Bonds of Blood [Lords of the Expanse] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  “All right.” She yawned and moved her hand back to their son. “Seems your son is already awake and ready.” She watched as he gave his father a toothless grin and kicked his feet, waiting to be picked up. “Why don’t you get your little man and I will get our little girl?”

  Smiling, he helped her to her feet and then picked up his son. “Hello, my lad,” he murmured, holding him close to his shoulder, his little bottom in his hand. “You are looking very happy today, Dalek. What is going through that little head of yours?” he murmured out of curiosity.

  Dalek began to move his mouth and blow spit bubbles and slobber all over Andries, but Xandra grinned. “I don’t think you want to know what’s going through his little head, Andries.” She picked Andria up and ran her hand over her little back. “Yes, I know, little love. You can nap a little later, sweeting.” She pressed a kiss to her daughter’s cheek. “And this one wants to see the man with the grumbly voice again,” she said before she could censor her words.

  Andries stilled and looked to her. “We’ll see what we can do,” he said softly, lowering his head to press his cheek to Dalek’s head. “Tell me what he’s saying, love, please?” he asked, looking to her. “I really wish I could hear them like you do.”

  Grinning, she said, “He’s thinking that he really needs to go poop.” She watched his face and then laughed when he pulled Dalek away from him and looked down at their son and laughed when Dalek laughed as well. “You asked, Andries.”

  “All right, new rule,” he said, wrinkling his nose as he pulled Dalek back to him. “Anything to do with bodily functions need not be mentioned unless it’s something that can ruin any of my uniforms.”

  Xandra laughed and shook her head. She watched as their son’s face scrunched up, and he started to turn red as he grunted more and more. “I think we will need to take a trip by the nursery so that he can be changed before we go and find food.”

  “My son, you and I will be having words about this later and the fact that taking a poop in Daddy’s arms is a bad thing.” For Daddy, that is, he added silently. “I’ll take him up and change him. At least his nappy stays on”—he looked to Andria—“unlike someone who shall remain nameless because she’d likely just laugh at me again.”

  But that didn’t deter Dalek in the least. He continued to grunt as he first passed gas and then began to wiggle more as he did more than pass gas.

  “And that is my cue.” Andries wrinkled his nose again. “We will meet you in the kitchen, love,” he said, looking to Xandra. Turning, he headed out of the room and up to the master bedchamber, shaking his head. “Seriously, my boy, could we learn to do this while your mother is holding you?”

  Dalek just laughed at his father, and even as his little head bobbed it was as if he were saying no to him. Spit bubbles were once more the word of the day even as Xandra’s laughter floated up toward them.

  “The father gets seriously screwed in this deal,” Andries muttered, laying him down on the change table and collecting what he needed from below. “I think, once out of the womb, the least you children could do is let your father in on the secrets. Seems extremely one-sided to keep it all between you and your mother.”

  Dalek’s hand touched Andries’s hand and a serious look crossed his face as his little mind reached out for his father. He opened up to him and let him into his thoughts, giving him what he and Andria gave to their mother without thought.

  Andries nearly went to his knees as they turned to jelly under him and he stared in shock at his son. “Oh gods,” he breathed out, feeling very light-headed.

  Dalek smiled and kicked his legs. His father had asked, so of course he would deliver. The smell of his diaper wafted up and tickled Andries’s nose, reminding him why they were up there.

  Curling up his face, Andries fought his gag reflex. “How you can make such a stink already, my boy, I will not know,” he muttered as he removed the vile nappy and coughed. “Your mother knew you were going to do this. You told her, didn’t you? That’s why she suggested I pick you up. Not fair picking on your father like this, you know.” He was rambling but it kept his mind off the stench as he wiped off the little bottom and pulled out a clean nappy and began to get it on the boy.

  The boy laughed and kicked his legs as his father changed him. He didn’t close the bridge between himself and his father, so his father was privy to the knowledge that his mother didn’t know he was going to do this and neither was he until his father picked him up.

