AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Honey? What’s going on?” The wailing grew deafening, and a blonde leopard shifter, her face just as exhausted as Mateo’s, joined them in the hallway. She held a third baby in a pink sleeper and patted the crying baby’s back. “Shh, baby. Husha, baby. It’s okay.”
She stared at Cooper, who was holding the other two babies. They had fallen asleep, and moving like a ninja, she exchanged the two sleeping babies for the crying one with a dizzying skill of swiftly moving hands that defied gravity. “Work your magic on this one, big guy.”
With a huge grin, Cooper held the tiny baby to his massive chest, rubbing her back lightly as he purred to her. The cub continued to wail, and Boone watched in disbelief when Cooper walked her back and forth in the wide hallway, purring to her and acting like he had seventeen infants at home.
As the baby settled against his chest and her wailing quieted to the occasional sob, Annabelle studied Mateo’s arm. “You have poop on your arm, honey.”
“You have poop in your hair,” he said.
They grinned at each other, small, intimate smiles that made Boone feel awkward and third-wheelish just watching them. Even if he couldn’t see the love for each other written clearly on their faces, he could smell it coming off them in clear, thick waves.
She turned to Boone. “Who are you?”
“Boone,” he said.
“He’s Hedra’s mate,” Mateo said.
“Hedra,” Annabelle said. “Dianne’s best friend?”
“Yes,” Mateo said.
“Okay. Why is he here?” She turned to Boone. “Why are you here?”
“He thinks I’m threatening Hedra,” Mateo said.
“What?” Mateo’s mate said.
“He said I’m sending her threatening texts and cow tongues and cutting her damn brake lines because I’m mad at her about Dianne,” Mateo said.
Annabelle’s scathing look at Boone made him feel extraordinarily stupid. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
She handed one sleeping baby to Mateo and stepped closer to Boone. “Boone, is that your name?”
Boone nodded, and she scowled at him. “Well, Boone, I gave birth to triplets two months ago. Mateo, my husband, my mate, has not left my side since. He’s on paternity leave, and neither of us has left the goddamn house in two weeks. Not even for groceries. We have them delivered. Do you know why, Boone?”
Boone shook his head as Annabelle gave him another hot look of contempt. “Because we have triplets. We barely sleep, we hardly have time to eat, and every single minute of our lives is consumed by keeping these three baby cubs fed and clean. When the fuck do you think my mate has had time to send texts or fucking cow tongues to a woman he hasn’t seen in years?”
“I don’t… I mean, we thought…”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what you thought,” Annabelle went on relentlessly. “Mateo and I have been happily married for over a year, and his past is his past. He hasn’t been stalking Hedra. I can fucking guarantee you.”
Boone stared silently at her, and she switched the sleeping baby to her other shoulder before growling at him under her breath. “Do you believe I’m lying to you?”
“No, ma’am,” he said.
“Good, because you might think you’re some kind of tough fucking shit, but you’ve got nothing on me.” She stepped even closer, her brown eyes turning to a light jade. “I haven’t slept in nearly twenty-two hours, my nipples are cracked and bleeding, and my previously beautiful asshole is now a lumpy, painful, hemorrhoid-covered mess. You do not want to fuck with me today, tiger shifter.”
“No, ma’am,” Boone said.
“You should go before I kidnap your big lion friend there and keep him as my nanny,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Boone said. “Cooper, time to go.”
Cooper purred to the now sleeping baby he held. “I have to go, sweet baby cub. You be a good girl for your mama.”
He handed the baby to the woman. “Congratulations on your family, ma’am.”
“Thank you,” she said.
