Pregnant With Alpha’s Genius Twins

Chapter 44 – Camping trip 1

The morning dawns bright and sunny. I turn over in my makeshift bed on the twins’ floor, seeking to escape the rays that pry into my eyes, disrupting my sleep. I give a little grunt of discontent, taking my blankets with me as I turn over. Unfortunately, I also roll over onto one of Archie’s squeaky toys, which excites the dog and sends him scurrying over.

“Go back to sleep, Archie,” I whisper, burrowing my head lower under the blankets. The puppy ignores my command and begins to wriggle with the excitement of a new day, burrowing under my covers in an attempt to kiss me good morning.

“Archie,” I sigh, giving up and opening up my blankets to pull the puppy closer. “You ruin all good attempts to sleep in.”

“It’s good,” I hear Edgar whisper, and look up to see him smiling at me from his own makeshift bed a few feet away. “We have to get up and clean up all this trash before it starts to smell.” He waves a hand at the boxes and boxes of takeout food which we have spread all over the room.

“I guess you’re right,” I say, surveying the chaos. “All good things must come to an end.”

“Before they start to smell,” Edgar agrees, scrunching his nose.

Edgar, the boys, and I have been holed up in the twins’ room since the moment the paramedics gave me the okay to go upstairs without them. We locked ourselves in here – watching movies, curling up together, ignoring the world – to help us return to a sense of normalcy, of safety, of fun.

Downstairs, we can hear the thump of the Betas tromping around the house, of Victor yelling at people on the phone. But somehow, there’s a comfort to that as well. While half of me is not thrilled at the idea of the first floor of our little cottage overrun by what is, essentially, a military operation, the other half is glad they’re there. Nobody’s getting in with Victor downstairs.

Edgar, too, has been wonderful. The boys already liked him, but now they’ve truly warmed to him, seeing him as a protector, a friend, and a fellow fan of Thor. He also ate all the vegetables in the Chinese food, which the rest of us refused, so we see his worth there too.

As Edgar and I smile sleepily at each other, and Archie licks my nose, the door flies open. I gasp, shooting up to a sitting position, fear flooding my body.

“Oh, sorry,” Victor says, staring at me, realizing that it’s probably not a great idea to surprise someone who was attacked in their home just yesterday. “Not the best entrance, hey?”

“Um, no.” I say, my eyes wide with adrenaline and frustration. For someone so smart and in control, he does stupid things sometimes.

rubbing his eyes. “Did you come

big smile flooding his face. I realize that he entered the room this way because he is, for some reason, very excited. What’s going on? “Pack your bags!” Victor cheers, “we’re headed

Me and Ian ask at once – my voice full of shock, Ian’s

Victor says, pumping a fist into the air. “No more hiding in this stinky room, we’re going to go out into

Victor – this is ridiculous. What we need is

yet. Because I’m having the whole house reworked with top notch security – cameras, alarms, weaponry – everything you need to be totally safe. But to do that! We have to

of two days ago. Part

He shrugs, quirking his

in. “Fine. Where are we going?”

says, pumping his fist again. “It’s going to be great! Fresh air! Moonlight! Fireside

bed, shouting “I love camping! I

I say, pressing a hand to my

mama!” Ian says, reaching for Alvin’s hands as he jumps. “I’m so excited! I’ll

head with my blankets, wishing – contrarily –

neon lights, and a sound system, the kind of van which

our transport – playing with the lights, digging through the fully-stocked coolers and cabinets for

to her headphones and working on her nails in silence for the entire hour that we’ve been driving. I don’t know how she has any nails left, after all of that filing. She hasn’t said a word to

elbow. “Stop staring,” he mouths at me silently, nodding towards Amelia. I blush to realize that, of course, I was staring at her. How could I not? It’s hard to look away from such abject misery. I smile at Edgar instead, grateful that

window, I notice that the car is slowing down, turning off the main road. Our travel suddenly becomes bumpy, jerky, as we pull onto a dirt road and head into the darkness

themselves against the windows, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at everything they see, even though to me it just looks like a bunch of trees. After about a mile, the van pulls to

hands against his thighs as he declares, “We’re here! Finally, we’re here.” His excitement is palpable and even I start to feel my spirits lift. A quick look at Amelia suggests that she does not feel the