Wolf Tales IX. Kate Douglas

placed both palms on her belly and closed his eyes. Everyone in the room went quiet. After a couple of very long minutes, Logan smiled and sat back on his heels.

      “You have two very impatient little girls in there. I can sense them. They’re anxious but not frightened, and they are both very healthy.” He shook his head and grinned. “Sure beats a sonogram. I’m amazed by what I can learn from them.”

      Luc frowned. “Are you mindtalking? They can’t talk yet, can they?”

      Logan shook his head. “No. I’m not trying to link mentally with them, though I can pick up their moods. I’m actually going inside the womb and looking at things on a cellular level. Sort of the way Adam taught me to repair injuries, only I’m just snooping around. Everything’s fine. Just moving at a typical snail’s pace.” He stood up and went back to his spot on the couch. Jazzy crawled into his lap and snuggled against him like a little kid.

      Keisha wandered back into the room after changing the baby. She handed Lily to Anton and then sat down beside him on the other couch. He settled the sleeping baby in his arms and gazed around the room.

      Everyone switched their focus from Tia to Anton. “I’m assuming Logan knows what he’s talking about,” he said. “I guess I’ve got time to tell you how this all began.” He smiled fondly and dipped his head in respect to Oliver. “How all of us here, together as a single pack, a single family, would not be as we are, if not for Oliver.”

      Oliver glanced sharply at Anton. “How can you say that?”

      Keisha answered him. “Because he wouldn’t have survived his years in Europe and Asia if you hadn’t made certain he ate and slept and occasionally bathed. Remember, I’ve been inside this man’s head. We all owe you, Oliver.”

      Anton raised his eyebrows. “Especially on the bathing part…”

      “I’ll second that.” Stefan wandered in with Alex sleeping on his shoulder. The one-year-old was out like a light, but Stefan, just like Anton, seemed unable to put his child down tonight. His gaze met Anton’s, and there was a definite twinkle in his amber eyes. “Oliver told me what it was like, following you around during your years researching the arcane arts.”

      “I was afraid of that. I wasn’t very pleasant company during that period, but our story—mine and Oliver’s—started many years earlier. It began when I first met Oliver and had what I can only call my first premonition. I’ve never told Oliver, but I knew from the moment I met him that he would change my life.”