To Feel Again [Welcome To Wolf's Peak]

Chapter Twenty-Six - Owen

Owen

Watching Adrian pace the living room was giving me a headache. We knew that Niko was alive, we'd both talked to him on the phone earlier in the evening but I knew how Adrian was feeling. He was restless and wouldn't calm down until he saw for himself that Niko was safe. I'd been horrified to learn that he'd been shot but when Adrian had explained that the bullet he'd been shot with had been filled with liquid silver I'd been filled with a cold dread. We could have lost our Niko in this fight against the hunters. He was a good, kind and caring man who could have died because someone hated that he could shift into another creature. It was utter madness to me.

"Adrian, please sit down. You shouldn't be stressing out it can't be good for the baby," I tried to reason with him. I was still in awe of the fact that he was carrying our first child. I knew Niko was the one who'd gotten him pregnant but this baby belonged to all three of us and we would each love it equally.

"I'm fine," he huffed. "The doctor already checked me out, remember?"

Of course I remembered, I'd been in the room with him while the doctor took a blood sample and checked his blood pressure and other vitals. He'd confirmed the pregnancy and had informed us that because it was a mixed-species shifter pregnancy he'd have to keep a close watch over them both for the entire pregnancy.

"Yes, I remember. Do you? Because he told you to avoid getting stressed and to rest as much as you possibly could. Now sit down!" I told him raising my voice. Ginny turned her head to look at us from her place on one of the other sofas where she was talking in whispers with Peter. I smiled an apology at her for having raised my voice and turned back to Adrian to ask him in a lower tone of voice, "please sit down? You're making me even more worried watching you pace like that and I'm already worrying about you and the baby as well as Niko."

Adrian sighed but came back to sit beside me on our sofa. "Sorry, my cat won't rest easy until he's here and we can see him." He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me in for a kiss. "Having those hunters in the area has me scared. I can't lose you both."

"You won't lose us. Niko and the others caught them," I tried to reassure him.

"There'll be more of them, there are always more."

"We'll fight them. Niko said the council will help us to get rid of them." I stroked a hand gently across his strong jaw. "We won't let history repeat itself, I promise."

"You can't promise that, Owen. We don't know what's going to happen."

I kissed the worry crease on his forehead. "Exactly! Neither of us knows so stop worrying about something that may not happen. It'll give you wrinkles."

Adrian chuckled. "You'd still love me even if I had wrinkles."

"Of course I would," I said cuddling close to him.

"They're coming," Adrian said standing suddenly. It took a moment for my human ears to pick up the sound of tires coming up the drive that he'd already heard. We waited anxiously until the front door opened and Niko strode casually into the pack house. "Niko," Adrian said with his voice filled with relief.

"My mates," Niko smiled and held his arms wide for us to fall into. I let Adrian approach him first and hug him close before I joined them and turned it into a three-way hug. "Have you been behaving?" I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Adrian has been ignoring the doctor's orders," I said.

"Traitor!" Adrian hissed playfully.

I stuck out my tongue at him enjoying the freedom to be this playful with each other. "How's your leg?" I asked Niko stepping back a bit so I could look down his body at his legs. There was no visible sign of injury.