Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
Well, I know now why Joaquin had called home. He was setting up for the chaos to start. I mean, he was calling to tell them to get ready for us to show up at the welcome home party that they had set up. And, of course, the kids were there as well. They had, apparently, skipped school today because they all knew that we were coming home.
As a mom I was happy to see my children, but I was also not very happy with whoever it was that told them they could skip school. Then again, there were a lot of other kids there other than my three. Shawn and Dietrich’s four kids Luka, Levi, Alexandria and Alyssa were there. They were all in Reagan and Rika’s class. There were others here too, as I looked around I saw them all.
Vincent and Heather were here with their five kids: Conner, Renea, Faith, Tyler and Charlotte. Shane was with Falena and their son Kaiden. David and Rawlynne had their daughter Kaede. Roisin and Gabriel had their toddler Brenna here. Griffin and Lana had their twins Vivian and Dominic. Ella and Devon were here with their twin girls Isabella and Sophia and their son Devon Jr. Jackson and Melita had their daughter Melody. Carter and Emmalee were here with Carter Jr. and Leigha. Noah and Nikki had Elias and Nina. Cedar and Acacia had their triplets Ashle, Cypress and Beech with them. Juniper and Paul had all three of their kids, Rowan, Ilana and Leaf here with them. Riley and Katie came from their pack with their two kids Roan and Alexia. And as for kids too young for school, we still had Landon and Ava with their two kids Logan and Amelia. And of course Trevor, Aunt Glory, Athair m贸r and Daciana were here with the six between them, Torben, Owen, Caliss, Lily, Rose and Calix. The youngest there among them were only a little over a month old.
I don’t think that I realized how many kids there were in our inner circle until I saw them all here together like this. There were thirty-eight kids that my friends and family had. Most of them were born around the times that mine were too. And then if you add in my seven kids, that makes forty-five. No wonder our parties were so big. This many kids with just my close friends and family. And let us not forget that there were already more on the way for some of them.
…..
The moment that I walked into the castle with Joaquin, there was a thunderous shout of “WELCOME HOME!” from everyone there. Well, the ones that could talk. The ones that couldn’t just ended up crying from the sudden shouting. That left the parents scrambling to comfort them and get them to calm down.
“Why did you do this?” I asked Joaquin but I didn’t do it quietly enough. Apparently, all of those sensitive ears around us had heard me.
“Why did we do it?” Shane laughed as he walked over. “Because we love you and want you to know that, Riviana.” He hugged me then and pressed a light kiss to my cheek. “I mean, you are my sister after all. He winked at Joaquin and then pulled back. All that did was make me remember the time that Joaquin snapped at Shane for making his usual jokes. He never stopped making them, but he stopped making them about me. At least he stopped doing that when Joaquin might randomly walk in.
“Shane is right, Riviana.” Dietrich was walking to us now. “We all love you and we all missed you. We knew that you would be coming home today and that you would want to see us all. Well, at least we all wanted to see you and the babies outside of the hospital. You’ve been gone for two weeks and that was so soon after being gone for months on end. We needed this moment, Riviana. And I think you did too.” The entire time that Dietrich was speaking, he was holding onto Shawn, his arm wrapped around his shoulders.
“Family should be together right now, Riviana. And that’s what we are. We are one big family. They love us and our children. Just like we call them all our family, they call us theirs as well.” Joaquin finally explained to me why he once again held a welcome home party for me. I didn’t blame him for it, in fact I loved him more for it.
The party moved into the ballroom that was closest to the tower that I called home. There were a lot of comfortable chairs and sofas spread around, there was food everywhere, and there was music playing softly all over the place. It wasn’t a very big or exciting party, it was just a calm welcome home event. And of course, there were a lot of people that were trying to get to hold the babies. So, they were all taking turns just like they had done before. It was just like the hospital all over again.
Juniper was happily gushing about the fact that she and Nikki only had about three months left until their new babies would be here. Emmalee, who had just recently told my parents about their baby, was being showered with love and joy.
There were a few other surprises that we found out just recently. Nikki, Emmalee and Roisin were having little boys and Juniper and Lila were having little girls. Not to mention, there were a lot of surprises when we found out about a handful of others having babies. Shane and Falena were expecting another baby, a girl this time. David and Rawlynne were having twins, a boy and a girl. Jackson and Melita were going to have a baby boy. Cedar and Acacia were having twins, also a boy and a girl. Riley and Katie were having another little boy. And the biggest surprise of them all was that Mom was pregnant as well. She and Dad were going to be having a little girl. So, I was gaining an aunt that was also my sister in-law and a baby sister at almost the same time. They were all due within the next five month and a half months and it was an exciting time.
