Chapter 382: Two Daughters, Two Sons (Part 2)

Luna occupied the third bed and, to Mark’s surprise, was the only one who seemed completely calm.

She lay with one arm behind her head while holding her son on her chest, though the deeply offended expression with which she studied him made it clear she had found something to complain about.

"Finally, darling," she said when she saw Mark. "Come here and look at what you did."

Mark arched an eyebrow and approached.

The boy had inherited his mother’s wolf ears, still small and slightly drooping, but the resemblance got complicated from there.

His hair was white with black patches, exactly the opposite of Luna’s, and the longer Mark studied his features, the more he understood why she looked so indignant.

"Notice the problem?"

"Nope."

"Of course you don’t."

Luna looked at her son again.

"I spent nine months carrying him, lost sight of my own feet, my back is still killing me, and as if that weren’t enough, I woke up in the middle of the night to devour raw meat like a wild animal because of the cravings."

"That last part wasn’t all that different from normal..."

Luna shot him a murderous look.

"And after all that, he goes and decides to come out with your face," she continued, pointing at the baby. "I’m tempted to make you give me another one right now out of sheer anger..."

Mark laughed.

"At least he has your ears."

"That barely counts. Even the hair came out backwards from mine."

She gently touched the boy’s nose and he frowned, letting out a tiny growl.

Luna’s eyes went wide and she pointed at his expression.

"Did you see that?! He even gets angry like you."

"Actually, I think he got that from you..."

The baby growled again and Luna watched him for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. All the fake indignation vanished from her face as she settled him more comfortably against her chest.

"I can’t believe it... he hasn’t even been here a day and you can already tell he’s going to be trouble."

"Just like his mother," Mark replied with amusement.

"I hope you’re right," Luna said with resignation. "At this point I’d settle for him having at least gotten my incredible personality."

Then she stroked the boy’s head and looked at Mark.

"His name is Ulric. In honor of the first warrior who swore loyalty to my kingdom’s founder."

"That seems like an appropriate name."

"It had better, because I wasn’t asking."

Mark leaned in to kiss her, still laughing, but Luna took the moment to bite his lower lip with far more force than necessary.

"Ow!"

He pulled back, a hand to his mouth, and upon seeing a little blood on his fingers, looked at her in disbelief.

"What the hell was that?"

"Compensation for damages," she replied with a satisfied smile. "And be grateful I bit your lip and not your cock."

"I think I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that..."

"Smart decision."

Mark shook his head, still rubbing his lip, and headed for the last bed.

Rose hadn’t said anything since he entered the room. She was still propped against the headboard, her son in her arms and an expression so distant that for a moment she seemed not entirely there.

She wasn’t rocking him or talking to him like the others; she simply held him with an almost excessive delicacy while keeping her eyes fixed on his face.

Mark sat beside her and only then could he see the boy properly.

He had black hair and intense red eyes, exactly like Rose’s.

Exactly like those of her whole family.

"Rose, are you okay?" he asked in a low voice.

"I don’t know what to feel," she replied, without taking her eyes off her son. "I’ve been trying for a while, but... I just feel empty."

"..."

"I thought it would be different when he was born," she confessed. "That I’d see him and feel something enormous right away, something that would erase everything else. But I look at him and a part of me still sees what I tried to escape."

Her voice broke slightly.

"And that scares me."

Mark tightened his arm around her a little.

"Because he’s not to blame for anything," Rose went on, her voice shaky. "He doesn’t know who they were. He doesn’t know what they did to me. He doesn’t even know what these eyes mean to me. And still..."

She fell silent for a few seconds.

"...What if I never manage to feel anything for him?"

Before Mark could answer, the baby managed to pull a hand out of the blanket.

It was tiny.

He waved it a couple of times in the air with no apparent purpose until it ended up resting on his mother’s cheek.

Then he did nothing more. He just left his hand there, slowly opening and closing his fingers as he watched her with those same red eyes Rose had learned to hate over the years.

Then a tear rolled down Rose’s cheek and passed right beneath the little hand.

Then another fell.

And another.

Until, finally, Rose couldn’t hold back any longer and began to cry silently.

"Hello, little one... I’m your mom."

The baby kept looking at her with those red eyes, completely oblivious to everything that color had meant to her until now.

Rose let out a laugh through her tears.

"I still have a lot to learn about being a good mother, but I promise you on my life that I’ll do my best," she said, stroking his cheek with her thumb. "So for now I’m asking for a little patience, all right?"

Mark smiled and let a few seconds pass before speaking.

"Have you thought of a name yet?"

Rose kept playing with the little hand between her fingers as she thought.

"Lucian... it means light," she answered as she gently stroked his black hair. "I grew up surrounded by darkness and spent far too long trying to escape it, so I want him to have something different from the start."

"You can be sure it will be."

Mark kissed Rose on the temple and stayed with her for a good while, letting her rest her head on his shoulder while Lucian kept his tiny fingers closed around one of his.

The room had settled completely.

Cali was singing something to Ruby in a low voice, Emilia was still absorbed in stroking Elowen’s hair, and Luna had finally lost the battle against exhaustion, falling asleep with Ulric on her chest.

Mark smiled as he watched them.

In his previous life, the idea of having children had always scared him. Not because he didn’t want them, but because he had never felt ready to become a father.

He feared bringing a child into the world and discovering too late that he couldn’t give them everything they needed.

So he always put it off.

First he had to fix his life. First he had to become someone better. First he had to be sure he’d be enough.

But that moment never came...

Even so, as he watched his wives and his children, Mark felt that for once he didn’t need to have all the answers.