Page 48 of Warrioress
“I was thinking of asking you to teach me,” he said slowly, his gaze drifting away. “I enjoy making things with my hands and while I have more fur than you do, I think I can manage. And it would be something good to pass down to Matilda as well.”
She smiled despite herself. Reaching over, she touched his cheek, her fingers stroking the fur before gently turning his head back toward her. “Of course. If this is something you want to do, I would be happy to teach you everything I know. You will just be responsible for getting the final certification, but I know you can do it. Besides,” she sighed as she cuddled up against him, her heart soaring at the broad smile spreading across his face, “the lower district should have a blacksmith family again. Starting with you, honey.”
Kam hugged her close as Vrin snuggled beside her. “Do you really believe I can do it?”
“Of course. You can do anything you set your mind to. Hasn’t mate hunting in the citadel proved that to you yet?” she teased.
“You mean the mate hunting that got us thrown into a cell for the Withering Days and attacked by huntsmen?” Laro replied, his brow lifting playfully.
“Well, every hunt has its hiccups,” she replied and then giggled as Vrin pounced on her from behind. “And you got the best prize—a female who loves you. Me!”
“A very successful hunt indeed,” he growled as he lifted her up off the furs and carried her toward the bedroom. “And now I think I’m ready to feast again on my prey!”
Kam shot to his feet and laughed as he followed after them with Laro’s hushed scolding chasing behind them that they not wake up Matilda. Uma tucked her head against Vrin’s chest, her heart full of love.
If she could go back in time, she would have told that lonely scarred woman who asked Arie and her triad if a Ragoru could ever love a woman like her to not worry—her mates were coming, and she would be happier than she could ever have imagined.
Not even a fairy tale had a better happily ever after.
Epilogue
Six years later
Life was busy, but Laro didn’t mind. His family was growing by leaps and bounds, mostly because Kam couldn’t resist bringing home any willing street child like a stray kitten—and even brought a few of those home too. And of course, for the scowling she did and begrudgingly allowing “just one more,” Uma never turned a child away to the point that they had to find a larger house to fit them all. And now they were preparing for yet a new addition that made Laro’s heart soar with happiness.
It had been entirely unexpected but after six revolutions as a family, on the last Withering Days, he had successfully bred his mate and watched with delight and fussed over her while she was on duty as her belly had rounded with his rog. The children had been excited too, eager to welcome their new sibling, with many reminders after little Sasha’s birth that she was a rog, not a pet, as the children had taken to petting her at every opportunity. Thankfully Sasha ate up the attention.
Born pitch black except for a silver star on her brow, Sasha had a bright, happy temperament that quickly won over everyone who met her. Of course, Kam tried to smuggle her away into the smithy with him at every opportunity, determined to put a blade in her hand before she saw three summers, but now that she was walking, Laro kept her busy far from the forge and occupied with other things as he played with his other offspring.
For a male who had been so damaged, he was now proud to boast twelve children. Their children had come to them at various ages, three of them old enough to begin formally training with Kam as they were over the age of ten once he formally got his license. Two girls and a boy between the ages of seven and nine meanwhile were taken hunting every weekend with Vrin to teach them the tricks of the trade. Many of them were too small to know what they wanted to do, however, and played around the house, filling it with the sounds of happiness even if it kept them all busy.
And now Mother’s Night was coming around again, and his heart lightened as it did every year around the anniversary of meeting their mate. There was no seedy tavern or stark cell anymore. There was a house filled with warmth and handmade decorations everywhere from the effort of their children’s hands and more than a few that he created himself. A tree stood in one corner in the human tradition bringing its promise of returning life that somehow still made his heart joyous, even if he didn’t quite understand how a dying tree referred to life. But it was decorated joyfully, and he looked forward to it as much as his offspring.
And above them all on a shelf were images he carved of the Mother and the Dark Fathers who had looked over his triad through their pain and helped Uma reunite with Katiera and Jessie, even if their lives now took them far away.
“Daddy,” Matilda whispered, drawing him from his memories as she scooted closer to him with Georgie, only three summers old and their most recent adoptee, under her arm. “Will you tell us a story about how you met Mommy?”
“As it happens, I was just thinking of that,” he replied as he opened his arms and then laughed as not just two but five children suddenly rushed over and snuggled into him.
Chuffing, he wrapped them up tight against him, his eyes drifting over to Vrin to share a smile with the male who was busy cuddling Sasha close. Kam settled next to him, drawing Uma into his lap with a grin, his fur darkened in patches by soot from the forge. Stacy Ann draped herself across them, her thumb in her mouth as the rest of the children of all ages smiled and circled in close for the tale that they never seemed to tire of hearing every winter.
“Once upon a time, there were three very lonely Ragoru who came far away to the citadel to find something very important to them... a mate to share the hearts, their den, and their lives.”
And they had found so much more.
It was a good life, and never was he more blessed than he was every Mother’s Night when Uma came into their lives.
