KELLEN We were all currently gathered in the Beta’s suite that was on the opposite end of the hall to the Delta’s suite where Lamia had been in labor for several hours now and our women, along with several pack doctors, had been coming in and out there gathering all the necessities to deliver the triplets. They were concerned about the third baby, it was so tiny, and the doctors worried about the child being underdeveloped and not making it. They wanted to take her to the pack infirmary, yet moving her could endanger the smallest child, or worse rupture something in Lamia. So she would be giving birth here. I, like the other men who gathered in the Beta suite, for some reason thought this would be quick. We were all concerned for Lamia, but it gave us all a chance to talk and catch up, keeping the business conversation light and focusing on the more meaningful conversations, yet subjects will come up and I couldn’t ignore my duty for long. By tomorrow I would be back to being a King

OLIVER How Ironic, that Alpha Travis would have me put in the same cell that I once had him held in for months. It took us four days of traveling to get back to MacTire. At first, I laughed that they would take me back to the place I grew up in. I knew every single inch of that castle, every nook, every cranny, every secret passage, and tunnel. It would be easy to break out of their cells and leave the dungeons, I knew the mechanisms by heart. How wrong I was. I realized it was idiotic for me to think they would not have made upgrades and changes to the castle. I understood that as soon as the guards led me down below and into the dungeons, bringing me to Travis’ old cell. There were new barred doors and the floor had been painted with silver, leaving a small strip for a prisoner to walk on. I was stripped down and hosed down, then given a pair of thin shorts and shoved into my new home. There was no way I was breaking out of this cell. A cot, a chair, and a bucket were all that fu

3 Weeks Later KELLEN “Ready?” I asked Tala “Yeah,” She squeaked excitedly bouncing on her feet, hardly containing her excitement. We had been out on runs together several times over the last three weeks, but for some reason, today she was overly excited. Lamia, King, Tobias, and the babies had left a week and a half ago, permanently moving to Riocht. Unfortunately, that meant Aunt Vivian went with her, and Uncle Marcus was going to follow behind them once he had everything organized here. I was going to miss them. The palace would seem even emptier now. I had spoken to Tawny. I didn’t like her position, but she was tough and she knew what she was doing. She could handle herself, when she needed me I would be there for her, It satisfied me to hear she was planning on heading to Riocht in the next coming days to meet the kids. It warmed my heart knowing Lamia and Tawny had formed an unbreakable friendship, that no matter what they would always have each other, thinking of them had

KELLEN I stare down at the little bundle in my arms, his eyes struggling to open and his mouth straining to yawn. I welcomed the smile that spread across my face as I took in his wrinkled face and hands. His eyes blinked open and already only a few hours old they were brilliant pools of blue, somewhere between the color of mine and Talas. I stole a glance at his mother, who looked at us with adoring eyes that sparkled with love and happiness mirroring my own. “What shall we name him?” Tala asked, adjusting her position to sit up a little better. I sat on the side of the bed cradling our son in my arms. Jonda had come in to meet her nephew and stepped out when Tala had dozed off after giving birth, to give us privacy and to call Mike, who was on his way back here. “I’m not sure” I spoke gently, still enamored with my son and his small movements, eyes trained on him. It's strange how I thought I would never feel love like I did for Lamia, then in one crazy turn of events, I was whis