That’s not part of the promise we made together. We promised that we would stay together, and I intend to keep that promise. I’m strong enough now that I can do it. I can feel it.

The only question that remains is how to keep the pups protected and safe from Remus.

That has to be the priority.

I think through every scenario that pops into my head as I run. No matter how far my legs take me, my breath doesn’t grow labored. I don’t even feel tired. I feel the concentration set into my mind and I think about what each of the boys will say when I tell them that I won’t go along with the plan that we’ve made.

I think about what to do with our children and how to keep them safe.

Our pups are counting on me to keep them safe because I am their mother and that’s what mothers are supposed to do. I won’t make the same mistakes mine did.

That’s it.

I suddenly know what to do as I slide my heels to a halt on the muddy ground, changing directions to run back to the house as fast as I can. I’ve been running so fast that no one has even noticed that I’m not there yet. When I run back onto the yard behind the house, I step back into the house without my absence being missed.

It’s a welcome change.

I go right to where Lydia and Vivian are watching the babies in the living room.

All three babies are swaddled in furs and sleeping on cushions near the warmth and glow of the hearth. Lydia and Vivian are speaking in soft voices and smiling every so often at the children as the pups’ pink little faces make little suckling motions and tiny sleeping coos. Th

ey are beyond beautiful, my babies.

All I want is to hold them, to look into their three sets of eyes and forget everything else. But I can’t do that.

Not, at least, until I know they’re safe.

“Lydia,” I say softly as I stand in the entrance to the room. As soon as she looks up at me, her face grows stony at the sight of my flushed face. She knows what I have to say, even before I say it. “I need to talk to you.”

28

Sabrina

“I can’t do that,” Lydia says, as soon as I’ve finished explaining my plan. “They need you.”

“I know my children need me,” I say. “But they need the boys too.”

We stand head to head in the kitchen, our own battle taking place in our matching, unmoving posture. I knew she wouldn’t like the idea of my going into battle with the boys while she’s the one to take my newborns to safety.

It made sense in my head but now … even as I wait for her reaction, I feel myself waver slightly. I don’t know what the right thing to do is.

I never do. Not these days. Not when everything, and I mean everything, feels like uncharted territory.

After a moment, Lydia’s posture breaks.

“I don’t know, Sabrina,” she says as she shakes her head and paces the kitchen. “If something happens to all of you, the pups will have no parents left.”

“If something happens to all of us,” I say. “They will at least have you.”

I walk over to her and reach for her hand.

“Lydia, you’re the best mother that I have ever known. You’re strong, and protective, and kind, and wise. And without fail, you are always there for your children; even me. I hope to god that nothing happens to any of us; but if it does, there is no one in the world that I would want my babies to be with more than you.”

I pause a second, trying to keep my voice from cracking as I continue. “Besides … I wouldn’t know what to tell them. I don’t know how to raise them, what to expect … at least you do.”

Because this is what this all really boils down to.

I don’t know how to raise them. I don’t even know how to keep them alive. How could I possibly raise three shifters when I don’t even know what it is to be a shifter?

Tags: Eden Beck Wolfish Paranormal
Source: readsnovelonline.net