Levy stayed in that form until nearly dawn, her small human body curled against my chest like a perfect doll, her breathing soft and even. I held her through the dark hours, watching the stars fade and the sky lighten to gray, hoping with every fiber of my being that the pain would not return when she woke. The transformation had been miraculous, terrifying, beautiful beyond words, but it had also clearly taken a toll on her small body, and I feared what another episode might do.
By morning, perhaps two to three hours after the sun had crested the horizon, she changed back into her beast form with nothing more than a small grunt of effort, her body shifting like smoke reshaping itself, there and then not there, until a small lion cub lay panting against my breast where the human child had been. Then by midday she was back to being the human baby again.
We were happy she seemed fine, her eyes bright and aware, her movements fluid and natural. But we did not know how stable this was, this new ability that had manifested far too early, far too strong. We did not know if she would shift in front of people, if she could control it, if it would hurt her every time. And because she could not talk, could not communicate in anything but cries and gestures, I had to wait to see if she would talk to her dad in her beast language, if she could explain what was happening inside her.
All six of my mates were looking at Levy nonstop, kissing and bothering her.
It was as if they had never seen a baby before, as if this particular baby had been crafted by the gods themselves specifically to reduce grown warriors into puddles of adoring mush. They crowded around her, six massive men vying for position like children fighting over a favored toy, each one finding excuses to touch her, to hold her, to press reverent kisses to her downy head.
We could not get over how cute she was. Even my older cubs were in awe of their sister, sitting in a semicircle around her with wide eyes and open mouths, as if witnessing some divine revelation made flesh. She was downright too pretty for her own good, that was the truth of it. Every time she smiled, showing those first few teeth like tiny pearls, the men sighed in unison, a chorus of masculine adoration that filled the room. Even when she sneezed, a tiny achoo that made her whole body shake, they smiled as if she had performed some incredible feat of strength.
It was comical and downright hilarious.
"My baby is so cute," Soryn sighed, his serpent eyes actually softening into something resembling human warmth, his finger tracing the curve of her cheek with a gentleness that seemed impossible from hands that could kill so efficiently.
"She is my baby, snake," Leon interjected immediately, shoving his way forward to plant a loud, smacking kiss on Levy’s forehead. "I fathered her. You just happened to be nearby at the time."
"She is all of ours," Aureon pointed out reasonably, or at least attempting reason from his position on the floor where he lay on his stomach, chin propped on his hands, watching Levy kick her legs with the fascination of a scholar observing a rare phenomenon. "We are all her fathers. The blood does not matter. The bond does."
"Shut it, cub," Leon snapped, whipping his head around to glare at the newest addition to our circle. "You have been here five minutes. I have been raising cubs since before you were invited into our circle. Levy is mine."
"Technically," Veylan murmured from his corner, where he sat with perfect posture even while on the ground, his silver hair falling forward to curtain his face as he studied Levy with ancient, knowing eyes, "she is Krys’s. We are merely... accessories."
"Accessories?" Leon boomed, his voice loud enough to make Levy startle, which caused six grown men to immediately begin cooing and fussing and making ridiculous soothing noises. "I am no accessory! I am her father! I helped make her! I was very helpful!"
"You were present," Ravin corrected dryly, though his own eyes had not left Levy’s face since he had entered the room, and his hand kept reaching out to touch her foot, her hand, any part of her he could reach.
They were so focused on their bickering, so intent on claiming pieces of her attention, that none of them noticed the blue glow beginning beneath her skin until it was too late.
"Mine!" Leon declared, scooping Levy up into his arms with a triumphant grin that quickly turned to confusion as his hands suddenly held empty air, or rather, held something that was rapidly changing shape.
The light flared, blinding in the enclosed space, and six massive men scrambled backward with yelps of surprise that would have been embarrassing had anyone been watching to witness them. When the glow faded, there sat a small beast cub on the floor where the human baby had been, her lion fur with indignation, her dark eyes blinking up at them with what could only be described as annoyance.
"She shifted!" Aureon yelped, pointing with a finger that trembled slightly. "She just... she just changed! Right there! In my face!"
"Did it hurt?" Leon demanded, dropping to his knees to examine her, his hands running over her small body with desperate thoroughness. "Did I hurt you? Was it the noise? The crowding?"
"She is fine," I said, though my heart was hammering against my ribs. "Look at her. She is fine. Just... surprised."
Levy shook herself, her small lion body trembling from nose to tail, and then opened her mouth and let out a roar that was more squeak than menace, unmistakably a demand for attention, her tail lashing with agitation.
"She wants Leon," I observed, biting back a laugh at the absurdity of it all. "She shifted away from him specifically."
"She loves me best," Leon crowed, scooping her up again, this time in her beast form, and cradling her against his chest with a smugness that made the other five groan in unison.
"She is everyone’s baby," I said, exasperated, throwing my hands up in the air. "You are all my mates. Why are you arguing? She has six fathers. Six. She does not care whose seed she came from. She cares that you are here, that you love her, that you stop acting like children fighting over a sweet roll and let her breathe!"
Six pairs of eyes turned to look at me, varying degrees of sheepishness and stubbornness warring in their expressions. Leon actually had the grace to look somewhat contrite, though he still positioned his body between Levy and Aureon in a clearly possessive gesture.
"Mama," Atlas said, tugging at my tunic to get my attention. I looked down at my eldest son, at his serious amber eyes and his small face that was already losing its baby roundness, becoming angular like his father’s. "Levy is so pretty. Like you."
"Well aren’t you just the sweetest," I smiled at my eldest, my heart melting as it always did when any of my children showed me affection. I ruffled his hair, which was growing in thick and blonde, and he beamed up at me with the pride of one who had said exactly the right thing.
"What should we do from now on?" I asked my mates as we watched the cubs play, Levy holding her own against her larger siblings with a ferocity that made me proud. "We do not know why she shifted so early, and when it is going to happen again. We cannot protect her from something we do not understand."
"All we can do now is wait," Ravin sighed, running a hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration. "Watch her. keep in check when it happens, what triggers it, how long it lasts. We are in uncharted territory here. No cub has ever shifted this young."
"She is special," Soryn said simply, his eyes tracking Levy’s movements with the patience of the saint. "She will always be special. We will adapt. We will learn. We will keep her safe."
The next day was the same. She stayed in her beast form from dawn until dusk, showing no signs of the blue light or the transformation that had terrified us all. My mates, seeing that she was stable, that the shifting did not seem to be causing her pain or happening uncontrollably, decided there was not much to worry about for now. They went to train, leaving me with the cubs and the quiet of the morning.
I sat outside our house, watching the older cubs wrestle in the grass while Levy napped in a patch of sunlight, and realized as the spring started to sprout new grass and trees that my birthday had passed. The winter had come and gone, the snow melting into the earth, and with it the anniversary of my birth in this world, the day I had arrived confused and terrified and so very alone.
It did not matter, I told myself. Birthdays were a human convention, a way to mark time that seemed less important when time moved so strangely here. But I knew my age, could feel it in my bones, in the way my body had changed with motherhood, with magic, with the trials of this life. I was twenty-five now. I was just getting older.
Levy woke from her nap and looked at me, and I smiled at her, this impossible child who had come from impossible circumstances. Age was just a number. Time was just a construct. What mattered was this, was now, was the warmth of the sun and the sound of my children’s laughter and the knowledge that I was loved, deeply and truly, by more people than I had ever thought possible.
The rest could wait.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter