“I don’t think she’s going to have any trouble keeping the Beasts in line,” Lina said. “She’s already got them eating out of her paw.”
* * * *
Elain and the others tried to coax Mai out of the house for the barbecue, but she wouldn’t. She stayed inside, hovering over BettLynn. When it came time for her next feeding, the young mother was near tears when she couldn’t coax the baby into shifting back into human form.
Elain went outside and got Micah and Jim. Jim took the bottle from her while Micah sat with her on the couch and tried to soothe her. When Jim sat on the floor and patted his leg, a baby blanket draped over his lap, BettLynn bounced over to him.
Much as he had the last time, he cradled her in his arms, on her back, and talked to her, asking her to shift back while he held the bottle out of reach.
Mai gasped and softly cried when BettLynn again shifted for Jim and began eagerly drinking from the bottle.
“Why won’t she shift back for me?” she tearily asked.
Carla sat on Mai’s other side on the couch. “It’s all right. So she’s a daddy’s girl. That’s not uncommon. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you, or that you’re a bad mother. Please, sweetie, don’t worry about it.”
Micah cuddled her close. “Hey, look at the bright side. There’s three of us, not just two of us, to do this.”
“More than that,” Carla said. “A whole big family to help you out. We are the proverbial village helping you raise your child. Never lose sight of that.”
Mai nodded.
Later that evening, with the Beasts both sound asleep on the comforter, and BettLynn asleep in Jim’s arms in human form after yet another feeding, Lina and her men decided to make a break for it.
“You sure you don’t want us to stay?” she asked Micah. “We don’t mind.”
“It’s all right. If you don’t leave now, it might be the only chance you get for a while.”
She smiled. “True.” With a final round of hugs, and George and Luka secured in their car seats, Lina climbed into the minivan to sit between the babies. With Rick and Jan in the front, and Kael and Zack in the back, they slowly headed down the driveway while Elain and her men waved from the front yard.
The last of their other guests had already left, and all Elain wanted to do was curl up in bed between her men and fall asleep.
By the time they returned to the house, Mai, Micah, and Jim had already left the living room. Elain’s mom walked over to her and hugged her.
“Do you really think she’s going to be all right?” Elain asked.
“I assume you mean Mai?”
“Yeah.”
Her mom held her, arms on her shoulders, and stared into her eyes. “I think she’s tougher than she knows she is. All three of you girls are. It’s just one more challenge she has to get through. We’ll help her through it the way you all will help each other throughout your lives.”
Chapter Eighteen
Elain didn’t know how many times during the course of the day she’d given thanks for deciding to wait to have a baby, but she did it once more as she stood in the shower and tried to let the hot water melt the stress from her body.
Well, it could have been worse.
She couldn’t hold back the snicker. Yes, it could have been a lot worse. BettLynn being able to shift at a younger age than anyone else, ever, wasn’t exactly a bad thing to happen, no matter how stressful it was on poor Mai.
Not like the cockatrice paid us a visit and crashed the party.
She involuntarily shuddered at that thought.
When her mind skipped back to the vision she’d had before Christmas, of a baby being gruesomely cut from the womb, she blinked to try to clear it and stuck her face directly under the water.
She didn’t want to think about that. And she still didn’t think she could share it. She didn’t know why, but every instinct in her body told her that vision wasn’t for public consumption.
If she got another chance to talk to Baba Yaga, she’d ask her about it. Until then, Elain knew it should remain a secret.
Ain stepped into the bathroom. “Want some company?”
“Sure.”
He quickly stripped and stepped into the shower with her. Turning, she draped her arms around his neck. That was when she realized she had her perfect distraction standing in front of her.
Without thinking about it she sank to her knees and engulfed his cock in her mouth. He let out a soft groan, his shaft immediately hardening against her tongue.
Yes, excellent distraction.
She loved going down on her men, loved the way they responded to her, loved the noises they made.
Loved knowing she could make them as helpless as they made her when the tables were turned.
The bathroom door opened again and Brodey stuck his head in. “I heard a moan.” He stepped in and closed the door behind him. Elain didn’t stop what she was doing when he cracked open the shower door. “Ooh! Playtime.” He stripped and joined them, his cock hard and bobbing in front of him.
Ain changed position, Elain moving with him, so he was leaning against the wall. He stroked her wet hair, gathering it in one hand and gently using it to take control and guide her movements. Brodey knelt behind her, his fingers probing her pussy.
“Ooh, she’s wet, and I don’t mean from the shower.” Elain’s eyes dropped closed as Brodey finger-fucked her with one hand and played with her clit with the other. She was soon the one out of control, Ain fucking her mouth while Brodey quickly sent her over the edge with her first orgasm.
She held on to Ain, now along for the ride as her body responded to Brodey’s hands. He relentlessly played with her clit, waiting until she came again, her pussy clenching around his fingers, before letting up.
“That’s our girl,” he said, kneeling between her legs. He rubbed the head of his cock up and down through her pussy lips, getting it wet. “Just enjoy it, sweetheart. I know we are.” He grabbed her hips and sank his cock deep inside her, pushing her harder onto Ain’s cock in her mouth. It took the two men a moment, but they quickly settled into a rhythm that had her seesawing between them, their cocks filling her at both ends and sending her into another spiral of pleasure.
