Page 39 of Matched in Mayhem

Clyde smirked like he knew something the rest of us didn’t.

“Come in here for a minute,” Alby beckoned him with a wave, stepping back.

“Alby, are you going to eat Raziel?” Slyvin asked.

“No,” he shook his head. “I still have that smoothie Grandpa brought me a bit ago. It’s my third one. Three smoothies and a coffee and my babies still won’t come out.”

“Is everything okay?” Raziel asked, but Alby shut the door as soon as he was inside. Then he growled. I started to slide in between them, but Alby grabbed Raziel by the ears and pulled his tall ass down to his level.

“You listen to me and you listen well,” he growled. “You are a great fucking guy! I don’t know what dark secret you think you’re carrying but stop acting like you’re some war criminal!” he shook his ears and if Raziel wasn’t shocked into immobility I might’ve tried to free him from my mate’s grasp. “I don’t know what the hang up is about your true-mate but you’re going to get through it and go find that man and make him fucking happy because you are a fucking great guy! I love you like a brother but I’m telling you,” he growled and winced and I hoped he let go of Raziel’s ears before the next contraction hit him. “If one of my littermates or the others pulled this moping around shit, I would kick their asses so badly that they’d pray their true-mate was a healer and crawl to them. I don’t want to hear that it’s complicated. I want you to figure it out because you’re breaking my Frost-damnded heart moping around and smelling so sad about it all the time. Do you understand me?” he asked, shaking his ears for emphasis.

To his credit, Raziel managed to nod and gently reach up and pry Alby’s fingers off his ears.

“Thank you, Alby,” he said, his voice a lot quieter than I expected it to be. “What happened in our past life, I’m sorry about it.”

“Raziel,” Alby said, tears falling down his cheeks. “I don’t know what it was but even if you killed me, it wasn’t me. That’s why reincarnation exists, right? So that we get to be different people and learn to be kind? Brad and I talk about it a lot. Frost had said something about helping someone from your past life when he was talking about ‘remember Chad Boston.’ He’ll tell you too. We don’t want to think about those lives in personal ways. We’re glad we don’t remember them. All we want is to be happy now and we are. We don’t need answers. I just need you to realize that you don’t have to spend the rest of this life making it up to us. You are fucking great and even if you were horrible or something before, you learned from it. You literally mashed those bears up for kidnapping that baby! You’re a fucking hero, Raz. So I’m not saying to get a big head. Just stop beating yourself up!” It looked like he had more he wanted to say, but his claws dug into Raziel’s arms as he squatted down consumed by the storm of another contraction.

I closed the space between us and squatted down with Alby. When the contraction ended, he fell into me sideways and I hit my ass, but caught him. Raziel sat down with us but didn’t say anything. I didn’t know any more about Raziel’s previous incarnation than Alby did but my mate had pretty much summed up how I felt about it. Maybe his true-mate would remember it differently but no matter what happened with him, Raziel would always have a home with us.

That day of Alby’s laboring turned into a night of laboring and it was sunrise before Alby had his ‘golden hour.’ Everyone was exhausted, but no one said a word about it. Everyone except Clyde sort of shuffled out of the room and away from the doorway. I stretched out next to Alby who lay grinning, his eyes so big he looked high, at the three tiger cubs laying on his chest and belly. Only ‘Big Boy’ still had his wings out, tucked in close to his body. They were as black as night. Clyde took care of the vaccines and watching all four of them for any post birth/post delivery complications.

I stroked my mate’s hair and tried not to cry. Our three little boys were beautiful and healthy. Alby couldn’t stop smiling. Logically, I knew his brain was a rush of all the hormones that make parents love and protect their babies, but as his mate, I couldn’t help but to look at him with awe. He’d not only put a dragon in his place, but delivered three wonderful and healthy babies. He deserved every second of his golden hour. He dozed on and off with the babies and I murmured to him about how strong and incredible he was.

“Thank you for not fainting,” Clyde looked at me. “Really, thank you. He didn’t need that. I couldn’t have predicted that he’d have chosen now to tell Raziel to stop moping around, but it was good timing. Can’t argue with a man in labor.”

“I guess not,” I chuckled.

“You get some sleep too. You’re going to need it,” Clyde said. “I’ll keep watch.”

“Big Boy’s name is Razlin. Bunny Feet is Ashlin. And…” Alby yawned. “Thump is Cyldus.”

We had talked about names a little, agreeing that we’d combine parts of the names of the people who were important to us.

Clyde’s mouth dropped open. His mate had named several of their kids after him, but from the look on the older wolf’s face, I’d have guessed that this was his first great grandson named after him.

“Are you sure, Alby?” he asked.

“Yeah. Raziel, Grandpa Ashley, all the ‘in’ endings for Slyvin and you. Some of the strongest people I know. I want my kids to be happy and kick ass when they need to, Grandpa. You gotta know how to kick ass to be happy. You taught me that,” Alby laughed, half out of it. “He was the quiet one in the womb. So he’s going to need to know how to kick the most asses.”

Clyde kissed Alby’s forehead and wiped away a single tear. As I lay with my family dozing off, I realized that Clyde was more like Raziel than I first thought. For whatever reason, they both spent so much time trying to prove that they were good and useful to people who already adored them. We loved them for it, but like Alby, I wished that they would learn to rest and accept that they were the good guys.

“BENNIE!” it was Daisy’s voice that sounded from downstairs.

“Shit!” I swore under my breath, starting to push myself upright to stop her from barreling into the room, but Alby grabbed my hand.

“Let her come see them. She can nap too. She did almost eat a hand for them,” Alby said, yawning.

I really was the luckiest tiger in the territory. I had my mate, my friends, and my family and they all got on well. I had three healthy newborns and a village to help if we needed it. Daisy stretched out on Alby’s other side and dozed off after a few minutes of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the babies, especially Razlin’s wings.

“Gonna make him be happy if I gotta kick his butt to do it,” Alby grumbled as he fell asleep. “He doesn’t get to make our lives happy and then be miserable forever.”