  Shaking his head, Andries re-dressed Dalek and then picked him up and, resting him to his shoulder, pressed a kiss to his cheek. “You are an evil little boy,” he murmured. “Daddy loves you though, baby.” Rubbing his son’s back, he just held him for a moment before he knew that he had to head down to meet up with Xandra.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Xandra looked up at Andries and Dalek as they came down and smiled. “Hello, you two.” She had been dancing around at the foot of the stairs with Andria in her arms. The little girl was laughing as her mother twirled her and hummed to her. “Andria and I were just dancing. Would you two like to join us?”

  Andries and Dalek shared a look before looking at the women with very similar looks. “Food,” Andries said as he inched past the females. “We need food,” he clarified and kept on inching past them.

  “Food sounds good to us, too. We were just waiting on you boys to come down and join us so that we could eat as a family.” Xan looked from Andries to Dalek and grinned. “So he let you in, did he?”

  “I think he got tired of my whining,” he said softly with a shrug. “The fact of what he did give me left me a little peeved,” he added with a mutter. He’d be having a chat with his son later when he was either waiting for his turn to feed or after the fact.

  Xandra snickered and nodded. “They are very”—she kissed her daughter’s cheek—“smelly at times, aren’t they?” The slightly pale look on her husband’s face told her that it had been a bad diaper, and it amused her to no end, to be honest.

  “They are, some doing it on purpose, methinks,” he grumbled as he swallowed hard to keep his gorge down. Walking toward the kitchens, he shook his head. “Come, womenfolk. We men need food,” he called and then threw a look to his wife to get her moving, one filled with need and not-so-hidden desires.

  Xandra followed behind Andries, and when he shot her that look, she melted inside. “Tonight, Andries, I do believe is the first night our little ones will find their way into the nursery.” Because she needed her husband. Desperately she needed to be with him in all ways and didn’t want to chance waking their children with her screams.

  “Is that so?” he asked with a small smile for her as he settled on a chair in the kitchen, the staff all heading over to coo at the children. “Have we discussed this with your doctor?”

  “Yes, and he is perfectly fine with it, Andries.”

  Both Xandra and Andries stopped speaking when the nurse came over to say, “If you would like, I would be happy to take the little lord and lady.”

  Xandra shook her head and aloud voiced what both she and Andries were thinking. “I believe that Andries and I will eat with them today. Thank you, however, very much.”

  Smiling slightly at her, Andries pulled out a chair for her at his side and, hand on her elbow, ensured she was seated carefully. Leaning over, he kissed Andria’s cheek to gain her attention. He then smiled when she gave him a wide-eyed look.

  “Now that was just unfair,” Xandra said with zero heat but filled with laughter as she watched Andria’s eyes follow her father and her face scrunch up when she could no longer see him. “She’s completely smitten with you and yet you walked out of her eyesight. That was bad form, Andries, very bad form.”

  Shifting, Andries moved his chair so that his daughter could see him. “Is that better, baby girl?” he asked his daughter, leaning closer to her so she wouldn’t have to strain to see him.

  But Andria looked down and kicked her legs when she couldn
’t see Dalek and grinned. “I think she needs to see both the men in her life, Andries.” Xandra laughed and shook her head. “I have a feeling this one will rule simply because no one will ever want to see her upset.”

  His lady wife was right about that, but Andries kept that to himself. Encouraging his baby girl so soon was a bad thing. Lifting up Dalek, Andries adjusted so that his baby girl could see them both and lifted a brow. “Are we happy now that everyone is here and accounted for?”

  Andria simply kicked her feet, shook her little fists in the air, and blew spit bubbles as she gurgled in laughter. Xan shook her head and smiled. “Our life is going to be full of wonderful adventures, isn’t it, Andries?”

  “It already is, my love,” he told her with a smile. “But now that we have two pairs of fresh eyes and two open little minds, I think that we will rediscover life. They will likely get into horrible trouble, and I have a feeling we will love and live in absolute horror, the whole time.”

