Chapter 224: Whales
Waking in the middle of the night, I lifted my head heavily from the pillow, scanning the darkened bedroom with sleep-heavy eyes. My husband was gone, and the cot beside the bed was empty.
The illuminated wall clock read exactly four in the morning. She must have woken up, and Magnus, sensing her shift before anyone else, had quietly swept her away so I could rest.
Unlike her calm older brother, Rose had turned out to be fiercely hyperactive. She barely slept during the day, and when she did, she tossed, turned, and demanded her father’s undivided attention through the dead of night.
Naturally, Magnus couldn’t refuse her a single thing. By day, whenever she let out a fussy whine, I heard it instantly. But at night, she seemed to switch to an imperceptible ultrasound frequency that only Magnus could hear, while I slept through it all, completely deaf to her nocturnal summons.
Yet Magnus claimed his internal clock operated in exact reverse. By day, even when he was home, he barely registered her subtle needs; but by night, he felt her smallest, quietest sneeze.
We never found a logical explanation for the phenomenon. Dominant pairs kept outsiders at bay and guarded their family secrets fiercely, leaving zero reliable information online. We were left to rely entirely on wild theories and our own guesswork to untangle the bizarre nature of our genetics.
Stepping down the long corridor toward the living room, I stumbled upon a scene of absolute, heartwarming domestic chaos. Every member of my rowdy family, led by our formidable Alpha, lay sprawled in a heap across the massive sectional sofa, fast asleep and bundled up in blankets.
Matthias and Damian were knocked out cold, surrounded by a scatter of half-eaten popcorn. Propped up in a half-sitting position, Magnus securely cradled our tiny daughter against his chest with one arm. A thin, glistening thread of drool trailed from Rose’s parted lips—a crystal-clear testament to how safe and cozy she felt against her father’s ironclad heart.
We had recently overhauled the living room’s layout. A massive projection screen now hung opposite the fireplace, and all the stray, useless armchairs and the old loveseat had been tossed out. In their place stood this colossal sofa, designed to comfortably hold all of us, even when the boys grew into full-sized wolves.
The movie on the projector had finished hours ago, leaving only a bold, glowing title shimmering in gold letters against the dim backdrop: Alpha and His Sidekicks on a Hard Mission: Operation Save Christmas!
Creeping quietly up to the sleeping boys, I scooped the spilled popcorn back into a deep bowl and tucked their blankets in properly. I flicked on the colorful lights of the Christmas tree—which still had a full two months of dropping needles ahead of it.
The kids had practically wept until we agreed to put it up, and Magnus, utterly incapable of saying no to them, had gone out and bought the biggest one he could find. We’d probably be celebrating the holidays around a bald monument to childhood stubbornness, but at least it would be draped in bright ornaments and blinking fairy lights.
𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
Little parasites, the lot of them. They had slipped away for a movie marathon and hadn’t even bothered to wake me. Though, to be fair, I doubt I would have budged. I was bone-tired; to take some of the mountain of paperwork off Magnus’s shoulders, I had taken over the entire administrative routine for the Hope Foundation. Leaving the babies with a trusted nanny, I drove out there almost every single day.
We were expanding rapidly, which had suddenly brought a fresh wave of headaches. New global regulations aimed at cracking down on fraudulent medical fronts prohibited clinics from casually altering their official registered names.
That presented a real hurdle. The foundation had originally been founded by Dean and named The Goddees, but after Magnus seized control of it, he had rushed to re-register it under a completely new banner. We needed to purge every lingering trace of Dean’s sick, obsessive fixation on me—and ensure the old name stopped reopening old wounds for Magnus.
Dreams weren’t what a medical foundation dedicated to bringing children safely into the world should offer. We delivered real, tangible hope.
Yesterday, after a grueling courtroom battle, we finally won the legal right to officially rebrand and announced a massive recruitment drive for our second branch. I hadn’t just walked through the front door last night; I had practically crawled across the threshold, utterly exhausted, yet drunk on the heady thrill of absolute victory.
Sleep had completely abandoned me now. Pulling the silk lapels of my robe tightly across my chest, I padded quietly toward the kitchen. What could possibly beat a lovingly prepared breakfast made by a mother for her entire rowdy brood? Right—a warm apple pie for dessert. Tying an apron around my waist, I gathered fresh apples and set to work, slicing them into thin, neat wedges and arranging them in a deep bowl before drenching them generously in honey and dusting them with cinnamon.
While I prepped the batter, my mind drifted to the idea of finally enrolling in university for a correspondence course. On the other hand, until the state’s educational reforms and new specialized textbooks were actually finalized, the highest credential I could earn would be a secretarial certificate.
A proper law degree remained a pipe dream for now; the new legal framework recognizing and protecting breeders’ rights was crawling through the legislature at a snail’s pace, constantly choked by our society’s deeply entrenched patriarchal traditions. Still, I was learning plenty on the fly—shadowing Magnus as he handled pack affairs and gaining a brutal, hands-on education running the foundation. Total immersion in harsh reality, as they say.
As I slid the ceramic dish of pie into the preheated oven, I pulled out milk and cocoa. Pausing for a second, I reached into the pantry and grabbed a massive bag of marshmallows, too. It was freezing outside, and nothing warmed the soul quite like hot cocoa on a brisk morning. Though, if I were being honest, what truly warmed my soul was my roaring, chaotic family. They were nothing like the cold, broken household I had survived in as a child.
"What smells so incredible in here?"
Magnus walked into the sunlit kitchen, carefully cradling our daughter, who had already been changed into a fresh, clean onesie. Right behind him, shuffling in a sleepy, disheveled row, came Matthias and Damian.
"Breakfast from Mom!" I announced with a sly, triumphant smile.
Stepping close, I planted a sharp kiss against my husband’s rough, stubbled cheek, then nimbly ducked away just in time to dodge Rose’s snatching little fingers aiming straight for my hair. Pressing a quick kiss to the baby’s tiny button nose, I rounded the large kitchen island and dropped affectionate pecks on the boys’ sleepy cheeks, breathing in the fresh, minty scent of children’s toothpaste.
"Oh, I smell cocoa and pie! Yes! Finally, no more plain buckwheat and boiled chicken!" Damian cheered, flashing a wide, victorious grin. His strict coach had slapped him on a rigorous athletic diet ahead of his very first youth wrestling tournament.
Magnus immediately launched into a low, instructive lecture about discipline and focus, but I just stood back, watching them with a full heart. Love and security saturated these walls. Our home echoed with the sound of children’s laughter. And soon, all of us—the whole pack together—would finally fly away for our long-awaited vacation by the ocean.
To watch the whales.
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This is the end of the main text. Bonus Chapters tomorrow!