Claws (26 page)

She didn’t think about what she was
doing, allowed the animal within to take over. The overwhelming sex
drive wasn’t just reserved for her lover. She went home and washed
the smell of Jericho away and jumped on Eli the minute he walked
through the door. Their sex life was hotter and even more
erotic.

It was now Monday night the
following week. Eli teased her that she was probably in heat. He
rolled away from her after they enjoyed a long heated encounter and
slept. Her amusement faded in an instant. She consulted the
calendar after he slept
. Shit!

No flippin’ way! Not
again,
she thought as she dropped the
pocket calendar and sat down at the kitchen table. She hadn’t
noticed the telltale signs she was in heat. It was too late. The
knowledge she was obviously now pregnant was no surprise when she
did a pregnancy test an hour later.

Vivvie closed her eyes in dread. How
could she have been so stupid? Thinking of her intense lust for
Jericho that week made sense now, knowing the elder must have known
she was in heat all along. Anger filled her to know he hadn’t seen
fit to point it out to her.

Even Eli said nothing as she leapt upon
him each night, his box of condoms forgotten as his wife had her
way with him. They both had to have both known she was in heat and
neither of them warned her. Damn Alphas! A groan of misery escaped
her before her head went down on the table and she thumped it over
and over again.

She was depressed to have
more kids. Five was enough. Ugh! To think of having another litter
in eight weeks made her cringe. There was no help for it
now.
So much for
sterilization
, she thought resentfully.
This time she wasn’t waiting. She was getting it done right after
this new litter was born.

~ ~ ~

Eli was elated to know he would be a
Father, buying her an expensive diamond bracelet when she told him.
Jericho took the news with a strangely happy, contented expression,
his hand going to her abdomen in obvious pleasure.

Vivvie knew something was wrong right
away. The size of the bump that appeared overnight gave her cause
to become startled. She knew from Eli there was only one she
carried this time. She grew bigger with each passing week, doubting
his word on it that he spoke with their child enough to
know.

It was a boy. Eli told her with obvious
pride in his gaze as he kissed her burgeoning belly. Jericho took
her to his clinic and performed an ultrasound after hearing her
concerns. His yellow green eyes filled with emotion as they watched
the baby within her.

“He’s large for his age, Vivvie,” he
told her and shut off the ultrasound machine, wiping the sonic
jelly off her abdomen tenderly. “You can’t have this one normally.
We’ll need to do a cesarean this time.”

At her terrified expression, he
informed her he’d done many over the years. She relaxed, but was
still nervous. Seeing his pleasure to know she was pregnant was
obvious and wholly Alpha. Even after so many children it was
obvious each one meant something to Jericho still.

They met at the cave and his lovemaking
grew tender, his hands easing over her growing abdomen as he
brought her to ecstasy. He grew even quieter over the passing weeks
and finally ended the affair, making her cry as he informed her he
wouldn’t meet her anymore.

Vivvie was sad over it. Jericho would
leave when the demon was dealt with. He worked on just how they
would do that now. He was back to being her good friend again. He
didn’t try to hide he avoided the office when she was there
alone.

Eli treated her like a china doll now.
She was slower on the hunt too and they had many sandwich nights.
He doted on her and brought her home small gifts or flowers. At
night, he seemed to hesitate to press her for sex. She soon took
over, assuring him all was fine.

She awaited the baby anxiously, nervous
this time despite all the other pregnancies. Something was
different and she didn’t know precisely what it was. Her skin
glowed rosily with this pregnancy. Her husband was in awe of the
changes in her. Her hair grew at an amazing rate, thick and
lustrous and shiny. Her sex drive went into overdrive.

Her nails grew too, making her have to
cut them every other day. She knew something was different when the
dreams grew intense, making no sense of them when she woke, covered
in sweat and feeling like her heart would explode.

She ate everything she could get her
hands on with a definite craving for fowl. There wasn’t a bird she
didn’t chase and gobble down, feathers included. She was dismayed
to know she was getting larger every day.

Jericho claimed the Alpha within her
was double its normal size at six weeks, anxious to schedule a
C-section in another week. Vivvie knew she would heal within hours
of the procedure and her fear lessened to a degree. The baby was
too big now and growing faster every day. By the seventh week, she
had to go on full bed rest, unable to walk.

Jericho took over her class. He put her
off her feet for the remainder of the pregnancy. She basked in her
husband taking over the wifely duties at home with little complaint
as they waited on what would be their last litter.

Eli was now insisting the sterilization
procedure be done right after she delivered. Her husband looked
white-faced and worried when he saw her get bigger over night,
seeing her skin stretching to accommodate the huge child. He
panicked three days into week seven.

He woke Jericho in the middle of the
night, demanding he perform the procedure before his little wife
popped. The two men argued over it. Before too long, Eli was
rousting their children out of bed as they headed into the
compound.

Eli stayed with her as Jericho gave her
the epidural. Soon she felt nothing below the waist as the surgical
table was set up, a drape up to block her view. Eli stayed with her
and spoke reassuringly as Jericho took the baby.

Vivvie heard the strong, lusty cry and
relaxed. Jericho talked to her and assured her everything was fine
as Eli held her hand. She was a jumble of nerves until Jericho
stepped away from the table. He cleaned up the baby and brought it
behind the drape.

He was a big baby, almost sixteen
pounds. Jericho informed her it was a record with a proud note in
his voice. She gazed down at him in wonder and smiled through her
tears to see the downy blonde head at her breast.

The child latched on hungrily,
ravenously, draining each breast in a sitting. Eli was pleased to
watch his wife healing rapidly after her sterilization. Jericho
cleaned her up and left the room, leaving them alone.

“What do we name this one?” Eli asked
teasingly as he sat on the rolling stool next to the operating room
table watching his son nurse noisily. “How about
Piglet?”

