Ever Cynical

Chapter 71- Settling into a routine

Kieran POV

I was so f*****g glad things had settled down just a little. It was still controlled chaos, but everyone was finally settling in. Every warrior brought in from outside had found their mate, either among Immortals, or other warriors that had come to join the pack. It was almost eerie. Not to mention, Ritsu and Tabitha were already pregnant. Our entire leadership team was having babies. My mother was thrilled, of course.

It was a lot of planning. We were having to completely re-do two rooms that were being combined for our babies. Geoff, Lugh, and Sean were doing something similar in their suites. The ladies were happily planning, but it was up to the men to complete them. Which none of them complained about. The first one that had whined was Geoff, and a pink bunny slipper of death had been chucked at him with excessive force. Nobody dared after that. Had Anais not looked like she actually wanted him dead, I'd have totally giggled.

Anais had arranged the mixed units as follows (Unit leader in bold):

UNIT ONE

Nicha (F)- Basilisk

Changshe (M)- Dragon

Primrose Tremaine (F)- Fae

August Beaumont (M)- Fae

Rowena Leeford (F)- Vampire

Lotte Brovold (F)- Dragon

Fionn Hughes (M)- Immortal

UNIT TWO

Tianshe (F)- Dragon

Maya Preston (F)- Bear

Gideon Burress (M)- Fae

Kira Kazusada (M)- Kitsune

Arabella Daley (F)- Vampire

Rowan Reilly (M)- Immortal

Ruben Reilly (M)- Immortal

UNIT THREE

Phirixian (M)- Demon

Levi Simpson (M)- Bear

Clara Burress (F)- Fae

Hasegawa Natsume (F)- Kitsune

Nigel Mills (M)- Vampire

Rebekkah Mellem (F)- Dragon

Gracie Nagle (F)- Immortal

UNIT FOUR

Miles Preston (M)- Bear

Eshirthine (F)- Demon

Emerson Nunn (M)- Fae

Shimazu Momoko (F)- Kitsune

Zachariah Fielding (M)- Vampire

Einar Rokhaug (M)- Dragon

Róise Raferty (F)- Immortal

UNIT FIVE

Mercy Goodall (F)- Fae

Nezeqoz (M)- Basilisk

Nash Robbins (M)- Bear

Mogami Saku (F)- Kitsune

Ottar Tufte (M)- Dragon

Madison MacHale (F)- Immortal

Aiden MacHale (M)- Immortal

These units now trained together, rotating under Sean's direction. They were expected to eat together, train together, and socialize together, with any lack of socialization quickly addressed by the unit leaders. Leaders were given the additional task of encouraging unity. Seeing the Luna Queen in action, none of them wanted to face her, or her mates, again. Anais made sure to regularly appear on the training field to make sure nobody was giving her Beta, Gamma, or Delta any issues. Rintaro was now training with the Alphas and Lunas, and found himself feeling pretty basic after watching them. It was laughable that Erik or Jothan needed him as a guard, but they were very encouraging, doing their best to not make him feel weak.

So great was their strength that it wasn't really fair to try and measure even an eight-tailed kitsune against it. Had he been one of the legendary white nine-tails, he might have felt like he had a chance at matching them.

With the warriors finally settling down, and preparations for babies under way, the pack was happy, despite knowing battles lay ahead. Celtic Moon kept to themselves, but they were all fierce combatants. Every single one trained and could be considered elite. With Anais' additional security measures, they were pretty well-prepared. Anais had insisted a hidden bunker be built in case of invasion, and I had seen it done within days. It was an extensive underground complex that could sustain the entire pack for months if needed.

For the first time in our history, I'd even built specialized cells. We'd simply never bothered or seen the need previously. I personally hoped they would never see use, but realized that was an impractical expectation.

I was happy to see Jothan getting more and more comfortable with me and Erik. He was trying very hard to be balanced, but with Anais pregnant it was difficult. I totally understood. All of us hovered until she threatened us because she needed space. Even though we knew intellectually that she was used to being alone and all of us being helicopter mates was too much for her, we could not help our primal need to protect. Which usually meant, being right next to her.

We were trying our best to essentially rotate our time with her so there was one at a time, with the exception of the depraved halls of our bedroom. Because we were all insatiable and horny once the door shut. I know it's said pregnant women have increased libido, but I think in our mate's case, she's just that lascivious. And let's be honest, we all f*****g love it. How else could she possibly handle three males with pretty high s*x drives?

