Chapter 81 Two Terrified Little Girls
Before Damon took his post on the porch and the house settled into its vigilant silence, Leela and Ginny retreated upstairs.
They didn't separate. There was an unspoken agreement between them that tonight, walls were not welcome.
They carried the sleeping twins into the Alpha suite. Leela laid Caspian down gently in the center of the massive duvet, and Ginny tucked Briar in right beside him. The babies sighed in unison, their limbs tangling together in a heap of soft flannel and trust, becoming one lump of baby.
Instead of leaving, the two women climbed onto the bed on either side of the children, curling up to create a protective barrier.
The room was dim, lit only by the hallway light cracking through the door. For a long time, they just listened to the rhythmic breathing of the twins.
"Do you remember the map?" Ginny whispered, her voice breaking the silence. She was staring at the ceiling, her hand resting heavily on her five-month bump.
Leela smiled, though it was a sad, watery thing. She lay on her side, facing Ginny, her own hand slipping under her shirt to rest against the flat, warm skin of her stomach where the new secret was hiding.
" The one we drew on the back of your math homework?" Leela asked softly. "Yeah. We were going to run away to the coast. We were going to live in a lighthouse and eat nothing but saltwater taffy."
Ginny let out a soft laugh. "I had that pink backpack packed for three months. I had two pairs of mismatched socks, a flashlight with no batteries, and a stolen box of pop-tarts."
"And I had twenty dollars I swiped from my dad's wallet and a pocket knife," Leela added.
They fell silent again, the memory hanging heavy in the air. Back then, they were just two broken girls trying to escape. Leela, trying to outrun parents who saw her as a burden, and Ginny, trying to escape a foster system that made her feel invisible. They had been running away from pain.
"We were so desperate to leave," Ginny whispered, turning her head to look at Leela. "We thought the world outside was going to be magic. We thought if we just got far enough away, we’d be safe."
She reached out, her fingers brushing Briar’s sleeping face.
"I’m not running away this time, Lee," Ginny said, her voice trembling. "I’m terrified. But I’m not running because I hate where I am. I’m running because I love it so much I can’t breathe."
Leela felt a tear slide down the bridge of her nose. She looked at the twins—so small, so perfect—and then her hand tightened over her own belly.
"It’s different when it’s just you," Leela murmured. "When it was just us... if we got caught, we just got grounded or moved to a new home. But now?"
She looked at Ginny’s round stomach, then down at her own.
"Now we’re carrying the world," Leela whispered. "If we run to the Grove... we aren't just saving ourselves. We're saving them."
Ginny shifted, wincing slightly as the baby in her ribs kicked. She reached across the twins, over the sleeping forms of Caspian and Briar, and took Leela’s hand.
"Two terrified little girls," Ginny said softly. "Look at us now. Alpha mates and mothers."
"We aren't terrified little girls anymore," Leela corrected her, squeezing her hand. She pressed her other palm flat against her stomach, willing the tiny sparks of life inside her to feel her strength. "We’re the ones the monsters should be afraid of."
They lay there in the quiet dark, hand in hand over their sleeping children, holding their other hands over the unborn futures in their bellies—a fierce, silent barricade against the world outside.
Damon watched his son from the fireplace, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn't interrupt the chain of command—Fennigan was the Alpha now—but the moment his son finished speaking, Damon stepped forward.
"I'll take the first watch," Damon said, his voice low and gravelly. He didn't ask; he stated it. "I’ll sit on the porch with the shotgun and a pot of coffee. If a leaf blows across the driveway the wrong way, I’ll know about it."
He clamped a heavy hand on Fennigan’s shoulder, squeezing tight enough to bruise.
"You've given the orders, Alpha," Damon said. "Now go upstairs. Be a father. Be a husband. Let me be the guard dog for a few hours."
Fennigan looked at his father, the tension in his shoulders finally dropping an inch. He nodded, exhausted. "Thanks, Dad."
He gently woke Ginny and she met Jax at the bedroom door, where he led her to their room. A protective hand on her back.
The bedroom was silent, save for the white noise machine humming in the corner and the synchronized breathing of Caspian and Briar in the center of the big bed.
Fennigan locked the bedroom door—something he never did—and then checked the window latch three times. He finally sat on the edge of the mattress, burying his face in his hands.
Leela sat up beside him. She didn't touch him yet; she just let her presence radiate that calm, cool energy she had mastered.
"Proliferation threat," Leela repeated his words from downstairs, her voice soft but testing the weight of the phrase.
Fennigan groaned, lifting his head to look at her. His eyes were haunted.
"I shouldn't have said it," he admitted. "But it's what they'll call it, Leela. If they find out you're pregnant again so soon... they won't see a miracle. They won't see a family. They'll see a factory producing weapons they can't control."
He reached out, his large hand covering her stomach gently. It was too early to feel anything, but he knew they were there. Or he was there. Or she.
"We don't even know what we're dealing with yet," Fennigan whispered, his thumb rubbing circles on her shirt. "Dr. Evans hasn't even done a scan. It could be one strong pup. It could be twins again. Hell, with our luck, it could be triplets."
He let out a dry, humorless laugh.
"If it's multiples again," he murmured, looking at the sleeping twins, "Vane will lose his mind. He thinks two Elementals in one generation is a statistical anomaly. Four? He’d view that as an act of war by nature itself."
Leela covered his hand with hers, pressing it firmer against her belly.
"Then let him be afraid," Leela said fiercely. "I don't care if there is one in here or three, Fenn. They are ours. And if we have to hide in the Grove until they are old enough to shift, then we will."
She leaned her head on his shoulder.
"But you were right to protect Ginny," she added softly. "Jax would burn the world down if they came for her, but he doesn't have the rank to stop a Council mandate. You do."
Fennigan kissed the top of her head, finally relaxing as he leaned back against the headboard, pulling her and the sleeping twins into his orbit.
"Nobody touches this family," Fennigan vowed into the dark. "Not Vane. Not the Council. Not even the Goddess herself if she decides to change her mind."