Chapter 164 Give a Wolf a Thousand Toys and They Still Prefer the Box
The golden morning light spilled across the porch, casting long, peaceful shadows that seemed to stretch toward the forest line. Fennigan and Leela stood in the quiet wake of the teenagers' departure, watching as Toby and Sarah’s silhouettes finally vanished into the dense thicket of pines. The sight of their intertwined hands was a poignant reminder of what was at stake—a simple, honest future that was currently being bartered in the cold, marble halls of the Capital.
The solemnity of the moment didn't last long. A wet, buzzing sound vibrated against the column of Fennigan’s neck, followed by a tiny, triumphant giggle. He looked down to find Briar with her face scrunched in absolute concentration, her cheeks puffed out as she prepared to launch a second, even more enthusiastic raspberry against his skin.
Fennigan’s fearsome Alpha growl, the one that could send grown men to their knees, melted instantly into a deep, chest-rumbling rumble of laughter.
"Oh, is that how it’s going to be today, little wolf?" he asked, his voice thick with affection as he shifted her weight in his massive arms. He began to tickle her tummy, making her squirm and shriek with delight. "Waking up with an attitude and a plan for biological warfare, are we?"
Caspian, never one to be left out of a challenge, looked up at Leela with a glint of pure mischief in his eyes. He took a deep, theatrical breath, his cheeks ballooning like a blowfish, and let out a raspberry so loud and spray\-filled that Leela actually jumped, her eyes wide in mock shock.
"Oh, thank you, Caspian," Leela laughed, wiping a stray droplet from her cheek with the back of her hand while adjusting his weight on her hip. "I see the twins have officially established their new morning anthem. I suppose the peace and quiet was getting a bit boring for you?"
She looked down at her son, whose chest was puffed out with pride at his own performance. She couldn't resist. Leaning down, she blew a soft, vibrating raspberry right back onto his forehead. Caspian shrieked with pure, unadulterated joy, kicking his legs and trying to catch her face to return the favor.
For several minutes, the porch was filled with the chaotic symphony of toddler giggles and the rhythmic pffft of their new favorite sound. It was messy, loud, and vibrantly alive—the perfect, defiant contrast to the sterile, calculated silence of the High Council Annex they had escaped only hours before.
"They have no idea," Fennigan murmured, his gaze softening as he leaned his head against Leela’s, watching her play with their son. "The High Council thinks they can scare us into submission with a padded seat and a title, while we’re out here being outsmarted by two toddlers and a set of raspberries."
Leela’s smile didn't fade, but it sharpened at the edges as her eyes drifted toward the windows of the study where the encrypted ledgers and specimen logs lay waiting.
"Let them think we're distracted by the domesticity," she said, her voice dropping into a lethal, quiet register. "Let them think we’ve grown soft in our mountain home. It only makes it easier for us to move when the time comes. They want to play at politics; we’re playing for the survival of our blood."
She looked back toward the woods where Toby and Sarah had disappeared, a sense of fierce pride swelling in her chest. "We have the evidence, we have the bond, and we have the next generation already learning how to protect one another. I’d say the Council is in a lot more trouble than they realize. They’re fighting for power; we’re fighting for them."
Fennigan stepped closer, Briar now occupied with trying to catch his chin with her tiny, sticky hands. He pressed a lingering kiss to Leela’s temple, the scent of her power calming the restless wolf beneath his skin.
"The Pack doesn't forget, Leela," he promised, his amber eyes flashing with a cold, predatory light.
In the Great Room, the morning light poured through the tall windows, illuminating the dust and the cozy, lived-in clutter of the pack house. Leela walked in with a twin on each hip, finding Ginny settled on the oversized linen sofa. At seven months, Ginny’s pregnancy was impossible to miss; she looked radiant, though the way she was rubbing the small of her back told the story of the toll the third trimester was taking.
Spread out on her lap was one of the heavy, leather-bound medical texts Magda had insisted she study while "resting."
"Heard you were absolutely stunning last night," Ginny laughed, the sound bright and teasing as she looked up from a diagram of prenatal herbal tonics.
Leela set the twins down, stretching her arms with a sigh. "Let’s just say I turned a few heads. You should have seen Fenn when one of the councilors tried to shame him for what I was wearing. I thought he was going to take the man's head off right there over the soup course."
Ginny shook her head, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Bet they didn't know what hit them, did they? They expect us to be quiet little mountain flowers, and then you walk in looking like a storm in silk."
Ginny reached over to a woven wicker basket nearby, spilling a few colorful wooden blocks and a stuffed wolf onto the rug to entice the toddlers. "Here you go, little ones. New treasures."
But Caspian and Briar had other plans. They ignored the carefully selected toys entirely. Instead, they waited until Leela was deep in conversation with Ginny before launching a coordinated assault on the now-empty basket. With a series of triumphant grunts, they managed to tip the large container over.
Within seconds, the twins were treating the wicker basket like a fortified bunker, scrambling in and out of it, their giggles echoing off the high ceiling.
Leela paused mid-sentence, watching Caspian try to pull the basket over his head like a shell while Briar attempted to use it as a boat. "Is that more fun than all those toys?" Leela asked, hands on her hips, though she couldn't hide her grin.
"Always," Ginny joked, leaning back into her cushions. "Give a wolf a thousand-dollar nursery and they’ll still prefer the box it came in. It’s the first lesson of parenting, Leela. Everything is a toy if you’re brave enough to climb inside it."
Leela settled into the chair across from her, her gaze softening. "How are you feeling, Ginny? Really? Magda's books can be a bit... intense."