Vivvie made a face and glared at him.
“That’s mean. I like too many names right now. With only eight
weeks to think about one; I couldn’t decide.”

Eli grinned and an eyebrow shot up as
his son burped noisily and dug back in. “At the rate he’s going;
you’re going to have to give him goat’s milk.”

Vivvie brought the baby home that night
and realized he was right. She didn’t produce enough milk for this
ravenous child. Within twenty four hours, he was keeping her up
around the clock to nurse. She was exhausted and slept, allowing
Elaina or Devon to feed their new brother goat’s milk out of
necessity.

Eli took over when he came home until
his wife woke up. Vivvie got the night shift. He was named Seth
finally. He had pale white-blonde hair. His changeling eyes would
sometimes glow blue or green with his moods, glowing with aqua fire
when he was perturbed, which was often.

He was angry when his feedings were
late and rough when he nursed. Vivvie soon abandoned it when he
caused her nipples to crack and bleed. They now fed him from a
large bottle with goat’s milk.

Seth drank a gallon in one meal,
growing so fast before their eyes; she finally took him into the
clinic to see Jericho. He was five weeks old and had yet to shift.
Vivvie was a nervous wreck thinking something was wrong with
him.

Jericho held the twenty-eight pound
baby in his arms and sniffed at him appreciatively, his expression
growing tender.

“This one is both mine and Eli’s this
time, Vivvie. It does happen sometimes. His lack of gift makes me
wonder though. He shows no sign of any yet.”

Vivvie took his word for it. She yawned
and wondered if this one would ever sleep. Seth only napped three
hours at the most, waking and demanding to be fed. His angry cries
woke the house in the night.

“He eats too much. He’s got an eating
disorder or something,” she protested and watched Jericho adore his
son, tickling him and smiling down at him in obvious pleasure. Seth
had that effect on everyone, charming both his Father’s until they
were both wrapped around his chubby fingers. “Is that normal for
one like us?”

“There is no normal for us, Vivvie,” he
told her as he cuddled his son with obvious adoration. “It’s like a
box of chocolates when you get a litter. You never know what you’re
going to get.”

She rolled her eyes as she watched him
holding Seth. “Well this is the biggest, hungriest, most demanding
box of chocolates I’ve ever seen.”

“
Feed my son. I can sense
his hunger,” he whispered with joy in his eyes.

“You seem sure he’s both yours and
Eli’s. How do you know?” she asked as she picked Seth up and
sniffed at her baby suspiciously, smelling only Baby Magic soap.
“He has his own scent. Why can’t I smell what you guys
do?”

“It’s an Alpha thing, Vivvie,” he told
her as he watched her nurse their baby, eyes glowing with
yellow-green fire. “To smell him our kind will know he is one or
the other, but not both. Justice will be jealous. He thinks he has
me all to himself.”

Vivvie smiled and touched the baby’s
downy head as he nursed. “He’s coming out of his shell now. I
hardly recognize him anymore. This change has been good for
him.”

“It’s in his blood, Vivvie,” he told
her. “Justice responds to me better because he recognizes the
bond.”

“I can’t regret this at all, Jericho,”
she told him as she watched Seth nurse. “This is how it’s meant to
be. I feel so content now.”

“Why do you think Tania could never
choose?” he asked sadly and walked away from her, looking out the
slats in the blinds with a moody expression.

Vivvie saw his expression and put Seth
down for a nap. “What is it? What’s bothering you?”

“I meant what I said, Vivvie. I’m
taking Justice and leaving when this is done,” he replied and
turned to her with a sad expression. “I can’t do this again and ask
for so little, even for you.”

“Jericho, I love my mate. You knew that
from the beginning,” she said softly and reached out to touch his
rigid shoulder. “I do have these feelings for you too. I don’t know
what to do. I never wanted to hurt you”

Jericho looked at her and shook his
head. “You don’t see it at all. You begin to accept what you never
would, Vivvie. Look at what we’ve been doing for
months?”

“As I recall, you didn’t have much
hesitation being with me,” she pointed out with an angry look. “Now
it’s my fault I like having both of you? I can’t help it
anymore.”

“It’s as I told you before,” he said
with a sad look at his son. “It’s your nature, Vivvie. Only this is
all too familiar for me not to question it.”

“What do you mean?” she asked in
surprise, hurt he would compare this to anything else.

“It’s happening again, don’t you
see?”

“You lost me,” Vivvie said and frowned.
“I don’t get it.”

“The demon cursed us with one woman,
Vivvie. We all wanted her and mated with her,” he said sadly. “She
bred this whole tribe. Before she could breed what the demon wanted
the most, the Great Spirit took that ability away from her. You got
Tania’s gift when Ryken made you and took her place. Look at how
you went from Ty, then to Eli, and now to me? I can’t be sure what
this means, but it makes sense.”

She slid into a chair and shook her
head. “You’re scaring me. You’re saying I’m going to jump Gideon’s
bones next just because of some curse? I’m being pimped out by this
demon?”

“I know this is not what you want to
hear, Vivvie. This attraction you have for all of us is part of the
curse.”

A part of her knew it was more, but she
let him console himself with that. She knew what she
felt.

“What’s wrong with my baby?” she asked
to change the subject. “Why is he different than the
others?”

“
I can’t be sure until I run
a blood test, but I think Seth has all four of our genes and all
the others,” Jericho warned her. “I think he’s the
nine.”

“No, he doesn’t have any powers! You
said some children don’t besides just shifting.”

“Vivvie, he’s over a month old and he
hasn’t even shifted yet,” he told her and shook his head. “Already
he controls it and everything around him. Our other young can’t do
that. Look how big he is? Why hasn’t he shown his gift by now? He
can hide it and does.”