As much as we shared time with each other, one-on-one, we loved our queen as our center, our hub. I was well aware that we were more aggressive when she was not around, and Jothan had commented to me as he gave me a blowjob nearly as good as the one Anais had given me under my desk, that we probably needed to show her some of that aggression, that he sensed she craved it, and would love it. Much like her dragon.

Honestly, I think each of us hesitated because it felt too... well, r**e-y for lack of a better term. None of us wanted her to ever feel anything less than completely cherished, and it was hard to reconcile roughness with such a thing. Perhaps with consent it was less so, but we all wanted to treat her delicately and demonstrate just how important to us she was.

In a few days, it was the last pack run that Anais was going to be able to join before carrying the babies made shifting by necessity only. We were bringing all five units into the pack under that full moon. There was just a week left until Erik and Jothan were off to their first council meeting. I wasn't all that worried, since Jothan knew how everything worked. I was nervous about rescuing Rin's mate from Ludolf, though. As if the man didn't hate me and want to take me down enough already!

Taking away his mate was going to light a fuse and this could all blow up in our faces.

I still couldn't believe Anais offered to go. Did she not get that Ludolf would pull some kind of bullshit if she appeared there? Especially since we were taking his mate from him. Regardless of why or how he'd treated her, he was going to be one ornery motherfucker. Chances were pretty damn high that our allies were going to have to step in and help. Once they did, it was going to be declaring war, one way or another. I had hoped we'd end up making a little more progress in locating Anais' parents before having to face conflict, but that would be too convenient, now wouldn't it?

I sighed, plunging my fingers into my loose curls. Erik was out of the office, so it was a rare moment alone. I wouldn't say I'd missed these kinds of moments, as I was beyond grateful I had my wonderful mates. I would admit that things had become much livelier since I met my beautiful Anais. She would probably be shocked to know that to me, she was like a beacon of hope and light. She was certainly jaded after all that life had thrown at her, but I could see a new optimism blossoming within her.

Every day her confidence and queenly aura got stronger.

My pack had accepted her and our mates with open arms, open hearts, and open minds. I never thought I'd be mated to males, let alone two, but there it is. Even if Anais were not part of this, and my mates were male, I'd have been the same way. Remember, mossy rocks. I giggled. Sometimes I called Jothan that and he just seemed confused. I decided to let it be until he let us in more. Then I'd explain it.

Anais was quickly becoming known simply as Death Bunny. So, Death Bunny, Mossy Rock... Hmm... I needed something for Erik. I tapped my chin. I felt like Cuddle Bear was little lackluster, but it certainly fits him. Of all of us, he is the biggest cuddler. If you need a hug, he's your man. The strong, silent cuddly Alpha bear. This time, I did giggle.

Every night we had our routine, which of course included making sure our queen was satisfied first, before seeing to our own needs. It was crazy how much we still all could not seem to get enough of each other. Not like being in heat or rut, but still enough to be f*****g distracting. Then I did my usual after-care routine or we all bathed together. It made me glad I'd insisted on onsen-style bathtubs in my pack house. There was plenty of room for us to bathe and just increase our intimacy. It wasn't s****l, but it was something that helped our bond get stronger. Then we all piled into bed naked and skin-on-skin cuddled all night long. Erik and I rotated our spot next to Anais so that Jothan could have his spot directly next to her every night.

It was a small concession in our eyes, and it allowed his elemental to feel more secure.

Nexus was as mysterious and playful as even, but I could tell he was trying to push Jothan to be the active member in our group, even if the Elemental's bond was nearly as strong as Jothan's. He'd directly bonded and claimed us at the same time, after all. It had increased the emotions we could all feel. I'm still not entirely sure how Ana managed to hide Maya's s**t from us, because we'd all been shocked. It bothered me slightly that we hadn't sensed it from her.

I actually suspected, with the ability to sense, grasp, and use elements that Anais had shared with us, that she had an elemental hiding in her somewhere. One that had sought and bonded to her, and if I was right, this was a very special elemental as it could use fire, water, earth, wind, and even lightning. Probably light and dark too. Why it had not made itself known, I was uncertain. But I think this is why she was Nexus' queen. How this would affect our bonds and everything else, I could not be sure. I also knew that Nexus had more information than he was letting on, but was being cautious with how much he put out there.

It wasn't that he was hiding things, either. It was that the more we knew, the more danger there was. Millennias of knowledge, making our own lives such a small portion of his experience and what he had seen. I knew he was hoping that by limiting what we knew, somehow we'd be more protected from outside forces. Convincing him that we actually needed to know all that we could?

Near impossible.

As if we weren't facing some pretty massive threats already.

Just extinction.

No big deal, right?