Brodey reached around her waist and found her clit. “One more, baby. One more for us.” Her body took over, giving him what he wanted, the feel of his hard cock bottoming out inside her making her climax feel that much sweeter.
That was when the door opened again. “Starting without me, huh?” Cail teased. A moment later, he joined them in the shower, just as Brodey’s cock exploded inside her, his balls emptying into her cunt.
Ain’s grip on her head tightened, controlling as his thrusts turned into short, fast jabs, his glans sliding along her tongue with each stroke. She relaxed her mouth, careful not to scrape him with her teeth. Faster, harder, until seconds later her mouth filled with his cum. She swallowed, trying to keep up with him, until he finally started going limp in her mouth.
He cradled her head against him, stroking her hair. “Perfect, baby. Just perfect.”
“Hey, my turn,” Cail said.
Brodey laughed. “Not our fault you were late.”
Cail caught her hand and helped her to her feet. She felt a little shaky, but the men had an answer to that. Ain and Brodey picked her up, her arms draped over their shoulders, them holding her legs spread open.
Cail grinned and stepped between her legs. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
She relaxed against the shower wall, knowing her men wouldn’t drop her. Cail easily slid home, pressing against her, his arms hooking around her thighs. “There we go,” he muttered. “Open your eyes, baby.”
She stared into his brown gaze, lost, enjoying this side of him. “That’s it,” he said. “Did they wear you out?”
She nodded a little, not trusting her voice.
Ain and Brodey reached between them and each found her breasts. “There’s a little extra incentive,”
Brodey joked as they tweaked and rolled her nipples.
She bit down on her lip to stifle her cry. Her clit throbbed again, stirred back to life by the jolts pulsing through her nerve endings.
“Oh, baby likes that, doesn’t she?”
“Uh-huh.”
He adjusted his angle until she gasped, his pelvis hitting her clit with every stroke. “Like that?”
“Yeah.” She felt her release climb again, lost in his gaze, his cock deliciously filling her cunt and her nipples now being tormented into tight, hard peaks.
“Such a good girl,” he whispered as he fucked her. “Coming so hard for us.”
His tone as much as the physical sensations tipped her over the edge. A playful smile quirked his mouth as he felt her orgasm start. “That’s right. You just keep coming for me just…like…that.” He picked up the pace, fucking her hard and fast, his body tensing and balls slapping against her ass with every stroke. Then she felt his cock get harder, pulsing and filling her with his cum even while her own body shuddered from the force of her climax.
Weak, shaky, she draped her arms around Cail as Ain and Brodey slowly set her legs down. Cail wrapped his arms around her, holding her, supporting her.
“Better?” he whispered in her ear.
She smiled, kissing the side of his neck. “It’s always better with the three of you.”
* * * *
The next morning, Mai appeared in the kitchen with a forced cheer that almost knocked Elain over from the strength of her efforts. “Good morning!” She set BettLynn’s infant carrier on the table and headed over to the counter to make herself a cup of coffee.
Even Juju and Bea, who’d been dozing in the corner, looked up at her entrance.
Ain, Brodey, Cail, and her dad had already headed out to the barns to work. Micah and Jim, Elain knew, had left over an hour earlier for Tampa, to take care of the business there.
Elain exchanged a look with her mom before returning her attention to Mai. “You certainly are…cheery this morning. Glad to see you’re feeling better.”
Mai nodded as she sat. “I decided I’m going to do what everyone said and try to put a positive spin on things.” She gave a definitive nod, as if that was the last, absolutely final word on the subject.
“Well,” Carla said, “good for you. I’m very proud of you.”
Elain leaned over BettLynn, who gave her an increasingly toothy smile. Dr. Alberto had assured Mai that getting teeth in early was a normal shifter trait. Elain blew a raspberry at the baby, which earned her a laugh.
“She’s my daughter, and I love her,” Mai said.
“Of course you do,” Carla said.
Mai nodded again.
Is this the tension I’m feeling? Elain didn’t know, but it would certainly make sense. Because of the Triad, she was likely tuned in to Mai’s emotions more so than with others, her men excluded, of course.
Other than giving her emotional support, Elain didn’t know what she could do to help Mai through it. She wasn’t a mom like Mai and Lina, or her own mother, and felt ill-qualified to offer any kind of advice that Mai could use.
I damn sure don’t know how she’s feeling.
Carla picked up the conversational ball. “I was going to go grocery shopping today—”
Mai’s cell phone rang, interrupting her. She pulled it out of her pocket and glanced at it before getting up and heading into the living room, leaving BettLynn on the table with Elain and Carla. “Good morning, Dr. Alberto…”
“She’s not handling this well, is she?” Elain whispered.
“I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed,” Carla whispered back. “She’s trying too hard, poor thing.”
“Has the baby eaten yet this morning?”
“I don’t think so.”
