Page 34 of Matched in Mayhem

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow that night. Bennie had insisted on carrying me up the spiral staircase and I didn’t turn the offer down. My shoulders ached from my first flight, and I was stuffed from all the takeout I’d managed to get down after one of the nurses offered me a prescription strength gummy for my baby belly flipflops. Raziel did come home with us. Not to reclaim his house, but to stay in case we needed help. I couldn’t imagine what we’d need help with, and it took me way too long to realize that Raziel just wanted to be close to his friend after everything that happened. It took me even longer to realize all the alphas were concerned that someone might try to retaliate on one of us. Even on me for helping Brad survive. I didn’t realize that until I was falling asleep but fuck them. I’d eat them if they came and woke me up.

I had expected that Raziel would sleep in his own room or curl up on the other side of Bennie, but the alphas put me between them for safety. I felt small and warm and safe there between the two brutes. Maybe one day we’d all lay like this again, but Raziel’s true-mate would be behind me, his back pressed into mine as we lay between our alphas for safety or comfort or just for a lazy afternoon. Wherever Raziel’s other half was, I hoped he was more than okay. I hoped that he was happy.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Raziel woke us all up. He startled awake, sat straight up, clutching his chest like someone stabbed him or maybe he was having a heart attack. He didn’t tell me what he dreamt about, but he and Bennie shared a look that made me wonder if my alpha knew. I didn’t ask questions, instead I patted his back while he sat there staring blankly into space and Bennie went downstairs to bring up snacks.

I thought about Brad and his babies as I patted Raziel’s sweat-drenched back. He’d come through his operation healthy and strong. It took a lot to keep his bear under, but he’d already woken up before we left. They even double-checked to make sure he was still just a bear shifter and hadn’t picked up a tiger from Bennie’s antibodies. There was only one documented case of such a thing happening before, but the doctors were extra careful since that case became more widely known. He’d been up and nursing his babies while the hospital staff fussed over him. He cried when they placed not one little bear cub, but two in his arms.

Grandpa Clyde offered to take him to Hemlock Mountain Sanctuary, but Brad declined the offer because despite everything this was his home. He was born and raised here. Plus, everything his parents owned automatically went to him and his babies. I didn’t ask because it wasn’t my place, but I hoped he would find a therapist when he was discharged. I hoped he found everything he wanted from life in fact because with parents like that who needed enemies?

Eventually, Raziel dozed back off, and Bennie and I laid back down too. I turned onto my side facing him and scratching gently at the scruff that had come onto his face from a few days of not shaving. Unlike the hair on his head, the scruff on his face was slightly tinted with the colors of his tiger.

“Thanks for letting him stay tonight,” Bennie said over our mating link.

“He’s family. We wouldn’t be together if not for him and…. Well, he beat me to the dirty work.”

“He’s good like that,” Bennie nodded.

“Thank you for helping Brad. I know it couldn’t have been easy,” I said, still playing with his scruff. “I know… He held me at gunpoint, but I feel like I should say tried to hold me at gunpoint because he didn’t have the energy to properly do it.”

“You wanted him to be okay. That’s admirable. So, I helped him for you. Look, he’s never going to be my favorite person, but I want him to be okay, because you want him to be okay. I get that he was desperate, but he pointed a gun at my pregnant mate. We’ll watch out for him, because it’s the right thing to do, but don’t expect me to like him,” Bennie said over our mating link.

“I’ll take what I can get at this point,” I chuckled. “I’m pregnant, Bennie, and I couldn’t imagine being in that spot. He thought his mate had left him, and his parents had lost their minds holding one of his babies hostage while sending him on a suicide mission. I’d do that for our babies.”

Bennie opened his mouth about to say something about how he’d be harder to kill but stopped himself. He knew that growing up more or less inside the Temple of Frost was a privilege. Not all alphas were trained fighters and trusting someone meant they could easily get the jump on you. The whole fucking thing was complicated, but we’d all come out on the other side alive. Well, all the good guys anyway. And the babies. All the babies were still alive to have their chances at happy lives. That was the most important part.

