Page 92 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

Hudson’s gaze flicked to my stomach with what looked like disbelief. It made me want to climb over the chairs and hold him. I didn’t know what to do with that thought.

“We should go in,” I said.

Neither of them reached for a door handle.

“Unless you intend to keep me in the car until the babies are old enough to pay rent.”

Lincoln opened the door. “Don’t tempt me.”

Cool air slipped in. I sat up slowly, and the world tilted just enough to remind me that I’d spent the afternoon having my future changed yet again.

Lincoln’s hand hovered near my elbow as he helped me out of the car. Hudson came around with my bag and the small envelope from the clinic, the one with grainy ultrasound pictures tucked inside. He held it like it mattered.

The front door opened before we reached the steps.

Maeve stood there with her hand in Mila’s, and a look that made me think she’d been pacing the floor waiting for information.

“Well?”

“Hello to you too,” I said.

“Just tell me.”

I looked at Hudson, then Lincoln, then back at Maeve.

Footsteps bound down the hallway. “Are there two?” Mac asked as he appeared next to his sister.

I looked suspiciously at Mac. “Have you got superpowers?”

Mac straightened. “Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“When I’m bigger, I will be a superhero,” he said. “But Mama says I have to learn socks first.”

“A cruel delay.”

“I know. I want to be a superhero today.”

Maeve gasped, “Two?”

“Two babies,” I said.

Maeve’s eyes filled.

“Don’t. You’ll set me off,” I warned.

She blinked hard. “I’m very composed.”

“You look like a woman about to cry or scream. But just so you know, it’s cold out here.”

Maeve stepped aside. “Come in.”

The hall smelled of lemon polish, warm bread, and the faint rich scent of Maeve’s pack threaded through the house. It was impossible to stand in that hall and not understand that my sister was loved loudly even when the house itself whispered.

Mac went running to the sitting room with Fergus skittering after him like a small, outraged mop.

“It’s two?” he shouted. “Auntie Mary is having two babies.”