She nodded again. “This just feels so right,” she said, indicating the child in her arms.
Draven smiled at her and watched her as she followed her sister outside.
“We’re coming swimming!” Findley announced as they stepped outside.
“Everything alright in there?” Vance asked.
“I don’t know, we ran by quickly,” Findley said, keeping her voice singsongy as she answered.
“You ready?” she asked the boy she held.
“Yes, yes, yes, yes,” he started chanting.
Findley didn’t stop, she just went straight down the steps and into the pool, shorts and all, instead of stripping out of her clothes to the swim suit she wore underneath.
Brinnley followed her.
Three came over and knelt by the side of the pool Findley was closest to. “Everything okay with the boys?”
“Yeah. They had no idea anything was wrong. Bathroom up there is a mess, and there’s a trail from their bedroom to the door right there,” she said, inclining her head toward the patio.
“I’ll go take care of that,” Three said. “You alright out here if I go in for a few minutes?”
“I’m fine, my love,” she said.
Three leaned over the side and kissed her quickly.
“No!” the child she held said, hitting Three on the forehead as he tried to push Three away from Findley.
They laughed. “I think you have some competition,” Findley said.
“Little man is brave!” Three said, grinning at the child.
Findley watched as Three spoke to Vance and then the two of them went inside, presumably to clean up the blood trail and the blood in Gwen’s bathroom. She did a quick take around the backyard and found Bonnie moving among the females of Gwen’s Pride, smiling and assuring them that everything was under control, and she noticed the extra males that had come to hang out. She wasn’t fooled, though, she knew they were there for their calming effect. Males meant security to most female shifters — especially these after what they’d been through. If anyone attacked, they’d handle it and the females knew it. Titus caught her eye across the yard and winked at her. “Looks good on you,” he called out.
“What looks good?” she asked.
“The kid. You and Three should have one of your own.”
“We have a ways to go before we get to that point!” she said laughing. “But I’m loving playing with this one.” She tickled the baby, then started bouncing in the water as she moved through the shallow end of the pool, getting squeals and laughter in response as the boy she held had the best time, completely unaware that his mother was in serious condition in the house he and his brother had just been rushed out of.
~~~
Vance and Three were on their hands and knees on the carpet in the hallway upstairs scrubbing at the blood stains that tracked Gwen’s path from her bedroom to the back door.
A door opened, but no one came out of the bedroom.
Vance looked up.
“What are you doing?” Niko asked.
“Getting blood stains out of the carpet,” Vance answered.
Niko walked over and squatted down beside Three and Vance and looked down critically at the spots they were just smearing rather than getting up. “I don’t think you’re making that better.”
Three sat back and glared at Niko. “You want to do it?”
“No. Why are there blood droplets on the carpet?”