When I looked at Dad after I had been given the news, I saw that he was scared, nervous, still in shock, and the happiest man in the world. He loved all of his kids and he loved his grandkids as well, so he wasn’t going to be upset about the fact that he got to have more babies. The only thing about it was that my seven kids were all older than their aunt. Oh well, three of my kids were all older than their great great great aunts and uncles. This family tree of ours was a little weird, but it was ours and that was all that mattered.
There was a lot of talking and a lot of love shared between the whole family. I could tell that everyone was happy about the new life that was being brought into the world, but there were a few people that seemed to be a little sad or looked like they wanted to be part of the happiness with all the others. Heather, who had five kids with Vincent already, looked like she missed having a little baby with her. Her youngest two were almost eight now and the oldest was in high school. That had to be hard on Vincent, seeing how much the kids had changed and grown since we first met.
Someone else that looked like they wanted more kids but knew they couldn’t have any, was Shawn. He had been shocked and scared when he was pregnant all those years ago, but both he and Dietrich were good fathers to their four kids. I knew that they had the love to give to even more babies. But they couldn’t get pregnant again. The legends say it was a one time deal only. They had options though, they could adopt. They could use a surrogate. They could get eggs donated from someone that they knew or from a clinic. They could definitely have a bigger family, this wasn’t it for them.
I left my family there holding the babies while I went to sit by Shawn. Dietrich wasn’t around and I wanted to talk to him alone at the moment.
“Hey.” I slid onto the loveseat next to him.
“Hey, Riviana.” He gave me his usual smile.
“You don’t look happy.” I wanted him to know that it was definitely noticeable.
“I’m sorry. I am happy for you Riviana, I really am. And for everyone else too. It’s just that-.”
“You want more kids.” I finished the words for him and he looked at me with shock in his eyes.
“Is it that noticeable?” He laughed nervously as he asked me that.
“I don’t think it’s that noticeable to everyone. But I see it, and I am sure that Dietrich sees it as well. If you want more kids, you should have some. You guys can adopt or use surrogates. You have options. I think you would be great with more kids.” I wanted to let him know that no matter what happened, he wasn’t alone in this. I supported him and I was sure his husband did too.
“She is right, Geliebte. I want more babies too. And if we cannot have them ourselves, then I want to look into more options. I want a big family. I want to keep having babies with you every so often for the next millennium.” Shawn laughed nervously at Dietrich’s words.
“That long, huh? Well, then I guess we are going to be having the world’s biggest family of vampire and werewolf hybrids.”
“Shawn, my love, we have the only family that falls into that category.” Dietrich laughed as he pulled Shawn to his feet. “Still, I don’t mind if ours is the largest. I want to have more babies with you, Shawn. I wish we could carry them again, but we can’t. So, we will get someone else to do it for us.”
Now that this issue was settled, I knew that everything would be OK. I was sure that if the other person that wanted more babies was serious about it, she would be pregnant again soon.
The party died down soon after that. It was time for just my family to be heading up to the tower. Joaquin and I, along with our seven kids. Well, Gabriel and Roisin were going as well, but they lived with us and worked for us. So that was to be expected. Still, as good as the party was to have had, I was glad that it was just us going to the tower. I wanted some family time.
****
Riviana
****
So, Joaquin and I went up to the bedroom with our seven kids. That was a crazy thought. Seven kids. I had known for a week now that we now had seven kids, but it was still hard for me to think about. I mean, who would have thought that I was going to have this many kids, and all before I turned twenty-eight years old.
In fact, it was just a few short weeks until I was going to be having my birthday. And that meant that this year was going to be the ten year anniversary of when Joaquin and I met. So much time had passed and so many things had happened over this last decade that it was hard to believe that it had only been that short amount of time. And on top of that, it had passed so quickly that at times I felt like it had only been a year or two. It was definitely insane when I thought about it.
Once Joaquin and I were in our bedroom on the top floor of the tower, we set the babies in their bassinets that had been brought into the room. They were lined up in a row and the babies’ names had been put onto them so that we would know which bed belonged to which baby.
Joaquin and I were already used to their scents but, just in case, we were leaving the bracelets on the boys for a little while so that we would be able to tell them apart. And well, so other people could tell them apart. Reagan, Rika and Talia would only be able to tell Zaley apart from Zachary, Zander and Zayden. She looked completely different from them so that one was easy.
…..
“Mommy, the babies are so cute.” Talia had leapt up onto the bed and was staring at them with sparkling eyes.