“I’ll make her a bottle,” Elain offered, turning to get the formula and cereal from the cabinet. In this way, at least, Elain had gotten the basic mechanics down pat. She could change, bathe, and feed the baby without worrying if she was going to kill her or not. They’d all gotten their infant CPR training before Lina’s twins were born, just to be on the safe side.
Great. Now I can get my babysitter certification and earn money this summer.
Disgusted with herself, Elain got the bottle set up and put in the warmer.
“I think you are being too hard on yourself,” Carla said.
Elain had to turn to make sure she was speaking to her. “What?”
That smile. The knowing “mom smile,” as she’d thought about it all her life. It didn’t matter that her mom now looked a lot younger, she was still her mom.
“When you’re ready, you’re going to be a great mom. You’ll never hurt someone innocent, I know it.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, but you’re not exactly the most objective judge of that.”
BettLynn let out a giggle and kicked her legs out before jamming a fist into her mouth, where she proceeded to noisily suck on it. Today, Mai had put her in an adorable pink sweatsuit with Daddy’s Little Princess printed on the front.
She had dozens of different outfits Micah and Jim had purchased for her with that exact, or similar, saying emblazoned on them. The men had immediately and completely accepted her as their daughter regardless of her genetics.
“It’s coming, princess,” Elain assured her. “Just give it a minute to warm up.”
BettLynn kicked her legs again. She had trouble holding her head up, the infant carrier giving her the support she needed, its padded shape keeping her head properly positioned.
But she could reach out with her arms and kick out with her legs without any trouble, something Elain had noticed her doing even more the past couple of weeks, now that she thought about it.
If she didn’t know the Beasts were only a couple of months older than BettLynn, she’d think nearly a year separated them, if not more. BettLynn certainly seemed older in some ways than her fully human baby counterparts, including how she homed in and followed people with her intense emerald gaze, tracking them unlike any human infant ever could at such a young age. But the Beasts were definitely far more advanced than her in terms of what they could do physically.
They heard Mai still on the phone in the living room. It sounded like she was pacing as she talked to the doctor.
Carla reached over and slipped a finger into BettLynn’s free hand. When the baby tried to pull her finger into her mouth, Carla laughed and drew it free. “No you don’t, sneaky little girl. You’ll have to wait to get raw meat, and it won’t be Grandma’s finger.”
A snort escaped Elain. “Would I be horrible if I joked about getting her chew toys?”
“Shh!” Carla scolded, leaning back to look through the doorway. “Elain Pardie Lyall, what the heck’s wrong with you?”
“Sorry.” She turned to get the bottle out of the warmer, shaking it up well to mix it and then testing it for temperature before facing the table again. “Okay. Who’s ready for breakfast?”
Mai walked through the kitchen doorway. “Thanks for calling. Good-bye.”
Elain had taken a step toward the table when BettLynn spotted the bottle in her hand. The baby stretched both arms out, letting out a cry that…
Elain blinked. The howl now coming from the puppy dressed in a pink sweatsuit and strapped into the infant carrier stopped her in her tracks.
The phone slipped from Mai’s grasp and hit the tile floor, where the screen shattered. “Son of a bitch,” she softly cried before bursting into tears.
* * * *
Carla shuttled Mai out of the kitchen. She finally put an arm around Mai’s shoulders and forcibly led her from the room, Juju and Bea following in their wake. Meanwhile, Elain hurried to get a frantically struggling BettLynn freed from the infant carrier straps before she and it went tumbling off the kitchen table.
“Well, crap,” she muttered to the wolf-ote puppy, who was whining and trying to get free from Elain’s arms to get to the bottle sitting on the table. “No
w what the hell am I supposed to do?”
She heard her mom on the phone with someone out in the living room, overlaid by Mai’s soft sobs in the background. Elain stooped over and picked up the broken phone from the floor and set it on the table before grabbing the bottle again.
How had Jim done it? She flipped the puppy onto her back in the crook of her left arm, and with her right hand held the bottle just out of reach. “Okay, princess. You need to eat. Change back, right now. Fun’s over.”
BettLynn barked at her, still struggling to sit up and reach the bottle.
“Oh, no you don’t. Shift back, BettLynn.”
The puppy continued to struggle.
Elain had to reposition her yet again. “BettLynn—”
The puppy stopped struggling, met Elain’s gaze head-on, and growled at her.
Shocked, Elain shoved the nipple into the puppy’s mouth. BettLynn immediately started sucking on it, but it looked like half of it was going on her, and Elain, in the process. She blew formula bubbles out of the sides of her mouth as she happily slurped at the nipple.
Carla rushed into the room, her phone to her ear. She started to speak but stopped when she spotted Elain feeding BettLynn.
“What are you doing?”
“You talking to me, or whoever’s on the phone?”
“You!” She pointed at BettLynn. “What are you doing?”
“I’m feeding her.”
“Why didn’t you try to get her to shift back first?”
“Uh, news flash, I tried and she freaking growled at me. I thought it was more important to feed her than fight with her.”
“Shit! No, not you.” She turned and left the kitchen, speaking again to whoever was on the phone.
Elain looked down at BettLynn, who’d greedily worked her way through half the bottle already. “You, little lady, need to learn some manners. It’s not nice to growl at the hand that feeds you.”