~Samantha~

“You two are seriously trying to send me to an early grave.”

“Mummy,” Diana cried, grabbing at my wrist. “We’re sorry.”

“Sorry? If I were to get paid the number of times you’ve apologized, I’d be rich by now.”

Always sorry but never changing. Just like their dad.

Devon tried to straighten, then winced and coughed into his hand. “We didn’t mean to scare you.”

“We thought of surprising you.”

“Oh, and you did it in the worst way.” I dragged them into me before either of them could say anything else and crushed them against my chest so hard Diana squeaked. I kissed the side of Devon’s head, then Diana’s forehead, then both their cheeks because relief embraced me. “You two are unpredictable. Actual tiny demons. I hate it so bad when you do that.”

Diana burst into fresh tears. “Mummy, you don’t mean that.”

“You left the pack house. You ran into the forest. You went near the Wolf Tomb. You fought a psycho who wanted to use you for some sick ritual. Do you both have loose screws on your heads? Is that what this is?”

“No, we wanted to ask for your permission,” Devon rasped again, hugging me back just as hard. “but we knew you’d refuse.”

“And it’s for a good reason. If you want to help mummy so badly, wait till you both are a lot older.” I pulled away enough to hold his chin. Angry tears blurred my vision. “Now open your mouth.”

“I need to see how bad he hurt you.”

He did.

I checked his throat, his lips, the bruising at his neck, then turned to Diana and did the same. “You too.”

Diana sniffled and obeyed. “Mummy, please don’t be mad.”

“What can we do to make you forgive us?”

“Very simple. Stay out of trouble.”

“Or else, mummy will break down from stress.”

At that moment, Dominic crouched in front of us and reached for them with hands that were careful for once instead of bossy. “Let me see.”

Devon leaned forward first. Diana followed right after, both of them grabbing at him like they needed to make sure he was real too.

Dominic touched Devon’s throat and his mouth tightened. “He squeezed you hard.”

“I’m okay, Dad,” Devon whispered.

“Yet you haven’t healed, you little liar.” Dominic said, then turned to Diana and brushed dirt off her cheek with his thumb. “You two would have to apologize to the pack members and mommy.”

“She accused almost everyone of kidnapping.”

“I did not, stop exaggerating.”

“Yes, you did.”

“And you are going to apologize to them too for the unnecessary insults.”

“I won’t and you can’t force me. If they were really good at their duties, these two wouldn’t have gotten away,”

“I guess, they got that from you.”

Diana pleaded, pouting her lips. “Mummy, don’t start a fight with daddy.”

“He started it so you warn him, not me.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” I muttered at Dominic who gave me a side eye but said nothing.

“Daddy, you are not angry with us like mommy right?”

He looked between them, and to my horror, pride actually flickered across his face. “Angry? Not even a bit. If anything, I’m proud of you two.”

My head snapped toward him. “Did I just hear you correctly?”

Dominic barely glanced at me. “I’m sure you did.”

“You need to stop this right now.”

“What? Am I a bad parent for praising my kids?”

“Yes, you are and I’m not going to explain why.”

Okay, maybe just a little.

“Our children nearly got kidnapped, murdered, and turned into ritual ingredients, and your takeaway is wow, great job everybody?”

His jaw ticked. “My takeaway is that they were brave.”

“In that case, let me add this, bravery without sense gets people buried early.”

Diana’s fingers tightened around my sleeve. Devon looked between us with the exact expression of a child realizing one parent might save him from the other. I hated it immediately because I knew that look. Dominic saw it too, and the bastard leaned right into it.

“You did well,” he told them regardless of what I said. “You should never have run off alone, but I won’t stand here and act like your courage means nothing.”

“Dominic, we are supposed to be on the same team.” I said.

He ignored me beautifully. “You both saw a threat and tried to stop it.”

“You are encouraging a bigger problem.”

He gave the twins another look, full of shameless approval. “When we get back, they deserve a reward.”

I almost dropped Diana. “A reward?”

“At least a treat.”

“Have you been kicked in the head by ten horses?”

Dominic’s mouth twitched. “Sam.”

“No, I need answers. What treat exactly do children receive after sneaking into cursed ground and almost getting stolen by a lunatic? Cake? Pony rides? A gold star for attempted self-destruction?”

Devon looked hopeful despite the bruising on his neck. “Cake would be nice.”

“You don’t get to speak on this,” I snapped.

Diana pressed closer to me but aimed her next words at Dominic anyway. “Can it be strawberry icecream?”

“Whatever you want, my princess.”

“Oh, you spoiled brats.” I looked at the sky for strength because obviously nobody down here was going to help me. “You see what you caused?”

Dominic folded his arms and winced halfway through because of his shoulder, but even pain could not stop his nonsense. “We can punish them later. Reward first.”

“You really do need to take parenting classes because you are unfit for the job.”

“Says the first class teacher, huh?”

“You’ve scolded them already, one of us has to be a good guy.”

“At the expense of my blood pressure shooting up.”

Killian walked over then, wiping his blade clean on a torn strip of cloth.

“You both are going to bite each other’s heads off very soon,” he said. “For the record, I’m not picking sides so don’t ask me to judge.”

I turned to him slowly in disbelief. “So you’re just going to sit on the fence?”

Killian’s mouth pulled at one corner. “You’re the only one acting like a parent.”

“Finally, some sense.”

He ruined it immediately. “Doesn’t mean Dominic is wrong.”

I stared at him with pure betrayal. “You too?”

Devon lifted a shaky hand. “So the reward is real?”

“All of you need to be silent,”

“We love you,” Devon added, sounding like he thought that might help. “Please don’t cancel the treat.”

I looked from one manipulative child to the other. “You both are your father’s children and I dislike that for me.”

Before Dominic could turn smug, Lila stepped over one of the shattered markings and reminded us of the situation we had.

“Black Moon is injured, not fully destroyed so we can’t be too relaxed,” she pointed out. “Your twins’ purification power worked but if you could tell, it was unstable. If they keep running off like this, they will need powers they can boldly rely on.”

Lila kept going. “And it’s already bad enough that the full moon is close. We do not have room for delay. They need proper training.”

I hated this kind of pressure on my kids. “They don’t need anything because they won’t be using their powers till it matures on its own.” I refused.

Lila lifted a brow. “Protecting this way isn’t helping. We all saw how it turned out.”

“Am I in an alternate universe or something? What is so hard to understand that little children fighting off an ancient evil isn’t reasonable?”

Dominic let out a low scoff. “Ancient evil does not care how old they are, Samantha. You think Black Moon is going to wait around until their powers mature?”

“We need to take him out now that they are still little.”

“He can wait in hell for all I care.”

Lila crossed her arms. “You can be angry all you want but we are right.” 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“Fine then! Sit with your truth, I’m out of here.” I began walking away without sparing a last glance.

“You can’t just up and leave.”

“Yes, since you all decided what is best for my kids. I’m retiring.”

Finally, I looked at the twins. “Are you kids coming with mommy or you’d rather stay with your new favorite parent?”

The hesitation in their eyes told me whose side they wanted to be on.