Chapter 10
The next few weeks were hectic. We brought the Sluagh and my Hunt minders back through from the pocket realm I had created. Let’s just say that Brónach and the boys were not impressed with me.
That took quite a bit of smoothing over. However, sharing the photos of the ultrasound, along with the obvious improvement of my emotional well-being, helped immensely.
Life had almost gone back to normal. Mom and dad had even come to the pack-house to meet everyone a couple of times.
It was now Sunday afternoon, about a month after I came home, and we were having an early Christmas gathering cum baby shower.
***
I was sitting on the garden swing inside the heated sunroom, while gently rocking back and forth, sipping at my tea. I watched, what seemed to be, every living person I had ever met laugh and enjoy themselves through the doorway.
Kale sat down beside me with a weary sigh.
“What’s wrong, fur butt,” I smiled.
He scowled at me before taking my tea away and drinking it in one large gulp.
“Caffeine’s not good for the baby,” he smirked.
“Taking a pregnant woman’s cuppa is not good for your continued health either,” I snorted.
“Eh,” he shrugged. “I’ll take my chances. Our mothers sent me to find you, but I would rather hide out with you than go back out there,” he motioned to the mass of people in the other room. “How did you manage to escape their claws anyway?”
“Oh,” I grinned wickedly. “You know, pregnant women have to pee a million times a day. Plus, there are so many people; it would take forever to get back to the parentals with all the mingling I’m obviously doing.”
“You are a devious woman, baby––and I love you for it. However, our mothers are planning the nursery, as we speak, and picking out baby names.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s up to us,” I laughed.
“Yeah, well, you can tell them that.” Kale shuddered, “Because I’m not!”
“Coward,” I laughed.
“And proud of it,” he chuckled.
“I will face a horde of Fae, wolves, Sluagh, or any other supernatural nasty you can throw at me, but our mothers together? That is just too terrifying to surmount.”
“So, what did you do when they surrounded you then,” I asked.
“What any self-respecting Alpha would do. I threw the fucking Faery to them and ran.”
“Oh, dear Lord, you left my mother with Robin?”
“Daniel was with him,” Kale muttered.
“They seemed to be having a great time. When I left to find you, they were talking about how many grandkids they could get out of us with you having three husbands. You are expected to have at least three. One for each of us, your mother is of the mind that should be six. One of each, for each of us.”
“Oh hell no,” I deadpanned. “Unless you can magically start giving birth yourself, that is not going to happen. I don’t need a football team.”
I went to push myself up off the swing but at nearly six months pregnant, my balance was not what it used to be. Kale was already on his feet and gently tugging me to mine before pulling me against his side.
“Shall we go and head them off then?” he asked.
“If we must,” I mustered my courage and pulled up my big girl pants. Ha, right now they were pretty freaking big. I moaned to myself. My little girl kicked and the thought flittered away with her little flutter. She was worth every extra pound.
“Dia, where have you been hiding?” my mother pounced as soon as she saw me. She was standing with Helen, Dad, Annie, Mara, Daniel and Robin.
Mara gave me a cold look, she still had not forgiven me, but she was not willing to look bad in front of the family. In her mind, she was taking the higher ground.
It broke my heart, but at least she was here. It was a start.
“I was just mingling, mum,” I tried.
She raised her eyebrow and quirked her lips. “Mingling usually requires talking to your guests, dear––not hiding in another room.”
Kale gave me a look out of the corner of his eyes and nodded before mouthing the word, ‘Scary’.
“I was mingling,” I protested. “My feet were hurting so I decided to sit down for a few minutes with a cuppa.”
“You alright, beautiful?” Daniel broke in.
“Do you need to rest, Dianthe?” Robin’s voice was deadly serious and he looked as if he would toss everyone out on their ass if I so much as said the word.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mara scoffed. “She is hardly the first, only, or last pregnant woman to ever live. If she can’t handle it now, then I feel sorry for the baby when it gets here.”
“Mara,” her mother snapped.
Mara looked down quickly, knowing she had overstepped those invisible bounds of politeness.
“It’s ok,” I quickly said. “Mara is a modern wonder woman, mum. I don’t know how she does everything she does with the monkeys always into everything. It exhausts me just watching her with them. At least, I will have a lot of help. Besides, I have had some great examples of motherhood to copy.”
I looked at all three women, in hopes of salvaging the conversation. Helen and Mum smiled gently, but Mara asked to be excused to check on the kids.
“I had better check on those two, or I won’t live up to that label,” She threw over her shoulder as she left.
“I’m sorry, Dia,” mum said as we watched her walk away with stiff shoulders. “She will come around; it’s just hard for her. She always mothered you, and wanted what she thought was best for you. She can’t see that you have the best.”
“Thanks mum,” I sighed and rubbed my belly. “One day,” I smiled wryly and gave her a hug.
“One day,” She agreed.
“However, in the meantime, let’s talk about your plans for the nursery. Helen was telling me that you haven’t started yet?”
My eyes widened slightly. She was going for blood.
“Umm––no, not yet. We thought we would wait till closer to the time,” I began.
“Nonsense, you aren’t going to pay any attention to old superstitions about preparing things before the baby gets here, are you?”
“No mum, nothing like that. It’s just that we haven’t really gotten to that stage.”
“Well, that stage is now. Have you got a room picked out in this monstrosity of a house,” she questioned?
