Page 81 of What The Hex (The Family Spells)
“What is Coven Wyrmwood getting out of this then?” I wondered absently, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
“They’ve been promised dominion on this side of the Fire Veil,” Monster clarified, looking over at me. “But if Lulu doesn’t bring Hex back, she won’t be around to see the fruits of her labors.”
He moved away and headed for the apartment stairs.
With a deep exhale, I stepped over to the door, flipped the sign to Open and hoped like hell that Monster knew what he was talking about.
He said we could fix this mess with a spell on the equinox?
But what if we couldn’t?
If the Fire Veil came down, and Hael was open to earth on a permanent basis?
There were as many demons as there were humans and Numinous combined.
Simply put: it’d be a slaughter.
Hex was waiting on the couch when we got home. I’d texted to tell him that his grandmother stopped by, but nothing more than that. I figured the whole ‘Monster rubbing his pheromones on her skin and throwing her against the wall’ bit was probably best taken care of in person.
“Did the kids kill you today?” I asked with a smile, pausing beside him. He lifted his head to look up at me, sans horns, tail, and wings. I thought his demon bits were cute, but if he felt more comfortable without them, who was I to make a fuss over it?
We’d work on getting him familiar with the family and then move on to the self-love stuff later.
“They kept calling him ‘daddy’,” Spec offered from the doorway to the kitchen. He was leaned up against the wall, a dish towel thrown over one shoulder, a sultry smile on his face that had me struggling to remember my name.
Argent scowled as he pushed past, and Caine turned on Hex with a growl of rage.
“You had ‘em start callin’ you daddy straight-off? The hell is wrong with you?”
“I never asked them to do any of that!” Hex protested, rising up from the couch and bunching his shoulders, as if he might’ve folded his wings up in agitation if he were still wearing them. “In fact, I begged them to stop. Maybe you could fucking ask before tearing my head off?”
Caine grinned at him, flashing wolf fang, and then shrugged.
“Kids asleep already?” he queried, sounding disappointed. It was late, much later than we usually got home, and I was exhausted. But our first day back at the store had been all about catch-up.
“They’re asleep,” Spectre confirmed as Argent went up the stairs to check on them, as he always did after coming home. Bastet and Connard trotted after him. “Feel free to get naked.”
“If y’all don’t mind,” Caine purred, unbuttoning his flannel shirt and tossing it aside as Hex gaped at him.
“I do,” he said, pointing at his chest. “I mind.”
Caine ignored him.
“Really?” Hex continued, glaring at my husband. “You’re going to tear my head off for the daddy thing and then just flash dong in my face?”
Caine shrugged yet again, and I chuckled, offering Hex a pat on the shoulder.
“He knows you’d never make the kids call you daddy. That is, if you could make them do anything at all. They’re pretty stubborn.” I thought of Zavier and how he’d reacted when he first met Hex outside of his school, the day that Hex had invited me to coffee after giving me his pumpkin umbrella, and then … bailed.
What had changed between then and now besides my being pregnant?
“They piss on ya today?” Caine inquired, shoving his jeans down his hips. He left his boxers on, but only for Hex’s sake. As a werewolf, he preferred to waltz around in the nude. I didn’t mind; his cheeks were worth a spot in the Louvre. They’d draw crowds. Move over Mona Lisa, we got a taut, firm wolfman ass on display.
“They did,” Hex hedged, and Caine howled with laughter. Hex did not appear to be amused. I wondered how long it would be before he started regretting his decision to stay here. I had no doubts that he would, at some point, feel as if he’d made the wrong choice. I only hoped it would be a temporary, fleeting thing that we could work through. “Does that, uh, happen a lot?”
“More than it should,” Caine agreed, slumping into the leather armchair. He reached up to ruffle at his hair, and then two furry ears sprouted from the wavy blond. He scratched at one of them as Hex blinked down at him. “But what can you do? Wolves will be wolves.”
Hex rubbed at the side of his head with two fingers.
“I’ll make some coffee,” Spectre offered up, and I mouthed a silent thank you at him for taking care of both the kids and Hex all day.
“I hope my grandma wasn’t too harsh,” Hex offered up, trying to find a segue into the conversation he so desperately wanted to have. I gestured back at the couch and he took a seat. He seemed surprised, but pleasantly so, when I sat down beside him.
