasn't anywhere near where he'd left him, and neither was Lupe. Somehow, they'd gotten to the other side of the sudden river. Logan laid on the ground as Lupe cried over him.
He turned and jumped, using all his shifter strength to get him to his mate. He heard Logan's soft breath when he landed. "What happened?" Hugh asked.
"We were going, but then I slipped. The current grabbed me. But Logan jumped in and pushed me out. Then he went under. I tried to help him, but I couldn't even find him! Then this huge black cat came out of the water with Logan in his mouth. He pulled him here and ran away."
Hugh's heart constricted. That had all happened so fast. He searched around them for the panther, but there was no sign of it.
"I'm fine," Logan said weakly. "I didn't think I was though. There was so much water, everywhere." Logan pushed up so that he sat on the soggy ground. "If that panther hadn't been here, I would be at the bottom of that river."
All around them, the rain continued to fall. Hugh looked at the rushing, dirty water, a chill running down his spine. Logan shivered, snapping Hugh back into action.
"The car won't make it up the hill. I don't even know if it is safe where it is. The ground could become too waterlogged and give away. We aren't too far from home though. I'm going to go back and get our stuff. Stay. Here," he commanded before carefully making his way back to the car. He slipped on the e-brake, knowing that that would make no difference if there were a landslide. When he returned to Lupe and Logan, they were where he left him. Hugh lifted Logan, carrying him on his back with their bags lining his arms and Lupe's hand in his.
With his arms full of groceries, his mate on his back and Lupe's hand in his, he led them back to the ranch. Rico ran out to meet them at the gate along with a few of his men. As Hugh told them what had happened, he offered to go back to get the car, but Rico said a few of his men would go later when it was safe.
"Not the first time these lands have claimed a car," he said with a smile.
Hugh tried to return the smile, but he was too worried about his mate. He carried Logan to the guest house, knowing his mate would have been happier walking, but that was just too bad. Seeing him on the ground like that with Lupe crying over his still form had rocked him to his core.
Hugh opened the door, letting it fall against the wall with a bang. Julian had been sitting on the couch facing away from the door but turned toward them when he heard the bang. He took one look before jumping to his feet and rushing over, searching them both for injury. "What happened?"
"Nothing, just some rain washing out the road," Logan said first.
"You are both okay?"
"They were okay," Hugh said. "Until Lupe tripped and Logan jumped into a flash flood to save her."
"You did what?"
"I am a doctor you guys, I save lives."
"But then, he fell in and nearly drowned."
"We're just lucky you were there to save him."
"I wasn't. I was driving the car out of the way of the flood."
"Then who…?"
Logan pushed against Hugh's chest. Hugh let him down reluctantly. "The panther saved my life. I knew it, you guys. He's a shifter, and he isn't a bad one either. Why else would he save me?"
The question lingered uneasily between them.
"He's a little small to be a shifter, to be honest," Julian said. Hugh didn't think that was the point they should be making.
Hugh grabbed a few towels, wrapping one around Logan before using another to dry his dripping hair.
"Were you able to get the test?" Julian asked.
Logan pulled the soggy box out of his jacket. "It could be a false negative. I've seen plenty of those in my time. We don't even have to take it right now."
"Just tell me, are you more worried that it will say yes or no?"
Logan thought about that for a moment. "Both."
Julian grabbed the test as Hugh led Logan into the bathroom. They stood there in the doorway while Logan ripped the soggy cardboard apart to get to the test. The packet of instructions flopped to the ground, slapping against the bathroom tile. "Good thing I know how these work," Logan commented. "I can't do this with you guys watching. It is weird enough as it is."
Julian and Hugh took two unhappy steps back so that they could close the door, leaving their mate inside alone.
If he thought they weren't going to use their heightened shifter senses to listen to his every move, then he had another thing coming. They had nothing to do but stare at each other while they listened to Logan unzip, followed by the sound of liquid splashing into the toilet.
By the time Logan cracked the door back open, Julian was practically shaking with anticipation while Hugh couldn't stop smiling.
"We have to wait," Logan said through the crack.
A loud knock at the front door cut off what Hugh had been about to say. It sounded like a lot of angry shouting and Hugh curiously went to the door, opening it as Rico attempted to cut off his nose with a machete.
"What's wrong?" Hugh asked, jumping back.
"Bastardo!" Rico shouted, his face red.
Julian moved like a striking cobra, disarming Rico before he could try to do any more unlicensed plastic surgery. He let out a stream of angry words that Hugh didn't understand, but he wasn't about to get his mate and bring him into danger to translate.
Logan came anyway, drawn by the noise and the chaos. He remained obediently behind Hugh and Julian as he listened to the stream of angry words and obscenities.
"Oh no," Logan said finally, humor in his tone. "Someone from the town called and told him about the pregnancy test. He thinks it was for Lupe."
As the pieces fell together, Hugh's mouth opened in shock. "What? You think one of us had…relations with Lupe?"
Logan spoke over the men's shoulders saying something to Rico that made him freeze.
"Que?"
"I told him the test was for me. He is…confused." Logan disappeared for a second, his bare feet slapping against the floor as he ran into the bathroom and back out. "See?" he said to Rico, thrusting the plastic stick over Hugh and Julian's shoulders. "The test is mine, and it's, oh my god, it's positive."
"What?" Hugh turned from Rico, forgetting that the man had tried to cut his face off only moments before and lifted Logan in his arms, setting him down only so Julian could lift him. The three of them embraced as the news settled in that they were going to start a family, together. When they finally pulled apart, they saw that Rico was still there, standing awkwardly in the doorway.
"Felicitaciones."