  She laughed and shook her head. “Somehow, I think that you’re right, Andries.” She looked up at him and grinned. “We have forever, Andries. Our little ones will grow, but they will always be our babies. They will find their own ways and loves, but we will always be their parents and they will always be our babies.”

  Nodding, he looked to his daughter and knew she’d always have a particularly special place, just as his son would, but she would be the one he’d be watching over more than Dalek. He knew it was sexist, but his was a predatory race and he knew just what men thought. “I’m already living in fear of them growing up,” he admitted to her as the staff brought them food and made faces to the twins.

  “Me, too.” She leaned back, however, and then smiled as the staff cooed, made faces, and laughed with their children. It was a happy place, a loving place, where they were now. It was a good place. “Now it’s time to eat.” Xandra was starving. Now that the twins were no longer a part of her she was ravenous, almost constantly. It was as if she were trying to fill the void they left.

  “So eat, love,” he told her, shifting Dalek to one thigh to sit against him. “Give me Andria while you eat and then we will trade,” he said, holding out his hand for his little girl.

  She hesitated and then gave her daughter a kiss on the top of her head and nuzzled her lightly. “I love you, little girl. Be good for your brother and daddy.” She shifted to place their daughter into his arms and smiled. “Now there is an image I want forever.” Seeing him so happy, their children flushed with health and happiness, it was perfect.

  Smiling at her, Andries gently bounced the twins each on a leg as they chattered to one another. He loved watching them together. They had such an incredible bond to the other that it did his heart good. To see his children so happy and safe made him feel like he was being as a father should. But he couldn’t let his guard down. He knew that there would be more attempts, at least until the Council got his warning, that was.

  Xandra finished eating and just leaned back, watching him with his children, and smiled. “You have taken to being a daddy beautifully, Andries. Who would have known the man I first met who didn’t want to even touch me would be so giving, so open and loving to his children?” And to her, but no one else, and she knew it as well as he did.

  Leaning in to her, he kissed her cheek. “Darling, I very definitely wanted to touch you, but the ideas running through my head were likely criminal.” Giving her a slow, hot look, he smiled. “And they still are,” he purred in her ear softly.

  “Then you can touch me tonight after we put our children down for sleep.” Pushing her plate away, she smiled. “How about you give me our babies so that you can eat, Andries?” She paused. “Because believe me when I tell you that you will need your energy from eating, Andries.”

  Pressing a kiss to each chubby cheek, Andries passed his children over and then leaned in to kiss her. “I do not believe I have ever witnessed anyone eat so much in so little time. You practically devoured the dish in the process,” he teased with a smile.

  “I was very, very hungry,” she admitted and shrugged her shoulders. “Plus I wanted these two.” She hugged her children a little closer and breathed them in simply. “Eat, Andries. Eat so that we can later go for our little walk.”

  Shaking his head at her, he pulled the plates closer and began to eat, his eyes on her and the twins more often than not. Nodding to one of the kitchen help who brought him a glass of blood, he waited until they were all back where they should be before he returned his eyes to them.

  “You see that, Dalek,” Xandra said and smiled as she looked over their son’s head, who was watching everything his father did intently. “That is how a man acts when his soul tie and children are close. He protects them at all times no matter what, don’t you, Daddy?” Later she would tell Andria how to protect her soul tie without him ever knowing it, but that would be a talk for Andria and Xandra alone. No need for Andries to know her tricks.

  “Yes, he does, including when his soul tie is trying to pull the wool over his eyes with her big eyes, bright smile, and coy looks while she’s got her own agenda on the go,” he commented as he drank some of the blood.

  Xan laughed and winked. “We just watch out for those that are ours.” She kissed the side of Dalek’s neck and then Andries and smiled as they laughed and then sighed when Dalek began to nuzzle hungrily against her breast. “I think that you’re not the only hungry one, Andries. Can you hold Andria so that I can feed Dalek?” She was sure that he could hold her and eat at the same time or she wouldn’t have asked.

