Chapter 25: An Ogre, Some Children, and Unwelcome Surprises

Chapter 24: An Ogre, Some Children, and Unwelcome Surprises

"Who are we killing?" A voice asked suddenly from behind Sophia who screamed in shock as she ran to hide behind Brynhild.

She dove back behind Brynhild’s tiny frame, pressing herself as flat as she could against the cool stone floor beneath the heavy rugs. Her breath caught in her throat, every nerve firing warning signals.

"What are you doing?" Brynhild asked her.

"Hiding. What does it look like I’m doing?" Sophia replied to her.

Serena stared at her with mirth flowing in her eyes, her lips twitched with a smile threatening to break through.

"Who are we hiding from?" Orion asked as he stepped further into the room.

Sophia peeked out carefully, and straightened herself, trying to pretend like she wasn’t hiding some few moments ago.

Serena smiled knowingly but didn’t say a word.

"Who was hiding?" Sophia asked with a cough.

"Wasn’t that you hiding behind Brynhild just now?" Orion asked her.

"Me?" She asked him with wide eyes like she could not believe he would say something like that but the look in his eyes showed that she had been caught red handed so she took a different tactic.

"Um..." she cleared her throat. "I only hid because I thought there was an ogre or something."

Brynhild masked a smirk behind her hand, her eyes wrinkling at the corners.

"So I’m an ogre now?" Orion asked her.

She shrugged. "If the shoe fits."

She finally lifted her gaze from the floor to give him a look, but what stole Sophia’s attention away were the three small, lively figures clinging to him like greedy monkeys.

One toddler was perched happily on his broad shoulder, tiny hands gripping thick hair as if scaling a tree. Another dangled from his arm, giggling with wild delight, nails tapping absently on Orion’s chest. The smallest one scuttled at his feet, tugging insistently on his cloak’s hem.

Sophia blinked in shock, the mental image of Orion as a jungle gym refusing to leave her mind. "Alright," she muttered under her breath, "this just keeps getting weirder. Seriously, who did you manage to impregnate? Who even let you do it to them?"

Her snark was sharp, but before she could launch into an all-out investigation of Orion’s reproductive success, a small voice suddenly piped up, echoing the innocence of toddlers.

"Who are you?"

Sophia froze as one of the toddlers, bright-eyed and curious, pointed a pudgy finger at her and blinked expectantly.

Caught off guard but secretly delighted, Sophia crouched to their level, dropping all thoughts about the ogre and his dubious love life. "I’m Sophia," she said gently, her voice softening just for them. "And who might you tiny tornadoes be?"

"We are not tomadoes." One of them spoke up.

Sophia noticed how all three children looked like each other and that it was going to be hard differentiating them. Triplets perhaps, she thought to herself. She wasn’t even surprised that Orion would be a father to triplets but none of the children looked like him.

"What are you then?" She asked.

"Werewolves." They replied together, making Sophia laugh.

Their father wasn’t cute or even remotely likeable but these children were cute.

"Okay, werewolves. What are your names?" She asked softly.

Sophia had no idea that everyone in the room was watching her quietly. She was just swept up with conversing with the children.

The children laughed and jabbered at once, introducing themselves as Niko, Lira, and Tavi, names flowing almost too fast to catch, and launched into an enthusiastic recount of important facts about bugs, flowers, and undefeated hide-and-seek games.

"You’re really pretty!" Lira declared brazenly, poking Sophia’s cheek without warning.

Sophia chuckled, wincing a little but playing along all the same. "Thanks, little miss Lila. Coming from you, that means a lot."

Serena leaned in with an amused smile. "Usually they’re less... welcoming. You’re lucky."

Sophia grinned and allowed herself to relax a little. "Yeah, I think I’ll take the company over the ogre any day." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Serena shot a glance toward Orion, who was still standing, almost resigned, with toddlers draped over him like he was some kind of climbing frame.

Clearing her throat, Serena asked, "Where are their siblings now? Shouldn’t they be... somewhere else?"

Niko piped up instantly, "With Daddy! He’s showing Chris and Gino something."

Serena exchanged a quick glance with Orion who rubbed the back of his neck, clearly outnumbered but amused.

Sophia’s eyes narrowed, and realization dawned like a slow sunrise. "Wait. Those are your children?"

Serena nodded with a chuckle. "Yes, quite the handful, aren’t they?"

"So you got together with this..." Sophia pointed at Orion.

Serena’s eyes widened while Brynhild burst laughing because she couldn’t hold it in anymore.

"Oh no," Serena said as she shook her head. "Orion isn’t even my type. My mate is someone else entirely."

"Glad to know I’m not your type, Serena." Orion said to her with mock hurt.

"There, there,"Lila said as she rubbed Orion with her little hands, trying to console him.

"I am so sorry." Sophia apologized, as she felt the embarrassment climbing her cheeks.

Serena gave Sophia a knowing smirk. "It’s okay. With the way they enjoy climbing him like a tree, you’d think he was their father. Everyone makes mistakes."

"And not everyone makes assumptions but here we are." Orion said to her.

Serena smiled and motioned toward the door. "Well, these wild things need to be put back to their tutor before they wear you out. And Sophia?"

"Yeah?"

"I hope you have a nice stay here. Welcome to Nightshade." Serena said to her.

"Thank you."

As Serena gathered the kids and headed off, the chatter about bugs and secret hideouts fading down the hall, Brynhild stepped toward Orion, lowering her voice.

"I spoke with her already,Tobias was the one who gave her the whistle but she got lost trying to follow him. I’m sure he is fine, but we can send someone to the black market to check in, just to be certain he’s safe."

Orion nodded, expression serious. "Alright. Sam should be able to do that."

Brynhild gave him a look but Orion shrugged. In his defence, Sam would be doing her job. It didn’t matter that she had a complicated relationship with Tobias.

Brynhild looked over to Sophia, offering a soft but firm smile. "I’ll see you later. Take a rest and just enjoy the peace."

For once, Sophia’s own smirk was filled with gratitude. "Got it."

Brynhild gave a nod, excusing herself with a quiet "I’ll leave you both to it. Rest properly."

Orion turned back toward Sophia, his gaze sharpening with something between annoyance and curiosity.

"So, Sophia, answer me this, who were we planning on killing? Or is that a secret you want to keep?"