Chapter 1: Little Strangers

Billie’s POV

I’m pressed up against something solid and warm, and definitely not my pillow.

My hand moves on pure instinct, sliding over the surface while I’m trying to figure out what the hell I’m touching. Hard. Ridged. It feels like skin and muscle as my fingers trace the lines without permission, counting them in the dark. One. Two. Three. Four. Abs. Actual, carved, what-the-fuck abs.

My eyes fly open and I basically jump off the bed at the sight of Alpha Trojan. My foot catches In the covers and I stumble and fall hard on my ass.

My breasts feel tender and heavy. They also hurt like a motherfucker. But what actually has me frowning is the wetness around my nipples, like I’m dripping milk.

I wrap my hands around fullness and feel the dampness against the oversized grey T-shirt I don’t even remember owning.

I look at Trojan. He is breathing softly and sleeping peacefully, as though it was the most normal thing in the world and he didn’t just have his nineteen years old ward wrapped around him.

“What the actual fuck,” I whisper.

Trojan’s eyes slowly flatter. His hand goes searching, patting the side of the bed where I was sleeping a minute ago.

I have no idea what the hell is going on, but I think I might’ve been drunk last night. I don’t even know the taste of alcohol so that would make sense. I might just be a slutty light weight who used booze to finally sum up the courage to seduce my guardian and alpha.

Shit. I pray to the Moon Goddess I’m wrong and there’s a logical explanation for whatever this is because I can sure as hell use one to understand why my breasts were leaking.

“Billie.” Trojan’s voice is rough with sleep and way too familiar.

I point at him like he might vanish if I accuse him hard enough. “Why am I in your bed?”

“Babe?” he sits up slowly, using his elbows and looks at me like I have two heads. “Come back to bed, the kids aren’t awake yet.” He adds and turns his head to the other side of the bed.

I follow his gaze, and that’s when I see it. A bassinet on his side of the bed.

Two tiny shapes are inside. One of them makes a soft, wet little sound that goes straight through my ribs like a knife. My body reacts before my brain can catch up. My breasts throb harder, another slow leak of milk soaking into the front of the shirt. I stare at the babies like they might disappear if I blink too hard.

“Billie?” Trojan says again, still half-asleep, still looking at me like I’m the one who’s lost my mind. “They’re not due for another feed yet.”

I point at the bassinet with a shaking hand. “What the fuck is that?”

He sits up fully now, the sheet sliding down to his waist. The same abs I just felt up in my sleep are right there in the light, and I hate that my eyes still notice. He runs a hand through his hair and looks at me properly for the first time.

“Billie. What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” My voice climbs. “I wake up glued to your chest, leaking milk like a broken faucet, and there’s a bassinet full of actual human infants next to your bed. That’s what’s wrong.”

He goes very still. The sleepy softness drains out of his face.

“Stop playing,” he says quietly. “Leo and Lila. Our kids. You know that.”

I laugh. It comes out high and cracked and completely unhinged. “I think I would remember the part where someone put them there. And when they came out.”

Trojan swings his legs over the side of the bed and stands. He’s only wearing black sleep pants. I force my eyes to stay on his face because looking anywhere else is dangerous. He moves slowly, like I’m a wild animal that might bolt.

“Is this stress?” he asks and doesn’t wait for me to answer. “You turned twenty three months ago. The twins are three months old today. You went into labor two weeks early. You wouldn’t let go of my hand the entire time.”

The words bounce around inside my skull and refuse to stick. I wrap my arms around my aching chest and take a step back.

“There was a fire,” I say to myself, and start pacing. “In the science building at the academy. Marcus and his friends trapped me inside. They were laughing. Then the explosion happened. I remember the heat. I remember thinking I was going to die. Am I dreaming? Maybe I’m in a coma and living my greatest fantasy.”

I look at Trojan again.

His mouth twitches and his body starts shaking in silent laughter.. Moon Goddess, he is beautiful even when being a pain in the ass in dreams.

“There was no fire, Billie,” he says, tilting his head to the side.

“No. No. There was definitely a fire, and I must be in a coma right now.” I narrow my eyes at him and pinch my tits. “What a shitty dream, though. I can understand the babies, but the pain in my breasts feel so real.”