  Nodding, he took his daughter and, kissing her until she smiled at him, he settled her in his lap with one hand settled on her belly to keep her still. “Our boy is a hungry little thing, isn’t he?” he commented with a smile. He liked that his children were feeding as they were. It was a good sign of their potential growth.

  “He is an eating machine,” Xandra admitted as she caressed his little head and adjusted her flowing shirt to cover his head and her breast while he fed. She smiled over at Andries and added, “Poor Andria doesn’t get to eat quite as much as this little guy, but she doesn’t seem to want to either, so it balances out.”

  “She’s tiny, but I’m sure she will make up for it soon enough,” he told her as he cuddled his baby girl closer. Shifting her up, he kissed her cheek. “She will be a little eating machine in good time, I’m sure.”

  “I’m sure she will make up for it one way or another.” Xandra grinned as she raised their son to her shoulder and began to gently rub his back to ease the gas bubbles there.

  Finishing off his blood, he eased his chair back and adjusted Andria up so she had a better view of the room. He knew that they both liked to look around even though they were still gaining the eyesight that was part of their species. Nuzzling her cheek, he smiled when Dalek let out a loud belch of pure satisfaction, his chuckle soft, but he felt Andria react to it, wiggling a little even as she put a tiny hand to his cheek.

  Xandra leaned back and readjusted Dalek so he, too, could take in the room and smiled. “I have a feeling that our lives are going to be filled with adventures just ensuring that these two are safe.” She watched as Andria laid her head on her father’s shoulder and watched her brother intently.

  “It’s keeping the rest of the world safe from the trouble these two will likely cause that has me not sleeping at night,” he told her with a small grin. He was only partially kidding. He knew that his two little ones were going to be troublemakers if they even were partially like him.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Five years later

  “I am taking the twins for a walk in the gardens, Andries.” Xandra spoke from the door of his den, a cookie-crusted hand in each of hers. “They need to walk off the cookies they somehow got ahold of from cook.” She grinned down at the cherubic faces and knew just how the cookies ended up in their little hands, not that she could blame cook in the least. “When you’re finished, come find us? We will be by the stream.”r />
  Looking up, he smiled at the little cookie-crusted faces. “I will, love,” he told her softly. “Be good for your mother, you two,” he warned, returning the wave to his daughter, who wiggled her cookie-smeared fingers at him. “I shouldn’t be too long. Just one more call and I’ll be on my way, love.”

  “Sounds good.” Xandra winked at her husband and turned the little five-year-olds toward the back door. She listened to their chatter and grinned as she walked and talked with them. Dalek was nearly twice Andria’s size. He was almost to Xandra’s waist at just five years old, and as they walked and talked, she once more took in the intelligence of her children and just how wonderful they were.

  She stopped to allow Andria to pick a flower and had just turned her laughing face up to look once more for Andries when she felt a burning pinch in her side, then heard the shot fired. Gathering her children close, she tugged them in to protect them and heard another shot even as her vision swam and felt another pinching sting as she dropped to her knees.

  Walking through the halls, Andries froze at the sound of the shot and then ran hard and fast for his wife and children, hearing the sounds of the guards hot on his heels. He watched as Xandra fell more or less on top of her children to protect them, listened even as Xan tried to comfort Andria who was screaming. Somewhere in the back of his mind he listened and saw the guards as they raced for the downed woman and children but his singular focus was on Xandra.

  Pounding across the yard, Andries felt his beast clawing to come to the surface. Instead of letting it loose, he yelled at the guards to hunt down the shooter and bring whoever it was to him, alive. Reaching Xandra, he skidded to her on his knees and quickly rolled her over. Cursing, he pressed his hands to her wounds. “Xandra, look at me!” he ordered her sharply. She was too pale, her color slipping even more. “Damn it, Xandra,” he bit out and cut his wrist on a tooth to press it to her mouth as the guards surrounded them, two picking up the babies to soothe them. Andries couldn’t worry about them yet. Both were safe, if covered in their mother’s blood. He had to save her first. “Drink, baby.”