He sighed against her lips. "This is a really weird family."
Epilogue
Two months later.....
"But I tagged him!" Danni pointed out as she gently tapped CJ's little foot, making the infant coo excitedly as two sets of hands clamped down tightly around her ankles and dragged her back to the middle of the large training mat and flipped her on her back.
As much as she would have loved to get up and kick Chris and Ephraim's asses, she was a little too busy trying to catch her breath and willing her legs and arms to work. For the past hour they'd been having their fun with her and up until a half hour ago she'd done pretty well, but then she started to get tired, but of course Chris wouldn't let her quit. She needed to build up her endurance and make the demon blood work for her and what better way to do that than to tag team her ass.
"B-but," she took a deep breath, licking her parched lips as she weakly pointed back to the baby who was now fast asleep, "I tagged him. Go kick his a-um, butt instead," she said, catching herself before she swore and got her ass kicked all over again by Chris.
Chris and Ephraim shared an amused look as they chuckled. "Come on, don't be a wimp," Chris said mockingly as he nudged her with his foot. "Come on, you big baby, get up. We're getting bored here."
"Come on, Danni, you can handle this," Ephraim said as he reached down and grabbed her right hand as Chris grabbed her left.
"Can I have a nap first?" she asked, sounding pathetic and not caring one bit.
For the past week she followed leads on Joshua with Caine all over New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut, but they were all dead ends. While they searched for Joshua they also helped clear several nests, stop a small war between the Packs and she'd been looking forward to getting some sleep. They hadn't had much time to do more than drive and work over the past week. She desperately needed some sleep, a hot bath and her mate, in that order.
Unfortunately for her, Chris and Ephraim had other plans for her. Since the Williams pretty much adopted her and made her one of them, Chris and Ephraim decided that meant they had to help her learn her abilities and build up her strength. She'd admit that the trainings had been helping her along with the blood. It had been about three months since the last time the cancer kicked her ass and she reminded Chris and Ephraim of that fact several times in the last half hour as she tried to leave and find her bed, but they simply wouldn't hear it.
It really was sweet that they cared so much about her, really it was, but right now after seven days without sleep she desperately needed rest and at this point she really didn't care where. In fact, if they just let go and dropped her ass back on the mat she'd be more than happy to take a nap right here.
"Sorry to interrupt, gentlemen," Caine said as he walked into the large room and scooped her up into his arms. "But, Danni is needed elsewhere."
"That's fine," Chris said, shrugging as he reached over and gave her head a condescending pat in an annoying big brother kind of way that made her wish that she wasn't too tired to kick his ass. "I'm going to put my babies down for their naps and go find my mate."
"Same here," Ephraim said, shooting her a wink as he walked over to the nap area and somehow managed to pick up both his babies without waking them up from their naps.
Caine chuckled as he walked after the two men. "We probably won't see them until tomorrow night."
"Thank God," she said, letting herself go limp in his arms as she laid her head against his shoulder and relaxed for the first time in a week. In another ten days they'd be doing this again when it was their turn to look for Joshua and Ephraim and Chris came back from their turn. For the past few months they'd been taking turns searching for the man. They hadn't found him, but what they had found out wasn't good. The man was turning out to be a bigger ass**le than she'd originally thought and she couldn't wait for the day when she got her chance to kick his ass.
"Why didn't you rescue me sooner?" she asked, closing her eyes and enjoying being close to him.
"I had to save Marc from little Jessica," he said, sounding amused and making her smile.
"Poor Marc," she said, not bothering to open her eyes and she snuggled into him. Since the little girl learned to walk several months ago, she followed Marc everywhere. The poor kid couldn't seem to get a break and while they all thought it was cute, and it was, Marc really needed a break. The poor kid was having a tough time of it with what happened to Joshua, his sister and grandmother refusing to come live with them, but most of all he was having a hard time dealing with what happened to Izzy.
Izzy tried to comfort him, but her limp really didn't help or the fact that sometimes she went and hid in a room so that no one would see her crying when the pain became too much. Pain medication didn't work for Sentinels and to get even a small amount of relief she would have to take a dose that would be lethal to humans and since she was pregnant with human children that meant that she couldn't take anything and was forced to suffer through it.
Chris already promised her that they were done making babies for a while and each time he hunted her down and held her as she sobbed in his arms he promised her again. It was one of those times that she hated have really sensitive hearing. Their pain was private and she felt like an intruder when she overheard them.
"I think Kale's coming tomorrow night," Caine grumbled, which was understandable since the shifter merely tolerated their presence. He didn't like Pytes and that would probably never change. Whenever Chris was away he usually dropped whatever he was doing to be here for Izzy and the babies. He'd take over helping with the babies, carry Izzy around like Chris did so that she didn't have to suffer and go to her when it became too much and she needed to stop putting on a brave face for everyone.
They all tried to help Izzy, but the attention seemed to embarrass her and make her self-conscious so they usually left it up to Chris and Kale to comfort her. The rest of them settled with helping with the babies and sneaking her junk food when Chris' back was turned which seemed to please her immensely. Of course, no one was stupid enough to sneak her Coke or anything caffeinated since that would set Chris off on an hour long lecture about not giving that type of shit to his unborn precious babies.
"Why don't we take the night off?" Caine suggested and normally she would kick his ass for saying such a thing, but right now all she could do was sigh in relief.
"Please."
He chuckled as he laid her on their bed and slowly undressed her. "I was thinking we'd eat, get some sleep, make love in the bath tub, against the wall, and a few other places before we settled in and made love on the bed. What do you think?"
"It sounds absolutely perfect," she murmured sleepily as she tried to roll over and curl up, but Caine wasn't about to let her go to sleep without feeding.
"Sorry, Danni," he said as she felt him lay down beside her. Seconds later he was pulling her into his arms and she nearly purred with contentment when she felt his warm na**d skin rub against hers. "But you need to eat," he explained as he positioned her on top of him.
"Fine," she mumbled sleepily as she nuzzled his neck as she allowed her fangs to drop and once they did she didn't hesitate. She was too damn tired and she knew that he wouldn't let her go to sleep until she drank from him and had at least one bag of the demon blood the Council supplied.