“I might not like him, but I’ll let you take the lead on this one, okay? And I’m sorry that I didn’t get what Frost was trying to tell me about Chad,” Bennie sighed over our mating link. “If I…”

“Nope. You told me and you remembered him. You thought about him a lot actually and I did too but with parents like that.. Fucking hell,” I sighed back at him. “How is anyone supposed to turn out okay? You did what you could and because you told me I knew who he was. I wasn’t clueless when Brad said his name.”

“I know but it just feels like I should’ve done more. Should’ve been able to stop it before it got this far,” he ran his fingers through my hair.

“I think we just have to be grateful that it turned out okay in the end,” I smiled at him. “We’re here. Our babies our here. Brad and his babies are okay. Raziel…”

“Raziel is working out something unrelated to this,” Bennie said. “This may have brought something up but he did what had to be done. I don’t think he’s having trouble living with that.”

“I hope not. I might’ve in the long run, but they endangered five fucking babies!”

Bennie stroked my hair until I fell back to sleep. That night I dreamt of flying on the back of a giant black bird. A tiny little piece of me was certain that it was the Crow King himself.

“You did it, little flying wolf,” the bird whispered inside my head. “You broke the cycle for you and Brad. You should be proud. So many good things have come since Silas has taken over the pack. More good things will come but some will come at a price. Some simply will come at the price of great change. Enjoy your new life. Surround yourself with people you love. Your tiger cubs will fly these same skies one day. You are more than Hemlock or Raven Hollow. You all are connected to so much more than you can imagine. Rest little wolf bird, rest and be still.”

Chapter 17

Bennie

The Hemlock Wolf Pack, Star’s Territory

The day after the gates of hell were opened and the masterminds behind the event were turned into mash, Slyvin announced that the Temple of Frost would work to restore Brad’s parents’ home into working order for him and the babies. Usually, I’d throw myself into a project like that, but Alby needed me and I didn’t want to drag home anything ick or contagious to my pregnant mate.

Raziel, though, he threw himself into it as if he was born solely to clean and restore that house. It was a joint effort from Star’s family and the temple, but Raziel was always there when either group worked. I wasn’t sure if he felt guilty for killing them or whatever memory the act unlocked drove him forward, but thanks to his hard work a week later when Brad was discharged from the hospital with two healthy bear cubs, the house wasn’t only ready it also now included a perfect little twin nursery. It was only lightly decorated so that Brad could make his own choices later. He was given giftcards by the temple of course to several baby stores in town. He might’ve had his family’s money now, but because Alby was so invested in his future, the temple had his back. It wasn’t fair to say it like that. Slyvin would’ve gotten involved either way, but I had his back because Alby had never held a grudge against him. In fact, my mate was determined to befriend him.

So, I attended his ‘housewarming’ party with Alby and Raziel. I wasn’t usually the sort to hold a grudge and this wasn’t exactly a grudge. It was more of a ‘the less I say the better’ sort of situation. Sure, I felt horrible for the guy, but I’d never forget how Alby’s fear zapped through me when he opened that door to the bear holding a gun and an empty box. The box was discovered to be an empty ploy his parents gave him as part of his ‘disguise’ to get someone to answer the door.

I hung out around the snack table and mostly kept to myself. I knew almost everyone in attendance but wasn’t in the mood to talk. I was there because Alby wanted to be there and I possessed the primal urge to keep an eye on him and the lives growing inside his body. Lives that I’d fight Frost himself to protect if it came down to it.

Speaking of that overgrown lizard, he was quiet inside my thoughts now that Brad had shown up at the door intent on killing my mate. I didn’t really expect an apology but an explanation would’ve been nice. Still, I didn’t dwell on that either because Frost wasn’t here on Earthside. He wasn’t here dealing with this particular problem day in and day out.

“Still feeling ornery about it?” Slyvin asked, taking a piece of wall next to me to lean against.