I looked to Robin in panic. I knew Kale was useless, and if I left it to Daniel, he would just let her do whatever she wanted.
“Margaret, of course we have the nursery picked out. We just have not decided on the decorations yet. We only found out that the little one was a girl recently. You can blame me; I wanted us all to agree on the nursery theme, and would like something special for our little princess.”
“Of course, my dear,” my mother soothed.
“Would you like to see the room we picked out?” he asked.
My mother and Kale’s mother were putty in his hands. They were fluttering with ideas as he gallantly offered his arms to the two women and led them in the direction of the stairs.
The rest of the day was spent mingling with the assorted guests.
The Sluagh was surprisingly well adjusted. They fit into the party atmosphere with a gleeful exuberance. Rioghan laughed when I spoke to him about it.
“You have not been paying attention to Tamarus, Dia. The Sluagh love social events. We don’t often get to enjoy them outside of the horde. Most races fear us too much. However, here we are as human as everyone else,” he said with a sparkle in his eye.
“I have been paying attention,” I defended myself. “It’s just that there is so much to learn and I have a lot of making up to do.”
His expression turned serious, “I understand, sister. I know that you are hunting the ones that betrayed you and killed Cernunnos.”
My breath caught, no one knew that I was hunting––no one but Caomhnóir. I had sent him out in his human and hound form to search for information. Brodie was also keeping his ear to the ground. He told me that it was in the interest of his ‘niece’.
The plan was to tell my mates when I knew something more concrete.
The thought went out the window as the front doors opened and my father walked in. The biological one––also known as the god, Belenus. Belisama was at his side and they out-shown everyone in the room.
“Daughter,” Belenus shouted.
Every head in the room turned to look at him and it took all I had in me not to facepalm.
“This should be interesting,” Brodie chuckled from behind me.
“Where the hell did you come from,” I nearly screamed.
“Dia, I’m wounded. You are having a party for my favorite niece in the world; of course, I would bring her a gift.”
I had just opened my mouth to retort when Belenus called my name again. I looked up and felt faint.
He was shaking my dad’s hand and speaking to him enthusiastically. My dad looked like a deer caught in headlights. Belenus was laughing and using exaggerated hand gestures, while Belisama stood there patiently, with a content smile gracing her face.
This could not get any worse.
“Dia, who is that talking with your father?”
Oh my God! I glared at Robin evilly. He would pay for this later.
My mother was now part of this debacle.
I had never really told them about my other parents. I just let them know that I had met them, and left it at that.
Heaven only knows what Belenus was telling my dad. I didn’t have any time to answer my mum before said god was waving his hands in the air, motioning us over.
“Oh God,” I muttered while rubbing my face. With a huge sigh, I took my mother’s arm and let my shoulders drop. “Come on, Mum––I’ll introduce you.”
Mum and I made our way over to the group waiting on us. My mates, the cowards, had bailed on me. They had to, ‘go and check on the other guests.’
“Dianthe, my beautiful girl,” Belenus grabbed me and lifted me up, as though I weighed no more than a toddler.
“Daughter, we are going to be having words. I can’t believe you didn’t call upon me and tell us we were going to be grandparents!”
“Dia?” the hurt confusion in my mother’s eyes made me cringe.
“Mum,” I began but was cut off by Belenus.
He still had me in his arms, but gently sat me down between him and Belisama.
“You must be Margaret, Dia’s mother,” he took my mums hand and pulled it to his lips. “My dear lady, my wife and I have so much to thank you for.”
“You do?” My poor mother looked even more confused.
Dad broke in then to try and help his poor wife.
“Dear, this is Belen and Lisa.”
My brow quirked up at the names, but otherwise, I remained silent.
“They are our girl’s biological parents. Belen was just telling me how Dia came to be ours. It’s quite tragic.”
Oh, I couldn’t wait to hear this.
Belisama stepped forward and serenely placed her hand on Belenus’ arm, effectively halting him from jumping into the conversation.
“Hello Margaret, I’m Lisa––Dia’s other mother. We just wanted to meet her family and be a part of it in any small way we could. You have done a wonderful job of raising her. Dia, has become a beautiful, compassionate, young woman, and you should be very proud of her.”
“I am.” My mum smiled at me and I felt like crying.
“We may have given her life,” Belisama continued. “But you made her who she is.”
“Why?” my mother asked quietly. No one had to ask what she was asking; it was the giant elephant in the room. I knew they couldn’t tell her the truth, and I had no idea what they had already told my dad.
Belisama gave a delicate shudder and even I wanted to wrap my arms around her.
“It’s a complicated story, but the basis is that Belen and I could not naturally have children. We instead brought in a surrogate, and unfortunately, when Dia was born, the young woman, for whatever reason, decided to run away with Dia. We later learned that she was left with nuns and was blessed to have fate place her with your family. Our hearts have been broken for years, not knowing what happened to our daughter. You cannot imagine the relief of finding out that she grew up happy, healthy and loved. It is all we could have ever hoped for.”
“Oh, Heavenly Father,” mum choked out. She covered her mouth with her hand and stifled the sob trying escape.
“I think this is a discussion we should take somewhere––a little more private,” I said quietly.
“Why don’t we retire to the family’s private wing? I have a sitting room where we can talk without being disturbed.”
Everyone nodded, following close behind. The next several hours were filled with tears, laughter, disbelief, and once my parents realized my other parents were not a threat, a slowly blooming friendship.