Page 71 of Sobek’s Joy

“I literally threatened to throw pickles at your head a couple of hours ago.”

“You were hungry and uncomfortable. That’s not impossible, that’s reasonable.”

Rose yawned, her head heavy against Sobek’s arm. “Tell the baby story again.”

“You’ve heard it fifty times,” Rudy protested, but he was already smiling because he never got tired of telling it. “Once upon a time, there was a grumpy crocodile god who thought he wanted to be alone.”

“But he was wrong,” Jack chimed in, clearly having memorized this tale.

“Very wrong,” Rudy agreed. “Because three extraordinary children kept jumping in his pond, and a foolish human kept inviting him in for coffee.”

“And pickles,” Rose added sleepily.

“We weren’t at the pickle stage because they came later,” Rudy conceded. “But the grumpy god realized he didn’t want to be alone at all. He wanted to be exactly where he was - covered in pancake batter, sticky fingerprints, and love.”

Sobek’s hand tightened on Rudy’s ankle, his other palm still resting on the baby. Rudy loved how he could feel his mate’s overwhelming contentment, the bone-deep satisfaction of finally being exactly where he belonged.

“And they all lived happily ever after,” Timothy whispered, his eyes drifting closed.

“Yeah,” Rudy said softly, looking around at his impossible family - three shifter children who shouldn’t exist, a god who’d waited thousands of years just for him, and a baby who would be born into more love than Rudy had ever imagined possible. “They really did.”

The lottery ticket had been a whim, bought on a day when stocking shelves had ground him down to nothing, and he’d desperately wished for an escape. Five million dollars had seemed like freedom - the ability to quit, to breathe, and to figure out who Rudy Crisp actually was when he wasn’t exhausted, broke, and alone.

I never imagined freedom could look like this. A now comfortable home in rural Louisiana. Three abandoned children with impossible secrets. An ancient god who could translocate into his living room and yet who couldn’t figure out how to work a coffee maker. Pregnancy cravings that defied logic. A nursery now painted in chaotic rainbow colors with a mural that shouldn’t work but somehow did.

The baby kicked again, and Sobek made a soft sound of awe that would have seemed impossible coming from the same god who could level mountains with a thought. Rose’s breathing had evened out into sleep, and Jack was clearly fighting to keep his eyes open. Timothy had already surrendered to exhaustion, his small body warm against Rudy’s side.

“Should we move them to bed?” Rudy asked quietly.

“In a minute.” Sobek’s thumb traced circles on Rudy’s belly, following the baby’s movements. “Let’s just...stay here. Like this.”

“We’re going to regret it when my back completely seizes up.”

“Then I’ll carry you upstairs and massage every ache away.”

“Promise?”

“Always.”

Through the window, twilight was settling over their property. The pond Sobek had created reflected the first stars, and somewhere in the trees, Rudy heard the normal night sounds of Louisiana wildlife: crickets and frogs and the rustle of wind through leaves. Normal, in other words, and more importantly, it was home.

“Love you, Sunshine,” Sobek whispered.

Rudy smiled, his hand covering Sobek’s on his belly, their children sleeping peacefully around them, and their newest family member doing somersaults against his ribs.

“Love you too, you grumpy crocodile. You bring me joy.”

And Rudy meant it with everything he had, because he knew Sobek felt exactly the same way.

The End…