The Crescent War

Chapter Two

By sunrise, they had managed to find themselves a motel to check into to give them some time to rest. They had taken two rooms to cram themselves into with an adjoining door between them so that they weren’t separated. Originally, it had been a great idea but they hadn’t taken into account that they were sharing with Alex. The adjoining door slammed open and Alex rushed in, scaring the crap out of Daniel who was relaxing on one of the double beds while the kids were watching TV from the other.

“Please tell me Jia is outside at a vending machine ‘cause I really need a piss!” Alex bounced up and down to emphasize his point.

“What’s wrong with your bathroom?” Daniel asked, feeling great that Alex was suffering a little.

“Gale doesn’t know how to take a short f*****g shower!” He muttered before realizing there were children present and slapping a hand over his mouth.

“Daddy... what’s f*****g?” Dakota asked curiously.

“It’s nothing, honey,” Daniel told her firmly. “Uncle Alex just said a very bad word.”

“Uncle Alex is naughty,” Little Dakota concluded and went back to watching some Disney program that was playing.

“Sorry,” Alex looked guilty, but he had walked in on a naked Daniel and hadn’t helped, so Daniel felt obliged to let him suffer.

“Jia is showering,” he told him, enjoying the look of pain on Alex’s face.

“Did she lock the door?”

“I don’t think she’s ever locked the door,” maybe he could get some payback on Jia too for leaving him tied up and naked for Alex to find.

“Great!” Alex beamed, racing towards the bathroom door and yanking it open.

A very girly shriek escaped Jia and she came stumbling into the bedroom wrapped in a motel towel and dripping water everywhere. His wife gave him a very pissed off glare before crowding close to her mate and effectively soaking Daniel too.

“I can’t believe you let him walk in on me in the shower!” Jia complained into Daniel’s neck as she nuzzled in even closer.

“He walked in on me handcuffed naked to the bed. Now we’re even.”

“Dude!” Alex waltzed out back into the bedroom as if nothing had happened. “You have loads more free shampoo than we do. I’m totally stealing this.”

“You mean you actually bathe?” Jia asked with disbelief.

“Fist yourself,” Alex muttered just quiet enough for the kids not to hear.

“I don’t need to,” Jia retorted. “Daniel does it for me.”

“Oh my god!” Alex looked horrified at that knowledge and Daniel really wanted to mention how they had never really tried that but grossing Alex out was the best way to get rid of him so he allowed Jia to continue grinning like a smug i***t.

“Yeah,” Jia continued. “It takes a lot of working up to it but once it’s in there’s nothing like it…”

“La la la la la!” Alex covered his ears as best as he could with an arm full of tiny shampoo bottles as he ran out of their room and slammed the door behind him.

“Now you got me curious,” Daniel pouted and Jia rewarded him with a soft laugh.

“Join me in the shower and we’ll see how we get on...” she winked before she headed back into the bathroom, allowing her hips to sway deliciously as she walked.

Daniel had his shirt off and the kids shoved in the room next door before the shower had even started again.

*

“Jia, you’re waddling,” Alex stated the next morning when we took a trip to the closest store for some essentials.

I cringed at the words and Daniel snickered behind me while Alec and Grace made gagging noises. It was humiliating because they probably knew exactly why their mother was waddling because a werewolf learns about s*x at an early age due to their increased hormones and the terrifying prospect of actually popping a knot (something Alec had yet to do but was fast approaching) or going into their first heat.

It was important for them to know all they could to stop themselves from getting into trouble by letting their instinct take control and mate with somebody who isn’t supposed to be their mate on their first scary experience with pheromones.

Even though the kids knew about it and were comfortable talking about s*x, it didn’t make it any less humiliating. I hated the increased maturity of a werewolf sometimes.

“My hand’s pretty sore too,” My mate added and I really wondered if that increased maturity had skipped a generation.

“Daniel, grow up.” I glared at my husband and Daniel flashed me that beautifully innocent Greenwood smile.

“Don’t do that, you’ll have someone’s eye out.” Alex laughed at his own addition.

“Alex.” Pretty much everyone groaned in unison. I really missed human secrecy and purposely not talking about s*x in front of children. I really did. Damned werewolves.

We reached the store soon and everyone split up in search of their own favored items. It was no surprise that Dakota led me to the candy aisle only to find that her daddy was already there and had an arm full of various different sugar treats. I just knew my husband was going to be bouncing off the walls by dinner time.

Alex appeared after a few minutes with a basket full of beauty products. I gave him a curious look that he seemed to ignore while he picked up a Hershey’s bar and continued shopping. Thirteen years and I had never known Alex was such a beauty queen.

I grabbed some of the essentials, such as actual food, and met up with everyone at the checkouts. Alec and Grace had shared a basket and it was full of baked goods along with some actual fruits and vegetables. God bless Shawn’s healthy cooking with just a side of sugary snacks... Daniel, on the other hand, had a basket full of stuff that looked like it should come with a free insulin shot while Roseanne had f**k only knows what kind of organic crap in her basket.

We looked like an odd sort of family with our abnormal eye colors and crazy shopping bag combinations but we were closer than any other family would ever be and I reminded myself that was what was important when the cashier looked at us as if we were something he had to pick off his shoe.

A sharp movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention and I noticed Gale holding Alex back from physically attacking the guy who was looking at us as if we were s**t. It was discrete but I still gave them both a warning look to remind them that we were in the human world now and fighting in a*****e when we were trying to be invisible wasn’t a good idea.

“I f*****g hate humans,” Alex grumbled when we made it back to our motel rooms. “They think they’re so f*****g brilliant and look down on everybody.”

“Uh, I was a human.” I reminded him while I began putting away our shopping.

“Yeah, but you got turned just in time to be awesome. Plus you were technically always a were so that doesn’t count.” Alex actually managed to save himself on that one instead of digging himself into a hole, I was impressed.

“I guess I’ll let the human insult slide this time.” I caught Daniel’s smirk but ignored him in favor of trying to read the sugar content on a packet of candy my husband had picked up.

My eyes widened at the figure but Daniel had snatched the packet out of my hands before I could say anything and disappeared into Alex’s room as if that would save his candy. Roseanne let out a shriek that was followed by both Daniel and Gale’s laughter. Sometimes I wondered who was actually the child in our family.